Right now the Manitoba government is asking if we should increase protection for two provincial parks: Duck Mountain Provincial Park and Turtle Mountain Provincial Park. Both parks have seen significant damage from industrial activity. 

Turtle Mountain Provincial Park is located along the U.S. border in southwest Manitoba and is an island of natural forest in a sea of developed prairie farmland. Oil and gas development has occurred in the Turtle Mountain area since the 1950s, but the company operating in the park has decided to end their lease. Now is the time to protect Turtle Mountain Provincial Park.

 

The government’s proposal is to remove the Resource Management (RM) land use classification, meaning Turtle Mountain Provincial Park will not be at risk from industrial activity anymore! This is great news.

 

However, the news is not as good for Duck Mountain Provincial Park. Fondly referred to as “The Ducks”, it is located in west central Manitoba, just north of Riding Mountain National Park. This is one of the most abused parks in our province. More than half of Duck Mountain Provincial Park, 61 per cent, is open for industrial clearcut logging. This is Manitoba’s shame, being one of the last two parks in Canada that allow commercial logging. More than 800 square kilometres of forest that should be protected for animals and nature are in the hands of logging companies.

The Manitoba government’s current proposal for Duck Mountain calls for an area around Line Lake in the northern part of the park to be protected. This is not even one square kilometre of newly protected land! This won’t do – we need to ask for better from our government.