Nepisiguit Protected Natural Area NBM BiotaNB 2015-16
The Nepisiguit Protected Natural Area includes 11,895 hectares of rugged, mountainous, heavily forested terrain. Elevations range from 248 – 730 metres.
The Nepisiguit PNA contains a significant portion of the headwaters of the Nepisiguit River and it shares its eastern boundary with Mount Carleton Provincial Park. Together the two sites include 29,322 hectares of New Brunswick’s Highlands Ecoregion. Popple Depot, a site with a ranger station, and the nearby Governor’s Wilderness Lodge provided the base of operations for two years of intensive biological survey in this remote PNA.
NBM BiotaNB (formerly NBM Bioblitz) 2015-16 encompassed years 7 and 8 of a program established in 2009 and was the 4th of 10 large PNAs that the New Brunswick Museum’s Centre for Biodiversity Research investigated over the 20-year duration of the project. As in the past, the program brought together biodiversity experts from across North America who spent 14 days intensively surveying a wide diversity of life-forms in these important conservation areas. Along with experts, students and local naturalists also contributed, with most volunteering their time. Data collected will help to inform management plans for these sites and contribute to long-term monitoring across the larger New Brunswick landscape. Specimens collected during NBM BiotaNB 2015-16 have been deposited in the New Brunswick Museum where they are readily accessible to researchers. The NBM BiotaNB programme also provides training opportunities in the biodiversity sciences for students and a public Open House, held in the NBM BiotaNB Field Lab, helps to foster a sense of stewardship in the community surrounding the PNA. The NBM BiotaNB Artist-in-Residence program, established in 2010, produced artworks in 2015-16 that documented the life-forms and landscapes of the Nepisiguit PNA, as well as the researchers engaged in their work.
Project Artists
In the summers of 2015-16, several Artists-in-Residence, including Aleta Karstad, Vicky Lentz, Mathieu Leger, Réjan Roy, and indigenous artists, Vienna Sanipass and Ernestine Francis, joined the team of biodiversity specialists who spent time in the field in the Nepisiguit Protected Natural Area. Science is one way to interpret the world, art is another. The NBM BiotaNB art program operates on the premise that these two approaches complement each other. Aleta Karstad, is an experienced scientific illustrator and natural history artist based in Ontario at the Bishops Mills Natural History Center; Vicky Lentz works from her home studio in Edmundston; Mathieu Leger has completed many artist-in-residence programs when not working from his studio, La Factrie, in the Centre Culturel Aberdeen, Moncton; Réjan Roy, well-known for his paintings of New Brunswick wilderness landscapes, is based in northern New Brunswick; and indigenous artists Vienna Sanipass and Ernestine Francis, both Mi'gmaw artists from Elsipogtog, joined biodiversity specialists in the field and lab to document the landscapes and biological diversity of the Nepisiguit PNA. Artists-in-Residence were on hand for the Open House to share their artistic interpretations with visitors.
Media
13 March 2017
Field lab research is currently on display at open house (Telegraph Journal)
10 March 2017
Museum holding field lab open house (Telegraph Journal)
9 March 2017
Biota NB open house (CBC Information Morning Saint John)
6 September 2016
BiotaNB: Art Meets Science In The Deep Woods Of New Brunswick (The East)
25 August 2016
BioBlitz finds new species of slime molds, fungi and lichen (CBC News)
25 August 2016
Don McAlpine - Bio Blitz. We hear about the New Brunswick Museum's bio blitz. (CBC Information Morning Fredericton)
25 August 2016
NB Museum's bio-blitz. Don McAlpine is the research chair of zoology at the New Brunswick Museum. (CBC Information Morning Moncton)
13 April 2016
Scientists search for new species (CTV Atlantic News)
16 July 2015
Une découverte de plus de 300 ans dans la zone naturelle protégée de Nepisiguit (CKLE FM, in French)
16 July 2015
Deux pins rouges vieux de 300 ans découverts au Nouveau-Brunswick (Acadie Nouvelle, in French)
16 July 2015
Watch interview about the discovery of Atlantic Canada’s oldest Red Pines (Global News, 6:16 - 7:14)
16 July 2015
Oldest Red Pines Discovered (CBC Information Morning Saint John)
16 July 2015
300-year-old red pines found in northern New Brunswick (Telegraph Journal)
15 July 2015
Red pines discovered in north are the oldest in Atlantic Canada (CBC News)
2 July 2015
Open house at Nepisiguit Protected Natural Area this Saturday (Northern Light)