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Download The SCIENCE, BORDERS, AND BOUNDARIES IN THE WESTERN ARCTIC: ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORIES OF THE PORCUPINE CARIBOU HERD by Jonathan Luedee M.A., Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2009 B.A., Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2003 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (GEOGRAPHY) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2018 © Jonathan Luedee, 2018 The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Science, Borders, and Boundaries in the Western Arctic: Environmental Histories of the Porcupine Caribou Herd submitted by Jonathan Luedee in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography Examining Committee: Dr. Matthew Evenden Supervisor Dr. Jessica Dempsey Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Coll Thrush Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Tina Loo University Examiner Dr. Merje Kuus University Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Supervisory Committee Member Supervisory Committee Member ii Abstract The annual migration of the Porcupine Caribou Herd is an important biological phenomenon that is central to the maintenance of dynamic environmental relationships in the transboundary western Arctic (northeastern Alaska and northern Yukon). In this dissertation, I argue that far from being a purely natural or unchanging biological process, the herd’s migration has an historical geography, which has been shaped by human societies, and structured by the establishment of political, conceptual, and metaphorical boundaries and borders throughout the twentieth century. Informed by recent research in the fields of transnational environmental history, the history and geography of science, and critical northern geography, I develop a conceptual framework that seeks to explicate the role of caribou science in boundary-making practices in the western Arctic. In four conceptually- linked case studies, I examine the scientific establishment and reinforcement of critical boundaries employed by state-based wildlife management agencies during the twentieth century. These include the shifting line between domesticated and wild animals; the boundaries drawn around species, subspecies, and caribou herd concepts; the violable spatial and conceptual boundary between industrial development and critical caribou habitat; and, finally, the illusory threshold between safe and unsafe levels of exposure to radioactive contamination for both caribou and people. Across these four case studies, each boundary emerges not as stable line drawn around the natural world, but rather as a contested site of knowledge production. Through an examination of scientific boundary- making practices, I show how scientists not only sought to demarcate natural boundaries, but also contested and transformed the placement of the very line that separated scientific from non-scientific knowledge, and determined which individuals and groups represented legitimate producers of scientific knowledge about migratory caribou herds. iii Lay Summary Every year, thousands of caribou from the Porcupine Herd (Rangifer tarandus granti) cross the Alaska-Yukon border as they migrate between the herd’s calving grounds on Alaska’s coastal plain, and its wintering grounds in northern Alaska, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. Far from being an unchanging biological phenomenon, the herd’s migration is a historical process that has been shaped by human activities in the western Arctic. In this dissertation, I consider the development and application of scientific caribou management in the western Arctic. The research focuses on four sites of knowledge production: the shifting line between domesticated and wild animals; the boundaries drawn around species, subspecies, and caribou herd concepts; the violable spatial and conceptual boundary between industrial development and critical caribou habitat; and, finally, the illusory threshold between safe and unsafe levels of exposure to radioactive contamination for both caribou and people. iv Preface Jonathan Cory Luedee conducted all of the research and writing for this dissertation. The fieldwork reported in Chapter 1 was covered by UBC Ethics Certificate number H13-01412. v Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary ............................................................................................................................... iv Preface .............................................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................x Chapter 1: Political Borders, Metaphorical Boundaries, and Migratory Caribou .................1 1.1 What Happens When Nature Crosses Borders?.............................................................. 1 1.2 Bordered Natures in the Western Arctic ......................................................................... 5 1.3 Analytical Boundaries, Conceptual Limitations: Framing the Research ..................... 21 1.4 Animals in the Archives: Historical Research Methods for Migratory Caribou ......... 30 1.5 Migratory Routes: Mapping a Path Through the Dissertation ..................................... 40 Chapter 2: Securing the Boundaries of Wildness in the Alaska-Yukon Borderlands ..........61 2.1 The Problem of Hybridity ............................................................................................. 61 2.2 Intersecting Evolutionary Histories: Reindeer and Caribou in the Western Arctic ...... 66 2.3 Crossing Boundaries: Feral Reindeer and Hybrid Caribou .......................................... 82 2.4 Conclusion: The Problem of Purity .............................................................................. 95 Chapter 3: Science, Boundary-Making, and the Creation of the Modern Caribou ..............98 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 98 3.2 The Problem of Caribou Taxonomy ........................................................................... 105 3.3 Fixing the Identity of an International Herd ............................................................... 123 vi 3.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 147 Chapter 4: Can Oil and Caribou Coexist? The Environmental Politics of Resource Extraction in the Transboundary Western Arctic, 1960-1989..................................................................150 4.1 Petroleum, Caribou, and the Significance of Environmental Impact ......................... 150 4.2 Northern Impact: Oil Exploration and Arctic Environmental Science ....................... 155 4.3 The Experimental North Slope ................................................................................... 167 4.4 A Pipeline Through the Calving Grounds? ................................................................. 181 4.5 Caribou in the Way: Petroleum Extraction and the Problem of Wilderness, 1980 - 1989 ................................................................................................................. 195 4.6 Can Oil and Caribou Coexist? .................................................................................... 209 4.7 Epilogue ...................................................................................................................... 213 Chapter 5: The Contested Boundaries of the Nuclear North: Arctic Biology, Caribou, and the Problem of the Threshold ..........................................................................................................218 5.1 Introduction: Environmental Histories of Northern Contaminants ............................ 218 5.2 Moment I: Rendering Radioactive Contamination Perceptible .................................. 226 5.3 Moment II: Rendering Radioactive Exposure Permissible ......................................... 242 5.4 Moment III: Containing the Fallout ............................................................................ 258 5.5 Conclusion: The Threshold Enforced ......................................................................... 273 Chapter 6: Conclusion ...............................................................................................................276 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................287 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1 – Transboundary Migration ...........................................................................................4 Figure 1.2 – The Western Arctic ...................................................................................................17 Figure 1.3 – “Caribou tracks on soft surface.” .............................................................................32
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