NEWS ON THE BIG WILD
Nahanni Protected... FOREVER!
by Aaron Pettigrew | June 9, 2009Today Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced the final boundaries for a massive expansion of Nahanni National Park Reserve -- a renowned World Heritage Site in the Northwest Territories.
The newly expanded Nahanni is nearly seven times the size of the original park reserve. It will permanently protect over 30,000 sq. km of big wild Boreal wilderness, an area roughly the size of Vancouver Island!
The announcement of final boundaries comes almost two years after Prime Minister Harper and former Environment Minister Baird promised to expand the park, and crowns years of work by CPAWS, the Dehcho First Nations, Parks Canada and others to permanently protect the iconic wilderness of the South Nahanni watershed.
You've probably seen the campaign featured here on The Big Wild, where we've collected petitions and raised funds to protect the area. And you may have seen posters inviting your support for CPAWS’ Nahanni Forever campaign in Mountain Equipment Co-op stores last year. Thousands of people signed postcards and sent letters to tell the government that they wanted the area fully protected. Together, our efforts paid off!
The Nahanni is of spiritual importance to local First Nations. Its river, forests, deep canyons, and unique limestone caves and formations are also important habitat for woodland caribou, grizzly bears, mountain goats and Dall’s sheep. The South Nahanni River, with a waterfall twice the height of Niagara, is a whitewater paddler’s dream destination. Learn more about The Nahanni on CPAWS' excellent website: http://www.cpaws.org/programs/nahanni
Join CPAWS and The Big Wild in celebrating this historic victory. Send the Prime Minister a letter, thanking him for protecting this national treasure.
And above all, thank you for your support in helping protect Canada’s Big Wild places!
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Prime Minister Harper;
Our park reserves are important to my children
and future generations. Thank you so much for your
initiative to protect the great Nahanni wilderness
parklands. I'm proud to be a Canadian.
Congratulations to all who worked towards protecting this area, and congrats to all fellow Canadian who will subsequently benefit from the protection of this great area.
Way to go Mr Harper. My Brother in laws had the priviledge of paddling the Nahanni in 2000 and they were amazed by all they saw. Thanks for protecting this area for future Canadians to enjoy.
A big thanks to everyone who stuck with the process and saw this through to the end -- persistence has paid off!
Hats off the PM that can not only protect land, but also keep our industry from shutting down. I work as a part of the Oil Sands, but love nature. Its nice to see whats given back for whats taken.
I guess I better find the cash to get up there and kill a Dall Sheep and big old Grizzly Bear before you granolas turn it into a park!!
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