GrassLander
Press: Tracking Birds In Farm Fields, CK News Today (June 2017)
Ontario farmers enlisted to help protect threatened migratory songbirds, Waterloo Region Record (archived copy)
The platform is no longer online.
The problem
Grassland birds such as the Bobolink and Eastern Meadowlark are species at risk in Ontario, and much of their habitat is on working farmland, where an early hay cut can destroy nests before the young birds leave them.
What I did
Worked with researchers, Esri professionals and staff at the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) to build GrassLander, a citizen-science platform for recording observations of grassland species at risk. It began as a Mitacs internship in 2016, and I kept improving it under a follow-on contract. We worked directly with producers to record their farm activities and bird sightings, and encouraged them to delay haying until the young birds had left the nest.
- Built the citizen-science databases on PostgreSQL, PostGIS and ArcServer.
- Translated technical requirements and user needs into product and reporting, including reports OSCIA shared with funders and stakeholders.
- Later work: JavaScript efficiency improvements, and global and per-user interactive reports.