In the News

A vast herd of northern caribou that scientists feared had vanished from the face of the Earth has been found, safe and sound — pretty much where aboriginal elders said it would be all along. "The Beverly herd has not disappeared," said John Nagy, lead author of a recently published study that has biologists across the North relieved. Those scientists were shaken by a 2009 survey on the traditional calving grounds of the Beverly herd, which ranges over a huge swath of tundra from northern Saskatchewan to the Arctic coast. A herd that once numbered 276,000 animals seemed to have completely disappeared, the most dramatic and chilling example of a general decline in barren-ground caribou. But Nagy's research — and consultation with the communities that live with the animals — concludes differently. [caption id="attachment_749" align="alignnone" width="582" caption="Wild caribou roam the tundra near the Meadowbank Gold Mine located in Nunavut on March 25, 2009. A ...

On a cold December day nine years ago, a group of young people from the Grassy Narrows First Nation lay down in front of a line of logging trucks on a snow-covered road. Chrissy Swain, now 32, recalls that day at Slant Lake, about an hour north of Kenora, Ontario, which set off what has become Canada’s longest-standing logging blockade. “Back then youth didn’t have a voice,” Swain says. “But people started taking us more seriously when we started the blockade.” For a long time, Grassy Narrows was accustomed to not being heard. In the 1950s, new hydro dams flooded the low-lying river valleys the First Nation had lived in, driving away the fur-bearing animals and submerging wild rice beds and sacred spiritual sites. In the early 1960s, the Canadian federal government moved the small Grassy Narrows community away from the river to a new location on a small stagnant lake off ...

Spanning 1.2 billion acres, Canada's boreal forest is the largest intact forest ecosystem on the planet. This unique environment is home to hundreds of species of migratory fish and birds, and contains carbon-rich soil and permafrost critical to the fight against global warming. See more at the Pew Environment Group

The Pimachiowin Aki project aims to designate Manitoba’s Bloodvein River and surrounding forests a UNESCO World Heritage Site

[caption id="attachment_1648" align="aligncenter" width="486" caption="These men, who were born and raised near the Bloodvein River, point to ancient pictographs that are part of their heritage. (Photo: Hidehiro Otake)"][/caption] Bald eagles soar over Manitoba’s Bloodvein River and a forest of lichen-draped Jack pines and mattress-thick moss. Piloted by grinning guides who shout at one another in Ojibwa, our boats splash through a series of churning rapids en route to an ancient rock painting on a granite cliff. This river and the forest surrounding it are at the core of a campaign to create a UNESCO World Heritage Site on approximately 4.3 million hectares of boreal forest straddling the Manitoba-Ontario border, about one-third of the way up the eastern side of Lake Winnipeg. The goals of the Pimachiowin Aki ...

According to a study published several years ago in the journal Science, few places on our planet have been untouched by modern humans. Satellite images taken from thousands of kilometres above the Earth reveal a world that has been irrevocably changed by human land use over the past few decades. From Arctic tundra to primeval rainforest to arid desert, our natural world has been fragmented by ever-expanding towns and cities, crisscrossed with roads, transmission lines and pipelines, and pockmarked by pump jacks, flare stacks, and other infrastructure used to drill, frack, and strip-mine fossil fuels from the ground. The need to supply food, fibre, fuels, shelter, and freshwater to more than six billion people is driving the wholesale conversion of forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other ecosystems. Researchers have discovered that farmland and pasture now rival natural forest cover in extent, covering ...

Manitoba Conservation advises the Bloodvein River First Nation's proposed Pimitotah Management Plan for its 3,482 square kilometre traditional land-use area is going to the public consultation stage. In December 2009, Bloodvein River's renewed interest in the Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Project was announced. The project is a partnership of the Bloodvein River, Pauingassi, Little Grand Rapids, Poplar River and Pikangikum First Nations, and the governments of Ontario and Manitoba. Bloodvein River's plan outlines its vision of the protection and development activities to take place in its planning area. A section of Atikaki Provincial Park, which is covered by an existing management plan, falls within Bloodvein River's traditional territory. The proposed Pimitotah traditional-use planning area regulation describes the boundaries of the proposed area and the proposed management plan that would apply to it. In addition to establishing a permanent protected area, the plan proposes community-resource and commercial-development zones. A public meeting will ...

“As the northern snows begin to melt and further south spring rains fall, our Mother Earth awakens and new life begins. At this time of renewal Anishinaabe grandmothers, women and men, and youth from Canada and the United States will continue walking for our waters. "The Mother Earth Water Walk began in 2003 in answer to question -- What will you do?” http://www.motherearthwaterwalk.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119&Itemid=126

You are invited to attend

“The Boreal Forest: Our Land, Our Story, Our Responsibility”

National Aboriginal Speaking Series Tour Thursday, June 2nd, 7:00 p.m. at the University of Manitoba Free admission - Open to the Public – Refreshments provided The Canadian Boreal Initiative is inviting you to the opening event of its National Aboriginal Speaking Series Tour. Come and celebrate the leadership and commitment of Aboriginal communities in the conservation and sustainable development of the Boreal forest. The evening will be dedicated to Aboriginal leaders who will share their stories from the Boreal Forest, both successes and challenges. Sophia Rabliauskas, well known First Nations activist, Pimachiowin Aki spokesperson and leader of Poplar River First Nation in Manitoba will be speaking with Stephen Kakfwi, a gifted and ...

Investment Funds Long-Term Action Plan For Moose Population Recovery: Selinger

SWAN RIVER(The province is investing $800,000 to help address alarming declines in moose populations in several areas of the province, Premier Greg Selinger announced here today. "We are concerned about the decline of the moose population in these areas and we are investing in rebuilding the population," said Selinger. "To reverse the decline and restore the population to sustainable numbers, we are consulting First Nations, Métis and other Aboriginal communities, as well as the general public to develop long-term plans to ensure the population is not reduced to this level in the future." The areas of concern include Game Hunting Area (GHA) 18 in the Duck Mountain area of west-central Manitoba, GHA 14 in the vicinity of the Swan-Pelican Provincial Forest and GHA 26, which extends from Lake Winnipeg to the Ontario boundary between the Winnipeg and Wanipigow rivers, including Nopiming ...

Lake Winnipeg's water levels have been regulated for hydro-electric production since 1976. Public hearings will take place later this year to review Manitoba Hydro's license to do so. This workshop will explore the history of regulation and its effects on the environment and local communities. March 19th, 2011 10:00am - 3:00pm, University of Winnipeg, Rm 4M37 Download the poster