FORT FRANCES—Last Tuesday morning (Jan. 15), Fort Frances Museum curator Pam Hawley welcomed 15 people to the upstairs meeting room there.
Representatives from district municipalities, field naturalists, the Rainy Lake Conservancy, First Nations, and parks were on hand to consider whether to pursue having the area west of Quetico Provincial Park designated as part of the Canadian Heritage River System (CHRS).
Designation as a CHRS is based on natural and cultural values. It uses a “pathway of the voyageurs” concept, and is viewed as a great way to market the region with possible positive environmental impacts.
The Boundary Waters-Voyageur Waterway, which follows the Ontario-Minnesota boundary from Lake Superior to Lac La Croix at the west side of Quetico Provincial Park, currently is designated as a CHRS.
The east end of the waterway is very steep and not navigable, so the last 10 km of the canoe route is a portage on the Minnesota side of the border.
Robin Reilly, superintendent of Quetico Provincial Park, said it’s much easier to get a designated system extended rather than to land a new designation.
Old Fort William in Thunder Bay currently is leading efforts to get an extension on the system to provide an all-Canadian route on the Kaministiquia River through Kakabeka Falls.
The question from those at last Tuesday’s meeting here wasn’t whether we should work with Thunder Bay in getting the Rainy River end of the waterway designated, but rather how far it should extend.
It could end at Fort Frances, Rainy River, or Kenora.
“We have a chapter in a book with no context,” explained Reilly. “It is largely irrelevant as it now sits. We need logical connectors.”
He described the area as being a string of natural, historic, and cultural jewels—and the CHRS designation as being the necklace.
“This could be an international effort because the waterway defines the boundary from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods,” Reilly added.
“Voyageurs is already working on the clasp for that necklace,” noted Kate Miller, with Voyageurs National Park across the river.
“We are working with International Falls on a major riverfront development: a $6.5-million Voyageur Heritage Center,” she added. “It will be located across the river from the Fort Frances riverwalk and will be a hub of information for the larger story of the voyageurs.
“It will direct visitors to our area, and encourage longer stays and deeper explorations.
“This is not a done deal, but it is getting good legs,” Miller stressed. “There is strong political support.”
This is a particularly opportune time to seek designation. The CHRS convention is in Ottawa next year and they like to designate a river system in the host province.
Also, this summer, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of famed explorer David Thompson’s crossing of the Rocky Mountains, The 2008 Dave Thompson Brigade will be travelling from Rocky Mountain House, B.C. to Thunder Bay.
They are scheduled to be in Fort Frances on June 27 with a “dozen boats with a dozen people in each one.”
The consensus of the group at last Tuesday’s meeting was to seek to get the designation extended to Kenora if they are interested.
The Town of Fort Frances already has expressed support for getting the designation, and Hawley will be seeking letters of support from the other municipalities and First Nations of Rainy River District, as well as other organizations or individuals interested in seeing this go forward.
Rainy Lake summer resident Dale Callaghan summed up the meeting by saying, “We don’t know what the effects of what we do will be in 50 or 100 years, but we should act with the belief that it will make a difference.”
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
