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

By dbazely on June 22, 2008 | Filed Under General | Leave a Comment

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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Julia wins Trudeau Scholarship

By admin on June 9, 2008 | Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Yellowknife native and GAPS co-investigator, Julia Christensen, just won the prestigious Trudeau Scholarship for 2008. Her PhD and IPY research is entitled Homeless in a Homeland: Housing (in)Security and Resource Development in the NWT. Julia was also profiled in a full page spread of the Yellowknifer.

The Trudeau Scholarship is Canada’s most prestigious doctoral level award. Congratulations Julia!

Below is a short profile from the Trudeau Foundation web site:

Born and raised in the Northwest Territories, Julia Christensen is committed to making a positive and meaningful contribution to northern peoples and places.

Through her doctoral research, Julia explores the link between housing insecurity and homelessness in the context of northern communities. “Housing is integral to human wellbeing,” she says. “It defines our access to community, services, work opportunities, and relationships.” Julia’s doctoral research is rooted in the recognition that housing is a right, and that its tenure is an expression of social inclusion and citizenship. “By allowing a significant portion of our population to live without their most basic needs met,” she asserts, “we allow our neighbours to be disenfranchised and excluded in the most fundamental way.”

Julia has a broad range of northern research experience, nationally and internationally. In addition to her doctoral studies, she is co-investigator of an International Polar Year project on “The Impacts of Oil and Gas on Peoples of the Arctic Using a Multiple Securities Perspective”, contributor to the University of Århus-based “Metropolia Arctica” project in Denmark, and contributor to the University of Tromsø-based “Human Security in the Arctic” initiative in Norway.

Julia is co-director of Northern Students/Northern Research, an initiative to promote community-based research by building bridges between northern student researchers and northern communities; and, co-director of the Canadian Youth Steering Committee’s Time Capsule project aimed at presenting life in the North through the eyes of northern youth using photography and other art forms.

As a freelance journalist and consultant, Julia has valuable experience exploring techniques for effective communication and community participation. To broaden the accessibility of her research, Julia works to reach a wider audience with popular writing, visual media such as photography and community research workshops.


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First Newsletter Published

By admin on March 10, 2008 | Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Our first GAPS Initiative newsletter has just been released. You can download it (PDF format) in its entirely here.


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CBC: Investigators in the News

By admin on February 20, 2008 | Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

One of our investigators, Julia Christensen, was on CBC North News recently. Check out the story!

Northern youth art, writing to join International Polar Year snapshot
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
CBC News

Young people from across Canada’s North will be invited to write, photograph, draw and paint their way into International Polar Year research by taking part in a time capsule project that aims to document the region through the eyes of its youth.

The time capsule is part of the current International Polar Year research project, which launched in March 2007 and runs until 2009. It is being organized by IPY’s Canadian youth steering committee, which includes Yellowknife native Julia Christensen.

“It’s the youth that are going to inherit this world, and it’s the youth whose perspectives, you know, really need to be heard in this International Polar Year,” said Christensen, currently a post-graduate student at McGill University, in an interview.

“Its main aim is really to provide a snapshot of what life is like in the North from the eyes of northern youth, so that 50 years from now, during the next International Polar Year, we can look at that perspective and understand sort of how far have we come.”

Christensen said the time capsule will seek photography, artwork and creative writing from youth, so that their views are documented alongside those of scientists, politicians and other community members.

“We’re sending art supplies and also disposable cameras, so that we can get some grassroots projects where youth will go out with cameras and with their art supplies and basically provide us with a visual snapshot of what, you know, a day in the life of a young person is in a northern community,” she said.

The capsule, once completed, will tour northern communities before being stored at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, where it will stay sealed for the next 50 years.


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Welcome!

By admin on May 22, 2007 | Filed Under General | Leave a Comment

Welcome to the GAPS webpage! GAPS is a fully endorsed International Polar Year (IPY) project and is funded through the Norwegian and Canadian IPY programs.

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.


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