ASSESSING THE LEGACY OF THE PINE POINT MINE: POST-INDUSTRIAL LAND COVER AND LAND USE by © Emma LeClerc A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Geography Memorial University of Newfoundland December 2015 St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador ABSTRACT While mining is a major component of the northern Canadian economy, including the contemporary mixed economy of Aboriginal communities, it often leaves legacies of environmental and economic transformation that persist after closure. The legacies of historical mines in northern Canada challenge industry claims of sustainability. This thesis addresses how industrial mineral development and closure continue to affect local environments and economies after abandonment. The abandoned Pine Point mine in the Northwest Territories provides a case study for explaining the ongoing relationships among land cover, land use, and the post- industrial landscape. Drawing from landscape ecology and micropolitical ecology, I adopt an interdisciplinary approach to examine environmental and socioeconomic changes in the wake of industrial development and closure at Pine Point. The results show that passive reclamation is not sufficient for restoring ecological function in a subarctic environment. Land use, however, persists as land users adapt to the post-industrial landscape despite grave concern about its environmental condition. If mining is to be considered sustainable, decommissioning and reclamation must explicitly account for long-term environmental transformation as well as ongoing post-industrial land use, particularly in Aboriginal contexts. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to gratefully acknowledge the community of Fort Resolution, especially the individuals who participated in the map-based interviews. The participants were unfailingly generous with their time and knowledge, and I feel privileged to have worked with so many wonderful people. Many thanks to Rosy Bjornson for taking me under her wing, showing me around the community, and helping me feel welcome. To Chaslyn, Bridgette, and Lincon McKay: may you always dream big and smile bigger! My heartfelt thanks also go to Patrick Simon, Rabbit Simon, Lloyd Cardinal, Angus and Dorothy Beaulieu, Christine and Stan Fabian, Gord Beaulieu, DKFN Chief Louis Balsillie, and FRMC President Garey Bailey. To everyone in the warm and welcoming community of Fort Resolution, Marsi Cho! Thanks to my supervisory committee, Dr. Arn Keeling, Dr. Yolanda Wiersma, and Dr. John Sandlos, for their support, guidance, interminable patience, and invaluable feedback. Special thanks to fellow graduate students Vincent Lecours, Robert Way, and Scott Hatcher for patiently fielding my GIS and remote sensing questions, and Tara Cater for thoughtful discussions about the intellectual possibilities and ethical perils of community-based research. Thanks to Peter Armitage and Steve Kilburn for advice on the map biography method, and to Quinn Dekking for preliminary georeferencing and digitizing land use features. I am grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding the Abandoned Mines in Northern Canada Project, whose financial support made this research possible. Finally, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my parents and sisters for their unwavering love and support as I uprooted myself (again) and grew new roots in the rocky soils of Newfoundland. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................ iv LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... viii LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. ix CHAPTER 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Purpose and Approach ........................................................................................... 3 1.3 Study Site .............................................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Literature Review .................................................................................................................. 9 1.5 Methodology and Methods ................................................................................................. 17 1.5.1 Assessing Land Cover Change ..................................................................................... 17 1.5.2 Documenting Post-Industrial Land Use ....................................................................... 20 1.5.3 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 24 1.6 Thesis Structure and Chapter Summaries ........................................................................... 25 1.6.1 Chapter 2: Assessing Post-Industrial Land Cover Change at the Pine Point Mine, NWT, Canada Using Multi-Temporal Landsat Analysis and Landscape Metrics ................ 25 1.6.2 Chapter 3: From Cutlines to Traplines: Post-Industrial Land Use at the Pine Point Mine ....................................................................................................................................... 26 1.7 Co-Authorship Statement .................................................................................................... 26 References ................................................................................................................................. 27 CHAPTER 2 Assessing post-industrial land cover change at the Pine Point mine, NWT, Canada using multi-temporal Landsat analysis and landscape metrics................................ 32 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 32 2.2 Study Area ........................................................................................................................... 37 2.3 Materials and methods ........................................................................................................ 41 2.3.1 Data and Processing...................................................................................................... 41 iv 2.3.2 Analysis Methods ......................................................................................................... 45 2.4 Results ................................................................................................................................. 50 2.4.1 Class-Level ................................................................................................................... 50 2.4.2 Landscape-Level ........................................................................................................... 56 2.5 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 57 2.5.1 Interpretation of metrics ............................................................................................... 57 2.5.2 Monitoring reclamation at abandoned mines ............................................................... 62 2.6 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 64 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 66 References ................................................................................................................................. 66 CHAPTER 3 From cutlines to traplines: post-industrial land use at the Pine Point mine.. 72 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 72 3.2 Research Objectives and Methods ...................................................................................... 80 3.3 Land Use in the Pine Point Region ..................................................................................... 86 3.3.1 Accessing the Land ....................................................................................................... 87 3.3.2 Hunting, Trapping, and Working ................................................................................. 91 3.3.3 Environmental Effects of the Pine Point Mine ............................................................. 94 3.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 99 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................