Phase I: Research, Outreach & Planning

Phase I of this pilot project focused on preliminary outreach, research, and planning, laying the foundation for the pilot project’s implementation in Phase II.

Our working group divided into teams to see through different aspects of Phase I. The major domains of activity undertaken by each team included:

• A) Communications & Research
• B) GIS and Ecocultural Data Analysis
• C) Education and Field Work

The following summaries outline related activities in sections that roughly correspond to the domain of each of these teams.

Objectives

A) Communications & Research

1. To identify project advisors, stakeholders, and potential contributors, and to develop and implement a schedule of outreach supporting the project’s planning, implementation, and review process.
2. To consolidate and tabulate existing ecocultural literature and documentation from past participatory mapping projects relevant to the study area.
3. To engage with Indigenous and non-Indigenous elders and community members, to invite their participation in this project.
4. To review past ecocultural mapping projects, to develop an understanding of best practices to guide the approach taken to this project.

B) GIS and Ecocultural Data Analysis

1. To consolidate and integrate relevant biodiversity and geospatial data into a Geographic Information System (GIS).
2. To compare the tabulated outcomes of our literature review with corresponding geospatial features and species occurrence data, identifying knowledge gaps to be filled in Phase II.
3. To identify, in collaboration with the other teams, a preliminary list of important cultural keystone species and geographic features of Retreat Cove to be focused on in Phase II of the project.
4. To transfer this GIS dataset into javascript (geojson) format, to begin the preliminary phase of bridging our GIS project into a web-based map and data visualization.

C) Education and Field Work

1. To explore the potential for the Everyone Counts! curriculum developed by the Vashon Nature Centre to be adapted for our purposes, facilitating the involvement of several Galiano youth in this ecocultural mapping project.
2. To explore the potential for a partnership with Washington State University’s Forest Health Watch program, to incorporate the monitoring of western redcedar, an important cultural keystone species, as one of the long-term, participatory aspects of this mapping initiative.
3. To explore the potential to apply new technologies (e.g., aerial drone, high precision GIS mapping systems) to improve the resolution of existing terrestrial ecosystem mapping data, advancing this ecocultural mapping initiative using cutting-edge technologies that promise to revolutionize the field of environmental science and land management.

The outcomes of each of these domains of activity are summarized in the following sections: Communications, Preliminary Research, GIS and Data Analysis, and Education and Field Work.