Yukon Research Centre initiates a curation of Yukon natural history

WHITEHORSE – Trays of colourful butterflies and other insects, bird specimens, and pressed dried plants, have found a home at the Yukon Research Centre (YRC) at Yukon College. These collections will be curated and made available to the public for research and education purposes thanks to the support of EDI Environmental Dynamics Inc. (EDI), Environment Canada, and Government of Yukon.

The importance of Yukon natural history collections was brought to the attention of the College through a 2004 research needs assessment survey initiated by Yukon College.

“Collections are critical to understanding our environment as they provide us with baseline data that allow us to make comparisons over time”, said Dave Mossop, professor emeritus, Yukon Research Centre. “We have seen how a changing climate is affecting birds and wetlands, and a curation of natural history will help us better understand these changes”, said Mossop.

The current collection contains a range of birds from the Trumpeter Swan to the Rufous Hummingbird, the largest and smallest bird species in Yukon.  The curation will also contain 3000 bird measurements collected by Mossop and his students over the past few decades. YRC aims to organize these collections into a curation, an organized system of data, which can be accessed by the public, Yukon College students, and researchers, depending on available resources and funding opportunities.

Thanks to collaborative efforts from Yukon government and Environment Canada, hundreds of plants, insects and birds are currently in cabinets at the YRC. EDI is also supporting this project by donating an employee’s time to help coordinate the movement of plant specimens from Yukon government to the YRC. Currently, EDI employee, Brett Pagacz is organizing plants into cabinets, identifying species, mounting specimens, and tracking species in a database.

“Natural history collections are invaluable to the public and we are pleased to contribute time and money to a curation that can be used for both research and education”, said Pat Tobler, VP and Branch Manager, EDI.

Stakeholders from government, research and education are meeting on December 4th to discuss the continued formation of collections at YRC.

The Yukon Research Centre is the research arm of Yukon College, and it receives core funding from Yukon’s Department of Education.