Ryan McLeod
I’m originally from Aklavik, NWT but I’ve been working in Inuvik since graduating from the Environment and Natural Resource Technology Program (ENRTP) at Aurora College in 2015. I have worked nearly every job imaginable in my life but my real passion has always been the outdoors; whether hunting, fishing, trapping or just exploring. Working as a technician at ARI allows me to combine Traditional Ecological Knowledge, learned through a lifetime of hunting and travelling the Mackenzie Delta and the Richardson Mountains, with modern science techniques developed through the ENRTP program and by working as a field technician to a wide variety of Research Projects starting at a young age. “If we take care of the land, the land will take care of us”
Skills and Expertise
- Fieldwork in remote locations
- Maintenance and Operation of motorized equipment (e.g. boats, skidoo, ATVs)
- Sample collection • Data entry
- Research assistance
- Coordination of logistics
- Traditional Harvesting Practices
- Wilderness Survival
Current Projects
- Air Quality Monitoring – I provide technical support for this project by performing weekly checks of the monitoring equipment located here in Inuvik.
- Permafrost monitoring – I collect data from permafrost monitoring stations to monitor the duration and extent of active layer thawing and freezing.
- Water sampling – I collect river and lake water samples from the Mackenzie Delta and locations along the Dempster and Inuvik-Tuk Highways.
- Methane-CO2 monitoring at several “Hot Spot” locations along the coast.
- Soil sampling from thaw slumps along the Mackenzie’s East Branch.