Strategic Needs of Water on the Yukon (SNOWY)

SNOWY是育空河流域亚北极土著社区（YRB）与科罗拉多州立大学（CSU）、美国地质调查局（USGS）、美国林务局（USFS）以及草根非营利组织育空河部落间流域委员会（YRITWC）的科学家之间的合作项目，旨在将育空河水质和水量的定性和定量数据结合起来。美国地质勘探局和育空河生物地球化学研究委员会（YRITWC）于2005年建立了现有的合作伙伴关系和水质监测项目，旨在测量气候变化对育空河生物地球化学的影响。在此基础上，SNOWY将通过探索当地居民与育空河年度水文循环的社会/文化/经济/精神关系，全面了解气候变化如何影响育空河社区。利用作为水质监测项目关键组成部分的社区能力，SNOWY将在冬季收集雪和水数据，补充现有的夏季数据收集，并创建一个真正反映系统水文的数据库。科罗拉多州立大学和美国地质勘探局的科学家们正在通过会议、研讨会和访谈与社区成员合作，以便更全面地了解近年来YRB的社会和环境变化。该项目的一个关键组成部分是“治愈之旅”，这是一个由科学家和社区成员在冬季乘坐狗拉雪橇和/或造雪机在育空河的一部分进行的实地旅行。YRITWC已经进行了一些夏季治疗之旅，以便将社区和科学对YRB和正在发生的变化的理解结合在一起。以前的治疗之旅都是在传统的开放水域运输工具中进行的，比如独木舟。YRITWC发现，通过传统交通工具抵达可以与当地人建立即时的关系，他们愿意并有兴趣了解更多与旅行相关的科学知识。通过在冬季使用同样的技术，SNOWY？这趟长达300英里的康复之旅将从俄罗斯使团开始，到达育空河口，最后到达育空河支流上的沿海社区切瓦克。尽管已经提出了许多研究问题和假设，但SNOWY团队预计，其他问题和假设将通过项目期间促进的社区对话出现。育空河社区参与了这个项目的概念化，并将通过培训、数据收集、分析、知识分享和交流直接参与研究，包括科学和土著知识，这些将在整个项目过程中进行。科学家和社区将共同努力，以突破当前认识论和本体论思维的界限，同时为气候变化影响创造真正的解决方案。

SNOWY is a collaborative project between Subarctic Indigenous communities in the Yukon River Basin (YRB) and scientists from Colorado State University (CSU), the US Geological Survey (USGS), the US Forest Service (USFS), and the grassroots, non-profit organization, the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC) to combine qualitative and quantitative data on water quality and quantity of the Yukon River. Building upon the existing partnership and water-quality monitoring program between the USGS and the YRITWC, established in 2005 to measure the effects of climate change on the biogeochemistry of the Yukon River, SNOWY will provide a holistic view of how climate change is affecting Yukon River communities by exploring the social/cultural/economic/spiritual relationships of local people to the annual hydrologic cycle of the YRB. Utilizing community capacity that was developed as a key component of the water-quality monitoring project, SNOWY will collect snow and water data during the winter, complementing the existing summer data collection, and create a database that truly reflects the hydrology of the system. CSU and USGS scientists are working with community members through meetings, workshops, and interviews in order to a gain a more complete understanding of the social and environmental changes in the YRB in recent years. A key component of the project is the "Healing Journey", a field trip taken by scientists and community members to travel a portion of the Yukon River by dog sled and/or snowmachine in the winter months. YRITWC has conducted a number of summertime Healing Journeys in order to bring together community and scientific understandings of the YRB and the changes taking place. Previous Healing Journeys have been conducted in traditional open water transports, such as canoes. The YRITWC has found that arriving via traditional transport creates an instant rapport with local people who are then willing and interested to learn more about the science that accompanies the trip. By employing this same technique in the winter season the SNOWY?s 300-mile Healing Journey will begin at Russian Mission, travel to the mouth of the Yukon and end at the community of Chevak, a coastal community on a tributary of the Yukon River. Although many of the research questions and hypotheses have been developed, the SNOWY team anticipates that others will arise through community dialogs that will be facilitated during the project. Yukon River communities were involved in the conceptualization of this project and will be directly involved in the research through training, data gathering, analysis, and the sharing and exchange of knowledge, both scientific and indigenous that will take place throughout the course of this project. Scientists and communities will be working together in order to push the boundaries of current epistemological and ontological thinking while creating real solutions to climate change impacts.