In the News

Originally published in the March/April edition of the Eco-Journal The chance to join a growing number of cities, states, and countries leading the way in eliminating or restricting the use of plastic bags passed Winnipeg by in early March. Members of the City of Winnipeg’s Standing Policy Committee on Infrastructure Renewal and Public Works met to consider a report on a strategy for the elimination of plastic bag use in Winnipeg resulting from a motion introduced to council by St. Norbert Councillor Justin Swandel in December 2007. The report offered some interesting Winnipeg-specific plastic bag facts: city residents use approximately 135 million plastic bags annually, 50 per cent of all bags are used more than once before heading to the landfill, and plastic bags make up less than 1 per cent of total landfill waste – equivalent to around 800 tonnes. The report also provided three options for consideration: (Continue ...

Originally published in the Winnipeg Sun by Shannon Vanraes The knowledge of aboriginal leaders is being paired up with technology to help conserve and protect Manitoba's boreal forests through the Aboriginal Boreal Conservation Leaders Project. "I think this will be a valuable contribution to Manitoban society," said Ron Theissen, executive director of the Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS). He said the project, centred around a new website, will help gather knowledge and stories from aboriginal people, making them available to a wider audience and educating them on the important role played by Canadian forests. "It's designed to inspire others to get involved and get educated," said Theissen, noting the website links people with volunteer and work opportunities as well. Visitors to the site are also able to respond to stories in a blog-like format. Members of the aboriginal community were on hand yesterday for the launch of the ...

Originally published in the Winnipeg Free Press Cree knowledge keeper Mary Crate must drive hundreds of kilometres to find medicinal roots that once grew outside her back door. So Tuesday she took a 220-kilometre drive south from her home in Fisher River First Nation to back a new environmental website designed to exert public pressure to protect and maybe even restore portions of the Manitoba boreal forest under threat from pollution. "We need to communicate more openly with other people so they can see why we're trying to protect the land," Crate said at the launch of www.abcleaders.org. "We need this land so we can have our medicine and we can live," The website is a joint initiative of the environmental group Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society in Manitoba, the Winnipeg Foundation and aboriginal people like Crate. The website, Aboriginal Boreal Conservation Leaders, offers profiles of aboriginal people concerned with conservation in hopes of ...