Listening to the wilderness—24/7
Listening to the wilderness—24/7
How our stewardship team is revolutionizing wildlife monitoring through The Soundscape Project
WRITTEN BY SHANNON MUNRO, COMMUNICATIONS INTERN
What is the Nature Trust’s soundscape project?
Since April of 2024, the Nature Trust has embarked on a groundbreaking initiative to better understand and protect some of our most remote and sensitive nature preserves.
The Soundscape Project uses solar-powered sound-recording devices called Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) to capture audio in these conserved areas around the clock—providing year-round, non-intrusive monitoring of wildlife activity and habitat health.
Why ARUs?
Some preserves are off-limits to visitors (including our own staff) during certain months of the year—like, for example, when migrating birds flock to their grassy plains for nesting season. By installing ARUs, we can gather data on wildlife presence, detect species at risk, and monitor for potential threats (like noise pollution or habitat degradation), all without disturbing these sensitive ecosystems.
Importantly, the information collected feeds into our broader goal of developing an Ecological Health Index, a tool that will help us track changes in biodiversity and prioritize conservation efforts over the long term.
How is it going so far?
We deployed our first ARU in spring 2024, and now have units installed at seven preserves, resulting in over 11,000 audio files collected to date. These recordings form the basis of our Ecosystem Health Index, which assigns each preserve a “score” to help us gauge habitat conditions and adapt our management strategies as needed.
To identify bird calls in this wealth of audio, we’re using BirdNET, a machine-learning system developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. To ensure a high level of accuracy, our team and volunteers—including some amazingly dedicated birding enthusiasts—manually listen to the recordings to verify BirdNET’s accuracy. More than 2,000 bird calls have been verified to date, helping us better understand which species are thriving in our preserves.
Lend us your ear!
If you’re a bird-nerd with a knack for bird call identification, we need you! We’re always looking for additional ears to manually verify the bird calls BirdNET detects. If you can confidently identify bird songs and calls, we’d love your help. Email steward@ntnb.org for more details on how you can volunteer.
A project of this scale wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of RBC Tech for Nature, the McLean Foundation, and the Sir James Dunn Foundation. Because of your contributions, we can “listen” to our wilderness 24/7—gaining essential insights that guide our conservation work and protect New Brunswick’s natural treasures for generations to come.