Virtual Meeting
via Cisco Webex and Gather Town

Registration Fees
**FREE For Members**
Canadian Section AND Ontario Chapter Membership Is Required

CSTWS Membership: $10 - Students; $20 Professionals
OCTWS Membership: $5 - Students; $10 Professionals

Professional Nonmember: TBA
Student Nonmember: TBA

Registration

Registration is now OPEN!

If you have any questions, please contact info@octws.ca

Preliminary Program Outline

Monday, March 8th to Friday, March 12th
Contributed Papers and Posters Available for Viewing on CSTWS Website

Friday, March 12th

Student Conclave
R Workshop
1. Basic Skills in R
​2. Data manipulation using Tidyverse
Cap of 15 participants per workshop and participants limited to 1 workshop.
Student-Professional Mixer

Saturday, March 13th

Plenary - Being a Wildlife Professional
Dr. Carol Chambers, TWS President
Dr. Justina Ray, WCS President
Dr. Darren Sleep, SFI
Dr. Marie-Josée Fortin, U of T 
​Dr. Patrick Hubert, OMNRF
Contributed Papers and Posters Question Periods
Students and Professionals
McTaggart-Cowan Award Presentation and Evening Speaker
Social Event

Sunday March 14th

CSTWS & OCTWS AGM
Learn more about your section and provincial chapter
TWS In Canada - Members Town Hall
Have your voice heard. What do you want from your chapter?
Wildlife Professional Certification Workshop
Learn more about TWS Certification and efforts ongoing in Canada

Meet our Plenary Speakers

Being a Wildlife Professional

Carol Chambers

Three Myths about being a Wildlife Professional

Darren Sleep

Passion and Curiosity: My Path to A Dream Career

Justina Ray

The Life and Times of A “Non-Traditional Scientist” Working in Conservation

Patrick Hubert

From Cottontails to Moose, A Biologist’s Path to Policy​

Marie-Josée Fortin

From Species-Environment Relationships to Animal Movement

Saturday Night Guest Speaker

Marty Obbard

Bears I Have Known

WorkshopS

R Workshops

 On Friday, two workshops will be delivered by Erica Newton, who is an analytical biologist with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. Erica has taught R workshops to hundreds of colleagues and students, and freely admits to coding in her spare time “for fun”. Participants can select one of two workshops. The morning session will be for complete beginners with little to no coding experience in R, while the afternoon session is geared towards participants that have some experience coding in R (beginner to intermediate level), but want to take their skills to the next level.

**Workshops will be limited to 15 participants and attendees can only register for 1 workshop**

 1. R for absolute beginners - Friday, March 12, 10AM - 1PM EST

Want to dip your toes into coding with R, but don’t know where to even start? Erica will walk through the basics – she’ll define functions, explain objects, and drill down into vectors and dataframes. This course will get you started with some essential knowledge, language and search terms so that you can get your feet wet in a supportive and inclusive environment.  

 
2. Turning point: tips to improve your code and tickle your fancy - Friday, March 12, 2 - 6PM EST

You’ve written a few R scripts, but maybe you feel like something is missing. Join Erica to discover essential tips and tricks to make coding more efficient and enjoyable in RStudio. Then, she’ll give a brief introduction to the tidyverse library and the “pipe” (%>%) operator. We guarantee that you will learn something new in this workshop!

CERTIFICATION WORKSHOP

Join Don Barnes, CWB®, on Sunday afternoon from 2:15 to 3:15 where he will present an overview of TWS Certification from a Canadian perspective.  Topics Don will cover include:  
  • Why bother with TWS Certification?
  • Overview of the requirements necessary to become an Associate Wildlife Biologist (AWB®) and/or a Certified Wildlife Biologist (CWB®)
  • Inherent problems Canadian TWS members encounter during the application process.
  • Advise on creating a winning application.
    ​
In the second part of the workshop, Don will chair a panel discussion involving a biologist and a PhD student who have their AWB® and two biologists with their CWB®. To lead off, each will give a short presentation (3-5 minutes) outlining their career path, why they decided to undergo TWS’ certification, and advise to students and wildlife biologists.  In the remaining time, participants will be given the opportunity to interact with the panel members about certification.

Panel Members: 
  • Dr. Matt Dyson, AWB®, Postdoctoral Fellow, Wilfrid Laurier University & OCTWS President
  • Matt Fuirst, AWB®, a third year PhD student, University of Guelph
  • Dr. Darren Sleep, CWB®, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Ottawa, and
  • Robert Pineo, CWB®, MNRF Acting Coordinator of the Heritage Section, Peterborough.

We encourage you to attend this informative workshop and please indicate your intent to attend when registering for the conference.

Wildlife Film and Photography Spotlight

Interested in science communication? We are thrilled to feature these up and coming talented filmmakers, photographers, and conservationists. Please check out their websites and materials that will be available prior to the conference and connect with them at the student-professional mixer to learn more about what they do!

Alice Sun

Alice is a visual storyteller based on the west coast of Canada, using her skills in photography, writing, and design to help communicate scientific research and connect people with nature. In doing so, she hopes to bridge the gap between science and the public, and make a difference in conservation.

Julian Victor

Julian Victor is a wildlife Filmmaker from Toronto who has worked on projects for National Geographic, as well as with legendary wildlife filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert. He currently works for Canada’s top morning show Breakfast Television where he produced several segments on wildlife conservation.

Julian is always on the lookout for diverse conservation stories to raise awareness of our natural world and its inhabitants and how to preserve them. He's particularly fond of wildlife thriving in our bustling urban environments,  from one of the largest colonies of double-crested cormorants that nest along Toronto's waterfront to turkey vultures that perch on a building just below a busy subway station. He believes that wildlife is everywhere, but you just have to look for it.

Deer 139

The film, “Deer 139,” followsresearchscientist Samantha Dwinnell and two friends as theyhike, packraft and ski the migration route of a GPS-collared mule deer in search of deeperunderstanding about the connection these animals have to the landscapes where they live

SocialS

In an attempt to recreate the personal aspect of in-person conferences, we will be hosting two socials during the conference using GatherTown. See a quick GatherTown overview here. Attendees will have access to the social area during the socials as well as during the breaks on Saturday. An excellent opportunity to connect and reconnect with friends and colleagues. Don't forget to let us know if you plan to attend these events when registering!

Student-Professional Mixer

The highlight of the student conclave. Have a burning question about grad school? Want to know how to adjust your resume to get that interview with the government? What is ecological consulting all about anyways? Curious about wildlife photography and filmmaking?

Come chat with our mentors and make some new connections with other professionals. Undergraduate students, grad students, and early career professionals are encouraged to attend! If you would like to register as a mentor, please indicate so during registration.

Saturday Night Social

Join us following our evening speaker to catch up with your colleagues and make new connections. Alternatively, you can catch a screening of Deer 139 with other wildlife aficionados. 

​The premier wildlife networking socially distanced event in Ontario (dare we say Canada?) for 2021!

Thanks to our Sponsors

Platinum Sponsors​
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
Bronze Sponsors
  • Universal Field Supplies
  • Ashburnham Ale House
  • Bobcaygeon Brewing Company
Register as a sponsor here or contact us: info@octws.ca.

Call for Abstracts - CLOSED
​

You are invited to submit titles and abstracts for paper and poster presentations for the Virtual Joint Conference and AGM of the Canadian Section and the Ontario Chapter of The Wildlife Society. Presentations on wildlife management, research, monitoring, species biology, and new techniques in Canada and abroad are all welcome.
Prizes will be awarded for best student presentations and posters. Students should indicate their intent to compete for the award when submitting their abstract.

Speakers must register for the conference if their presentation is selected (Registration will open in February). Registration will be free for members of the Canadian Section AND Ontario Chapter. Registration costs to be announced for non-members.

Full call and additional details here
​
Please submit your abstract via the Abstract Submittal Form below.

**The Call For Abstracts is now closed. We will notify authors of acceptance in the coming days**
​Updated February 1st 2021