PLANET IN PERIL

Winnipeg Free Press. Author warns province of growing threat. Full story here.

as well as the site nominated for the UNESCO world heritage  site. Government of Manitoba. No New Peat Licences in the Province  Until Peatland Stewardship Strategy in Place Manitoba is banning peat mining in provincial parks and in the nominated  UNESCO World Heritage Site on the east side of Lake Winnipeg as one of several new peatland protection initiatives through TomorrowNow - Manitoba's Green Plan, Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh announced today. Peat bogs (r.) provide habitat for rare plants.  They also store vast amounts  of carbon,  which  helps  mitigate  the impacts of climate change.  Source:   Wilderness Committee.    "I am proud of our record on parks and protected areas.  Seven million hectares of land, which amounts to almost 11 per cent of the province, are already fully protected and we will continue our work on reducing industrial developments in parks," said Mackintosh.  "While I recognize the

GRANDVIEW:  The Green Party of Manitoba condemns the NDP government for allowing the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting company to start construction of a mine in Grass River Provincial Park without approval or public consultation. “If allowed to proceed, the Reed Lake Mine will destroy the woodland Caribou herd which the Park was intended to protect,” says Kate Storey, Green Party councillor and former researcher of the Reed Lake woodland caribou herd. Kate uses radio telemetry to track movements  of woodland caribou at  Reed Lake Grass River Provincial Park is a small park surrounding Reed Lake. This park is a rare area of ideal woodland caribou habitat. Woodland caribou depend on the islands of Reed Lake for protection of their young calves from wolves. Every spring the caribou mothers leave their wintering grounds in old growth forest and swim out to the many islands on Reed Lake where their calves are born in safety. Kate examines a caribou calf. 

Edmonton Journal A bid by Ottawa to impose sweeping confidentiality rules on an Arctic science project is the latest in a disturbing trend that suggests federal environmental scientists are being systematically silenced from communicating their findings to the public. Details here.

Reuters U.S. farmers still lead world in planting GMO crops. Details here. PLT: Unelected agrifood giants like Bayer and Monsanto continue to throw their weight around, dictating the shape of our world food system, while yellow-bellied, elected "lawmakers" sit back and say nothing. They are no better than those who hunker down while the school yard bully beats up on little kids.  

The Dominion - News From the Grassroots Canada Goldenrod - a favourite food plant for pollinators - one of the  hundreds  of "weeds"  on Manitoba's hitlist for eradication. PLT photo Manitoba farmers grapple with impacts and legality of municipal herbicide use. Full story here.

Are the two already on a collision course, with Canadian train travellers caught in the middle? by Larry Powell  Uneventful?  Forgettable? Our Via Rail trip from Winnipeg to Toronto this week, would hardly fall into either of those categories. First,  as we waited to board,  our train, The Canadian, was over two hours late arriving at the Winnipeg station from the west.  Larry on a less "eventful" ride  to  Toronto a few years ago. PLT photo. Some of the  passengers who got off there made mention of white-out conditions before their arrival. But others seemed to think the delay was  mainly due to the number of freight trains they had to yield to by pulling over and stopping on sidings along the way. The CNR owns the rail line so their freights always have the right-of-way over trains carrying passengers. This has been the case for many years, so that part has not changed. What seems to be changing is the frequency and duration of those stops. For example,