Justin Trudeau joins campaign launch to expand Nahanni National Park Reserve
May 11, 2005Ottawa - Justin Trudeau joins Becky Mason, Dehcho First Nations Grand Chief Herb Norwegian and two world-renowned scientists at the National Library and Archives, tonight at 7 p.m. for a national conservation organization's campaign launch to save a boreal wilderness jewel threatened by proposed mining. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society's (CPAWS) public campaign is aimed at convincing the federal government to expand Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories -- already designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site -- to protect the entire watershed.
The campaign is urgent because Canadian Zinc, a junior mining company, is trying to open a mine in the watershed. Just last week, the NWT Supreme Court ruled that the company could seek permission to re-build a long closed winter road to the Prairie Creek mine site without undergoing an environmental assessment. Scientists fear that the road could damage globally unique, delicate limestone caves and other "karst" formations found in the Nahanni.
"We're asking the federal government to make an immediate commitment to protect the entire watershed now, because the national park reserve includes only a corridor along part of the South Nahanni River, leaving it and the surrounding area vulnerable to pollution coming from upstream industrial developments such as the Prairie Creek mine site," says CPAWS Northern Conservation Specialist Alison Woodley.
"The Nahanni is one of those places that future generations will judge us by: it is one of the most extraordinarily beautiful, unsullied areas on earth. When I stood above Virginia Falls two years ago, I pledged to see completed the work my father started in creating this park 30 years before. It is our collective responsibility as Canadians to fully protect this extraordinary wilderness river,"says Trudeau.
The federal government promised in 2002 to expand the national park boundaries. "But we need an immediate federal commitment to protect the entire South Nahanni watershed, and stop the mine. Otherwise we could lose the opportunity to save this unique boreal wilderness while the government conducts park boundary feasibility studies," says Woodley.
"The Nahanni is the sword in Dehcho stone. It has been sacred as our stronghold for many generations. It protects us as we have protected it from time immemorial" says Dehcho Grand Chief Norwegian, who in addition to representing his people, is an active harvester and hunter, and spends as much time as possible on traditional lands .
Geologist Derek Ford, who will also be speaking tonight, is the world-leading authority on "karst" landforms whose research on the park's unique limestone caves contributed to the Nahanni's designation as UNESCO's first natural World Heritage Site in 1978. He's joined by conservation biologist John Weaver of the Wildlife Conservation Society who has extensively studied grizzly bears and caribou in the greater Nahanni region. Both of these articulate and entertaining scientists strongly support CPAWS' drive to expand the national park reserve boundaries in order to safeguard the region's ecological health.
The "Celebrate the Wild Nahanni" evening also includes stunning visual images, some by canoeing legend and filmmaker Bill Mason, father of guest speaker Becky Mason, an artist and canoeing virtuoso in her own right. Harvey Locke, CPAWS Senior Conservation Advisor and long-time Nahanni advocate will host the evening. There will also be a raffle for trips down both the Nahanni and Quebec's Dumoine Rivers.
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Contacts:
Jill Sturdy
(613) 569 7226 ext. 232
Media Coordinator
Alison Woodley
(613) 569 7226 ext. 227
CPAWS Northern Conservation Specialist
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is Canada's voice for wilderness. Since 1963, CPAWS has helped to protect over 40 million hectares of Canada's most treasured wild places. For further information about our Nahanni and Boreal Forest Conservation campaigns, visit www.cpaws.org.
CPAWS is working with other conservation groups, the Dehcho and other First Nations and industry to conserve Canada's entire boreal region, as signatories to the Canadian Boreal Initiative's Boreal Forest Conservation Framework.
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