Grant Amount: $400,000
Intake Year: 2024
Region: Mackenzie Basin
Project Theme: Monitoring & Assessment and Land & Water-based Learning, Knowledge Sharing
Chu Cho Environmental and the Tsay Keh Dene (TKD) Nation are partnering on this project to continue implementing and supporting the expansion of the Tsay Keh Dene Nation Biodiversity Monitoring Program (TKDN-BMP).
TKD Nation is located in north-central British Columbia with territory covering 3.2 million ha in the Northern Rocky Mountain Trench. Today, the Territory is under significant pressure from industrial forest harvests and mineral exploration activities, as well as natural disturbances, such as forest pest infestations and wildfires. The TKDN-BMP is a watershed-based and landscape-scale biodiversity monitoring program with the goals of:
1. Monitor multi-taxa biodiversity at sites across a disturbance gradient in the Mesilinka, Ingenika and Ospika watersheds in TKD Nation territory to understand how biodiversity is related to disturbance. Over the long term, the program aims to identify disturbance thresholds that TKD Nation can utilize to inform land management and species stewardship decisions.
2. Collect detailed baseline data on biodiversity within watersheds that are of importance for management by TKD Nation. These data can be used in future monitoring to track changes in biodiversity over time and monitor the effectiveness of management and stewardship measures implemented within the focal watersheds.
The TKDN-BMP project is well underway with significant success over the last few field seasons. This funding represents an opportunity to enhance the program’s overall robustness and enable comprehensive monitoring in remote regions of the watersheds.