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Study area of the Coastal Habitat Comprehensive Research Project and geographic scope for each research component. Between Cape Jones and Boatswain Bay, the land is divided into 27 coastal traplines (i.e., designated family territories where harvesting activities are by tradition carried on under the supervision of a Cree tallyman (Québec 1976)). The dashed black line delineates traplines that did not participate in the research from 2019 to 2022. Ocean and eelgrass components overlapped along the coast, but ocean team remote sensing measurements also included offshore waters. The GMS-GPS tracking of geese is not represented. Subpanel (a) eelgrass shoot showing parts above and below the sediments. Rhizomes, which are in the sediment, anchor the eelgrass shoots. Roots attached to the rhizomes absorb nutrients from the sediments; subpanel (b) picture of an eelgrass meadow (credit: Kaleigh Davis). Map projection: NAD83 Québec Lambert. Data source: Government of Canada (2013) and Government of Quebec (2020). No permission was required to use the map data.

Study area of the Coastal Habitat Comprehensive Research Project and geographic scope for each research component. Between Cape Jones and Boatswain Bay, the land is divided into 27 coastal traplines (i.e., designated family territories where harvesting activities are by tradition carried on under the supervision of a Cree tallyman (Québec 1976)). The dashed black line delineates traplines that did not participate in the research from 2019 to 2022. Ocean and eelgrass components overlapped along the coast, but ocean team remote sensing measurements also included offshore waters. The GMS-GPS tracking of geese is not represented. Subpanel (a) eelgrass shoot showing parts above and below the sediments. Rhizomes, which are in the sediment, anchor the eelgrass shoots. Roots attached to the rhizomes absorb nutrients from the sediments; subpanel (b) picture of an eelgrass meadow (credit: Kaleigh Davis). Map projection: NAD83 Québec Lambert. Data source: Government of Canada (2013) and Government of Quebec (2020). No permission was required to use the map data.

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Indigenous-driven and community-partnered research projects seeking to develop salient, legitimate, and credible knowledge bases for environmental decision-making require a multiple knowledge systems approach. When involving partners in addition to communities, diverging perspectives and priorities may arise, making the pathways to engaging in prin...

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Canada goose (Branta canadensis) is one of the main waterfowl species harvested by Cree hunters in James Bay, Canada. Land users who hunt geese along coastal Eeyou Istchee (Eastern James Bay, Quebec) report that they are now much less successful in harvesting sub-arctic breeding geese (B. c. interior) than in the 1980s, especially during the fall hunting season. We followed a mixed-methods triangulation design in which we simultaneously gathered Indigenous and scientific knowledge. For the Indigenous knowledge, we conducted semi-structured interviews with Cree land users who shared their knowledge about how the goose populations that stage in Eeyou Istchee have changed within living memory. They attributed their reduced hunting success to fewer migrating geese and modification of their behavior. They also identified many environmental changes, especially the decline of eelgrass (Zostera marina), that may have affected the number, distribution, and migration patterns of Canada geese along the coastal Eeyou Istchee in the past 50 years. We complemented this information using waterfowl study techniques including aerial surveys, band recovery analyses, and GPS tracking of individually marked geese. Habitat changes both at the local scale in Eeyou Istchee and in other parts of the staging and wintering ranges of Canada geese, natural and human disturbances along the coast, and a gradual increase in molt migrant temperate breeding Canada geese (B. c. maxima) likely resulted in changes in habitat use and migration patterns of sub-arctic breeding Canada geese along the James Bay east coast. By bridging Cree knowledge and Western science, we identified the various factors that affect the harvest success of Eeyou Istchee goose hunters. Such an approach should be encouraged when Indigenous peoples rely upon migratory bird or mammal species that spend only a portion of their annual cycle within the hunting territories of land users.