After fire and flood, northern Manitoba gathers data

Floods and wildfires are not future risks for northern Manitoba. They are already part of life in the region.

The question is not whether a soil and water monitoring network can stop them. It cannot. Wildfires will still burn. Floodwaters will still rise. Roads, culverts, shorelines, wetlands, lakes, and community infrastructure will still face pressure from extreme weather and environmental change.

The real question is whether northern Manitoba has the environmental evidence needed to understand what these events leave behind.

As an instructor who teaches natural resources and environmental monitoring in northern Manitoba, I see this need in practical terms. I see it when students measure streamflow and how moving water connects land, lakes, wetlands, and communities. I see it when we observe wildfire-affected landscapes and ask what fire may mean for soil stability, runoff, erosion, vegetation recovery and water quality. I see it when students collect soil samples from burned sites and realize that environmental change is not just a classroom topic. It is happening on the land around them.

Northern Manitoba is shaped by water and fire. Lakes, rivers, wetlands, muskeg, forests, and boreal landscapes support drinking water, fish habitat, harvesting, transportation, culture, and local economies. These same landscapes are also vulnerable to flooding, wildfire, erosion, sediment movement and infrastructure damage.

Manitoba already has important water-monitoring programs. There are long-term water quality efforts, hydrometric stations, groundwater monitoring, and aquatic monitoring connected to major water systems. These programs are valuable and should be recognized.

But there is still a gap.

Northern Manitoba needs a more co-ordinated soil and water-monitoring approach that connects wildfire impacts, flooding, lakes, wetlands, streamflow, soil disturbance, Indigenous and community knowledge, student training and local decision-making.

This is not about replacing emergency response. It is about strengthening what happens before, during and after environmental events.

When wildfire burns through a watershed, the impact does not end when the flames are out. Fire can change ground cover, soil structure, organic matter, infiltration and erosion risk. Ash, sediment, nutrients, and metals can move from burned landscapes into streams, lakes and wetlands, especially after heavy rainfall. Without baseline and post-fire monitoring, communities are left asking what changed in the soil, what entered the water, and what should be monitored next.

Flooding raises similar questions. Floodwaters can move sediment, nutrients, contaminants and pathogens. They can affect wells, fish habitat, roads, culverts, shorelines and low-lying community areas. In northern regions, where distances are long and access can be difficult, delayed information can make recovery harder.

A standing soil and water monitoring network would not be a permanent solution to flooding or wildfire. It would be a practical tool for preparedness, recovery and planning. It would provide baseline data, track environmental changes after fire and flood, support local training and help communities make better decisions about water quality, soil disturbance, erosion, infrastructure, wetlands, fish habitat and land recovery.

Northern Manitoba does not only need more short-term research projects. It needs research pathways.

Those pathways should include local field training, community-based monitoring, Indigenous leadership, undergraduate research, graduate partnerships, and long-term environmental data communities can use. Students in the North should be able to participate in meaningful environmental research without leaving the region entirely. Communities should also have access to timely, practical information connected to their priorities.

The north should not be treated only as a place where resources are extracted or emergencies are managed. It should be treated as a place where knowledge is produced, where students are trained and where communities help guide environmental monitoring on their own lands and waters.

This is also an economic and educational issue. Environmental monitoring creates skills and prepares students for careers in natural resources, water management, environmental assessment, climate adaptation, conservation and community stewardship. It can support Indigenous guardians, local technicians, community research assistants, and young people who want to work on the land while contributing to science and decision-making.

Good decisions require good environmental information. Governments, First Nations, municipalities, industry, conservation organizations, schools and the public all benefit when soil and water data are reliable, accessible and locally grounded.

Northern Manitoba deserves more than emergency reaction. It deserves sustained monitoring, local training, community leadership, and long-term attention to the soils and waters that support life in the region.

The next fire or flood should not leave us asking the same questions with limited baseline data and no co-ordinated plan.

» Emmanuel A. Badewa is an instructor in natural resources management technology at University College of the North and an adjunct professor at Lakehead University. This column previously appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press.