About Us

The Manitoba Model Forest Inc. is a not-for-profit, non-government organization located in the Province of Manitoba, Canada. Our organization represents a diverse partnership of those with a vested interest in the wise management of natural resources and the sustainability of rural communities in forested regions of Manitoba. The Manitoba Model Forest, funded, in part by the Canadian Forest Service’s Forest Communities Program, assists these communities in developing the tools, approaches and strategies that they need to respond to the new challenges facing Canada’s forest sector…

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Articles

The Manitoba Model Forest Has Moved

The Manitoba Model Forest has moved – BUT not very far. Renovations to our new office in the Winnipeg River Learning Centre were completed in February and we have now moved in. We are just down the corridor from our previous office. To get to our office, enter the main, center doors to the old part of the Learning Centre, take the corridor on the right and turn right at the end. Our office is Room #1, which is the only door on the right at the end of the corridor. Just remember to always keep right and you cannot miss us.

Our office is in the original part of the Pine Falls School and is almost 90 years old. We have featured an original brick wall that has been hidden by drywall for decades and refinished the Douglas Fir hardwood floors. Please drop by to say hello and see our beautiful new office, if you are in the area.

We have been able to install a phone system now that we have a permanent home. Our new office phone number is (204) 367-4541 and the fax number is (204) 367-4768. Please update your contact numbers. The new numbers are also on the website, so you can always find them if you forget.

You may have also noticed that our E-News and website lists new email addresses for the staff, all with an @manitobamodelforest.net extension. You can update our email addresses in your contact list or continue to use our personal emails that you currently use. Our new Model Forest email addresses function to forward emails to our personal email addresses.

Manitoba Model Forest To Help Plan Your Next Dream Vacation

Costa Rica. A country of incredible beauty and adventure: tropical forests, volcanoes, the world’s highest level of biodiversity per square kilometer, the best white water rafting rivers in the world, incredible coffee and chocolate. Picture yourself there. We can help!

Since 2007, the Manitoba Model Forest (MBMF) and Brokenhead Ojibway Nation (BON) have been working in partnership with our sister Model Forest in Costa Rica (the Reventazon Model Forest), the Ibero American Model Forest Network and the Centre for Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Learning to assist Cabécar (indigenous) communities in Costa Rica to develop tourism businesses that blend eco-tourism adventure with their indigenous culture. “Over the last 5 years, we have been working to help implement the vision that the 8 Nairi Awari communities (population of just over 300) have developed for culturally-appropriate tourism”, indicates Brian Kotak, General Manager of the Manitoba Model Forest. “In 2007 and 2008, with some seed funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), we helped conduct a feasibility study for cultural tourism potential in the 8 communities, as well as a gender equity assessment and environmental impact assessment. The Nairi Awari are part of the Cabecares indigenous people of Costa Rica”. All indications were that viable businesses could be created in several communities, drawing on the strengths of the different communities. To make it happen, BON and the MBMF applied for further funding from CIDA and were successful in obtaining $100,000. The MBMF also contributed part of their federal Forest Communities Program funding.

The first phase of the project focused on the community of Jameikari, but provided employment and training for 30 people in all 8 Nairi Awari communities. Jameikari is located in the remote Talamanca Mountains. The only way in to the community is by hiking or white water rafting. The Nairi Awari have an indigenous reserve area of 5,000 hectares (much like the system of First Nation reserves in Canada) that is located along the Pacuare River, a river rated as one of the top 5 in the world for white water rafting. Carl Smith, President of the MBMF and community member of BON, adds “the community of Jameikari has been hosting tourists, researchers and graduate students for at least the last 20 years, but had no real infrastructure (such as cabins) to accommodate them. In addition, several Jameikari community members are also professional white water rafting guides, but work for non-indigenous rafting companies”. The tourism project has not only helped to address the infrastructure issues, but also provided the mechanism for the community to establish their own tourism company, including white water rafting.

Through the project, a tourism site has been established along the banks of the Pacuare River, about an hour hike down the mountain from the Jameikari community. The construction phase is now completed, and the site includes a 2 story traditional rancho (with a dining area and kitchen on the ground floor, and an open area with hammocks on the upper floor with a spectacular view of the river), tenting platforms, staff cabin, shower and washroom facilities and a septic field. Power is supplied by a bank of solar panels and batteries, purchased by the project. A solar/propane fridge (the first time the community has ever had refrigeration) was also purchase for the river camp, as well as one for the community and water treatment systems purchased for the river camp and community. A new hiking trail was constructed, connecting the river camp to the community, as well as the construction of a guest cabin, museum/handicraft sales office and a mirador (viewing platform/gazebo on the top of a mountain where, on a clear day, you can see the Caribbean coast). The community also purchased 2 white water rafts and all associated safety equipment.

Along with the infrastructure, the project provided for a myriad of training programs to community members. This included natural history of Costa Rica and nature guiding, tourism/small business management, computers and software, first aid/CPR/mountain rescue, whitewater rafting safety, gender equity, handicraft production, basic English, and Cabécar culture and traditions. An indigenous youth exchange program brought 4 Cabécar youth to Manitoba in July 2009 and 2 BON youth to Costa Rica in February 2010. The youth exchanges provided an opportunity for these future leaders in their communities to learn about indigenous tourism management in two very different countries. Finally, various promotional materials were produced and a website is currently being developed.

Carl Smith and Brian Kotak visited the community and river camp in February of this year. According to Brian, “over the last 12 months, the community completed the construction of a guest cabin in the community and a small museum that will double as a handicraft sales office. However, the community is in a holding pattern right now with respect to the tourism business. They need to complete a training program on food preparation and then get all their certificates of operation from various levels of government before they can officially open for business”. Brian comments further “it is funny. For more than 20 years, the community has been hosting tourists. But now that they have caught the attention of the government (and the government views this as a very successful project and has promoted it nationally), and want to make it a legitimate business, the community is finding that there are all sorts of hoops to jump through”. These delays have also created challenges for the community. “Some community members have taken employment outside of the community, as the tourism business is not yet established. This has left fewer people in the community to continue on with the establishment of the tourism enterprise”. “I have no doubt that the community will get things done soon. They are a determined and creative community”, adds Brian.

Once up and running, tourists will be able to travel to the community by hiking or rafting, using their indigenous guides, learn about and experience Cabécar culture, songs, history and legends, and eat Cabécar cuisine. They will also be able to take interpretive hikes in forest and to the nearby Nori Waterfall, while learning about the local wildlife (frogs, birds, jaguars, spiders, snakes), plants and traditional medicines. Brian sums up the project, noting “the community of Jameikari have something that other regular tourism operators can’t offer: the opportunity to be immersed in Cabécar culture, while enjoying the beautiful scenery and biodiversity of the Costa Rican tropical forest”.

Volunteers Still Needed for the Pine Falls Regional Envirothon

The Manitoba Model Forest will be hosting the Manitoba Envirothon Regional Competition at the Winnipeg River Learning Centre on May 4, 2012. This will be our second Regional Envirothon event and for the first time in Manitoba, teams will need to qualify at the various Regional Envirothon events in order to participate at the Provincial Manitoba Envirothon, which will be held in Pinawa from May 24-26, 2012. The team that wins the Provincial Envirothon goes on to represent Manitoba at the Canon Envirothon held in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania from July 22 to 28, 2012. Last year, Swan Valley Regional Secondary School, in Swan River, MB, won the 2011 Canon Envirothon in Sackville, New Brunswick, beating out 50 other teams from across North America.

We still need volunteers to help us host the event on May 4, 2012. If you can spare a half-day or full day assisting us with this exciting event, we have jobs ranging from registration, trail monitors, field trial attendants and orals judges still open. You do not need to have any special skills and we provide all the necessary information you will need. We even provide your lunch. If you would like to spend the day with some very enthusiastic students, please contact our Education Coordinator, Bob Austman at education@manitobamodelforest.net or call our office at (204) 367-4541.

The Manitoba Envirothon is a hands-on environmental learning program that helps students develop important life skills such as teamwork, study skills and public speaking, all while learning about our environment and the current issues affecting it. Last year, we had 14 teams representing eight high schools from across Eastern Manitoba, including one school from Winnipeg. This year we hope to have more teams participating, so we would really appreciate your help.

Manitoba Model Forest Initiates New Youth Education Program

The Manitoba Model Forest (MBMF) has earned a well-deserved reputation for its innovative education programs. Building on its success in developing provincially-accredited natural resource management and forest ecology curriculum supplements for Manitoba schools, a popular Junior Rangers program for youth and the Summer Institute for Teachers (in which high school teachers spend 3 days in the boreal forest learning about forest ecology and management, wildlife management, aquatic ecosystems, and how to take this information and use it in their classrooms), the MBMF is please to announce a new science enrichment program for Grade 11 urban students, called KEY to the Forest. KEY stands for Knowledge, Environment, Youth.

“Our model forest has taken great efforts to reconnect the youth in our region to the forest” states Bob Austman, Education Coordinator of the MBMF. “Our youth are losing their connection to the forest and this can have serious consequences”. Many new medical studies point to the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of spending time in nature. The MBMF has made it a priority to “get our kids back out in the bush”.

It is surprising how few youth from eastern Manitoba know about the boreal forest environment that completely surrounds them, and in which they are immersed every day. “One could surmise that urban youth, living in Winnipeg for example, would know even less about the boreal”, adds Bob. This is part of the reasoning for the development of the KEY program.

The KEY program will offer the opportunity for Grade 11 students from Winnipeg schools, students who have a passion for environmental sciences, to become immersed in learning about the boreal forest for 1 week in August. The students will stay at the Manitoba Conservation Forest Fire Fighting training facility at Shoe Lake (Nopiming Provincial Park), in the heart of the boreal. Manitoba Conservation provides the facility to the MBMF for our education programs, including Junior Rangers and the Summer Institute for Teachers. The students will learn how to design their own environmental monitoring studies, will learn how to use scientific monitoring equipment, and will learn how to collect and interpret their own data. “It will be like a hands-on, science camp”, notes Bob, “but a big difference is that the students will be living in the ecosystem they are studying”. The students will learn about boreal forest vegetation monitoring, wildlife management and monitoring, aquatic ecosystem monitoring and soils. They will also learn about navigation using a GPS and about geo-caching. “They will eat, drink and sleep boreal forest”, adds Brian Kotak, MBMF General Manager and one of the program instructors. “I wish I had such an opportunity when I was in high school!”

The program is limited to 12 students from Winnipeg. The MBMF will provide return transportation from Lac du Bonnet to Shoe Lake, all accommodations, meals and program materials. “This is the first year that we are offering the program. It is a pilot program. We will learn from the experience and improve it the following year”, notes Bob. “We are deliberately keeping the number of students small, so that each student will gain the maximum benefit”.

The pilot program is supported by the MBMF, Manitoba Hydro’s Forest Enhancement Program and by Manitoba Conservation. The MBMF has also applied for funding from other agencies.

Information and application forms are available on the MBMF website www.manitobamodelforest.net/education.html. The application deadline is June 1, 2012.

North American Caribou Workshop Proceedings Available

The Manitoba Model Forest assisted with the organization of the 13th North American Caribou Workshop, “Sustaining Caribou and their Landscapes – Knowledge to Action” that was held in Winnipeg on October 25 to 28, 2010. More than 400 delegates from around the world attended.

Proceedings of the conference have been published and are now available. Individual papers or the full journal proceedings can be downloaded at: http://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/issue/view/192

Events

NON-TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS SEMINARS

The Manitoba Model Forest is currently planning a number of Non-Timber Forest Products Workshops that will be conducted in April and May. The following workshops are under development:

• 5 day Non-Timber Forest Products production course, including maple/birch syrup production, wreath making, medicinal salves and willow chair construction
• 3 day course on chain saw carving
• 1 day course on willow chair construction
• 1 day course on medicinal salve and wreath making
• 1 day course on soap making

A separate, more detailed description of the workshops, including costs and registration information will be distributed to our E-News subscribers very soon.

Later in the spring, MBMF will also hold a Boreal Forest Plant Identification Course. Watch for the notice in the next issue of E-News.