By Cheryl Jahn

Summertime the busiest time for UNBC

Aug 2, 2024 | 3:09 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Summertimes are not a drop in the bucket for Dr. Siraj Islam who is a hydrologist with UNBC. His work takes him and his team to the Upper Fraser River and the Williston Reservoir all summer long, with an eye to different impacts of different events, like wildfires, on those bodies of water.

“In Williston Reservoir it’s mainly we are looking at the impact of that dam because once you have that dam, all the natural waterways and everything changes and that is going to impact the ecology of water, right? Or whatever is there in the rivers,” explains Dr. Islam.

The blocks being tossed into the river are rigged with a temperature gauge.

Red Dress Campaign

Red Dress Campaign continues to spread awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and more

6h ago

WILDFIRE WATCH

Previously under control wildfire east of Wells classified as out of control

11h ago

BCHL PRE-SEASON

Spruce Kings' netminder Wishart solid in exhibition defeat

16h ago

“We go to these different sites and we deploy these water temperature loggers, and the main goal is to collect some data and from these different rivers and different watersheds and the rivers draining to Williston Reservoir.”

Their work on the Upper Fraser zeroes in on fish habitat. Behnoosh Roknaldini is a second-year graduate student on the team and much of her work happens over the very busy summer months.

“Mostly in summer we do field work or training on modelling and also research because this is my I’m starting my second year, so I need to write my proposal and then start my thesis.”

Dr. Islam’s year is divided between 40 per cent class work, 20 per cent Administrative work and 40 per cent fieldwork

“Mostly, people think that, no, we are not working. Yes, we are working because, for summer we have to supervise graduate students not just in summer throughout the year on top of our teaching commitments, but in summer mostly we go for these fieldwork because that’s the only time we can do fieldwork.”

He says, all the work that’s being done over the summer months truly translates into practical applications for the likes of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and his work has not been widely-researched.