After graduating from East Three Secondary School here in Inuvik, I studied at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick to advance my interest in environmental science. As a STEM Outreach Technician, I am part of the Aurora Research Institute's Outreach team, delivering experiential STEM programming. Additionally, I support ongoing GIS projects using ESRI products.

I am thrilled to be a part of a talented team and promote STEM literacy in a meaningful way in the Beaufort Delta region. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

As the Climate Change Outreach Coordinator with ARI, I develop and deliver programming that builds climate change awareness and knowledge for students and educators in Kindergarten to Grade 12. Previously, I worked as an Outdoor Educator in Ontario and as a Science and Social Studies teacher here in Inuvik. I’m excited to bring my background in education and environmental work to create programming that is meaningful and relevant to the Beaufort Delta region.

My goal is to foster environmental leadership among youth by supporting initiatives such as an environmental club, hands-on workshops, on-the-land experiences, and a Youth Climate Summit. I hope to inspire students to take an active role in shaping the climate future they want to see.

If you have any questions about climate change programming, please feel free to reach out!

Eliza was born in a tent on the bank of the Mackenzie River at East Three. Her Inuvialuit mother Mabel, and her Gwich’in-Métis father Malcolm Firth, were well-known hunters and trappers. Mabel grew beautiful vegetable gardens to nourish the family, and  Malcolm was a logger for the Department of Public Works. He would drift down the East Channel for three days bringing 1,500-log rafts to present-day Inuvik, where his logs were used to build the new community.

After she was born in East Three, Eliza and her family lived in a cabin near the Mackenzie River. She went to school with her older sister and brother in Fort McPherson, but spent holidays with family back at her home in the cabin. One year the river flooded so high that her father took the windows and doors out of the cabin and they could canoe right through it!

Eliza has worked in a diversity of positions including bringing councilors and clients together for the Canadian Mental Health Association, and developing and delivering programming like sewing and cooking groups to support family learning for the Healthy Babies Program at Ingamo Hall. She worked as a custodian for 14 years at the Charlotte Vehus Group Home before bringing her experiences to her position at WARC, helping keep all the facility’s staff and visitors safe and comfortable. Growing up, Eliza spent time in the communities of Fort McPherson, Inuvik, and Aklavik. In the late-1990s, after some time with her children in Calgary, Eliza returned to Inuvik.

Niccole serves as the Manager of Logistics and Facilities at the Western Arctic Research Centre (WARC) in Inuvik. In this capacity, she leads a team of field technicians, logistics specialists, and support staff. Their work often involves fieldwork in sometimes challenging winter conditions, necessitating travel to remote northern areas by means such as charter aircraft, boat, and snowmobile.

She coordinates the centre's laboratory spaces, manages equipment, and oversees the transportation of supplies. Additionally, Niccole ensures the availability of essential materials for scientific projects and provides valuable insights about the Western Arctic region, aiding in the direction of research projects.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences

Skills and expertise

• Field work
• Outreach
• Drone Pilot Certificate – Basic Operations

Current Projects

• Reindeer Station Stability Assessment in collaboration with Inuvik Community Corporation
• Northern Canada Food Initiatives Map
• Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (drone) support and training for Western Arctic Communities
• ARI STEM Outreach Program – I contribute to hands-on STEM activities for local youth and participate in community events to promote STEM in the North.
• Western Arctic Research Centre Ethnobotany Garden – I assist with weekly Ethnobotany garden tours during the summer as well as with the maintenance of the garden.

Personal Information

Originally from Southern Ontario, I first moved to Inuvik in 2014 working on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway project for five years as an Environmental Project Technician. Since then, I have also worked for a local Inuvialuit/Gwich’in tourism company running their social media and supporting their traditional on the land activities. I am excited to now be working at ARI and am especially looking forward to the STEM on-the-land youth camps and working with local organizations to promote STEM, GIS and RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) in the communities. I love being out on the land especially when it involves working with and learning from local youth, elders, and my co-workers, and I am fortunate I get to work outside often.

Education:

BA in Geography and Post Graduate Certification in GIS

Personal information:

I’ve been lucky to find a profession that balances two personal interests: geography and environment/natural resources.

Over the past 10 years, I have acted in GIS technician, administrator and analyst roles supporting the varied business needs of renewable energy, forestry, biodiversity, ecology, information management, science and research, and infrastructure. I have worked with vector and raster based spatial information, managed web based applications, database development and maintenance, data modeling, programming, spatial/statistical analysis and geo-processing.

As the permafrost specialist for the ARI, I help to design and implement permafrost monitoring and research projects in the Beaufort Delta region. My educational background includes a BSc from the University of Guelph, and a MSc in Physical Geography from Carleton University, where I focused on understanding how snow condition impacts ground temperatures along the Dempster Highway.

My research revolves around understanding permafrost conditions and the physical geography in the western Arctic. Of particular interest is understanding how transportation infrastructure and climate change are impacting permafrost, and developing strategies to promote resilience. The idea that science ought to be more approachable, inclusive, and thoughtful is central to how I approach the research process. When not at work, I enjoy getting outside to canoe, or dabbling in art.

If you have any permafrost-related questions that you would like to chat about, please reach out.

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

Education: Masters of Science

Research Statement:

I obtained a BSc with a Specialized Honours in Environmental Science from York University. In the last year of my BSc, I had the opportunity to travel to Churchill, MB. This sparked my interest in the North. After completing my BSc, I went on to pursue an MSc through the Water Climate Impacts Research Centre at the University of Victoria. My field research brought me to Inuvik in 2009 and 2010. In January 2011, I came to the Aurora Research Institute (ARI) on an NSERC Northern Research Internship. I joined the staff at ARI in April 2011. My research looks at the landscape-level factors that affect the hydrology and geochemistry of freshwater systems in permafrost regions.  More specifically, I am currently studying the affects of wild fire on the aquatic health of tundra upland lakes near Inuvik, with a focus on the Noell Lake watershed. I am also looking at the affects retrogressive thaw slumping on the water quality of landscape runoff and how this impacts the aquatic health of Kugmallit Bay. Additionally, I am leading a stream water quality monitoring program along the Dempster and Inuvik-to-Tuktoyaktuk Highway corridor. This project will contribute to my PhD Thesis research. The overall goal of my PhD Thesis is to examine how and why the sensitivity of aquatic systems to permafrost thaw varies between contrasting permafrost landscapes. The primary focus of this study is the Beaufort Delta Region of the western Canadian Arctic, a region experiencing dramatic landscape change associated with permafrost thaw. Results from the Beaufort Delta Region will be compared/contrasted with watersheds that are less sensitive to permafrost thaw. These include the Apex River Watershed, near Iqaluit, and the Meacham River Watershed, near Resolute.

For her PhD research, Erica received a 2020 – 20201 POLAR Northern Resident Scholarship administered by Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS)  and is a recipient of a 2021 – 2022 Weston Family Award in Northern Research. 

 Current Projects:

Applied Permafrost Infrastructure Research Hub (Team Member)

Beaufort Sea Coastal Restoration Project – Exploring the Potential for Using Indigenous Plant Species to Revegetate Coastline Affected by Permafrost Thaw Slumping (Project Lead)

Investing the quality of water runoff from different terrain types found along the Dempster-ITH corridor (Project Lead)

Impacts of Natural and Anthropogenic Disturbances on the Aquatic Health of Tundra Lakes in the Upland Region East of the Mackenzie River (Project Lead)

Permafrost Network of Canada (PhD Student and Collaborator)

Highlighted Scientific Contributions:

Hille, E. 2022. Using river geochemistry to monitor the hydrology of Arctic watersheds, Nature.

Hille, E. 2020. Beaufort Sea Coastal Restoration Project. Oral Presentation at the 2020 Coastal Restoration Fund Workshop in Vancouver, BC. Invited.

Hille EH. 2020. Community Engagement in Permafrost Research at the Western Arctic Research Centre. Display at EGU2020: Sharing Geoscience Online.

Hille EH. 2014. The Effects of Shoreline Retrogressive Thaw Slumping on the Hydrology and Geochemistry of Small Tundra Lake Catchments. MSc Thesis, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC.

Hille E, Peters D, Wrona F, and Kokelj S. 2010.  Climatic factors driving the hydrological and geochemical responses of tundra upland lakes to landscape perturbation.  Plenary presentation in Student Day at the 2010 ArcticNet Annual Scientific Meeting.  Ottawa, ON.  Invited.

Hille EH. 2009. The Role of Benthic Algae in CO2 Exchange from Ponds in the Hudson’s Bay Lowlands. BSc Honours Thesis, Department of Geography, York University, Toronto, ON.

Hille E, Lin C, and Pokharel B. 2009. A comparison of the aquatic primary productivity of ponds located on serpentine and non-serpentine soils. Hidden Geographies. 1(1):21-32. 

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.