Webinar: Seabirds Offshore Wind 14 Dec
Thu 14 Dec from 11-11:30 AM (Pacific Time). Seabirds and offshore wind data. Sign up.
On Thursday, December 14th, we’ll hold a seabird-focused webinar from 10:00 – 11:30 am. During the webinar, researchers will be briefed on seabird data in the CA Offshore Wind Energy Gateway, BOEM will discuss modeling efforts in the works, and participants will have a chance to hear and ask questions about the offshore wind energy planning process. (Your email was added to this outreach list because you’ve expressed interest in the seabird webinar or you’ve previously collaborated with BOEM on seabird research.)
To sign up for the webinar, email Rebecca at rebecca.degagne@consbio.org.
As many of you are already aware, the Conservation Biology Institute is coordinating data acquisition for the CA Offshore Wind Energy Gateway, a web portal being developed by the Bureau of Ocean Management and the California Energy Commission to investigate the potential for offshore wind development. This effort is assembling geospatial information on ocean wind capacity, ecological and natural resources, commercial and recreational uses, and community values. Eventually, this information will be used to help identify areas off California potentially suitable for wind energy generation. The ultimate goal is to ensure all stakeholders have access to the same, best available data.
Learn more about this effort here: https://caoffshorewind.databasin.org/.
Bird experts are invited to participate at this early stage of the planning process by providing shareable spatial data representing the distribution of birds off the California Coast (general models or those specific to breeding, foraging, or migrating). The goal is to identify important bird habitat, focusing on species and population-level information, rather than locations of individuals. For example, we’re interested in GIS data showing critical habitat, species distribution models, home ranges, and kernel densities. Please see the following link to view the bird data already in the Gateway: https://caoffshorewind.databasin.org/galleries/e1e3eab6e86446e7905c824474f70428#expand=136932
Thanks so much to researchers who’ve already contributed data to this effort. As always, on the CA Offshore Wind Energy Gateway, we credit authors and point stakeholders to original publications and researchers’ websites to explore data details. We work with data providers to make sure data contributed are represented accurately and include caveats for appropriate use.
If you cannot attend the scheduled webinar time but have seabird data to share that’s appropriate for the offshore wind planning process (as laid out above), please email Rebecca at: rebecca.degagne@consbio.org.
Rebecca Degagne, M.S.
GIS Analyst, Conservation Biologist
Conservation Biology Institute
136 SW Washington Ave, Suite 202
Corvallis, OR 97333
Ph: 541-757-0687
