Home to the greatest constellation of wild mountain rivers in North America, the staggeringly beautiful Peel Watershed is one of the last large intact ecosystems on the continent.
Under the terms of the Umbrella Final Agreement, the Yukon government and First Nations started a regional planning process for the Peel watershed in 2004.
Both sides chose representatives for the Peel Watershed Planning Commission and, after exhaustive study and consultation with the public and all stakeholders in the region, it released its final recommended plan in July 2011.
Striking a compromise wasn’t easy. The participating aboriginal governments wanted 100 per cent of the watershed protected. But, after the land-use planning process began, exploration companies flooded into the area and started staking vast tracts of the watershed. Today there are more than 8,400 claims in the region. Of those, 6,773 were staked after the commission began its work, even though the commission asked for a halt to new staking while the planning process was ongoing.
Complicating matters, the interests of outfitters, trappers, tourism operators, and oil and gas developers had to be considered.
Working as a team, the commission’s government and aboriginal representatives balanced these competing interests.
They recommended permanent protection of 55 per cent of the region. Another 25 per cent would be given interim wilderness area protection.
The remaining 20 per cent of the Peel Watershed would be available for responsible industrial development.
Today, the government has signaled it wants to ignore this historic compromise and abandon the commission’s research. It has publicly rejected the 55/25 per cent protection recommended for the Peel. It wants less protected, though it won’t say how much less.
We disagree with this arbitrary approach and so do the public, aboriginal governments, local organizations and businesses.
We suggest this is a colossal mistake. It will destroy one of the last great undisturbed ecosystems on the continent and waste public resources and political capital. Such a decision will also undermine certainty for business, making the territory a less attractive place to invest. Public confidence in future planning exercises will be undermined. And, without sound, community-based planning, land use conflicts will be inevitable, making the territory a less desirable place for resource companies to invest and operate.
The Yukon and Canadian public can tell the government that we support the commission’s final land-use plan. Polling has shown that more than three-quarters of Yukon residents favour protecting most of the Peel Watershed from development.
The lack of road access makes this place unique in North America. As well, the watershed is an extremely important cultural and historical landscape for the Na-Cho Nyak Dun, Tron’dek Hwech’in, Vuntut Gwitchin, and Tetlit Gwich’in who have traditionally used it for fish and wildlife harvesting.
The region supports healthy populations of species that are rare or endangered elsewhere on the continent, including grizzly bears, peregrine falcons, wolverine, barren ground, mountain and woodland caribou, wolverine and Beringian plants.
Following the final recommended land-use plan will help preserve this wild place for future generations.
Expanded mining exploration and development will require the building of roads, bridges and possibly railroads in this wilderness. The development of one deposit could open the region to many others, as transportation opportunities lower the cost of extracting lead-zinc, uranium, copper, nickel and coal believed to be buried in the region. Transportation routes will carve up the landscape, interfere with animal migration and irrevocably tame this great wilderness.
CPAWS Yukon is working with aboriginal governments, local organizations, community leaders and the public to encourage the government to adopt the final recommended plan of the Peel Watershed Planning Commission.
To learn more about Peel Watershed protection efforts, please visit protectpeel.ca.
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