I am writing you today because we urgently need your help to defend Manitoba’s provincial parks. A donation now will go towards ensuring legal protection for our parks before another tree is cut!

We recently went to court to defend Grass River Provincial Park from having a logging road carved through it. And the results were not good. We’ve just received the ruling confirming what we had feared: the 2009 legislation banning logging in our provincial parks — a historic victory for Manitoba’s wilderness and wildlife —is unfortunately not strong enough to stop the proposed logging road in Grass River Provincial Park.

As you may remember, back in 2008, after years of pushing to protect our parks, the government announced logging in parks was going to be banned. A victory that meant so much to the Wilderness Committee, to you our members and supporters, and to Manitobans everywhere.

But just a few weeks after this legislation was passed the government issued a license to Tolko Industries Ltd. for the Dickstone South Logging Road, which would bisect Grass River Provincial Park.

Then, in March 2011, we found out that construction had secretly begun. We thought that a logging road would be considered logging, and since there was a ban on logging, this would have to be stopped. When the Conservation Minister failed to stop the project, we decided to file our legal action.

All this was a heavy blow to our dream of protecting Manitoba’s provincial parks. But the fact that Grass River Provincial Park is now endangered is particularly sad.

If you haven’t experienced the awe of Grass River Provincial Park, I have to tell you my story. Last fall I ventured deep into this park, to see first-hand what was at risk. My journey took me across the vast open water of Reed Lake, where I spent the first afternoon wind-bound.

Expecting that calm water was many hours away, I wandered into the forest with my camera. I was immediately struck by the immensity of the trees. Next to probably the largest birch I’d ever seen was the largest balsam I’d ever seen! A few hundred meters away I found a massive pine and then an equally impressive spruce. This was really old forest, likely untouched for at least a century, a wondrous find.

The next morning, I was motoring across the lake, a fresh pot of coffee resting between my feet as I scanned the horizon hoping to see one of the revered woodland caribou that call the park home.

Soon I was hoofing down a wide portage trail towards the Chisel Lake Railbed, which would take me to the contentious new Dickstone South Logging Road. After a couple hours, I finally set eyes on the newly bulldozed logging roadway.

To this day, I still get a heavy ache in my heart as I think of that first look — a single stake, adorned with a fluttering orange ribbon, stood in the cleared path of destruction which extended out of sight over the rise. I hiked through the new clearing, past piles of cut logs and over rock scraped clear of vegetation. I climbed atop nearby rock ridges, and stared out over intact forest, thinking of the woodland caribou that live in this area.

I was deep in the heart of a provincial park — an area they had made their home for decades, or centuries — and I knew these caribou were no longer safe here.

It is hard to imagine a more inappropriate place to put a logging road than this spot in Grass River Park.

So you may wonder — are we giving up? Heck no! We are just beginning to fight back, because our provincial parks are worth it. We want appeal judges to review the legislation and ensure parks get the protection we were promised.

But we can’t do this without your support. We need $15,000 to launch an appeal to this court decision, and to run the next phase of our campaign to ensure legislation that bans logging in our parks. One donor has already stepped up to offer a tax-deductible donation for a third of this.

Giving a donation of $25, $50 or even $100 to this campaign will help us finally make sure that the parks we have in Manitoba are truly protected.

I know I am not alone, and that the passion I feel for our provincial parks is shared by so many of you. With your help, we can build an unstoppable campaign to protect our parks today!

For the wild,

Eric Reder | Manitoba Campaign Director
Wilderness Committee