Regions: Sahtu Settlement Area
Tags: physical sciences, environmental assessment, water quality, soil, vegetation, traditional knowledge, wildlife, fisheries assessment, archaeology, environment
| Principal Investigator: | Johnstone, Robin (2) |
| Licence Number: | 13076 |
| Organization: | Golder Associates Ltd. |
| Licensed Year(s): |
1999
|
| Issued: | Jul 29, 1999 |
| Project Team: | Hilary Machtans, M.Sc. (Fisheries), Kelly Gurski (Wildlife and Vegetation), Brian Ronaghan, M.A. (Archaeology), Janice Traynor (Soils and TEK). |
Objective(s): The proposed field program is designed to provide site-specific information on stream crossings, for planned improvements to the Mackenzie Valley winter road route. The assessment will cover 16 planned bridge crossings plus 16 planned culverts. All construction will be in the winter. Some crossings are a few hundred metres from the existing winter road, so a small amount of new alignment needs to be covered as well. Information will be collected in the areas of fisheries and water quality, soils, vegetation, wildlife, archaeology and traditional ecological knowledge. The objective for each area of study will be to document baseline conditions and make site-specific recommendations to mitigate impacts. The information obtained through the field studies will be used, along with a literature review, to write an environmental assessment report to support land and water license permit applications, as and when DOT decides to proceed with improving any of the studied crossings.
Project Description: The proposed field program is designed to provide site-specific information on stream crossings, for planned improvements to the Mackenzie Valley winter road route. Researchers will travel to the crossing sites by helicopter from the closest community. At each crossing location, habitat assessments, water quality samples and fish census techniques (outlined in the DFO fisheries research permit) may be carried out both upstream and downstream of the proposed road location. Physical properties such as: bank full width and depth; width depth ratio; bed material; depth velocity; and bank characteristics will be measured. Vegetation and soils will be measured and mapped near each crossing. Wildlife field studies will involve helicopter flights and ground searches for raptor nests, potential or actual den sites, ungulate activity and bird species present.
