The Cape Breton Highlands have always been known as traditional Mi’kmaq hunting grounds. In fact, a Mi’kmaq hunter recently found a 4500 year-old arrowhead there, evidence that Mi’kmaq hunted there for thousands of years. However, in the 1800s, moose disappeared from Unama’ki and this ancient relationship came to an abrupt end that lasted for almost … Read More
We’re on a mission! Take thousands of people, put them on an island for four days with no sewage system and no where to dispose of their garbage and you can imagine what is left behind. This was the scene every year at the annual Chapel Island Mission in the small community of Potlotek. Back … Read More
The Unama’ki Institute for Natural Resources (UINR) is working with Parks Canada to study the population of American eel in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Throughout June UINR staff will catch, measure, and release elvers (young eels) as they enter the rivers and brooks between Ingonish Beach and Neil’s Harbour. The project is looking at … Read More
“Healing and reconciliation,” is how Elder Albert Marshall put it after the two day workshop held by Bras d’Or Lakes Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative(CEPI). The Elders of Unama’ki gathered with CEPI in a workshop designed to clarify CEPI’s vision for a management plan for the Bras d’Or Lakes watershed. “Reconciliation must begin before the two … Read More
2008 has been quite a year at the Chapel Island Mission! Even after a couple of hundred years of annual gathering on the Island, there is still work to be done. This year, UINR’s Laurie Suitor coordinated a team of students, community volunteers and staff to continue the recycling and sewage efforts from last year, … Read More
The Pitu’paq partnership will be making an even bigger presence at the annual Chapel Island Mission this year. The five Unama’ki communities are providing student teams, and a dedicated Mission team has been hired under Nova Scotia Youth Corps program. Tobias Doucette and Eddie Doucette are back again this year, joined by new members Emma … Read More
The Pitu’paq partnership continues to work diligently on issues of environmental concern. Of increasing interest to the partnership is the health of freshwater systems. Although our planet is covered with water over ¾ of its surface area, less than 1% of that water is available to us in the form of accessible fresh water. As … Read More
Potlotek Elders say that if an ambitious hydropower plant proceeds, it will affect a traditional eel fishing area for this First Nation community. Cape Breton Explorations Ltd.’s plan to erect up to 44 wind turbines has passed the Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s zoning process. This approval includes pumping water from Lake Uist to a reservoir … Read More
Malfunctioning private septic systems, inadequate community sewage systems, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, boating sewage, and dangerous chemicals all contribute to problems with water quality in the Bras d’Or Lakes. UINR, along with the Bras d’Or Lakes Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative, have published The State of the Bras d’Or Marine Environmental Water Quality Background Report. The Report … Read More
What a difference a few weeks can make! Until this year, the annual St Anne’s Mission resulted in mountains of garbage and complaints about sewage being dumped in the Lakes. This year, things were different. Thanks to the far-sighted work of Pitu’paq, the unique group of First Nations, municipal governments and their federal and provincial … Read More
