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RADILIH KOE'/FORT GOOD HOPE
Saving Canada's boreal forest means giving proposed conservation areas in the Northwest Territories permanent protection now, experts say, which is exactly what one NWT working group is trying to achieve.

In a report released in July, the International Boreal Conservation Science Panel stated at least 50 per cent of Canada's boreal forest should be protected from development. Canada's boreal forest stretches from the Yukon all the way to Newfoundland and Labrador.

"Maintaining the full complement of species, communities and ecosystem services in the Canadian boreal forest requires that at least half of the area be protected from industrial disturbance," the report stated.

The forest is one of the world's largest land-based storage areas for carbon, preventing it from entering the atmosphere, and contains some of the largest wetlands, lakes and undammed rivers on Earth.

"It's the largest area of intact forest in the boreal zone and one of the largest areas of intact forest on the globe," said Jeff Wells, senior scientist for the International Boreal Conservation Campaign and one of the report's authors. "To maintain that set of values, current science is telling us you need to protect at least 50 per cent of the landscape from large scale industrial development if you want to keep those things."

About 16 per cent of Canada's boreal forest is located in the Northwest Territories, Wells said.

More than 15,000-square-kilometres worth of the boreal is found within Ts'ude niline Tu'eyeta, also known as the Ramparts River and Wetlands, according to Parks Canada.

In a report released March 2012, the Ts'ude niline Tu'eyeta working group recommended 62 per cent - or 10,103 square kilometres - of that area be designated a National Wildlife Area.

The decision about whether to federally protect the area now rests with Environment Canada, after the K'ahsho Got'ine District Lands Corporation made a formal request earlier this year.

Environment Canada is still working on its decision, said Mark Johnson, the department's spokesperson.

"Once the review of the proposal is complete, a decision will be made on the proposed Ts'ude niline Tu'eyeta National Wildlife Area," Johnson stated in an e-mail.

Winston McNeely, president of the Metis Association Local 54, said in addition to ecological value, the area is culturally important to the people who live in the area - the K'asho Got'ine Dene and Metis.

"It's a good hunting and trapping area. (There's) lots of game in that area," McNeely said. "The community would like to protect it because there is getting to be so much oil activity. We're really trying to protect the animals in that area from that type of stuff."

The Yamoga Land Corporation, the K'asho Got'ine Dene Band, Fort Good Hope Metis Local, Fort Good Hope Renewable Resources Council, the Canadian Wildlife Service, The Association of Mackenzie Mountains Outfitters, and other representatives from the federal and territorial governments comprised the working group that made its recommendations to Environment Canada.

McNeely, a member of the working group, said establishing it as a National Wildlife Area under the Canada Wildlife Act will protect the land, water and animals contained within Ts'ude niline Tu'eyeta.

"We want to protect it for future generations that can hunt and fish in that area," he said.

A variety of species that make their homes in Ts'ude niline Tu'eyeta have been designated as threatened or species of special concern by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), information from Parks Canada stated.

The mountain population of Woodland caribou, peregrine falcons and northwestern population grizzly bears are all species of special concern. Threatened species include the boreal population of woodland caribou.

McNeely said protecting the area would benefit not just the animals, but the people who rely on them.

"It used to be that there were lots of trappers and hunters in that area, but the fur price is coming back now so I imagine there's going to be a lot of hunting and trapping in that area again," said McNeely.

McNeely said while there is currently no oil and gas activity taking place in the area, he and other residents are worried that could change.

Since 2006, no prospecting permits, claims or exploration leases have been granted within the study area.

The land withdrawal is scheduled to expire in November 2013.

In the 2012 report, the K'asho Got'ine Dene and Metis recommended 33 per cent of the original area be excluded from the boundary to allow for future development.

Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, said the recommendation was in line with the chamber's position. The chamber was another member of the working group.

"The concern we expressed is when you lock up land in a national wildlife area or a park, you lock it up forever," he said. "You can never have development there."

Hoefer said the chamber would like the area to be under the jurisdiction of the Sahtu Land Use Plan instead, which would allow for a review every five years. Designating an area as a National Wildlife Area under the Canada Wildlife Act means it cannot be developed at any time.

"A land use plan is set up so its revisited every five years, so in five or 10 years time from now, we could see technology change. We could see our understanding of geology change," Hoefer said.

He said technological improvements could allow developers to realize minerals or oil and gas in areas previously thought to be void of development potential.

Hoefer said while some evaluations have taken place within Ts'ude niline Tu'eyeta over the years to determine prospective development, they have been minimal.

"We just don't know a lot about resources and our potential in the North. We don't know what's actually there," he said. "Our concern is if you lock up the land forever now, then you lose an opportunity potentially in the future."

Hoefer said as technology improves and if development leaves less of a footprint on the environment, residents in the future could decide to open the area to development.

"It also allows time for communities to change their expectations," he said.

But Wells said failing to make protection permanent means just that.

"The flip side of that is that the more you leave open for development, the less you have for maintaining the conservation values," he said.

Wells said allowing for future development in areas that would ideally be protected means potentially losing those areas and the animals that live there.

"It's a business-as-usual approach that the rest of the world has taken and we've already seen it fail. It's clearly a mistake to go down that path."

McNeely said he hopes future residents recognize the ecological as well as economic value of the land. He said he will continue to push to protect Ts'ude niline Tu'eyeta.

"I think they should stick to it and get it protected for future generations," he said.

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