How AI could help conservation work

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Hi, it's Inayat. Last month, one part of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new nature strategy stood out for me: using artificial intelligence. I explore how the conservation sector, like other industries, is incorporating AI into its work.

This week:

From his lab at McMaster University, Alemu Gonsamo has taken on the vast task of mapping and assessing Canada’s expansive landscapes. He relies on satellite and aerial imagery to gather information on things like how many trees there are or the amount of carbon stored in the soil in remote regions, but processing the huge amounts of data being collected is not easy. 

So Gonsamo was excited to hear Prime Minister Mark Carney announce that artificial intelligence will be part of Canada’s new nature strategy to expand protected spaces and restore ecosystems.

“We have very large lands and waters and we have a very small population. Technology is very, very important, because we can't just go everywhere and collect data on the ground,” said Gonsamo, who is the Canada Research Chair in the remote sensing of terrestrial ecosystems.

Gonsamo has collaborated with World Wildlife Fund Canada and Indigenous groups on studies calculating how much carbon is stored in Canada’s soils, with a special focus on the carbon-rich peatlands of Northern Ontario. Along with data from satellite-mounted sensors that have only become available in the past decade, Gonsamu’s team has also embraced machine learning to process the troves of information.

Using only about 500 ground measurements of peat depth in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, Gonsamo’s team was able to calculate the peat depth of the entire region —  a land area about the size of Germany. They trained several machine learning models on the ground measurement data, and the models were then able to predict the peat depth across the region.

Sara Beery, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been working on the intersection of AI and decision-making in conservation for about 15 years. By now, she says there are at least 40 to 50 research groups around the world dedicated to working in this burgeoning field.

The kind of AI being used most widely in conservation research is not the large language models or image and video generation tools that are prominent in people’s perceptions right now, but rather non-generative models used to, say, count animals captured by video cameras.

“We have to take pictures of an ecosystem or listen with microphones or use hyperspectral satellite data to try to study forests and how they're changing,” Beery said.

“The scales of data now collected are just completely insurmountable for human experts to actually go through.”

One of the projects Beery’s lab is working on is monitoring the salmon migration in the Pacific Northwest. Researchers are using sonar underwater video cameras recording continuously through the migration season, to count the number of fish moving upstream. With that realtime count, authorities can make better decisions around fishing quotas to ensure the salmon population remains stable.

Watching and counting the fish manually using reams of footage would not be practical, but Beery’s lab has trained an AI model to do the same thing. Like other forms of data gathering, the AI-assisted work has an error rate too — but only about three to five per cent while counting the fish.  

Beery pointed out that about 90 per cent of all biodiversity data collected in Canada is collected within 80 kilometres of the U.S. Border — the narrow band where most Canadians live. AI is “one piece of a pretty complex puzzle,” she said, trying to figure out how to combine various forms of remote-sensing data to better understand how species and ecosystems are surviving in more remote parts of the country.

“I think that really where there's the most value-add is cases where we can really show that the models are reliable and they save a huge amount of human time,” she said.

— Inayat Singh

Check out our podcast and radio show.  In our latest episode: Big oil is banking on plastic. And Beth Gardiner says the industry hopes you won’t notice. So what does it take to fight back? That’s the number one question the journalist asks in her new book, Plastic Inc.: The Secret History and Shocking Future of Big Oil’s Biggest Bet. She traces the history of how and why the industry has ramped up plastic production, and how we can ditch all but the most essential plastic in our lives.

Last week, Emily Chung wrote about the use of heat from nuclear power plants to heat homes via district heating in China and Europe. Nick Tunnacliffe wrote that when he was planning commissioner of the Region of Ottawa Carleton in the 1990s, his department investigated the potential for using district heating for the redevelopment of an area called Lebreton Flats, "but it was a non-starter" as the development needed to be built quickly in order for the investment to pay off (the redevelopment is still not complete). He added, "Maybe Emily could investigate and write an article on the heating and cooling system based on Lake Ontario water for the downtown office towers. A Canadian success story.  Do we have any others?"

Yes, Emily has written about district heating systems in Canada, including one in the Ottawa region that uses industrial waste heat, and some upgrades to the Toronto heating and cooling system based on Lake Ontario water.

We've discussed whether bells or the Birdsbesafe collar could stop cats from killing birds. Betty Cerar shared her experience with her cat: "Wearing a bell did not affect his ability to capture birds at all, but the Birdsbesafe collars worked well, and his capture of birds plummeted. The collars did not work with very young birds who were still learning to fly, so when we saw fledglings, we kept him in for a few days. The collars did not affect his ability to capture mice, voles, rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks, though."

Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca (and send photos there too!)

Wind power companies off the U.S. East Coast have a bit of wind in their sails, after the U.S. Department of Interior failed to appeal its recent court losses over wind power. 

We reported in February on the Trump administration’s all-out war to shut down five existing wind projects under construction off the eastern seaboard of the United States — ordering them to stop work on the grounds of an undisclosed “national security” risk.

The five affected companies fought back in federal court in January and won injunctions against the Interior Department, which allowed them to continue building. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum vowed to appeal those court decisions but the window for appeals has now passed with no motions. 

Revolution Wind, off Rhode Island, delivered its first power from offshore wind turbines in mid-March. The photo above was taken as the turbines were first being installed in 2023 by Danish firm Orsted.

In all, the five projects in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia and New York are forecast to produce enough electricity to power over two million homes.

It’s a win for wind, however the assault on wind power by President Donald Trump, who denigrates the industry as “pathetic” and “losers,” has spread a chill on the industry. Orsted, of Denmark, one of the five developers that spent tens of millions fighting the government, says it has no plans to further expand its exposure to the U.S. Wind power market. 

— Susan Ormiston

Parks Canada is trying to influence social media influencers as more people turn to their content to plan trips to Banff National Park.

Staff from the Banff Field Unit recently attended a Travel Alberta event in Canmore, where 13 Alberta-based influencers gathered to learn about responsible tourism. 

It was the first time park staff had taken part in the annual program, which began in 2019.

Travel Alberta uses the workshops to outline how it expects influencers it partners with to promote the province.

Banff National Park acting superintendent Daniella Rubeling says visitors are increasingly relying on social media instead of traditional sources, like visitor centres, to plan their trips.

“Social media has changed the ways in which people see the park or learn about specific things within the park, and has changed where people want to go,” Rubeling says.

And that’s why during the event, park staff shared messages they want influencers to include in their posts, aimed at encouraging safer behaviour in the park. 

Messages include reminding visitors to stay inside their vehicles when they see wildlife and to carry bear spray on hikes, she says.

“These seem like really simple things. But we’ve got a growing Calgary and some folks who are less familiar with using a park,” she said. “We want them to hear these messages as many times as possible before they get here.”

The decision to attend the event comes as Banff sees record visitation. The park recorded 4.5 million visitors in 2025–26, surpassing the previous high of 4.28 million in 2023–24.

Parks Canada says influencer partnerships help protect Banff

Linda Hoang, who has attended a Travel Alberta creator event in the past, says while tourism operators are focused on attracting visitors, Parks Canada has been trying to limit when and where people go, so the two groups have not always worked together.

But efforts like Parks Canada’s attendance at the influencer event suggest a "positive" shift toward more collaboration, says the University of Alberta social media instructor.

“I don't think we can deny the influence of what we scroll and what we consume," says Hoang.

And so tourism boards are increasingly using influencers, she says, to shape visitor behaviour.

“There's so much data to support that people are influenced by what they see on social media. So it's actually quite smart and strategic for organizations to figure out: how do we work with this?"

Travel Alberta refrains from promoting Banff during summer

To manage growing crowds, Parks Canada has also introduced measures like restricting vehicle access to Moraine Lake and requiring visitors to use shuttle services.

Travel Alberta has adjusted its approach to marketing the region, too.

Chief marketing officer Tannis Gaffney says it does not do any social media work to promote Banff in the summer because of how busy it already gets.

Instead, the agency works to highlight lesser-known destinations through its work with influencers.

“We try to show those places that are hidden gems that you might not know about around the province, that you want to go to because everybody else isn't there,” Gaffney says.

— Michelle McCann

Thanks for reading. If you have questions, criticisms or story tips, please send them to whatonearth@cbc.ca.

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Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty

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