The NCE Secretariat announced a Call for Proposals on August 8, 2017, with $75 million over five years in funding available. Both new and established networks will be eligible to apply in this competition. There is no specific thematic focus for the competition. The initial stage of the application, the Letter of Intent (LOI), is due November 15, 2017. Before this date, the Canadian Mountain Network will host a webinar regarding the writing of the…

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Photo Credits: USFWS Following recent reports of canopy cover increases in Alaska, northern Quebec, and in northern Russia, Myers-Smith et al. studied willow expansion on Herschel Island, a land mass of about 100 km2 reaching an elevation of 183m above sea level. The island’s soils are “composed of glacial and marine deposits, underlain by ice-rich permafrost” (611) that support lowland tundra flora. Animal species on the island include “musk oxen, caribou, collared lemmings, and rock…

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Pictured: Chenoa Sly, current Graduate Student Communications Intern, skating on Pyramid Lake. The Canadian Mountain Network is hiring a new Intern through the Graduate Student Internship Program (GSIP) to join the Communications Team. If you are, or someone you know may be, interested, check out the job posting here. The application deadline is August 28, 2017. This position will offer a student many networking opportunities and the chance to develop new skill-sets. It will provide…

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Photo Credit: Western Arctic National Parklands A 2014 study by Robert H. Fraser et. al attempts to understand the reasons behind shrub expansion into more northern climates and the decline in lichen patches in the Low Arctic region. The researchers argue that climate warming around the Arctic region has caused northern regions in Canada to go through important temperature driven changes “in the form of increased thermokarst, larger tundra fires, and enhanced vegetation productivity” (1154).…

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Photo Credits: Miroslav Volek The report discusses “climate change and shifting hydrological conditions” placing British Columbia (BC) “into an increasingly uncertain water future.” (1) Rosie Simms and Oliver M. Brandes have identified five water challenges in the province: “building resilience to drought and floods; sustaining water for nature; understanding the state of British Columbia’s watersheds; protecting water quality for drinking, swimming, and fishing; and reconciling the water energy nexus.” (1) Their report identifies ways of…

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Photo Credit ElÄ«na Baltiņa Sarah Nelson argues that ‘mental health service research and discourse reflect… colonial ideas and, as such, constitute a social determinant of mental health for Aboriginal peoples in Canada” (1).Colonialism has resulted in the “displacement and marginalization of Aboriginal communities and individuals, and the perpetuation of discriminatory or stereotyped ideas about what it means to be Aboriginal” (1). Colonialism, “limits available resources and opportunities,” and more directly, “has impacted Aboriginal peoples’ mental…

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Courtesy of Steve Jurvetson Terrain alterations caused by permafrost thaw due to a warming climate are damaging the “rich archaeological record of the Arctic Coast and (is) impacting sites used today by traditional harvesters.” (15) To evaluate the extent of these effects, Thomas D. Andrews et al. have developed a tool for assessing the risks of thawing permafrost. Their research is focused in the Gwich’in region situated on the northwestern border of Northwest Territories, including…

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Courtesy of Travel Alberta Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) is a tree species found in high-elevation, cold, windy, or snowy areas. They are “often the first tree species to colonize open, treeless areas” with weak soil development such as the higher elevation areas of the Rocky Mountains and the coastal mountains of British Columbia (BC). Whitebark pines are considered a keystone species; keystone species are “an important source of food and shelter for wildlife species.”…

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Brett Dietterle @brett_dietterle The Canadian Mountain Network is committed to inclusivity and ensuring as many people as possible have access to our content. After initially consulting with Student Accessibility Services at the University of Alberta, we created a list of features we would like to implement on our website. We then implemented several of these features to further our engagement and allow us to reach a wider demographic of people. A toolbar on the left…

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Courtesy of Travel Alberta As visibility of the environmental effects of human activity increases so does the desire to understand their potential impact. Cumulative Effects Assessments (CEAs), “the process of systematically assessing impacts resulting from incremental, accumulating, and interacting stressors over space and time” (1) are an avenue for gaining this understanding. While CEAs have limited ability to identify the effect of any individual action when separated out from the whole, they are overall a…

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