September 13, 2012

Bluff Creek Trail Camera Survey Project

As a spin-off from the recent successful effort to relocate and document the true site of the Patterson-Gimlin Film Site, the Bluff Creek Film Site Project team is now collaborating to place game/trail cameras on and around the actual site for an over-winter documentary project.  This will be an open project, with all results made public upon camera retrieval. And on top of this, you can be a part of it. As an experiment in collaborative group research this project is being put up for crowd-funding. Consider it an investment in the hopefully fascinating results to come from the very ground upon which “Patty” the Bigfoot walked.  This way you, too, own and help produce the project, with no secrecy, no NDAs, and no attempt to profit from it. Go to the Indigogo site and help out. The goal is to have $581.00 raised to cover gear costs by September 19th, 2012. See beneath the image below for further details.

http://www.indiegogo.com/p/201772

From the crowd-funding page:

Bluff Creek Trail Camera Survey

This is to fund an overwinter trail camera survey project at the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film site.

This is the crowdfunding page for the Bluff Creek Project’s Trail Camera Survey. The Bluff Creek Project is an open-source volunteer project initially formed to locate the original Patterson-Gimlin bigfoot film site. It consists of several project contributors who volunteered their time and gas money to complete the mountains of field work needed. They have been researching the area formally on foot since 2009. Recently during the summer of 2011 they successfully located the original film site and completed a detailed survey of the surviving monuments and trees. This survey has been an enormous contribution to the community and can now be used to exact dimensional data from the film and make accurate measurement of the creature’s pathway and size. After the recent trips to the site in June 2012 we noticed a large number of animal tracks and trails in and around the site. It appears that the area is an active corridor for migrating wildlife. This raised a few questions about the migration patterns of the local animals. Is the Bluff Creek area a migration pathway for large animals? Are predators using it as a hunting ground? Are the animals coming down to the creek from the ridges?; Or are they just traveling along the creek? And we would be lying if we didn’t mention that we really want to know if there are Bigfoot down there. All these questions are important to our research of the film site and important to everyone who has an interest in understanding the complex ecosystem of the area. Immediately we realized the need to install trail cameras in the area.

We intend this trail camera survey to be an open source project where all media and data is published immediately after collection for all the world to see. The main problem with similar camera projects is that all media and data is subject to strict non-disclosure agreements and stipulations. This is to protect and cash value associated with a potential bigfoot image or video. We believe as a team that the commercialization of such a project is fundamentally un-scientific. As a premise for the camera project we require full transparency during the entirety of the project. All videos and photos will be published immediately after they are collected. They will be offered freely on the internet for non-commercial use for anyone who wants to use them  for their own research. Any commercial use of the videos that results in a cash profit will be invested back into the bluff creek project for use in the next season’s project.

While the subject of Bigfoot is quite controversial, it is still an enigma that captures the interest of people worldwide. The existence of such a creature is highly debated and subjected to constant skepticism from all sides. It is our opinion that if Bigfoot exists it is a real animal and not paranormal in nature. Any animal that is real can be photographed and caught on video. Modern trail cameras are very high resolution and can take clear HD video of any animal that triggers the sensor. They have proven to be a valuable asset to any biological study of rare animals.

We hope to install at least two trail cameras to overwinter at the site. Obviously the more cameras the better. The roads to the site are closed for eight months out of the year, from October to Memorial Day. The cameras need to be of high quality and have great battery life. Most cameras with modern batteries last about two-three months in the field before the battery voltage drops too low to function. The solution to this common problem has been to install external sealed battery packs to supply the necessary voltage to maintain the cameras for longer periods of time. The downside of this method is that the packs and battery leads are subject to damage by bears and the elements. Recently modern cameras have been developed to utilize modern lithium batteries internally to extend battery life to one year. These cameras are fairly cheap and available on the consumer market, costing substantially less than the more expensive professional models used for law-enforcement, which can run more than $800 per unit.

After operating many different camera types and brands we have noticed that the Bushnell Trophy Cam would be the perfect candidate for this project. Details and technical specifications can been seen at their website http://www.bushnell.com/. We employ a number of these cameras in our research and we find they are the most reliable and efficient camera on the market. After researching several similar elusive animal survey projects we have found that it is also the preferred field-tested camera of wildlife biologists. They are easy to set up and maintain, and have a proven track record of reliability. The new models are capable of up to one year of operation with modern energizer lithium batteries.

What we need…
In order to get a good view of animals migrating through the creek bed we need at least two cameras and hardware. Amazon.com currently offers the Trophy Cam HD Max Black for $210.70, which seems to be the best price. We will also need to get mounting hardware, memory cards, and batteries. Any additional funds received will go toward purchasing more cameras. Obviously the more cameras we put in the field the more complete the study will be. Any left over donations not amounting to enough to purchase an entire camera will go toward fuel to visit the site. A detailed expense report and receipts will be published at the time of purchases. Of course the prices and availability of the cameras are subject to change during the course of this campaign and any additional costs or equipment will be explained in a detailed expense report. Below is a basic run-down of the current costs of the equipment.

Camera $210.70
Bear Safe $29.16
32gb Memory Card $19.58
12 lithium batteries $20.12

Total per camera $279.56
Two cameras $559.12

4% Indiegogo fee $22.36

Grand Total $581.48

Contributors making sizable donations covering whole units will have the option of receiving the used camera unit after this coming winter of 2012-2013. It is however encouraged that you contribute the camera to next year’s project. We will ship the camera to you after June 2013 when I retrieve the cameras. Any leftover cameras and materials will be put to use for the next overwinter season. There is of course the possibility that the camera will be damaged or stolen during the course of it’s use. This is unlikely due to the remoteness of the area and the roads being closed for the duration of the winter.

All contributors will have their name cited in the accompanying summary paper of the project. If you wish to remain anonymous please indicate so in a private message.

Anyone who makes a large enough donation or sponsors the project will also have the option of coming down to the site and assisting us in the camera recovery and additional research. The site is on public land and anyone who so wishes may visit the site in accordance with the rules and regulations of the national forest.

We also will be accepting physical donations of equipment and gear. Please contact one of the members of the project is you have some equipment to offer. We could use some old trail cameras, audio recorders, night-vision, binoculars, video cameras, etc.

All donations are non-refundable. We do not [necessarily] expect an image of a bigfoot creature as a result of this project. We do however expect lots of HD video of local wildlife including bears, deer, elk, and cougar.

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And yes, NEXT year we may upgrade this project to a LIVE FEED to be streamed on the internet. Stay tuned!

Visit BIGFOOT’S BLOG for more information on Bluff Creek and the P-G Film Site.

http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com/

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