Mushkegowuk Council: Lands and Resources

06/19/2026

Good morning! Here is a reminder that the third segment of our three-part series of Bird Identification webinars, hosted in collaboration with Birds Canada, will take place today from 11 a.m. to noon.
These are open to everyone and they’re free!

Bird Identification Webinar Series Registration —https://zoom.us/meeting/register/jHMhQk3CTuq5WwnJnQRtCw...

06/18/2026

A short video on the two-day carbon sampling training that we reported on previously. The training was conducted recently in Cochrane for Land Guardians with Mushkegowuk communities and for Guardian program supervisors, teaching how to measure carbon content in soils, trees and vegetation.
It was a collaboration involving Mushkegowuk’s Lands & Resources and instructors from WWF-Canada.

Staff with Mushkegowuk’s Lands & Resources department and instructo...

06/17/2026

The Ontario Ministry of Mines recently received applications from a couple of firms seeking permits to conduct exploration activities in or around the Mushkegowuk region.

Canada Nickel Company has applied for a permit to carry out line cutting and mechanized drilling on an 11.07-square-kilometre site located a little more than 41 kilometres northeast of Flying Post First Nation and 58.5 kilometres southwest of Taykwa Tagamou Nation, according to Ontario Mineral Tracker — https://www.facebook.com/MineralTrackerON.
The Environmental Registry of Ontario will be accepting public comments on this application until July 9.
For more information, visit https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/026-0613.

The ministry also received a couple of applications from East Timmins Nickel to carry out line cutting and mechanized drilling on two separate sites located between 21 and 24 kilometres southwest of TTN.
One site is 2.76 square kilometres in size (https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/026-0620); the other is 3.4 square kilometres in size (https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/026-0621).
The Environmental Registry of Ontario will be accepting public comments on these separate applications until July 11.

06/17/2026

Speaking at the Mushkegowuk Council of Chiefs meeting held in Rama this week, Lawrence Martin, director of Mushkegowuk Lands & Resources said a breakthrough seems to have been made with the Ontario government showing some willingness to support the terrestrial Omushkego Wahkohtowin-Project Finance for Permanence (OW-PFP).
Up to now, the province had balked at the amount of land in the conservation plan study area and was standing in the way of Mushkegowuk communities accessing federal conservation funding.
With the individual communities leading the negotiations, a revised plan was recently presented to a group of Ontario ministers who appeared to be more receptive to the narrower strip of land (20 kilometres wide along the coast) that was identified within the conservation plan.
Following the presentation, the Mushkegowuk Council of Chiefs agreed to schedule a full-day session in July where the Chiefs along with appointed community representatives, and legal counsel for participating Nations could prepare for upcoming OW-PFP negotiations.

06/15/2026

Please note the Songbird Habitat & Biodiversity Mapping in the Missinaibi Forest Webinar is postponed due to speaker illness. A new date and time for the webinar will be shared once selected.

06/15/2026

A wildlife monitoring project that has been incorporating the use of motion-triggered cameras and Song Meters (a device used for recording bird calls) has recently been enhanced to pick up sounds made by bats.

“In order to detect bats, you need a special microphone because bats make sounds at a higher frequency than can heard by human ears,” explained Hope Hill, carbon and biodiversity coordinator with Mushkegowuk’s Lands & Resources department.

The community-based wildlife monitoring project was launched in 2024.
The installation of an ultrasonic microphone in the Song Meters used in this project is a newly added feature.

“The overall goal of the wildlife monitoring project is to understand the presence, movement and distribution of wildlife species in Mushkegowuk territory,” explained Hill. “𝗕𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗯𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗢𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸, and the extent of their range is largely unknown.

“There are historical observations and records of bats being along the coast of James Bay and Hudson Bay, but it hasn’t really been super-studied or observed,” she said. “So, this will just help with understanding their presence and potentially contribute to recovery strategies or management plans to help prevent these bat species from going extinct or disappearing from Ontario.”

Hill added: “We have been working with communities since we launched the project but if anyone is interested in participating … we are happy to hear from them.”

Anyone with questions about the project can email [email protected]

06/12/2026

The Lands and Resources department of Mushkegowuk Council presents the May 2026 edition of its Research & Monitoring Newsletter. Through this monthly newsletter, we aim to keep Mushkegowuk Nations informed about our research and monitoring activities, news, and events.
The newsletter is available in Cree and English.

For more information or to comment, email [email protected].

Past issues of the Research & Monitoring Newsletter can be found on the Mushkegowuk Council website ~ https://mushkegowuk.ca/monthly-newsletter/

06/12/2026

Staff with Mushkegowuk’s Lands & Resources department and instructors from World Wildlife Fund-Canada were in Cochrane earlier this week, hosting two days of training, teaching how to measure carbon content in soils, trees and vegetation.

Samantha Matthews, Guardian Program Planner with Lands & Resources, said the training was geared primarily for people working as Land Guardians but “it was also open to other community members – like youths and Elders.”

More than a dozen people attended. Those who participated included a pair of Land Guardians with Moose Cree First Nation, and the Guardians Program Coordinator for Wahkohtowin Development who is a member of Chapleau Cree First Nation.

Clare Wark, Specialist in Science, Knowledge and Innovation with WWF-Canada, explained that if Land Guardians understand how much carbon is being stored in ecosystems within their territory, “they can use that information for advocacy purposes. They can use it to help guide land-use planning activities which may impact where Indigenous-protected and conserved areas end up being. They can use it as important knowledge when, say, developers come knocking or there’s a possibility of industrial development.”

06/11/2026

𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗴𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗼𝘂𝗶𝘀 𝗕𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗱𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆.
His passing marks a great loss for Omushkego.
Louis Bird — also known by the name Pennishish — was widely recognized as an Omushkego (Swampy Cree) Elder, oral historian, and storyteller from Peawanuck.
He was committed to preserving Omushkego stories, language, and history.
“It is my wish and my hope to save the stories that have been told to us when I was young and that have been passed on to us by our grandfathers and their grandfathers and so on and so on,” he once said.
He had a vast knowledge of the land and was generous in sharing that information with others.
He developed a deep knowledge of the Hudson Bay coast and lowlands through practical experience as he learned how to fish, hunt, trap, and survive in the bush.
Those of us at Lands & Resources who met him, worked with him and tapped into his knowledge, respectfully thank Louis Bird for his time, teachings, and meaningful contributions over the years, and wish to honour his life and legacy.

𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑡 𝐿𝑜𝑢𝑖𝑠 𝐵𝑖𝑟𝑑’𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑐𝑘 𝑖𝑛 𝐽𝑎𝑛𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑦 2025 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒-𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑀𝑢𝑠ℎ𝑘𝑒𝑔𝑜𝑤𝑢𝑘 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑓𝑓.

06/11/2026

Here is a reminder that the second of a three-part series of Bird Identification webinars, hosted in collaboration with Birds Canada, will take place tomorrow (Friday, June 12) from 11 a.m. to noon.
These are open to everyone and they’re free!

Bird Identification Webinar Series Registration —https://zoom.us/meeting/register/jHMhQk3CTuq5WwnJnQRtCw...

While we’re on the subject of learning more about birds, a webinar on Songbird Habitat & Biodiversity Mapping in the Missinaibi Forest is being offered Monday, June 15 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Songbird Habitat & Biodiversity Mapping in the Missinaibi Forest Webinar —https://zoom.us/meeting/register/fNiQeztnQXOrE6FGwpGEiQ

For more information or to register, contact - [email protected]

See attached posters for more details on both of these events.