What is the biggest dilemma facing Arctic and sub Arctic communities these days? Not how many cups of coffee to have, nor how many layers of caribou hide to wear on a -50c winter day…not even how to keep those big, furry polar bears in check….more importantly how to ship goods and supplies all over the North at an affordable rate. Well, Barry Prentice a University of Manitoba supply chain management professor may have come up with a solution..albeit very futuristic.
Prentice has been researching the idea for over ten years now and he thinks he has the capability of solving the problem. If all goes as scheduled, the first airship he has designed will take flight over the North this Fall in what will be a maiden voyage for a fleet of six or more flying transportation vessels. Many pieces of the first ship are assembled and a hanger has been assembled at St. Andrews airport in Winnipeg.
” I think that this could be a very large industry for Manitoba one day. This is a need that spans our entire northern three-quarters of the country.” Prentice stated. The need could be particularly timely as the port of Churchill is under threat of losing a vast majority of its’ capital with the impending government- forced closure of the Canadian Wheat Board. If that happens, shipping from the port to the North may also severely diminish. The old outdated cargo moving system of track-rovers has gone by and the barge shipping season is a short one. With no rail -lines farther than Churchill, the need is there for a prudent alternative method.
His final product will be about 25 metres long and cost about $100,000, not including labour costs. Its top speed will be 50 kilometres per hour. While the cost seems extensive when one figures in testing, repairs and modifications, and maintenance, it outweighs the effort to build roads, a nearly impossible task, in the permafrost – laden arctic. However, the affects of cold weather on these ships is unknown and somewhat of a concern in the frigid Winter months.
“(Conventional) airships are basically fair-weather flyers, and they’re not engineered to operate in 30-below. If we want to operate airships in Canada, then they have to be robust, year-round vehicles, and that means they have to be engineered to deal with freezing temperatures so the valves don’t stick and the rubber doesn’t fasten to the door when you’re trying to open it.”
All this testing will go on most likely over the next few years and hopefully funding from his company Buoyant Aircraft Systems International (BASI) and its’ funding investors will endure the preliminary stages.
Churchill residents will soon have their say on the fluoride issue that has been looming for the past few months. A grass roots movement aptly dubbed Churchill No Fluoride has been vehemently advocating the removal of fluoride from the town’s water supply. If the September vote goes through against fluoridation, Churchill will join a growing list of communities worldwide that have already banned adding fluoride to their water supply. Two Canadian cities have recently joined the club. Flin Flon banned fluoride in January and Calgary did the same just this past May.
Closer to home, Winnipeg recently lowered the added dosage from .85 milligrams per liter to .7 mg/L based on reccomendations from Manitoba Health as well as Health Canada. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends the maximum lifetime exposure to fluoride be 4.0 mg/L and a secondary standard of 2.0 mg/L for areas that have high levels of naturally occurring fluoride.
Mark Brackley, spokesman and founder of Churchill No Fluoride, states that fluoride is naturally pervasive in water and there’s no way of knowing how much people are absorbing. The chemical has recently been linked through studies to facilitation of lead in children, arthritis prior to old-age, dental fluorosis in adolescents, and even cancer in young men. “It’s a toxic waste product,” said Brackley of fluoride, adding that no scientific evidence supports any claims it prevents cavities.
Conversely, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States said past and current reviews of scientific studies found no basis to claims that fluoride poses a health hazard. The CDC describes fluoride as one of the “ten great public health achievements” of the last century, along with vaccinations, motor-vehicle safety and family planning. It does state children’s exposure to fluoride from birth to age six should be restricted. This introspective video below on fluoride gives excellent background information on the entire issue. Enjoy and learn!
The beluga whales, by the thousands, are very active thesee days as they move in and out of the Churchill river. As the Summer “heat” (insert Arctic weather joke here) begins to wane somewhat…today’s temperature is around 14C…down a bit from earlier in the month. Personally, I feel this time of year is unmatched as far as all you can take in nature-wise. The cool, crisp air, ideal for all the trekking and whale viewing excursions, is a blend between the early Summer warmer days and the colder Fall days just around the bend. Wildflowers are hanging tough…especially the fireweed, and birds still in the area are feeling the slight urgency to journey South.
Colors of Fall on the way.
Natural Habitat Guide Sue Zajac, in town with a group of travelers, reports sadly that a third polar bear was shot after possibly breaking through a trailer house on the edge of town. That same bear may have been responsible for another foray into a Manitoba housing unit on the east side of town. This is the third fatal shooting of a polar bear this Summer as the aggressive behavior continues…most likely due to a shorter ice season in the hudson Bay. Expect more seal-kills this Fall by hungry polar bears.
The group of travelers had some spectacular beluga viewing trips out on the water, albeit hindered a bit by some pesky black flies. Then on a rover trip to the tundra for a barbeque lunch they followed a wandering polar bear out on the tidal flats in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area. Always an awesome sight to see these bruins near the water with no snow around yet.
Sue also noted that her travelers had some good looks at red foxes that had moved back into a previously vacant den down by the orange, suunburst lichen-splattered rocks on the dirt road leading to Mike Macri’s boat docks. Arctic terns are starting to make their incredibly long journey South to the pole area as they take in their last feedings of capelin that escape the beluga’s mouths. Canada geese are also nearing their departure South just as soon as their flight feathers develop a bit more. Seems like all the species beach vacations are close to an end.
All in all the signs of Fall are creeping in and soon the the tundra will take on its’ vibrant Autumn colors. Within a short time the hustle and bustle of polar bear season will be upon us…another year in the sub -arctic ..season by season.
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.
Multitudes of people travel to Churchill each year to try and glimpse the magical aurora borealis in the arctic sky. Weather often determines viewing success for these travelers and for that reason deep Winter is the optimal time to see the phenomenon. Cloudy skies in Fall and Summer can be barriers to optimal viewing while Winter, on the other hand, provides for more clear, crisp nights to take it all in.
Tonight and possibly friday night as well, might just provide the opportunity for many folks in North America to get a taste of this thrilling spectacle in the sky above. Depending on your location and darkness factor of your location, you just might be able to take it in as far South as Massachusetts and across the country through Colorado.
Intense solar flares occurring August 2nd from sunspot 1261, to be precise, have created optimal conditions in areas that normally would experience little or no “Northern lights” viewing possibilities. Hence the name, “Northern lights”. I guess it can be argued that just about evrywhere is “North” of somewhere and tonight, those more Southerly Northern spots will have the chance to see aurora. Follow me? Check this link at spaceweather.com to clear things up…or confuse you a little more.
At any rate, if you have the chance and energy to get outside in a dark, low – lighted area, go for it and see if you can catch this amazing, mystical occurrence. it might just whet your appetite to venture North to Churchill and see the lights in all their glory above the arctic tundra.
Following a 48 hour train -ride from Winnipeg, Natural Habitat guide Sue Zajac and her 15 travellers pulled into the Churchill train depot to find beautiful 80F temperatures and clear skies. Quite the change from the group’s side-trip off the train to the Waboden/Thomson area where smoke blowing in from Ontario fires clouded the Summer air. Sasegew rapids and Pisew falls still provided great vistas and excellent birding in a little less visibility.
With the warm Summer progressing nicely, sweet vetch, saxifrage as well Arctic cotton-grass are all peaking. Many other prolific wildflowers are also on the cusp of blooming. Mosquitos are still fairly abundant as they pollinate a good number of these plants. They will start to wane soon as the dragonfly population increases and the feast begins. Hikes through the tundra and boreal forest are still worth a small blood donation however as one can see amazing rare orchids, animals such as foxes,and numerous bird species in nesting form.
Whale viewing remains spectacular out on the Churchill River as well as the Hudson Bay. And, although no polar bears were spotted out along Eskimo point North of Fort Prince of Wales, they still are in and around the region. The Lazy Bear lodge, complete with new roof, had a bear lurking outside for sometime now…though Sue thought they may have finally captured it in the culvert trap just behind the inn. As the group was near departure from Churchill, the trap was not seen… good sign that a capture had taken place.Some of the group went snorkeling with the beluga’s in the river and had some amazing, once-in-a lifetime encounters. The 10 year – old birthday boy on the trip found this his most amazing experience of the entire trip. I’m with him on that one. Other travellers were content with kayaking in the calm, deep waters just beside the port docking area. Small pods of five – ten whales, swimming with amazing synchronicity, approached the kayaks from one side, submerged under the boats and dissapeared for up to 15 minutes at a time. The exhale of air the beluga takes through its’ blowhole is a sound one never tires of. An exhilerating feeling hearing that resounding off the surface of the water while watching the white leviathan submerge itself. Water-level is truly a special way to spend time with these creatures.
This time of the season also brings opportunities to experience sows training their calves following an initial nursing period. Although overlapping groups of mothers give birth throughout the Summer, the early-summer calves are just now learning life skills from mom that will allow them to survive in these challenging Arctic waters for the next 25-plus years.Feeding skills and diving deep takes months of practice for these young ones. All the time the steel -gray calves stay seemingly glued to their mother’s backs.
In other news, the port of Churchill is preparing for loading the first transport ship of the season. In what is quite possibly the final season of extensive grain -shipping, all port officials and workers are hopeful the attempt by the government to dissasemble the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) falls to political resistance over the next few months.
Snow geese have been glaringly absent on the tundra so far this season..a stark contrast from years past. Extended hunting seasons and higher quotas down South have possibly impacted the population’s migration patterns as well as overall numbers. Another thought is that food sources out along the Hudson Bay have been exhausted to the point that the geese have ventured elsewhere. La Peruse Bay, their traditional feeding ground, has shown clear signs of vegetation decimation over the past decade.
A musicfest was held over the past weekend in the town square as local Churchill musicians mixed with others from Winnipeg to create a festive atmosphere from mid-day to midnight. And when darkness finally did set in over those evenings, green -ribboned arcing auroura borealis awed all that ventured out late -night. Another unpredictable bonus the Churchill Summer always seems to provide!
