Connecting Past and Present
August 27, 2026 By: Makena Stratton
Media Item #1: This CBC article addresses concerns surrounding the environmental health of Wood Buffalo National Park. Local Indigenous groups have recently voiced their concern with the health of the park’s ecosystems and how this site could possibly lose its place as a World Heritage site. This article reminded me of Topic 2 in Unit 2 of the course, while National Parks are an important part of our environment, and they seem to do a decent job at protecting and preserving them. This article highlights that it is not always true. While in 2019 the government released an action plan for the park, only certain initiatives were put in place. As of 2023, only 2 of the 14 initiatives were put in place to protect the park, leaving 7 that were not put in place to have now left the park to deteriorate. With the decline in the park’s health, the Indigenous are once again voicing their concerns, and this is important to note because it shows how important it can be to work alongside the Indigenous in situations like this, where if all the initiatives were in place, the park’s health now, in 2026, may not have been a huge concern.
Media Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/northern-alberta-wood-buffalo-national-park-9.7319271
Media Item #2: This article from BC Government News discusses how the BC province is investing one million dollars into the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation. This aligns with Topic 1 in Unit 3 of the course. This one million will be used to help assess water-controlled infrastructure on conservation lands that have ecological importance in the province. Providing this money helps to create an opportunity to help support the future of aquatic habitat in BC, including protecting fish and wildlife while creating a balance for public recreational activities. This article reveals that there are projects being put in place that will help certain conservation areas and will overall help the future of conservation by putting these systems in place now.
Media Link: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026WLRS0039-000909