Youth help clean up future Nunavik park

Inuit call this peak, Mt. Pyramid, ulittaniujalik, part of the Pyramid chain of mountains, located about 100 kilometres south of Kangiqsualujjuaq. About 5,000 kilometres of land around this mountain is set to become Nunavik’s fourth provincial park. (FILE PHOTO)

Here’s a look at some of the junk now ready to be shipped out of the future Ulittaniujalik park. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KRG)

Mattusie Oweetaluktuk of Inukjuak, Minnie Molly Snowball of Kangiqsualujjuaq, Gabriel Losier of Kawawachikamach are back home after participating in a clean-up project in the future Nunavik park Ulittaniujalik, located 100 kilometres south of Kangiqsualujjuaq on Ungava Bay.

The project, led by Nunavik Parks of the Kativik Regional Government, gave the youth work experience in the field and contributed to cleaning up the environment, said a recent news release from the KRG.

Work on project, which took place from July 2 to 17, was carried out at two abandoned outfitting camps: Tuttusiurvik (Caribou Camp) on Lake Qamanialuk and Sanningajualulik (Big Bend) on George River.

There, project participants dismantled old cabins and tent frames, and gathered other debris, such as stoves and bed frames, into large piles.

These can now be airlifted from the sites or hauled out by snowmobile and kamotiks next winter for disposal, the KRG said.

The two sites, where landing strips are also to be reconditioned, will likely be designated service zones in the future park.

Covering more than 5,000 kilometres, Ulittaniujalik is slated to become the second largest provincial park in the Quebec parks network.

The Ulittaniujalik provincial park — or “national” park as Quebec terms the parks in its provincial network of parks — will join Pingualuit park near Kangisujuaq, Kuurujuaq park in the Torngat mountains and Tuqsujuq park — still a park project — around the Richmond Gulf.

The Ulittaniujalik project was the first in a series of three planned youth projects involving Nunavik Parks this summer.

The two others will take place in Tursujuq where youth will help the Avataq Cultural Institute with the archaeological excavation of an old trading post and in Pingualuit where youth will help park wardens and a biologist conduct an inventory of small mammals.