Announcement to protect our Provincial Park!
Aug 1, 2008
Recently, the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario announced a joint agreement that will protect the pristine wilderness inside of our incredible park. We are located inside Atikaki Park, and Ontario has a mirror-image park on their side of the border called Woodland Caribou Park. These parks were formed to protect habitat for the protected Woodland Caribou. The whole area is being targeted as a possible UNESCO Heritage Area. This is a prestigious international designation that would further protect future development inside the park. We are very fortunate to have our own little slice of Eden right in the middle of it all! This announcement can only help us as we continue to find new ways to become "greener" inside the park. Below is the announcement in the Winnipeg Free Press from July 30, 2008.
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Breaking News
Provinces protect wilderness area
Manitoba and Ontario joined forces today to protect a 9,400 square-kilometre wilderness area that straddles both provinces.
Manitoba's Natural Resources Minister Stan Struthers said the move is a significant step towards nominating the area as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The protected area includes Woodland Caribou Provincial Park and the Eagle-Snowshoe Conservation Reserve in Ontario and Atikaki Provincial Park and parts of Nopiming Provincial Park in Manitoba. Struthers and Ontario's Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield also said the partnership is the first in Canada between two provinces to manage such a large area from logging, mining and other development. Cansfield said a benefit of the partnership is that officials from both provinces now have a better means of studying and protecting woodland caribou. "These little critters have four feet," she said, explaining the caribou don't recognize provincial boundaries. Struthers also said the signing of an agreement between the two provinces coincided with Manitoba releasing its management plan for Atikaki Provincial Park and the Bloodvein Canadian Heritage River. That plan is another step required as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination on the east side of Lake Winnipeg.