OCEOLA Fish and Game Club Conservation App

2016

$79,340

$10,000

To raise social awareness surrounding the value of BC’s natural resources, including water, through a mobile based app and website to document and report issues related to illegal use/abuse. The app and website is a cooperative project between the BC Wildlife Federation and UBC-O that OCEOLA will be supporting as a member club of the BC Wildlife Federation.

The app and website will allow users to photograph potential environmental damage, poaching, polluting, etc; the photographs are time-stamped, and georeferenced. Photos will be stored on UBC-O’s secure server and relayed to enforcement agencies. Appropriate photos will be posted on a Google Maps based platform page on the BCWF website to increase social awareness about the misuse of BC’s natural resources.

Specifically as it relates to water this app will encourage and facilitate the reporting and social awareness surrounding ORV use, mudbogging, and illegal dumping in community watersheds, illegal water pumps and other illegal uses associated with riparian habitat, wetlands, and water quality/quantity conservation. Community watersheds in the Okanagan are subject to high use; this is one tool which could aid in mitigating the risk of contamination of source drink water.