Lisa Scott
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 28/04) - "May they walk in beauty along these same paths."

Jamie Bastedo launched his guided tour of Niven Lake last Friday with this sentiment pulled from his Yellowknife trail guide, Blue Lake and Rocky Shore.

The quote was fitting for the theme of the Earth Week walk, which focused on the struggle to maintain the nature trail amid encroaching development.

Ecology North promised a lively lunchtime walk and the dozen people who braved the weather for the tour received just that.

"It's a gem," Bastedo said of the two km trail, where roads and houses are popping up as quickly as century-old spruce trees are coming down.

"There's a huge amount of urban influence trying to change it," he said.

Snippets of history were thrown out during the walk, recounting the origin of "Shit Lake" as it was known to locals during its years as a sewage dump, to recent troubles reconciling the bird sanctuary with a 100-house development.

It is possible to integrate nature with development, said Bastedo.

"There's a lot of goodness in this trail, if we can keep it as it is," the author and naturalist said.

Drawing people out onto the land was one of the purposes of the walk, organized by Ecology North, the group responsible for Earth Week activities from April 17-29.

There were no developers or city councillors among the crowd that followed on Bastedo's heels, but Krista Domchek, an Ecology North board member, was still happy with the turnout.

"It has a lot of history. People have been enjoying it for years and it is a contentious issue right now," she said, referring to a recent dispute over a right-of-way cut beside the trail.

Domchek summed up the significance of Niven Lake for the community: "Places like Niven Lake make Yellowknife home."