Canoes, Conservation, Caring: Meet Neil

Introducing the Team at CPAWS Manitoba

Neil Bailey grew up in Gimli, Manitoba. His lifelong passion for nature and stewardship began with collecting sticks and rocks on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. He has a keen eye for “lucky stones” and will always take you up on a stone-skipping challenge.

Neil received his science degree from the University of Manitoba, with a major in psychology, and studied community and regional planning at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

During his time in Halifax, Neil helped develop the Dalhousie University student leadership program and coordinated a Nova Scotia-wide litter cleanup as part of the global Let’s Do It! World Cleanup initiative. Neil also co-founded the Halifax Tool Library in 2014 to help put underused tools in the hands of people who need them. 

Most recently, Neil spent four years with the City of Winnipeg’s Office of Public Engagement, coordinating public engagement activities for diverse projects and audiences, including the Winnipeg Transit Master Plan and low-income transit pass (WINNpass).

At CPAWS, Neil is focused on leading the Fisher River Cree Nation Conservation Area Initiative, which aims to expand the protection of wild areas and land-based conservation practices in the Fisher Bay area.

Neil views environmental issues as social issues with environmental impacts and believes that lasting solutions to environmental problems require collaborative, land-based and community-driven approaches.

In his free time, you’ll likely find him around a fire pit with friends and family, canoeing Manitoba’s rivers and lakes or playing music. 

Q+A with Conservation Campaign Manager Neil Bailey

1. What Is Your Main Role with CPAWS Manitoba?

I work as a Conservation Campaign Manager at CPAWS. Our Campaign Manager positions generally involve working with communities towards their conservation goals – hosting meetings, facilitating discussions, conducting interviews, giving presentations, creating maps, analyzing data and writing reports. I love that my work involves constantly weaving together traditional Indigenous knowledge and Western science, as I don’t believe that we can reach our conservation goals without showing the proper respect for these different ways of knowing the world.

Previously, I was CPAWS’ Outreach and Engagement Manager, managing all of CPAWS’ paid seasonal staff and volunteers, and also ran the Manitoba Chapter of the Canadian Wilderness Stewardship Program (CWSP)  for 2 years, working to inspire the next generation of environmental stewards in Canada by connecting youth to nature, and their local communities.

2. What Do You Hope to Achieve with Your Work?

I hope that my work can support conservation initiatives that recognize and celebrate Indigenous knowledge, and visions for the future.

In the Canadian context, much of the history of environmental conservation has often been centred around protecting natural assets and animal populations to provide recreational value to those who enjoy sport fishing, hunting, and camping. Though these are all important aspects of conservation work, the long-term stewardship of our lands and waters by Indigenous peoples has largely been ignored, discredited, or placed as a lower priority.

“About 36% of remaining intact forests are on Indigenous Peoples’ lands. Indigenous communities safeguard 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity and forests on their land are better maintained, with a higher preserved biodiversity than those on non-Indigenous lands.” -World Bank Group, August 9, 2023.

If we do our work in a good way, the next era of conservation projects will succeed. Although, not just at centering recreational and aesthetic priorities, but at providing a framework for reconciliation and a return to a stewardship model driven by those who have effectively maintained ecosystems and biodiversity since time immemorial. 

3. Favourite part of your job?

Gosh… I am so lucky to have a job that includes so much of the work that I love.

I love working with communities and individuals who are committed to respecting and protecting our lands and waters. Traditional harvesters, hunters, fishers, trappers, farmers and all people who spend their time on the land have intimate knowledge of the systems that sustain us. It is a privilege to learn their concerns, perspectives and visions for the future.

4. What Inspires You to Protect and Be an Advocate for Nature?

I have been privileged to grow up in an environment where spending time in nature was part of everyday life. I likely didn’t know how good I had it when I was young, when it seemed like hunting, fishing, camping and exploring outside were normal activities that everyone could enjoy, indefinitely.

After learning about the rapid deterioration of our natural environment, like the 69% loss in species populations since 1970, or the fact that 75% of ice-free land and 63% of oceans have already been transformed by humans in some way, it became clear to me that the life I grew up enjoying is by no means guaranteed to all. And once habitats and populations have been damaged, reintroducing just a single threatened species is challenging and costly, with no guarantee of success.

My work is motivated by the people I meet and work with who prioritize their connections to the natural world, and bring respect and reverence to their work and relationships. Gerry Mason, FRCN’s former land-based education coordinator, was certainly one of these people. 

Gerry was extremely knowledgeable, warm, and funny, and shared a true gift with us all through his worldview and teachings. He is missed by so many.

5. What are you working on right now in CPAWS?

Currently, my primary focus is on supporting the Fisher River Cree Nation Conservation Areas Initiative. Building on the work done over a decade ago to establish the Fisher Bay Provincial Park, the foundation established by Liz Murdock as our previous project manager, and bolstered by relationships developed through the Canadian Wilderness Stewardship Program (hosted in FRCN territory), the initiative aims to develop a regional plan that balances economic development interests with conservation so that the forests are full of moose to hunt, the rivers are clean and teeming with fish, and Lake Winnipeg’s shoreline is once again a place to build sandcastles and teach our children to swim.

This involves a host of activities, including rightsholder and stakeholder meetings, interviews and meetings with elders, public meetings and presentations, map-making, research and report writing, data analysis, conservation proposal development, and other activities as needed.

I am so grateful for all the relationships we have built through this initiative and look forward to building similarly productive relationships with the other nations and communities we work with.

To learn more about the project, check out www.FRCNconservation.ca. 

Fast Facts:

How would you describe yourself in 5 words? 

Curious, Caring, Extroverted, Outdoorsy,  & Empathetic.

Favourite outdoor activity?

Annual backcountry canoe trips with my partner and cousins would have to be the highlight of most years for me! We typically choose a new route/river system each year and have done trips on the Manigotagan, Bloodvein and Bird River systems, as well as two trips in Ontario in the Experimental Lakes Area.

Some of our non-negotiables when backcountry canoeing:

• GOOD FOOD! Cooking well, eating well
• Having a ‘layover’ campsite for 2-3 days in the middle of the trip to relax – eating, swimming, fishing and reading to our hearts’ content
• Packable chairs – game changer

Favourite Manitoba Vacation spot?

Gotta go with Gimli! It’s hard to find a more beautiful place to retreat to, regardless of the season. Most of my family is still there as well, so it’s always an easy decision to drive to Gimli whenever we can!

Favourite Provincial Park?

When we’re not out in the backcountry, Bird’s Hill Park is the place we visit the most. Given its proximity to the city and the cycling infrastructure that has recently been developed in Winnipeg, it is actually surprisingly easy to bike to Birds Hill to go camping! We try to do this at least once a year.

Birds Hill is also a great place to go longboarding, with rolling hills and good pavement on many of the trails. And of course, Folk Fest is there!

Favourite Winnipeg Park?

As a resident of North St.Boniface, Parc Whittier/Whittier Park is my favourite urban park. On our weekly walks, we regularly see beavers, deer, eagles and numerous songbirds, while still living just a stone’s throw from downtown. Walking the 4km loop along the Red and Seine rivers is always a grounding experience, and I will forever be in awe of the giant cottonwood trees there.

Favourite nature book or documentary?

One book that comes to mind is Wendell Berry’s collection of essays entitled ‘The Art of the Commonplace.’ I appreciated the breadth of topics covered, from feminism to racism to agrarian economics, and Wendell Berry’s poetic delivery and reflective thoughtfulness.

While studying urban planning at Dalhousie University, I also appreciated the visions for a sustainable future proposed in ‘Ecocities: Building Cities in Balance with Nature.’  The book is full of compelling sketches and illustrations and was one of the first books I found that provided a positive and compelling vision of what cities could be.

…Within things
there is peace, and at the end
of things. It is the mind
turned away from the world
that turns against it.

(Wendel Berry, “Window Poems 19”)