Projects Archive - Page 5 of 6

Schools for a Living Planet Teacher Resources

Ecology North developed a series of curriculum-linked lesson plans for teachers in the Northwest Territories as part of the WWF Schools for a Living Planet program. These lesson plans are accompanied by NWT official languages word glossaries. Many of the resources were also adapted for teachers in Nunavut, and are available in Inuktitut (ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ).

The resources are for students and teachers from Grades 3 to 8 and cover the following themes:

Grade 3 – Northern Soils and Plants
Grade 4 – Solar Energy and Extreme Weather
Grade 5 – Snow Mechanics and Human Interaction with Snow
Grade 6 – Energy and Alternatives
Grade 7 – Waste Reduction and Hazardous Waste
Grade 8 – Northern Waters

The resources were officially launched on the World Wildlife Fund website during the NWTTA Territorial Teacher’s conference, September 29 – October 1, 2014.

To view and download these resources, please visit our sister site, NWT Science Focus.

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

Integrating Climate Change into Municipal Planning

Ecology North, the Pembina Institute, and the NWT Association of Communities have created and updated a Climate Change Guide for Community Decision Makers, which is now in it’s third edition. This guide was developed to help communities mainstream climate change into all their decision-making processes. With ten chapters on everything from adaptation planning, hazard mapping, asset management to source water protection there is plenty of useful NWT-specific information available.

If you are interested in how you can bring climate change into your community’s planning processes you can download the guide, below.

Click below to read the Guide for Northern Communities:

Integrating Climate Change Measures into Municipal Planning and Decision-Making

Pepper and the Mighty Mackenzie

As part of Canada Water Week in 2014, Ecology North developed an educational activity in support of the Northwest Territories Water Stewardship Strategy. The book is for children of all ages and follows Pepper the Sand Piper as she explores the mighty Mackenzie River.

Click below to download the activity book:

Pepper and the Mighty Mackenzie

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

Fort Resolution Youth Water Monitoring Project

Ecology North, in collaboration with the community of Fort Resolution, including Deninu Kue First Nation, Fort Resolution Metis Council, Deninu School, GNWT ENR, and the University of Saskatchewan, helped to develop a pilot project aimed at engaging Fort Resolution youth in cumulative impacts assessments related to water. We saw an opportunity to build on ongoing research and monitoring efforts in Fort Resolution by developing a program to engage community youth in aquatic cumulative effects monitoring, while also linking to ongoing high school science curriculum.

The core focus of the project, in addition to ongoing collection of data to assess cumulative water impacts in the NWT, was youth capacity building. One of the key goals of the project was to encourage youth to become knowledgeable and interested in carrying out monitoring work in their communities with researchers, scientists, technical staff and community organizations.

The project was broken into four learning sessions, which were a series of workshop style sessions that combined western science and traditional knowledge, hands-on activities, instruction and break-out group work. Each session focused on a different part of the research and monitoring process and gave students an opportunity to learn and try out new skills. Three detailed curriculum resource templates pertaining to water, ice and fish were also developed as part of the project. The curriculum resources are designed to provide guidance, activities and information for teachers interested in incorporating activities that can reflect learning about cumulative effects.

Over the course of the project students developed their own individual research projects on a topic of interest to them. The projects were student-led and student-driven and followed an inquiry-based learning process that was part of the experiential science curriculum taught by Mr. Ted Moes at Deninu School.

Click below to read the teaching resource that was developed for this pilot project:

Fort Resolution Youth Monitoring Project:
Draft Teaching Resources Prepared for Pilot Use in Fort Resolution

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

Clean Start: Hazardous Waste Stockpiles in the Sahtu

In 2013 and 2014, Ecology North partnered with Sahtu communities to tackle the challenge of hazardous waste that has accumulated in municipal solid waste disposal sites over decades. Much of this waste comes from non-municipal sources such as industry and government.

Together with municipalities and with support from the GNWT departments of ENR and MACA, we were able to develop itemized inventories of hazardous waste in the solid waste facilities in the communities of Norman Wells, Tulita, Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope. A lot of the waste was tidied up, labeled and repacked so that much of it is now ready for transport out of the communities and disposal at appropriate facilities that are able to handle these kinds of waste.

The project also helped to draw attention to the challenge, and we are hopeful that federal, territorial and municipal jurisdictions will be able to work together to dispose of the waste in the future.

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

Biodiesel Project

In 2009, Yellowknife resident Daniel Gillis began experiments to create biodiesel and use it in his diesel truck and oil stove. Dan surveyed Yellowknife restaurants in early 2010 to determine that about 84,000 litres of used vegetable oil was being produced and landfilled each year. In September of 2010, the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor) and Government of the Northwest Territories – Environment and Natural Resources (GNWT-ENR) agreed to fund an expanded biodiesel project that would include renting an appropriate facility and producing biodiesel as a pilot project with the intent of the project eventually becoming a self-sustaining business. This funded project officially began in October 2010. The goals of the project were to create an alternative home heating fuel, divert used vegetable oil (UVO) from the landfill, create a feasible business model, and pass the knowledge of the project on to others.

Restaurants in Yellowknife produced approximately 84,000 litres of waste vegetable oil in 2010. Funded by the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency in 2011, Ecology North worked with Dwayne Wohlgemuth to conduct research to find out how feasible it would be to transform this waste oil into biodiesel for use in diesel powered vehicles. The study found that burning used vegetable oil in boilers to heat buildings was a more economically feasible solution to the problem. If you’d like to know more about this project you can read and download the final report here.

Click below to view the report:

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