Authors:
Youth contributors: Adrena McDonald, Deagan Lacorne, Ella Bertelsen, Gabriel Brost, Hayden Chapple, Kaize Roach-Ashoona, Leora Rabesca, Neo Barnaby, Kristyanna Camsell, Odin Mcdonald-Silastiak, Peyton Simba
Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI): Dana Redhuis – Assistant Research Scientist in Geospatial Ecology, Nancy French – Senior Scientist & Technical Fellow
Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC): Rebecca (Becky) Edwards – Advanced Remote Sensing Analyst, Aaron Sneep – Remote Sensing Analyst
Ecology North: Brandon Pludwinski, Education Program Manager.
Northern Youth Leadership (NYL): Steph Woodworth – Project Director, Nina Slagter – Youth Employee, Goliah Makletzoff-Cazon – Program Coordinator
Videographer: Brandon Mack

In October 2023, Nancy French and Dana Redhuis of Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI) attended a conference to give a presentation titled “Wetland Monitoring with Satellites: Facilitating the Use of New Wetland Maps for All.” The presentation was an overview of MTRI and Ducks Unlimited Canada’s project with NASA ABoVE to conduct wetland mapping and monitoring in the ABoVE study region, with a particular focus on the Peace-Athabasca and Slave River Delta.

This conference was one of MTRI’s first major outreach opportunities within communities in the Northwest Territories, and we had two goals: 1) to share how our inundation and wetland classification maps could be beneficial for land managers, and 2) to learn how else we can better benefit communities in the Northwest Territories. We want to ensure that we’re conducting fieldwork ethically and with cultural respect, and we want to provide opportunities within the research initiatives happening in the north to communities living in the north. How could we, as external researchers, provide real and lasting positive contributions to the community?

This conference is where our team met Steph Woodworth, the project director of Northern Youth Leadership (NYL), and Brandon Pludwinski, the education program manager of Ecology North. NYL runs remote wilderness programming for youth aged 11 to 17 from across the Northwest Territories that is meant to help youth develop leadership skills, life skills, emotional resilience, and challenge themselves through positive risk-taking. Ecology North is a non-profit organization that promotes environmental education for all age levels in the Northwest Territories. We decided to set up a follow-up meeting with Steph and Brandon and found that one way that we could provide a beneficial contribution to communities in the Northwest Territories is through assisting in the creation of an on-the-land camp.

Becky Edwards, an advanced remote sensing analyst for Duck Unlimited Canada’s (DUC’s) national boreal program, and Aaron Sneep, a remote sensing analyst for DUC’s national boreal program, have been involved in this project since its initial phases and were happy to contribute to this collaboration. Goliah Makletzoff-Cazon, NYL’s project coordinator, and Nina Slagter, NYL’s youth employee, also largely contributed to the creation and administration of this camp. Brandon Mack was our final staff member, a talented videographer from Yellowknife hired by NYL to document the camp.

NYL had already begun planning an on-the-land camp in Hidden Lake Territorial Park, which is a 3,000-hectare park roughly an hour away from Yellowknife on Highway 4, in the Tłįcho (North Slave) region. Steph graciously allowed MTRI, DUC, and Ecology North to partner on this camp, with the goal of creating a curriculum that allows the youth to view wetland environments from a ‘leaf-to-orbit’ perspective. This camp’s focus was on land-based leadership and environmental education, with a curriculum designed to encourage self-growth, land stewardship, community, and responsibility. The camp’s learning goals included remote sensing resources and concepts, wetland species identification (particularly wetland types, trees, waterfowl, and macroinvertebrates), paddling (canoeing) skills, portaging, and living on the land. 

Through a blend of land-based skills, the youth thrived in an immersive and empowering environment. A few of the opportunities provided through this camp include:

• A level I canoeing certificate through the NWT Recreation and Parks Association Paddle Canada program
  • Up to 10 high school credits
    •  We first developed learning objectives and goals for the camp, including
      • Gaining a comprehensive understanding of northern waterfowl ecosystems, from microscopic to satellite scales, by engaging in scientific inquiry and examination with the guidance of land users, NASA scientists and researchers, PhD researchers, and other land-based experts.
      • Fostering curiosity and critical thinking skills by posing hypotheses and conducting micro, meso, and macro analyses of wetlands, promoting scientific literacy and inquiry-based learning under the mentorship of professionals.
      • We shared these goals with the different school boards in the NWT and worked with them to identify curriculum credits that could be met through these goals and programs. Students earned environmental science, humanities, outdoor living, leadership, and recreational course credits.
  • Daypacks that included:
    • A NYL t-shirt and water bottle
    • Ecology North stickers
    • A Ducks Unlimited hat and water bottle
    • A Ducks Unlimited wetland species identification guide
    • Four MTRI remote sensing pamphlets: a “What is Remote Sensing?” overview focused on providing information about active (particularly SAR) and passive sensors, a “7 Elements of Image Interpretation” worksheet aimed to assist in RGB imagery interpretation, a Bingo sheet meant to assist with identification, and a packet containing 19 maps of Hidden Lake Territorial Park utilizing different datasets (Sentinel 1a, cloudy, smoky, and snowy Landsat and Sentinel 2 imagery from various years, a false-color infrared map, a NDVI map, and a DEM.)
  • Were able to learn about different careers focused on environmental restoration and monitoring.

This camp was scheduled for August 12-18 of 2024. We decided to host the first few days at B. Dene Adventures Cultural Camp. This way we could conduct a few workshops under a roof and provide paddle training to the youth before heading out on the land. Look out for our next article, which will go into the day-to-day operations of this camp!

MTRI’s participation in this camp was funded through the NASA ABoVE project:  Informing wetland policy and management for waterfowl habitat and other ecosystem services using multi-frequency synthetic aperture radar. PI: Nancy French.

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