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Bearing North

Sacred site, breathtaking sight

Inuit hunting camp dating back 1,000 years offers optimism about climate change

Sarah Lawrynuik 9 minute read Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

In late summer the weather is completely unpredictable in northern Manitoba. One day it’s beautiful, with warm sunshine beaming down. Another, it’s miserable, with wind so strong it blows rain sideways.

Getting a helicopter up and flying depends on those always-changing conditions, but today it’s a go.

Oceans North, a charitable organization focused on marine conservation, offered the Free Press a seat on their expedition 70 kilometres northwest of Churchill, up the coast of Hudson Bay to a place called Hubbart Point, an ancient Inuit hunting camp.

In the late ’90s, this site garnered the interest of Manitoba archeologist Virginia Petch. She pursued radiocarbon dating of organic material from the site and found that the hunting camp had been used over the course of hundreds of years, with the oldest material dating back nearly 1,000 years.

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Northern Manitoba Dene community inextricably linked to shrinking caribou population

Sarah Lawrynuik  11 minute read Preview

Northern Manitoba Dene community inextricably linked to shrinking caribou population

Sarah Lawrynuik  11 minute read Monday, Nov. 9, 2020

Turning off the main road that goes in and out of Churchill, there’s no signs to mark the site or the horror stories it holds. Just over five kilometres southeast of town is a place known as Dene Village. All that remains are overgrown paths that lead in a loop, linking the cement foundations where homes once stood.

It is hard to talk about Churchill without discussing one of the most painful stories from the town’s history.

In 1956, the federal government forcefully relocated the Sayisi Dene people from their homelands in remote northwestern Manitoba to Churchill, claiming they were over-harvesting caribou.

It’s just one instance of how the lives of these people are entwined with this animal.

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Monday, Nov. 9, 2020

SARAH LAWRYNUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
A caribou is spotted in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area during a polar bear tour.
SARAH LAWRYNUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A caribou is spotted in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area during a polar bear tour.

Changing climate bringing different species closer together — very close, in the case of the grolar

Sarah Lawrynuik 7 minute read Preview

Changing climate bringing different species closer together — very close, in the case of the grolar

Sarah Lawrynuik 7 minute read Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

It was 1998 when Doug Clark came across his first grizzly bear in northern Manitoba when he was working as a park warden in Wapusk National Park.

“And it was kind of a big deal,” he recalls.

What could have been an innocuous day in the field turned into a day that cemented his connection to the brown bears and understanding more about their presence in the region.

“Local people started telling me things,” he says.

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Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

DOUG CLARK PHOTO

A grizzly is caught on a trail cam.
DOUG CLARK PHOTO A grizzly is caught on a trail cam.

Tourism operators see climate impact, but walk a fine line between just providing entertainment and environmental lessons

Sarah Lawrynuik 16 minute read Preview

Tourism operators see climate impact, but walk a fine line between just providing entertainment and environmental lessons

Sarah Lawrynuik 16 minute read Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

The white behemoth of a vehicle rumbles across the tundra in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, just east of town. It’s not a school bus, though the white cab of the vehicle certainly resembles one. It isn’t an industrial dump truck, though the size of the wheels can’t be far off, raising passengers more than two metres off the ground.

The tundra buggy is unlike any other vehicle. It was invented in Churchill for the sole purpose of rolling across the unforgiving landscape while remaining safely out of reach of the polar bears.

Tundra Buggy Adventures owns the trademark to the vehicle, but other tourism operators now have similar contraptions; tweaking their own designs since the invention emerged in the late ‘70s.

Today, Kevin Burke is the driver, one of the only Churchillians hired to drive for polar bear tours. Burke brings a lot of knowledge to the job, having worked in Churchill’s tourism industry for 35 years, as well as working for Parks Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces in that time.

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Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

SARAH LAWRYNUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Tour operator Alex de Vries-Magnifico surveys the scene near the rusted-out remains of the MV Ithaca, which ran aground about 20 kilometres east of Churchill in 1960.
SARAH LAWRYNUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Tour operator Alex de Vries-Magnifico surveys the scene near the rusted-out remains of the MV Ithaca, which ran aground about 20 kilometres east of Churchill in 1960.

Climate change a clear and present danger to the already-shrinking polar bear population

Sarah Lawrynuik 17 minute read Preview

Climate change a clear and present danger to the already-shrinking polar bear population

Sarah Lawrynuik 17 minute read Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

The rocks fly out from beneath the tires of Angela Mak’s Ford F-150 as she cruises down the gravel road along the coast of Hudson Bay just east of Churchill.

It’s a routine. Every day from July until November she comes out here looking for polar bears.

Mak and her husband Bill Fong are originally from Hong Kong, but moved to Vancouver in the early ‘90s. In 2017 they travelled to Churchill during bear season — October and November, when the bears move out onto the sea ice.

After that one trip, their hearts were set on Churchill. First they bought a house in town to host friends and other guests, then they bought a small hotel when it went on the market in 2019.

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Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

SARAH LAWRYNUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
A polar bear nurses her cubs along the Hudson Bay shore just east of Churchill. Cubs typically stay with their moms for two to three years.
SARAH LAWRYNUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A polar bear nurses her cubs along the Hudson Bay shore just east of Churchill. Cubs typically stay with their moms for two to three years.

Researchers racing to stay ahead of oil spill as disappearing sea ice invites shipping traffic

Sarah Lawrynuik 11 minute read Preview

Researchers racing to stay ahead of oil spill as disappearing sea ice invites shipping traffic

Sarah Lawrynuik 11 minute read Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

A threat is looming large as Arctic sea ice continues to deteriorate: industrial accidents, such as oil spills, soon overtaking the pristine waters and sensitive ecosystems of the North.

Led by scientists at the University of Manitoba, researchers from across Canada are looking to expand knowledge on how to deal with these types of calamities. Research will soon get underway at the newly completed Churchill Marine Observatory, a white dome building on the shore of the Churchill River.

“As the Arctic opens up, there’s more and more opportunity for transport through the Arctic, and not just industry but there’s… more cruise ships that can make their way through the Arctic. So ship traffic in general, is increasing, which therefore leads to the potential for greater accidents,” says Gary Stern, chair of the CMO’s board of directors.

Stern, a research professor at the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Earth Observation Science, studies Arctic marine and freshwater ecosystems. With the possibility of an ice-free summer in the Arctic in the near future, understanding how oil behaves in an Arctic ecosystem is critical, he says.

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Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Gary Stern, research professor at U of M’s Centre for Earth Observation Science, says understanding oil’s impact on the Arctic ecosystem is critical.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Gary Stern, research professor at U of M’s Centre for Earth Observation Science, says understanding oil’s impact on the Arctic ecosystem is critical.

Shifting climate changes seal population that polar bears eat, fish the seals eat

Sarah Lawrynuik 9 minute read Preview

Shifting climate changes seal population that polar bears eat, fish the seals eat

Sarah Lawrynuik 9 minute read Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

At the break of dawn, Jillian St. George bundles up to head out on the water — it’s time to do some fishing. Even in August, the wind and occasional stretches of rain make for a frigid morning.

St. George, a biological sciences master’s student at the University of Manitoba, sits shotgun as the boat crashes through the waves at the mouth of Hudson Bay, where the Churchill River flows in.

She’s not fishing for subsistence or even enjoyment. She’s fishing so she can better understand how harbour seals are using the Churchill River and what kind of fish they’re eating.

“The objective is to see what proportion of the diet is marine, versus freshwater,” St. George says. At this critical location where Hudson Bay meets the freshwater river, she wants to know how animals are moving between the two systems.

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Friday, Oct. 30, 2020

Stephen Petersen photo
Stephen Petersen photo

Hope dims for orphaned polar bear cubs

Sarah Lawrynuik 6 minute read Preview

Hope dims for orphaned polar bear cubs

Sarah Lawrynuik 6 minute read Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020

A combination of tragic events, outrage and disagreement over conservation measures has, effectively, delivered a death sentence to orphaned polar bears cubs in the Churchill region.

In the early 2000s, before Churchill’s beloved part-time residents joined other poster animals threatened by the global climate crisis, headlines reporting polar bears performing in a travelling Mexican circus sparked outrage.

During the 1980s Manitoba exported about three dozen "problem bears" that returned annually to scavenge at Churchill's garbage dump. They were relocated to zoos around the world, and three that had been sent to West Germany were sold to the circus, where they were poorly treated in the tropical heat, without air conditioning and places to swim.

The wretched conditions, public outcry and eventual rescue to U.S. facilities led to a seismic shift in how Manitoba officials dealt with the problem.

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Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020

CP
A polar bear shakes the snow off himself after a swim in Wapusk National Park on the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Man., on November 6, 2007. An academic analysis says Ottawa's Species At Risk Act is failing to protect species at risk. The study from the University of Ottawa is the latest to point out problems with the legislation, created 16 years ago to safeguard Canada's biodiversity. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
CP A polar bear shakes the snow off himself after a swim in Wapusk National Park on the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Man., on November 6, 2007. An academic analysis says Ottawa's Species At Risk Act is failing to protect species at risk. The study from the University of Ottawa is the latest to point out problems with the legislation, created 16 years ago to safeguard Canada's biodiversity. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Resilient wood frogs keep researcher hopping

Sarah Lawrynuik 5 minute read Preview

Resilient wood frogs keep researcher hopping

Sarah Lawrynuik 5 minute read Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

One of the Churchill region’s most resilient animals is a lesser-known critter, one that has the ability to freeze like a hockey puck to weather the North’s frigid winters and has a habitat range that dips south all the way to North Carolina.

It’s Canada’s most widely distributed amphibian: the wood frog.

Jon Davenport, assistant professor of biology at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, makes annual trips to Churchill (at least when he isn’t blocked from field work by a global pandemic) to monitor the wood frog population and understand how it is being affected by climate change.

“It’s amazing to me that they’re even up there. Why go through all the trouble to be up there when it’s so extreme? And that’s what we’re trying to understand. And as the environment becomes even more extreme, how resilient are they?” Davenport says.

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Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

CP
This April 24, 2018 photo provided by Clara do Amaral shows a wood frog in Ohio. In a report released on Tuesday, May 1, 2018, scientists have found that wood frogs, which don’t urinate in the winter, recycle urea _ the main waste in urine _ into useful nitrogen which keeps the small animals alive as they hibernate and freeze, inside and out. It doesn’t warm them up, but protects cells and tissues, even as the amphibian’s heart, brain and bloodstream stop. (Clara do Amaral, Mount St. Joseph University via AP)
CP This April 24, 2018 photo provided by Clara do Amaral shows a wood frog in Ohio. In a report released on Tuesday, May 1, 2018, scientists have found that wood frogs, which don’t urinate in the winter, recycle urea _ the main waste in urine _ into useful nitrogen which keeps the small animals alive as they hibernate and freeze, inside and out. It doesn’t warm them up, but protects cells and tissues, even as the amphibian’s heart, brain and bloodstream stop. (Clara do Amaral, Mount St. Joseph University via AP)

Churchill's council approves a climate-change action plan

Sarah Lawrynuik 8 minute read Preview

Churchill's council approves a climate-change action plan

Sarah Lawrynuik 8 minute read Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

Climate change will have widespread effects in Churchill, but in addition to the impact on wildlife and how it will alter the course of the town’s economy, it will also have a substantial impact on the town’s infrastructure as permafrost thaws.

In mid-September, town council voted unanimously to support a strategy drafted over the past year-and-a-half by Trevor Donald, Churchill’s climate-change adaptation co-ordinator.

Donald’s position was funded by the federal government, as it has done in smaller communities across the country without adequate tax bases to support similar positions.

“It’s hard to really find communities that have done adaptation planning to compare to that are the size of Churchill,” Donald told the Free Press.

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Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

SARAH LAWRYNUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Churchill climate series 2020
SARAH LAWRYNUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Churchill climate series 2020

Less-predictable seasons, weather conditions threaten traditional way of life

Sarah Lawrynuik 12 minute read Preview

Less-predictable seasons, weather conditions threaten traditional way of life

Sarah Lawrynuik 12 minute read Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

Ron Spence looks back fondly on his nomadic childhood in northern Manitoba near Nelson House. The smooth walls of the canoe were his home; he and his grandparents would travel alongside other family members, moving from one community to the next.

“There was no time, we would just go with the flow,” Spence says.

Then in the winter, he and his grandparents moved from canoe to dogsled, working again with other families to move across the land, taking turns breaking trail through the deep snow.

Spence learned the curves and patterns of the rivers from his grandparents, who had met one summer years before on those same waterways. Spence is now a leader in his community of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, he’s also the vice-president of the Manitoba Trappers Association. And while he might not be as nomadic as he once was, he is still far from an occasional hunter.

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Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

SUPPLIED
Ron Spence: ‘We need to adapt and go with Mother Nature and respect it’
SUPPLIED Ron Spence: ‘We need to adapt and go with Mother Nature and respect it’

Changes impact food sources, animal populations

Sarah Lawrynuik 6 minute read Preview

Changes impact food sources, animal populations

Sarah Lawrynuik 6 minute read Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

Each species feels the weight of climate change in different ways, which then leads to cascading effects through food webs and entire ecosystems.

The stressed Arctic fox population offers a superb example in northern Manitoba.

This cute, fuzzy species of the canine family stands about 30 cm tall, about two thirds of the size of their red fox cousins. It is, despite its small stature, the primary terrestrial predator in the Arctic.

Arctic foxes experience climate change through several mechanisms. First, they are (and always have been) heavily influenced by the fluctuations in the population size of lemmings, a rodent that acts as their primary food source, especially critical in the spring. But the lemming population is declining.

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Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

An arctic fox. (Anthony Souffle / The Associated Press)
An arctic fox. (Anthony Souffle / The Associated Press)

Warming extends Churchill's whale-watching season but increases risks for belugas

Sarah Lawrynuik  16 minute read Preview

Warming extends Churchill's whale-watching season but increases risks for belugas

Sarah Lawrynuik  16 minute read Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

Some feelings you just know will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Paddling a kayak out into the Churchill River as the sun starts sinking in the late summer sky, dipping the paddles into the murky water, whistling or cooing for your submerged friends to come and say hi.

Then you feel it: the rumble of bubbles on the underside of the kayak that reverberates through the walls of the vessel — you know they’re on their way up from the river’s depths.

Belugas are unlike any other whale species. They’re relatively small (about half the size of an orca), curious and seemingly unafraid, with rounded, gleaming white noggins that can swivel on their bodies because their vertebrae aren’t fused the way they are in many other species.

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Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

Build Films / Ocean North
Build Films / Ocean North

Churchill has lurched from economic boom to bust over its turbulent history

Sarah Lawrynuik 14 minute read Preview

Churchill has lurched from economic boom to bust over its turbulent history

Sarah Lawrynuik 14 minute read Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

His dark pickup truck slows and bumps across the train tracks heading out of Churchill towards the river. Mayor Mike Spence is driving out to the neighbourhood on the river’s east bank known as the Flats, where he grew up.

“It was the best place to grow up. You just look out and see the beluga whales,” Spence says. “But even then, discrimination played a role because we lived on the so-called poor side of town.”

That never swayed him from the love of this breathtaking place. These days he lives in a bigger house casting a shadow on the site of his former childhood home. He still has water trucked in since this area was never hooked up to the town’s water system.

“Now we see people coming over and saying, ‘Oh, this is nice.’ It’s always been nice,” he says.

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Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

SARAH LAWRYNUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
SARAH LAWRYNUIK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Churchill draws scientists from around the world researching impacts of climate change

Sarah Lawrynuik 12 minute read Preview

Churchill draws scientists from around the world researching impacts of climate change

Sarah Lawrynuik 12 minute read Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

CHURCHILL — There is something special about this town.

People who have been here know, though it is challenging to describe. Those who haven’t are told tales of a nearly mystical small community, the unique geography and the magnificent wildlife.

Exactly what makes it such a special place is hard to define, but whatever that intrinsic character is, it acts as a magnetic force for humans and animals alike.

Every summer — as if on cue — the sleek white backs of more than 50,000 beluga whales begin peeking out of the waters of southwestern Hudson Bay as they return to the estuaries of northern Manitoba. Their fidelity to this summer habitat is centuries old, passed on from one generation to the next. This loyalty to the region ensures for as long as this site is safe, these alien-like, curious whales will continue to return.

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Friday, Oct. 23, 2020

Alex de Vries-Magnifico photo
Alex de Vries-Magnifico photo

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