Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (July 26/99) - The director of an American team of geologists working at Axel Heiberg Island said last week his project has been misrepresented in newspaper reports in the national media.

"We were ambushed by reporters in that situation," said a very uncomfortable sounding Art Johnson. Johnson is directing an American team of 13 researchers examining the fossil forest on the island.

The 45-million-year- old fossils are a holdover from a time when the area was covered by forest. The United Nations is considering designating the area a World Heritage site.

Reports in an Edmonton paper two weeks ago, also carried in a nation- wide publication, portrayed the project as destructive to the site and an infringement on Canadian sovereignty.

A Canadian scientist who has been studying the fossil forest since 1985 said the American team does not appreciate the destructiveness of their actions.

"I don't like to stand in the way of good science," said James Basinger. "But at the same time the science that's being done has to be responsible. In the case of this project I think some of it is irresponsible."

Basinger said some, but not all, of the data the Americans were collecting had already been unearthed by previous researchers.

"Am I bitter about them coming into a site I've been involved with for a very long time?" said Basinger. "I can say I'm very annoyed that our interests in the site could be viewed as so trivial both by them as well as by some of our own government agencies, which considered it unimportant to even talk to us about it."

The University of Saskatchewan scientist said after hearing about the original proposal, he heard nothing more until reaching Resolute Bay this summer and learning the American team had left for Axel Heiberg a week earlier.

Basinger said the site has already taken a beating from previous research and tourists. The tourists come from cruise ships and, he said, "leave with their pockets full."

Johnson said a total of 30 kilograms of material was removed from the area. Picks and shovels were used to perform the excavation, said an assistant of Johnson's. Basinger said a chainsaw was also used. Johnson said the story out of Edmonton seems to have been based on outdated information.

"We had in our proposal to excavate 3,000 square meters and instead we excavated 150," said Johnson. The reduction came as a result of a review of the proposal.

Basinger said he was "horrified" when he saw the original proposal.

The University of Pennsylvania professor said the team was not composed exclusively of Americans. He said co-principle investigator was Canadian Ben LePage, who has been studying the area for the last 10 summers.

Johnson said all of the permitting for the project will be available by next week on a Web site being developed for the project.

Environment Canada officials visited the site last Wednesday. Among the group was Environment Minister Christine Stewart.

"My sense is that there wasn't a lot of stuff removed. I think there was samples taken out of the ground and measured to get an idea of the kind of forest that existed there, but that those samples were put back into the ground."

Basinger said even if the stumps and trunks excavated were buried again, they likely suffered damage. Once excavated, he said, they dry and become more vulnerable to erosion.

Stewart said the site included a small lab, which reduced the need to remove material from the site and increased the amount of information gathered during the study, which is five weeks in duration.

Environment Canada has no jurisdiction in the matter since the project did not require an environmental review. Stewart and her entourage visited the fossil forest as part of a tour of weather stations at Alert and Eureka.