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March/April 2007 issue	IN THIS ISSUE: Table of Contents Feature: Barcoding life Feature: Haida Gwaii Feature: Cold War cleanup Feature: Shipwreck gold rush The Inside Story Editor's Notebook Reverberations Explorer À la carte Mosaic

Replacing Louis
A most interesting diary of 15 days aboard an Arctic icebreaker (“Policing the Passage,” Jan/Feb 2007). It reveals just how small a squadron of ice vessels we have to do an increasingly important job. With the Louis S. St-Laurent now 37 years old, what vessel is following of equal utility? The recently commissioned Canadian Navy frigates are too thin skinned to augment this policing. Clearly Canada needs at least another two top-class icebreakers. The United States nuclear submarine fleet has been charting the north for years. U.S. and other world oil powers will be heading through the Northwest Passage sooner than later. The cavalier approach the U.S. government has taken in the past to Canada’s claims to sovereignty dictates that we must be able to do more than just show the flag occasionally. Are we ready and truly able to protect our sovereignty with the equipment we now have?

Harvey Bryant
Brantford, Ont.

“Polar police” was one of the most fascinating articles I have read in Canadian Geographic.  What made this issue more interesting was the juxtaposed article “The Almighty Bruce,” about the Bruce Trail and Niagara Peninsula. From both these articles we discover that the world’s climate has been changing for millennia.  What we do not know is how much impact humans have and are having.  That is why some of us are very skeptical of those who are doomsday prophets.  There is no real scientific data.  Two thousand years is but one second in the history of the universe as we know it. Perhaps we are scheduled to enter the next “steaming jungle” era to be followed by another ice age.  Who knows?

Al Schalm

I find the article Policing The Passage by James Raffin and photos by Benoit Aquin a compelling read, but at the same time, very disturbing.  The two disturbing issues that surface in the article are first, the lack of Canada's ability to police the Arctic in the name of Canadian Sovereignty and a prevalent sentiment that there is a lack of hope of this changing. The second and perhaps the most disturbing  issue is the idea that the damage to our Northern home's environment is non-reversible.  

What reinforces this sense of lack of hope is the writer's statement "a pervasive sense that all is not well in our Arctic".  What are we left with?  Where can we turn for help?  Why is there such a lack of optimism.

Andrew Vasilevich
Toronto

I’ve just finished your January/February issue.  Congratulations.  It is one of your better efforts. The James Raffan piece on "Policing the Passage" was particularly well done.

Any informed and thinking person is aware that the earth has been in a warming trend for at least the past 12,000 years.  There have been of course variations in the rate of warming throughout that time. We appear to be in a period of more rapid temperature increase. The obvious point is that man’s activities have not been responsible for the warming and we cannot control it.

During the past 12,000 years vast volumes of ice have melted, ocean shorelines have drowned, local climates have changed and numerous species have become extinct. ( eg. Saber Tooth Tigers, Woolly Mammoth )  Other species were able to adapt to the changes, Homo Sapiens has been particularly  successful.

Unfortunately, we are being seriously misled by the idea that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuel and that a reduction in the use of fossil fuel will quickly reduce the warming . The idea that we can affect global warming is very questionable.

We are now approaching the point that we could be the cause of our own extinction through the pollution of the two fluids essential to all life – air and water. This we can control.

It is past time for our governments and the media to get the priorities right.  Surely we have the wit to recognize the areas of our existence that we can control and those we cannot.

A. T. Avison
Apsley, Ont.

Dangerous bait
As parents and as people born in Saskatchewan about 75 years ago, my wife and I send our sympathy and an apology to the family and friends of Kenton Carnegie, who was killed by wolves (“Wildlife stories of the year,” Nov/Dec 2006). This should never have happened. However, do not be surprised when something like this happens again, perhaps not wolves but a bear, wild boar, a cougar or even coyotes. In a province and in a country where it is legal for outfitters to lure trophy-class black bear and white-tail deer out of Prince Albert National Park using artifical feed (bait piles) to clients hidden in tree stands, you should learn to expect unusual wildlife behavior.

Why isn’t the Government of Canada (Parks Canada) demanding an end to bait-piles around the park? For 20 years the Saskatchewan Fair Chase League and others have asked the Saskatchewan bureaucracy to prohibit the use of bait for hunting big game animals. To date, the premier refuses to answer. Valerius Geist, Stephen Herrero and other wildlife professionals have told us that people-habituated and food/garbage-conditioned wolves or bear are potentially dangerous.

What will it take to encourage our premier to change his mind? Perhaps the mauling or death of a wealthy client. Or perhaps a few hundred thoughtful letters.

Anyone, who is bothered by the death of Kenton Carnegie should take the time to write Premier Lorne Calvert.

John and Marge Dinius
Paddockwood, Sask.

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Smokin' the Georgians

I was reading the article on pond hockey (“Bush league,” Jan/Feb 2007) and noticed I was in one of the photos. My team, the Hagersville Icepicks, went to tournament last year and are going back again this year. We were in white in the photo and the guys in the blue were from Atlanta, Georgia. We smoked them 21-9. This was one of the best times of my life and that is why we are going back.

Robert Kett
Hagersville, Ont.

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Pine dining

Andrew Nikiforuk’s story, (“Pine Plague,” Jan/Feb 2007) got my attention. I am living with the effects of pine beetle-killed trees outside my window at home. Kamloops represents the northern capital of the ponderosa pine in North America and anyone who has visited the city in the past year will be shocked by the devastation that the mountain pine beetle and western pine beetle are causing to the urban forest. An estimated 80 percent of all the ponderosa pines in the city — about 30,000 trees — are doomed.

So I was surprised at Nikiforuk’s oversight in not mentioning the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), sometimes called the yellow pine or bull pine. After all, the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) is named for this tree species, which is common to the southern interior of British Columbia, throughout the western United States, and even in northern Mexico. Your inset map also omits its large range.

Ken Favrholdt
Kamloops, B.C.

I spend a lot of recreational time in the bush west of Prince George and offer this personal observation about another aspect of the pine beetle infestation. As a result of the large amount of standing dead timber that isn’t using snowmelt and rainwater, there is a lot more groundwater which, in turn, provides prime mosquito habitat. This past summer was the first year I’ve had to combine applications of Deet-based mosquito repellent with top-to-bottom mosquito/bug clothing while out in the bush. Just another example of how humankind trying to control Mother Nature has instead had a negative effect.

Jo-Anne Carter
Prince George, B.C.

I have seen and have appreciated the ecological devastation caused by the pine beetle in BC. Thanks to your article “Pine plague,” I now understand the serious economic consequences of the situation. As pointed out in the article, this is a story of how one highly evolved serial killer is indiscriminately destroying its habitat and causing major chaos in the environment. The only problem with the article was on page 74. Indeed, your picture of this highly evolved serial killer was a six-legged species when in fact the article suggests that the species truly responsible for this mess only has two!

Nicolas Cadieux
Montréal

World's best

Thank you for the superb back page feature (“In habitat,” Nov/Dec 2006) about Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Currie. For what they did with what they had and the way in which they did it, the Canadian military, from the American Revolution to present in Afghanistan, has always shown itself to be among the very best in the world.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the bloodbath that was the First World War, and this was in large part due to the leadership and skill of Sir Arthur. As was pointed out in the article, this skill came almost completely from his ability to learn, to think out of the box, and to plan accordingly. He turned the Canadian Corps into the most feared army on the Western Front and became the best commander on either side. Unfortunately, he paid a price in the questioning of his action at Mons the day before the Armistice. The irony of being accused by the totally incompetant minister, Sir Sam Hughes, is not lost.

Although he died before I was born, he is buried in Mount Royal Cemetary not 100 metres from the graves of my parents. Whenever I pass his monument, I salute this great man.

Ken Frankel
Montreal, P.Q.

Blues for a memorable lake

As a former Winnipeger, I was dismayed to read the article about the lack of understanding of Lake Winnipeg ( “Forgotten lake,” Nov/Dec 2006) and it's slow demise by eutrophication.  I fondly remember my summers at Victoria Beach in the 1960s, swimming, boating and fishing off the pier for jumbo Yellow Perch. It was a kid's paradise, with only our Mothers' insistence that we not swim when the waves were towering to get in the way.

The fact that so little is known about the lake and the sources of pollutants amazes me.  I first learned of Lake Winnipeg's problems while on vacation to Manitoba/NW Ontario in mid-September 2005.  Helen Fallding's article on the lake (Winnipeg Free Press, 9/15/05) and subsequent articles in the Winnipeg Free Press, 10/16/05, prompted me to send her information on a similar situation that occurred on Lake of the Woods during the period 9/10 - 9/15/05.  Your photograph of the blue-green bloom near shore was strikingly similar to what I had observed at Lake of the Woods; the blue-green band and the white gas band onshore.  It seems that the problem isn't limited to Lake Winnipeg and that the effort to discover causes and solutions may need to be much broader than just Lake Winnipeg.

Robert Judy
Corinth, Texas

Manitoulin hike

I was captivated by your article (“The Almighty Bruce,” CG Jan/Feb 2007). I grew up in Niagara Falls where the Niagara River plunges over the Niagara Escarpment, creating the infamous Niagara Falls. Locals in the Niagara Peninsula charmingly refer to the escarpment as “the mountain.” I, too, have enjoyed numerous hikes at various locations along the Bruce Trail. A second-year University of Waterloo course took me and several classmates to Grey County to compile information for a research project which included details about the Niagara Escarpment Commission and its role in protecting the now UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.

I now teach and live in Cambridge, Ontario. I wanted to share with you that my family and I have vacationed on Manitoulin Island for the past six summers, where, unknowing to most, the Niagara Escarpment continues its circular journey under Lake Huron, curving westward to frame the northern limit of the Michigan Basin. Known as “the forgotten escarpment,” Mantoulin Island is a continuation of the Bruce Pennisula and the Niagara Escarpment. The highest elevation on Manitoulin Island, 320 metres, is on the Niagara Escarpment’s “Cup and Saucer” feature, a dramatically exposed bedrock shelf in the centre of the island. Here, visitors can choose from a selection of 12 kilometers of trails of varying challenges which ultimately lead to some of the most breathtaking views I have ever witnessed! It is a yearly ritual to hike the Cup and Saucer and take yet more picutures! Last summer, I acquired a copy of the book Manitoulin Rocks, by M. Coniglio, P. Karrow, P. Russell, published by the Earth Sciences Museum (University of Waterloo), 2006, which not only presents a detailed and informative geologic history of the island but whose cover boasts a picture of one of the magnificant views one might experience from the trail along the top of the Cup and Saucer.

The Ecarpment Biosphere Consevancy (EBC), a charity developed to preserve the landscape, ecology and wildlife of the Niagara Escarpment, has a vision of developing a 450 kilometre trail from South Baymouthe to Mississaugi Lighthouse on the west end of the island. They are thinking about naming it Manitou Trail and its purpose will be not only to create awareness and appreciation for the unique environment of the escarpment on the island but to also include all of Manitoulin Island in the World Biosphere Reserve designation.

Jane Streppel
Cambridge, Ont.

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* Letters may be edited for length, accuracy and liability.