LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Two adjoining national parks strengthened their ties last week.

The Nahanni National Park Reserve and the newer Naats'ihch'oh National Park Reserves share a boundary as well as the South Nahanni River. - map courtesy of Parks Canada

The Naha Dehe Consensus Team, through which Dehcho First Nations and Parks Canada co-manage the Nahanni National Park Reserve, and the Naats'ihch'oh Management Committee for the Naats'ihch'oh National Park Reserve met in Fort Simpson on March 11. It was the first time the members of both groups have met together.

The two parks are committed to working closely together given that they share a border, said Laani Uunila, Naats'ihch'oh's new superintendent.

In addition to a shared border, the parks also share the South Nahanni River. Naats'ihch'oh – located in the Sahtu, and formed in March 2012 – protects 70 per cent of the upper watershed of the South Nahanni River, which flows through the Nahanni National Park Reserve.

For the Naats'ihch'oh Management Committee, the meeting was a good opportunity to learn how the Nahanni has been managing a variety of items, including the experiences offered to visitors through interpretation, river and day trips and how businesses that work in the park are licensed, Uunila said.

It's expected that businesses already in the Nahanni National Park Reserve will also want to operate in the new park and that visitors will move between the two. The discussions also covered ecological considerations including the species the parks share, the monitoring that is done on those species and what the parks mean to their respective people.

"I think it's pretty informative," she said.

This marks the first summer that Naats'ihch'oh will operate.

"We're starting from the ground up," said Uunila.

The park currently has two staff, and also has to fill six positions as well as some summer student openings. Uunila said the staff and the management committee are excited about the opportunity.

"We'll be shaping a new national park, which is not done very frequently," she said.

Members of the Naha Dehe Consensus Team and staff at the Nahanni National Park Reserve were eager to share with the new park.

"There's room for great future collaboration," said Jonas Antoine, a member of the team. The meeting was a reminder of how people from the Sahtu traditionally travelled to the confluence of the Liard and Mackenzie Rivers in the spring and early summer to meet with people there, he said.

George Tsetso, a member of the consensus team, agreed that the meeting is the start of something larger.

"Everybody is going to work together towards the same goal," he said.

The two parks are both dedicated to the preservation of water and the land, he said. Tsetso was also appointed to be the Deh Cho representative on the Naats'ihch'oh Management Committee last summer.

During the meeting people on the team and the committee started to share their experiences, which will help the process of working together, he said.

The two groups are expected to meet in person once a year. Next year, the Sahtu region is set to host the meeting.