That sounds like a lot of fun! I'd love to hear more about it.

Just sharing my own quick introduction too:

I've got a gig at Adobe doing some Webassembly stuff related to Lightroom and Photoshop. Neat, but not exactly conservation 😅 At PSU, I'm wrapping up my MS coursework, and zeroing in on a thesis topic under the guidance of Atul. I'm deeply interested in UAVsSS (drone-based seed sowing), especially for things like forest-fire reseeding.

Right now I'm working with someone at the US Forestry Service, who used Seattle's DroneSeed to attempt reforesting 50 acres after the 2020 Riverside fire (reseeding didn't go well), to better understand why the NEPA Environmental Assessment (EA) process takes so long (which is why reseeding didn't go well; scattering seeds after 18 months of flora has re-grown doesn't take as well as planting saplings, even if it's cheaper). My goal is to see how we can help expedite the EA process using technology, since it's currently an incredibly manual task.

Really interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing. My dad used to do a lot of that manual re-planting of saplings 🙂

That makes sense that the competition comes in quickly. Also makes sense that the NEPA assessment might take a while! There's a chance that the flora may be the better replacement for a few generations, as opposed to trees.

Speaking of, I wonder if DroneSeed could be used for meadow restoration!

I'll join whatever meet-n-greet winds up happening, but would also love to grab tea sometime, since you mentioned it. There are a few spots around PDX I really like -- maybe we can meet & chat at down the road 🤔 (After meet-n-greet?)

Hi Nick! I am working downtown now most days and would love to get together. Fridays are good for me, including tomorrow! (1/27)

Tomorrow won't work for me, but I could meet up next week. Thursdays and Tuesdays are better for me if that happens to work for you too -- those are the days I'm already downtown (on campus for class)

No problem. Next Tuesday and Thursday are both open for me. Thursday after 2pm.

I live in Bellevue, I'm happy to chat if you're over on the East Side at all, ping me by email at agentmorris@gmail.com . You might also be interested in the Work on Climate monthly meetups in Seattle... I'm super-suburban and almost never come to Seattle, especially at 6pm on a weekday in Capitol Hill, but even I really liked the one I went to. There have also been less-frequent East-Side WoC meetups.

Hi Dan - Sounds like we are (almost) neighbors. I live in Kirkland so I also spend most of my time on the eastside, although I appreciate the tip on the WoC meetup - I’ll have to check that out.

Yes, let's catch up. I'm in Bellevue but I'm almost in Kirkland. Specifically, I'm around the corner from Dunn Lumber, in the portion of Bridle Trails that one might refer to as "technically in Bridle Trails".

Indeed, not too far. I spend a lot of time in the park itself although I enter from the opposite corner. I’ll drop you an email!

Hi Jason, I’m overdue to visit some friends in Portland, so I’ll likely plan a trip sometime in November. Will keep you posted on timing + would love to meet up if you’re around

Count me in.

I’m currently thinking 11/11-11/12 weekend, any chance y’all are around+available? actually this might not work after all

Late November or after is good for me. But happy to meet spontaneously as well if you find yourself down south Eric

How does the weekend of the 9th look for y’all?

That's open for me!

sigh - sorry to be such a flake but it looks like this weekend is falling through as well, the friend I’m trying to visit had something come up and is now going out of town 😞

ah no problem. I will be here!

You'll need me as an assistant. 🙂

I have been training my dog to search for cinnamon (as a mental stimulation exercise), perhaps I should switch the scent to something more useful!

I heard it only takes a couple weeks to train a dog to sniff truffles. Oregon State University does a lot of truffle dog training.

Also they have been using dogs to find endangered butterflies! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtun3XvVJE4&ab_channel=KCTS9

YouTube

KCTS 9 (https://www.youtube.com/@KCTS9)

How Dogs Can Help Protect Endangered Oregon Butterflies | Human Elements

Original URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtun3XvVJE4&ab_channel=KCTS9

Amazing! I wonder if these folks at UW are taking applicants 😅

I've never been, but it looks like a cool spot!

I was hoping that I could come and bring my dog, but looks like weather might not be cooperating for the outdoor patio area

@Taiki Sakai - NOAA Affiliate happy to switch to something more dog+weather friendly if you have any suggestions!

The White Owl is in the same area and has a covered patio that allows dogs. At least 5 years ago! I can call and check. https://www.google.com/maps/place/White+Owl+Social+Club/@45.5135365,-122.657886,18z/[…]8m2!3d45.5135441!4d-122.6579239!16s%2Fg%2F1hhw562wx?entry=ttu

I'm pretty new to the area, so not really sure. No need to plan around me + my dog, I can always just leave him at home for a couple hours and he'll be fine!

White Owl sounds good! Those tacos look great

Okay see you there!

Just arrived in pdx, looking forward to meeting y’all!

Headed down there now!

Just running 10ish minutes late, but I'll see y'all soon (not bringing the doggo)

Just arrived, I’m outside on the patio, wearing a red rain shell

Be there in 15ish

It was awesome to meet all of you! Thanks for coming out to meet, let’s do it again sometime!

sorry i missed it, but sounds like it was a great time. hope there are more to come. 🌲

It was great to meet you all!

Thanks Eric for organizing, and great to meet you all! Sorry I had to duck out early, wife and I are currently sharing 1 car

I invited @Michael Tsay to the Slack so y'all can continue the conversation with the wildflower micro garden stuff

Oh fantastic, thanks! @Michael Tsay I'd love to know where you get those native seeds by the pound.

Thanks for the invite and setting up the meetup! Here's the link to PNW natives: https://ptlawnseed.com/collections/native-seeds

some friends of mine are involved in this. seems (mostly) on-topic? recommended.
https://scionexchange.wordpress.com/

Agrarian Sharing Network

Agrarian Sharing Network

increasing Free access to food plant material and education through Propagation Fairs

Original URL: https://scionexchange.wordpress.com/

I’ll be there! Westsiders are presumably welcome as well

I can’t make it tomorrow but thanks a lot for sharing here!

I was planning on resealing my deck, but I will make time to see doggo.

Sweet! I might be adventuring on Saturday. But definitely interested if I am here

How about Extracto Coffee Saturday? How early do y’all get up, is 9:30a too early? 😅

google.com

Extracto Coffee Roasters · 2921 NE Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97211

★★★★★ · Coffee shop

Original URL: https://maps.app.goo.gl/i2GLdmk9YqmFZECbA

On a Saturday? Yes. 🤭

haha fair enough. How about 10? Unfortunately I probably can’t swing much later as I’m meeting some other friends for lunch. Could also try for some afternoonish time but would have to play it by ear a little since I’m still working out my weekend schedule

I can do 10

Great!

@Michael Tsay Coffee Saturday? ☕

Dang I'll only be around on Sunday this weekend

Were you all able to meet up? I actually ended up going north to Silver Star mountain in WA

Yeah! It was pretty chill.

I’ll join you! Looking forward to seeing y’all again 🙂

Comment templates are listed below, organized by relevance to key points:

Scientific and Conservation Value

1. "The Pacific Northwest's rich biodiversity is under increasing pressure from climate change, habitat loss, and human activity. The long-term passive acoustic monitoring project provides invaluable, standardized data that allows researchers to track wildlife populations, assess ecosystem health, and guide data-driven conservation efforts."

2. "Wildlife monitoring has historically been labor-intensive and limited in scope. This project revolutionizes how we study species over large landscapes, enabling researchers to detect trends that would otherwise go unnoticed. These data are essential for informing biodiversity conservation strategies, and endangered species recovery plans."

3. "Acoustic monitoring provides a non-invasive way to study wildlife populations at a scale that would be impossible using traditional field methods. This project is a game-changer for understanding species distribution, migration patterns, and the impact of environmental changes on wildlife."

Climate Change and Ecosystem Health

4. "As climate change alters ecosystems, long-term datasets like those generated by this project become even more critical. They provide a unique opportunity to track shifts in species distributions and seasonal behaviors, helping scientists and land managers develop adaptive management strategies."

5. "Analyzing years of acoustic data helps detect early warning signs of ecological change. For example, shifts in bird and amphibian vocalizations may indicate changing environmental conditions before they become obvious through other means."

Technology and Innovation

6. "This project is at the forefront of applied artificial intelligence and big data analytics in wildlife research. The integration of AI-based auto-identification models significantly enhances our ability to process millions of hours of recordings efficiently, making large-scale biodiversity monitoring more effective than ever before."

7. "The research team has developed cutting-edge convolutional neural networks for species identification, setting a new standard for bioacoustics research. These technological advancements have broad applications beyond wildlife monitoring, including environmental compliance, eco-tourism, and public engagement in citizen science initiatives."

Partnerships and Public Engagement

8. "This project is a model for successful collaboration between federal agencies, state partners, researchers, and the public. The long-term commitment to data collection benefits scientists, land managers, policymakers, and communities invested in protecting natural resources."

9. "The scale and longevity of this project provide a unique opportunity for cross-sector collaboration, offering valuable insights for wildlife agencies, conservation groups, and academic institutions alike. Supporting this initiative means investing in the future of biodiversity monitoring and conservation."

Enhancing Land and Wildlife Management

10. "Passive acoustic monitoring provides private landowners, USFS, BLM, and NPS with an innovative, non-invasive tool for tracking wildlife populations across vast and remote landscapes. This long-term dataset helps federal land managers assess ecosystem health, detect changes in species distributions, and inform science-based management decisions."

11. "With over 24 million acres of monitoring coverage, this project delivers high-resolution data on biodiversity trends across public lands for hundreds of vocalizing species. This information is critical for BLM's multiple-use mandate and NPS's mission to conserve natural resources while providing for public enjoyment."

Informing Policy and Conservation Planning

12. "BLM and NPS are tasked with managing millions of acres of public land, including critical habitats for threatened and endangered species. This project provides long-term, landscape-scale acoustic data that can guide conservation strategies, improve habitat management, and support compliance with federal policies such as the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act."

13. "The ability to monitor species occurrence, abundance, and behavioral changes over time allows agencies to assess the effectiveness of land management policies, restoration efforts, and climate adaptation strategies. This dataset helps ensure that federal lands remain ecologically resilient in the face of environmental change."

Climate Change and Ecosystem Resilience

14. "Climate change is altering species distributions and ecosystem dynamics across public lands. This project enables BLM and NPS to track how wildlife is responding to shifting environmental conditions, providing early indicators of ecological change and helping land managers develop adaptive strategies."

15. "By leveraging acoustic monitoring, federal land managers gain an unprecedented ability to detect seasonal shifts in species activity, changes in migratory patterns, and disruptions to soundscapes that could signal broader ecological transformations."

Collaboration for Data-Driven Decision Making

16. "Long-term, large-scale datasets like this are invaluable for federal agencies seeking science-driven solutions for managing public lands. Strengthening collaboration between research institutions, BLM, and NPS will ensure that cutting-edge acoustic monitoring technologies directly support land stewardship and wildlife conservation goals."

17. "Passive acoustic monitoring provides a scalable and cost-effective way for BLM and NPS to enhance existing wildlife surveys. Integrating these data with other monitoring efforts—such as remote sensing and on-the-ground surveys—can create a more comprehensive understanding of ecosystem health."

Operational and Budgetary Efficiency

18. "Passive acoustic monitoring reduces the need for resource-intensive field surveys while enabling continuous, year-round wildlife data collection. By investing in this technology, BLM and NPS can improve efficiency in species monitoring, compliance assessments, and public land management."

19. "The combination of AI-driven bioacoustics and long-term monitoring reduces field personnel costs while increasing the scale of biodiversity assessments. Supporting this initiative allows federal agencies to leverage cutting-edge technology to maximize conservation outcomes within budget constraints."

Hi Angela, I work for the Conservation Biology Institute, which is based in Corvallis. I go there sometimes but I live in Spokane, WA. I’m a pollinator conservation ecologist, and I’ve done some work producing SDMS for plants and insects in CA. My work also touches on leveraging community science data. Nice to meet you, and welcome to Oregon!

Hello! I'm finishing up my PhD at OSU working on applying computer vision methods to wildlife research (via bioacoustics and camera traps). There is a pretty good bioacoustics/ML community among grad students. Nice to meet you!

Hello and welcome! I am in Portland, but semi-raised in Corvallis and on the OSU campus. I work on software and data management for applied ML. Mostly for moth & insect monitoring applications.

@Cara Appel that's great to hear there is a good bioacoustics & ML community down there. Most of the researchers I work with, I do so remotely. I'm definitely interested in a regional, in-person meetup on the topic of automated monitoring at some point.

Darn, I’ll be in Seattle that weekend!

omg!! @Cara Appel Natalie from my lab works at that lab and maybe works with you? I was gonna reach out to you and see if you had time to chat or smtg, it seems like we've done similar work

woah ! @Michael Bunsen I'd love to meet up while you're here 😄 it would be nice to hear about the cool spots around here. and that is an ology I've never heard of, AWESOME!!

Hi @Angela Zhu I live in Portland and run the Wild Me lab (wildme.org) of Conservation X Labs. We mostly work on AI for individual animal re-ID, but we also train AI for wildlife aerial surveys and remote sensing of forestry. Welcome to the PNW!

Hi @Angela Zhu! We met last week when I was down. I recently moved out of Corvallis (and up to Portland), but OSU has an awesome ML and Bioacoustics Reading Group (the main focus these days s bioacoustics, but we love all ML and AI applications). Let me know if you're interested in being a part of it!

Also, @Jason Holmberg (Wild Me) cool to know there is another AI - conservation person in Portland! I recently moved back after being away for grad school. Would be cool to meet up and chat!

I'm not in the seattle area I'm in corvallis, OR. But the seattle aquarium is awesome!

I’m always up for a conservation meetup!

Are you in the Seattle area @Eric Cunningham?

Yup, I am in Kirkland

Count me in as well! I am in Columbia City!

Oh excellent. I'm gladI'm in the Fremont area, but can be flexible on location

Any days in the next week work well for people? Do weekends or weeknights work best?

Ah, I am heading out of town for the holidays starting Monday (doing field work over the holidays). I'll be back January 5th and am eager to meet up then!

What about sunday sometime? Is that too last minute for folks?

Haha I am doing the Christmas Bird Count that day! But I am happy to miss this one and catch up with this group for the next one!

I could probably meet up on Sunday (this or some future weekend). Unfortunately getting over the bridge on a weeknight will be a bit tough for me for a while though.

Of course everyone is welcome to meet Eric and I (and our dogs) at obscenely-early-o-clock at Marymoor Park in Redmond almost any day. There is lots of nature to see at that time, and we are out there most days (or can be). Marymoor Park is also a great spot to meet during normal daytime hours, but in the afternoon it's only the happiest place in the universe, not so much to see wrt wildlife once hundreds of dogs arrive.

It’s looking likely I’ll be attending--still working out details. Will you be presenting?

I am definitely presenting at the OR meeting, sort of a general overview of "AI for ecology" talk, but really an encouragement for everyone to join vibe coding parties and start playing with LLMs. I submitted a very similar abstract to the WA/BC meeting, so I'll present if it's accepted. I might even try to get my act together to find time for an informal in-person vibe coding party at the WA/BC meeting (I'm not going to get my act together in time for that at the OR meeting).

I am also 75% likely to attend the TWS meeting in Wenatchee! Potentially talking about AI work, but I haven't submitted an abstract just yet!

My abstract was accepted to WATWS, so yes, I'll be there. If anyone else is submitting an AI-related abstract, we could do each other a mutual favor by adding up to critical mass to make a session... if not an AI session, at least a methodology-focused session. Right now basically all the sessions are organized around particular taxa. I don't mind being in a random session about a fish I've never heard of, but it's suboptimal.

Agree! I will absolutely let you know if/when I submit!

Hey cool! I am tempted to submit an abstract and form an AI session for WATWS.

I am not registered for the Seaside conference but that's an easy drive for me. I would love to help coordinate an extracurricular lunch or dinner.

I'm giving a talk that is nominally a broad intro to AI stuff for ecologists, but like most everything I do these days, is really just encouragement to get people to go to vibe coding parties and/or otherwise start doing things with LLMs beyond the chat interface.

#This could have been an email project hackathon 15-minute-vibe-coding session.

I would love to vibe-code in real time as a demo during my talk, but it's killing me that this is a community that still has speakers submit .pptx files that are placed on a communal laptop, which basically rules out demos. Maybe I'll find a way to shake some tradition loose.

I mean, we could have a whole Laurel and Hardy vibe coding routine on stage.

Can you embed an IDE in a power point file yet? 🙃

That would break The Matrix.

Thread Reply:

@Jason Holmberg (Wild Me) will you be in Seaside this week?

I'd be interested in meeting up for lunch and chatting AI/computer vision/bioacoautics!

Let's declare 11:30am on Tuesday to be an unofficial AI for Conservation lunch. Technically there are board meetings happening at that time, but that gives us plenty of time to get lunch, chat, and get back for 1pm sessions. Invite anyone you meet at the conference who seems interested in AI!

Meeting spot TBD, I'll ping this chat on Monday when I see what the obvious meeting spots look like.

Excellent! Thanks for declaring! That should work for me. And I am in for a run.

Re: running... Monday doesn't start until 10am (also I mostly never go to plenaries, and it's the plenaries that start at 10am), so we could have a slightly later start than we could on Tuesday. How about an 8am run on Monday, meeting location TBD? Michael, you're local, right? Are you staying in Seaside, or driving in?

@Dan Morris I am in Portland. I thinking I will come in Tuesday morning in time for lunch and then stay until Wednesday. Perhaps a sunset run on Tuesday? Or early Wednesday — depending on how early that would need to be!

Let's declare the meeting spot for tomorrow (Tuesday) lunch at 11:30am to be the registration desk.

This was place was recommended by my sister https://share.google/HcMwbS6664Xgk7xZG

www.google.com

The Stand · Seaside, OR

4.6 ⭐ · Restaurant

Original URL: https://share.google/HcMwbS6664Xgk7xZG

Yes, thanks @Dan Morris for organizing and being game for an interesting and nuanced convo on LLMs and ecology!

I enjoyed it as well! I look forward to having bagels with everyone at ORTWS 2027. 🙂 And if anyone is coming up to WA for the WA meeting in April, or considering the national TWS meeting, let's have bagels + AI talk there too.