NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: environmental assessment, environmental impact, biology, vegetation, land use planning, industrial development, aquatic resources, archaeology, wildlife habitat, wildlife inventory

Objective(s): The purpose of this work is to collect environmental baseline information on terrestrial and aquatic resources in the immediate area of the Damoti Lake Project. Scientific Findings will be submitted to relevant regulatory agencies in Fall 1997 in the form of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) for the purpose of securing appropriate permits to begin development of the project. Land use and water use permit applications which will be prepared assuming a Level II (RERC) screening, will also be submitted at this time. A water license application for the Project will be filed in Fall 1997. Submission of these documents will occur once the summer work is complete and has been analyzed.

Project Description: Activities at the Damoti Lake Project Site will be as follows; 1) Archaeology - short site visit with field survey, 2) Terrestrial work will emphasize vegetation types and their value as wildlife habitat. Specific surveys for signs of moose, furbearers, raptors and other species, 3) Aquatic studies will emphasize habitat values in both lake and stream locations. Water quality work, 4) Hydrology work will include collection of preliminary regional and site specific information for climate, site drainage and water diversions, 5) Vegetation survey. Transportation to site will be by floatplane from Yellowknife. At site travel by truck on existing roads, boat and helicopter. Sampling planned to begin in mid to late July and continue for one week to ten days. Data for terrestrial species mostly observational. Assessments of wildlife usage & vegetation resources. Aquatic field studies focus primarily on fish habitat assessment. Some fish collected due to incidental moralities resulting from gill netting. All efforts made to return fish back into waterbodies after morphometric measurements made. Gill nets set for short duration (2-3 hrs). Species to be collected include lake trout, northern pike, lake whitefish, ruined whitefish, burbot, and Arctic grayling. Vegetation in the area will be mapped using aerial photographs. Transects will be run and vegetation quantified. Rare plants will be noted. Hectares of communities to be lost to proposed development will be calculated.