*Please note - the deadline for public comments was 4:00, Feb 3, 2012. The petition has been submitted and any new signatures will not be entered into the public record! Thank you very much for your vocal support!" - Heather Hinam

In an effort to protect the boreal forest, reduce the impacts of flooding and slow climate change, the Province of Manitoba enacted a 2-year moratorium on new peat extraction licenses in the province as part of the Save Lake Winnipeg Act. Despite this laudable effort, mines, whose leases were granted several years ago are still slipping through the cracks.

A new mine by multinational Sun Gro Horticulture is poised to tear 531 hectares into the untouched Hay Point Bog on Grindstone Point in Hecla/Grindstone Provincial Park. Peat mining is not sustainable. The forests are cleared to access the bog and the sphagnum (peat) is then stripped from the forest floor. It takes decades, even centuries for peat to accumulate and the change in the water table from mining makes it near impossible for it to grow back.

These bogs, however are very important ecosystems, home to a variety of rare orchids and other endemic plants. They can store on average 3.5 times more carbon per hectare than the forests that surround them. They also hold vast volumes of water, slowing run-off, reducing flooding and filtering out pollutants from the already stressed Lake Winnipeg Watershed.

The chance to add your voice is now; but we have to do it quickly. Please sign the petition with your full name and show your support.

"We ask the Government of Manitoba to put weight behind their commitment to mitigate the causes of climate change, flooding and protect the Lake Winnipeg Watershed by enforcing the spirit, if not the letter of the moratorium on peat extraction, declining approval for SunGro's application to mine Hay Bog in Grindstone Point (file 5548.00) and keep peat extraction out of our Provincial Parks."

This petition will be delivered to Darrell Ouimet, of the Environmental Licensing Branch, who is in charge of this file to support efforts by the Grindstone Cottage Owners Association, Lake Winnipeg Foundation, Manitoba Field Office of the Wilderness Committee and other concerned citizens.

*Please note - the deadline for public comments was 4:00, Feb 3, 2012. The petition has been submitted and any new signatures will not be entered into the public record! Thank you very much for your vocal support!" - Heather Hinam

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