Drew Hamilton

Jul 5, 2024 | canadiangeographic.ca | Trina Moyles |Drew Hamilton

We’re cruising low in a Bell 206 helicopter over Wapusk National Park in northern Manitoba, an area of vast peatlands. My eyes are fixed out the window, gazing down on the rusty peat, pale-green lichen and swamps edged with willow and spruce. The park is where the southern boreal forest collides with the northern Arctic tundra, where female polar bears haul out of the bay onto the western shoreline to burrow into the cool, spongy earth to give birth.