University of Saskatchewan researchers are working with students at a northern school in order to show the effects of ecological change to an inland freshwater delta.
The School of Environment and Sustainability has teamed up with Charlebois Community School in Cumberland House as part of a research project on the Saskatchewan River Delta.
Assistant Professor Tim Jardine says it is important the students see the ecological importance of the freshwater delta and the adverse effects development can have on the body of water.
“These deltas are very important but they are also threatened as well by upstream activities such as dams and industries,” he says. “And so the research that we do tries to work with the communities that are affected in these deltas to better understand and how things are changing,” he says.
Jardine also says it is important to highlight the key role this freshwater delta has played in the traditional economic development of northern Saskatchewan.
“For many years it’s supported large harvests of muskrat, commercial sturgeon industry, the highest populations of moose in the entire province. So, it was a real hot spot for productivity and that’s part of the reason why both Indigenous and European cultures largely congregated to these areas in the early days of European settlement in the West.”
The Saskatchewan River Delta project held a special demonstration presentation at the U of S on Friday.