Researchers at Wilfrid Laurier University are investigating how communities can address and adapt to the effects of climate change. They are available for media interviews.
Homa Kheyrollah Pour is the Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing of Environmental Change. She is developing mathematical models, as well as machine learning and satellite observation techniques, to understand the changes happening to northern lake ice, water quality and land cover. Kheyrollah Pour collaborates with northern Indigenous communities to ensure safe winter travel. Learn more about Kheyrollah Pour’s research.
Jennifer Baltzer is the Canada Research Chair in Forests and Global Change. Her research focuses on the causes and impacts of intensifying wildfires, including how forests regenerate in a changing climate. Baltzer works closely with fire management officials in the Northwest Territories and led the first research team to collect data on holdover or “zombie” fires. Learn more about Baltzer’s research.
For interview or imagery requests, contact:
Lori Chalmers Morrison
Director: Integrated Communications
External Relations, Wilfrid Laurier University
lchalmersmorrison@wlu.ca
For more Laurier experts, visit our searchable Experts at Laurier database.
Below, you will find high-resolution images and b-roll footage of Homa Kheyrollah Pour and Jennifer Baltzer conducting fieldwork in the Northwest Territories. These assets are free to use, with credit to Wilfrid Laurier University. Captions available upon request.
“Observing these magnificent ice roads melting away and the ice season getting shorter and shorter– it breaks my heart. But it also fuels my determination to work together with northern communities, ensuring that they can preserve their traditional ways of living through adaptation and innovative solutions.”
– Homa Kheyrollah Pour, Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing of Environmental Change, Wilfrid Laurier University
“What we’ve noticed in the last 10 years is that it’s taking longer and longer for our big lake to freeze, which impedes our ability to access our traditional hunting grounds and provide for our people. The sensors will also help us gauge from year to year how the ice thickness is changing over time, and how we can prepare and protect our people so they don’t get hurt.”
– Iris Catholique, manager of Thaidene Nëné, homeland of the Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation
“My team really enjoyed the training experience they had with Laurier. We are all about using new technology for the betterment and safety of our people. We try to use Western science as much as we can to validate the teachings that were passed on from our Elders and make it applicable to our day-to-day lives.”
– Iris Catholique, manager of Thaidene Nëné, homeland of the Łutsël K'é Dene First Nation
“I used to drill thousands of holes into the ice so I could develop a map manually. Now Homa runs her machine over the ice and produces a map right away. We can have results in half an hour for a nine-kilometre road, whereas if I had to drill it, it would take me two or three days.”
– Chief Danny Gaudet, Délı̨nę Got'ı̨nę Government
“We’ve been getting really heavy, wet snow pushing down on the ice in the middle of winter when it should be minus 40 degrees. Homa introduced us to drone and satellite imagery that shows us where the pressure spots and cracks will form. She and her Laurier research team are making our work more predictable, which I really appreciate.”
– Chief Danny Gaudet, Délı̨nę Got'ı̨nę Government
"I have spent the past decade building relationships with government and community partners in the Northwest Territories. My team and I have focused on understanding key drivers of landcover change that are rapidly occurring in the North with profound consequences for northern communities and ecosystem functioning."
– Jennifer Baltzer, Canada Research Chair in Forests and Global Change, Wilfrid Laurier University
"30 to 40 per cent of the Earth’s carbon is locked up below ground in boreal and Arctic ecosystems, and carbon uptake by these forests helps to offsets our global emissions. If these soils are unable to store carbon in the same way, that has major implications for the warming of our planet."
– Jennifer Baltzer, Canada Research Chair in Forests and Global Change, Wilfrid Laurier University
"Our government doesn't have the resources to investigate all of the questions that we and our residents have. Our partnership with Laurier really increases the scope and reach of what we can do to address those needs."
– Julian Kanigan, assistant deputy minister, Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories
"Our focus has been on understanding these larger trends. The more we know about what the future might hold, the better it’s going to be for us to make decisions about preparedness and response."
– Richard Olsen, manager, Fire Operations, Government of the Northwest Territories
"Understanding what’s happening with changing landscapes and fires and melting permafrost – these are all critical questions about what the future of the North will hold. What excites me about our Laurier partnership is that we’re starting to answer some of those questions and we’re beginning to see a path forward."
– Andrew Applejohn, senior science advisor, Government of the Northwest Territories