A veteran environmental researcher at uOttawa, he has spent over three decades uncovering the quiet stories told by lakebeds and chemical fingerprints of human activity.
A veteran environmental researcher at uOttawa, he has spent over three decades uncovering the quiet stories told by lakebeds and chemical fingerprints of human activity. Now, thanks to two new Alliance grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), his work is set to inform some of Canada’s most pressing environmental concerns: oil spills in sensitive salmon habitats and the long-term legacy of uranium mining in northern lakes.
These two projects — one in collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada, the other with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and the Clearwater River Dënë Nation — are the result of years spent building research partners’ trust. “The NSERC Alliance grants are based on matching funds,” Professor Blais explains. “Before we even got to the research, we had to develop relationships — sometimes, over the years, with partners who believed in our work enough to support it financially.”
The first project focuses on assessing the potential impact of oil spills on Pacific salmon habitats, a concern that’s taken on new urgency with the Trans Mountain Expansion Project completed. This pipeline ferries oil from Alberta’s landlocked reserves to the British Columbia coast. Along the way, it crosses rivers that are critical to Pacific salmon’s life cycle. “If a spill were to happen in one of those spawning rivers, the impact could be devastating, not just locally but across the entire Pacific ecosystem,” says Blais.
Read More: University of Ottawa
