A barely known commodity.

Bear cubs frolic along the waterfront, only inches away from Heinz Wehrheim as he secures his boat to the shore. From a distance, the mother bear keeps watch over the cubs, guarding them from other bears which may be lurking in the distance. Wehrheim reaches out his hand to greet the cubs, and soon they gather around him. For the onlooker, Wehrheim's proximity to the cubs appears to be a little too close for comfort, but for Wehrheim, this ritual of befriending bears has been part of his life since settling in the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve over 20 years ago.

Since the late 1970s Wehrheim has been operating Chapleau Wilderness Camp, a lodge which attracts numerous European visitors to the area for wildlife observation and the outdoor experience of the North.

The camp is located in the centre of Henderson Lake on a 14-acre peninsula about 17 kilometres outside of Chapleau.

"When I came to Canada I wanted to see bears," Wehrheim, who was born in Germany, says. "For 20 years I've had a close connection to my bears. People said a mother with cubs is a dangerous bear, but I have one mother who leaves her cubs with me and she goes out to look for other bears. She's more afraid of the other bears. The bears know me and they trust me."

Wehrheim came to Canada in 1975 to create documentaries of Canada's wildlife while working for a German tourist office. The pristine wilderness of the largest Crown game preserve in the world - about 2,000,000 acres of unspoiled nature - drew him to the Chapleau area, he says. According to the

In early spring, Wehrheim travels from his seasonal home in Germany to prepare his cabins for the many German, Austrian and Swiss tourists who choose Chapleau Wilderness Camp as a summer escape.

For the wildlife enthusiast and nature buff, the game preserve is a utopia surrounded by boreal forests, large granite outcroppings and an abundance of indigenous wildlife species like moose, bear, muskrat, lynx, timber wolf and other fur-bearing animals.

Commercial outfitters offer tourists camping, fishing and canoeing experiences within the preserve. And in the heart of the preserve lies the Missinabi Provincial Park - an area which provides a glimpse of ancient pictographs, the abandoned Brunswick House fur trading post and logging camps.

Considering the area's accessibility by rail, gravel road, canoe or aircraft, it is surprising more attempts to market Chapleau as the gateway to the preserve by tapping into ecotourism potential have not been made, says Wehrheim.

"What I don't understand is why Chapleau has not made more from its game preserve," Wehrheim says. "In (Northern Ontario tourism) advertisements you see hunting and fishing everywhere. Chapleau has a big chance to have tourism here to see animals, to see nature. Most parks have problems with overcrowding, but here there is no overcrowding and yet to date nothing has been done (to promote the preserve). No other tourism area in Northern Ontario has a game preserve."

In other parts of Ontario, Wehrheim says he has witnessed tourists flocking to specific areas to participate in ecotourism activities apart from hunting and fishing and suggests Chapleau promote the area for a wider range of activities, including wildlife observation.

As an advocate of the survival of the species and untouched habitats of the wild, Wehrheim has over the years developed over 100 tourism-based documentaries on wildlife.

The Chapleau Crown Game Preserve offers a haven for wildlife observers, he adds.