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Herschel Island Ecological Monitoring Program

The Herschel Island ecological monitoring program represents over two decades of work to measure and track ecological change. The program relies on the integrated involvement of the Herschel Island rangers to ensure standardized data collection, data management, and to expand the program to include projects related to ecological change and wildlife use of the Park. The program now consists of 12 related projects ranging from thaw slump monitoring, breeding bird surveys, and vegetation phenology to airstrip monitoring to assess the impacts of airstrip use and maintenance on wildlife.

Information from the program has fed into graduate student degrees and has been shared with CANTTEX (Canadian Tundra and Taiga Experiment). Herschel Island and Old Crow are currently the only sites in northern Yukon in this network. Monitoring information has also prompted new research on vegetation change on the Yukon North Slope.

The Herschel Island ecological monitoring program provides highly-valued field training to students as part of the STEP program including WMAC(NS), PCMB, and Yukon Environment students.

Yukon Parks and Fish & Wildlife branch are preparing to deliver a significant report of analyses, trends, and management implications to WMAC(NS) in November 2010.

         Objectives:

We propose that Yukon Parks Conservation Biologist and 2 STEP students travel to Herschel Island in 2011 to conduct the following tasks:

·       Implement airstrip monitoring protocol with Rangers;

·       Train new Rangers to identify the vegetation communities so they can record vegetation and terrain in their Wildlife Sightings, as well as vegetation measurements, permafrost readings, and raptor surveys;

·       Replace and maintain markers on willow phenology plots;

·       Download soil temperature data loggers, and replace malfunctioning loggers;

·       Conduct trail impact monitoring with Rangers;

·       Conduct detailed Black Guillemot population and nest counts;

·       Review management issues and ecosystem concerns with the Rangers that could be investigated through the ecological monitoring program.

          Management Implications:

Ecological monitoring in the Park is identified as a priority in The Herschel Island (Qikiqtaruk) Territorial Park Management Plan (s. 2.4, action a). The Park Management Plan also directs us to prepare an operational level plan of actions to outline annual monitoring activities (s.2.4.1). We met the purpose of this action item by preparing 2 documents. The Herschel Island (Qikiqtaruk) Territorial Park Environmental and Resource Monitoring Plan outlines not only ecological monitoring activities but also includes monitoring of Park Heritage Resources. The second document is an Instruction Manual for the Park Rangers which details methods and data forms for each project. This document adds data recorded for Park management purposes as well as ecological and heritage related monitoring. The annual Instruction Manual is intended to be dynamic and can be easily updated as annual priorities change.

Where feasible, we have incorporated or are planning to incorporate numerous concerns listed in the Yukon North Slope Long-term Research and Monitoring Plan such as black guillemots (1.4.10), tide monitoring (1.4.11), and coastal erosion on Herschel (1.5.5).

The Aklavik Community Conservation Plan recognizes Herschel Island’s diverse flora and fauna as important to the community of Aklavik, ranking the island as Category D (“Lands and waters where cultural or renewable resources are of particular significance and sensitivity throughout the year … these areas shall be managed so as to eliminate, to the greatest extent possible, potential damage and disruption.”). Government of Yukon ranked the island as Category E (“Lands and waters where cultural or renewable resources are of extreme significance and sensitivity … These lands and waters shall be managed to eliminate, to the greatest extent possible, potential damage and disruption. This category recommends the highest degree of protection in this document.”).

Goal A (Conservation of Wildlife and Habitat), Objective 1 of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Plan identifies ecological monitoring as an important component of conservation of the North Slope’s wildlife and diversity. Objective 3 also encourages research into the relationships between plants, wildlife and their natural surroundings, a new and key part of the Herschel Island monitoring program.

         Budget:

* Note: air charter costs are based on a return trip in a Cesna 206 in 2010.

    Communication Plan

Herschel Island rangers play a key role in the Herschel Island ecological monitoring program. Work this year will continue to support Park Rangers’ capacity for field data collection and recording. Much of the data now recorded in the monitoring program are collected by the Rangers. Our close working relationship with the Rangers benefits the researchers by the Rangers’ local expertise directing our efforts, it benefits the Rangers by the training that we provide to conduct the program, and it benefits the Park by providing data for park management.

We meet with the Rangers each spring at their pre-season meeting to review data collected from last year (an annual data summary is drafted each winter) and to discuss this year’s projects (the Instruction Manual is revised). At this meeting, we also discuss project ideas that may be included in the future. While in the Park in summer, we discuss and demonstrate data collection methods for new projects that year and review methods for existing projects.

Communication with parties other than the Rangers has been sparse to date. A description of the program has been shared at 2 Yukon North Slope Conferences and has been posted on the CANTTEX website. The vegetation phenology information has been included in one CANTTEX report. Communication with the local community has been done at various forums including the Yukon Biodiversity forum at Yukon College.    

 Timeline & Workplan:

In 2011, the ecological monitoring program will be conducted through the Rangers active season on the island – April through September. The proposed trip to the island for the Conservation Biologist and students to work with the rangers will occur during that time. Data analyses and reporting will be concluded in the fall.

    Reporting & Deliverables:

Yukon Parks and Fish & Wildlife branch are preparing to deliver a significant report of analyses, trends, and management implications to WMAC(NS) in November 2010.

An annual status report on monitoring results will be completed in fall 2011. Results from the 2011 season will be presented to WMAC(NS) at the annual fall meetings, and to the Yukon Biodiversity Working Group.