The Manitoba Government has rejected the appeal of license #2954, issued to the Louisiana Pacific Swan Valley oriented strand board (OBS) plant, allowing the corporation to remove their RTO pollution controls to save money.

“Manitoba is giving the green light to multi-national corporations looking for a way to get around U.S. pollution control laws,” said Susanne McCrea of the Boreal Forest Network (BFN).

BFN and the Concerned Citizens of the Valley submitted a joint appeal of the licence, in April, 2011, when a limited CEC process failed to recommend, or even report on the extensive expert evidence submitted by the groups, at their own considerable expense.

“It’s ironic that the Filman Conservatives put the pollution controls in the original 1994 license for LP, after a considerably more extensive CEC process, that the NDP then heralded as a huge victory,” said McCrea. “We’ve worked hard to  protect public health of Manitobans and the NDP have now undone it all, allowing LP to simply report on their own emissions.”

Dr. Charles Simon, who has testified in over 100 cases that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has brought against LP, is convinced that the current license is …“a recipe for tropospheric ozone and smog. It can not and will not be avoided. That is a serious degradation of air quality permitted by this license. VOC + NOx + particulate matter + sunlight = tropospheric ozone, smog, and citizen trips to the ER.”

The huge stack that LP has been ordered to build will be designed to disperse the pollution further instead of using controls to stop much of it at the source.

“That stack will stick out like a sore thumb,” McCrea added. “It will be a monument to remind people of the large volumes of pollution coming out of it that no independent body will ever monitor.”

This decision is certainly not in keeping with the Province of Manitoba’s conservation platform on the east side of Lake Winnipeg, where they are taking every step to promote environmentalism. This whole process has taken over three years, three Conservation Ministers, one election, over $50,000 of our own money to commission independent experts that the province wouldn’t even talk to.

The Boreal Forest Network is seriously unimpressed with this backward step. We suggest you contact your MLA.

Join the Boreal Forest Network, the Boreal Action Project and the Winnipeg Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement in calling for a complete boycott of all Weyerhaeuser forest products until they cease all logging and sourcing in the contested traditional territories of Grassy Narrows First Nation, or as long as there is community opposition to their operation in Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinaabek traditional territory (Grassy Narrows First Nation).

Send them the message below that you support the boycott of all their products until and unless they stop logging in Grassy territory, or as long as there is community opposition to their operation.

Grassy community members have been engaged in the longest standing blockade in Canada, since December 3, 2002, when they stood in front of logging trucks to protect their traditional lands. About 30 percent of their original lands remain today.

The community has pursued numerous avenues to stop further destruction.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently released a lengthy decision in Keewatin v. Minister of Natural Resources (Keewatin), which held that the Province of Ontario lacked authority to “take up” lands for forestry, or other activities that may significantly infringe upon First Nations’ hunting and fishing rights, with respect to certain lands under Treaty 3 (the Keewatin Lands).

The unfortunate reality is that logging could resume any day in Grassy territory.

Weyerhaeuser continues to push for access to wood from the Whiskey Jack for the Kenora, Ontario, mill, that makes Weyerhaeuser iLevel Trus Joist Timberstrand Laminated Strand Lumber (LSL).

According to the Whiskey Jack Forest management plan, 324,000 cubic meters of poplar and birch is allocated from the Whiskey Jack Forest Management Unit each year to supply the Weyerhaeuser Timberland/Trus Joist Kenora mill. This is 42 percent of the total allocated timber harvest from the Whiskey Jack and a full 50 percent of the wood supply for the mill.

Call on Weyerhaueser to join forest products companies; Boise, Abitibowater, Domtar and Ainsworth, who have already agreed not to source conflict wood from Grassy Narrows territory.

Sign the petition now!

Click on the following link to hear East Side Elder, Louis Young,  deliver a message to Occupy Winnipeg, at Memorial Park Day one.

Louis Young speaks to Occupy Winnipeg

To the Pimachiowin Aki Corporation and the governments of Manitoba, Ontario and Canada regarding the proposed Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Site:

As scientists who have contributed to advancing conservation issues and opportunities around the world, we would like to acknowledge the globally unique cultural and ecological values of the boreal forest ecosystem on the East Side of Lake Winnipeg. To protect this region of outstanding universal value, we support the initiative of regional First Nations in partnership with the governments of Manitoba, Ontario and Canada, to create the Pimachiowin Aki UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The boreal forest region extending from the East Side of Lake Winnipeg across the border into Ontario is the homeland of First Nations and its bounty has sustained their diverse cultures for millennia. It is part of one of the largest unfragmented forest blocks on earth and supports a rich ecological community of forest birds, mammals, freshwater fish, plants, and other species.

A World Heritage Site in this region would present a globally unique opportunity to both showcase and study, from traditional knowledge and western science perspectives, a model for co-management and stewardship of a large boreal landscape well into the future. We support the Government of Manitoba’s decision to route the proposed new hydro transmission line along the more developed West Side of Lake Winnipeg, thus protecting the outstanding and unique boreal forest values of the East Side of Lake Winnipeg.

Based on our understanding of the globally significant ecological and cultural values of the East Side of Lake Winnipeg, of its rich human and biological history, of the regional First Nations’ desire to share these values with the world, we support the proposed Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Site.

David Schindler, OC, DPhil, AOE, FRSC, FRS
Killam Memorial Chair and Professor of Ecology
University of Alberta

Micheline Manseau, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba

David C. Natcher, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean, Aboriginal Programs and Research College of Agriculture and Bioresources
University of Saskatchewan

Craig Willis Ph.D.
University of Winnipeg
Chancellor’s Research Chair

Peter Raven. Ph.D.
Home Secretary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden, and Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis

Gordon Robinson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences,
Director, Manitoba CRYSTAL
University of Manitoba

Stuart Pimm, Ph.D.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University

Danny Blair, Ph.D.
Professor of Geography
Acting Associate Dean of Science
Acting Principal, Richardson College for the Environment
University of Winnipeg

Hugh Possingham, Ph.D., FAA
Professor, The University of Queensland

Randall Mooi, Ph.D.
Curator of Zoology
The Manitoba Museum

Gordon Orians, Ph.D.
U.S. National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Washington

Fikret Berkes, Ph.D.
Distinguised Professor, Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba, and Canada Research Chair in Community-based Resource Management

James Hare, Ph.D.
Professor and Associate Head
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Manitoba

Terry Root, Ph.D.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead author and Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at Stanford University

Pascal Badiou, Ph.D. 
Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research
Oak Hammock Marsh Conservation Centre, Manitoba

John Jacobs, Ph.D.
Departments of Geography and Environmental Science at the Memorial University of Newfoundland

Dawn Sutherland, Ph.D.
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Science Education
University of Winnipeg

Isobel Waters, Ph.D.
Dept of Biological Sciences
University of Manitoba

Jeremy Kerr, Ph.D.
Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa

James Duncan, Ph.D.
Manager, Biodiversity, Habitat and Endangered Species Section,
Wildlife and Ecosystem Protection Branch, Manitoba Conservation

Nigel Roulet, Ph.D. 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Scientist, Professor of Geography and past Director of the Center for Climate and Global Change Research at the McGill School of Environment

Spencer Sealy, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus,
Department of Biological Sciences,
University of Manitoba

James Schaefer, Ph.D. 
Department of Biology
Trent University

Christian Artuso, Ph.D.
Bird Studies Canada – Manitoba Program Manager

Bridget Stutchbury, Ph.D.
Canada Research Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology
York University

Renée Douville, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor in Microbiology
Department of Biology
University of Winnipeg

Raimo Virkkala, Ph.D.
Finnish Environment Institute

Bruce Ford, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Curator, University of Manitoba Herbarium
University of Manitoba

Jim Strittholt, Ph.D.
President and Executive Director of the Conservation Biology Institute.

Stéphane McLachlan, Ph.D.
Professor, Environmental Conservation Lab
Department of Environment and Geography
University of Manitoba

Nancy Turner, Ph.D. 
Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria

Eva Pip, Ph.D.
Professor
University of Winnipeg

Andrew Weaver, Ph.D. 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change lead author, U.S. National Academy of Science Climate Research Committee, Royal Society of Canada, and Professor and Canada Research Chair in Atmospheric Science in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria.

Jill Oakes, Ph.D.
Professor, Centre for Earth Observation Science
University of Manitoba

John Pastor, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of Biology
University of Minnesota Duluth

Jennifer Shay, OC, Ph.D., 
Professor Emerita, University of Manitoba

Fiona Schmiegelow, Ph.D.
Professor & Director, Northern ENCS Program Dept Renewable Resources, University of Alberta c/o Yukon College

Jacques Tardif, Ph.D.
Canada Research Chair in Dendrochronology
Centre for Forest Interdisciplinary Research (C-FIR)
University of Winnipeg

Reed Noss, Ph.D.
Davis-Shine Professor of Conservation Biology
University of Central Florida

C. Thomas Shay, Ph.D.
Senior Scholar, University of Manitoba

Russell Greenberg, Ph.D.
Head, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
National Zoological Park

Andy Park, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Centre for Forest Interdisciplinary Research (CFIR)
University of Winnipeg

F. Stuart Chapin III, Ph.D.
U.S. National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks

Robert Foster, Ph.D.
Principal, Northern Bioscience
Thunder Bay, Ontario

Iain Stenhouse, Ph.D.
Director – Marine Bird Program
Biodiversity Research Institute

Stephen Bocking, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Environmental and Resource Science/Studies Program
Trent University

Kenneth Rosenberg, Ph.D.
Cornell University

Faisal Moola, Ph.D.
Director, Terrestrial Conservation and Science Program
David Suzuki Foundation
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto

Robert Baldwin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Conservation Biology/GIS
School of Agricultural, Forest, and Environmental Sciences
Clemson University

Deborah McGregor, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Geography & Planning
University of Toronto

John Fitzpatrick, Ph.D.
Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Cornell University

Shawn Leroux, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
University of Ottawa

Malcolm Hunter, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of Wildlife Ecology
University of Maine

John Sinclair, Ph.D.
Professor, Natural Resources Institute
University of Manitoba

Jeffrey Wells, Ph.D.
Science and Policy Director
Boreal Songbird Initiative and Visiting Fellow, Cornell University

David Punter, Ph.D.
Senior Scholar, Department of Biological Sciences
University of Manitoba

Rebecca Holberton, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Avian Biology
Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
University of Maine

Frank F. Mallory, Ph.D.
Professor and Past Chair
Department of Biology
Laurentian University

Eduardo Inigo-Elias, Ph.D.
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

Susan Elbin, Ph.D.
Director of Conservation and Science
New York City Audubon

Bruce Robertson, Ph.D.
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
Migratory Bird Center
National Zoological Park

Henry Huntington, Ph.D.
Arctic Science Director
Pew Environment Group

Herb Wilson, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
Colby College

Gary Langham, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist
National Audubon Society

John Fanshawe, Ph.D. 
Senior Strategy Adviser
BirdLife International

Erin Bayne, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

David Wilcove, Ph.D.
Professor of Ecology, Evolutionary Biology & Public Affairs
Woodrow Wilson School
Princeton University

Nathaniel Wheelwright, Ph.D.
Bass Professor of Natural Sciences
Bowdoin College

Barry Traill, Ph.D.
Australian Director
Pew Environment Group

Terrell Rich, Ph.D.
Partners in Flight National Coordinator (USA)

Brett Sandercock, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Division of Biology
Kansas State University

Frederic Reid, Ph.D.
Director of Conservation Planning
Ducks Unlimited, Inc.
Rancho Cordova, CA, USA

David Mizrahi, Ph.D.
VP for Research and Monitoring
New Jersey Audubon Society

Floyd Hayes, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Pacific Union College

Daniel Buckley, Ph.D.
Chair, Division of Natural Sciences
University of Maine Farmington

David Haskell, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
University of the South

Fred Adler, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology and Mathematics
University of Utah

Dolph Schluter, Ph.D.
Zoology Department and Biodiversity Research Centre
University of British Columbia

 see the story in the Globe and Mail, September 30, 2011

 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/environmental-scientists-join-bid-to-protect-part-of-boreal-forest/article2185825/

Announcing the Making an Ethical Living Workshop Series

September 22-25, 2011

At the A-Zone, 91 Albert Street, in Winnipeg

September 16, 2011

Do you love your work as an activist, musician, artist or green business owner, but need to increase your income?

The Boreal Forest Network, Marketing for Hippies and the A-Zone present fours days of development workshops geared especially for activists, green and holistic businesses, artists and musicians.

Tad Hargrave takes the sleeze out of marketing for people who don’t like the usual sales gimmicks. He makes his living with his travelling series Marketing for Hippies and personal consultations with alternative minded business owners. His visionary presentations help take us out of the usual sales mindset and find honest ways to connect with people who will benefit from what we have to offer.

Susanne McCrea, from the Boreal Forest Network, came to activism from a media, promotions and marketing background, so it was a natural for the two to team up for this series of workshops.

“I’ve been making a living through non-profit fundraising for twenty years,” said Susanne. “The

marketing principals I apply are the same ones Tad teaches. We can’t be afraid to talk about money and we should be able to make a living doing what we do best for our community.”

Circle discussions are ongoing all weekend, with sessions on writing promo materials, direct action, DIY know your house, community building, self-care with yogi and kirtan musician, Beth Martens and a Saturday afternoon panel discussion called “Surviving and Thriving in an Alternative World.”

Attendance is pay as you can $1 – $40 a session.

Thanks to Mondragon and Tall Grass Prairie Bakery for soup and bread service at event

See borealforestnetwork.com for full program

RSVP to borealaction@gmail.com

(204) 297-0321

Community Directed Development Workshops

for Activists and Green and Holistic businesses

shifting the paradigm while making an ethical living

Thank-you to all concerned. Participants who signed up will soon be emailed a short feedback survey designed to direct our next steps toward community building workshops

(scroll down to the program)

RSVP at borealaction@gmail.com

September 22 – 25^th, 2011

at the A-Zone

91 Albert Street

Winnipeg, Manitoba

presented by The Boreal Forest Network, Marketing for Hippies and the A-Zone

 We recognize that it can be difficult to approach the marketing and “business” side of shifting the capitalist paradigm while we still have to make a living.

 These workshops will offer an opportunity to shift our attitudes about promoting our campaigns, services and products in an a way that doesn’t offend our ethics, targets the right people and gets results.

 The principals are the same, whether you are an activist or an alternative business person with a vision. There are many links that can be made between us to the benefit of all.

 The Boreal Forest Network has always enjoyed creating and nourishing collaboration. We have hosted annual capacity building development workshops, with a cross cultural activists focus, in Hollow Water First Nation, since 2005. This year we agreed to expand our approach to include alternative, green, locally owned small businesses, such as our fellow A-Zone co-op members, at Mondragon (worker owned, vegan restaurant, radical book store and organic grocery) the bike courier business we share space with and other like minded community members.

 Our approach is to share what we`ve learned through experience with a participatory, peer skill share approach.

 We are delighted to welcome “Marketing for Hippies“ guru, Tad Hargrave, to Winnipeg to share his extensive knowledge about green and holistic marketing. He, not only, knows his subject, his presentation untangles much of the mystery of marketing and takes the sleaze out of money making.

 We are learning from each other in this setting and the networking opportunities will be invaluable.

Project Background

The local activist community has identified a need to build capacity through skill sharing and development workshops on effective outreach and marketing tactics, media and communications strategies, fundraising and development. Much of the content translates to the goals of green, alternative businesses who share many of our goals and philosophies.

The Boreal Forest Network (BFN) has an extensive, long term, campaign background and experience in the delivery of workshops on these subjects. We are planning this series of workshops to meet the expressed needs of the Winnipeg based collective, the A-Zone, which will be open to local groups, alternative businesses. musicians, artists and individual activists. Most of these sessions will be offered free of charge, with some pay as you can workshops. No one will be excluded.

BFN joined the Albert Street Autonomous Zone Co-Op, when we moved into the collective space, in the fall of 2010. It is through meetings of the member groups that we identified this community need and agreed to adapt our summer program to meet it.

We have modified our plan for the annual Camp Manitowabi, usually held at Raven’s Creek, in Hollow Water First Nation to include a two part program, consisting of one evening and three days of open programs at the A-Zone, 91 Albert Street, in downtown Winnipeg.

Our project was originally developed to build capacity and skill sharing between activists and Indigenous communities. Our goal is to include this element in this urban workshop series.

The Albert Street Autonomous Zone

The Albert Street Autonomous Zone (or A-Zone) was founded in the Fall of 1995, in a three-story heritage building at 91 Albert Street in the Exchange District of Winnipeg.

In 1995, the A-Zone was founded with the express purpose of bringing together a diverse, but inter-connected array of people and organizations committed in very broad terms to social justice — whether this be feminist organizations, indigenous organizations, grassroots solidarity and human rights groups, anarchist book clubs, prisoner solidarity groups, or alternative worker-run businesses.

The A-Zone membership has changed over the years. but the principles underlying the building and space remain the same. In particular, the A-Zone is committed to helping build left leaning, community, and worker-run organizations — in order to contribute to the growth of self-sustaining infrastructure for the activist community, and for future generations. A critical component of this is supporting organizations that consciously attempt to eliminate hierarchies and divisions of labour based on, among other things, colour, class, gender, and knowledge — regardless of the particular focus and emphasis of the group. The A-Zone has invested directly in such community economic development and radical infrastructure by offering massively-subsidized rents to fledgling organizations committed to participatory economic and revolutionary principles — at least, long enough to help such organizations or workers’ collectives get started. Organizations such as Mondragón Bookstore & Coffeehouse, Arbeiter Ring Publishing, G-7 Welcoming Committee, Natural Cycle, and Dada World DataProductions have all benefited from initial A-Zone subsidy in this respect, particularly in their early months and years. For the most part, these organizations have also remained core members, comrades, and allies of the A-Zone going into its second decade of existence.

About the Boreal Forest Network

The Boreal Forest Network is a non-profit environment and social justice campaigning organization. We have a mandate to work to support Indigenous Peoples community led campaigns to protect their traditional territories. BFN is a grassroots group with a long standing relationship with the international, pan-boreal, Taiga Rescue Network, which is made up of campaigning organizations across the northern boreal forest region.

BFN director, Susanne McCrea, comes to activism from a media background where she worked both as a reporter and in advertising. It was this that drove her to activism, in fact. She felt there must be a better way to use her skills. She offered them to the media savoy Greenpeace Canada, where she spent ten years publicizing campaigns, working on media for direct action and assisting with development workshops for national staff. She, also, raised an annual budget of about $300,000, entirely in donations from individuals.

She has done promotions for touring arts groups, like the National Ballet and the Peking Opera. freelance advertising (back in the pre-activist days), has taught communications at Red River College and assisted with the Shaking the Tree activists program at the University of Manitoba.

She has been a campaigner with BFN for ten years and has worked to build community coalitions throughout the last twenty.

She is excited to pass along skills that will benefit her community and to further build networking opportunities among like minded folks.

Marketing for Hippies

Tad Hargrave is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing.

Despite years in the non-profit and activist world, he finally had to admit he was a marketing nerd and, in the end, he became a marketing coach for hippies. Maybe it was because he couldn’t stand seeing his hippy friends struggle to promote their amazing, green and holistic projects. Maybe it was because he couldn’t keep a 9-5 job to save his life.

Whatever the reason, for almost a decade, he`s been touring his marketing for hippies workshops around Canada bringing his refreshing and unorthodox ideas to conscious entrepreneurs and green businesses to help them grow their organizations and businesses without selling their souls. Over the years, he has become recognized as a leader in the wider movement towards green and local economies.

This all feels like a minor miracle as Tad spent his early marketing days learning and applying some very inauthentic, high pressure, extremely gross and pushy marketing approaches. This has made him suuuuper allergic to these kinds of approaches because he discovered they made him feel slimy (even in personal friendships), he didn’t sleep well and he’s very sorry to all those people he spoke with back in the day. After a decade of unlearning and unpacking that whole scene – he now feels ready and able to help other people find ways to market that feel wonderful.

He’s also considered a pioneer and leading thinker in the field of `Hub Marketing` and is puttering on a book about it’).

 RSVP appreciated so we can plan for room set up and meals

Program

Evening of Thursday September 22 – 7-10pm (come early for free soup and bread from Mondragon)

Tad Hargrave Marketing for Hippies 

pay as you can (really) Suggested fee $1 – $40 you decide what it’s worth and what you can afford at the end – no pressure, no strings attached.

September 23, Friday Day 1-4pm

Marketing Session with Tad and Susanne – also pay as you can suggested $1 – $40 at the end. 

geared toward activists but drawing the parallels between activist fundraising and marketing a business,(product or service) – open to activists, alternative businesses, musicians, artists

Presentation followed by break-out sessions and report back.

soup and bread by Mondragon by donation – 5-6pm

Building community facilitated by the A-Zone collective  - 6-8pm

free. donations accepted

Saturday, September 24  10am-12pm

open circle

Direct Action, facilitated by activist Dave Nickarz, Sea Shepards

Dave speaks from personal experience and shares some great video footage of actions on the high seas.

free, donations accepted.

Soup and bread by Mondragon by donation – 12-1pm

Surviving and Thriving in an Alternative World Panel 1-4pm

Kristen Andrews from Ragpickers Anti-fashion Emporium. the Flaming Trolleys, Murder City Roller Derby Queen and community events organizer, Jaclyn Marquis of Arbutus Clothing, Jesse Green, musician who recently toured with Buffy St. Marie and StrongFront Productions, Eton Harris, Mondragon, Susanne McCrea , twenty one years of activism, and Nathan Zahn of the Boreal Forest Network.

circle format

Long timers tell their stories followed by discussion.

If you have a product to sell – cd – or campaign material to share you are encouraged to bring it.

Child care will be available for this session (BorealKids art session in the building). Please RSVP

free, or by donation

Sunday, September 25

Come early and enjoy a fabulous vegan brunch at Mondragon – fundraiser for the A-Zone

circle discussion Self Care for Activists and Alternative Minded People, facilitated by Shannon (Mondragon) 11am-12:30pm

who cares for the caregivers

Beth Martens, and others tba

free, donations accepted.

Concurrent Workshops 1-5pm

DIY Know Your House 1-5pm

aka Where does my water – electricity – heat – come from….how do I fix it…when do I bring in an expert – Dave Nickarz, handy man to the environment, Sea Shepards ship fix it man, facilitating.

Tour of the A-Zone building, 91 Albert,  for illustration.

free, or by donation.

Writing and Messaging Workshop 1-5pm

Campaign messaging and writing for the media/psa’s/press releases/backgrounders/promotional materials, etc.

You are encouraged to bring something you are working on. If you have a laptop bring it. Or bring materials in print format.

Susanne McCrea facilitating. Susanne comes from a broadcast media backgound.  She`s worked in several radio stations and as a freelance writer. marketing specialist and arts publicist. She is a Journalism grad from Creative Communications at RRC where she has, also, taught communications. Susanne has conducted communications sessions as a quest at U. of M., and in her role as ED of the Boreal Forest Network at the annual capacity building Camp Manitowabi, in Hollow Water First Nation.

Special guest, cutting edge new media genius, Meg Rabbit,  artistic director and partner at Po Mo.

Check her out at  http://www.PO-MO.com

suggested $1-40

Finale networking soup and bread at Mondragon 5-6:30pm

Proposal Writing Mentoring Program or on camera media spokesperson training  will be announced here and held by pay as you can – sign up in advance – at a later date.

Thanks to Tall Grass Prairie Bakery for the generous bread donation!

Summary of Expert Qualifications & Conclusions

 This is a summary of the expert’s report prepared for the Clean Environment Commission (CEC), by The Boreal Forest Network and the Concerned Citizens of the Valley, on the Louisiana Pacific application to remove the RTO pollution controls from their license.  The CEC concluded that it was alright for LP to operate without controlling emissions and allowed them to increase the toxics coming out of the Swan Valley plant. The groups have launched an appeal.

Dr. Charles Simon – Dr. Simon was retained to discuss the level of hazardous air pollutant (HAP) and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from the flake dryers and board presses at LP Swan Valley with and without the operation of the RTOs to treat emissions. He was also asked to consider alternatives, if any, to the LP proposal.

Dr. Simon holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Physical Chemistry from the University of Florida. For the last 15 years, Dr. Simon has provided technical consulting services to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (USEPA-OECA), the US Department of Justice Environmental and Natural Resource Division (USDOJ-ENRD), and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE). Dr. Simon has interacted extensively with forest product industry representatives, as well as consulted extensively with EPA personnel responsible for publication of panel board facility emission factors, and EPA personnel working to develop the plywood and composite wood products National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (PCWP-NESHAP) utilizing Maximum Available Control Technology (MACT).

Dr. Simon’s conclusions:

 Instead of replacing or refurbishing the RTOs, LP is requesting the Manitoban Government to allow a permanent 33-fold increase in actual VOC emissions from the dryers and press at the Swan Valley mill, from about 25 tons per year (tpy) with properly operating RTO controls, to 825 tpy when operating only wet electrostatic precipitators. (Based on testing their new dryers and press in 2006, actual VOC mass emissions can be expected to be greater than 1,100 tons per year.) The LP request of the Manitoban Government will also allow a 100-fold increase in actual emissions of hazardous air pollutants from the dryers and press, from about 4 tpy with properly operating RTO controls, to over 400 tpy when operating only wet electrostatic precipitators.

 It is understandable in the recent economic environment that LP would propose to eliminate controls for VOC and HAP emissions from the flake dryers and board press at the Swan Valley OSB mill. Like all other industries in Canada and the United States, LP management has a fiduciary responsibility within the laws and regulations where it operates to seek maximum profits and sustainability for its owners, its principals, its employees and its shareholders.

• In my experience with forest products companies, the strong motivation to externalize air pollutant costs can only be overcome by regulation.

• In the United States LP OSB flake dryers and board presses are required to use best available control technologies to control VOC and organic HAP emissions.

         A  modern bioreactor may be able to perform as Best Available Control Technology at Swan River for less than the cost of replacing          the RTOs, and about one-fourth of the cost of operating the RTOs and WESPs.

• A modern bioreactor may be able to replace the existing wet electrostatic precipitators (WESPs) at Swan River for control of particulate matter emissions. If this is possible, it would be cheaper to operate the modern bioreactor than to operate the WESPs, and the cost of operating the RTOs would be eliminated along with their carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.

• LP-Swan River should be required to obtain bids from one or more modern bioreactor vendors with the intention of installing one or more units to control dryer and press emissions.

 Dr. Gordon Brown - Dr. Gordon Brown of Intrinsik Environmental Sciences Inc was asked to conduct a peer review of the application with a focus on potential human health risks associated with decommissioning the RTOs. Dr. Brown has a PhD in Environmental Science. He has an extensive track record of conducting best practice human health risk assessments for both industry and government.

 Dr. Brown’s general comment is that the human risk calculations provided by Louisiana Pacific do not represent current accepted practice for human health risk assessment in Canada and the US.

Dr. Brown made several specific conclusions:

• Ambient air quality monitoring locations were improperly placed.

• Background air concentrations were not added to modelled OSB mill predictions. This results in cumulative ground-level air concentrations being underestimated, which means that many of the conclusions regarding “negligible health risks” made by LP are not valid.

       Incremental health risk increases could not be quantified due to lack of an appropriate and current “base case” with RTOs operating.      In order to properly assess the incremental health risks posed by the decommissioning of the RTOs at the LP OSB mill, ground-level air concentrations and associated health risk

calculations (including background) should be provided at the present time using similar assessment models and methods for both (i) the existing case and (ii) the amended case for which LP is applying. This was not done, only the amended case without RTOs was presented.

• Risk estimates were not generated for nearby human receptor locations.

• The potential for odour generation, which can generate health concerns, was not assessed.

• A scientific rationale was not provided for the exposure limits that were assumed, some of which may be inappropriate. The exposure limits used by LP were typically not Health Canada limits and were frequently not the most “stringent” of the available limits.

• Inclusion of country food and water ingestion pathways would likely provide additional predicted health risks, but were not assessed. The LP reports only address the potential health risks associated with the “inhalation exposure

pathway”. Non-volatile chemicals can be deposited in the local environment and may accumulate in soils, vegetation, fish and wildlife.

Mr. David Chadder – Mr. Chadder of RWDI Air Inc. (RWDI) was retained to conduct a peer review of a number of documents produced by Louisiana Pacific. He was asked to provide an expert opinion with regard to their technical merit from an air quality standpoint. Mr. Chadder is Vice President, Western Operations and Project Director at RWDI. His experience in environmental consulting dates to 1978. Mr. Chadder’s area of specialty as Project Director involves the technical supervision of engineering teams involved with air quality, hazard and risk assessments, stack emissions testing and ambient air quality monitoring studies.

Mr. Chadder’s general comment is that the air quality impacts have not been properly documented or accounted for by Louisiana Pacific.

In particular, Mr. Chadder concluded that Louisiana Pacific has failed to:

• Meet the minimum industry submission requirements and/or those detailed in the Manitoba Conservation Draft Guidelines for Air Dispersion Modelling in Manitoba;

• Account for all of the hazardous contaminants of interest in their normal maximum plant emissions;

• Include all types of emissions sources such as fugitives in their dispersion modelling;

• Complete a cumulative impact assessment that properly accounts for and includes background ambient measurements in their predictions; and

• Consider potential nuisance odour impacts from the emitted contaminants.

A few months ago, I got a call inviting me on a tour of a proposed UNESCO World Heritage in Manitoba. The hosts – the Province of Manitoba and the corporation leading the UNESCO bid, Pimachiowin Aki – took the risk of inviting a range of journalists on the trip without knowing how or what they might report. Some of the media had never been to the boreal forest, but I had visited this spectacular boreal wilderness on the east of Lake Winnipeg back in 2006. At that time I saw the terrible impacts of the existing hydro dams on the Nelson River on the wildlife and the Cree of Cross Lake and had written an article about it for Onearth, the magazine of the New-York-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which had just declared the pristine east side of the lake one of its Biogems, “the heart of the boreal,” deserving of total, untouchable, permanent protection. This article is posted as Dispatch #27 : Manitoba’s Many Headed-Hydro. It lays out the situation as of five years ago, and gives you a sense of what paddling through this incredibly pure and vibrant forest wilderness is like.At that point Manitoba Hydro was applying to build three new dams on the Nelson River and to run a transmission line down the east side of the lake, right through the homelands of five of Manitoba’s Ojibwe first nations, which were in the process of jointly applying for World Heritage designation. The transmission line would have compromised the intactness of the wilderness and jeopardized the chances of getting the designation, and possibly affected the migratory patterns of the last big herds of woodland caribou, and made them sitting ducks for wolves as they crossed the hundred-yard, 800-km, swath the transmission line would be making. My story, published in 2006, I was told, had played a role, and more importantly a comprehensive 2007 study called the Farlinger Report, in persuading Manitoba Hydro and the provincial government of the wisdom of running Bipole III, as the transmission line was called, down the west side of the lake– a longer, ostensibly more expensive route through more developed lands, much of it farmland, that would disturb less of the forest and would avoid the long, costly battle with the Ojibwe and the environmental groups supporting them that the east-side route was certain to provoke. I had visited the Ojibwe nation of Poplar River, whose homeland was and still is, in contrast with damn-devastated Cross Lake, untouched and breathtaking in its purity and majesty, and that fall I had returned to take an eight-day canoe trip down the Bloodvein River (also described in that Dispatch), in which we saw nothing human apart from our own expedition. I have visited many World Heritage sites around the world over the years, most recently western Thailand’s extraordinary Thung Yai Naresuan and Huai Khai Khaeng wildlife sanctuary complex on the Myanmar (Burma) border last November, and have spent months in the rain forests of the Amazon and Central Africa, and it was clear that Pimachiowin Aki, “The Land That Gives Life,” as the Objibwe call their wilderness homeland, is a magical, precious, world class ecological and cultural complex of “universal value,” the main criterion for a World Heritage site. The last I heard the battle over the route of Bipole III had been won and the arduous application process was going well.     But now, I learned, there is a new threat. The NDP, the New Democratic Party, has won the last three elections in Manitoba and is doing a great job running the province, and is completely behind Pimachiowin Aki’s World Heritage bid and the west-side route for Bipole III, but Hugh McFadyen, a Progressive Conservative and the official leader of the opposition in Manitoba, is running for Premier in the elections this October, and with the Conservatives on the ascendant throughout the country, he could win, and he is promising, if elected, to reverse the west-side decision and run Bipole III down the east side, thus, he claims, saving Manitoba’s taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. So I accepted this invitation to tour the east side with a number of influential people who understand what is at stake, among them David Suzuki, Canada’s iconic environmentalist, and some of the top people in the MacArthur Foundation, which supports aboriginal efforts to protect their way of life and their environment. Obviously we can’t let short-term ideological/business interests ruin this extraordinary parallel universe that is vital for us all. As if these aboriginal people, who are still recovering from the horror of the 140-year residential-school experience, haven’t been violated enough. On top of which, as I would discover, the numbers that McFadyen is throwing are highly questionable. Progressive conservative– there’s one for the dictionary of oxymorons. There is unfortunately nothing about McFadyen that is remotely progressive. He is one of those all too numerous myopic North Americans who just doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get that the boreal is the largest intact forest left on the planet, and a more important sink for atmospheric carbon than the Amazon or central African forests, and that Pimachiowin Aki is the wildest, most untouched part of it. That a World Heritage site would bring prestige and tourist dollars to the province. That running the Bipole down the east side is not the right thing to do– morally, ecologically, or even in the long run financially. If Mr, McFadyen really wants to establish some progressive cred., he should progress out of trying to sabotage this crucial designation for this exceptional wilderness. He is setting himself up, in the eyes of future generations to go down as one of the bad guys. This whole mindset needs to be retired, but sadly it is taking over North America, so we have a fight on our hands.     39 smart, interesting, and delightful people assembled in Winnipeg for the tour on May 25 and got a once in a lifetime blast of Pimachiowin Aki over the next two days. They included conservationists, scientists, foundation people, dignitaries including Manitoba’s Premier Greg Selinger, ,Manitoba’s Conservation Minister Bill Blaikie, and Eric Robinson, the Minister responsible for Northern and Aboriginal Affairs for the province; a film-maker who is making a documentary the intelligence of trees, and a seriously knowledgeable ornithologist and crack birder. Many of the participants are involved in various aspects of the project, but this was the first time they had actually visited the proposed site. The softspoken Sophia Rabliuskas of Poplar River, who had won the Goldman Award since I had last seen her, is the community coordinator and spokesperson for the Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Project. Pimachiowin Aki means “The Land That Gives Life”. Its total area is 43,000 square miles — the size of Denmark. The 150-page application for the prestigious UNESCO designation will be submitted to the government of Canada in September of 2011, and the IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature will assess the nomination document for its completeness and readiness to submit to the World Heritage Committee, whose approval usually takes eleven or so months. Once the application process has been embarked on, I was told, this basically means that the designation is going to be approved, although the application can be sent back for further information.     Two recent developments bode well for Bipole III not going down the east side and ruining Pimachiowin Aki’s chances for UNESCO designation. The NDP has done surprisingly well at managing Manitoba’s economy through the recent global economic meltdown. So the chances of Selinger being reelected are good, because the province is thriving economically, and you don’t want to fix something that isn’t broken, as one Winnepegger on the tour put it. And the NDP is on a roll, having supplanted the Liberal Party as the official opposition and become the second-most represented party and the official opposition in Ottawa for the first time. But you never know what any electorate is going to do, as the federal NDP’s unprecedented and completely unexpected sweep of Quebec demonstrates. As they say, you can’t lead a horse to water, the Winnepegger reminded me. Secondly, Poplar River First Nation has just been given official status for their traditional lands by the province of Manitoba, affording it an additional level of protection. No outside development can happen on and no transmission lines can be rammed through its magical 3500 ancestral acres. This status would have to be revoked, as well as Manitoba Hydro’s decision to go down the west side of the lake with its Bipole. Even if McFadyen were to win the election in October, the legal maneuvers available to delay his bid to revoke Poplar River’s land protection designation and reverse the Bipole decision until the World Heritage status is granted, whereupon the Land That Gives Life will be home free, would make it virtually impossible for him to fulfill his campaign promise, which as I told the Winnipeg Free Press, has about as much legs as the “birther” cornerstone of Donald Trump’s asinine presidential nomination bid. But it’s a long time till October, and anything can happen in politics. It ain’t over till it’s over, so the people who want the World Heritage site have to be vigilant and have their lawyers lined up and their legal ducks in a row. Later this year I may be writing about the Serengeti, a World Heritage Site through which the powers that be in Kenya and Tanzania and China are trying to run a major highway. Here’s a story about this equally important battle : http://www.africageographic.com/blogs/?p=770     McFadyen, appealing to the Scottish part of the Manitoban personality constellation that hates to part with money, as a Winnipegger quipped, has recently said that the east side route will cost every Manitoba family $11,000 in additional taxes, while the west side route will cost them $13.68. But how real is this ? Either way, Manitoba is going to have to put in a new converter, which will cost around one and a half billion dollars. This is the big expense. The difference of a few hundred miles of transmission line amount to a few hundred million. What McFadyen doesn’t say is that the cost of Bipole III will be amortized for 60 years, so the actual cost of the east side route to each Manitoban family will come to only $3 a year. So, McFadyen is playing a numbers game, and if you want to see his reasoning, see this Winnipeg Free Press article. A true assessment of the comparative costs of the two routes would be very helpful. What about the legal costs that Manitoba Hydro and a Tory provincial government will incur fighting the anti-east-siders, who will include the NRDC’s lawyers, veterans of many environmental wars, who specialize in confrontations like this. These guys are really good and passionate about environmental preservation. Robert Kennedy Jr. was on our 2006 tour. He eats corporations for breakfast. And what about the salaries of the government and Hydro employees who will be kept busy responding to the actions of these lawyers for years, and the years of lost revenue from the juice that will not flow south while all this is being settled ? And what if Minnesota doesn’t buy the energy delivered by an east-side Bipole III because it is harming native people and the environment, as it has already intimated it is (not) going to do, and what if other potential consumers in America are leveraged by a consumer campaign to refuse energy from an eastside Bipole III ? Who is Manitoba Hydro going to sell it to? What will be the cost to Manitoba’s image in Canada and abroad, and to the government of Manitoba, if it craps on a prestigious World Heritage designation? How many dollars of lost business will that translate into? How many tourist dollars will not be spent ? If you add up all these real, long-term costs, the additional pricetag of going down the west side will probably be more than offset by the millions saved by not forcing a Bipole down the east side that nobody but McFadyen seems to want. So it’s looking good. And it’s obviously the right thing to do. If I were Hugh McFadyen, I’d find some other hot-button issue to base my campaign on, because he isn’t going to be able to deliver on this one. Or maybe his real agenda, a habitue of the Leg, the Manitoba legislature in Winnipeg, suggested, is that he wants to set the stage to privatize Manitoba Hydro, as he was instrumental in making happen with the provincial telephone system fifteen years ago ? If this it the plan, it is no justification for sacrificing the Land that Gives Life.     We spent most of Thursday at Bloodvein First Nation, where we were treated to a 15 minute speech by Martina Young Fisher, Bloodvein’s director of cultural affairs, which said it all. “I was born Blue Sky Eagle of the sturgeon clan,” she explained, “but I didn’t follow my culture, I wasn’t proud of it when I was growing up. I will give you some little teachings, because no one can know everything. Each of us has little gifts we must share to give balance, to know where we stand in the circle of life.” The red race, Martina went on, “has never disconnected from the creation, but we have to rekindle, because once you are disconnected from the creator and his creation [Martina's spirituality was a syncretic blend of traditional Ojibwe animism and the Catholicism she had been brought up to believe in], you disconnect from yourself. God blows his spirit into the water and the trees, not just the birds and the humans. Do you know that the trees can hear you? They know everything you can say or do. When the sun comes up in the east you welcome the creator and the life he gave you, which he can take away from you at any time. We were put on this earth to travel and learn. The Red race was given that gift to look after Mother Earth. The white race was given fire. But they have to look after that fire in a good way. I open the television sometimes and it hurts me here [she clutched her heart] when I see explosions and people dying. The same way when I see hydro dams destroying our rivers….” I hope a video of Martina’s complete talk can be posted on YouTube because it needs to be heard by as many people as possible, particularly by Manitobans, most whom have never experienced the vast expanses of their own forest in the east of their province, much as most Brazilians have never been to the Amazon.   Click here for an audio Mp3 of Martina’s Speech      The animism of the Ojibwe, which has survived a hundred years of missionaries’ efforts to stomp it out, is having a rebirth. In traditional Ojibwe thinking, trees and rocks are animate, not just animals. Grammatically, in Ojibwe, a rock is animate. This belief system is I think a natural spiritual response to the extraordinary singularity and clarity of the individual life forms in this lake-studded, river-streaked forest. Each tree and rock stands out and sears into your being. You cannot help but be permeated with a sense of kinship with all life. It is not unlike the Iroquois concept of orenda, a supernatural force that according to traditional Iroquoise believe, is present, in varying degrees, in all objects or persons, and to be the spiritual force by which human accomplishment is attained or accounted for. But to the Ojibwe, plants, trees, rocks, and animals are also classified as persons. Humans are just one type of person. A person you have to keep your eye on. So Pimachiowin Aki, this vast forest wilderness and the native people living in it, who have an ancient, sacred relationship with it, is indeed a parallel universe–a relict nature-connected animist culture embedded in the dominant, modern money culture, as different a reality as Dinetah, the land of the Navajo. After a scrumptious lunch of walleye we went for a spin up the Bloodvein in half a dozen outboards and got out at the rapids where I had put out six years earlier. And there was a group of canoeists who had just finished the same eight-day trip. I knew the state of euphoria they were in after eight days of passing through nothing but the Zen purity and vibrance of the broken-off chunks of the shield lying in the water and the wind-sculpted pines, how completely they had been cleansed of all the mental spam they had come in with. They were completely blown away to be suddenly joined by this large party of people and t.v. Cameras and the premier himself. The looks on their faces were priceless. This can’t be happening. Am I hallucinating ? We flew on southeast to Aiken Lake, where we spent the night at Aiken Lodge, a high-end fishing resort. The biggest fish in the lake, bigger even than the pike and the lake trout, is something I had never heard of called the burbot or the mariah, Lota lota. It is the only freshwater member of the cod family and has flesh that tastes like “poor man’s lobster.” I tried to catch one without success, which is just as well. There are many things to be discovered in this wilderness. Lake sturgeon, some of the last big herds of woodland caribou, wolverine (this is the southern limit of their range). We saw a lot of eagles. Merlins and great grey owls lurk in the conifers. I saw a great grey last time. Huge and very imposing.     We all came away from our tour of Pimachiowin Aki with the feeling that the question of where Bipole III will be routed is a historic issue for Manitoba and its native people and the boreal forest, which is absolutely exceptional (or quintessentially and primevally representative of the boreal shield ecozone) here. It’s also a historic issue for Canada. Is Canada going to sell its natural splendour down the river, which the Harper government, a clone and client of the Bush regime, seems to have no qualms about doing? It’s a much greater issue than I had even realized. So let’s make sure we, or more important, Manitoban voters, do the right thing. The future of this magnificent wilderness heritage of the Ojibwe and in the greater sense all of us lies in their hands. For a hauntingly beautiful video of the Boreal with heavy-duty Ojibwe/Blues fusion music by the the band tribe of one (click name for more information on the group) click here. Want to learn more about this issue? Check out the links below! Heart of the Boreal Pimachiowin Aki Website Land that Gives Life NRDC BioGem (Heart of the Boreal Forest) CPAWS Manitoba East Side Lake Winnipeg Western Canada Wilderness Committee – Manitoba link to the East Side Lake Winnipeg campaign

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Landmark legal victory could end clearcut logging in Grassy Narrows Territory

(Toronto) – Yesterday the Grassy Narrows First Nation (Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek) won a major victory in their more than decade long battle to stop clearcut logging in their traditional territory.  Grassy Narrows Chief and Council welcome the decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to protect the rights promised to the Anishinaabe from interference by Ontario.  Madam Justice Mary-Anne Sanderson’s decision, over 300 pages in length, finds that the Government of Ontario does not have the power to take away the rights in Treaty 3 by authorizing development including logging and mining.

This decision will set the stage for proper recognition and protection of those rights and, even more importantly, will help protect the Anishinaabe way of life in Northwestern Ontario.  Grassy Narrows hopes that this will be a turning point in this battle.  We expect that real protection for the endangered boreal forest and our way of life will be put in place immediately.

Joseph Fobister, one of the trappers who were plaintiffs in this case said, “this is a victory for our people.  We have struggled for many years to save our way of life in the face of uncontrolled clearcutting, which has contaminated our waters and destroyed our lands.”  Mr. Fobister also thanked the people of Grassy Narrows and the supporters who have stood by the community in the fight against clearcut logging.

Chief Simon Fobister urges the Governments of Ontario and Canada to come to the table to negotiate a modern understanding that will fully respect and implement our rights.  Chief Fobister said that “this will require protecting the way of life of the Anishinaabe who were here before the logging industry came to these lands and will be here after the logging companies have moved on to other forests.”

This case describes the long history of the Anishinaabe and their fight to hold the Government of Canada to the promises made in Treaty 3. Grassy Narrows calls on Canada and Ontario to honour the spirit and intent of this decision by moving to eliminate clearcut logging in Grassy Narrows Traditional Territory and to develop a meaningful new approach to the management of this territory in partnership with Grassy Narrows.

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