Job Opportunities – Data Products Manager and Executive Director

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute is looking for an Ocean Data Products (GoMOOS) Manager
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) recently merged with the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System and is searching for a Program Manager to lead GMRI’s Ocean Data Products team. This manager will be responsible for articulating a vision for the group, seeking meaningful project work from government and industry, program management, community and stakeholder engagement, and leading several software and product developers. For full details on the position and application information, please visit www.gmri.org/about/jobs.asp or check out the attached job description. This is an extraordinary opportunity for an entrepreneurial soul to build on GoMOOS’s history of collaboration and innovation to articulate and pursue a fresh ocean data/informatics vision.

The North Coast – Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society is looking for a new Executive Director
The North Coast – Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society is seeking an Executive Director to oversee the
administration and implementation of marine resource management and oceans planning initiatives that have been identified by multiple, local First Nation Governments.
Closing Date: November 10, 2010.
For more information, including a detailed job description please click here or contact Brenda J. Leighton.

The Evolution of Protected Areas Conference

SAMPAA 7 – The Evolution of Protected Areas: Renewing our Passion and Purpose at the Banff Centre, Banff National Park, 17-22 April 2011

Abstract submission deadline – November 1, 2010

Over the last century, Canada has built an inspiring system of parks and protected areas. SAMPAA 7 falls on the centennial anniversary of the Dominion Parks Service (Parks Canada) as well as on the centennial for establishment of the first provincial park in British Columbia. These centennials offer a special opportunity to reflect on the evolution of protected areas as a concept, and to explore the relationship of society with protected areas in the future.

Since 1950, the human population has almost tripled to the point that we are now driving global change. Changing demographics, patterns of development, and societal trends have created competing demands for land and resources. With more of the world’s population living in urban centres, we are becoming increasingly disconnected from nature. As a result, landscapes and seascapes surrounding protected areas are being more intensively used, and protected areas are at risk of becoming lost in the din of competing human interests. In the face of these realities, what roles should protected areas maintain and what new roles should they adopt? How do we more effectively build protected areas into integrated plans for larger sustainable areas, and how do we ensure that these special places continue to have meaning in the hearts and minds of citizens?

SAMPAA 7 will examine the evolving roles of government, Aboriginal peoples, non-government organizations, industry, the science community and the public in establishing and managing protected areas for the future. It will explore the roles and connections of urban parks to larger protected areas, and it will focus on how to build support to ensure that parks and protected areas remain relevant for the next century. It will also look beyond protected areas, focusing on other ways to achieve large-scale sustainability of landscapes and seascapes. It will span the social and ecological sciences, local knowledge, education theory, and the arts.

Please submit abstracts for oral presentations and posters on-line through SAMPAA’s website at www.sampaa.org

If you are interested in proposing a workshop, panel or other special event for SAMPAA 7, please contact Michele Patterson, SAMPAA 7 Conference Chair, on behalf of the SAMPAA 7 Organizing Committee at: michele.patterson (at) viu.ca

Conference registration information, and accomodation reservations for the Banff Centre, in Banff National Park will be available in early fall 2010.

GEOIDE Workshop and Job Opportunity

GeoCENS (Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure for Environmental Sensing) is having a Fall Workshop with the following sessions:

1. Alberta Water Update and Public Outreach
2. Water and Environmental Hub
3. Sensors and Sensor Networks
4. DEM, Spatial/Temporal Data

A panel of experts in technologies that enable sensor data sharing (including GIS datasets, in-situ sensing data, Earth observation data) will each give a short presentation. Following the presentation panelists will actively participate in the discussions led by the moderator. Discussion topics for the panel will be around scientific data sharing and collaboration between scientists. The following panelists are confirmed: George Percivall, Chief Architect, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and Tom Gaskins, Technical Manager, NASA World Wind.

Registration for the event is free, but you must register by Friday, September 10, 2010. Participants will be responsible for their own travel costs and accommodations in Banff. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER. While in Banff, check out Cybera Summit 2010. For more information or to register for Cybera Summit 2010, please click here.

Job posting: Research Scientist – Climate Change and Forest Dynamics
Department Name: Department of Natural Resources
Location: Victoria
Closing Date: September 24, 2010 – 23:59, Pacific Time
For more information click here.

“Cautious optimism” about projecting the biggest salmon run in…

An article in the Globe and Mail today stated that

“The Pacific Salmon Commission revised its estimates, predicting 25 million sockeye are bound for the Fraser River this summer. That is more than double the early summer forecast, making it the best run since 1913.”

Especially since last year only 1 million salmon returned.

But Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea noted that it doesn’t mean the salmon crisis is over…
read more here.

(Image source: The Globe and Mail)

Final Recommendations of the US Ocean Policy Task Force

WASHINGTON, DC – Obama Administration officials today (19 July 2010) released the Final Recommendations of the Ocean Policy Task Force, which would establish a National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes (National Policy) and create a National Ocean Council (NOC) to strengthen ocean governance and coordination. The Final Recommendations prioritize actions for the NOC to pursue, and call for a flexible framework for coastal and marine spatial planning to address conservation, economic activity, user conflict, and sustainable use of the ocean, our coasts and the Great Lakes.

See the press release here.
See the full text of the National Policy for the Stewardship of the Ocean, Coasts, and Great Lakes here.

For more background you can also check out the recent Science policy paper by NOAA Administrator, Jane Lunchenco, and Council on Environmental Quality Chair, Nancy Sutley:
Proposed U.S. Policy for Ocean, Coast, and Great Lakes Stewardship.

Managing our oceans in an ever-changing world

Canada has the enormous task of managing three distinct oceans (Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific) and the longest coastline in the world. On 22-23 June 2010, at the request of Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, PacMARA convened an expert workshop in Ottawa for planners and practitioners to explore good practices when making decisions about how we use, manage, and conserve Canada’s marine resources. The discussions were led by Jeff Ardron, a leader in conservation planning who is currently directing the High Seas Program for the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C.

Managing our oceans in an ever-changing world, with so many dynamic variables requires on-going learning. Also, because marine conservation planning is still a new and evolving field of practice, it is important to continue to examine different tools, methods, and good practices.

Along these lines, PacMARA also organized a course to build capacity in one of the most important decision-support tools for conservation planning – Marxan. This course was held in Ottawa from 5-9 July 2010, and was taught by Lindsay Kircher, an expert in Marxan software from the University of Queensland, where it was developed. The week included a discussion for managers on the potential role that Marxan can play in recommending protected areas, a variety of hands-on technical and explanatory presentations, and a session to prepare the future Marxan trainers of Canada.

The federal departments and agencies, non-profits, industry, academia, communities, and First Nations working in the field of marine conservation and management can learn a lot from one another and have a great capacity to benefit from collaboration.  It is events such as these that offer opportunity for co-learning and hopefully will continue to take place in Canada.

Building capacity in Marxan (Fall 2010)

Now that we’ve certified the first trained Marxan instructors in North America, PacMARA is getting ready to hold Introduction to Marxan courses this fall. Marxan is a widely recognised site-selection tool that has been used extensively in the design of marine and terrestrial reserves and management areas worldwide. With Marxan, planners can identify an efficient system of sites that include a suite of ecological and/or socio-economic targets at a minimal cost.  For anyone working in integrated coastal or ocean management and planning, this free software (together with the spatial data you have access to) will greatly facilitate smart decision making that takes into account a broad range considerations and tradeoffs.

This hands-on course will provide participants with the basic knowledge and skills necessary to use Marxan in a marine conservation planning exercise.

For more information, please see: Introduction to Marxan

If you are interested in a course, have your say about when and where you’d like it by clicking here.

And don’t forget to check out updates to the just released Version 2 of the Marxan Good Practices Handbook here!

Lecturer in Conservation Leadership needed at Cambridge

Lecturer in Conservation Leadership

In Collaboration with the University of Cambridge as part of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative

UNEP-WCMC is a world leader in conservation data and information based in Cambridge. In collaboration with the University of Cambridge, and as part of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI), UNEPWCMC wishes to appoint a suitably qualified person to the new position of Lecturer in Conservation Leadership. Based equally at the offices of UNEP-WCMC and the Department of Geography, the Lecturer will help build and deliver a new MPhil in Conservation Leadership, and play a key role in developing the activities of the CCI, with a focus on leadership talent for the future in biodiversity conservation.

For more information visit: http://www.unep-wcmc.org/latenews/jobs/index.shtml

Surveying the Past, Mapping our Future – Call for…

The Canadian Institute of Geomatics New Brunswick Branch will be hosting Geomatics Atlantic 2010, October 28^th and 29^th, at the Fredericton Delta.

CIGNB would like to invite interested parties to submit proposals for papers / presentations that support this year’s conference theme “Surveying the Past, Mapping our Future”.  The theme was chosen in honour of the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, at the University of New Brunswick, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

They will be “Surveying the Past” as in 2010 and celebrating 50 years since the first offering of the degree in Surveying Engineering (now Geomatics Engineering) at UNB. They will be “Mapping our Future” as they also want to hear about the latest trends, ideas and technology across the breadth of geomatics that will enable us to have successful careers in the future.

Please see www.geomaticsatlantic.com for more information.