Funded Projects

Doig River First Nation Government is leading this project to expand and implement their Chuu úú Nan (water and land) monitoring program, which was created to address members’ concerns about degrading watershed health and cumulative impacts from extensive development (oil and gas, agriculture, forestry) and climate change. Rooted in the way Tsááʔ çhé ne dane (DRFN) Elders and knowledge holders have always listened to the land and waters, the program assesses current environmental conditions using community-identified cultural and western science indicators. Monitoring will be carried out through the Guardian Program at community-identified locations across the Doig River, Osborn River, Beatton River, and Milligan Creek watersheds, expanding the number of monitoring sites in the South Peace.

Project activities include developing, integrating, and refining a suite of Western science indicators to complement DRFN’s cultural indicators, developing quantitative scientific testing methods that supplement cultural indicator methods and field guides, co-developing clear field manuals to ensure consistent data collection, capacity building for DRFN staff and members, and conducting water grab samples at all monitoring locations for analysis of potential contaminants of concern.