Tumpline
TEMAGAMI’S LADY EVELYN RIVER PHOTO:
GARYANDJOANIEMCGUFFIN.COM
Come Together THE GOVERNMENT LOOKS AT TEMAGAMI AS A WHOLE, AND GETS IT HALF RIGHT
NEITHER THE ANISHNABAI canoeists of 6,000 years ago nor the wannigan-tot- ing campers of the 1950s would recog- nize Temagami today. Te lakes, rivers and trails of the region in northeastern Ontario have become legendary among canoeists. But this status has put pres- sure on the canoe routes. With many routes passing through different pro- vincial parks, conservation reserves and Crown lands, some areas have fallen through the cracks between dif- ferent management plans and become worse for wear. So when the Ontario Ministry of
Natural Resources (MNR) announced plans in 2004 to integrate the land-use plans across Temagami, canoeists and environmentalists applauded. Groups like the Wilderness Canoe Association looked forward to having the area man- aged under one plan that recognized the need for canoe route planning and camp- site and portage maintenance across the whole one-million-hectare area. Yet the MNR’s plan, set to come into
effect this summer, is being received with faint praise. Paddlers are saying the MNR missed a rare opportunity
when they neglected to base their new map of canoe routes on a comprehen- sive map the MNR pieced together dur- ing the 1970s and 1980s. To research the map, Craig Macdon-
ald, an MNR staffer who now lives in Dwight, Ontario, learned to speak Ojib- wa, interviewed more than 130 people and spent 20 years crisscrossing Tema- gami by canoe and snowshoe to map its ancient network of canoe routes. Macdonald created the most detailed
map of Temagami canoe routes ever produced. He says he got to work just in time. Very few of the people he in- terviewed are still alive today. But rather than consulting Macdon-
ald’s map, district manager Rick Cal- houn says the MNR referred to a less ex- tensive Temagami map from the 1970s to identify existing canoe routes. While Calhoun says the Macdonald
map “certainly has its value,” he says the MNR doesn’t recognize many of the more obscure routes marked by Macdonald as being modern thorough- fares. And according to Erhard Kraus of the Wilderness Canoe Association, these areas could now be more vulner-
able to logging. “Ignoring these routes will destroy
their history,” says Kraus. “We’d like to see the old travelways maintained.” What’s more, Catharine Grant, a for-
est campaigner with Earthroots, says the MNR initiative will leave Temagami sorely understaffed. Te MNR plans to staff the Temagami region with two rangers and four maintenance workers this summer, far fewer than the 100- odd interior staff that patrolled Tema- gami in the early 1900s. Grant is con- cerned that a limited number of interior staff may diminish the MNR’s ability to keep ATVs off of Crown land portages. Calhoun says the MNR will put most
of its energy into clearing portages and campsites in the popular Crown land area encompassing Lake Temagami and Obabika Lake, south of Lady Ev- elyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park. Te MNR sees this new focus on the
Crown land between the parks as proof that they recognize that Temagami can be greater than the sum of its parts, but it has left some feeling that the sum won’t be as great as it could have been. —Conor Mihell
C ANOE ROOT S n 1 3
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