Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Selects Globalstar SPOT Gen4 to Provide Tracking and Safety for Environment Researchers and Land Managers

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is providing SPOT Gen4 satellite GPS messengers to its survey teams in Yorkshire Peat Partnership as they carry out conservation work on rugged and remote moorlands

Dublin, Ireland – 14 July, 2021 – Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar Inc. (NYSE American: GSAT), announces that Yorkshire Peat Partnership, led by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, has selected SPOT Gen4 satellite GPS messengers to track and safeguard scientists and surveyors working across Yorkshire’s remote upland moors.

Established in 2009, Yorkshire Peat Partnership works to restore and conserve upland peat in the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and parts of the South Pennines. This requires restoration officers to travel extensively across the county’s most remote and hilly areas – comprising nearly 94,760 hectares of upland peat soil – always on foot since there are few paths and tracks.

“We spend a huge amount of time in these landscapes as we do our surveying, and by their very nature, they’re wild, remote and rugged,” explains Beth Thomas, Peatland Restoration Officer. “We could be driving along a rough track in our 4x4 for half an hour, then it’s a trek across a moor for several kilometres, spending hours crossing demanding terrain where there’s erratic or no mobile signal.”

“Tomorrow in fact, we’re surveying a section of moorland to which we’ll be walking 3km, possibly facing boggy or eroded areas, before we even begin our work,” she notes.

In May 2021, the Partnership began to provide its teams with SPOT Gen4s, the newest member of Globalstar’s award-winning SPOT device family, to protect them as they carry out their important work in these physically challenging and inaccessible regions. In addition to SPOT’s reliable connectivity – enabled by Globalstar’s satellite fleet in low-Earth-Orbit – ease-of-use, and economical price compared with alternatives were influencing factors.

The pandemic also played a role in YPP’s decision-making, Thomas shares. Some local rescue agencies have been extensively involved in supporting rural communities with Covid patients, and helping residents get vaccinated. YPP managers were eager for their teams to have emergency back-up, enabled by SPOT, just in case local first responder groups are stretched when a team member needed help. To date, SPOT devices are credited with over 7,700 rescues worldwide.

“We are working in remote, difficult terrain in all kinds of weather and so our SPOT Gen4 devices are an investment in our team’s safety; this is something we cannot compromise on,“ said Dr. Tim Thom, Peat Programme Manager, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

The buttons on easy-to-use SPOT Gen4, launched in EMEA in August 2020, can be flexibly configured to send pre-programmed messages, with options for transmission types. The Partnership’s researchers check in with colleagues in the YPP office base via the OK button and have other non-emergency email communications using the Help button.

They use SPOT’s tracking function every day; this helps managers to always know where the researchers are, and it also helps with record-keeping of survey activities.

With just one press of SPOT’s SOS button, an alert is instantly transmitted to SPOT's 24/7 worldwide search and rescue service, along with the user’s GPS location coordinates. Emergency communications and incident investigation protocols are carried out immediately, and local emergency services are engaged to dispatch help to precisely where it’s needed.

Restoration officers at YPP set out in teams of two or more, but once they leave their vehicle and spread out to survey the land, an individual might be working a half-kilometre away from their nearest colleague. YPP has a radio-based communications system, but Thomas points out: “if we’re on opposite sides of a hill, for example, we simply can’t rely on radio.”

The benefits of YPP’s efforts are wide-ranging. Peat absorbs huge amounts of CO2. As a result of peat’s natural filtering properties, healthy peatlands yield cleaner water for wildlife and people. Re-wetting the land and encouraging the return of peatland vegetation means fewer floods in towns, less land erosion, better habitats for wildlife, and improved water and air quality for everyone.

“We’re very proud that SPOT is helping to keep the Yorkshire Peat Partnership team safe as they carry out their essential work and stewardship of the countryside, something from which the environment, economy, residents and visitors all benefit,” said Mark O’Connell, EMEA General Manager, Globalstar.

About Yorkshire Peat Partnership
Established in 2009, Yorkshire Peat Partnership, led by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, works to restore and conserve upland peat in the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors in order to ensure the long-term future of these unique and valuable habitats. Yorkshire Peat Partnership has restored more than 31,000 hectares of peatland. Yorkshire Peat Partnership is a collaboration funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency, the Garfield Weston Foundation, Natural England, North York Moors National Park Authority, the Peter De Haan Charitable Trust, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Yorkshire Water and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, with other partners including Moorland Association, National Farmers Union, National Trust and Nidderdale AONB. https://www.yppartnership.org.uk/

About Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is a local charity working for a county rich in wildlife. We look after over 100 of Yorkshire’s best places for wildlife and encourage people to visit and get involved in their care. We stand up for Yorkshire’s wildlife wherever it is under threat, and work with others to find solutions that benefit both wildlife and people. We inspire thousands of children, families and others every year, reconnecting them with their local environment and wildlife. With the support of these people, we are restoring and recreating a Living Landscape in Yorkshire and raising awareness of, and fighting for, Yorkshire’s Living Sea. https://www.ywt.org.uk/

About Globalstar, Inc.
Globalstar is a leading provider of customizable Satellite IoT Solutions for customers around the world in industries such as oil and gas, transportation, emergency management, government, maritime and outdoor recreation. A pioneer of mobile satellite voice and data services, Globalstar solutions connect people to their devices and allow businesses to streamline operations providing safety and communication and enabling mobile assets to be monitored remotely via the Globalstar Satellite Network. The Company's Commercial IoT product portfolio includes industry-acclaimed SmartOne asset tracking products, Commercial IoT satellite transmitters and the SPOT® product line for personal safety, messaging and emergency response, all supported on SPOT My Globalstar, a robust cloud-based enhanced mapping solution.