Vol.33 No.4 | 2014 Published by the Wilderness Committee FREE REPORT Wild MANITOBA 5 NATURAL TREASURES AT RISK PRESERVING MANITOBA’S WILDERNESS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS Eric Reder areas the Manitoba government forest degradation are cost-effective Manitoba needed to preserve1 (you can read options for tackling the climate crisis.2 Campaign about the current state of these areas This is just one more reason why Director on the back of this publication). protecting more of Manitoba’s forests Maintaining healthy intact areas is in everyone’s best interest. protects biodiversity – the variety of Unfortunately, the Canadian life and natural processes that occur government has been slow to in the wild. All this contributes to respond to dire climate warnings; hen I was out on the Bird healthy ecosystems and a healthier instead it has drastically weakened WRiver one afternoon, a furry Manitoba. a number of environmental laws. In head popped above the water and In a functioning ecosystem, there 2012, federal policy-makers began a peered at our approaching canoe. are many naturally disturbing dismantling Photo top: Sunrise in Duck Mountain Provincial Park, above: Moose (Mike Grandmaison). In a moment, another head broke occurring processes that OUR TARGET: of protection for water, the surface, and a pair of curious help make a healthy To see 20% of starting with the river otters watched us paddle environment for us. Manitoba protected gutting of the Fisheries Read on to find out more past. Memories like this remind me These processes are by the year 2020. Act and the Navigable about the key areas we’ve how fortunate I am to be able to known as "ecosystem Waters Protection Act. selected in Manitoba, where experience wild Manitoba – and services." Manitobans The next five protection is urgently needed they’re memories that many of us in benefit from a variety of ecosystem hotspots we’ve chosen as priorities to safeguard forests, local the province share. services, including pollination, erosion for protection encompass waterways wildlife, community health It is easy for Manitobans to take for prevention, weather stabilization and that are at risk. With the loss of and a stable climate. granted that the lakes and rivers of protection against climate change. federal protection for these and the boreal – the destinations of our Lowland peat bogs absorb carbon other rivers and lakes across the summer weekend excursions – will and filter freshwater, and forests pull province, new provincial legislation always be there. But the reality is carbon dioxide and pollutants out of is essential in order to protect that even with vast sections of the the air while releasing oxygen – which waterways in Manitoba. province’s wild lands and waters helps maintain a stable climate. The Wilderness Committee is in public hands, development The latest report from the advocating for 20 per cent of Manitoba is eating away at wilderness, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate to be protected by the year 2020. So harming our wildlife, our fresh Change (IPCC), released in April 2014, far, just over 10 per cent of the province water and our forests. warns of grave consequences if we wait has been protected. A healthy future In 2009, the Wilderness Committee any longer to take action to reduce depends on preserving Manitoba’s launched our first Conservation climate-changing greenhouse gas natural heritage, and to reach our goal, Hotspots paper, and listed five key emissions. It also says activities that limit we’ll have to work together. Photo: Boreal oak (Eric Reder). 1 Nunavut LowER BIRD RIVER n a w Hudson e PROPOSED PROTECTED AREA h Churchill Bay c t a k or more than a hundred corporation Tembec had plans to s a Fkilometres, the Bird River flows raze the forest along the river. Local S through protected lands – from its intervention stopped this plan. Wapusk Kaskatamagan Wildlife origins in Ontario’s Woodland Caribou Now, a new threat has emerged. National Management Area Park Provincial Park toward the Winnipeg Cabot Corporation, which operates River. Valued as a remote yet the nearby TANCO tantalum mine, accessible wilderness river, every year wants to drain part of Bernic Lake the Bird River introduces thousands – a lake already facing water quality Gillam Polar Bear of people to the joys of canoeing in impacts since the mine has been in Provincial Park 4 o the Boreal Shield. For nearly its entire operation – into the Bird River. Thompson ri ta length, the banks of the Bird River are The Wilderness Committee is Manitoba n O protected from development. proposing to safeguard the lower Flin Grass River Flon Provincial Park The lower Bird River, as it flows stretch of the river that remains 0 100 200 km into Lac du Bonnet and the unprotected, with additional Poplar/Nanowin Rivers Provincial Winnipeg River, is teeming with protection covering at least 1.5 Park Reserve cottage activity. Studies have shown kilometres on either side of the The Pas Legend that the the lower Bird River is so waterway. Protecting the Bird River Red Deer Lake Existing Provincial ParOk Bnotuanrdiaories popular that the river has reached its by establishing this new freshwater Wildlife Asatiwisipe Aki Conservation Hotspots - Proposed Protected Areas ecological carrying capacity, and that protected area, in addition to Management Area Protected Area Lake Lake Existing Protected Areas diminishing wildlife, fish stocks and new provincial water protection Winnipegosis Winnipeg Wildlife Management Areas 3 water quality are all on the horizon. legislation, will help preserve the Swan River Areas of Special Interest Between Nopiming Park and the quality of life and recreational Duck Mountain lower rapids, the Bird River meanders experiences on the Bird River. It will Atikaki Provincial Provincial Park for 17 kilometres. A decade ago this also help contribute to healthier n Park a stretch of river was the central feature water in the Winnipeg River and in w Dauphin e Nopiming - Owl Lake h Riding Mountain c in a fight over logging, as timber Lake Winnipeg. t Caribou Protected Area National Park Lake a Gimli k Manitoba Pine Falls s a Nopiming S Provincial Brandon Whiteshell Park Ontario Winnipeg Provincial Park Lower Bird River Protected Area United States Photo left: Lower Bird River, right: Red fox (Eric Reder). 2 RED DEER LAKE 3 DUCK MOUNTAIN Photo: Rose-breasted PROPOSED WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA PRoVINCIAL PARK loGGING BAN grosbeak (Mike Grandmaison). he proposed Red Deer Lake Wildlife operations in these wetlands would olling rugged hills and pristine with the fact that at least eight out TManagement Area (WMA) is a seriously compromise the health of the Rlakes make up the Duck Mountains of ten people thought logging wonderfully wild piece of Manitoba’s region. region of western Manitoba. Moose needed to be banned in provincial natural heritage. Situated on the There are many problems with meander through the mixed aspen parks. The Minister replied that he western edge of Manitoba between mining coal in Manitoba. Accessing the and evergreen forests, and trout thought the number of people who the Saskatchewan River Delta and the coal deposit located next to the Red can be found in the clear waters. wanted logging out of parks was Porcupine Hills, the area is a combination Deer WMA would require strip mining Duck Mountain Provincial Park is probably even higher. Unfortunately, of forested ridges and extensive – an extraction method that destroys one of Manitoba's first provincial the Manitoba government has lowlands entwined in winding rivers. landscapes, forests and wildlife habitat parks – a testament to the special just instilled logging in the Ducks The Manitoba government has already by stripping away plants, soil and trees place the Ducks have in the hearts of until 2019 by quietly giving timber identified this area for future protection, from the mining Manitobans. company Louisiana-Pacific Corp. an but the Wilderness Committee hopes area. In addition, Duck unprecedented six-year extension on to see much more land incorporated strip mining poses Mountain its existing environmental licence.9 into the plan. The area we’re proposing serious risks to water, Provincial There is a clear path forward for stretches nearly 80 kilometres in length, such as chemical Park also has Manitobans and for Duck Mountain and covers an area bigger than Duck contamination of the shameful Provincial Park, and that is to enact Mountain Provincial Park! both surface and distinction new legislation that ends logging Providing a home for endangered groundwater.6 These of being the in Duck Mountain Park once and species like woodland caribou and coal deposits are all last park in for all. It’s time for logging interests the piping plover, these mostly just a short distance Manitoba that to adjust their business models and undisturbed and intact ecosystems upstream of the still allows operate elsewhere, so Manitobans are important additions to Manitoba’s Red Deer WMA and Photo: Duck Mountain Provincial Park (Mike Grandmaison). logging. In fact, will get the real park protection they protected areas.5 There has been Manitoba's large lakes. along with Algonquin Park in Ontario, expect and deserve. very little invasive development in Furthermore, the eventual burning of it is one of only two parks in Canada this area over the years, which has so this coal will have an even more harmful that still allow logging. The Manitoba far allowed the rivers and waters to impact on our planet by contributing to government banned timber harvesting remain healthy. Unfortunately, climate change. in all parks – except Duck Mountain – in coal mining, diamond mining, and Preserving the Red Deer Lake area 2009.8 The federal government ended oil shale mining proposals have will safeguard its tremendous natural logging in national parks back in 1992.