Canol Trail cleanup forges on
Safety hazards for man and beast removed from large stretch of tourist attraction
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Monday, October 24, 2016
LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS
After two years of cleanup work, nearly 250 kilometres of the Canol Trail has been cleared of dangerous telephone wire that has killed moose, caribou and presented a safety hazard to hikers.
In the photo above, hikers navigate one of the many water
crossing along the Canol Trail. - photo courtesy of Norman Yakeleya |
"The telephone wire has been a longstanding issue, particularly for the local people who knew that some large animals were getting entangled in the telephone wire and then unable to free themselves and dying out there," said Jess Fortner, the GNWT's manager of tourism and parks for the Sahtu region.
The Canol Trail is known to be a difficult wilderness hike. It measures 355 kilometres in length, running from Norman Wells to the Mackenzie Mountains before ending at the border of the Yukon.
It was created in the 1940s during the Second World War as a pipeline route that would secure access to oil from Norman Wells to allied troops.
It was abandoned after just one year, leaving asbestos, empty oil drums, crumbling buildings and contaminated soil that federal, territorial and local governments are still working to clear away today.
The telephone wire is the first step before a remediation project that is set to follow in the future.
Fortner worked with locals from Tulita and Norman Wells from August to September of 2015 to clean up mile 232 to mile 193 of the trail, which is approximately 70 kilometres from the Yukon border.
Fortner said the area is home to a great number of caribou.
This past summer the crew cleaned up another 128 kilometres of telephone wire from mile 193 of the trail to mile 93.
They still have 104 kilometres left to go, the funding for which comes on a year-to-year basis, Fortner said.
"It was the hardest part of the trail," he said. "In the middle of the trail, the roads were washed out."
They pulled out 27 antler racks this year alone.
A crew of about 30 people who worked in rotations set up camp along the trail where they stored food, fuel and equipment.
Fortner said they received training in chainsaw, ATV and helicopter safety before getting to work, and some were even trained as medics for the crew.
Not only has the project brought a number of different groups together for a common purpose, but it's created employment for young people in the Sahtu region.
Former Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya, who helped co-ordinate the cleanup in March 2015, said there are "big ideas, big goals, big dreams for the people in Tulita and Norman Wells."
He has been walking with youth on the land through the Canol Trail for 11 years and said they are the ones who deserve credit for getting the cleanup off the ground.
"The young hikers that hiked for the last 11 years on that trail and brought awareness to the wire out there - the federal government finally got it," Yakeleya said.
Fortner said the federal government transferred money to the GNWT to administer the project, which is carried out by the Doi T'ho Territorial Park Corporation, which is made up of entities involved in the district's land claim.
Although Yakeleya said he hopes to see local land corporations involved in the continued wire cleanup of the trail and the remediation that will follow.
If all goes as he hopes, the trail could eventually turn into a territorial park for all to enjoy.
"It's going to be one of the most beautiful parks," Yakeleya said.
"We've got to make it out there so they can enjoy (it)."
