One of the challenges to understanding past and current climate change in the Yukon is that scientific understanding is principally based on records that are often short-term, fragmentary, or both. Indeed, a recent study summarized observational evidence of recent climate changes in northern latitudes and concluded that many of the environmental records are either short, are of uncertain quality, or provide limited spatial coverage. However, for generation upon generation, northern residents have made first-hand observations of climate and environmental variability. This long-term, holistic and intimate knowledge of the land gives specific and detailed insights into changing local and regional conditions. Local knowledge and traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge adds an important dimension to the understanding of climate change impacts. It is becoming evident that the combined perspectives of science and local/traditional Indigenous knowledge can lead to a broader understanding of environmental change than either knowledge system can accomplish on its own.

Information gathering for this project was designed to encompass the many systems of knowledge about climate and environmental change in southwest Yukon. However, the scope of this report limited us to existing, documented and publicly accessible sources. Information was gathered through literature reviews and networking with relevant researchers, community contacts, and practitioners.

Traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge

Yukon First Nations history is embedded in the oral history, in the land, and in the stories and songs of the Elders. Much of the wisdom and knowledge of the Elders has been captured in life histories, ethnographies, story collections, school texts and directed research projects. Countless hours of oral histories -- tapes and transcripts from the Yukon Elders' Documentation Project of the early 1990s and others -- are in boxes in the CAFN offices. CAFN is currently developing guidelines for the use, collection, storage and communication of traditional Indigenous knowledge and a catalogued database of the material.

The First Nations firm Legend Seekers was contracted by the Northern Climate ExChange in 2001 to compile a list of published, written sources of traditional Indigenous knowledge on the impacts of climate change in Canada's North as part of a larger project to assess the contemporary state of knowledge on the subject. Their fairly broad search revealed that there is little in the way of research based on or driven exclusively by enquiry into the topics of environmental change or climate changes. Much of the recorded Indigenous oral information that exists is incidental to the array of other themes being investigated. Legend Seekers concluded that much of the traditional Indigenous knowledge on climate change and climate change impacts has not yet been documented. Also, since traditional Indigenous knowledge is open-ended, it is ever-evolving and, for the most part, is still held in the memories of Elders. The Legend Seekers report concluded that as a next step, conducting oral history research aimed exclusively at climatic and environmental change is likely to produce rich results.

The Project Team agreed that incorporating traditional Indigenous knowledge into this report before CAFN guidelines are finalized is akin to putting the cart before the horse. The team recommended that traditional Indigenous knowledge studies on climate change be carried out after these guidelines are completed and adopted. As a consequence, local and scientific knowledge sources form the basis of the knowledge assessment in this report. The team recognized that there is a need to conduct oral history research aimed at documenting and preserving traditional Indigenous knowledge of changing climate and weather systems. In addition, future work to explore resilience to climate change may also gain insights from an exploration of accounts of vulnerabilities and responses to the extensive social, cultural, economic and other changes that have taken place in the region since the Gold Rush.

Local knowledge

Local knowledge and perspectives play an important role in understanding climate change impacts and assessing their significance, and in evaluating what forest management options may be acceptable in response to climate change. To inform the discussions in this report, ARRC coordinated efforts to gather existing sources of information that contain local knowledge and perspectives on climate change and forest management. This work was assigned to a research assistant to search through the library and files at the ARRC office for information. The questions we sought local knowledge on were fairly broad, and included:

• What climatic and environmental changes have been observed locally?
• Are there any particular aspects of the environment, lifestyle or economy of southwest Yukon that are particularly vulnerable to changes in climate?
• What are local concerns about a changing environment? How does/might climate change affect local work and/or lifestyles?
• What are local perspectives on what should be done (if anything) to address climate change?
• What are local priorities for action on climate change (research, monitoring, data management, education, technology development, land use planning, policy)?
• Are there any forest management options that are 'non-starters'?
• Are there any forest management options that are of primary importance, regardless of climate change implications?
• What are local perspectives on what should be done to reduce fire hazard and manage bark beetles? Conversely, what are local perspectives on what should absolutely not be done?
• What are local perspectives on the types of information necessary before decisions should be made about climate change and forest management?
• What are local perspectives on managing for carbon sinks or biofuels?
• How resilient are the social, cultural and economic structures in this region to change?

Information sources containing local knowledge and perspectives on climate change and forest management in this region were limited. The information that does exist is contained primarily in government reports, workshop proceedings, and records of public consultation sessions. Specific projects to document local knowledge on climate change in this region have not yet taken place. Further work aimed exclusively at obtaining local knowledge and perspectives on climate change and forest management issues would be extremely beneficial. Climate change research will be more effective if guided by local observations and concerns.

Scientific knowledge

Most of the information referenced in this report is scientific literature from sources including scientific journals, workshop and conference proceedings. As a result of continuous scientific investigation over the past forty years, a wealth of information is available about climatic, physical and biological change for southwest Yukon. However, in general, scientific understanding of the mechanisms responsible for climatic, physical and biological change is still weak and there is insufficient information to confidently predict future climate and the impacts of climate change.

Several different sorts of datasets exist and include detailed records of geological, biological, climatological and ecological processes at different time and spatial scales. David Hik, a local researcher, recently described some of the types of scientific information that is available for this region, which is summarized below.

1. Geological history: Studies have determined terrain structure, tectonic activity, and rates of mountain uplift in the St. Elias. Some of these studies have also sought to determine terrain stability and potential hazards as a result of climate change.
    
   
2. Paleo-ecological records: Information about long-term vegetation change comes primarily from sediment cores from smaller lakes in the forested areas. In most cases, these records extend over the entire post-glacial (Holocene) period (last 12,000 years), and, in some cases, for more than 30,000 years. Vegetation changes are determined based on changes in the abundance and distribution of pollen in the sediments.
    
   
3. Paleo-climatic records: A detailed record of snow accumulation and temperature is available from ice-cores recovered from the summit plateau of Mt. Logan in 1980 by a research team from Environment Canada led by Dr. Gerald Holdsworth. This historic record is inferred from oxygen isotope ratios in the ice -- deeper into the ice, information from further back in time is obtained. This record provided estimates of annual climate conditions from 1736. A second ice-core was recovered from Mt. Logan in 2001 and 2002 by the Geological Survey of Canada, which will provide new detailed information about annual climate history of the past 1000 years.
    
   
4. Dynamics of glaciers and rivers: Numerous studies have examined the dynamics of glaciers and rivers in southwest Yukon. Valley glaciers have been retreating and wasting (melting) at low elevations since the end of the Little Ice Age (mid-1800s). Long-term studies of surge-type glaciers are currently being conducted by Garry Clarke. River-flow information for southwest Yukon rivers has been collected by Environment Canada for several decades.
    
   
5. Meteorological data: The network for monitoring climate in southwest Yukon is very sparse. Environment Canada established two permanent weather stations at the airstrips in Haines Junction and Burwash Landing in the late 1960's, which provide continuous long-term climate data in this region. Due to instrumentation problems, climate normals are not available for Haines Junction for the period 1971-2000. Other stations in Whitehorse, Mayo and Dawson have operated for 60-100 years. However all five of these stations are located in forested valleys. Higher elevation climate data is available only for shorter periods from a number of sites in the St. Elias and Ruby Range mountains from several scientific studies over the past forty years.
    
   
6. Dendrochronological studies: There have been several studies of tree-rings in the Kluane region. These have recorded slow patterns of tree establishment following disturbance (fire, spruce bark-beetle outbreaks, etc.).
    
   
7. Ecological studies: Numerous ecological studies of insects, fish, birds, large and small mammals, and vegetation have been conducted in boreal forest and alpine ecosystems of southwest Yukon over the past thirty years. Most of the work on small mammals and vegetation has been conducted by researchers working at the Arctic Institute of North America's Kluane Lake Field Station, and many of the large mammal and landscape studies have been conducted by Parks Canada and the Yukon Government biologists.