From the ML archives. Text and photos by Bruce Kirkby.
Photojournalist and explorer Bruce Kirkby finds extreme beauty in Canada’s far-flung and precious wild spaces.
Nestled in the lee of Ellesmere, in Canada’s high Arctic, Axel Heiberg is the world’s third-largest uninhabited island. When I joined a team trekking across Axel Heiberg in the summer of 2010, we were the only four people on an island half the size of Iceland. Along the way we passed azure lakes, thousand-foot cliffs, deep canyons with echoing whitewater, glaciers, jagged peaks, Peary caribou, wolves and muskox. We also happened upon this lovely blue stream, cutting through the sedimentary rock. BRUCE KIRKBY PHOTO.
For decades a network of grassroots volunteers have worked to protect the deeply incised valleys of the Rouge and Little Rouge Rivers, a region of extreme biodiversity hidden amid the suburbs of Metropolitan Toronto’s East End. In 2012, the federal government pledged $143 million to the creation of Canada’s first national urban park. During the snowstorms of February, I spent two days hiking and camping among these last remaining stands of Carolinian forest, within sight of the downtown core. I was struck by the number of others I found using the wildlands. If the Rouge National Urban Park works, it could change our country’s relationship with national parks; and at a time when 82 percent of Canadians live in urban centres, that is a sign of hope. BRUCE KIKRBY PHOTO.
