Professors Philip Owens and Ellen Petticrew are the Forest Renewal BC endowed research co-chairs in landscape ecology at the University of Northern British Columbia.
The two professors recently received the Paz Buttedahl Career Achievement Award from the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia. They were recognized for their decades-long contributions to sediment dynamics and aquatic ecosystems.
Owens teaches in the environmental science program, while Petticrew teaches in the geography program. Both are key figures in the UNBC Landscape Ecology Research Group.
The professors are known in their fields for their contributions to environmental conservation and management.
Their work includes research into the effects of the 2014 Mount Polley mine disaster on local aquatic and environmental systems. To date, Mount Polley remains Canada's largest mining catastrophe and the second-largest mining disaster in the world.
The incident occurred when a four-square-kilometre pond full of copper and gold mining waste breached, spilling an estimated 25 billion litres of contaminated material into Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek, and Quesnel Lake. These water bodies serve as sources of drinking water for surrounding communities and are major spawning grounds for sockeye salmon.
“The material went into the lake and lay on a watershed,” said Petticrew. “We didn’t know what the impacts would be on the aquatic life, aquatic functioning, or on the community members who live in the area and rely on the outdoors and water for drinking. Over the decades, we’ve been able to study the processes involved in the movement of that material, how it settled in different components of the lake system, and how it moved upriver, downriver, and into organisms in the food web.”
Their decade-long research significantly contributed to the submission of formal charges under the federal Fisheries Act.
“We’ve been focusing on aspects of the spill that perhaps other groups, like the local ministry, the provincial ministry, and the mine itself, have not looked at as much,” said Owens. “The data we’ve collected over 10 years contributed to the charges reported against the company. Our research was, to some degree, independent from both the company and the consultants who do most of the monitoring for the mine, as well as the ministry, which is often stretched and has limited capacity. Because we have the UNBC research station right on the lake, along with students and boats, we’ve been able to collect more data than the ministry could, or at least complement their work.”
Their research also helped secure $1.5 million in funding from various sources, including the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund, to continue their work investigating the impacts on the Quesnel Lake ecosystem after the disaster.
Owens told The Citizen that the ecosystem will likely continue to feel the effects in the coming years.
“The work we’ve done over the last 10 years shows that the system is still recovering,” said Owens. “We’re still seeing contaminated sediments moving around the lake and downstream river, with high metal levels in some of the organisms. While things are getting better, the story is far from over. Continued monitoring and assessment are needed to ensure that nothing particularly adverse happens.”
While continuing their research into the effects of the Polley Mine disaster, the two professors are also expanding their focus to examine the effects of climate change on local salmon populations.
“We’re currently working on a major project related to climate change and its impact on salmon habitat,” said Petticrew. “We’re focusing on the Quesnel watershed, and we’re adding a new research lab and teaching building there through a grant. The building will be completed by 2026. Once it’s done, we hope to host more events focused on climate change, salmon, and water resources for Northern BC.”
The professors thanked the Landscape Ecology Research Group and their students for their hard work, as well as the Canadian Federation of University Faculty Associations and the university for their support.
