YERC's 2022 Accomplishments
YERC had a very successful year, full of accomplishments, partnerships, and events. We are proud to be a part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem scientific and resident communities and grateful for our community partners.
RiverNET
Launched the Madison Valley RiverNET program by installing 10 new sensor stations at key locations based on input from outfitters, private landowners, NGOs, and state and federal agencies. The stations automatically stream water temperature and discharge to YERC’s EPIIC platform to engage the stakeholder community in the health of the Madison River.
Continued the Yellowstone Headwaters RiverNET program in its 5th year to provide long-term monitoring on the health diagnostics of the Park County and Paradise Valley region.
Initiated macroinvertebrate surveys as an important diagnostic indicator of watershed health at each of 24 sensor stations and water quality analysis sites on the Yellowstone river and its many tributaries.
Conducted youth programming in Park County with generous support from the Park County Community Foundation that allowed us to bring a hands-on RiverNET experience to over one hundred eighth graders.
Expanded our outreach program with generous support from AMB West Philanthropies. This included hosting webinars and in-person meetings and conducting direct outreach to stakeholders.
Calibrated our developing Freshwater Forecasting System in response to the Yellowstone River flood, using discharge data to understand what led to this historic event and develop a way to predict flood events and prevent damage.
Sponsored a Montana State University electrical engineering capstone project that is developing a landing net equipped with RFID technology, thereby allowing sport anglers to assist in collecting data about fish populations. This important data is automatically streamed to YERC’s RiverNET app, which you can sign up for here!
WildNET
Formed the Cameras for Conservation Collective (C4CC) led by Laura Huggins at Elevate Environmental Solutions by piloting a camera trap network in Paradise Valley to provide increased awareness among landowners for large mammals and large carnivores. This includes an internet application that can view, manage, and use AI to identify species thanks to generous support from the Cinnabar Foundation! We also thank Atrium and Spencer Lawley for providing highly skilled expertise.
Provided mentorship opportunities to two major conservation technology projects with co-sponsor RESOLVE to provide solutions that promote coexistence with large mammals - wolves, grizzlies, coyotes, elk, deer, bison, and antelope. These MSU capstone Senior projects are developing DIABLO (Drone In A Box for Long-range Optimization), and Large Mammal Tagging technologies.
Participated in the First Annual International Wildlife Coexistence Conference at Chico Hot Springs to craft successful conservation strategies in the GYE. Our Chief Scientist was also invited to join several NGO think-tank groups discussing how we manage wolves in Montana and Idaho in order to reduce conflict, seek common ground, and build trust amongst the stakeholders with the truth (the best science available).
LandNET
Released the Land Health Dashboard in partnership with the Western Sustainability Exchange!
Initiated an effort to develop and deliver new snow products for YERC’s Freshwater Forecasting System (FFS) being developed by Dr. Dean Koch. Using USDA’s snowpack data, we developed a high-speed tool called SnapKrig to provide high resolution snowpack, show density, and snow cover data across a watershed. When integrated with FFS, the system will be capable of short-term 36-hour and 5-day forecasts for discharge, water temperature, turbidity, and soil moisture. This major undertaking is paving the way to provide urgent drought and flood mitigation and adaptation during an unpredictable time of climate change in the US West.
YellowstoneNET
Migrated the EPIIC platform from Microsoft Azure to Amazon Web Services to increase the flexibility, scalability and CPU power of YERC’s database for further expansions and applications - like the RiverNET, C4CC, and Land Health Dashboard apps.
We truly couldn’t do this without our incredible community of donors and partners. Thank you for your continued support - we look forward to growing with you.
With Gratitude,
The team at YERC