The Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is sponsoring a 12 city Canadian tour of their Three River’s conservation campaign to protect and maintain the ecological integrity of the Peel River Watershed, which includes the Snake, Wind, and Bonnet Plume Rivers. Presentations will feature a short film by Marten Berkman, which highlights the experiences of 8 artists who traveled to the region, and presentations by Juri Peepre (CPAWS Yukon conservationists) and other guests. CPAWS has worked closely with local First Nations communities and land-use planning committees in their campaign, and supports the common vision of area residents for greater regional autonomy, stewardship over natural resources, self-government, the protection of the watershed as a source of culture and identity, and input of community members and Elder’s Advisory Councils to the Peel Watershed Planning Commission. The cross-Canada tour starts out in Montreal on April 11, and finishes in Whitehorse on May 17.

Montreal – April 11
Ottawa – April 12
St. John’s – April 17
Halifax – April 18
Toronto – April 19
Winnipeg – May 8
Saskatoon – May 9
Calgary – May 11
Edmonton – May 12
Vancouver – May 14
Yellowknife – May 15
Whitehorse – May 17

A number of resources are available to learn more about the Three Rivers Project, Conservation Campaign, and National Tour. The Book, “Three Rivers – The Yukon’s Great Boreal Wilderness,” was shortlisted for the BC Book Prize, and can be purchased on-line from the CPAWS Yukon store, and elsewhere. CPAWS-Yukon maintains a webpage with news, and brochure. And if you’d like to get involved, you can visit the CPAWS Three Rivers Project, or Action Center for other northern issues (including the Churchill and Nahanni Rivers, and Sahoyúé – ehdacho Historical Site on Great Bear Lake).

Two exhibits open in New York featuring the prolific work of Victorian Era painter and naturalist John James Audubon. His stunning images were created from stills of birds and animals obtained in the wild, and differed from his contemporaries by being situated in their native habitat and in naturalistic poses. Audubon followed in the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin, as one of the early Americans elected a fellow of the London’s Royal Society. Born in Haiti, he came to natural history out of necessity, following the failure of several business ventures in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. He traveled widely with his prints and displays speaking to audiences about his technique of preparing and displaying birds, his ambition to survey and document wild lands, and seeking to raise money for his natural history expeditions and the publication of his works. The American Museum of Natural History exhibit, “The Unknown Audubons,” focuses on the last of his expeditions by steamboat up the Missouri River in 1843 with his son (a route traveled just 40 years earlier by Lewis and Clark). The trip resulted in numerous oils, watercolors and hand-colored lithographs, which formed the heart of his last great work: “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America” (1845-1848). The companion exhibit at the New York Historical Society, “Audubon’s Aviary,” features paintings and various multimedia displays including birdcalls and other media highlighting Audubon’s life, art and times. Both exhibits feature conservation and Victorian Era scientific goals as their focus. For more on Audubon’s life and times, there are any number of good books and biographies, including “Audubon’s Elephant,” by Duff Hart-Davis, and “Under a Wild Sky,” by William Souder.

The town of Inuvik, Northwest Territories, is the subject of a documentary film to debut at the New York Underground Film Festival by British filmmaker Mr. Young on April 1, 2007. Described as chilling and surreal, the film examines the imperfect balance of traditional and modern lifestyles, and features stories of hunting and trapping, the community’s greenhouse, the local SPCA chapter, and northern games and music. You can learn more about the film from the trailer, the production company’s website, or the withoutabox audience reviews. The initial release will also include a summer tour in the UK (with dates forthcoming).

March 29 marks the beginning of the Frozen Five expedition across Spitzbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard Archipelago. Expedition members range in age from 22-28, and will ski 1,000 km with five re-supply depots along the way. Highlights of their route include visits to a mining settlement, a polish research station, a research vessel frozen in sea ice, a trapper’s cabin, crossing fjords and glaciers, climbing peak Hornsundtind, and attempting to avoid the up to 3,000 polar bears that inhabit the Svalbard Islands. The expedition includes an education and outreach component, and will raise awareness for arctic issues and climate change through their website, school presentations, and various media presentations after their trip. You can keep track of the expedition on their blog, which features news, field reports (in four languages), and photos from their trip.

CBC reports on the agreement of Déline and Tlicho leaders to remediation and clean-up plans for uranium contamination at the abandoned Port Radium mine on the east side of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories. The mine was in production from 1930 to 1982, and was decommissioned and cleaned up according to the standards of the day. According to the government, “there are sill high radiation level areas and hazardous waste that need to be dealt with.” A $7 million contract was awarded to the Yellowknife Aboriginal Engineering Ltd., and will seek to employ a maximum number of people from Déline, which has a long history of community members working at the site. Cleanup is expected to last several years. The Déline Uranium Team has investigated claims of cancer and wild food contamination from the mine, and has produced a number of oral history videos and book retrospectives commemorating the mine workers, and the impact of uranium development on the community.

Sources:

• CBC: Déline and Tlicho Agreement, Clean-up Contract
• Deline Chief and Council and INAC: Action Plan: to address concerns raised by the community of Deline about risks to human and environmental health from exposure to radiation and heavy metals from the former Port Radium Mine, Great Bear Lake, NWT (Download PDF).
• NNSL News: Clean-up Contract, Canada-Deline Uranium Table Report, Action Plan
• Uranium Stories (Déline.ca)

Updates:

• Northern News Services: “Deline says no to further uranium development” (Jan. 21, 2008).

The documentary film Ullumi was recently shown at the Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois on 20 February 2007. It profiles Inuit co-directors of the film Evie Mark, Tunu Napartuk, Qajaaq and Lena Ellsworth, and provides stories and perspectives on contemporary Inuit life and the importance of language, education, self-government, and issues of concern to young adults and the filmmakers. A website based on the project has also been launched. It includes a number of flash media photo essays on Nunavik and Nunavut people and activities, and will soon be expanded (by September of 2007) to include a teacher toolkit and other resources in English, French, and Labrador Inuttitut. The website and film intend to reach both southern and northern audiences, and received funding from Telefilm Canada, Télé-Québec, Makivik Corporation, Kativik Regional Government, the Kakivak Association, and others.

She was struck by lightening in 1993 (Match to the Heart), her first book of prose received significant acclaim and won the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award (Solace of Open Spaces), and now she sets out on a year long journey of the Circumpolar North for a book “the Farthest North: The End of Ice” (to be published by the National Geographic). No stranger to the North, her book This Cold Heaven is a magisterial reflection on seven years of travel in Greenland, Inuit lives, the enigmatic and compelling Knut Rasmussen, fjords, glaciers, narwhals, and hunting expeditions. More an essayist than a naturalist, her books have a personal and intimate quality, and her themes are the infinite draw of the unknown, the impermanence and beauty of open spaces, and the connectivity of humans to wild lands. Her current expedition will last a year, and take her by dogsled, snowmobile, reindeer, and fixed wing airplane to Alaska, Sápmi, Nunavut, Greenland, Siberia, and Chukotka. She intends to document some of her experiences on her blog, and in various dispatches to NPR’s Morning Edition, National Geographic Magazine, a show of photographs and indigenous art, and a documentary film. The name of her expedition, “Ukiivik,” is Greenlandic for “a place where one stays for the winter.

Al Gore was on the Hill yesterday speaking to legislators about climate change and our energy culture, and drew large crowds to the compelling nature of the issue, the urgency for change, and the political theater of his testimony.

But Gore wasn’t the only story on climate change in the news yesterday. As a prelude of things to come, ABC Nightline profiled the Inupiaq community of Shishmaref on the Western Coast of Alaska (just south of the Arctic Circle on the Chukchi Sea). And what did they find, a community that has lived in the area for 4,000 years is likely to move because the village is no longer safe (potentially at an initial cost of $180 million dollars). The lack of ice leaves the land exposed to the eroding effects of the seas, and the walrus (important to diet and heritage) bypass the community because the ice is no longer thick enough to support their weight. For a compelling look at the human cost of climate change, you can view the segment on the ABC Nightline News site, or find more information at the Shishmaref Erosion and Relocation Coalition website.

Update:

• “State takes first step to build new Shishmaref” (April 18, 2008).

25 Canadian artists travel part of the historic route of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen through the Northwest Passage, and document the splendor of northern lands and communities on canvas, paper and film.

Termed Arctic Quest 2006, the exhibit of their work has been on display since December 14, 2006 and will continue to June 14, 2007 at various locations. Exhibit will eventually become part of the permanent collection at the Vancouver Maritime Museum. A traveling exhibit of 25 works (1 from each artist) will be shown at the Legislative Assembly in Iqaliut in the summer of 2007 (as part of the Alainait Festival of the Arts), and at the Prince of Whales Northern Heritage Center in Yellowknife in the summer of 2008.

The project was launched in 2005, and is supported by Parks Canada, Sotheby’s, and numerous other supporters. The artists traveled for twelve days along the Arctic coasts of Baffin Island and Greenland, distributing art supplies and visiting with Inuit youth groups and artists along the way. On their return, they participated in various workshops, lectures, and historical projects, and are working to restore historic buildings in Pangnirtung to be used by local and visiting artists. The work of the group follows in the footsteps of earlier artists who have visited and documented life in the North: early European voyages of discovery, Group of Seven artists, and more recent artists such as Doris McCarthy and the late Dr. Maurice Haycock. More can be learned about Arctic Quest 2006 from the on-line gallery page, or their website which includes artist biographies, route map, historical resources, media coverage, and more.

Five Americans and three Canadians set out today for their 3,000 mile snowmobile journey across the arctic from Circle, Alaska, to Baker Lake, Nunavut. It’s part of the scientific program of the International Polar Year, and is funded by the National Science Foundation. They will visit 11 villages, dozens of historical locations, document snow conditions and climate change, and raise awareness for Polar Regions. Their webpage includes background on the expedition, an interactive map, updates from the trail, and activities for up to 50 schools that are tracking the trip. The Alaska Star interviews expedition member Henry Huntington, and reports on the beginning of their journey.

More information:

• Far North Science: Lessons learned on an Arctic journey