Submitted by Barb Rowsell-The Research Group on Introduced Species will hold a public meeting on April 10 to update the community about its current activities.
In the field one of the main objectives this year will be to look at the changes in the vegetation and songbirds 10 years after the initial deer culls on Reef and SGang Gwaay Islands. Culls have been periodically made on these islands in order to maintain low deer populations. In order to further improve our ability to control deer populations, RGIS will experiment with the use of small trained dogs to help drive deer to the hunters and get a better sense of the number of animals present. This will be done with the assistance of two colleagues from Finland who have expertise in this kind of work with white-tailed deer.
In the office RGIS will have an intern work on the different sources of information RGIS has gathered so far in order to make them more easily accessible to different end users (scientists, managers, teachers, local communities and the general public). Input on the latter topic will be particularly welcome.