Seeing Churchill from all angles
U of M students show Parks Canada merits of education
Pete Hettinga
In August a group of 18 U of M science students departed for a 37-hour train ride into the frigid outback of Churchill, Manitoba. “Why waste what could potentially be the best part of the summer?” I was asked by a friend. Truthfully, I had asked myself this, but the reward of 6 credit hours loomed, until my only choice regarding Churchill was whether I would buy beer in Winnipeg or just wait until I arrived.
Firstly, for those of you who have never taken a field course, it is more hard work than you think. It is wise to prepare for the worst; unfortunately this means lugging an infinitely large pack and having to cut down on all non-necessities you pack, such as clothes and (gasp) beer. It is also good to prepare for the course by doing any assigned readings and assignments before having to first meet and make eye contact with your prof. (you know, the one even polar-bears are afraid of).
Our assignment was to suck in the Churchill experience. If that wasn’t enough, we had to report on it, too. This report was to help Parks Canada make a plan on how to manage tourism in nearby Wapusk National Park. Wapusk is the second National Park to be created in Manitoba (the first was Riding Mountain National Park, which is close to Dauphin).
Wapusk isn’t Banff and it isn’t Wyoming, but it does have some very exciting features. Most of the landscape is tundra, which can be likened to a steep mountain turned on its side with shallow lakes and pockets of vegetation. Cree and Inuit Peoples managed to use the area sustainably for centuries, and our assignment was to determine how this pattern can remain uninterrupted while still being accessible to tourists.
After a twenty minute helicopter ride out to a remote camp in Wapusk, most of us were struck by the severity of what we encountered. Perhaps to the Inuit these conditions were okay, but to me, Mr. City, the wind and lack of telephone, Internet and (gasp) beer was enough to make me revert back to one of Freud’s early stages of development.
This would have been appropriate as the camp, much like a crib, was surrounded by an enormous chain fence at least twelve feet high. The park warden told us it was to keep polar bears out, but I suspect that its actual purpose was to keep us from trying to escape and return to civilization.
I became increasingly comfortable being penned in after being told the dangers of polar bears, which are cute only in appearance. For safety, the guards (of which there were several) had firearms loaded with cracker shells for inside the camp, or actual slugs for outside. Several botany and ecology students were permitted to leave camp in order to identify local flora, but only if a guard was available.
It was on one such occasion that one student (thanks Mark) pointed out a white blur on the horizon. It turned out to be a young male polar bear 200 yards out and closing in. We were right by camp and returned promptly. After this, I never questioned my position inside the fence.
While there were multiple opportunities to see polar bears and polar bear cubs in their natural habitats, our evaluation of tourism in the area was much more encompassing.
Traditionally, most tourism takes place in Churchill in October, when the polar bears are returning to the ice of Hudson’s Bay. During this time, Churchill’s resident population balloons up to 2,000 large, relative to its winter population of only 800. However, many of the tourists who go to Churchill at this time spend little time appreciating the rest of the area, like its cultural history or its sheer nothingness. By meeting and talking to representatives of local Indigenous groups, as well as tourism operators, we got a full composite of what potential this area has, much of which goes unnoticed.
Close to the time we were about to leave Churchill and return to Winnipeg, we met with the Parks Canada superintendent of Wapusk National Park and presented our findings to him. Basically, we recommended that in order to maintain the ecological integrity of the area, tourist development in the park should proceed slowly and cautiously. We warned against repeating the mistakes made in parks such as Banff, where the needs of outside tourists are met while the needs of local wildlife are ignored.
While Wapusk will likely never be as visited by Canadians as Banff, at this stage in the climate change game, it is important that we put preservation on the agenda for future park development.
For more information:
Wapusk National Park -
Professor Ryan Brook (email) - umbrook1@cc.umanitoba.ca
