One Health Summer Institute 2024
Program Description
The One Health Summer Institute (OHSI) 2024 is a week-long class and field-based program exploring a One Health approach to watershed planning. Learn how human activity impacts the Bow River Basin, which begins in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, and is a critical source of water supporting the basin’s human, animal, plant and ecosystem health and services as well as numerous economic activities in the region. Gain insight into the science, management strategies, and collaborative transdisciplinary skills necessary for sustaining the health and viability of the basin and the diverse ecosystems it contains.
About
Climate, human activities and environmental change collectively pose an accelerating and complex threat to water supplies. There is an urgent need for transformative change by all water users to preserve the quantity and quality of water in our watersheds. The fourth annual OHSI aims to provide a program for participants from diverse backgrounds to come together and advance their understanding of the challenges facing global watersheds. Participants will develop their understanding of watershed science, foster collaborative skills and capabilities, and build transdisciplinary professional networks. This program is delivered jointly by the following University of Calgary organizations:
Program Details
- Identify how to select appropriate indicators to measure and / or describe key hydrological, physical, chemical, and ecological indicators of change within the Bow River Watershed
- Explore how human systems interact with the physical, chemical, and biological processes in watersheds
- Practice seeing the ecological relationships between human, animal, and environmental health
- Gain a scientific understanding of watershed management principles
- Think critically about mitigation and adaptation responses to watershed change
- Gain perspectives on Indigenous ways of knowing and its relationship with the One Health approach
- Practice working collectively within a collaborative watershed governance scenario
- Date: June 9 – 15, 2024
- Time: Everyday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
- Format: In person, classroom sessions and field trips. All instruction and course materials will be in English.
- Credit Information: This is a non-credit course. There will be no grades or assessments. There will be a group-based project with group presentation on the last day of the course. All participants will receive a certificate of completion.
- Locations: This program is centered on the Bow River, from its source in the Icefields of the Rocky Mountains and following its course through Banff, the City of Calgary, and the surrounding prairie. 4 days will be held in Kananaskis area and 3 days in Calgary and area.
- Travel to Calgary: Each participant will be responsible for the cost and arrangements for their travel to Calgary. For participants from outside Canada, please consult the Government of Canada website to learn more about applying for a visa. If you need a visa to enter Canada, please apply as soon as possible. Participants should be aware that it may be difficult to obtain your visa in time to participate.
- Travel during the course: For those requiring transportation to get to Kananaskis, we will provide a shuttle bus from UCalgary to the Barrier Lake research Station in Kananaskis on Day 1, June 9th. All other travels during the program will be by coach bus and is included in the cost.
Accommodation: For the Rocky Mountain portion of program (first 4 days and nights), classes and accommodation will be held at the Barrier Lake research Station in Kananaskis. It will be dormitory-style accommodation with shared rooms, bunk beds and shared washroom facilities.
For those requiring Calgary accommodations, we have reserved a block of 2- and 3-bedroom apartments in UCalgary student housing on the main campus. A room will be available at no cost to each participant on the night before the program begins, Saturday June 8 and for June 13 - June 15 (check out June 16). After registration closes, we will provide more information about how to reserve your bedroom.
Meals: For the Rocky Mountain portion of the program, all meals are included in the cost with the exception of one supper in the town of Banff where the participants will have free time for the evening and will be responsible for their own supper.
For the Calgary portion of the program, lunches will be provided but you will be responsible for your own breakfast and supper.
- Step 1: Fill out the application questionnaire: As spots in the program are limited, filling out this application is a crucial step. It helps us to understand your skills and competencies, enabling us to form a diverse group of participants and ensuring a meaningful and enriching experience for everyone involved.
- Deadline to submit your application: March 29, 2024. We review the applications as we receive them.
- Step 2: We will review your application and aim to communicate our decision to you via email by April 1, 2024, provided that you meet the criteria and are accepted. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
- Step 3: Once we accept your application, you will receive the registration link from us.
Cost: $500+Eventbrite registration fee ($533.83 CAD in total) for each participant.
This cost includes all learning materials, accommodation for entire duration of the program in Calgary and Kananaskis, all travels during the week of the program, food (except for one supper in the town of Banff and breakfast and supper for the Calgary portion).
- Contact: For questions regarding registration and payment, please contact Dr. Michele Anholt, rmanholt@ucalgary.ca.
Details are subject to change
Day 1: Sunday, June 9 - Staying in Kananaskis
- Morning: Meet at UCalgary and travel by bus to Kananaskis
- Afternoon: Introductions and ice-breaking activities; Indigenous opening and supper with Elders
Day 2: Monday, June 10 - Staying in Kananaskis
- Morning: Classroom and Field Study: Glaciers, mountains as water towers, and UNESCO chair; Chemical indicators and water testing
- Afternoon: Classroom and Field Study: Biological indicators; Assessing the physical environment
Day 3: Tuesday, June 11 - Staying in Kananaskis
- Morning: Classroom: Water and environmental justice; Environmental law and governance Indigenous science and environmental policy-making
- Afternoon: Travel to Bow Lake and Glacier: Water quality sampling and monitoring; Observe how human systems impact water quality and quantity; Dinner in Banff
Day 4: Wednesday, June 12 - Staying in Kananaskis
- Morning: Classroom: Introduction to dams, water treatment, sewage plants
- Afternoon: Travel to Canmore: Tour Spray Lakes Reservoir, water treatment facility
Day 5: Thursday, June 13 - Staying in Calgary
- Morning: Travel to Lafarge Cement Plant, Exshaw: Tour plant and meet with environmental manager
- Afternoon: Other demands on the Bow River - tour and meet with managers: Lazy J Cattle Company; Harvey Passage; Western Irrigation District; Travel to Calgary
Day 6: Friday, June 14 - Staying in Calgary
- Morning: Visit and tour Advancing Canadian Water Assets
- Afternoon: Bow River Float Fish Creek to Policeman Flats; Discussion on fish habitat preservation and the sport fishery
Day 7: Saturday, June 15
- All day: Travel to Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park on Siksika Indian Reserve; Meet with Knowledge Keepers and tour site; Project presentations; Indigenous Closing
Students, postdoc fellows and working professionals from all disciplinary backgrounds who are interested in:
- Learning about the implications of climate change and environmental degradation on global watersheds
- Learning about the science supporting watershed management
- Understanding how water users, communities, and governments can come together to make decisions, develop policies and improve watershed governance
- Contributing to the discussions with their expertise, knowledge, and lived experience
- Expanding their professional network of individuals working in diverse fields but with an interest in a One Health approach to complex problems
Testimonial
I attended One Health Summer Institute 2022 which was an incredible experience! We learnt about the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to help address the complex problems we face today. The wide variety of expert speakers combined with the systems thinking approach opened my mind to the opportunities available when we work together. The experience enlightened me about the beautiful lifestyle of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the knowledge the Elders and community have to offer.
Heleen de Wit, International Student from the Netherlands
One Health Summer Institute Gallery
INSTRUCTORS
Michele Anholt, DVM, PhD
Consultant and Program Lead, University of Calgary
Dr. Michele Anholt completed her DVM at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in 1985. Most of the next 22 years was spent in companion animal practice in British Columbia and Alberta. Deciding on a midlife career change, she returned to school and completed a PhD in Veterinary Epidemiology at UCVM. For the following 6 years, she worked with government, non-governmental, and industry organizations tackling a range of research questions in beef, poultry, wildlife, and people. In 2019, she returned to the University of Calgary as the manager of One Health at UCalgary to help develop and advance transdisciplinary research approaches to complex human and animal health issues, as well as biodiversity, conservation, and sustainability challenges. She is now mostly retired but is happy to back helping to coordinate the OHSI2024.
Myrle Ballard, PhD
Associate Professor, Faculty of Science, Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment, University of Calgary
Dr. Myrle Ballard is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Earth, Energy, and Environment at the University of Calgary. She stood-up the new Indigenous Science Division at Environment and Climate Change Canada. Anishnaabe from Lake St. Martin First Nation, Dr. Ballard’s latest research explores Three-eyed seeing and how her fluency in Anishinaabe mowin can transform approaches to water resource management using Anishinaabe mowin baseline indicators for monitoring. Dr. Ballard also serves on a number of committees and working groups, two of which are recent appointments as Scoping expert for the second IPBES global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services; and Expert for the IPBES task force on Indigenous and local knowledge. She currently holds NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) and CIHR (Canadian Institutes for Health Research) grants. Her other research interests include; but are not limited to, climate, species at risk, sustainability of flooding/displacement.
Kristi Beetch
ACMG Day Hiking and Winter Travel Guide; IGA Master and Professional Interpreter
Raised in a Scandinavian/German family in Minnesota, Kristi deferred her law school ambitions to become a ski bum in Vail, Colorado, only to meet a Canadian who wooed her to the Great White North in 1989. Banff was her home for 20 years until moving to the “cool climbing town” of Canmore in 2009.
Kristi is an accredited Hiking and Snowshoe Guide with the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides and an accredited Professional and Master Interpreter with the Interpretive Guides Association. Her guiding career spans over 20 years in Banff, Yoho, Kootenay, Jasper and Waterton Lakes National Parks, along with the surrounding provincial parks. Kristi is also a course instructor for the Interpretive Guides Association for the past 12 years. “I love mentoring new guides and sharing my passion for the outdoors, while reveling in their excitement to be a guide!”
You may have seen Kristi on "Canada A.M.", "CTV Travels", Oasis TV, National Geographic Channel or CNN, hiking snow-covered ridge tops while sharing her knowledge of the natural and cultural history in the Canadian Rockies, or read about her in the Calgary Herald "Snow Profiles On Women" and the Canadian National Geographic magazine.
Kristi guides for White Mountain Adventures, the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and the Parks Canada Burgess Shale hikes in Yoho and Kootenay National Parks.
Kerry Black, PhD, P.Eng.
Assistant Professor, Schulich School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary
Kerry Black is an Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair (Integrated Knowledge, Engineering & Sustainable Communities), in the Center for Environmental Engineering Research and Education (CEERE) and the Department of Civil Engineering, at the University of Calgary. She received her PhD from the University of Guelph with research focused on sustainable water and wastewater management in Indigenous communities. Her focus is to engage in a cross-disciplinary research platform, incorporating technical civil and environmental engineering principles and research, with policy and socio-economic components, focusing on sustainable infrastructure for healthy and resilient communities.
David Blair
External Relations, Bow River Trout Foundation
David started fishing as soon after he learned to walk. He spent his youth on the banks of the Bow and has been fortunate enough to travel overseas and fish for many of the world’s prime gamefish.
Along with his wife Nancy, together they have been involved in the fly fishing industry in Calgary for over two decades after starting Fish Tales Fly Shop in 1997.
During his college and university days, he lived in Lethbridge, Alberta and Missoula, Montana. Both areas are veritable fly fishing havens. He spent four summers guiding fly fishing for pike, lake trout, grayling and walleye in Canada’s North before getting into the retail and outfitting business.
Martyn Clark, PhD
Professor, Hydrology and Schulich Research Chair in Environmental Prediction, University of Calgary
Martyn is a Professor of Hydrology and Schulich Research Chair in Environmental Prediction at the University of Calgary. He is elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (in 2016) and is the previous Editor-In-Chief for Water Resources Research (2017-2020). Martyn’s research focuses in three main areas: (i) developing and evaluating process-based hydrological models; (ii) understanding the sensitivity of water resources to climate variability and change; and (iii) developing the next generation streamflow forecasting systems. Martyn has authored or co-authored over 200 journal articles since receiving his PhD in 1998.
Benjamin Kissinger, PhD
Lead, Water and Fish Program, fRI Research
Dr. Kissinger has worked on fish issues throughout North America, within federal, provincial, and state governments; academia; and industry. His research has taken him from as far east as the Adirondack Mountains to recover brook trout that had been extirpated by lake and river acidification, to Alaska in the west where he worked in hatcheries that diverted commercial salmon harvest to artificially propagated populations. The vast majority of his work to date, has been related to applied fisheries management, research, and recovery associated with government initiatives.
Matt Kumlin, DVM
Associate Veterinarians, Veterinary Agri-Health Services Ltd. (VAHS)
Matt was raised on his family’s ranch in Jumping Pound, AB. He earned his Animal Science degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 2010 and his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from University of Calgary, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in 2014. Following graduation, Dr. Matt joined Bow Valley Livestock Health and Bow Valley Genetics in Brooks, AB where he provided advanced reproductive services to cow-calf clients. In 2017, he returned home to manage the family ranch and joined Veterinary Agri-Health Services as a part-time veterinarian. Since that time, Dr. Matt and his wife, Angela, have grown the operation to 300 head of Red Angus crossbred mother cows and 700 head of grass cattle by focusing on regenerative agriculture and management-intensive grazing practices. They enjoy family time and ranching with their children, Wade, Bennett, and Rachel. In his spare time, Dr. Matt also enjoys roping at brandings, hunting, and fishing.
Kelly Munkittrick, PhD
Professor, Faculty of Science, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary
Kelly Munkittrick received a B.Sc. in Fish and Wildlife biology in 1980 and a M.Sc. in environmental physiology in 1983, both from the University of Guelph. He completed his PhD in 1988 in Aquatic Toxicology at the University of Waterloo.
Most recently, he was the Executive Director of Cold Regions and Water Initiatives at Wilfrid Laurier University. Prior to Laurier, he was the Director of Monitoring at Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA; 2013-2017), where he worked to help the oil sands industry adjust to a new regional environmental monitoring framework, and to align monitoring across oil sands companies. Kelly previously also held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Ecosystem Health Assessment at the University of New Brunswick (2001-2013), and 11 years as a Research Scientists with the Canadian Federal Government (6 at Fisheries and Oceans and 5 at Environment Canada).
Christine O'Grady
Executive DirectorExecutive Director, Advancing Canadian Water Assets (ACWA)
Robert Sandford
Senior Government Relations Liaison, Global Climate Emergency Response, United Nations University, Institute for Water, Environment and Health
Robert (Bob) Sandford has 45 years of experience interpreting natural and human history for general audiences. In the last two decades Robert Sandford focus has been on translating scientific research outcomes into language the average person can understand and that decision-makers at all levels can use to craft timely and durable public and private sector policies. To this end, Bob is also senior advisor on water issues for the Interaction Council, a global public policy forum composed of more than thirty former Heads of State including Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, U.S. President Bill Clinton and the former Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Brundtland.
Corinne Schuster-Wallace, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Saskatchewan
Research Area(s)
- Local Water Security for Health: Developing practical solutions and community-based tools for evidence-informed decision-making in rural, remote, and marginalised communities, particularly in low resources settings
- Water, Disease, and Climate Change: Identifying and spatially analyzing burdens of disease associated with water-related diseases, understanding both social and physical dimensions affecting these patterns, and exploring climate change impacts.
- Water and Sustainable Development: a macroscopic view of the water-health nexus demonstrates the need to account for the interconnectedness of water for life, nutrition, and livelihoods to ensure positive health and wellbeing.
Tricia Stadnyk, PhD, P.Eng.
Professor, Department of Civil Geography, Chair: NSERC Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Hydrological Modelling, University of Calgary | Adjunct Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Manitoba
Dr. Stadnyk’s interdisciplinary research combines engineering, environmental, and earth and planetary sciences to understand large-scale, continental water resource supply. She has developed a unique hydrologic modelling system that combines isotope tracers with continuous, distributed hydrologic simulation to improve long-term projections of continental runoff. Her research includes pan-Canadian water supply projection; advances in Canadian hydrologic forecasting; tracer-aided modeling; and data and monitoring networks. Together, they contribute to improving hydrological knowledge and forecasting and understanding how climate change will impact water availability. Dr. Stadnyk is leading paradigm shifts in hydrology and pan-Arctic systems modelling.
Niko A. Veriotes
Manager, Sustainability and Environment, LafargeHolcim
Niko Veriotes has a degree in environmental engineering from the University of Guelph with additional training in turbulence, air quality, and atmospheric chemistry. He has more than 20 years of experience in transportation, manufacturing, cement, chemical, and oil and gas industries. He keeps up with the latest technologies in environmental monitoring and has developed a patented environmental odor monitoring system.
Dr. Frederick John Wrona, PhD
Professor, Faculty of Science, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary
frederickjohn.wrona@ucalgary.ca
Dr. Fred Wrona received a B.Sc. in Environmental Biology in 1977 and a PhD in Aquatic Ecology in 1982 from the University of Calgary. He has >30 years of experience leading or contributing to numerous environmental research and monitoring programs addressing regional, national and international environmental issues related to: climate impacts on freshwater ecosystems; cold regions hydro-ecology; multiple stressor and cumulative effects assessments; ecotoxicology; and environmental monitoring program design. Most recently, he was the inaugural Chief Scientist and Assistant Deputy Minister (Environmental Monitoring and Science Division) for the Department of Alberta Environment and Parks and was previously the Vice-President and Chief Scientist at the Alberta Environmental Monitoring and Evaluation Agency. He also served as the government co-chair for the joint Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Monitoring Program.
Questions?
If you have any questions regarding the One Health Summer Institute, or need any assistance in this regard, please contact us at onehealth@ucalgary.ca and we will assist you as soon as we can.
Thank you!
How can you support this program?
We are seeking donors to provide money for student scholarships. If you are interested in donating please contact Dr. Michele Anholt, Program Lead, at rmanholt@ucalgary.ca.