Christmas comes early in Lac Brochet

As the plane glided down over the frozen lakes and tundra that surround the northern Manitoba community of Lac Brochet last week, I could see a huge building in the centre of town. Conservation Officer Earl Simmons who was seated beside me on the Skyward flight told me that this was the community's school.

As the plane circled for final approach Earl pointed out that the roof of the Peter Casimir Memorial School was designed to represent the outline of an eagle.

Lac Brochet, a community of 700, is mostly populated by the Dene with a modern arena, community centre and school; amazing considering this town lies almost at the northern end of Manitoba. The land surrounding the town has rolling hills dotted with medium sized lakes, all shaped by glaciation. There are eskers close by and the soil is very thin, lying over sand and rock.

Earlier in the flight to Lac Brochet, Earl Simmons told me to watch out for caribou and sure enough we saw a couple of small herds bedded down on the two frozen lakes. These animals were arranged in a circle, Simmons explaining that these animals use that position to guard themselves from attacks from wolves.

The Dene have traditionally followed the caribou during their migrations over many generations, a major food source.

The teachers at the Peter Casimir Memorial School told us that a couple of herds of caribou had been spotted out the back door of the school last week, just arriving on their southern migration from the tundra.

The community is located on the shore of the lake of the same name, but Lac Brochet is shallow and rocky and requires some local knowledge to navigate (or a good depth finder) . This body of water is a widening of the Cochrane River, which runs in a southerly direction from Saskatchewan to Reindeer Lake. Despite the lack of depth, the main river channel that runs through the lake can supply some excellent pike, walleye and lake trout action though most of the local anglers head north to Misty Lake, just a short jaunt away.

Which brings us to why myself, Conservation Officer Earl Simmons and Neultin lodge owner Gary Gurke had flown into town. People in this community like to sport ice fish so as part of the Fish Futures provincial youth fishing program that is sponsored by Gurke, we figured the time was right to come to the school and talk to the students about sport fishing and conservation.

Upon arrival we stored our gear and headed over to the Nursery to Senior 4 facility. A beautiful school with high ceilings in the foyer and hallways, the first afternoon we spoke to about 60 high school students, then the next morning we had close to 200 elementary students crowd in the large gymnasium to hear our story about the aquatic environment.

Each student that day also went home with an ice fishing rod and reel, an early Christmas present for the community. The Fish Futures program also donated an ice auger, skimmers and lures so the students would be able to continue on with their ice fishing field trips this winter. And as a final gesture Fish Futures and Gurke supplied a Christmas lunch for the whole school. Thanks again to principal Kym Antsanen and her staff for all their help and hospitality and the students of Lac Brochet for being such a good audience. Also thanks to all the corporate donors, Neultin Lodge, Skyward Aviation, Calm Air and Gardewine who allowed us to get all the food, equipment and people up at no cost proving the spirit of Christmas is indeed alive!

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