wildlife conservation

Caribou
by

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

Old Crow Flats
by

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

by

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