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Your donations help support the following:
If you wish to make a donation using a cheque, please email [email protected] for more details. We are grateful for your donation to help continue the work of the Friends of Wabakimi. 
Next Steps: The Wabakimi Stewardship Initiative
Going forward the FOW (and hopefully others) will support stewardship activities to protect, restore and enhance the ecosystems within Wabakimi Provincial Park. This will help Wabakimi meet the following Ontario Parks objectives: 1. Protection of natural and cultural features 2. Provision of ecologically sustainable outdoor recreation 3. Natural and cultural heritage education 4. Fostering research |
2024-25 Park Project
Shultz’s Trail Cleanup Thanks to our Donors for $9,100, for three large capacity Otter Float Plane Flights and additional expenses. The target this year was to clean up the Shultz’s Trail, a popular entry point just off the Via Rail line and Onamakawash Lake (pronounced Oh-na-maw-kay'-wush). A complex of three abandoned structures with debris, broken glass, and metal fragments along this portage is a visual eyesore and a hazard to paddlers beginning or ending a canoe trip. See the following video highlighting this project. youtu.be/c7NQAReRKHc This is our fifth project working closely with Wabakimi Provincial Park staff (see below for details). These projects help build support for protecting and maintaining the Park and surrounding areas as a world-class wilderness experience. 
FOW/Wabakimi Provincial Park Projects! 2020- 2024
Fall 2023: Legacy Debris Removal/Park Ranger Added Capacity. Successfully raised $11,280/$8234 U.S. We've funded a large Otter float plane trip with its large capacity to haul debris out of Shabuskwia Lake and added 36 ranger working days to their spring and summer 2024 operating season for portage maintenance after the 2023 fires.
Fall 2o22: We raised $9372/$7,028 U.S. to purchase eleven new bird song meters for use by the Park's biologist and rangers, in support of the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas project. Those meters went into the field in the summer 2023 and thankfully survived the fires. Here's a detailed report of how those are used. Fall 2021: We raised $8,413 CAD for our joint project with W.P.P. to install the new Armstrong kiosk. This will enhance the backcountry experience for visitors to Wabakimi Provincial Park and includes the "Wabakimi" painting and art print produced by Kevin Belmore. Fall 2020: We raised $7,917 CAD/$6,347 U.S. for the debris removal project completed in the summer 2021! Here's a Detailed Report. Only a small part of Ontario Park’s budget comes from provincial taxes. Most of the funds to maintain, manage and protect Wabakimi Provincial Park come from day-use and camping fees, rentals, partnerships and donations. Our Friends' donations make a difference! It is estimated that....an average herd of Woodland Caribou require 900,000 ha of undisturbed wilderness, which is about the size of Wabakimi Provincial Park (850,000 ha). One of the main reasons Wabakimi was formed was to protect the caribou and its habitat from potential development. This size was a minimum requirement to sustain caribou.” Shannon Walshe, Park Biologist, Ontario Parks Blog
Park Rangers: Portage Clearing and Legacy Debris
Park rangers maintain canoe routes in the park and have worked diligently to clear portages and are active in other duties related to inventory and monitoring in the park. Over the years these crews have documented the debris left on the landscape from a variety of sources in the park. Abandoned items such as damaged equipment or boats that have accumulated on portages and lakeside areas are unsightly and can have a negative impact on the environment or on visitor experience. However, since these crews are travelling by canoe, they have been limited to documenting these sites because removal was not an option at the time. The park has maintained a database which documents more than 100 items and 44 locations where items have been flagged for removal. 
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