Birds, plants, animals — and for sure there's porcupines
A hiker's paradise with trails that seemingly go everywhere. We live in a sprawling, sparsely populated city, with bears, mosquitoes, black flies, eagles, ravens and moose; lots of wetlands and steep slopes; a big river, streams, lakes, forests; and winter. When we're out walking, it really is more interesting to know what we're seeing. As we walk through the grocery store, we know where different food are located. As we walk down Main Street, we know what shops line the street. But when we walk along our favorite trail, how many different plants can we identify? What do we know about what we see? Walkers see more than other people in the outdoors because we move at a slower pace.
June 9, 2013. Page is being updated, links checked. I've merged my previous natural history and geology/geography pages and still need to clean this up. Need to get some stories about current science work.
People
- Geographical Place Names
- Heritage Resources Guidelines, Permit and Authorization Guide for Yukon Activities
- Handbook for the Identification of Heritage Sites and Features
- The effects of human land use on the winter habitat of the recovering Carcross woodland caribou herd in suburban Yukon Territory, Canada.
- A guide to who lies beneath Whitehorse cemeteries
- The Wreck of A.J. Goddard, Lindsey Thomas, Doug Davidge and John Pollack
Wildlife
- Yukon Environment
- Yukon wildlife viewing guide; Wildlife Viewing Events
- Yukon mammals Introducing 36 species found in the Yukon
- Always a thing to be aware of.... bear encounters, by wildwise Yukon
- Be bear aware
- Bear traps in the Southern Lakes area Part of a multi-year grizzly bear study in the Southern Lakes region in collaboration with area First Nations.
- How you can stay safe in bear country Understanding bears; advice on how you can stay safe in Bear Country.
- Keep urban wildlife wild and alive How to handle encounters with urban coyotes, foxes and even wolves.
- What to do when coyotes and wolves come to your place for lunch What to do if approached by a coyote or wolf. How to prevent coyote and wolf encounters.
- How to protect wildlife from your pets and your pets from wildlife
- Wildlife in Whitehorse: A guide to our natural areas Some wildlife viewing and nature appreciation sites.
- Yukon rabies risk management guidelines assessing the risk of rabies from animal exposure and to make informed decisions.
- Protecting yourself & your family from Hantavirus caused by breathing in the virus carried by airborne particles of rodent urine, droppings or saliva.
- Diseases you can get from wildlife Safety tips, general information on safe field dressing, information on diseases and how to protect yourself.
- Tourism and Culture: Beringian research notes
- Jefferson's Ground Sloth; Woolly Mammoth; American Mastodon; North American Short-Faced Bear; American Lion; Giant Beaver; American Scimitar Cat; Steppe Bison; Beringia Research; Ice Age Yukon and Alaskan Camels; Saiga Antelope; Ancient Caribou; Helmeted Muskox; Yukon Horse - Kluane Red squirrel Project
- to think about: The Urbanization of the Eastern Gray Squirrel in the United States
- The beaver restoration guidebook – working with beaver to restore streams, wetlands, and floodplains
Birds
- Yukon Energy's swan-cam at Tagish Bridge
- Checklist of the birds of Whitehorse, Yukon A list of the 264 bird species documented in the Whitehorse area and their seasonal pattern. Includes small map of the area.
- Birds of the Yukon Territory
- Wildlife Ducks Unlimited has material on birds and habitat.
- Ten great places to go birding in Whitehorse
- Yukon Bird Club field trips
- Millennium Trail eagle's nest
- Yukon Bird Observatories
- Yukon birds facebook page
- Names for groups of birds
Fish
- Yukon Energy fish-cam
- Environment fish and fishing publications
- Yukon River Panel
- Yukon fish and fish habitat atlas
- Yukon Stocked Lakes Program
Plants
- Yukonviews Photographs of plants found on various local walks (+maps)
- Yukon plants
- 6 most un-wanted highway-weeds in Yukon
- Common Yukon roadside wildflowers Some of the most common flowers you might find along Yukon's roads and highways.
- Yukon invaders A pocket identification guide to help reduce the spread of invasive plants in Yukon.
- Yukon invasive plants
- Paddy's Pond, a neighbourhood resource Botany booklet created with Elijah Smith Grade 3 students and KDFN's Dianne Smith.
- The boreal herbal, 2011. By Beverley Gray Wild food and medicine plants of the north. A guide to harvesting, preserving and preparing
- Yukon wildflowers, a blog by Jozien Keijzer. She also writes a great column From The Back Country in What's Up Yukon
- Yukon wild flowers, Martha Louise Black, 1940
- Yukon revegetation manual, Practical approaches and methods
- Natural vegetation succession and sustainable reclamation at Yukon mine and mineral exploration sites
- Northern Bushcraft Foraging in the Pacific Northwest
- plantWatch Teacher's guide
Trees
- Forest health A series of publications organized by bark beetles, defoliators, disease and tree species.
- Yukon forest health report
- Tree book Learning to recognize trees of British Columbia
- Willows of southcentral Alaska
- Botany
- Forest communities in Lake Laberge Ecoregion, Yukon Territory
- Global Forest Change
- Global Forest Watch
Geography
Ecoregions of the Yukon Territory: Descriptions and scientific references about natural resources. We're in the Yukon Southern Lakes Ecoregion, in the Boreal Cordillera Ecozone.
Porter Creek Bench environmental and special places background has a number of local maps.
Yukon Geological Survey Geology dictates a lot of our walking. However, the language of geology is complicated. That said, the stories geology tells can make walking a much more satisfying experience. Please feel free to tell other sources of simple geology stories.
- White River ash. In the summer months, this fine-grained layer of volcanic ash looks almost exactly like a layer of pure white snow.
- Late Wisconsinan McConnell glaciation of the Whitehorse map area (105D). Illustrated with maps showing the extent of glacial ice flows and glacial lakes.
- The Whitehorse Copper Belt – an annotated geology map, legend. Companion booklet.
- Natural Resources Canada
- Geoscape Whitehorse — geoscience for a Yukon community A poster of stories about the land of Whitehorse
- Loads of interesting material that needs to be filtered for Whitehorse-focused stuff such as mapping.
- Paleogeography and geologic evolution of North America ... last 550 million years of geologic history
- Glacial Limits and meltwater flows
- Peaks In Yukon Territory 1346 peaks, with 375 over 500m prominence.
Water
The city's 2004 Watershed Management Plan (p. 47 of the PDF), Figure 3-2: Watersheds in Whitehorse shows
- Yukon and Takhini rivers.
- Nine-mile, Little Takhini, Macauley, Tavern, Porter, McIntyre, Marwell, Canyon, Copper, Basalt, McRae, Sowdon, Wolf, Cowley and Croucher creeks.
- Long, Schwatka, Hidden Lakes, Chadden, Chadburn, Hidden, Ice, McLean, Mary, Snowdon lakes.
Yukon River
It flows about 2000 miles to the sea. Draining an area of more than 330,000 square miles,
the Yukon River is the fourth largest drainage basin in North America. It divides the City into two big pieces; most of the city's development has taken place on the larger western side of the river.
We could make a Yukon River Corridor Trail if we chose.
Real-time hydrometric data map search : Whitehorse, Yukon River station
Ducks Unlimited created
What is a wetland? Teaches about 5 kinds of wetlands: bogs, fens, marshes, shallow open water and swamps.
City of Whitehorse created:
- Whitehorse: A City of Creeks Why creeks and their adjacent riparian zones are important parts of our natural ecosystem.
- Wetlands in Whitehorse Although wetlands make up only about 3% of the city, they play an important role in the ecological well-being of the city’s natural areas.
Water data catalogue, water resources branch, Government of Yukon
Weather, sky
In the winter, the land changes. Wetlands and many water bodies become passable on foot. Rough terrain becomes smoother, particularly as snow gets deeper.
- Whitehorse clear sky chart (and a bunch of other good links)
- Yukon Avalanche Association weather
- Whitehorse forecast
- meteowhitehorse Their sitemap is a good list of resources
- average weather for Whitehorse
- Whitehorse - Air Quality Health Index
- Carcross Townsite
- infrared image enhanced to highlight the cloud areas and the coldest cloud tops
- webcams, weather stations
- Forecast, an interesting weather website
- Satellite image
- Wind climate of the Whitehorse area, Jean-Paul Pinard
- Weather Patterns of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Western Nunavut
- Wind map. Not Canada, or even Alaska, but so neat that I just had to include. Zoom in!
- World wind
- Wind in colour
- Another wind site from Czech Republic. About the site: Envisioning a River of Air
- Aurora forecast; or, Current aurora forescast; Yukon Aurora Alert facebook page
- Interactive flight/contrail map visualization
- Ecology and climate
- Cloud identification key
- Take a cloud walk, an activity book for kids
- Wildfire Smoke Forecasts for Western Canada
- Northern Lights from Fairbanks
General
- Yukon College, Yukon research institute, journal newsletters and articles; yourYukon articles
- The New B.C. Roadside Naturalist
- Yukon Environment mapping
- Jim Gilpin's local mapping hints
- Yukon Environment publications
- Yukon Freshwater Fishes
- Yukon amphibians
- Yukon bats
- Yukon butterflies Yukon's 90+ butterfly species.
- Yukon Garden Insects - Yukon Conservation Data Centre wants observations from anyone working, living or observing on the land. Plant and animal watch and track lists.
- Yukon Biodiversity database publications, research projects about the biology of Yukon, Beaufort Sea.
- Ice age Klondike
- Contaminants found me, a science curriculum for all Yukoners
- Resource Guides for Teachers
- Yukon experiential Education
- Yukon schools
- True bugs of the Yukon
- Dragonflies of the Yukon
- FAQ about mosquitoes
- Site to compare land masses
Mosquitoes. Scary stuff. But if you're out there walking, then you've gotta be wondering about these ferocious things attacking you! As one commenter said "Freaking fascinating, but so gross at the same time. A giant, twisty, sucky mouth is all I will think about when I see a mosquito on me now. Ew."
Museums, intepretation
- MacBride Museum of Yukon History
- Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre
- Yukon Historical & Museums Association
- Copperbelt Railway & Mining Museum
- Yukon Transportation Museum
- Roundhouse
- Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre
- Old Log Church Museum
- Yukon Archives
- Whitehorse Rapids Fish Ladder
- Yukon Wildlife Preserve
