From October 19-23, Mike Taylor and Madeleine Gregory from the Landsat Communication and Public Engagement team supported The Wildlife Society’s annual conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
While some researchers used Landsat data extensively in their work, many attendees specialized in wildlife biology and had limited working knowledge of remote sensing. Often, the first question they asked when they approached the booth was “Why is NASA here?” Taylor and Gregory educated attendees about the many uses of NASA data alongside Jessica Burnett, Lillian Cooke, and Cindy Schmidt from NASA’s Ecological Conservation Program.
Handouts included Landsat Next one-pagers, mission timeline rulers, the Landsat Case Studies book, and Echo the Bat books. Attendees were especially excited about the Echo the Bat book; one bat specialist was particularly enthusiastic, amazed that NASA had a whole book centered on her study animal. The booth also had QR codes to access online stories that highlighted Landsat’s usefulness in wildlife biology.
Taylor participated in the “Ask a Remote Sensing Scientist” session. He answered questions about how to apply Landsat data to wildlife research and helped brainstorm which datasets could be helpful for specific research questions. Many left with new excitement about the possibilities of employing satellite data in their work.
