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May/June 2003 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Editor’s Notebook Inside Story Feature: Eco-audit À la carte Mosaic Reverberations

Gladys Netro (below, top on left) and Sarah Locke face a stiff breeze near the start of a 285-kilometre journey down the Wind River in northeastern Yukon. Netro and Locke were part of a 14-member expedition organized last summer by the Yukon chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), which offered residents of local First Nations communities the opportunity to get reacquainted with traditional territories and to raise awareness of the importance of preserving these ecologically and culturally rich lands.

Netro, a Vuntut Gwich’in who works as a community liaison person for CPAWS, says the Wind River is still considered a lifeline for aboriginal people: "The old people yet today say the area is sacred and has to be set aside because of the clear water and the wildlife."

Indeed, the Wind and other unspoiled waterways in the Yukon are at risk because of the territorial government’s interest in opening up areas to oil and gas development and mining, says Juri Peepre, executive director of CPAWS-Yukon. This summer, to draw international attention to the plight of the Peel watershed, CPAWS is hosting the Three Rivers Journey, in which expeditions will simultaneously paddle down the Wind, Bonnet Plume and Snake rivers to meet on the banks of the Peel.

Monique Roy-Sole

Cathy Samson (top, in foreground) and Gladys Netro taste the waters of the Wind River, which wends its way through one of the largest roadless expanses in the Yukon. Led by Whitehorse outfitter Jill Pangman (above, left), expedition members plan their first day out on the Wind from a camp at McClusky Lake. Along the way, they spot grizzlies, moose, Dall sheep and traces of an elusive wolf (right).