seal river watershed

An outstanding First Nations campaign in Manitoba that’s now on the cusp of creating one of the largest Indigenous protected areas in the country had a modest beginning—as a conversation with CPAWS Manitoba about how to save caribou.

Caroline Wintoniw paddled the Seal River in northern Manitoba, a trip of a lifetime for many backcountry canoeists.

Sayisi Dene First Nation is leading an initiative to protect the entirety of the Seal River Watershed as an Indigenous Protected Area.

The Government of Canada invested $3.2 million in the Seal River Watershed Indigenous Protected Area Initiative.

Ten Indigenous youth from Northern Manitoba and Nunavut shared their love of nature with youth from eastern Canada at an Ottawa conference led by CPAWS.

Four youth from Arviat helped their community engage in traditional practices by organizing a caribou hide tanning workshop with the support CPAWS.

Rebecca Thorassie is finding her voice by speaking to her remote northern Manitoba community about the need to protect their lands and waters.

The sound of drums and laughter echoed across a rippling lake as a group of Dene, Cree and Inuit youth learned how to play traditional Dene hand games. 

Ernie Bussidor of Sayisi Dene First Nation and CPAWS MB Executive Director Ron Thiessen went to the North American Caribou Workshop in Ottawa.

The waters that drain into these areas are sourced from roughly 1.4 million square kilometres of the North American landscape (about twice the size of Alberta), a region that includes concentrated development as well as large areas of intact Boreal forest.

CPAWS Manitoba is always thrilled to receive invitations from educators and students to join them in the classroom and discuss boreal conservation in Manitoba. The experience is often both humbling and energizing. This proved to be the case when we were fortunate enough to meet with the enthusiastic grade 3

Our trip this summer was a steep learning curve for me on multiple fronts. (I mean, sure I had paddled before… but 46 straight days of paddling really gave me an opportunity to perfect skills that I may have previously considered to be more than adequate…) To my surprise, the