NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: Beaver

Objective(s): 1. To monitor beaver occurrence changes 2. To assess past beaver occupancy patterns using shrub ring analysis. 3. To understand how permanent and transient beaver populations impact their environment 4. To understand the associations between beaver populations and other wildlife species.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5923. Objectives: 1, To monitor beaver occurrence changes 2, To assess past beaver occupancy patterns using shrub ring analysis. 3, To understand how permanent and transient beaver populations impact their environment 4. To understand the associations between beaver populations and other wildlife species. Methodology: 1. Conduct canoe and boat-based visual surveys to map beaver distribution in the Jackfish creek area. 2. Collect drone-based imagery to further assess the occupancy of beavers in the area and capture imagery of local habitat to facilitate analysis of habitat selection (not in 2020). 3. Collect shrub core samples of both living shrubs and those cut by beavers to assess in what year beavers were present at a given locations (using dendrochronology) and analyse these data to ascertain occupancy history in different sites. 4. In future years, we may use community-drive photo-based imagery to map beaver presences over a wider region. The research is relevant to both Nihtat and Gwich'ya Gwich'in RRC and the team would be happy to present the research findings at meetings where this is possible either remotely or in person and welcome requests. The research team is working in partnership with Gwich'in Renewable Resource Board and will have continued dialogue throughout the project both formally through reports and informally via email. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: August 14 - August 26, 2024