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East-side boreal forest worth $130M a year: study

By: Mary Agnes Welch

3/12/2008 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

The boreal forest on the east side of Lake Winnipeg is worth $130 million a year, according to a new study meant to bolster the province's pitch for a UNESCO world heritage site.

The cash flows into the economy from fishing, camping, trapping and even the value of the water the eventually flows into northern Hydro dams. It also includes some less tangable things like the removal of water pollutants filtered through wetlands that big city sewage plants would otherwise have to do.

"As First Nations, we already know the value of the land," said Sophia Rabliauskas, a Poplar River band member and spokesperson for the coalition pushing for a world heritage site.

"Now we want our neighbours who live in cities and all over the world to know the value of it."

Poplar River and the Doer government are leading the charge to turn 40,000 square kilometers of pristine forest into a world heritage site under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the pyramids of Egypt.

The move would kibosh any plans to log or mine down the east side or to build a power line like Manitoba Hydro has proposed.