Research project examines changes new pipelines could bring to region

Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, January 27, 2011

LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON – Non-indigenous plant species have a foothold in the Mackenzie Valley and more are expected to arrive as new transportation routes and pipelines are built in the region according to a research project.

Dawn Bazely, an associate professor of biology at York University, was in Fort Simpson from Jan. 13 to 16 to report on the findings of a project that was carried out in 2008.

Biologist Dawn Bazely, left, discusses the findings of a research project on non-indigenous plant species in the Mackenzie Valley with Fort Simpson residents Pam FitzRoy and Teresa Chilkowich. – Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

That summer, Bazely and two colleagues visited four communities along the proposed route of the Mackenzie Gas Project to look for the presence of non-indigenous plant species along roadsides and other transportation routes.

The research was part of a larger study called GAPS (Gas, Arctic Peoples and Security) that examined the affects of oil and gas industries on people in the Arctic. Part of the International Polar Year, GAPS was conducted by researchers in Canada, Russia and Norway.

For her section of GAPS Bazely focused on how ecosystems might change along pipeline routes, particularly with the movement of non-indigenous plant species into the North.

The research will provide a baseline to measure future changes against, she said.

As they expected, the team found that Fort Simpson — their first study point — had a higher number of non-indigenous plant species compared to Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope and Inuvik.

This isn’t surprising because Fort Simpson is the most southerly, has the most forgiving climate and has many routes in including roads and a pre-existing pipeline, Bazely said.

Most of the species found in the village were in gardens and along roadsides. Those on the roadside have yet to creep into the bush.

“As things warm inevitably they’ll spread,” Bazely said.

Most non-indigenous species come and invade and don’t have negative impacts, said Bazely. Inevitably, however, some species will arrive that do.

The team did find a fungus they were looking for that lives in some grasses eaten by animals.

Because the fungus was in higher concentrations along the roadways the team suspects it came up in southern seed mixes.

If ingested, the fungus can make animals sick. The findings support the need for local seed material to be used on reseeding projects, she said.

Bazely cautioned that the issue of non-indigenous plants isn’t black and white but is more value based.

People do benefit from a lot of introduced species including food plants like potatoes, she said.

As part of their research the territorial government asked the team to also examine how residents might want to identify new species.

There were a lot of opinions on the subject, Bazely said.

“People were interested in participating and learning about and motoring for newly arrived species,” she said.

The team is producing a report for the government on on invasive species planning. Some of the other findings from the project will be published in scientific journals.

Bazely said she was pleased to be able to return to the North to share the findings with the communities that were studied.

• Negotiating Change: Community-Based Mental Health and Addiction Practice in NWT
• Conferences & Presentations: Learn about where and when the IPY GAPS team has been presenting!
• Sub-project Updates: The latest developments in GAPS research projects
• Ecojustice & Adaptation: An emerging network of activists, First Nations, and academics from the Global North and South
• International GAPS: News from our Norwegian and Russian GAPS colleagues.

• Evolution of GAPS: Community consultations change the course of the project
• Team Workshop: What exactly is Human Security?
• Sub-project Updates: Find out what the GAPS researchers have been doing in NWT
• Interdisciplinary Research: Using human security to manage invasive nonindigenous plants
• Conferences: Researchers have attended many conferences – get the scoop on what they presented and where!
• Major Events: Ecojustice Conference at York University, and Our North/ Our Future Youth Workshop in Tuktoyaktuk, NWT.

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.

GAPS is a multi-national, multi-disciplinary initiative that aims to examine the scope and range of human security in the Arctic. GAPS specifically focuses on the impacts of oil and gas activity on climate change and on Arctic peoples, in order to identify and document threats and coping strategies from multiple security perspectives (in both Arctic communities and among Arctic researchers). GAPS aims to deliver this knowledge in cooperation with Arctic communities, to other Arctic communities, and to the human security policy and academic communities.

All GAPS research is being conducted according to the ethical guidelines established by the ICSU/WMO Joint Committee.