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Five Fish Lakes moves closer to protection

Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, November 18, 2010

TTHEK'EHDELI/JEAN MARIE RIVER - A series of five lakes located southwest of Jean Marie River has moved a step closer to receiving permanent protection.

On Nov. 12 the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment announced it has agreed to sponsor a series of lakes called Five Fish Lakes, known in Slavey as Lue Tue Sulia, as a candidate protected area. News of the sponsorship was well received in Jean Marie River, said Margaret Ireland.

NNSL photo/graphic

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment has agreed to sponsor the Five Fish Lakes, located southwest of Jean Marie River, as a candidate conservation area. - map courtesy of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment

"I'm excited about it," Ireland said.

Ireland, who focuses on community resources and pipeline negotiations for Jean Marie River First Nation, was asked in 2007 by the chief and council to find a way to protect the area. The initiative stemmed from the community's traditional knowledge study finished in 2004.

"We started talking about how important those five lakes are to us," Ireland said.

Five Fish Lakes is two separate areas covering approximately 180 square kilometres and including Ekali, Sanguez, McGill, Deep and Gargan lakes.

"Traditionally it's been used for years and years," Ireland said about the area.

Before Jean Marie River was established as a permanent community people spent their winters living around the lakes and travelled back to the area of the community in the summer. The lakes were rich in fish, Ireland said.

The lakes are considered important because the elders believe an underground stream connects them. Fish are known to move between Ekali and Deep Lake, she said.

The community has been using the NWT's Protected Areas Strategy to gain permanent protection for the lakes so they are secure for future generations, said Ireland.

The lakes are currently protected under the Dehcho First Nations' interim land withdrawal and have also been identified as a conservation zone in the Dehcho Land Use Plan.

Securing a sponsorship agency is the third of eight steps under the Protected Areas Strategy. The band requested the Department of

Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) sponsor the area last November.

"You want to carefully consider everything when you get a request like this to sponsor an area," said Darren Campbell, the manger of public affairs and communications with the department.

Over the course of a year the territorial government reviewed the request and made sure it had enough resources in place to properly participate in the process, Campbell said.

This is only the second time the government has sponsored an area, the first was Buffalo Lake, River and Trails near Hay River.

If Five Fish Lakes receive protection the area will become a new territorial park. The designation

would give surface protection but sub-surface rights will have to be negotiated between the band and the federal government, Campbell said.

The ability to secure sub-surface protection has been a concern, said Ireland in light of Edehzhie. Last month the federal government announced it wouldn't be renewing sub-surface protection for Edehzhie, an area that is a candidate to become a national wildlife area.

"We're following what's going on with Edehzhie quite closely," she said.

In spite of concerns the band is moving forward with the next step in the process that includes establishing a working group that will make recommendations on the area's designation, boundaries and management.

The group will include two residents from Jean Marie River.

Letters will soon be going out to all third parties that also have an interest in the area.

"After the working group is put together I'm sure we'll be moving forward," said Ireland.

The band has also started work on the fifth step that involves collecting additional traditional and scientific information about the area's ecological, cultural and economic values.

It will still take a number of years to work through the rest of the strategy's process and secure protection, said Ireland.

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