Shoe lake in Nopiming Park in a 'resource management' zone. Photo credit: Dave Nickarz
Nopiming
by Jake Holiday
The 1,492 sq. kilometre Nopiming Provincial Park is truly a special place. Named by the Anishinabe, it literally translates to "entrance to the wilderness". Part of our boreal landscape, it sits atop the `whiteshell', nestled against the Ontario border.
Nopiming characterizes much of Canada's Great Shield. Hundreds of crystal clear lakes puddled into Precam- brian granite dot the landscape. Rivers, streams and tributaries spread out fin- gerlike, winding their way through pris- tine forests of jack pine, black spruce, tamarack, birch and poplar. Nopiming is a place rich with marshy bogs and some luxurious summer weather, ideal for the comfort of millions of migratory and indigenous birds.
It is the home of Manitoba's south- ernmost herd of the threatened woodland caribou. From the casual to the extreme, for family camping and play, to rigorous hiking and canoeing in remote areas -- Nopiming Provincial Park has something for everyone...except, we argue, logging companies.
It is rich with the history of aborigi- nal settlement, which existed in harmony with the uniqueness and sacredness of the bountiful earth. Turn of the century trappers and prospectors have left their light footprints that are surrendering with time back to nature. Nopiming Park rep- resents a link where east meets west. In aboriginal cosmology, it is the spine, or sacred backbone of a great continent, where north and south converge.
This great nature preserve, presum- ably set aside for future generations, might not continue to hold the same magic and splendor we take for granted today. Why? Because the wildlife we see in relative abundance is rapidly succumb- ing to the pressures of what our govern- ment refers to as "resource manage- ment". There is extensive logging taking place, much of it clear-cut with little re- spect for nature. 885 sq. km. or 62% of the park will potentially fall prey to industrial exploitation if immediate ac- tion is not taken to wrest it back from industry. Pine Falls Paper Co. currently `manages' the resource extraction in this portion of the park.
It's beautiful, accessible, and it's part of Manitoba's priceless heritage. It's time to let government and industry know that we, as Manitobans, support the full pro- tection of Nopiming Provincial Park and demand an end to industrial clearcut log- ging -- in fact all logging -- within its boundaries.
