2025 CO-WY TWS Conference Workshops

See below for a description of each workshop

Workshops - Tuesday 3/4/25

1. The state of the CO-WY beaverscape: connecting on cross-state insights, knowledge gaps, and pathways forward - Full day

2. Discussion of Colorado's SWAP - ½ day - AM

3. Snow Field Measurements for Wildlife Research - Full day

4. Harnessing North American Bat Monitoring Program Data for Analysis and Reporting - Full day

5. Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions Avian Point Count Workshop - ½ day - AM

6. Title: The Rocky Mountain Avian Data Center 2.0: Connecting Natural Resource Stakeholders with IMBCR Breeding Bird Monitoring Data - ½ day - PM

7. Proposal for Computer Vision for Camera Traps Workshop Title: Applying Open-source Computer Vision Models to Camera Trap Images - Full day

8. Beginner Distance sampling: Abundance estimation in R - Full day

9. Environmental DNA for Wildlife Professionals - Full day

Title: The state of the CO-WY beaverscape: connecting on cross-state insights, knowledge gaps, and pathways forward

Instructors: Stacie Robinson and Sarah Heerhartz

Description: This workshop will provide an opportunity for local wildlife biologists and managers to learn and/or share experiences about a variety of topics related to beavers on the landscape/riverscape in our area. The workshop will include state updates from CPW (State beaver management planning process) and WGFD (translocation program). It also will include lightning talks and/or facilitated discussions and Q&As on beaver translocation and “migration support” strategies, beaver coexistence strategies and practices, and permitting and water rights related to beaver coexistence and/or beaver relocation. The workshop will culminate in a group discussion on where we are, where we want to go, and what barriers exist to supporting/increasing beaver activity on the landscape, and a summary of action items to take forward.

Workshop Length: Full Day

Cost: FREE

Lunch Included: No

Title: Discussion of State Wildlife Action Plan

Instructor: Kacie Miller, CPW

Description: This workshop will cover work done to-date and anticipated next steps for development of Colorado’s 2025 State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAP). Participants will check in about how the planning process is going, what participants see as valuable, and what is being missed. The workshop will explore "what does it mean to you to have an actionable plan?" and, in thinking ahead to implementation, "how can we collectively use the SWAP for work planning, resource allocation, communication with a variety of audiences?". The workshop may dig into individual species, habitats, threats and actions as time allows. Updated information on SWAP development can be found at: https://engagecpw.org/state-wildlife-action-plan. Members of WGFD will also be in attendance to address topics specifically related to Wyoming’s SWAP.

Workshop Length: Half Day (9 AM-12 PM)

Cost: FREE

Lunch Included: No

Title: Snow Field Measurements for Wildlife Research

Instructors: Adele Reinking, Kelly Elder, Glen Liston, Stine Højlund Pedersen, Katherine Gura, and Dylan Elder

Description: This workshop will introduce wildlife professionals to snow-related field measurements that can help them better answer their wildlife-snow interaction questions. This workshop is designed for a wide audience, ranging from graduate students to researchers to managers, and no prior snow knowledge is required. The main goal of this workshop is to give biologists the tools needed to better understand and quantify the role of snow in their system of interest. The workshop will include information about snow properties (e.g., depth, strength, hardness, stratigraphy, and wind and rain crusts) germane to different objectives; basic snow mechanical properties; common measurement techniques and the tools used to make such measurements; and guidance on winter field equipment, clothing, and safety. We will cover topics including sampling design and decision-making for different types of wildlife science questions and varying project resources, as well as hands-on experience in using these tools outdoors in the snow. Finally, we will provide a comprehensive discussion of how to combine field measurements with modeling tools and other snow datasets to better understand snow distributions and properties as they evolve across space and time. The details of this discussion will be tailored to the specific interests and needs of the participants and their individual research and management questions. At the end of this course, workshop participants will be able to use what they have learned to design and execute their own snow field sampling efforts in a way that is manageable and efficient, while fully considering their logistical constraints, funding, and specific science questions. Ultimately, workshop participants should be able to collect more relevant, informative, and high-quality snow information. The workshop will include a field site visit where participants will get hands-on experience learning about snow measurements. Lunch will be provided, and participants will need to carpool to the field site.

Workshop Length: Full Day

Cost: $20

Lunch Included: Yes

Title: Harnessing North American Bat Monitoring Program Data for Analysis and Reporting

Instructor: Helen Davis

Description: In this interactive workshop, North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) analysts from the NABat Central Coordinating Office at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Fort Collins Science Center will take participants on a step-by-step journey through data management, data quality measures, and advanced analysis techniques using the NABat Partner Portal and the NABatR package. NABat is a multiagency, multinational collaborative effort with the purpose of monitoring bats at local to range-wide scales and providing reliable data to promote effective conservation decision making and the long-term viability of bat populations across the continent. At the heart of NABat is the Partner Portal, a web application designed as the secure hub for data archiving, access, and sharing continent-wide bat data. Workshop participants will gain practical skills in extracting, formatting, and visualizing NABat data to create tailored reports with maps, figures, and tables specific to user projects. Analysts will guide participants through quality control essentials and an introduction to single-species occupancy modeling, equipping users with tools that directly support effective conservation decision-making. Additionally, participants will get a sneak peek into NABat-derived products and learn about the exciting future directions in bat data analysis. Bring a laptop and some basic R skills (loading CSV files, running code blocks), and get ready for a dynamic, data-driven session that will expand your conservation toolkit.

Workshop Length: Full Day

Cost: FREE

Lunch Included: No

5.
Title: Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions Avian Point Count Workshop

Instructors: TC Walker

Description: The Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program is the second largest breeding bird monitoring program in the United States. Bird Conservancy of the Rockies implements this program in partnership with dozens of organizations each year conducting breeding bird surveys across 16 western states. All surveys conducted under the IMBCR umbrella are performed using the same standard protocol for avian distance sampling and habitat assessment. This effort relies on scores of field technicians skilled in avian identification conducting these point count surveys each year. This workshop is an opportunity to train students and recent graduates in our standard avian point count protocol that is directly applicable to dozens of summer field positions in CO and WY each year. This training is geared towards students and recent graduates who will be seeking wildlife technician work in the near future. Early career wildlife and habitat biologists can also benefit from learning this standardized protocol, as their avian monitoring project results would be directly comparable to annual density, occupancy, and trend estimates generated from the IMBCR program. The workshop will start with 40 minutes of classroom presentation where participants learn how to conduct bird and vegetation surveys. The rest of the morning will be spent out in the field practicing collecting data. We will carpool to a nearby natural area and participants will be given survey tools and datasheets. We will collect data and practice the protocol for about 3 hours and then return to the classroom. The last half hour is spent debriefing in the classroom and discussing the many applications of the IMBCR point count protocol.

Workshop Length: Half Day (AM)

Cost: $10

Lunch Included: No

Title: The Rocky Mountain Avian Data Center 2.0: Connecting Natural Resource Stakeholders with IMBCR Breeding Bird Monitoring Data

Instructors: Jennifer Timmer, Jessie Reese, and Matthew McLaren

Description: This workshop will introduce the new and improved Rocky Mountain Avian Data Center, a data portal for accessing survey results and population estimates from the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program, which spans the Great Plains to the Intermountain West. Bird Conservancy of the Rockies and partners created the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program in 2008 in response to national recommendations for improving avian monitoring. Today, the IMBCR program is the second largest breeding bird monitoring program in the nation, spanning the Great Plains to the Great Basin. We pool monitoring resources across funding partners and sampling occurs in a spatially balanced, probabilistic framework. This creates efficiencies in data collection and analysis, and allows for inference to multiple scales, from a National Forest unit up to state or region-wide. We provide several population metrics each year for 300+ species, including estimates of certainty. These metrics, such as density and population trend, represent the best available information for breeding bird populations. Bird Conservancy recently updated our online data portal, the Rocky Mountain Avian Data Center (RMADC), to make these estimates and other survey information easily accessible to IMBCR partners, academic researchers, and other natural resource stakeholders. In this workshop, we will introduce you to the RMADC 2.0, explain what information is available on the site and how to interpret it, and go over several data applications. For example, we will show how a biologist can query population estimates for species within a management unit for project planning, determine which species are decreasing with certainty, and look at regional estimates for context. In addition, we will show how researchers and students can use the site for data discovery, to develop their own research hypotheses based on what the annual estimates show, and as an example using Shiny to disseminate their own results and data. Participants should bring a laptop if possible.

Workshop Length: Half Day (PM)

Cost: FREE

Lunch Included: No

Title: Applying Open-source Computer Vision Models to Camera Trap Images

Instructors: Riley Knoedler and Jacob Morris

Description: The primary objective of this workshop is to introduce participants to the application of open-source computer vision models for analyzing camera trap images. This workshop aims to provide hands-on experience in accessing free cloud compute resources for deploying and interpreting these models, to enhance wildlife monitoring and research. While camera traps enable comprehensive wildlife monitoring, many researchers still manually review camera trap imagery, despite the time-consuming nature of this task. Several open-source models exist to automate these kinds of tasks, but it can be difficult to implement these models and validate their performance. Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc.’s (WEST’s) machine learning team is adept at developing and deploying computer vision models for animal and habitat detection from camera trap imagery, drone footage, and acoustic data. We look forward to the opportunity to share our expertise and help advance the field of wildlife monitoring through the use of cutting-edge computer vision technology. Some programming experience will be helpful. Participants should bring a laptop if possible.

Workshop Length: Full Day

Cost: FREE

Lunch Included: No

Title: Beginner Distance sampling: Abundance estimation in R

Instructors: Trent McDonald, Jason Carlisle, L. Embere Hall

Description: Estimating population abundance is a fundamental task in wildlife biology. Distance-sampling, implemented as line-transects or point-transects, is one of two primary abundance methods in wildlife science, the other being capture-recapture. Distance-sampling estimates abundance by correcting for detection that declines with increasing distance between observer and target. The workshop will familiarize participants with methods for distance-sampling analysis using Program R, and equip participants with the ability to identify and implement appropriate methods for a given study design. Participants will gain hands-on exposure to analytical options for conventional distance-sampling (e.g., the R packages Rdistance, Distance, and mrds), hierarchical distance-sampling (i.e., the R package unmarked). We will compare the consistency of results and the availability of features across methods, helping participants determine which method may be most appropriate for a given study. The workshop will conclude with time reserved for participants to analyze real-world data (either their own or instructor-provided), with help from the instructors or fellow students. The workshop is designed for managers, researchers, and students with a basic understanding of statistics and working familiarity with Program R. Someone who knows how to subset a data.frame, fit and work with lm and/or glm model objects in Program R should have the necessary skills. We invite those unfamiliar with R to enroll in this workshop, and then to utilize free, online tutorials to become familiar with R ahead of time.

Workshop Length: Full Day

Cost: $10

Lunch Included: No

Title: Environmental DNA for Wildlife Professionals

Instructors: Dr. Melanie Murphy, Kathryn Davis, and Alyssa Baldwin

Description: Environmental DNA is quickly becoming a popular tool for wildlife management. In this workshop, we will cover: what is eDNA, motivations for using eDNA, what does eDNA measure, field study design, best practices from field to lab to data analysis to interpretation, types of eDNA applications (targeted species approaches, broad community/biodiversity assay approaches), overall analytical approaches, interpreting results, and multiple case studies. Participants will get hands-on experience with common components of eDNA workflow and interpretation from eDNA capture methods to working with results. We will end with an eDNA “check-list” for initiating eDNA project.

Workshop Length: Full Day

Cost: $60

Lunch Included: No