Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/162438
Life in the Fur Lane In Churchill, the line between humans and bears comes down to a pane of Plexiglas in a tundra buggy story and photography by Claudine Gervais I t's nightfall, and I'm glancing sidelong into spaces between buildings, imagining what might be lurking there. I'm walking in an unfamiliar town, and my heart is racing. It's neither the 923 citizens of Churchill, Manitoba, nor my fellow travellers that concern me. It's the area's more famous inhabitants – polar bears. I've arrived at this town along the shore of Hudson Bay to see the great whites . . . but from a safe distance. The tour orientation warnings were enough to heighten my anxiety, but the sight of a rifle at the side of guide Dr. Paul Watts now has me thinking that one of the planet's largest land carnivores is eyeing me up as a tasty treat. Fighting the urge to flee back to the bus, I look forward to my sheltered tundra buggy trip tomorrow. In the meantime though, this feet-on-theground primer is a necessary step toward understanding Churchill's longstanding relationship with its seasonal residents. A fter a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Winnipeg this morning, our group of nine tourists began following Watts around on a Churchill area tour. The landscape is more diverse than I expected, having only seen images of a barren desert of snow so often associated with the north. In fact, the region encom- (clockwise from left) a bear in the Churchill Wildlife Management Area forages in a berry patch; a tree shows signs of life on the tundra, a growth pattern known as the krummholz effect; evidence on the forest floor of Churchill's place on the migratory path of more than 250 bird species. passes the biomes of an arctic ocean bay, tundra and boreal forest. There are trees, but their growth is slow, resulting in many Charlie Brown Christmas tree look-alikes. Known as the krummholz effect, the flag or banner-like structure is from continued exposure to blasting north winds. The effect becomes a navigational feature, like moss growing on the north side of trees in warmer climates. The forest floor is alive, spongy and almost trampoline-springy to the step, its green growth dotted with bright red currant berries. Spotting a broken eggshell, I'd learned from Watts that more than 250 species of birds nest or pass through here on their annual migrations. The rocky shoreline harbours subtle tints of grey, green and rust; these lichens are slow growers too (two millimetres a year), used to date the iconic Inukshuk markers left by early peoples. Inside the Eskimo Museum, I find out that the Churchill area was a seasonal hunting ground (caribou in the summer, seals in winter) by the Pre-Dorset, Dorset and Inuit peoples thousands of years ago. The Cree, Dene and Inuit also had trading networks in the region. In more recent times, the Hudson's Bay Company, headquartered at York Factory 250 kilometres southeast, marked Churchill's fur trade era. The company's Prince of Wales Fort, near town across the Churchill River, is a massive stone fortress that took more than 40 years to build. Accessible only by boat or helicopter, this National Historic Site of Canada is open for tours in July and August. The Port of Churchill, Canada's only arctic seaport, was built in 1929. The town's unique location facilitates the export of Westworld p26-33_Life-FurLane.indd 27 >> fa l l 2 0 1 3 27 13-08-19 8:58 AM