Protected areas and thriving lodges can co-exist

Spring is crunch-time when you work at a remote fishing or hunting lodge. Crews are busy updating cabins, repairing generators, getting boats in the water, and preparing to welcome clients. These same activities are unfolding across the Seal River Watershed in northern Manitoba. And this year, they come with an added sense of opportunity.

A new proposal to protect the Seal River Watershed was recently released for public comment on the EngageMB website.

Designed by the Sayisi Dene, Northlands Denesuline, Barren Lands, and O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree First Nations, the Manitoba government, and the government of Canada, with input from stakeholders and the public, the plan calls for creating a network of protected areas across 50,000 sq. kilometres of healthy lands and waters.

These new designations — a combination of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area, provincial parks, and a national park reserve — would honour Dene and Cree cultures and sustain caribou, grizzlies, and polar bears.

They will also expand the regional tourism economy. I’ve seen it happen first-hand.

I am the general manager of the Frontier Lodge, on the edge of the Thaidene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area and adjacent to the Thaidene Nëné National Park Reserve and Territorial Protected Area in the Northwest Territories. I came here 16 years ago to work as a dock hand and never left.

I’ve worked at the lodge before and after the protected areas were established, and I can say from experience they have been great for business. More clients and more investments have come in the door, and guests have more options and better connections to the community. We all benefit.

People had questions at first, me included.

In 2018, when the Łutsël K’é Dene First Nation led the establishment of Thaidene Nëné, business operators and clients wondered what would change. Our guests wanted to know if they could still catch 50-pound lake trout and 45-inch northern pike, make fires and enjoy a shore lunch in the park, and bring their catch home. The answers were a resounding yes.

The Seal River Watershed proposal offers similar continuity. Public access to the entire watershed is assured. Fishing, hunting, and guided outfitting will be welcomed in the provincial parks. Guided outfitting for angling and ecotourism will be promoted across the national park reserve, and existing big-game outfitting will continue in about half of the national park reserve for 10 years after establishment.

All of this is good news for the outdoor tourism industry. When the protected areas were created, we got a big boost in free advertising.

National and international media covered Thaidene Nëné and attracted new clients. We still draw folks who’ve come to fish for the last 30 years but now they’ve been joined by those who’ve read about muskox in the national park or seen videos about the Ni Hat’ni Dene Guardians and want to come see for themselves.

The Seal River Watershed is also generating widespread interest. But the recent spike in misinformation about the protected areas could have a chilling effect. Northern lodges operate in a competitive market, and if prospective clients read false claims that public access is being limited or lodges may shut down, they will go elsewhere.

Our experience is that new protected areas bring new investment. In 2019, the owners of Frontier retired and sold the lodge to the Łutsël K’é Dene First Nation. The nation was able to access both private investment and new government funding streams connected with the creation of the parks. We’ve made renovations and expanded guest offerings.

The Seal River Watershed protected areas could also open up new public-private funding opportunities.

This year, 90 per cent of our clients will be repeat guests or friends joining return visitors — confirming that the combination of bucket-list fishing, park-oriented experiences, and ties to the local community strengthen our business.

Before the parks, some clients came and went without thinking about the local Indigenous people. The fishing and the community seemed like two separate things and that was a lost opportunity.

Now, people understand the connection, and it makes their time here more meaningful. They see the full circle: the First Nation led the creation of protected areas that sustain the fish and waters they love, the land they are exploring, and the cultures they are learning about.

If our experience can be a guide, this is what the future of tourism will be in the Seal River Watershed. Change can be uncomfortable, but it’s often where growth and opportunities begin.

Corey Myers is general manager of the Frontier Lodge, located near Thaidene Nëné on the east arm of the Great Slave Lake, N.W.T.