wildlife

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Barren ground Caribou

Hail brilliant mankind

Cast your eyes upon the wilds of the great land. The wilderness stretches out before you and you are saved. The new land, freshly washed of glacier ice and snow reveals the tundra and the life within. Brave hunters, your lives await you there. Up, way up, above the treeline into the Arctic.
Cast your eyes upon the land and view the newness of the Earth. Your lives await you here, almighty human, the brave explorer, the clever hunter. The wild beasts roam and in your view is the vast herd you’ve been searching for.
Caribou!
Here in the far north is a large migrating herd of caribou. The home of the barren ground caribou as they move across the northern plains of the North West Territories. A way of life for nomadic peoples as they follow the herds for food and clothing. A lifeline, a support, a tradition. Beware, almighty human, the world changes.

Click to access 2011-2015_Barren-ground_Caribou_Management_Strategy.pdf

The barren ground caribou is in decline. It’s once magnificent numbers in the hundreds of thousands of animals is now declining and the great herds are vanishing. A way of life vanishes with them. Gone is the migrating hunter, who’s dependency upon the caribou sustained them in food and clothing. Gone is the sport hunter and with the loss of the wild herds eco- tourism vanishes as well.
Hail bravehearts to the call of the wild.
The exploitation of the far north is a blight upon us. Overharvesting of a national treasure affects our cultural identity. As an environmentalist and a conservationist, the predation of the wild is a long standing concern. Hardship for the people, hardship for the wildlife and loss of culture, a food source, a tourist delight and a way of life.
The sustainability of the land appears consistent. The food source for the animals themselves seems stable. Overhunting is identified as a factor in the rapid decline and the dwindling numbers of caribou are a threat to the sustainability of the wild.
Eager hunters, your bellies are full and hunting of the magnificent wild is no more.
The lands set aside for wildlife habitat is immense in Canada, but still, the plunder increases. The far north, the tundra, uncultivated, unproductive land, whose resource value is low, but for the wildlife that resides there, it sustains them. Specially adapted animals, whose lives have supported the indigenous peoples of northern Canada for centuries. To loose the herds of the wild is to loose our national, cultural identity. The migration of the early peoples, the fur trade, the choice to inhabit the north. The integrity of the wild is essential to us.
Hail mankind. The world is yours, to protect or discard, choose wisely.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
November 20,2013

Caribou
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Caribou

Good morning Brave hearts

This beautiful new day of discovery is yours.
The open land lays before us and the movement of wildlife stirs in the distance. We take our cameras and creep forward. What is this sight?
Out here in the protected alpine, where few deer and elk will roam, is another animal. Caribou! Taking a stand for wildlife protection gifts us with the sighting of these rare mountain animals. The remnants of a last herd of animals which used to sustain their populations in the remote areas of Jasper National Park.
Here in the mountains is a unique species of woodland caribou that survive only in the highest alpine areas. Lofty alpine meadows, bursting with colourful flowers, high, snow covered peaks, chilly mountain streams and lakes. An area less frequently visited by humans, but home still to the variety of wildlife that entices us here. A chance for a view of the animals remote and rare, brings us out of our world and into the great open spaces of the great wild.
The great wild!
The adventure begins early, the hike is long. Hours of walking along well travelled routes for the opportunity to explore the magnificent wild. The alpine meadows burst with flower, the colours of the earth and the magnificent scenery make us smile. A sighting would be nice.
The elusive woodland caribou who’s numbers are drastically falling in this area, is our photographic joy.

http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/jasper/plan/maligne/ie-ei.aspx

The alpine, in it’s own right, is a place of awesome splendor. The majestic mountain peaks, the array of colour and variety of terrain.
Our constant chatter alerts the ever present bears, who watch from their own safety as passersby invade their home. This is where the grizzly bear lives and hunts and the ever present predator reminds us, never hike alone. The trail is busy, so the chance of a sighting declines as numbers of people improve the chance that the bears will wander off to more peaceful areas. We stay on the trails. No chance encounters, no surprises, no sign of bears today.
No sign of caribou either. The elusive animal is farther back, farther from the trail, farther from human encounters.
This land, as large as it seems to be, is helping to protect some of our nations declining wildlife species. Exactly why the woodland caribou is in decline is not precisely known. The decline seems rapid and with herds as small as these, their own recovery is in peril.
Save us mankind! Calls the great wild and caribou recovery projects persist. The tracts of land set aside for wildlife conservation are being invaded, almighty human and the disturbance upsets shy, sensitive species. In reality, they are all sensitive species, needing care and protection.
The great wild and it’s wild inhabitants are a gift. Come almighty human, to save our national treasures. This UNESCO heritage site is one of those gifts.

http://shop.wwf.ca/?utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Adoptions2013&utm_term=search&gclid=CPy6pMa77LoCFcdAMgod1z4A_g

written by Dr. Louise Hayes
November 17,2013

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Above the Arctic Circle

Praises mankind
To your thousands of years of history in the making. To the vast land of the high Arctic, where a small group of people came to inhabit this great land. Approximately 50,000 square miles of remote Arctic wilderness, where the shallow lakes of yesteryear remain an ecological and human delight of today. The proven history of pre history mankind.
Dance, you dazzling northern lights. Fill the skies with the beauty of the night. Dance and play with your dazzling colours, your mesmerizing movements of light and your own sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCqX_aIHQ0I Northern lights and tranquility music.

The vast night sky, with its thousands of twinkling stars, stretches the imagination. What lies beyond this great planet Earth? Into the vastness of the galaxy, our minds roam for answers. Are we alone?
Pre history man, with his small colony in the far north was alone. A group of people who found that perfect place. A land of richness and abundance, of beauty and tranquility. The peace of the great land welcomed them, saved them and they dwelled in relative prosperity.
Hear us, sighs the great planet, as another contract is signed for environmental protection. An oasis, almighty human. Since the dawn of time, this land has been intact, full of the precious life forms and the majestic land of ancient Earth.
The evolutionary path is a trail of archeological treasure. It tells a story of early Canada, of a migration of aboriginal peoples who followed their prey as it moved across the globe. Animals of the great plains of Africa, hyenas, camels and sloth, plus wooley mammoth, tigers, giant beavers and reindeer.
In their own migratory path, the people have come from Africa. So did the wildlife, to the great plains of the far north.
The Earth, the ever changing planet.
Stay, almighty human, in the land of the far north. The animals die out as the planet changes and cools. Other animals arrived to take their place. As the glaciers recede and the rest of Canada warms, the high Arctic cools.
But the land is a massive oasis of life and living, of sport and hunting of play and daring. The adventure of your lives!
For the early human had an aptitude for survival. He was the fittest, he was the strongest and he was the bravest.

Click to access FN_Com_Profile_VGFN_LH_ed.pdf

Come, you bravehearts, come to the land of prehistory mankind. Come into the land of the mighty Yukon territory and explore with us the great secrets of our ancestry.
Hail, you almighty human, for the adventure of your lives.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
November 8, 2013

Old Crow Flats
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Old Crow Flats

Good morning Bravehearts!

A brilliant new day, for brilliant new minds.
Clever bravehearts, the adventure continues, deep into the depths of prehistory man. Deep into the brilliant life of life above the tundra, life in the great Arctic, above the Arctic circle.
A vast and exquisite land of migrating wildlife and of the peoples who have inhabited this place for thousands of years.
The unspoilt far north. A rugged and dangerous land filled with snowcaps and frigid waters, rough tundra and alpine flora. The mighty animal life of the far north, polar bear, caribou, walrus, whale and the people who still live in this remote and harsh part of the world.
Our sense of reality assumes the worst. Freezing cold, barren landscape, months of endless darkness, but thousands of years ago, the earth was a much different place. Here, up above the Arctic Circle was a land of warmer climate. As the rest of Canada lay covered under a sheet of glacial ice and snow, the high Arctic was home to many species of wildlife. Way up in the high Arctic, a vast preservation of lakes, ponds, marshes and land is now occupied by throngs of migrating birds, to the point that it is protected as a bird refuge. Here is the home of prehistory man as he enters the continent of North America and settles in Canada. A protected land that is now a vast land settlement area which includes government land, Vuntut National Park and the ancestral lands of the Vuntut Gwitchen people.

Click to access ice_age_old_crow.pdf

How long ago, for the great human, the almighty man, who conquers all. The carbon dating of the tools indicates thousands of years ago. The migration of people into continental America is earlier than what was once believed. An area called Old Crow flats and the fossil finds in the Blue Fish caves tell a story of this ancient world.

http://www.taiga.net/wetlands/oldcrow/oc_gen.html

The pre history shows a collection of unusual animals. Fossils galore, but not of this world, not of this continent. Hyenas. A scavenger who follows predators and injured animals, waiting for cast offs, or an easy kill. Camels, sloth. A far different world, in the far north. A land of lush vegetation, abundance of wildlife, safe habitation for dwellings, an easier life than now.

http://www.civilization.ca/research-and-collections/research/resources-for-scholars/essays-1/archaeology-1/jacques-cinq-mars/significance-of-the-bluefish-caves-in-beringian-prehistory3/

The brilliant bravehearts of that world inhabited a beautiful landscape of plenty. The people stayed.
The Old Crow flats and Blue Fish Caves are areas of significant archeological treasure and environmental protection. This protected area boasts some of the worlds most significant archeological findings. Discoveries that prove pre history man was a man of skills and that the planet is an ever changing world. The migration of man, at the dawn of our nations history is revealed in the unparalleled beauty of the majestic far north. In a collection of lakes, high in the mountains, where the summer days are continual daylight and the temperature is a warm 15C.
High above the Arctic Circle where no one dreams to believe, that here is the dawning of Canada. Here is the brave new world of ancient man.
Daring human, we hear your words. Come to the far north. Come to the adventure of your lives.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
November 5,2013

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The Dawn of Time

Good morning Bravehearts.
In the beginning, the world was lush with vegetation and wildlife. In the beginning, the far north was the place to be. In the beginning, above the Arctic Circle, was a paradise of habitat for plant and animal and human. In the beginning, before the last glaciers receded, while Canada was under a layer of ice and snow, the far north was home to many residents. It still is.
Come to the beginning, to Vuntut National Park, Yukon Territory, to the dawn of mankind in the Canada.

http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/yt/vuntut/index.aspx

Here, in this vast and remote wilderness lies the key to prehistory mankind. An unusual ecosystem, high up in the Arctic, with relatively warm climate, berries, birds, animals, fish. Food in abundance and weather temperate enough for survival. Low annual snowfall lightly covers the winter ground, sub zero temperatures to -35C. An oasis of lakes, marsh, pond, vegetation. This large protected area is where the story begins. Here in the mighty north.
Praises mankind, to your thousands of years of human habitation in the far north. Your story will be told.

http://www.taiga.net/wetlands/oldcrow/oc_gen.html

The peoples are the Vuntut Gwitchen, the settlers and survivors of a world of constant change. They came to a land of plenty and stayed for the life that the land provides. A life of hunting and gathering, trapping, boating. A life of relative ease with food in abundance. Sports, fishing. The endless beauty of the Earth, the endless beauty of the sky.
With so much provided there’s time to think and time to play, time to imagine and time to work. Time to investigate and explore. Time to build a nation, a culture, a language, dwellings a home. With glaciers receding there’s an opportunity to travel south, but they stayed. Stay in your own vast oasis of relative warmth and adventure. Of food and prosperity.
The great Earth provided an immense land of abundance and opportunity. The land of and the lands surrounding Vuntut National Park.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
November 3, 2013

Take Flight
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Take Flight

Good morning brave hearts.
The cooler fall air reminds the birds of the season of change. They call to each other to gather around. Come near! they sing. They clamour together and fill the trees, calling for each and every one of them to join the flock. It is fall. Time to move south.
The birds natural inclination to move to warmer climates, brings the masses of migrating birds together. The gregarious birds fly together for protection and flight paths. They keep each other in sight, the older ones, showing the way to the younger ones the way, the strong leading the weak. The birds will travel hundreds of kilometers in search of new food sources, shelter, homes and habitats.
The skies fill with the wonder of migration.
The long flight to ponds and forests in far off places. Will they still be there for the birds? Will those protected places that the wildlife need so badly for survival still exist? One more year of environmental protection, one more year of the survival of so many species.
Thousands fly south to warm climates, their small bodies too fragile for cold temperatures and as the leaves turn colour and fall, the protection of the trees vanishes. The winds are strong and the birds take flight to escape.
Will they return?
We protect our own forests for the salvation of the planet, air, weather, for us, for wildlife and for beauty. The forest provides a beautiful backdrop to our lives. The gracious trees, home to many animals, insects and birds provide homes, shelter from the elements, wind, sun and rain and food.
The brave birds fly on a course to the unknown. They will winter wherever they can find food and shelter. Wherever the compassionate human has protected them and the environments that they need for survival. Parklands, forests, back yards with shrubs and trees.
The migration is a marvel of distance and stamina.
How many will come back to us?
The quiet of autumn fills our ears as the chattering birds leave us behind.
The monarch butterflies have already gone on their long flight to Mexico.
http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/
Hibernating animals dig into the earth for their long winters sleep and ponds become quiet.
Trees shed their leaves in preparation for their own winters sleep.
The land is changing. The scattered seeds of summer plants find resting places in the soil. New life for next year.
Prepare for winter, it will come soon.
The peaceful land keeps us busy with fall harvest. Hay for the livestock, fall fruits and vegetables for us. The farmers markets swell with food and our own food baskets are heavy.
The earth saves us once again.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
September 23,2013
http://www.bbcanada.com/10895.html
http://www.empowernetwork.com/?id=louisehayes

Solstice
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Solstice

Hail Brave hearts!

It’s officially fall. The autumn colours of the landscape are changing and a new brilliant hue of colour is upon us. This almighty man, is the land of our forefathers. The land of pristine beauty, of awesome wonder, of dreams fulfilled, of courageous challenge. A land for bold and daring adventure, a life of freedom. A new way, a new path to follow a new quest.
Here, almighty man, is the great land! All of your strength, all of your courage, all of your skills, all of your brilliance and all of your compassion.
Fine negotiator who accepted cultural diversity and multiculturalism as a natural human condition. Fine negotiator, whose attempts to assimilate brought peace and prosperity to the land. Clever peacemaker who spied an opportunity and felt a responsibility to save.
Save us! Called the dying as they slipped away. The path to prosperity was too difficult and too isolated.
Compassionate human, who lived so well, with such apparent ease, with prosperity, luxury and time for leisure pursuits. Art, games, athletics, tests of skills and feats of daring.
This is the new world. Lucky are we to be the fortunate ancestors of accepted mankind in a world so daunting and dangerous.
The pristine wilderness unfolds before us and calls it endless call to follow. Come, great human, into the great wild, whispers the forest, sings the rivers and howls the wind. Experience this peace and hear our song, we sing to you mankind, freedom!
Freedom! It echoed in the ears of our forefathers as they arrived by the boatload to inhabit a land of unknown challenges. A promise of lives fulfilled, dreams come true, plenty for all. The negotiated peace brought with it nation building, agriculture, economics, land, contentment and relaxation. Escape to the new world.
Gone was the overburdening landlord and the endless struggle against taxation. The homesteaders came to farm the land and now there is a harvest. It is fall, the colours are changing, the fruit is ripening, the food is abundant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homesteading
http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/living-the-good-life-zm0z12aszkon.aspx
Still, in our modern homes, we hear the voices of wisdom persistently nudging us. Move forward, brilliant human, but keep the past with you. Don’t forget your daring ancestors, that brave wilderness birth, the fear, the sorrow, the overwhelming pain. Don’t forget us mankind. Don’t leave the past behind. Remember the great peace that saved us and that is our duty to retain. The great peace, in a world of hardship, with a call to duty to overcome the challenges, inhabit all of the land, build a civilization, farm the land, be the almighty human! No so, bravehearts. Without the great peace, all would be lost.
Now, in this time of joy, when the crops are harvested, food is plenty, the winter is cared for, survival is promised. Now we rejoice in the autumn, with it’s changing colours, it’s cooler temperatures, it’s gifts from the earth.
The animals mate and they too will survive. The great earth, full of miracles, provides again.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
September 22,2013
http://www.bbcanada.com/10895-html
http://www.empowernetwork.com/?id=louisehayes

Paint your palet
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Paint your palet

Still the wild calls us. It’s perfect hues. It calls to our instincts, our passions and our joy.
Here, almighty man, whispers the forest. Come walk my trails, into the secrets of my wooded landscapes. It is autumn and my continually changing attire is now ablaze in fall colour. My own berry harvest is ripe and ready. I fed your ancestors, they walked these trails, full of purpose and determination. Yes, mankind, you will survive. The negotiated peace prevails and you, brilliant one, have achieved your goal.
Your goal to prosperity, to the rugged landscape, to the great wild, to the pursuit of inner peace.
Hail, almighty man, for the great negotiation of a multi culture society.
The great Earth cloaks itself in the unrivalled beauty of its colourful landscape. The changing populations of flowers each with delightful colour and purpose. The early bold display arising from a winters sleep is soon overwhelmed by the spring blooms. Now it is fall, time to put it all away. Time to harvest the crops and to bring the abundance of the land into your home.
The Earth sustains us, as it sustains all of its creatures. The powerful bear, preparing for a long winters nap, will fill itself on the fall berries. Berries for the pregnant mother, berries for the tiny infant to be born next spring. All in a prepared cycle of life and living.
The powerful bear will sleep a blissful winters sleep, away from the curious, the elements and the cold. The wild land will provide a soft, dry den of quiet protection and the mighty bear will drift into a tranquil rest. The earth provided an abundant harvest and the bear will arise with cubs in the spring.
The changing seasons is a changing world for us as well.
The season of the harvest is a time of plenty.
No one is hungry here. No humans, no wildlife, no creatures. The earth provides for what it creates and the wild sustains the wild.
No plunder here. The immense landscape protects a tiny fraction of the populace of wildlife that the earth creates. This small tract of land continually provides for grazing animals, hungry predators and contented birds. The web of life and the interwoven dependence of life is fulfilled in some small, protected lands where encroachment is limited and hunting prohibited. These select few are an example of the biodiversity of the planet. One small area of pristine environmental integrity, set aside for the earth to decide.
In these small areas, the earth chooses the numbers and variety of the species of plant and animal life. Mankind is a visitor to these realms. These realms of abundance, no poverty, no plunder, no starvation here. These are the sanctuaries of the planet, no matter how large, they are too small. Too small for the vast numbers of fishes in the waters, too small for the vast numbers of birds in the sky, too small for the populace herds of ungulates and too small for the density of predators. Here, the earth lives, its populations thrive, it plants its seeds of joy, of regrowth of rebirth.
Almighty human, sighs the earth, I need more.
http://www.pccanada.com
http://www.nps.com

written by Dr. Louise Hayes
September 16,2013

http://www.bbcanada.com/10895.html
http://www.empowernetwork.com/?id=louisehayes

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A path of delight

Good morning Brave hearts.

Hail brilliant mankind.
A lifetime of beauty and serenity awaits you in the grand adventure of the wild. The peaceful quiet, the wonderful aromas, the clean, unpolluted waters, the immense landscape, the fabulous wildlife. The joy of an escape into peace. A timeless oasis of splendor for the senses, an awakening, a rejuvenation, a moment in time where all is well and the good Earth breathes it’s regular breaths and it’s heart pounds with regular beating. Here, the Earth lives!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E40lwh53ec forest tranquility message.

We feel the soft path under our feet, mosses growing in the shaded forest beside. Wild grasses and wild flowers tightly competing for a particle of soil to secure themselves to. The meadows are lush with vegetation. Insects thrive on the nectar and birds thrive on the insects. A perfect environment, a perfect interaction of life and the continuation of living.
Here, in the wilderness, the Earth lives.
Every inch of it’s surface is covered by plants. The seasonal changes of plant life, from a planet so creative, it continually changes it’s cover.
Now, it is fall. The seed pods are a burst of energy for new life. The tiny seed becomes a flower of exquisite colour and beauty. The proud planet, showing off it’s own newborn.
Here the planet chooses for itself. It plants it’s own lush creation of plants, the number and variety. It feeds it’s own creation of insects and wildlife. It chooses it’s own abundance, beauty, colour and scent. Here, in the great wild, where the wind pollinates the plants and rain nurtures the ground, is where the planet shows us her finest designs.
A tangle of forest, a carpet of meadow, every colour of green imaginable. Here, where the ponds match the colour of the sky, where every plant species is a different colour of green. Even in the fall, when the early frost changes the colour of the leaves, this is not a dying world. This is the time of rejuvenation. In this time of quiet, the animals will mate, the flowers will sow their seeds, the migrating birds will fly and the land prepares for a restful winters sleep. The Earth too, needs it’s time of restful calm.
The joy of an unhurried escape along a path of simple pleasure. A day of acquaintance with nature and its wonderful ways. Simple, gentle breezes wafting pleasant smells of plants so fragrant. The sounds of calling birds and the cascading waters of small waterfalls reminding us that we have nourishment here.
The discovery of a path of luxury. The luxury to have unspoilt lands, unpolluted waters, clean, fresh air. The luxury to protect, to conserve, to walk the great wild.
Here, we don’t plunder. Here we save.
The Earth smiles at us and presents her glory.
Brilliant mankind, come to the great wild. Let the fabulous good Earth nurture your soul and sing it’s songs of gladness to you.
Peace to you, brave hearts, nurture and care.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
September 12,2013