our stories

February 12 2021

Mining should Respect Land Use Planning, Not Race Against It

CPAWS Yukon Blog, BlogDawsonRegion, our stories mining

A ram’s horn, in a valley north of Dawson by: Malkolm Boothroyd
Written by: Maegan McCaw, Conservation Coordinator, and Randi Newton, Conservation Manager

While planning has been underway in the Dawson Region since 2019, hopes of protecting areas and setting thresholds on development have been pitted against a steady stream of staking and mineral development. The most recent example is the proposed Coal Creek quartz exploration project, which sits in Tr’ondek Hwech’in traditional territory, 85 km north of Dawson City in a large area of intact wilderness.

The Coal Creek project is just the latest in a slew of projects that threaten to undermine the promise of the Dawson Regional Land Use Plan and broader commitments to land use planning and co-management in the Umbrella Final Agreement. Because of this, CPAWS Yukon is asking the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Board to reject or pause its assessment of the project until the land use plan is complete. Just last month, CPAWS asked for a similar pause on the Antimony Creek quartz exploration project, perched only 2.5 km from Tombstone Territorial Park.

Land use planning is a powerful tool for bringing people together and creating a sustainable future for the territory’s land, waters, wildlife and people. Embedded in the Umbrella Final Agreement, regional land use planning provides a vision and a roadmap for Yukoners and First Nations to protect, use, and manage land and resources. Planning can protect areas that are ecologically or culturally important, and can also set out areas where development is allowed at certain thresholds.

A ram, north of Dawson by Malkolm Boothroyd

The Coal Creek project involves a lot of air traffic (up to 700 helicopter and 60 fixed-wing aircraft flights annually), which is known to disturb sheep and caribou, ultimately lowering their weight and reproductive success. This is all to support quartz exploration activities targeting copper, cobalt, gold and silver across the 63 km2 Monster property. Exploration activities are proposed to occur over 10 years, and include drilling, trenching, soil sampling, trail construction and line cutting. ATVs and 4×4 vehicles will be used at first but, if exploration reveals a large deposit, an access road will likely be constructed. The proponent, Go Metals Corp, has revealed few details about future access roads but also estimates 15 km of new on-claim roads would need to be constructed.

These activities would cut into a large, undisturbed wilderness area that supports healthy wildlife populations and sustainable hunting, trapping, and outfitting activities. This area is important habitat for grizzly bears, moose, sheep, caribou, and raptors, and is a top candidate to be protected by the Dawson Land Use Plan. If this project is approved, it is likely to degrade this large wilderness area through habitat fragmentation, disturbance – both from ground and air-based activities – and access, which increases the feasibility for other mineral exploration programs and increased hunting pressure. What’s more, don’t forget that mineral exploration work has the potential to lead to an open pit or underground mine, depending on the quality of the mineral deposits detected. Is that what we want in one of the least disturbed areas of the Dawson region?

Questions like this are meant to be answered through the Dawson Land Use Planning process, in line with the intent of the Final Agreements, not by a race against the clock.

If you think development like this should be paused until the Dawson Regional Plan is complete, there are two things you can do:

Let YESAB know you think the project should be deferred until the Dawson Land Use Plan is complete. Click here to be taken to the project page, and then click on “Add a Comment”. You can simply write in a comment or upload a letter. Comments are due February 17. If you need more information, you can read our full submission.
Provide input on the draft Yukon Mineral Development Strategy. This strategy is a chance to reimagine mining in the territory, and could put a stop to incompatible development going ahead of land use planning. CPAWS has an info page with links to send a letter or take the survey. Input is due February 22.

Want to stay in the loop?

Sign up for our e-newsletter to stay up to date on all our work!

December 12 2018

Peel consultations are over. What’s next?

CPAWS Yukon Blog, BlogPeelWatershed, our stories blog, consultations, Peel

Header Image: Peter Mather
Written by: Adil Darvesh, Communications Coordinator

It’s taken seven years to get to this point, but we’ve finally reached the end of the consultations on the Peel Watershed Final Recommended Plan. Congratulations to everybody who submitted their comments and participated in this important democratic process! Submissions closed in November, and now many of you may be asking: “What happens next?”.

In the coming weeks, Stantec (the firm responsible for collecting and analyzing the submissions) will release a report highlighting how many submissions were received, and what was said in those submissions. The parties of Na Cho Nyak Dun, Vuntut Gwitchin, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Gwich’in Tribal Council, and the Yukon Government will use this document to help them decide whether they want to accept the Final Recommended Plan as written, make minor modifications to the Final Recommended Plan to accommodate the responses from the submissions, or reject the Final Recommended Plan (which Yukon Government has said won’t happen). CPAWS Yukon and the Yukon Conservation Society have asked that the Final Recommended Plan be improved by protecting 80% of the watershed permanently now (rather than leaving 25% of the protected region to be ‘interim protection’, revisited at a later date).

Once the Plan is finalized, it will become the Peel Watershed Land Use Plan, and work will begin on creating an implementation (management) strategy for the Peel.

CPAWS Yukon and YCS hope that the Yukon Government will also extend the current ban on development and the staking of mineral claims in the Peel Watershed, until management plans have been completed.

Stay tuned for updates from CPAWS Yukon and YCS along the way!

For more information on the Peel Watershed visit www.protectpeel.ca

March 2 2018

Ottawa’s $1.3 billion commitment shows wilderness conservation a serious priority

CPAWS Yukon Blog, our stories 2018, budget

Header Image: Peter Mather

Not often have we been excited about a federal budget.

Earlier this week, that all changed. On Tuesday, the Liberal government committed a historic $1.3 billion to protecting our country’s land and water. For us, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the Yukon wilderness, this is huge news.

CPAWS was part of the Green Budget Coalition that urged the federal government to prioritize the health of Canada’s ecological systems by making a historic commitment to conservation. Earlier this year, 116 parliamentarians signed an open letter to the Finance Minister Bill Morneau supporting these recommendations, including Yukon MP Larry Bagnell.

The government listened. What’s now clear: our country is making protecting our land and water a priority. This unprecedented investment will support Canada’s efforts to achieve its UN commitment to protect at least 17% of our land and 10% of our ocean by 2020. Our vast, iconic wild spaces are what we take so much pride in, and we are one of the last countries left on earth to that still has the opportunity to protect significant swaths of wilderness, like our beloved Peel Watershed.

Tuesday’s $1.3 billion commitment is a legacy investment. It’s a statement that the government wants to look past short-term gains to invest in the long-term health of our planet. It’s an investment in the next generation, and the generation after that.

For the first time, the budget is allocating specific funds to support conservation efforts by Indigenous governments, provinces and territories. This cost-shared model is what’s already used for sectors like infrastructure, climate change mitigation and health care.

In the Yukon, this means the territorial government will receive the support it needs to invest in new parks and protected areas, bring Land Use Planning back on track and overall, ensure the ecological integrity of our incredible wilderness.

It also means that there will be support for First Nations governments in the Yukon to lead their own conservation efforts, with the possibility of Indigenous Guardian Programs that have proven so successful in places like B.C.’s Gwaii Haanas National Marine Park Reserve.

We’re looking forward to learning more about what this funding means and how it will be broken down in Canada and in the Yukon. Our territorial budget also came out this week and we didn’t see much in terms of funding for conservation. We hope the Yukon government soon follows in the footsteps of Ottawa’s commitment to protecting our wilderness.

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna for pushing our country to be an international leader in conservation. Take a moment to thank them yourself!