Thoughts From a "Lost Canadian" About Wapusk National Park

Yesterday I didn't write about one of Canada's National Parks as since it was Canada Day, I wrote about celebrating Canada! There are four more National Parks for me to write about so today I'm writing about another very remote National Park in Canada - Wapusk National Park.

• Wapusk National Park covers 11,475 square kilometers of remote subarctic wilderness in northeastern Manitoba, just south of Churchill. 
• The park's name comes from the Cree word for polar bear (wâpask) as WAH-poohsk (we'pask/), with the emphasis n the first syllable. The name originates from the Cree word wâpask (meaning "white bear" or polar bear). When spoken, the second syllable ends with a sharp "sk" sound, similar to clearing your throat.
• Because of its remote location, Wapusk National Park has no public roads. All visits require a licensed commercial tour operator based in Churchill.
• Situated where the boreal forest meets the arctic tundra, the park consists of peatlands, sedge meadows, and coastal intertidal zones along the Hudson Bay. Because the ground is underlain by continuous permafrost and is constantly rising due to isostatic rebound (where the land slowly rises after ancient ice sheets melted), the landscape is riddled with thousands of shallow lakes and bogs.
• Wapusk National Park is basically a massive maternity ward for mother polar bears and their cubs, and the park also shelters the Cape Churchill caribou herd, wolves, wolverines, arctic foxes, and moose as well.
• The park is a critical migratory flyway and coastal breeding ground, hosting over 200 species of birds, including the rare ivory gull, Caspian tern, and Hudsonian godwit.
• Despite extreme conditions, more than 700 species of plants and miniature, centuries-old stunted trees—standing less than 6.5 feet tall—thrive here.
• Wapusk National Park is on the lands traditionally used by the Cree, Dene, Inuit, and Red River Métis peoples. 
• Wapusk National Park's coastlines are part of the Western Hudson Bay beluga whale population's summering habitat. Beluga whales are Canada’s most abundant species of whale, and this population is Canada’s largest, estimated at approximately 55,000 Belugas.

If Polar Bears are animals you want to see, Wapusk National Park is the place for you to visit - as long as you have a licensed tour guide - or want to visit via a helicopter - as this is an option as well! You'll find more information about it at this link.