Fossil forest excavation gets green light

IQALUIT — This week, the Nunavut Research Institute officially announced it will issue a scientific research license to the U.S. team planning to continue its excavation of the fossil forest on Axel Heiberg Island.

A prepared release issued by Bruce Rigby, science advisor for Nunavut, said the license was issued “after extensive review by agencies of the federal and Nunavut governments, and other mandated review bodies.”

The license has special terms and conditions which say that:

* the total amount of the area to be sampled is not to exceed 25 sq. miles;
* the total amount of material to be removed is not to exceed 35 kg, dryweight;
* a formal agreement is to be established for storage, handling and repatriation of the samples which is acceptable to Nunavut’s deptartment of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth;
* this agreement and other federal permits must be in place before the work can proceed.

According to the release, officials of the Nunavut government will conduct site inspections to ensure these conditions are met.