The First Nations Chief protecting our watersheds

THE FRENCH RIVER and its surrounding watershed cover 6,600 square kilometres of pristine wilderness between Nipissing and Georgian Bay, Ont. It’s home to migratory birds and boreal caribou. And for the Moose Cree First Nation, it’s the last source of clean drinking water, teeming with whitefish, pickerel and pike. Moose Cree Chief Patricia Faries grew up on the land, walking to school through five feet of snow in moose hides and moccasins. In 1998, when she returned after completing a law degree in Toronto, she noticed the snowfall had diminished. The water levels had sunken, and new sandbars were starting to appear. The animals were moving off the watershed in search of more food, and many Moose Cree people were following them. Since Faries was elected chief in 2016, she has been on a dogged mission to protect the French River

from companies like NioBay Metals, which wants drilling permits to extract minerals from the land, as the area is an especially rich source of niobium, a mineral used for making steel and superalloys. The provincial government protected some 1,600 square kilometres of the French River watershed and its lands as part of the Ontario Living Legacy Initiative, a conservation strategy implemented in 1999. Faries is pressuring them to add the rest. She has requested more support and cooperation from the Ontario government, insisting that protecting these lands could help Canada catch up to its climate and biodiversity targets.

Her efforts have been lauded by such environmental A-listers as the Wildlands League and the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. “We don’t have enough housing,” says Faries.

“Our kids can’t go to school. We have boil-water warnings. Yet, everyone else is benefiting from the resources of our land. We’ve been patient.”

Faries practises the Seventh Generation Principle: the idea that you should work to create a better world not just for your children but for your descendants seven generations down the road. She has a three-year-old granddaughter named Anastasia, and she wants Anastasia’s great-grandchildren to know what Faries did for them. “This is the only place on earth we have to live,” she says, “and they have to protect it because we did for them.”

B.C. and Alberta will burn

Wildfires like the ones that wiped out Fort McMurray, Alta., and parts of Kelowna, B.C., in recent years are becoming increasingly common due to warmer temperatures, drier conditions and more lightning. By 2100, the fire season is expected to lengthen by more than a month along the West Coast and B.C.-Alberta border and in Northern Quebec. Smoke from the fires is also a concern. During B.C.’s 2018 wildfires, Alberta’s air quality approached the top of the health risk scale over an immense area spanning from Calgary to Edmonton. With longer exposure, smoke cover can exacerbate cardiac and respiratory problems.

B.C. salmon stocks will dwindle

Warmer ocean temperatures are threatening the survival of salmon and driving them to migrate further north. Of 13

declining chinook salmon populations, eight of them are endangered and four are threatened. Salmon is not only a culturally important food for West Coast peoples but also food for marine mammals like whales, seals and sea lions.