Link Up with Lynx! An Adventure in the Boreal Forest with Sandra Yaacoub

Hi, Earth Rangers! My name is Sandra Yaacoub. I study geography at Queen’s University, and right now, I’m working with a team in the taiga–also known as the snow forest or boreal forest–in southwest Yukon. We see a lot of wild animals here, including lynxes!

Unfortunately, an invasive species called the spruce bark beetle has killed a lot of trees in the forests that the lynxes call home. 

When you adopt a lynx, you’re helping my team and I study the damage to the trees and measure how the forest is recovering. We’ll share what we find with local Indigenous communities, and together, we’ll come up with solutions to save the lynxes’ habitat. 

Ready to make a difference? Visit the Adoptions section in the Earth Rangers App or check out the Earth Rangers Shop to adopt your own lynx!

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

This summer, my assistant and I worked in Kluane, Yukon, a beautiful area full of forests and mountains. We stayed at the Kluane Lake Research Station and camped at Kathleen Lake for 11 days. To study the trees and plants, we visited 51 different spots! During this trip, we measured approximately:  

• 2,400 mature trees
• 2,600 re-growing trees
• 700 shrub points
• 260 fallen dead tree sections

Normally, we use tablets to keep records of what we discover. But the conditions in Kluane were tough, so we took notes by hand to keep track of everything. We wound up filling over 20 notebooks! When we got back to our lab at Queen’s University, we spent weeks transferring all of our notes to our computers. 

We had already done some measurements in the summer of 2022. During these two trips, altogether, we measured approximately: 

• 4900 mature trees
• 6200 re-growing trees
• 650 fallen dead tree sections
• 1700 shrub points

I used the data that we collected about all these trees to make maps and charts. These make it easy for us to see where the spruce bark beetle has damaged trees, and where the forest has recovered. I shared my maps with First Nations communities in Yukon. That way, they can use my data to come up with solutions for saving lynxes.

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane!

Special NASA airplanes take pictures of Kluane’s forests from high up above. They use a tool called AVIRIS-3, which can see things that the human eye can’t. This sensor is called an imaging spectrometer (pronounced IM-uh-jing speck-TRAW-meh-tur). It captures light energy information, which gives us important information about the health of our forests.

We use computer code, plus the measurements we took, to translate the light information that AVIRIS-3 captures to observations we made in the forest, like the number of dead trees in the landscape. We need to make sure that the images from the NASA planes match what we saw on the ground. 

We use all this to make maps of the forests in Kluane. People can use these maps to prepare for natural disasters like forest fires. We can also use the maps to protect lynxes and the many other animals that live in these forests. Take a look at some of the animals I encountered during my last expedition!

How Can I Help? 

There are a lot of ways that you can support my work! Just by reading this blog, you’re learning more about the challenges that northern forests are facing. Because of climate change, forest fires and spruce bark beetle infestations (a word for what happens when there are too many insects in one place) are becoming more severe, and they’re happening more often. Wild animals like lynxes can have a harder time finding food and shelter.

The good news is this: The more people know about these issues, the more support we can get for tools like satellites to monitor the forests and study how they’re changing. You can talk to your friends, teachers, and neighbors about what you’ve learned in this blog post! You can also make posters to educate people, run a lemonade stand to raise money for conservation, or even adopt your own lynx in the Earth Rangers Shop!

Want to Be a Conservationist Like Me? 

Conservation is all about protecting nature, and there are lots of ways to get involved! As an Earth Ranger, you have plenty of time to explore and learn what parts of conservation you like the most. You can work in forests, oceans, or glaciers–the possibilities are endless!

One important way to help nature is by making maps, like I do! I use tools like satellites, drones, and computer coding to make my maps. You’re never too young to learn how to code, so this is a great place to start! You can also learn about maps and practice mapping different areas in your community.

Want to learn more about lynx? Leave a comment with your questions for Sandra! She’ll answer some in a future Wild Wire blog post!