"This region is home to the largest intact boreal forest in Canada and has been short listed for consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage site. For Manitoba to have such a designation would go a long way to educate Canadians as to the beauty of this region. The more people who witness this region, and the more they come to know about its importance, the better off this vital ecosystem will be."

The Hon. Gary Doer
Premier of Manitoba

"The east side boreal forest is much more than spectacular scenery and unspoiled wildlife habitat. It's also a sacred place that holds special meaning for the First Peoples who have hunted and fished, laughed and prayed, lived and died here for thousands of years. We walk in the footsteps of our grandmothers and grandfathers who have shown us how to care for this precious gift from the Creator. We owe it to them to respect their teachings by doing everything we can to ensure this gift remains unspoiled for our children and grandchildren. After all, we must never forget it rightfully belongs to them."

The Hon. Eric Robinson
Manitoba Minister of Culture, Heritage & Tourism

"The boreal forest is a region of unparalleled beauty and function which, today, has taken on international significance. Ranging in Canada from the Pacific to the Atlantic, it is often referred to as the "lungs of the planet". Its pristine rivers are spread throughout the region and are considered the veins from which life flows for the entire ecosystem. This ecosystem has sustained the original inhabitants by providing food, shelter and plants for medicinal purposes for thousands of years and continues to be used today under their careful stewardship. In order to assure its survival we have to work with the people who have maintained this ecosystem from time immemorial."

The Hon. Stan Struthers
Manitoba Minister of Conservation

"The trip was a real eye-opener because it highlighted the environmental and cultural significance of the Bloodvein River and surroundings. Otters, eagles, geese, beavers, catfish, pike and walleye-the flora, fish and fauna were well represented and much appreciated. It was a great experience and an excellent way to recharge the batteries in order to deal with life in the urban jungle."

Bob Sexton
Associate Editor of Outdoor Canada Magazine.

"Canoeing the Bloodvein is a mystical experience as it winds, and every so often tumbles, through a boreal version of Eden. I found myself in almost a trance, between the broken-off walls of granite with twisted jack pines in their cracks, as we glided silently by surprised otters at play. After eight days in this pure wildness I began to think that the river had a spirit -- a capricious one at that. It was like being in a theatre sculpted by chance and the laws of cause and effect. I have been to many World Heritage Sites all over the world, and there is no question that the Bloodvein and the wilderness it drains into is eminently worthy, and urgently in need, of this designation."

Alex Shoumatoff
Author of a dozen books, contributing editor for Vanity Fair and New Yorker staff writer.

"On the east side of Lake Winnipeg, we camped in teepees on Poplar River traditional lands, amidst beautiful boreal stands of pine and poplar forests. I fished the teeming waterways, landing walleyes, perch, whitefish and giant northern pike. I saw astonishing numbers of duck and geese, woke up to the sound of songbirds, and saw bear, moose and beaver tracks around the campsite."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
President of the Water Keepers Alliance,
former Assistant District Attorney for New York City
and author of Crimes Against Nature.

"As a scientist who has done long-term studies of boreal ecosystems, including those of NW Ontario and eastern Manitoba, I can tell you that the east side of Lake Winnipeg is the most significant intact piece of boreal forest left in southern Canada. I also have fond memories of canoeing several of the rivers in the area, and visiting some of the communities on Lake Winnipeg's east side by boat 40 years ago. The eastern shore and its watersheds should be protected at all costs, and I admire the Manitoba government for its wise decision to protect the area. Keep up the good work!"

David W. Schindler, Canada.

"Some years ago I made a canoe trip down the Bloodvein River, which flows from Ontario to its mouth on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg. This trip was my first experience of actually traveling through the boreal forest by canoe. The boreal forest, and the dark waters of the river, broken here and there by the white froth of rapids and falls, some of which we portaged, and some we ran through, were magnificent and inspiring. I was pleased during my time as Minister of the Environment to short list the area for designation, and am I now delighted that the process has moved forward to a decision on it as a heritage site. The boreal forest truly deserves to be recognized as part of the great heritage of all humankind."

David Anderson
Former federal Minster of the Environment and current Director of the Guelph Institute for the Environment

"I was raised to find my balance, to resource myself in the woods. When I get too wrapped up in city life and traveling, I need to get out into the woods in a canoe with a paddle, just to get away from this constructed society that surrounds us. It's a way for me to remember both my smallness and my extraordinary responsibility to care for this wilderness that is so important. We live all along the stretch of the Canada/US border, and we don't think about the wilderness up there, and what is up there is mostly the boreal forest."

Justin Trudeau
Education, Environment & Youth Advocate

"The natural services that Canada’s Boreal Forest provides, by one recent estimate, are worth 2.5 times more than all the lumber, paper, oil, gas, minerals and hydroelectricity produced in the region. Its forests, wetlands and peat lands filter water, control floods and pests, store carbon and offer homes to wildlife and people who have lived for centuries in harmony with wildlife. The value in preserving the most significant intact piece of this forest in Canada? Priceless."

Senator Mira Spivak