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The Kluane Lake area of SW Yukon was a continuing focus of Dr. Paul Sanborn's research for more than a decade, and generated several productive collaborations. Key themes included biological soil crusts in boreal grasslands, and interactions between aeolian sediment deposition, slope processes, and fire in boreal grassland and forest soils.

Research results appeared in these publications:
Marsh, J., Nouvet, S., Sanborn, P., and Coxson, D. 2006. Composition and function of biological soil crust communities along topographic gradients in grasslands of central interior British Columbia (Chilcotin) and southwestern Yukon (Kluane). Canadian Journal of Botany 84: 717-736. https://doi.org/10.1139/b06-026

Pautler, B.G., Reichart, G.-J., Sanborn, P.T., Simpson, M.J., and Weijers, J.W.H. 2014. Comparison of soil derived tetraether membrane lipid distributions and plant-wax δD compositions for reconstruction of Canadian Arctic temperatures. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 404: 78-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.03.038

Sanborn, P. and A.J.T. Jull. 2010. Loess, bioturbation, fire, and pedogenesis in a boreal forest – grassland mosaic, Yukon Territory, Canada. 19th World Congress of Soil Science, Soil Solutions for a Changing World 1 – 6 August 2010, Brisbane, Australia. http://www.iuss.org/19th%20WCSS/Symposium/pdf/0120.pdf

The 2003 field work with Darwyn Coxson was a pilot study to assess the types and distribution of biological soil crusts in boreal grasslands in the Kluane Lake area. Eight sites were visited at which the team sampled the crust and the uppermost A horizon immediately underneath it. Note that site numbers Y03-03, -04, -05, -06, -07, -09, -10 and -12 were indicated as sites 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 12 in Table 1 of Marsh et al. (2006). Additional crust sampling was conducted at two additional sites (“Peninsula”, “Silver City”) in 2004; details of sampling methods and site locations are in Marsh et al. (2006).

Results from 2009 field work were presented in Sanborn and Jull (2010), along with soil charcoal radiocarbon dates from 2003-2008 sampling which were used to reconstruct fire history in the Kluane Lake area. The 2003 (a single site at Silver City), 2004, and 2008 field work consisted of a reconnaissance of grassland and forest sites across a range of aspects and slope positions in order to recover buried soil charcoal.

With support from the Muskwa-Kechika Trust Fund as a Seed Grant, Dr. Paul Sanborn carried out a pilot study of soils in relation to prescribed burning in the Northern Rocky Mountains, in collaboration with Perry Grilz, then a Range Officer in the Ministry of Forests. Sanborn and Grilz conducted 3 days of field work in July 2001. Sanborn wanted to test the utility of plant-derived opal (phytoliths) as a soil indicator of vegetation history, in the hope of distinguishing natural grasslands from those created by anthropogenic burning.

The BC Ministry of Forest's EP 1148 Long-term Soil Productivity (LTSP) study addresses two key factors— soil porosity and site organic matter—that potentially limit tree growth and site productivity in the timber-harvesting land base and that can be affected by forestry operations.

This establishment report for EP 1148, "The effects of soil compaction and organic matter retention on long-term soil productivity in British Columbia (Experimental Project 1148)", is accompanied by a floppy disk containing 12 data sets (see 2023.2.2.11.2).

This paper by Brad Hawkes describes, from a newspaper media's perspective, changes in how fires were fought, reported, and described from 1912-1961 for significant fire years in the Prince George area.

This document contains soil descriptions taken from BC and Yukon sites in 2008 for Sanborn's comparative study of grassland soils in the Boreal Cordillera ecozone.

This document contains transcribed August 2007 field notes from 5 observation sites for Sanborn's comparative study of grassland soils in the Boreal Cordillera ecozone.

This document contains location and vegetation notes for 5 observation sites for Sanborn's comparative study of grassland soils in the Boreal Cordillera ecozone.

This document contains pedon descriptions for sites BC07-03 & BC07-04 for Sanborn's comparative study of grassland soils in the Boreal Cordillera ecozone.

With the assistance of the Yukon Geological Survey, Dr. Paul Sanborn was able to visit the terminus of the Klutlan Glacier, a major outlet glacier which originates in the Alaska portion of the St. Elias Mountains. The stagnant terminus has a thick cover of debris, including a large component of White River tephra, providing enough soil material to support a boreal forest. Field work occurred on July 8, 2007, and results were published as:

Sanborn, P. 2010. Soil formation on supraglacial tephra deposits, Klutlan Glacier, Yukon Territory. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 90: 611-618. https://doi.org/10.4141/cjss10042

A comparative study of grassland soils at 3 sites in northwestern BC and southern Yukon was published as:
Sanborn, P. 2010. Topographically controlled grassland soils in the Boreal Cordillera ecozone, northwestern Canada. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 90: 89-101. https://doi.org/10.4141/CJSS09048

This grew out of a field trip with Ministry of Forests range personnel to the Stikine and Tuya River valleys, near Telegraph Creek BC on August 27-28, 2007. (Two pedons were sampled in 2007, BC07-03 and BC07-04, but those results were not included in the paper.)

In August 2008, Dr. Paul Sanborn returned to the Stikine to sample pedon BC08-06, after field work in Yukon which collected the other two pedons used in the paper, from near Carmacks (Y08-39) and Kluane Lake (Y08-41). (An additional pedon from Kluane, Y08-43, was sampled and analyzed, but it was from a forested site and was not included in the paper.)