Baseline Monitoring of Soils, Vegetation and Wildlife along the Pacific Trails Pipeline within Wet’suwet’en Territory - Phase 1 and 2
Project Reference Number: 2012-14b
Project Status: Complete
Led by: Laurence Turney, Ardea Biological Consulting; Rick Budhwa, Crossroads Cultural Resource Management
A. Roberts Consulting
Funder: Tera Environmental Consulting
The Pacific Trails Pipeline Limited Partnership (PTP) was issued a BC Environmental Assessment Act Environmental Assessment Certificate (EAC E08-01) in June 2008 for the Kitimat - Summit Lake Pipeline Looping Project, which was renamed the Pacific Trails Pipeline Project. As part of the certificate, the Proponent has committed to the completion of a number of tasks. These commitments arose from concerns and issues voiced by the Office of the Wet’suwet’en (OW) about the monitoring of soils, vegetation and wildlife, especially where they relate to country foods and medicinal plants along the PTP pipeline footprint on Wet’suwset’en Traditional territory
The following are the deliverables that will be provided during Phase 1 of this project:
- Map and summary report outlining the methods used to update the Wet’suwet’en High Value Ecosystem Mapping completed by February 28th, 2013
- Data structure and data dictionary document outlining data storage methods and requirements for the results of the monitoring strategy completed by February 15th, 2013
- The monitoring strategy for winter sampling of animal tissues would be completed by February 28th, 2013 and would include proposed pre-construction sampling rates, estimated costs and identified areas for sampling.
- The monitoring strategy for sampling of soils, air, plant and animal tissues would be completed by April 15th, 2013. This monitoring strategy would include pre-construction, construction and post-construction monitoring plans outlining sampling rates, estimated costs and identified sampling areas.
Proceeding to Phase 2:
The monitoring of country foods would be conducted as Phase 2 of the program, with a winter sampling of animal tissues initiating in March 2013, to take advantage of any hunting and trapping activities that may be occurring. The monitoring would be based upon an agreed-upon monitoring strategy and sampling plan. It is anticipated that this winter and early spring sampling would be relatively limited in scope. A more comprehensive monitoring strategy and sampling plan would be developed for a wider range of plant and animal species, as well as soils and air sampling. This sampling would be initiated in the late spring and conducted during the summer and into the fall to capture baseline data prior to construction. Construction and post-construction monitoring would be conducted as the project proceeds.
