DEWy Tuktoyaktuk

My title isn't dewy like the grass in summer, or dewey like the decimal system either, Aunt Joan/Mom. Instead its DEWy like the radar system...

So yesterday I was in Tuktoyaktuk for another Community Consultation meeting regarding the Beaufort Sea Integrated Ocean Management Plan. The picture you see above is of a Distance Early Warning Line station. I'm sure many of you are familiar with these radar stations that were built across the far North of Canada during the Cold War to detect incoming bombs from Russia. Most of these sites have been abandoned, leaving behind some pretty toxic waste. These sites have plagued the people of the North for a while now. I'm not sure what the status of this particular DEW line site is in Tuk, looks like it is still in action.

The drive up to Tuk was amazing - the ice road was bumpy, but the sky was clear and we went through the sand hills, north out of the delta, into the barren tundra, and onto the Beaufort Sea. Yes, I walked and drove atop the Beaufort Sea. I was also in good company, two co-workers both whom I admire quite a lot for different reasons, and a local Inuvialuit who chatted us up about the caribou/wolf hunt that he just got back from. His blistered cheeks were proof of his time on the land. We also saw a couple moose on the way home.

On a completely separate and exciting note, I have an exciting, very exciting, visitor in the North with me :)