Land along Assiniboine now protected

Local officials used a giant pair of scissors to cut a light blue ribbon on Monday, marking five sections of land next to the Assiniboine River as protected areas.

The Brandon Riverbank, Dinsdale Park, Eleanor Kidd Park and the newly named Oeti Natural Area and Shunkawakan Onazin Natural Area are all now officially protected areas. The five sections will eventually have placards on site to explain the importance of the natural habitat.

“These lands are far more valuable than we often leave them credit for,” Ingrid Gatin, Brandon Riverbank Inc.’s programming and community co-ordinator, said to about 35 people at a morning press conference at the Riverbank Discovery Centre.

“When many people see a wetland, they simply pass it by, but here on the Prairies, the wetland is like our rainforest. It is the heart and lungs of our landscape.”

The lands store carbon, clean the water and provide habitat for wildlife she said, adding it’s “a very important step” to protecting the lands for future generations and the people already here.

Oeti Natural Area and Shunkawakan Onazin Natural Area were renamed at a city council meeting earlier this month, the names in Dakota mean “a place for camping” and “horse pasture,” respectively.

The names were chosen after consultation with the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples’ Council and elders from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation.

Gatin, who thanked the elders, as well as the province and the city, said the new designation might make people slow down and appreciate the natural beauty.

“To notice the wetlands you drive past, to appreciate the prairie grasslands that have survived for generations, to watch a great blue heron take flight, a painted turtle bask on a log, or a northern leopard frog disappear into the reeds.”

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett called the new designation “fantastic” and said the initiative will help the city say no to developers wanting to build on the wetland.

He said it will also help the city in what he called “Indigenous tourism.”

Tourists from other parts of Canada or around the world want to know about what Manitoba once was, and this is now a great example of the region’s natural history.

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Coun. Jon Bell thanked the city and Riverbank for including his community in the naming. Bell said the riverbank has meant a lot to his family, and expressed his appreciation that it will continue to be protected into the future.

“What this place is really doing is you’re protecting the beautiful scenery, you’re protecting the animals around it, and all the sacredness,” Bell said. “What’s really happening is you’re protecting the stories. To us in our culture, the stories are what give you your identity.”

Other officials from Bee City Brandon and Ducks Unlimited Canada also commended the protected areas designation as a positive for biodiversity.

» alambert@brandonsun.com