In the north, in the Arctic, survival can be perilous at best. Sure, the technological inventions of the past 20 years have made life easier for inhabitants up in the hinterlands however many tasks cannot be aided by a cell phone, ipad, or anything else besides perseverance. The attached video is just a snapshot of lives that still endure from strength of heart and good old fashioned will to survive. People in the North are hearty souls that need to constantly reinvent themselves to make it through harsh seasons…of course the harshest being winter. The current temperature in Churchill is -28 and -46 with the wind chill.
Churchill, Manitoba …the “polar bear capital of the world” is becoming a town with a bear problem. Or..are seasonal polar bears having issues with increasing numbers of tourists venturing to the town to view them in their natural habitat? The iconic tourist destination has always had issues with polar bear safety, however, the last decade or so has seen an escalation of what Manitoba Conservation titles “polar bear occurrences”. These “occurrences are bear encounters that pose a threat to humans. Although no person has been fatally harmed within the last couple of decades in the town of Churchill, more and more close calls are being reported each year.
Traveler numbers to Churchill have increased each year over the past decade placing strain on Manitoba Conservation officers patrolling the area. Although larger, experienced tour companies educate their guests on safety regulations, many tourists arrive in town independently with little or no information related to bear safety. Photographers especially are more prone to take extra risks as they attempt to capture images of polar bears, other wildlife and the Arctic landscape. Walking along Precambrian rocks near the beach or wandering just outside town limits is similar to playing Russian roulette…bears can appear from behind a rock or out of a tree stand drifted with snow. I personally have seen numerous naive individuals walking alone, unarmed outside town. After informing some of these people of the risks and danger of walking in those areas, they all seemed either surprised or unconcerned regarding their situation. Although no laws are being broken, other than those of the common sense variety, information needs to be more readily available to unsuspecting travelers. Signs, literature and website information could go a long way in deterring people from straying too far from the safety of town.
Polar bear danger area. -Steve Selden photo.
Churchill itself can be a risk when darkness falls and especially when storms blow in across the Hudson Bay. Polar bears, wander into town lured by smells and habit from years of curiosity. Shelter between buildings and under structures make the town a nice respite for these hungry animals awaiting the annual freeze-up of the bay. This is where the question of endangerment comes in. Are bears endangering the local humans or are the humans endangering the polar bears. Because the topography of the coastline allows for the annual migration of bears to this site, we must concede that polar bears would congregate here regardless of human population. However, more bears might gather here as a result of human activity and all the food scents and products that come with it. Both animals have found a middle ground of sorts forged by toleration. Bears are trapped more often than killed these days as the local economy is now driven from their presence. Churchillians have developed an information network for Conservation officers to respond quickly to bear sightings in and around town. Polar bear alert ( 675-bear) network has facilitated rapid response to bears in town and approaching bruins that may be a risk to human safety. This system has work very well over the last decade.
Steve Selden photo.
One variable that has crept into the polar bear-human relationship in Churchill is the global warming issue. While scientific evidence still points to a warming trend in the Arctic that could impact the animals more severely in the future, the main concern at present time is the length of the seal hunting season on the bay ice. With a somewhat later freeze-up in November and an earlier break-up in the Spring, bears are forced on land and into Churchill for longer periods of time. These extended stays are creating friction between bears and humans creating a new dynamic that needs to be considered. Being more aware as a traveler to the region is a start. Respecting the “wildness” of the polar bear population in all circumstances is paramount.
As the debate heats up regarding the federal government’s plan to introduce legislation this Fall to dissolve the Canadian Wheat board (CWB), OmiTRAX, current owner of the Port of Churchill is looking at ways to diversify itself in the Northern Arctic region.
Churchill's Port growth could become frozen.
Canada’s conservative ruling party vows to end the monopoly of the CWB as early as August 1, 2012 thereby allowing prarie wheat farmers to sell their products on the open market. What seems to be a no-brainer for people looking at the issue from the outside, there seems to be a fair amount of resistance from those on the inside…particularly many Canadian wheat farmers that want to focus on farming instead of marketing. The CWB has been marketing the distribution of the products primarily through the Port of Churchill since the 1940’s. The stability in pricing in low markets and reliability of steady income has spawned resistance to change from the very farmers for whom the new legislation is aimed at liberating. It’s a sideways issue in many ways that the government is remaining stubbornly bent upon solving their way despite any resistance of a possible majority.
Earlier this month, the first of seven forums involving prarie farmers was opened to an overflowing crowd in Regina. Standing room only in a facility that held 400 seats indicated just how pressing this issue is. This plebiscite of sorts was initiated by the CWB in an effort to alert the government to what they feel is a majority of satisfaction with how the current system works.
However Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz states that despite the results of the forums, legislation will still be initiated this Fall.
“The CWB needs to realize that regardless of how many pro-board farmers attend their meetings or participate in their expensive survey, no one farmer should trump the rights of another farmer,” Ritz said in an email to The Canadian Press.
“In contrast, our government wants to provide every farmer with marketing choice, whether that’s selling individually or in a marketing pool.”
With all the turmoil brewing across the plains and in the chambers of government, OmniTRAX is stepping up it’s plans to diversify its’ usage of the only inland deep-water Arctic seaport in Canada. The company recently appointed Canadian , Brad Chase, to oversee OmniTRAX’s Canadian operations at this current crossroads.
Last year, 656,298 tonnes were shipped through the Churchill port. That was the second-highest tonnage since Denver-based OmniTRAX bought the port and rail line in 1997. It was also the first time in three years that non-CWB shipments moved through the port. With the looming elimination of the CWB, that growth through wheat and barley sales could dissapate in the coming years. OmniTRAX is preparing for that possiblity by opening up new transportation lanes to Northern Manitoba and Nunuvut communities to the North. Some of those potential viable markets include transporting fertilizer to and from Russia, the potential developments of huge, new iron ore mines on Baffin Island and the possible opening of the North West Passage to shipping transport. OmniTRAX also has been promoting the possibility of utilizing the Port of Churchill to import mega-loads of industrial equipment made in South Korea and needed in the Alberta oilsands.
With all these new possible markets OmniTRAX seems poised to keep the Port of Churchill viable through all the impending changes to come.
Good numbers of polar bears are showing up in and around the Churchill area….however not all of these bears are behaving very …um..good. Or, maybe it’s the people who need to check their behavioral habits in what really is a town placed smack dab in the natural habitat of these wandering, hungry bears. In fact, there have been two incidents this Spring and Summer in which polar bears have behaved aggressively towards humans resulting in the bears having to be put down by Canadian Conservation officers. Not many people who live in or know about Churchill can remember the last time two bears have been put down in the same year, never mind the Summer season. With climate change possibly affecting polar bears behavior, residents and visitors to Churchill need to modify careless behavior in what really is a true wildlife refuge.
Wandering alone on the Churchill shores can be dangerous.
Spring fever in the North brings renewed hope, happiness, and …um breakups! With the temperatures climbing above the freezing mark, many Northern regions experience the breakup phenomena. This usually occurs in a major river system but can also relate to a larger body of water such as a bay or inlet of some sort.
Photo: Steve Selden
In this case, we are talking about the Churchill River in Churchill,MB of course. The river has just broken free of ice and started to flush itself out into the Hudson Bay to the North. Some early beluga whales have arrived as scouts perhaps and soon thousands of the magnificent ghostly creatures will follow.
As a Summer guide in Churchill I have experienced the breakup only a few times around a decade ago. Natural Habitat’s Arctic Summer trips used to start in June, sometimes early June, so the chance of arriving with groups and viewing ice floes in the river was good. I was always anxious to arrive and find the chunks moving with the tide in and out of the river. Arctic terns and Bonapart’s gulls would often perch on crags in the floes and photographers would scramble in the zodiacs to get a prime shot. I was able to get a few myself which are currently somewhere in cyberspace I do believe.
So with the river starting to flow out into the bay, the ice should start to push out North as well very soon. Even with the Churchill river being diverted years ago, the tidal flow out of the mouth still moves at a crazy rate of speed. Just as the fresh water aids in freeze up of the area in the late Fall, the water now helps to demolish existing ice left from the Winter. Kind of a full cycle that’s found in Churchill in almost every facet of nature around the region.
On may 21st a group of Anishnawbe women, and men came through Churchill to fill a sacred bucket with water from the Hudson bay.
The bucket was filled on the beach across from “Miss Piggy”, the infamous airplane wreck nestled into the granitoid rocks and willows up the hill. The group, along with about eight others from Churchill, including Metis elder Myrtle Demeulles, then carried that sacred bucket of water all the way to town to the train station. The walk was to honor mother earth and her resources, especially water, as it is the blood of our mother and in dire need of protection.
There’s more to the story that brings to light an even more pressing issue regarding water, not only in Churchill but all over North America…..fluoride. A local group of Churchillian activists lead by Mark Brackley and partner, as well as my longtime friend, Erin O’neil have been lobbying for clean non-toxic water for quite awhile now. Brackley, is a pioneer activist in this battle to get fluoride…yes fluoride, out of local water. He’s been lobbying town council for over 2 years, without much success due in large part to hard-fought resistance from the Dental Board as well as the Public Health board at the hospital.
Why, you might ask, would someone want to get fluoride, an ingredient in many of our everyday tooth- paste products removed from the town water supply? Ever read the labels on most toothpaste tubes while passing time in your water closet? Scary are they not? This is one of those many environmental issues that kind of gets swept under the rug…or, more aptly, flushed down the drain without many humans hearing much about the negative effects on us and our planet.
There is extensive literature on-line and in journals to validate the fears many have of fluoridation of water supplies. This link on fluoride is a good one to start with if you’re not up to date with current fluoride information. Another article in the Thompson Gazette focuses on Churchill’s water battle raging over the past three years.You can also join Brackley’s facebook site ;’churchill nonFluoride.. to view multiple postings on the horrible effects fluoride can have on the human body, and the many consequences it has from us simply consuming it, bathing in it, cooking with it etc. And, after all those human functions are finished, the water which comes initially from the Churchill river gets dumped back into the river with 99% of the added fluoride now mixed in. The effects on marine wildlife and the ecosystem in general cannot possibly be measured at this point.
Photo: Steve Selden
After the walk and discussing the effects of fluoridation, the elders on this walk agreed and called to have it removed! Mark, Erin and others involved in the cause felt finally supported in the ongoing battle. The grind has been, with tongue in cheek; “at times like pulling our teeth out!” stated O’neil.
An uplifting side of this story is that the Anishnawbe “earth waterwalkers” as they are known will be bringing their sacred water buckets to a powerful final ceremony with other earth waterwalkers in June in Wisconsin. The others will be collecting buckets of water from the three other coasts in North America. You can go to motherearthwaterwalk.com.
The final here- say with Churchill’s town council, is that, they are letting the supply of fluoride run out in about June this year and will not be purchasing anymore. The Public Health Department and Dental Board may try to grit their “teeth” ( sorry) and put up another fight for the fluoridation to continue. We will just have to wait and see….I’ll keep you all updated.
