BLACKWATER PROJECT

Blackwater Gold is required to compensate for loss of instream fish habitat, riparian habitat, and wetlands due the development of the Blackwater Gold Mine. Efforts to identify areas of likely habitat compensation have resulted in a deficit of eligible sites. Early in 2023, EcoLogic was retained to carry out a first pass remote sensing exercise  using “big data” available for LDN and UFN traditional territory. The purpose of this exercise is to compile and analyze available remote sensing data both spatially and over time to detect areas within the territory that present the best opportunities for effective restoration, including the restoration of in stream fish habitat, riparian habitat and wetlands. EcoLogic proposes to make use of an integrated set of remote sensing technology, including historical Landsat, Sentinel-2, and aerial photographic information to feed into a decision matrix that will allow for the identification of likely fish habitat compensation sites.

The documents presented below provide a summary of the work done to date, including portions of the code used for the modelling processes. The potential site selection is presented in the the Restoration Prioritization Webmap while the remaining three web maps provide examples of the analysis examples.