Conservation at the frontier of climate change

Nunavik Parks is not only a tourist attraction, but also a hub of research

Pingualuit Park guide Noah Annahatak stands alongside Nunavik Parks marketing agent Marie-Ève Charlebois as they look into the Qulusutallik Canyon, located around 30 kilometres from Kangiqsujuaq. At this location is one of the multiple camps set up on the way to the Pingualuit Crater. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

By Cedric Gallant - Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

This is part one of a three-part series on the 20th anniversary of Nunavik Parks. Nunatsiaq News was invited to visit Kangiqsujuaq and experience parts of the Pingualuit National Park. 

Isabeau Pratte installs a motion-capture camera to study the movements of wildlife in Nunavik’s parks. (Photo courtesy of Marianna Ricard)

Nunavik’s parks might be a destination for hikers, campers and tourists but behind the scenes there is battle ongoing against climate change through conservation, scientific research and cultural revival.

Nunavik Parks is the custodian of four parks in the region: Pingualuit, which is near Kangiqsujuaq; Kuururjuaq and Ulittaniujalik, located near Kangiqsualujjuaq; and Tursujuq, in the vicinity of Umiujaq.

The organization employs two conservation specialists. Corentin Chaillon takes care of Pingualuit and Kuururjuaq and Isabeau Pratte’s domain is Tursujuaq and Ulittaniujalik.

“Tourism is only the small tip of the iceberg, it is the image that we put out there of the park,” Chaillon said in an interview in French.

“Everything that happens behind the scenes is all the collaborations with researchers and the protection of the territory.”

From studying birds to rigorously testing water quality or gathering satellite imagery of the changing flora, Nunavik Parks is a busy place for scientific research.

Pratte and Chaillon both say Nunavik’s location at the edge of the boreal forest makes it a frontier for the effects of climate change. One of the most compelling impacts, they say, is the shrubification — or expansion of shrubs — into the Arctic.

Shrubification, which can be directly related to climate change, also acts as a catalyst for more biodiversity in the North. These effects can be felt in almost every facet of the land, from animal habitats to the way snow covers the ground.

Nunavik Parks conservation specialist Corentin Chaillon gathers data on fauna. (Photo courtesy of Jean-François Martin/Nunavik Parks)

In Umiujaq, for example, Pratte was recently notified by locals that beavers are becoming more prominent in the region, setting up dams and impacting the movements of Arctic char.

She said beavers are usually “predecessors to other species coming from the south,” as their dams create a more dynamic habitat.

“They are engineers of the ecosystem and they accelerate change,” Pratte said.

“We will not be able to go back in time.”

Another area of interest, for Chaillon specifically, is the Puvirnituq River which runs along the northern border of Pingualuit Park, separating it from the Raglan and Canadian Royalties nickel mines.

“We take measures of all the rivers that could be impacted by mining activities multiple times a year,” he said, adding he monitors levels of heavy metal contents in the water.

The mines themselves have very strict environmental protocols, Chaillon said, and historically have been very communicative with Nunavik Parks regarding any activities that could impact the surrounding area.

The work of Pratte and Chaillon becomes valuable information that trickles down to the communities. Chaillon returned to shrubification as an example.

“The shrub is taking more and more magnitude and that takes the place of food for caribou,” he said.

The shrubs grow on top of the caribou’s natural food source, which mainly consists of leaves, lichen and grass.

“We go and study that and what impacts climate change has on vegetation and caribou,” Chaillon said. “We can then share the data with the ministry and the community.”

Pingualuit Park director Mary Pilurtuut explains stories of the land near her cabin, in the region called Akulivik near her hometown of Kangiqsujuaq. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

But Pratte said she believes research does not account for all of Nunavik Parks’ conservation efforts.

People also “go on the land, grow a bond, and contribute to an interconnection between nature, individuals, practices, cultures and language,” she said.

For her, cultural practices help maintain a connection to the land.

To that end, the parks’ biggest clientele is not tourists but Nunavik schools.

“A lot of young people in the region are coming to [our] park, and we are very happy because they get to go on the land, fishing, hunting,” said Mary Pilurtuut, director of Pingualuit Park.

“Not every family has access or transportation means to be on the land as much as they want to.”

Pilurtuut said school trips to the park are a good opportunity to pass on cultural practices to Inuit youth. She called it empowering.

“For me, it has been a revival of my Inuit culture,” she said.

“When a visitor asks us about the stars, bone games, or the land, I ask the elders.”

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(1) Comment:

  1. Posted by S on

    Comments such as “…behind the scenes there is battle ongoing against climate change through conservation, scientific research and cultural revival.” AND “Shrubification, which can be directly related to climate change …” serve no purpose – other than to make sociopolitical dogmatic statements.

    Most of North America was covered by a two-kilometer thick sheet of ice (glacier) as recently as ten thousand years ago. North of 49, that sheet was in place just a few thousand years ago. Over the centuries, the remaining ice from that ice age occurs ONLY at the highest latitudes and altitudes.

    Shrubification [sic] has occurred many times during the billions of years of the history of the Earth as ice ages waned. Stop with the uneducated silliness, NN; you are out of your league.

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