Regions
Northwest Region
The Northwest Region has a Regional Office located at The Pas, with District Offices located at Cranberry Portage, Flin Flon, Snow Lake, and Grand Rapids, and sub fire offices at Sherridon/Cold Lake, Cormorant, and Moose Lake.
The area encompasses a diverse landscape, dominated by boreal forest, lakes, streams, bogs and marshes, largely in a natural state that includes parts of Manitoba Lowlands Natural Region to the south and Canadian Shield Natural Regions north, starting at Cranberry Portage.
The Boreal Forest is made up of predominately 7 species of trees including black and white spruce, jack pine, tamarack, white birch, balsam poplar, and trembling aspen with scattered pockets of balsam fir and eastern white cedar.There are also species such as burr oak, Manitoba maple, and green ash on ridges and along the banks of the Saskatchewan River.
Mineral extraction, commercial timber harvesting and processing, agriculture, resource-based tourism, and commercial fishing continue to be the main industries providing economic and employment benefits in the region. The harvesting of wild rice and trapping also provide some local employment. Recreational use of the region's wildlife, fish, and forest resources by both residents and non-residents is also significant and an important industry.
The region is home to world-class angling with many of the Manitoba records caught on the lakes and rivers including Pike, Walleye, Goldeye, Tullibee, Rainbow Trout, Burbot, Lake Whitefish, and Lake Trout, with the biggest recorded at 64 lbs.The pursuit of different fish species attracts visitors from all over North America and the world, with many master anglers of each species produced annually.
The region's parks provide a scenic natural setting with modern conveniences, great camping, fishing, canoeing, and boating opportunities. Park staff deliver services, programs, and security to the many visitors at Clearwater Lake, Bakers Narrows, Grass River, and Wekusko Provincial Parks, which includes 7 campgrounds: Bakers Narrows, Gyles, Iskwasum, Reed, Wekusko Falls, Campers Cove, and Pioneer Bay. Little Limestone Lake Provincial Park is the newest park in the region.The lake is a marl lake which is best known for its characteristic trait of changing color as the water warms in the summer.The park is located approximately 50 km north of Grand Rapids and is a popular viewing attraction for tourists.
Northeast Region
The Northeast Region encompasses 60% of the land area of Manitoba and is comprised primarily of vast uninterrupted tracts of boreal forest transitioning to taiga in the far north. The majority of the land base remains in its natural state, unaltered and undeveloped, and is largely inaccessible due to an extremely limited road network.
On a capita per area basis, the Northeast Region is the most sparsely populated region in the Province. Mineral extraction, processing and exploration, hydro-electric generation and transmission, resource-based tourism (lodges and outfitting), and commercial fishing and trapping are the main industries generating economic and employment benefits for the Region and Province. Domestic and recreational use of the Region's wildlife, fish, and forest resources by the residents of the Region is also significant.
Due to the values-at-risk associated with towns, communities, lodges, remote cottages and timber values, the Region's fire management and suppression program is also a priority program delivered in the Region, in terms of both employment and expenditures. It normally runs from May through September. The delivery of services, programs and security at Paint Lake Provincial Park and several other provincial parks is also a priority during this same time period. Undertaking the Crown's Duty to Consult (Section 35) with the 35 Indigenous and Northern communities located in the Northeast Region on government decisions or actions that could affect or infringe upon Treaty and Indigenous rights is a year round priority in the Northeast Region. The management and allocation of Crown land and resources to different, often competing, users and compliance monitoring and the enforcement of Crown land and resource legislation are year round activities in the Region. Participation on co-management boards and handling problem wildlife complaints, including the high profile Polar Bear Alert Program at Churchill, are also important program activities.
The Northeast Regional office is located at Thompson. District offices are located at Churchill, Gillam, Thompson, Wabowden, Lynn Lake, Norway House, God's Lake Narrows, and Island Lake. Sub-District offices are located at Split Lake, Nelson House, Pukatawagan, South Indian Lake, Cross Lake, Oxford House, and Leaf Rapids.
Central Region
The Central Region delivers programs and services associated with the Parks and Regional Services Division of Manitoba Environment and Climate Change, including: field activities for provincial park operations, maintenance and capital planning; design and development projects; wildlife, forestry and fisheries resource management; Crown lands management; compliance and enforcement activities related to natural resources and parks safety and security; wildfire protection and suppression; as well as protection of people, livestock, crops, and property from problem wildlife. These initiatives include the development, delivery, and evaluation of programs and services, inspection, compliance monitoring, and enforcement of natural resource legislation. This is done by multi-disciplined full-time and seasonal staff working from a Regional Office in Gimli and District offices in Ashern, Grand Beach, Gypsumville, Hodgson, Lundar, Manitou, Portage la Prairie, Riverton, Selkirk, Winnipeg Beach, Birds Hill, and Winnipeg.
The Central Region Integrated Resource Management Team (IRMT) developed an Indigenous Engagement Strategy in 2016, to provide direction to staff throughout the region to encourage engagement with First Nation and Metis communities.
Eastern Region
The Eastern Region is comprised of rural towns, First Nation communities, Canadian Shield boreal forest, and agricultural lands. The region contains extensive tracts of natural undisturbed areas with the majority of the land not developed for human occupation. As a result, significant economic benefits are derived from natural resource based industries, such as forestry/peat harvesting, and from diverse recreational opportunities. Major programs administered by the region include park operations and maintenance, park safety and security, resource compliance/enforcement, wildfire suppression, as well as the delivery of regional Crown Land administration, fish, wildlife, and forest management programs.
Programs and public services are provided in the Eastern Region by multi-disciplined full time and seasonal staff working out of the Regional Office in Lac du Bonnet and District offices in Lac du Bonnet, Lake Winnipeg East, Pine Falls, Rennie, Seven Sisters, Sprague, Falcon Lake, Steinbach, and Beausejour. There are Sub-District offices in Berens River, Little Grand Rapids, and Bissett. Public lands in addition to undesignated Crown land administered through these offices include 14 provincial parks, 8 provincial forests, 9 wildlife management areas, and 13 ecological reserves.
Western Region
The Western Region is a diverse area that encompasses a range of land based development and activities from urban centers to extensive agricultural and industrial development to remote undeveloped natural habitat. The region reaches from the United States border on the south to the northern end of Lake Winnipegosis and is geographically divided in half by Riding Mountain National Park. It was formerly two regions, South West Region and Western Region. Amalgamation of the two regions into the Western Region occurred a number of years ago with the regional office located in Brandon.Sub-regional offices are maintained in Dauphin and Swan River.
The region contains the majority of the Rural Municipalities in the province, and is the second most populated area of the province. Agricultural land use is predominant in the region while the northern sub-region supports a significant portion of the province's forestry industry. As a result of agricultural land use, there is abundant human-wildlife interaction resulting in more problem wildlife issues (beaver, coyote, and elk depredation). The region also has to 6 of the 7 known elk populations in the Province and attracts significant numbers of resident and Indigenous hunters. The region contains well-known natural topographic features such as the Spruce Woods sand dunes, Turtle, Riding, Duck, and Porcupine Mountains, as well as, Lake Winnipegosis. In addition, Lake of the Prairies is one of the premier walleye fishing areas in the province. Recreational and Commercial use of natural resources are a major economic stimulus in the region. There are 21 provincial parks in the region. The region contains the majority of outfitters in the province. Virtually all of the oil and gas activities in Manitoba occur in the southwest part of the region where the majority of the listed Species at Risk occur in Manitoba. The western region is also the only region with a major military base, CFB Shilo. Environment and Climate Change staff serves as members of the Shilo Environmental Advisory Committee.
All of the above uses and activities require extensive administration and monitoring under the Wildlife, Fisheries, Forestry, Parks, and Crown Lands Acts and Regulations and associated programs.
During the 2016/17 fiscal year, the administration of Wildlife, Fisheries, Lands and Forestry branch staff in the region transitioned from the branches to the region.
Contact us
The following is a complete list of the contact numbers and mailing addresses for the Regional offices throughout the Province:
Central Region
Box 6000, 75 - 7th Avenue
Gimli MB R0C 1B0
Telephone: (204) 642-6070
Fax: (204) 642-6108
Eastern Region
Box 4000, Provincial Highway #502
Lac du Bonnet MB R0E 1A0
Telephone: (204) 345-1444
Fax: (204) 345-1440
Northwest Region
Box 2550, 3rd Street & Ross Avenue
The Pas MB R9A 1M4
Telephone: (204) 627-8287
Fax: (204) 623-5733
Western Region
Box 13, 1129 Queens Avenue
Brandon MB R7A 1L9
Telephone: (204) 726-6441
Fax: (204) 726-6301
Northeast Region
Box 28, 59 Elizabeth Drive
Thompson MB R8N 1X4
Telephone: (204) 677-6648
Fax: (204) 677-6359
