Poplar/Nanowin Rivers Park Reserve Renewal

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Park Reserve

Landscape Description

The 770,000 hectare Poplar/Nanowin Rivers Park Reserve is located in the Lac Seul Upland District of Manitoba’s Precambrian Boreal Forest Natural Region.  The area includes several local watersheds, and its natural features range from the granite outcrop and Jack Pine towards the Manitoba-Ontario border to the marshes and peat lands adjacent to Lake Winnipeg .  

Outstanding Features

The park reserve is home to species ranging from the Woodland Caribou and Shortjaw Cisco to Bald Eagle, Sweet Flag and the Balsam Poplar that gave the area’s main river its name.  The park reserve also contains an archaeological record dating back approximately 8,000 years.  Composed of the main portion of the Poplar River First Nation’s traditional area of use, sites of cultural importance to this community have been identified in several areas of the park reserve, including Weaver and Wrong Lakes .

It was Poplar River First Nation that first suggested the area be considered a Park Reserve with a Wilderness Land Use Category that protects the area from logging, mining and hydroelectric development, thereby contributing to Manitoba ’s network of protected areas.  Currently, the community is undertaking a land use inventory and land management study for the park reserve area.  Additional time to develop and complete this project has been requested by Poplar River First Nation.  Identification of traditional use areas, community approaches to land management issues and ideas respecting type and degree of community management of the area are among the expected products of this initiative.

After undertaking a public review of the future of the Poplar/Nanowin Park Reserve, Manitoba Conservation is extending this park reserve designation for a further five years in order that the results of the community’s work can be included in further consultations on the long-term future of this area.

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