The Manitoba Herps AtlasWelcome to the Manitoba Herps Atlas (MHA) project on NatureNorth.com. This is our new project aimed at determining where all Manitoba's reptiles and amphibians (collectively known as "herps") live in our province. What? You thought Manitoba Conservation, the Museum and Universities already knew that? Wrong-oh! Manitoba hasn't done a great job of keeping track of its herps, so now its up to you and me to help out. The MHA will give all Manitobans a chance to help build a knowledge base of our province's reptiles and amphibians. What good will that do? Well, hopefully, it will help us all to make the right decisions about how to preserve our natural heritage, at least the herps component of it. Humans have to live, and make a living, on this planet, but it's time we started doing that with more consideration for all the other living things out there. The MHA is one way we can all get involved and help protect some of nature's little guys.
What is a Herps Atlas?Everybody's seen an "atlas", a large book of maps and pictures that show where things are in given geographical areas. That's what this will be, except it won't ever be on paper (waste of trees) and we don't yet have the information to fill in the parts of a map of Manitoba with what herp species lives where. The MHA is about gathering and collating that information, and making it available to all Manitobans. NatureNorth is working in cooperation with Manitoba Conservation on this project and there may be some instances where some of the information collected won't be made available to everyone. After all, there may be a need to protect sensitive areas and species at risk (SAR) in some cases. Broadcasting the precise locations of major snake dens may not be in the best interests of the snakes. When such sensitive information is collected it will be passed on to Manitoba Conservation and accredited researchers only. Just Getting StartedYes, we don't have a lot to show you just yet, but check back frequently in the coming months. NatureNorth has received a grant from the Sustainable Development Innovations Fund to build the MHA. All aspects of the site won't be up and running until the spring of 2010, but that doesn't mean that you can't start paying more attention to Manitoba's herps and taking note of where you find them. You can start by reading up on our reptiles and amphibians in some other NatureNorth articles and sections. Some BackgroundYou can read NatureNorth's proposal to SDIF for more background on this project: Click Here. Herp Links in NatureNorth: |
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