This was a once in a lifetime trip to a place I knew very little about prior to going.  It was made possible by my employers commencing a US$50 million partnership with WWF ; BGI & Earthwatch called Investing in Nature.   This programme started in 2002 & intends sending 2000 employees onto various conservation projects over a five year period. Apparently successful applications run at 1 in 7 applicants so I was very lucky.
The projects are very varied from marine biology to searching for dinosaur remains.

My project was called Climate Change at Arctic’s Edge and ran from 6 October to 15 October 2004. It took a day and a half and 14 hours on planes to get to Churchill, Manitoba. This apparently is a top 10 bird watching site and the polar bear & beluga whale capital of the world.  Indeed it would probably be fantastic for birds in summer. However due to working arrangements I didn’t see a great variety of species but nevertheless saw some very sought after birds.

The project itself was a long-term research programme aimed at checking on thawing of the permafrost and peatlands and will confirm the release of CO2 & methane. This will lead to an extension of the tree line northwards a mean less severe winters and thawing of the ice caps etc.  Scientists leading the research have produced convincing statistics and the programme is geared towards keeping the data current.

The actual base is 23 km east of Churchill town at an ex military rocket launching site. Various old rockets remain embedded in the ground or as tourist sign age.  Most of the remaining buildings are in poor condition although the main one is perfectly sound. Accommodation was dormitory style. Meals were regular & plentiful prepared by 2 on site cooks.

Whilst it is labour intensive with 4 teams of volunteers each year (mine was the first autumn trip) they do use automatic data loggers - a kind of weather station - to collect much of the information. Our job was to go to the 8 distinct locations where these stations were sited to allow the professor to download information whilst we did the various manual tasks. This volunteer effort saves countless man years of time for the
professional researchers.

Our team comprised 6 men & 3 women of which 8 were sponsored by corporate
bodies which apparently is very unusual. The team included 3 Australians; 3
English; a Namibian; a Belgian and a Frenchman. The joker in the pack was a young Australian who managed to spin out his vast repertoire over the trip & kept everyone suitably amused. You don’t really want to know ‘how to bring up a young Australian....’ honest.

The weather was unseasonally warm, i.e. It didn’t feel cold with 5 layers on top & three on my legs. Some days I was down to shirtsleeves - but when the wind blew it dropped to minus 5 degrees C.  Only two weeks after I returned the snow began in earnest & was up to 3 feet deep. Apparently the February team  travel everywhere by snowmobile / sled whereas we drove by minibus to all the sites.

At each site we did a combination of tasks. These included;- tree planting - 200 over 4 of the sites - and photographing each of them. By planting in a variety of locations future teams will be able to show how well trees can grow in prime & non prime locations. This may seem simple but the area is extremely flat with no cover & trees take up to 80 years to get to 3 or 4 feet tall. The prevailing wind is so strong that the majority of branches grow on the side away from the wind & growth rings are asymmetrical.

Tree coring - in two directions on established trees close to our planting exercise. This was an extremely difficult manual operation made worse due to extreme cold on our last two days.
Radar surveying - measuring the depth of thaw over two, fifty metre lines.  This is a laborious task.
Surveying - the radar line with a theodolite.  It’s easy in open country but very difficult when in the forest.
Soil Sampling - taking samples at various depths at each site; drying & then burning off organic matter. Ground coring - taking a core to about 80 cm depth
Ground probing - using a depth gauge to find the permafrost layer
Making & Erecting new signs - to warn locals of the sites
Odd jobs - helping make thermocouples; repairing ovens & erecting a new weather station
Bear watcher - two required at all times to give warning in case of polar bear sightings. At all times two shotguns were with the team. Early warning was necessary as we were usually up to a mile from our vehicle & polar bears can run faster than humans.

Everyone rotated their tasks to give variety. The working days were from 7am breakfast to 9pm shut eye. We also got one full day off. The tasks were similar to a cross between a geography field trip or sixth form science lab, i.e. Not too difficult.

My best sightings were on my ‘bear watching’ day - it was in the open tundra and so I could check out Snow Buntings, Horned Larks and Black Bellied Plover whilst searching. The next good birds were when we were in the forest - inquisitive Gray Jay, American Robin and Pine Grosbeak.  Mammal sightings included Arctic Hare; Arctic Fox and 13 Polar Bears two of which were searching for scraps at our base.  On our day off we went out on a tundra buggy which gave us our best views of the Polar Bears; Snowy Owls and other birds.

Richard Lobley - 2005