ENDLESS HORIZONS

The entire region is a vast sodden plain that slopes gently toward the sea at a gradient of less than a metre per kilometre. Up to 85 percent of the region is muskeg or peat-forming wetlands. Such a huge expanse of peat occurs nowhere else in North America and in only a few places in the world.

This is a land more of water than earth. Water lies everywhere - shallow oblong lakes, rivers that meander endlessly, streams running nowhere, bogs and fens; up to 50 percent of the surface is covered by water. Water in the form of permafrost underlies much of the region, resulting in landforms such as patterned ground, string bogs and palsas (mounds of frozen peat). In summer, walking is torture. At every step the muskeg sucks at your feet while hordes of insects suck your blood. Possibly nowhere else on earth are biting and sucking insects more abundant.

Approaching from sea as the first Europeans did, one sees a treeless land. Outside of alpine areas this is one of the most southerly expanses of tundra in the world. Separating the treeless tundra from the boreal forest is a mosaic of forest and tundra. Farther inland, dense forests of white spruce, balsam fir, aspen, balsam poplar and white birch occur on well-drained riverbanks and lake shores. Black spruce and tamarack spread over vast expanses of poorly drained muskeg.

The region is famous for its polar bears. A unique characteristic of this most southerly population of polar bears is that they construct summer dens to cool off in. Some are more than six metres deep and have probably been used for centuries. Caribou concentrate along the coastline in summer and winter inland among the boreal forests. In summer the coast of this region is alive with birds. Lesser snow geese, small Canada geese, brant, tundra swans, oldsquaw, king eider, northern phalarope and a host of shorebirds nest here.

Parks Canada, Manitoba, the Local Government District of Churchill and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (representing northern Manitoba First Nations) have been working since 1989 to assess the feasibility of establishing a national park in the Churchill/York Factory area and negotiate an agreement. It is expected that the national park will be established in 1996 as "Wapusk National Park," at 11,475 km2 the seventh largest in Canada. Wapusk is the Cree name for polar bear. Manitoba reserved the lands in 1993 to provide interim protection pending conclusion of the park agreement.

This proposed national park includes one of the largest known polar bear denning sites in the world and is one of the most accessible places known to view polar bears. The Hudson Bay coastline provides critical waterfowl and shorebird nesting and feeding habitat. In addition, the area includes most of the natural resource features typical of the larger natural region, including: low-lying landscape with little relief; extensive muskeg; beach ridges; glacial features such as eskers; permafrost; and low arctic and subarctic vegetation.

Not only does the proposed national park offer superlative wildlife viewing, but visitors to the area can also enjoy significant cultural resources. Four sites of national historic significance are located in the vicinity, including York Factory, for nearly three centuries the Hudson's Bay Company's principal fur trade centre, and the ruins of Fort Prince of Wales, a monstrous stone fortification built by the Hudson's Bay Company in the 1700s.

The following table summarizes the status of system planning for each step toward establishing a new national park in this natural region.