The Yukon’s two leading environmental organizations will be conducting a campaign of their own leading up to the Nov. 7 territorial election, their two executive directors said Wednesday afternoon.

Christina Macdonald of the Yukon Conservation Society (YCS) and Chris Rider of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) Yukon held a joint press conference along the Whitehorse waterfront to announce their initiative.

They said they want to present a non-partisan effort leading up to the vote to ensure Yukoners are educated on the key environmental issues facing the Yukon, from protection of the Peel River Watershed to battling climate change.

“Indeed, there are so many issues that are on the table right now that when it comes to the environment, this may be the most important election the Yukon has ever had,” Rider told a handful of reporters.

Rider and Macdonald said the two organizations will be sending out their own teams of volunteers to knock on doors. They’ll be handing out cardboard door hangers that say “I’m voting for the Peel.”

“I am looking forward to walking down the street and seeing door hangers on every door,” Rider said. “I think that will be incredible.”

Rider said they are encouraging Yukoners to hang the door hanger to show just how important the Peel is to all those who come around canvassing for the four political parties.

Asked whether the issue of a carbon tax is now overshadowing the Peel, that perhaps it has jumped to the front in terms of environmental issues on the minds of voters, Macdonald acknowledged a carbon tax is important.

But it is only one of a suite of tools required to quickly reduce the territory’s dependency on fossil fuels, she said.

“How we approach the key environmental challenges and opportunities we are facing today will have lasting impacts on our culture, our economy and the natural environment that sustains us all,” Macdonald said. “So, this election, YCS and CPAWS Yukon are taking unprecedented action to bring information and learning opportunities to voters so we can make informed decisions come voting day.”

Macdonald pointed out the two organizations mailed a questionnaire to all four parties last month, and have since received replies that will be posted on their websites later this month.

They’ll be hosting an all-party election forum Tuesday at the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre that will be streamed live online.

Rider said they want to hear more from the communities.

He and Macdonald emphasized the environmental issues on the table go beyond the Peel or the contentious practice of hydraulic fracturing.

It’s about ensuring a collaborative land use planning process as set out in the Umbrella Final Agreement, the template for settling aboriginal land claims in the Yukon.

It’s about pursuing renewable energy alternatives and ensuring the territory’s fossil fuel resources stay right where they are – in the ground.

“New research shows that the world has lost a tenth of its wilderness in the past 25 years and that no new fossil fuel reserves can be developed if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate warming,” Macdonald said.

The Yukon, she said, still has what many other places do not have anymore – fresh air, clean water, wild places and wildlife.

Macdonald said the Yukon needs a government that will keep it that way and make the territory a leader in the battle against climate change.

“We are asking the territory’s political leaders to show us how they are going to care for this land.”

Rider said CPAWS Yukon and the conservation society will be doing everything they can to make sure the environment is at the top of the agenda over the next several weeks.

“We will be working hard to ensure that Yukoners – no matter what their politics are – are fully informed when they go to vote on November 7th,” he said.

Asked how they would deal with the 8,000-plus mining claims in the Peel watershed in order to bring about 80 per cent wilderness protection over the region, neither Rider nor Macdonald offered any suggestion.

Macdonald said that will be a matter for the next government to address after the Supreme Court of Canada rules on the case between the Yukon government and the four First Nations and two environmental organizations involved.