publication Archives - Ecology North

Northern Backyard Farming Booklets

Small-scale agriculture is growing in popularity in the Northwest Territories, and residents have an increased appetite for clear and simple information on the topic. The importance of producing food locally is receiving more attention from government and residents as the costs of food transportation become a significant burden. Ecology North, with support from GNWT Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, created a series of booklets related to Northern Backyard Farming in the NWT as a starting point for residents to try their hand at local food production.

#1 Raising Chickens

More and more people are waking up to the joys of growing their own food. this guide is intended to illustrate the basics of raising chickens in your backyard. Chickens are fun, entertaining, great with kids and provide nutritious eggs and meat. This guide is the first in a series of booklets that Ecology North has developed about food in the NWT. Pick it up and give it a read; maybe chickens are your next step to eating more local healthy food grown right here in the NWT.

#2 Preserving Food

Preserving food is an age-old tradition. Freezing, drying, canning, jams and jellies, pickling, fermenting, and root cellaring are all great ways to store food from one season to the next. This guide is intended to provide some basic inspiration to preserve your own food. Preserving food can be fun, easy, interesting, and delicious. This guide is the second in a series of booklets that Ecology North has developed about food in the NWT. Pick it up and give it a read; maybe food preservation is your next step to eating more healthy and locally grown food in the NWT.

#3 Composting

Composting is a great way to keep organic materials out of the landfill. It is a fun, inexpensive and easy way to turn food and yard waste into a valuable, nutrient-rich soil conditioner. This guide is the third in a series of booklets that Ecology North has developed about food in the NWT. Pick it up and give it a read; maybe making your own compost is your next step to growing local and healthy food right here in the NWT!

#4 Soil Health

Growing food starts with healthy soil. There are a number of factors that can influence soil health including pH, moisture, structure, texture and nutrients. This guide is intended to provide basic information about building up and maintaining healthy soil. Understanding your soil’s health is an essential part of growing food. This guide is the fourth in a series of booklets that Ecology North has developed about food in the NWT. Pick it up and give it a read; maybe enhancing your soil’s health is your next step to growing your own food in the NWT.

#5 Spaces to Grow

Out in the yard, on the deck, or in your home, there are many ways to garden and use the space you have to grow your own food. This guide provides ideas and useful information to help grow good food in our rugged landscape and northern climate. Be inspired to find small, unusual spaces to grow in your backyard or patio. Pick it up and give it a read; it could be the inspiration you need to grow your own food in the NWT!

#6 Beekeeping

This guide is intended to illustrate the basics of backyard beekeeping in the Northwest Territories. Beekeeping is fun and requires minimal space. It can also be challenging. With a bit of patience and a lot of hard work, you can reap a sweet reward.

This guide also emphasizes our responsibility to nurture our native bee species and the steps we can all take to reduce threats to their health.

Summer of Smoke

Background

Ecology North worked with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, the hamlet of Kakisa, and representatives from the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) to study the physical and mental health impacts of 2014’s extreme forest fire season and the related costs to the healthcare system. Climate change is creating conditions in the North and across Canada that will make extreme forest fire seasons more common. Drier winters with less snowfall, low water levels, and warmer summers with more lightning storms all contribute to an elevated risk of forest fires during the summer months.

The health risks associated with climate change are many and varied, and the concurrent costs may be more than our system can handle. With the completion of this project we hope to show that climate change is impacting the health system and all of us. The summer of 2014, and the incredible smoke that blanketed the NWT, impacted people in many ways. Vulnerable populations had their physical health impacted by the smoke, but what was most captivating about the results of this project were the emotional and stress related affects throughout the population.

Ecology North and CAPE managed this mixed-method study researching the impacts on the health system, while at the same time asking ordinary NWT residents from four communities to make videos of their experiences in the Summer of 2014. The results show the wide impact that the forest fires had on the population.

The infographic below shows a narration of the Summer of Smoke against the Yellowknife air quality records of the season.

Ecology North was also interested in how Yellowknife’s air quality during the Summer of Smoke compared to the notoriously bad air quality in Beijing, China. Check out the results below.

Summer of Smoke – Interdisciplinary Mixed-Methods Research Project

January 23, 2016 marked the first public showcase of preliminary results from the Summer of Smoke interdisciplinary mixed methods research project. We were incredibly lucky to have such a wealth of knowledge, experience, and initiative on the speaker’s panel. Much thanks goes out to Dr. Patrick Scott; Fred Sangris, former Chief of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation; Jessie MacKenzie, Climate Change and our Lands in Film research coordinator; Dr. Courtney Howard of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment; and Dr. James Orbinski of the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

This project is made possible with funding from Health Canada.

Managing Hazardous Waste in Your Community

Following the successful conclusion of the Clean Start program in the Sahtu, Ecology North began working with the MACA School of Community Government and the GNWT Dept of Environment and Natural Resources to develop an instructional film intended to help NWT communities to better manage their hazardous waste.

Hazardous waste superstar Gerald Enns, along with Christine Wenman and Jeremy Flatt from Ecology North, developed a script covering the basics of dealing with a disorganized stockpile of hazardous waste and developing a community hazardous waste management plan. At just shy of forty minutes, this instructional epic leaves no stone un-turned and features interviews with municipal staff in Wekweètì reflecting on their experience of removing hazardous waste from the community as well as a comprehensive demonstration by Gerald Enns of the proper process for opening un-labelled drums and identifying the contents.

Copies of the video are available from the GNWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Bottled Water in the NWT

The rapid increase in bottled water consumption has raised a number of environmental and social concerns, in Canada and abroad. These concerns largely stem from the negative environmental impacts associated with manufacturing, transporting, and disposing of single use plastic water bottles, in addition to the social issues of selling a substance that many consider a ‘public good’.

In 2016, there was no public data about bottled water consumption in the NWT. This paper is an effort to address that data gap. Two broad goals guided our research aimed at helping to fill the NWT bottled water data gap:

To gather baseline information about the amount of bottled water consumed in the NWT in 2014-2015; and,
To communicate this new information to the public in an informative and relatable way.

This report provides a brief overview of the research undertaken to achieve these goals.

Click below to read the report:

Bottled Water in the NWT:
Background Research Report on Bottled Water Consumption in the NWT

Carbon Pricing in the NWT

Ecology North developed this discussion paper on territorial carbon pricing in February 2016, prior to the implementation of the territorial Carbon Tax in 2019.

Th people and businesses in NWT.

Click below to read the report:

Carbon Pricing for the NWT

In July of 2017, the Government of the Northwest Territories released a carbon pricing discussion paper titled Implementing Pan-Canadian Carbon Pricing in the Northwest Territories. Ecology North provided comments on this discussion paper in September of 2017

Click below to read the comments:

On the implementation of a carbon tax in the Northwest Territories: recommendations

The Permafrost of Peel Plateau

The Peel River Plateau region of the NWT is experiencing some of the most dramatic climate change impacts in the world. Warming winter temperatures and increasing summer rainfall are causing large tracts of land to melt and slump, releasing massive quantities of sediment into rivers and lakes. Scientists working with the NWT’s Cumulative Impacts Monitoring Program are seeking to understand the extent of the changes and their implications for the region and its people.

Christine Wenman spent a week in Ft McPherson NWT filming these scientists at work. The short documentary that was produced features interviews with the scientists as well as local residents who contributed to the research. The film will be available online when it has completed a run of independent festivals. Watch this space.

Sambaa K’e Source Water Protection Planning

During the year of 2014-2015 Ecology North had the opportunity to work with the Sambaa K’e Dene Band (SKDB) of Trout Lake to develop the first source water protection plan in the NWT.

In response to growing concerns about their drinking water (i.e., climate change impacts, industrial development, and historic waste sites), Sambaa K’e opted to complete a community source water protection plan. The plan was completed through a collaborative partnership approach with Ecology North, SKDB and the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENR), who provided both financial and technical support to help make the plan happen.

Source water refers to raw water from aquifers, streams or lakes that is used to supply drinking water systems. The purpose of source water protection planning is to prevent contaminants from entering a drinking water source prior to treatment, and thus it is often considered the first essential step to ensuring safe drinking water. The need for community source water protection planning is well recognized in the NWT Water Stewardship Strategy and Action Plan, and in 2012 GNWT ENR began taking the important initial steps towards addressing this need. The department hosted two community source water protection workshops to help introduce the concept of source water protection and build community capacity with respect to the development of community source water protection plans. The workshops also led to the development of a NWT Source Water Assessment and Protection Guidance Document, which is intended to help interested communities engage in source water protection planning.

The source water protection plan for Sambaa K’e is partly based on the NWT Source Water Assessment and Protection Guidance Document. The project brought Sambaa K’e community members and Elders together with watershed interest groups, government staff, and community staff to identify potential source water threats and to determine appropriate management actions to address those threats. In total, 21 potential contaminant sources were identified and mapped in the source water plan. A series of management actions, including hazardous waste remediation, were also prioritized and recorded in the plan. These management actions provide ongoing direction for future source water implementation initiatives in the community of Sambaa K’e

Click below to read the report:

Community of Sambaa K’e Source Water Protection Plan

Feasibility of Centralized Composting in Hay River

In March 2013, Environment Canada published a report, Technical Document on Municipal Solid Waste Organics Processing that had a target audience of medium to large Canadian municipalities. In the Canadian North, over half the population lives in small- to medium-sized communities outside of the capital cities. Recently, communities such as Hay River, Northwest Territories have expressed a desire to recycle like their southern counterparts and to compost organic residuals such as food and yard wastes. Composting organic materials using paper products as carbon sources presents an opportunity to locally convert more than 60% of the waste stream into a valuable soil amendment.

This Feasibility of Centralized Composting in Hay River report builds on this previous work by providing a case study for territorial, provincial and municipal governments, and other decision-makers to increase organics diversion in northern communities.

Click below to view the report:

Feasibility of Centralized Composting in Hay River, Northwest Territories, Canada

Appendices to the report can be found here:

Feasibility of Centralized Composting in Hay River, Appendices A, B, C, D, E, and F

Wood Pellet Ash as an Agricultural Soil Amendment

The use of wood pellet stoves and boilers in the Northwest Territories is increasing quickly as more people convert to biomass heating systems. Approximately 90 tonnes of wood pellet ash were produced from industrial, commercial and residential boilers and stoves in 2013.

Samples of fly ash and bottom ash from wood pellet boilers and stoves were analyzed to determine their suitability as an agricultural soil amendment, including fertilizing potential as well as testing physical characteristics and concentration of elements or compounds that could be toxic or limiting to plant growth. Wood pellet ash is rich in potassium and certain micronutrients. It is also highly alkaline and has high acid neutralizing values. The author found that wood pellet ash added safely to compost at a maximum of 5-15% of total compost weight can enrich it in a variety of nutrients. Ash can be a valuable addition to compost especially during the early decomposition stages. Wood pellet ash must be monitored in compost in order to avoid alkaline shock and reduced productivity.

Click below to view the report:

Wood Pellet Ash as an Agricultural Soil Amendment in the Northwest Territories

The Berry Project

There are numerous berry crops that grow well in the region and which could be grown for the local market on small areas of land. This project explored the possibility of commercial berry growing in the NWT as a way of making use of the natural attributes of local soil.

Local agricultural land is in very limited supply, but berries are high value crops that require only small areas of land for production. Berries are very perishable, which results in relatively high losses and high prices in grocery stores when compared to other fruit and vegetables. This study thus examines the feasibility of producing berries in the Yellowknife, Dettah and N’dilo region (capital region) for the fresh local market.

This research helped to support the Yellowknife Community Garden Society (YCGS) and Ecology North to plant a demonstration orchard in Yellowknife in 2014. This community orchard produces raspberries, saskatoons and Haskap berries, and is open to all Yellowknife residents and anyone visiting the city. The orchard is maintained by the YCGS and volunteer gardeners, and will continue to benefit the community in the years to come.

Summary:

The paper considers blueberries, sour cherries, cranberries, Ribes (currants & gooseberries), Haskap berries, raspberries, saskatoons, strawberries, gogi berries, and sea buckthorn, for their potential in a local orchard.
A survey of residents was completed to determine what berries are locally harvested and grown, which would be preferred for a local orchard, and how people use berries.
Four marketing options were explored for selling local berries: selling to grocery stores and other wholesale customers, selling at stands or farmers markets, selling through community supported agriculture programs (CSAs), and direct farm sales including u pick.
The business case was explored for two types of orchards. The first was a 5 hectare orchard with multiple species and multiple marketing techniques. The second was a 0.2 hectare orchard growing primarily raspberries, with saskatoons as a secondary crop, and where all berries are prepicked for wholesale customers. Both models were found to be profitable and viable based on estimated berry production levels and equipment costs.

Funding for this project was provided by the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP), which is administered by the Territorial Farmers Association (TFA).

Click below to read the report:

Stimulating Commercial Berry Production

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