In the News

OTTAWA -- The plummeting moose population in Nopiming Provincial Park demonstrates the animals need more space if they are going to survive, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society said Friday. In its 2010 Review of Canada's Parks, the organization calls for more and bigger parks across the country that are connected to provide wildlife with improved mobility and migratory paths. "In the old days, we used to draw boundaries for parks based on political decisions, not ecological need," said CPAWS Manitoba executive director Ron Thiessen. "But the lack of parks, protected areas, and connections between them has led to a massive decline in species across Canada." Thiessen noted the fact Riding Mountain National Park and Duck Mountain Provincial Park are not connected via protected land cuts off wildlife species like elk and wolves from their traditional migratory routes. Instead of swaths of protected land connecting with each other from coast to coast, Canada's parks ...

Ensuring Canada's woodland caribou, eastern wolf and other at-risk species survive will require bigger, more interconnected parks, a new report says. Canada's parks are an uneven patchwork in terms of how much protection they offer endangered wildlife, concluded the third annual review of how wildlife are faring in Canada's parks released Friday by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. "There are quite a few [species] that in fact rely very heavily on parks as their main habitat," said Eric Hébert-Daly, the group's executive director. "Having really big parks, to keep large habitat in tact, having them connected to other protected areas is quite essential." Animals tend to thrive in larger, well-managed parks, he said. "The smaller ones that aren't connected tend to be the ones that have a hard time." The report praised the government efforts to create more parks, including the recently announced Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area in B.C., Sable Island in ...

Parks Canada making refuge more accessible

One of the most frustrating facets of tourism in Manitoba is the most famous park in the province is all but off limits to human visitors. Wapusk National Park exists primarily to protect the polar bears that hang out along the coast of Hudson Bay and build their summer dens several kilometres away from shore. For obvious reasons, it isn't safe to wander around this place. Polar bears are considered among the most dangerous predators on the planet, given their speed, strength, intelligence and incredible sense of smell. But since Churchill is Manitoba's top ecotourism destination, people have longed to visit this 11,000-square-kilometre park ever since it was created in 1996. Wapusk may be remote, but its proximity to rail-accessible Churchill means there are plenty of curious travellers who inquire about actually making the visit every year. Right now, their only spontaneous option is to take a helicopter tour. ...

Eastside says no to Hydro, yes to roads and eco-tourism

AS she surveys the bountiful boreal forest spreading out in all directions from the boulder strewn shore of Weaver Lake, Sophia Rebliauskas reflects on what this land on the east side of Lake Winnipeg means to her people. "It is our home," says the resident of Poplar River First Nation, who is the community coordinator for Pimachiowin Aki Corporation (PAC) World Heritage Project. Weaver Lake, which is located about 280 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg and is only accessible by float-plane or boat, has been home to a First Nations healing camp for the past decade. I was one of a group of five media representatives invited to spend two days recently at the healing camp meeting with participants and sharing in the opening session of the gathering. The healing camp, which ...

A group of Ojibwa elders returns prefers the lessons of the land to the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Keith Berens recalled being beaten at a residential day school on his Manitoba reserve. “They hit us with yardsticks across the back, or made us kneel all day on our knees,” said the soft-spoken Mr. Berens, as five men pounded out a primal rhythm on a traditional skin-covered drum. “Or they made you stand with outstretched arms with books in your hands. Why was that happening to our people?” An aboriginal elder from Berens River, Man., Mr. Berens is one of 40 first nations men and women affected by residential school experiences who are spending the week at a remote lake 280 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. Just as thousands of people head into downtown Winnipeg to attend the first national hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on residential schools, the smaller ...

A group of First Nations from Manitoba and Ontario are working together to have their traditional lands deemed UNESCO World Heritage site. "There are fewer and fewer places in the world that have been left undeveloped, unchanged by human activity" said Gord Jones, with the Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage group. The group involves the Poplar River, Little Grand Rapids and Pauingassi First Nations in Manitoba and the Pikangikum First Nation in Ontario, with support from Ontario and Manitoba's governments. The UNESCO designation would protect 40,000 square kilometres of forest, rivers and traditional territories. "Our people have lived here for thousands of years and without that land they wouldn't have been able to survive," said Sophia Rabliausku, who wants the land protected under the UNESCO designation. Hidehiro Otake, a freelance photographer from Japan, travelled to the area to capture images of the wild wolf because the animal is extinct in his homeland. "It's very important so this ...

It is important to note that a World Heritage site on the east side of Lake Winnipeg will be a huge economic boost for Manitoba. If Bipole III is constructed through the east side, we severely reduce our chance of receiving this internationally prestigious designation and consequently the best free marketing available for promoting eco and cultural tourism -- two of the fastest-growing industries in the world. I point to recent examples. UNESCO took the severe step of removing the World Heritage Site designation from Germany's Dresden Elbe River Valley in 2009, after construction began on a four-lane bridge through the heart of the area. In 2009, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador reversed its decision to construct a Bipole through Gross Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because they were informed that doing so could jeopardize the park's UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. In the spring of 2010, the B.C. ...

TORONTO - Amnesty International's annual report sharply criticizes Canada in a number of areas, including aboriginal rights and the use of security certificates to detain terror suspects. The report says Canada failed to ensure aboriginal rights when issuing licences for mining, logging and oil and gas exploration. The annual report accuses Ottawa of continuing to make "baseless claims" that the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples does not apply in Canada. The two pages spotlighting Canada also note the violence against aboriginal women and the lack of a national plan to address it. Oil and gas developments in northern Alberta come under sharp criticism as continuing without the consent of the Lubicon Cree who are in poor health and living in poverty. People detained under security certificates continue to be denied access to the evidence used against them, it states. The report makes note of the Afghan detainee controversy and that Omar Khadr remains ...

McFadyen holds a CD containing almost 10,000 letters from concerned international citizensToday, Manitoba Tory leader Hugh McFadyen got a message from nearly 10,000 international supporters of the proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site, who agree with the Province of Manitoba that the east side of Lake Winnipeg is no place for Manitoba Hydro’s next major transmission corridor – BiPole 3. The Manitoba leaders of the Boreal Forest Network, the Wilderness Committee and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society personally delivered the letters to McFadyen, the main proponent for an east-side hydro-corridor routing. The groups made it clear that a major hydro transmission pathway through the region would jeopardize Manitoba’s chance of UNESCO granting the area World Heritage Site status. People across North America are recognizing the ecological and cultural values of the largest intact boreal forest ...

Environmental groups, including the David Suzuki Foundation, surprised many people recently by joining with the logging industry to unveil the largest forest conservation agreement in history. The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement covers more than 72 million hectares of northern wilderness stretching from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador. Under the agreement, 21 forestry companies, all members of the Forest Products Association of Canada, will halt logging on 29 million hectares of wildlife habitat while plans for new protected areas and caribou conservation are developed. This habitat is critical to the survival of woodland caribou and other endangered species. The forest companies have also agreed to shift from conventional logging practices to more ecologically sustainable forestry methods, called ecosystem-based management, on the rest of the land base. In return, the environmental groups will suspend their “do not buy” campaigns against companies participating in the agreement while it is being implemented. For many conservationists, the ...