‘Water is sacred’: Treaty 3 team deploys new water monitoring devices across territory

Laine Fyke says it’s important to find out how climate change is affecting lakes and rivers across Treaty 3 territory.

Fyke, environmental monitoring co-ordinator with Grand Council Treaty 3’s Territorial Planning Unit, is helping oversee the organization’s community-based monitoring program. 

The initial program dates back to 2018, when handheld meters were used to collect baseline water quality data in Treaty 3. The territory consists of 28 First Nations and spans west of Thunder Bay, Ont., to north of Sioux Lookout, along the international border, to the province of Manitoba.

This year, the Territorial Planning Unit has deployed new, cylindrical devices, which measure short and long-term water temperatures, pH levels and dissolved oxygen in the water. 

“Climate change can affect water temperature. Of course, it can increase water temperature, which can decrease aquatic life, habitat, as well as decrease the amount of dissolved oxygen they need to survive,” said Fyke.

“These would be the kind of things that we’ll be looking for in our data trends.”

So far, eight devices attached to large yellow buoys have been deployed, and the team is continuing to reach out to communities to gauge interest. 

“We’ll work with these communities to find a community-identified site of importance to set it up — so this could be a sacred site, a site of ecological importance like a fish spawning habitat, or somewhere near water intake,” said Fyke.

The eventual goal, if funding can be secured for it, is to deploy devices in all 28 First Nations in the territory, she said.

“With community permission, we could use [this data] to better advocate for changes in regards to natural resource development, climate change policies and human influences,” Fyke said.

‘It’s connected to all of us’

Scott Higgins is a senior research scientist with the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s (IISD) Experimental Lakes Area. The institute has a research station based in northwestern Ontario, where it’s currently conducting experiments related to microplastics, antimicrobials and algal blooms.

The institute offered support to Grand Council Treaty 3 when it first launched its monitoring program, having done water quality work for decades. 

Community-based monitoring programs have a number of benefits, said Higgins, since they allow data to be gathered in more remote areas.

“When you think about northwestern Ontario, it’s huge and there’s lots of water, and most of those locations do not have any monitoring,” he said. “Community-based monitoring programs are critical for collecting data that wouldn’t otherwise be collected.”

With the number of developments underway in the region, such as logging and mining, Higgins said it’s important to establish a baseline for what conditions should look like, and how industrial activities may change them over time. 

Having this work done at the community level is also cost-effective, he added, mitigating the need for researchers to travel far distances to collect the data.

“This is of huge value obviously to the local First Nations, to Treaty 3 in this case, but it’s also of large value to Ontario as well, and so I would just like to see the support for these programs continue and grow into the future,” said Higgins.

Fyke said she hopes the project helps raise awareness about the significance of the territory’s waterways — and reminds people not to interfere with the devices if they encounter them during the open water season. 

“Water is sacred,” she said. “We rely on water in these aquatic ecosystems. It’s connected to all of us, and we want to protect and preserve this water and its inhabitants for future generations.”