For Immediate Release—July 29, 2010

Attention to be paid to potential protected areas, woodland caribou ranges

The Wilderness Committee, Canada's largest environmental citizen group, was pleased to see the preferred new hydro transmission corridor, for BiPole 3, circumvented Manitoba's cherished provincial parks.

“If we need another hydro transmission corridor across the Manitoba landscape, this route is reasonable,” said Eric Reder, Campaign Director for the Wilderness Committee. “It avoids provincial parks and traverses a great deal of cleared land, where the impact on our environment will be lower.”

The Wilderness Committee will be paying attention to certain areas as the current 3-km-wide corridor proposal is narrowed down to the eventual 66-meter permanent corridor. These include Red Deer Lake and the Overflowing River region, which overlaps the Bog woodland caribou range; the Saskatchewan River Delta, one of Manitoba’s Conservation Hot Spots which Manitobans have been asking the government to protect, and the Reed Lake caribou range.

“Preserving intact areas is necessary to protect Manitoba's rich natural heritage,” said Reder. “Finding a transmission corridor route that disturbs the least amount of intact areas is essential.”

-30-