Ryan McLeod

Position: 
Technician
Location: 
Western Arctic Research Center
Email: 
ryan.mcleod@auroracollege.ca

Education: Diploma, Environment and Natural Resources Technology (2015)

Biography

 I’m originally from Aklavik NWT but I’ve been working in Inuvik NWT 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

  • Field work 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

Rat River Char Tagging Program - Tags are deployed on Dolly Varden Char to do a  mark-recapture population estimate every fall  to determine Total Allowable Harvest and to ensure the stock remains healthy through sustainable harvest.  Gwich'in Traditional Knowledge: Rat River Dolly Varden Char 

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

Media

Scientists study sporadic spread of salmon across Arctic - NNSL