Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 11/98) - Going back millennia, Dene and Inuit cultures have held the idea of a sustainable environment as a sacred creed.

Hunters are taught not to waste game or kill more caribou than they can use. Elders cringe at the thought of younger Northerners destroying trees needlessly.

And though southerners are quick to wag fingers at NWT wolf hunters, there are many Northerners who share their same base sentiment: that Mother Earth is sacred.

That is why people in all communities -- from Fort Smith to Chesterfield Inlet to Sanikiluaq -- are thinking of ways to reduce waste and ensure purity of the almost unimaginably vast wonderland in their back yards.

"We had a tailings pond project that they're trying to get revegetated," said Dennis Althouse, a utilidor assistant manager in Rankin Inlet.

"They filled it in with gravel, and of course there is not too much organic material in gravel so it will take a while for plants to get rooted in the ground."

Another option was to fill the pond with solid waste from the sewage treatment plant, but nothing happened.

"It takes a long time for things like that to decompose," Althouse said. "It takes heat, so it takes us a long time for Mother Nature to recover from it."

Meanwhile, a little further north in Iqaluit, a new program has started involving young offenders between the ages of 13 and 18.

They go around town collecting bottles, newspapers and cans.

"The main reason we do this is so the kids get out in town and give something back and learn the importance of not messing up the environment," said program co-ordinator Dean Gambin.

In Inuvik, conservation education officer Daryl English said he talks to kids about the importance of not littering.

With the Stanley Cup playoffs in full swing and a ball hockey league starting for the summer, English, who is also president of the Inuvik Minor Hockey League, said one way people can spread an environmental message is to help kids by getting them to reuse older hockey equipment.

"Unfortunately we don't even have a place that they can give the stuff to so we can distribute it for the community."