The park would be in north-central Manitoba at Little Limestone Lake, a 15-kilometre body of water north of Grand Rapids.

The lake is in a limestone region with underground drainage and many cavities and passages caused by dissolution of the rock. It is referred to as a marl lake, since it changes colour when calcite precipitates in the water as the lake’s temperature rises in summer.

“Protecting one of the most amazing examples of a marl lake in the world is an important legacy we can leave for future generations,” Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie said. “Because of its rare geography, Little Limestone Lake stands out among Manitoba lakes for its annual cycle of magnificent colour changes.”

Ron Thiessen, executive director for the Manitoban branch of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said the current park reserve boundary is not adequate to ensure the lake is protected.

“If polluted waters enter from outside of the protected boundary, they will cause irreparable damage to Little Limestone’s delicate ecosystem,” Thiessen said.

With the co-operation of the Moose Lake Resource Management Board, the Manitoba government is developing a conservation plan for the proposed park.

The process will involve the Mosakahiken Cree Nation, local citizens, industry, interest groups and the public.

Comment sheets are available at www.manitobaparks.com and opinions will be gathered until Aug. 31.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 16, 2010 A7

RIDING MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK — The three-woman boat crew plies the high seas of Clear Lake in glorious sunshine, chasing northern pike hard-wired with transmitters, and pulling up creels of slimy sculpin.

For these summer students employed by the wildlife lab at Riding Mountain National Park, it’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it.

Now, that someone could be you.

The national park is launching a “citizen scientist” program where ordinary Joes and Josephines can join everything from this summer’s archeological dig at the park’s former POW camp to following transmitter-clad pike by boat using a hand-held antenna.

For years, summer students have lined up for jobs to augment the wildlife lab’s field work. The voluntary citizen scientist program hopes to expand that labour force further.

The park gave the Free Press a tour of some research projects citizen scientists will be recruited for. The first ones started this week, helping students haul up creels of slimy sculpin. Changes in the size or population of the scaleless minnow are one of the first signs of change in lake oxygen levels.

Being a citizen scientist also promises to be fun. “Who doesn’t want to get out on a boat and take samples and get a little bit wet and find out what’s actually going on? It is in many respects way more interesting than watching CSI because you are personally involved, ” said information officer Cate Watrous.

“The other part of it is these projects promote public engagement with the research in the park. The more interested people there are, the more people will be aware of and supportive of measures to protect the environment.”

The key to the program will be the length of time private citizens are willing to commit. It’s uncertain whether the research work will be for a day, a week or a month, said Christian Tremblay, in charge of program protocol.

Another project that will need citizen scientists is making an inventory of Riding Mountain’s 50 lakes besides Clear Lake. The project involves use of an underwater camera and gathering samples of macrophytes — leafy underwater plants.

“I keep thinking I’ll see the Ogopogo,” joked summer student employee, Heather Gray, referring to the legendary lake monster of Lake Okanagan, while looking through the underwater camera on Moon Lake.

Gray and Eric Anderson of the University of Winnipeg head the project, which will also record levels of phosphorus, nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, acidity and algae in lakes. Citizen scientists could help gather macrophyte samples, measure lake depths and even paddle.

“It’s easier to get behind some scientific project when something is being threatened, whereas people see Clear Lake as almost invincible,” said Watrous.

That’s not the case. “Part of the research here is to find out what the lake’s threshold is.”

For example, tracking the 40 jackfish fitted with transmitters will help Riding Mountain staff determine how best to protect fish from human activity, Watrous said.

“It’s a fantastic program,” said George Hartlen, manager of Friends of Riding Mountain, which is working with the park on the program. “It’s a great way of getting locals, visitors and students to understand some of the research happening.”

The wildlife lab’s programs are often funded jointly with other levels of government. For example, it has $1.6 million in funding over three years for a bovine tuberculosis monitoring program and the above-mentioned Clear Lake research.

People interested in being citizen scientists should call 1-204-848-0573, or the park’s visitor centres at 1-204-848-7228.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 16, 2010 A6

A new provincial park at Little Limestone Lake in north-central Manitoba is being proposed and the public is invited to have input in the process from mid-July to late August, Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie announced today.

“Protecting one of the most amazing examples of a marl lake in the world is an important legacy we can leave for future generations,” said Blaikie. “Because of its rare geography, Little Limestone Lake stands out among Manitoba lakes for its annual cycle of magnificent colour changes.”

With the co-operation of the Moose Lake Resource Management Board, the province is developing a management plan for the proposed park to guide how it will be conserved and protected. This process involves the Mosakahiken Cree Nation, local citizens, industry, interest groups and the general public and will incorporate scientific and traditional knowledge.

Little Limestone Lake is a 15-kilometre body of water in the karst landscape north of Grand Rapids, a limestone region with underground drainage and many cavities and passages caused by the dissolution of the rock. It is referred to as a marl lake as it changes colour when calcite precipitates in the water as its temperature increases in the summer. It is considered to be the best and most outstanding example of a marl lake in the world, the minister said.

Little Limestone Lake Park Reserve was established in 2007. Park reserves provide temporary protection to land while the area is being considered for designation as a provincial park. Under the Provincial Parks Act, public consultation is required to create a permanent designation.

Comment sheets are available at www.manitobaparks.com and can be submitted until Aug. 31. Residents can also mail their input on Little Limestone Lake to Manitoba Conservation, Parks and Natural Areas Branch, Box 53, 200 Saulteaux Cres., Winnipeg, MB R3J 3W3.

More information is also available by calling 945-6797 in Winnipeg or 1-800-214-6497 (toll-free).

- 30 -

Manitobans and visitors are invited to enjoy Canada’s Parks Day July 16 to 18 by taking in a wide variety of family-oriented activities including being an honourary natural resource officer, Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie announced today.

“We can be proud of the fine heritage of our parks,” said Blaikie. “This province features many popular campgrounds, beaches and picnic areas in beautiful, natural environments and this weekend is a great time to explore everything our provincial parks offer.”

This year, Canada’s Parks Day celebrates the International Year of Biodiversity and more than 30 provincial parks are featuring special events in honour of Manitoba Parks 50th anniversary.

Scheduled activities include:·
· whirlwind tours in 25 minutes through the history of provincial parks celebrating the golden anniversary at amphitheatres at Grand Beach, Birds Hill, Big Whiteshell, Falcon Lake, Spruce Woods, Hecla and Paint Lake;
· demonstrations by chef Elizabeth at Falcon Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park on how to whip up creative dishes made from local edible plants;
· Who In The Park’s Got Talent? at Spruce Woods;
· the Hiss of Pisew Falls at Paint Lake;
· the grand reopening of the Wekusko Falls swinging bridge; and
· a campfire program featuring singalongs with interpreters about the history of Manitoba parks at Otter Falls in Whiteshell Provincial Park.

“We are also pleased to move forward with the plan to upgrade the West Hawk Road in the townsite of West Hawk,” said Blaikie, who will announce details of the proposed upgrades at the West Hawk district park office on Saturday, July 17 at 1 p.m. “We intend to gather input from the local community on the new roadway and expect the upgrades will be underway by late 2011.”

The newly refurbished Marsh Trail at Falcon Lake, a part of Manitoba’s Trans Canada Trail, is opening this weekend and plans for the Walter Danyluk Interpretive Trail are being unveiled at the Alfred Hole Goose Sanctuary. Danyluk was the first director of Manitoba’s provincial parks and was instrumental in establishing the provincial park system.

Again, this year, there is no park admission fee at provincial parks, although campground and other fees remain in place. Free park entry is only available in Manitoba’s provincial parks.

More information about Canada’s Parks Day celebrations is available at park offices or online at www.parksday.ca. Online reservations for Manitoba provincial park campgrounds can be made at www.manitobaparks.com Reservations may also be made by calling 1-888-4U2-CAMP (1‑888‑482‑2267) or in Winnipeg at 948-3333.

- 30 -

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 are “small islands of nature in developed landscapes,” the report says.

The report singles out the Nopiming moose and little brown bats near Fisher Bay on Lake Winnipeg as two species that are either at risk or could be if there is not significant intervention in Manitoba.

Since 2000, the estimated number of moose in Nopiming has plummeted from 1,800 to just 700.

Increased access for hunting due to an influx of logging roads and a rise in predators such as coyotes and wolves are quickly killing off the moose.

“More than a 60 per cent decline in the last decade is very dramatic and we’re seeing those declines across the province,” Thiessen said.

Jack Dubois, director of the wildlife and ecosystem protection branch of Manitoba Conservation, said on the opposite side of the province in Duck Mountain, the moose population is down nearly 60 per cent since 1993. As of February, there were 1,349 moose counted in the park.

Dubois said the Manitoba government is embarking on a consultation process with “everyone interested in moose” in the province.

“We’re hoping by this winter we’ll have a draft moose management strategy,” he said. “We want to stop the rate of decline as soon as we can.”

Manitoba has already put a moratorium on moose hunting in both Nopiming and Duck Mountain, something CPAWS credited as a good move.

But Dubois said there isn’t a focus in Manitoba on connecting parks to one another. The emphasis is rather on identifying rare or unique species or geological features and protecting them first.

The next provincial park will likely be Fisher Bay on the south shore of Lake Winnipeg, but there’s debate over the boundaries of that proposed preserve.

The report notes Fisher Bay is home to the largest bat hibernation spot in the province, in a system of limestone caves. Little brown bats are numerous there — one cave alone reportedly has 25,000 — but without proper protection, they would be in trouble, Thiessen said.

CPAWS wants the park to be 160,000 hectares, but the province currently has 89,000 hectares protected and the protected status of that area runs out in October.

“We’re waiting to see if good ecological sense will prevail over political concerns,” Thiessen said.

He said mining and logging operators have a stake in the land outside the current protected zone and are likely lobbying the province not to close those lands off.

Dubois said there is no reason to believe the bats will be put in jeopardy, noting their habitat is within the area with the highest level of protection. He said negotiations on the boundaries are moving ahead in good faith with all involved.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 10, 2010 A3

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 Nova Scotia and the Mealy Mountains in Newfoundland and Labrador.

It noted that establishing a protective zone around Ontario’s Algonquin Park and connecting parks in the Rocky Mountains have had a positive effect on species like the eastern wolf and grizzly bear.

But some species, such as woodland caribou, are still struggling.

In those cases, human activity is often to blame, Hébert-Daly said.

“The moment you start developing roads, the predator-prey relationship gets unbalanced,” he said. Caribou may have a harder time fleeing and hiding from wolves, for example, and are very sensitive to development.

While Parks Canada has made ecological integrity — preserving the interconnection of large wildlife habitat areas — a priority in the past 10 years, that has been less of a priority in many provinces, Hébert-Daly said. He added that many provinces see parks as recreation areas, and therefore offer little protection from activities such as clearcut logging.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/07/09/parks-cpaws-animals-endangered-species-threatened-at-risk.html#ixzz0tO9nwO00

Growing up in the boreal forest Maria realized that “it is one thing to protect [the boreal] but it is getting people to enjoy it, respect it and experience it.” Interested in working outside to remain connected with the boreal forest Maria first acquired a Bachelors degree in Ecology. “I think nature and the land has so much to teach us. For me, it reconnects and re-inspires me, and gives me the encouragement to keep going. There is nothing like being in the forest and seeing, listening and smelling everything around you.” After completing her under-graduate degree, Maria worked as a Park Warden trainee in Kluane National Park of Canada in the Yukon, and later moved to Churchill, Manitoba to undertake graduate work.

Based out of Churchill, Maria worked with Wapusk National Park of Canada, York Factory and Fox Lake First Nations to help develop Cree place-name maps and landscape terms for the area. Part Cree, Maria is fluent in the Cree language and as part of her graduate work to obtain a Masters degree in Natural Resource Management, Maria met and interviewed Elders and community residents to learn how the Cree language was used to describe the surrounding landscapes, landforms, and waterbodies. “There is a lot of history behind names, Cree place names are very descriptive. Some names were given because of a species of animal, or the names were based on activities that they used to do there.” Regardless of her accomplishments Maria insists, “How can I have as much knowledge as someone who has lived in the area and has lived off the land for many years.”

Through their time spent in the community and on the land, Elders and community members provide insightful wisdom on many issues affecting their traditional lands and communities. Yet, control over the development of natural resources and other land uses by non-First Nation governments for example, has stifled First Nation involvement in local issues. As a result, Maria explains that perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing First Nations is the sense of helplessness and feeling of a loss of control over their traditional lands and communities. “[Communities] need funding, support, and encouragement to help motivate and empower them,” says Maria. Through her work with CIER, Maria provides technical support and helps First Nations set up programs, train individuals and also assists with finding funding to encourage community-driven participation in addressing their environmental issues. Maria’s efforts help communities regain a sense of empowerment. “It is important to get First Nations involved from the very beginning. When you work closely with the community, it has more merit, community buy-in and support, and long-term impact.”

Over the past year and a half, Maria has been involved with northern Ontario First Nations and finding ways to support them in planning for the boreal. In 2008, the Provincial Government of Ontario committed to protect half of Ontario’s boreal forest without including First Nations in the decision-making process or development of the commitment. Furthermore, First Nations have been asked to present land use plans for their traditional territories. However as Maria explains, the land use plans requested by the Province of Ontario do not correspond with how First Nations view the boreal. “We talk with the communities and to them, the boreal extends everywhere and gives them life – they don’t think of borders, rather the boreal is everywhere.”

The boreal region of Ontario flows through the traditional territories of numerous First Nations, so it is not uncommon for traditional territories, which are often based on traditional use and occupancy, to overlap with one another. This overlap is viewed as shared lands by the First Nations. “How can one community make a land use plan when there are shared lands. How is each [community] going to do an individual land use plan without it affecting those around them.” With help from Maria and CIER and other organizations, First Nations are taking their own approach and are developing their own boreal vision, “A unified voice amongst communities with the goal to ‘protect’ and plan for the whole boreal.” This broad vision hopes to inspire and provide direction for all First Nation communities to not only participate in planning for and protecting the boreal forest but to take control and make decisions that are community-driven and based.

Compared to First Nation community members and Elders, Maria does not consider herself to be an expert on First Nation environmental issues, yet, it is evident that her own personal experiences and knowledge is extensive. In her desire to help protect the boreal forest, the encouragement to respect as well as experience the boreal region has provided her with motivation to help assist First Nations to take control over their traditional territories. With Maria’s help, the wisdom and knowledge of Elders and community members will not only be heard but, furthermore, will help support the quest to develop a national, unified vision for the boreal forest.

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. But that’s about to change, thanks to an exciting plan by the cautious but increasingly creative people at Parks Canada.

If all goes well with a pilot project this summer, guided day hikes and backpacking trips inside Wapusk National Park may be possible as soon as 2011.

“Ideally, we’ll have operators that can take people into the park next year,” Wapusk superintendent Cam Elliott says.

Over the past five years, University of Manitoba students have been going on guided day hikes inside the park during the summer, when the bears hang out on land. As a result, Parks Canada has gathered valuable experience about how to manage the presence of people inside the park.

Actively avoiding bears is the key tactic. So is not doing anything that may attract the animals, such as being careless with cooking scents.

Armed with this knowledge, Parks Canada has partnered up with Churchill tour operators to take four lucky guinea pigs on a three-day guided trip inside the park.

The pilot project participants — all winners of a charity auction prize — will spend their days on guided walks, accompanied by a bear spotter armed with pistol-banger and shotgun. At night, they’ll sleep inside at a Broad River enclosure that’s surrounded by a bear-proof, wire-and-cement fence.

Parks Canada is also building a second enclosure at Owl River. If all goes well, both enclosures will open as back-country campsites in 2011. Wapusk National Park even has a proposed fee schedule for the visits: $24.50 per person, $61.25 for a family of five or $147.20 for an entire year, plus tour costs.

Under the proposed fee schedule, half-day tours with a park interpreter and bear monitor will cost $267, while full-day tours will be $490.65. Most people will take helicopters into the park, but Parks Canada is also looking at float plane or boat access to make Wapusk more accessible to ordinary tourists.

“We’d like to have an opportunity for a broad range of people to visit,” Elliott says.

The environmental impact of putting people inside the park is a lot smaller than you’d guess. The bear-proof enclosures are being built on rocky ancient beach ridges, as opposed to the spongy tundra. And some of the walking routes will be caribou trails.

“One of the surprising things is we look at the tundra as pristine habitat, but it is already highly disturbed. You get a couple of thousand caribou walking down a beach ridge and they tear it up pretty good,” Elliott says.

“So instead of creating a hiking trail, we have the opportunity to put people on caribou trails.”

Parks Canada may also build a bear-proof enclosure to serve as a winter dogsled camp at a site called White Wale. The bear danger is minimal during the winter, but the cold presents different challenges.

At the same time, Parks Canada is looking at expanding the range of tourism opportunities at Prince of Wales Fort National Historic Site, which is located across the Churchill River from the town of Churchill.

About 1,600 tourists visit the fur trade-era fort every year, most arriving on boat tours. After spending $4 million stabilizing the 269-year-old stone fort over the past decade, Parks Canada may build more interpretive displays, place more live interpreters in period costume, license guided hikes around the fort and even allow overnight stays.

Parks Canada may also start levying a $3.90-a-day visitor fee for Prince of Wales Fort. Open houses about the changes are planned for Churchill on July 5 and Winnipeg for Aug. 29.

Elliott says the changes within Wapusk and at Prince of Wales Fort are part of an effort to improve the visitor experience at all parks and historic sites managed by Parks Canada.

And contrary to popular belief, Wapusk was never intended to be only for the polar bears.

“Keeping people in the park safe from bears is the No. 1 priority,” Elliott says. “But presenting polar bears to the human population is also part of the park’s mandate.”

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 3, 2010 D9

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 was attended by Ojibwa elders from four Manitoba First Nations, coincided with the first national hearing in Winnipeg of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on residential schools.

We were also taken on a boat tour of this proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site — an area that has been touted as a better route for Manitoba Hydro’s new Bipole III transmission line from northern generating stations to Winnipeg than the longer and more expensive west side route.

In 2004, the Government of Canada added the Pimachiowin Aki area to its list of “tentative World Heritage Sites,” signaling the launch of the World Heritage Project, explained Gord Jones, project manager since 2007.

“I am opposed to an east side hydro line because this is intact boreal forest,” said Rebliauskas, the mother of three adult children and one grandchild.

“But, an all weather road is a necessity. This year, the winter road melted quickly. We were driving through ruts.”

In fact, she admitted that meetings are now being held between the First Nations communities and government representatives for an east side road planning authority.

Nevertheless, any sort of development would disrupt the ecosystem and life on the land, added the gregarious Rebliauskas, who mentions that Pimachiowin Aki is Objiwe for “the land that gives life.”

Besides Poplar River, the other members of PAC include Pikangikum First Nation, Pauingassi First Nation, Little Grand Rapids First Nation, Bloodvein First Nation, Manitoba Conservation and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

The project area consists of some 40,000 square kilometres and includes Manitoba’s Atikaki Provincial Park and the adjoining Woodland Caribou Provincial Park in Ontario — both are prime canoeing and wildlife areas.

During our boat trip on a mostly sun-splashed afternoon, we stopped at a site containing the faded outlines of ancient rock paintings.

Indigenous people have been here for 5,000 to 6,000 years — since the last glaciers receded, remarked Jones, as we stood atop a rocky ridge gazing at Thunder Mountain on the distant horizon with Weaver Lake below us and the thick forest extending as far as the eye could see.

“The boreal forest is recognized as a valuable eco-system,” he said.

“It’s recognized as the lungs of the Earth. It sequesters carbon and is a good place to study climate change. It also sustains indigenous people who have been part of this region for thousands of years. Indigenous people have knowledge and belief systems important for everyone.”

There are 890 World Heritage Sites located in 148 countries, according to information from UNESCO. Of these, 689 are cultural, 176 are natural and 25 are mixed properties. Such spectacular sites as the Grand Canyon, the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks (one of 13 World Heritage Sites in Canada), the pyramids of Egypt, and Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia have all achieved the designation.

Both Jones and Rebliauskas believe that having the region declared an official World Heritage Site would help create income for the First Nations communities by stimulating eco-tourism.

“When a place gets recognized as a World Heritage Site people from all over the world will want to visit the land,” said Jones, who noted that the formal nomination for a WHS will take place in February 2012 with a further 18 months for review and approval by UNESCO.

Already, some First Nations lodge owners in eastern Manitoba are planning on how they can help create jobs through eco-tourism, observed Rebliauskas, who, along with her husband, runs a lodge in Poplar River.

“For our First Nations, the forests are our heritage,” stressed one elder to me back at the healing camp as I nodded my head in agreement.

Indeed, the land that gives life must be protected for all of us.

Martin Zeilig is a Winnipeg writer.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 3, 2010 h6

After completing university, Valerie was recruited by Assembly of First Nations (AFN) of Quebec and Labrador as a Forestry Advisor. Here she received an introduction to Aboriginal forestry which was, Valerie admits frustrating, because it lacked the on-the-ground experience she wanted. So when a job came up at the Innu Nation – her nation – as a Forest Planner it was an exciting and logical next move.

“Up until this point there had been no industrial tenure in Labrador, new industry was being built, so this was a better place to learn,” Valerie explains.

The Innu Nation was involved in a really innovative ecosystem-based plan for an area about 7 million hectares, an area twice the size of Vancouver Island in south-central Labrador (called Nitassinan). As an ecosystem-based plan, the plan set out to balance social, economic, and ecological values. There was no set number in mind for how much to protect when they began planning; they set out with a set of ecological criteria. The outcome was that 50 percent of the regional boreal land-base is now protected from industrial developments.

As the Forest Planner, Valerie’s first order of business was to implement the new forest management plan. Since this was largely a scientific-based plan, this involved reducing the gap between the science and the cumulative data – between standard forestry practices and what people needed in the community. Under the newly formed Guardian Program, Innu members were trained as forest technicians, interviewers and community liaisons and were responsible for meeting with community members to address what it was they needed from the forest.

“It’s really about planning for humans, and not about planning for the forest itself [...] If there’s no Innu, then there’s no Innu economy. So you have to protect Nitassiman and you have to protect the land first to make sure it can support what Innu need to be Innu, in order to create an Innu economy.”

This is where the Innu have deviated significantly from typical forest planning. The usual method has been to allocate areas for industrial development first, without any long-term planning for other land-use practices.
The Innu understood that this type of planning approach wouldn’t work for them and so set out to plan their future, and incidentally the future of their children and grandchildren. They started by determining what it was they wanted to protect. Community members provided input and were asked what areas were important to them and what needed to stay. They essentially determined what it was that made the landscape the landscape.

“The network of protected areas ended up being important cultural sites, travel routes, and harvesting areas – they were all interconnected. Protection of 50 percent is a huge area, its bigger than other forest management areas, but there is still development in some areas where people felt uncomfortable and that was because of something that just couldn’t be translated into planning – some spiritual value or a story that is associated with a place that you can’t really draw around or account for necessarily,” Valerie explains.

With such an ambitious plan, challenges are inevitable, especially when there are great differences in opinions and needs throughout the community. But these plans should, and need to be done, Valerie asserts. For the Innu Nation, the need to bring in industry and jobs into Goose Bay was evident; the alternative was to send out Labrador’s high value wood from boreal forests which would send jobs out of the province as well. The Innu Nation’s progressive ecosystem-based management plan also meant the community is well prepared and now in a position for future decision-making regarding forestry.

“Land use planning is key for ensuring that you have what you need to be you, and for ensuring that you also have a future in development and to grow. To create certainty. It’s a very important tool that you can bring to government and industry in negotiating with them to ensure that their activities don’t impact you, in a negative way anyway.”

Valerie is now the Senior Advisor of Aboriginal Relations for the Canadian Boreal Initiative (CBI) – ‘a national convener for conservation in Canada’s Boreal Forest.’ Working alongside CBI while she was still with the Innu Nation, Valerie saw this as an opportunity to work at the policy level to affect greater change. Her responsibilities now include two significant areas in Canada’s boreal forest – Quebec’s Plan Nord and Ontario’s Far North, commitments made by the provincial governments to permanently protect at least 225,000 square kilometres in Ontario and 50 percent of the territory above the 49 parallel in Quebec. For these, she will promote land-use planning and the idea of balance between conservation and development. She will work directly with the communities, including her own.

“I feel that through CBI I can probably have a bigger impact on the opportunities for my community than I would working directly for the community [...] and have the opportunity to influence what happens because of the position CBI is in,” says Valerie.

In the tradition of a hand’s on approach, Valerie continues to define her position as a boreal leader by ensuring ecosystem values are integral in sustainable frameworks for on the ground planning, effectively inspiring those that understand this is the best opportunity for a healthy future for the boreal and its people.