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Press Releases

2003

CBI Director joins prominent Canadians on Boreal Rendezvous

July 24, 2003

As part of this summer's series of river journeys promoting the significance of Canada's boreal, Cathy Wilkinson, Canadian Boreal Initiative Director, joined a party of 17 paddlers traveling northwards on Alberta's Athabasca River from Fort McKay towards the Peace-Athabasca Delta.

The group was packed with scientific power including David Suzuki, President of the David Suzuki Foundation, Tara Cullis, a fresh water ecologist, David Schindler, one of Canada's most famous l ecologists. Ken Dryden of NHL fame and Peter Robinson, CEO of Mountain Equipment Co-op, added the celebrity flare to the journey and Nature did the rest.

"We need to get Canadians thinking about conserving the boreal," explains Wilkinson. "And the only way were going to save it is coming up with a framework and improving our land-use planning.

During the journey, the paddlers saw the boreal was at its best...filled with wildlife. A young black bear bounded across their path, bald eagles perched above their campsites and there were sightings of sandhill cranes, semi-palmated plovers, song sparrows, ospreys and nighthawks.

But the most astonishing site was the lynx they spotted swimming in the river. This normally illusive cat was curious enough about the visitors to jump into one of the boats for a closer look.

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