FORESTS FOR TOMORROW
You can help support sustainable forestry and protect caribou habitat. Environment North will seek opportunities, including legal mechanisms, to ensure adherence to Forest Management Plans and the Crown Land Use Policy Atlas.
One area under threat is located north of Lake Nipigon and east of Wabakimi Provincial Park. This area has a special land use designation that prioritizes caribou, wildlife and remote tourism tourism, Crown Land Use Policy Atlas (CLUPA) 2616. Environment North and others have been attempting to ensure adherence of the Wabadowgang Noopming Forest Management Plan to CLUPA 2616.
Environment North Board member Bruce Hyer is leading the "Forests for Tomorrow" initiative.
Bruce is on the Local Citizens Committee (LCC) of the Planning Team for the Armstrong/Wabadowgang Noopming Forest. He is the Director and trip planner for Wabakimi Canoeing & Fishing Outfitters and a caribou scientist. He also serves as the Vice Chair of the Armstrong Local Citizens Committee (LCC).
To donate to the "Forests for Tomorrow" fund:
Click here for the donations page
Click here for the Environment North Canada Helps page. Use the drop down Fund menu to direct your donation.
Recommendations and concerns re: CLUPA 2616
At a minimum the proposed roads in CLUPA 2616 must be restricted to only temporary winter roads without gravel, and winter harvesting only!
In addition:
- What happens adjacent to and near Wabakimi Park will have large effects on park values (e.g. remoteness, undue access to caribou habitat and delicate ecosystems, lake trout lakes, and up to 5 years of summertime noise by road-building, logging, and hauling, right next to Tamarack Lake and the Boiling Sand River inside the park)
- Some important caribou habitat outside of the park is at great risk, due to proposed new roads and clearcuts. MNRF’s own 2014 report says that caribou are at risk on the Armstrong Forest, and that harvesting should be shifted to areas of lower value habitat with few or no caribou present.
- Valuable remote tourism outposts outside the park near Caribou Lake are about to be made unsustainable by gravel road access.