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magazine / jun08

June 2008 issue


FEATURE

Simply Superior
The world’s largest freshwater lake is now the site of the biggest freshwater marine conservation area on the planet. Photographers Gary and Joanie McGuffin share views of the Great Lake they call home.
Photography by Gary and Joanie McGuffin with story by Ray Ford

Online exclusive: Canadian Geographic Photo Club
Join us for an interview with photographer Gary McGuffin and get a behind-the-scenes look into a photo shoot for Canadian Geographic.
As the sunrise streaked Lake Superior’s islands with shadows and light, Gary McGuffin noticed an oddly familiar shape near his campsite: an ancient spear point, so close he could have stepped on it.

“I imagined the person who sat there, maybe hoping the spear would bring an animal that day,” says McGuffin, recalling his find during a 17-day paddle of north-central Superior with a group of artists last summer. “I wondered what we can do to see that this experience remains the same for future generations.”


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At least part of the answer came last October, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper travelled to Nipigon, Ont., to announce the creation of the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA). Aiming to preserve the natural splendour of an eighth of the lake’s surface, the conservation area includes 10,850 square kilometres of water, lake bed, islands, shoreline and wetlands.

It’s a region where peregrine falcons nest on towering ledges. Coaster brook trout migrate from rivers to the big lake, then back to spawn. Relict populations of woodland caribou elude predators and humans by calving on isolated islands. Arctic flowers, remnants of the last ice age, cling to frigid coastal crevices.

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