We are FINALLY looking for non-indigenous plants in the NWT

By dbazely on June 22, 2008 | Filed Under General

Milissa (Missy) Elliott has been planning her field work for months. She has been poring over maps, faxing permit applications all over the NWT, applying for extra research funds, and meeting with her supervisory committee. When I arrive at the lab everyday, Missy is invariably sitting at her computer.

After all of this preparation, it feels slightly unreal to be outside looking at plants and talking to people about changes that they have been seeing in the plants. Although I have recently spent many months in the arctic in Europe, it’s been more than 20 years since I have been in the Canadian north. (From 1980-84 I spent my summers in the sub-arctic salt-marshes of Hudson Bay, east of Churchill, Manitoba. This has since become Wapusk National Park.) Being back with Canadian northern plants and flowers is like seeing old friends after a long time. BUT, there are also changes, and we are seeing and measuring species that have come north since I was last around 60 degrees in Canada. So, not only is Missy having to improve her plant identification skills to collect her data, and learn all of those boring Latin names, BUT so am I having to learn new species!

So far, the most unexpected non-indigenous species that we have found is Siberian pea shrub or Caragana, which grows all over Fort Simpson.

- Dawn Bazely in Fort Simpson
incredibly hot and with some of
the most amazing gardens that
I have seen in northern regions.

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