Agave Hill Camera
Overlooking Boyd Center Below.
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The Agave Hill camera site is located on a promontory
overlooking the Deep Canyon gorge and floodplain. The site is
remote, difficult to access, subject to extreme desert conditions,
and heavy wind loads. We chose this site to test the limits of
off-the-shelf components deployed in the real world. Our goal
is to create a reliable imaging system for use in research, teaching,
and management.
The Agave Hill camera is a wireless, solar powered system with
connectivity to the Boyd Center local area network and the internet
via the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network
(HPWREN, http://hpwren.ucsd.edu
). The camera has pan, tilt, and zoom capabilities that can be
controlled by any user with an internet connection. We will also
create a database for repeat imagery of fixed locations to document
seasonal and long-term habitat changes. Opportunistic images can
include raptor nesting locations and bighorn sheep activity.
Remote surveillance allows researchers to observe animal behavior
without the disturbance of a human presence that can alter the
normal behavior of an animal. Another benefit of remote sensing
is that it reduces impacts to soils and vegetation that result
from frequent visits to an area.
The mission of the University of California includes education
and public outreach. Remote sensing facilitates educational opportunities
and provides virtual access to sensitive areas that are otherwise
closed to the public. The James Reserve (www.jamesreserve.edu),
a unit of the UC Natural Reserve System, has an established K-12
education program that makes extensive use of several web cameras
deployed at the reserve. In the future Boyd Deep Canyon will join
the James Reserve in public outreach and education facilitated
by remote sensing technology. |
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Agave Hill Deployment
We installed a Cannon pan and tilt camera at a location that will
give the user the ability to analyze the habitat as well as the
wildlife that frequently visit this area. This camera can be controlled
by any user with an internet connection. The user has complete pan
tilt and zooming control of the camera, which returns a live streaming
image to the user’s computer. We will also integrate the camera’s
functionality with an image database, which automatically move the
camera to a specific location and store the image to be viewed later
by any user over the web. This is very helpful in determining habitat
growth patterns over time as well focus on areas where animal activity
is commonly spotted. We anticipate the ability to spot bighorn sheep
herbs and focus on a cliff where hawks and falcons have been known
to nest. We also will see how the dessert transforms over the course
of the year and relate this information with weather and GIS data.
Remote observation of wildlife and vegetation allows researchers
to study the areas without the disturbance that human presence
typically causes. We can now observe wildlife behavior in there
natural environment without the human interference that can alter
that behavior if detected by the animal. It also allows us to
minimize our impact on the soil and vegetation in the area. Another
beneficial aspect is the time and cost to the researcher that
is saved by reducing the need for frequent visits to remote locations
and that can now be reached through a computer monitor. These
camera deployments allows us to provide this information to a
much wider audience of researchers, including grade school and
high school students.
Kevin Browne - UCNRS Information Manager
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to view slide show of archived images. 
