The U.S. Forest Service is working with the high school tech club on a five-year project to install and operate three cameras to provide livestreaming from the Anan Wildlife Observatory.
“The goal is to have more access and be able to share this amazing place with more people,” said Claire Froelich, a conservation education specialist with the Forest Service.
Thus far, the plan involves placing cameras at the upper and lower falls, even one underwater, for livestreaming to a display at the observation deck to allow for better monitoring and more intimate wildlife viewing, especially since 1.3 miles of the view from the deck is inaccessible by trail.
The project also wants to create an online platform to livestream camera footage, to promote future visits to Anan and to increase visibility for those who can’t make an in-person visit.
Froelich said it will take five years to install and turn on the cameras, allowing for sufficient time to set up a remotely sustainable, environmentally responsible system. It also needs to be designed so that the cameras can be removed when the observatory closes at the end of the viewing season.
“We’re creating a remote system that’s never been implemented before with these standards,” she said. “It takes time and planning.”
While the agency had the option of working with other federal contractors to install cameras, they opted to work with the tech club students in the Teaching Through Technology T3 Alliance. The Forest Service has been developing a partnership with the group for about five years. “We’ve been giving them smaller projects and building up to this bigger one,” Froelich said.
When the partnership with the tech club first began, there were only three middle school students in the club. Now in high school, those same three, Ander Edens, Sean McDonald and Spencer Petticrew, are Federal Aviation Administration-certified drone pilots. “They’re able to do drone surveillance and be federally contracted, because in Southeast, besides Juneau, they’re the only ones who have that certification,” Froelich said.
The group is working on scouting potential trees for the Forest Service to select for the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree this year.
The students bring a unique perspective in their knowledge of the local terrain and ability to find solutions to various problems, Froelich said. “I honestly think all of them have engineering on the brain,” adding that the students have sometimes figured out issues in the project with remote power, connection and data that have challenged older, established electrical engineers across the country.
Froelich meets with the students every Tuesday morning before school to work on plans for camera placements and additions that will be needed at the observation deck. Students are going out in the field, paid by the agency.
Because the project is estimated to take five years to complete, as students graduate and age out they will educate younger students who will grow into taking over the job. For that reason, middle school students are welcome to tech club meetings, if only to observe and stay informed about the project at Anan in preparation as they eventually move into high school.
While middle schoolers may not participate directly in the project, they are encouraged to acclimate to the technologies involved by learning things like how to fly drones and do 3D printing.
Other partners in the project include the University of Alaska and Explore.org, the philanthropic live-nature cam network and documentary film channel. The film channel earlier partnered with the Katmai National Park to install six webcams that stream live footage of the Brooks River and surrounding bear viewing area when the bruins come to the river to feed on salmon.
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