Shrinking glaciers are the most visible reminder that conditions are getting warmer and drier in the mountains.
The cryosphere, as the ice-covered part of the world is called, is vanishing.
Tourists are now part of a unique citizen science initiative launched by BC Parks and Parks Canada in partnership with University of Waterloo aimed at documenting glacier retreat in some of Alberta’s most important headwaters such as the Columbia icefields, as well as in mountain locations on the BC side of the border.
It’s called the Icy Initiative.
This past July, cell phone stations were installed at seven key viewpoints, including the Toe of the Glacier trail near Athabasca Glacier and the Path of the Glacier, which offers great views of the Angel and Cavell Glaciers on Mt Edith Cavell.
Members of the public can place their phone on the kiosk, take a photo, and submit it using the QR code provided onsite or upload it at the GeoReach website.
Research meets public education
Chris Houser, Dean of Science at the University of Waterloo, said the response has been excellent since he and his team launched the initiative.
“We have well over 400 images from the seven stations,” he said in an interview with TheRockies.Life.
The glacier monitoring project was launched to coincide with the United Nation’s International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation.
The Icy Initiative has both a science and a citizen engagement component. Having a bank of glacier images taken from the exact same location provides Houser and his research team at Waterloo with a valuable time-lapse visual record for tracking changes in the mountains and new patterns in glacier recession.
But it’s also about public education.
“We wanted to involve the public, raise awareness and give people an opportunity to observe changes in glaciation,” Houser said.
One of many of its kind
The project is modeled after the Coastie Initiative, which engages citizens to document changes in coastal conditions with their cell phones.
Houser said this sort of citizen science is used widely around the world and has a long history in Canada at places like Ontario’s Pinery Provincial Park on the shores of Lake Huron.
While Houser and his team will use the photos for their own research, he said anyone can use the images.
“The images are free and available to other research groups around the world or any school that wants to use them for educational purposes,” Houser said.
