November 7, 2009

It can be difficult to find perspective living in British Columbia, a province recognized internationally for its natural beauty and its continued assault of Nature.

As a commodity, the Pacific Salmonid is critical to the existence of core industries in the Pacific Region; as a life form, it is integral to the life and livelihood of all coastal indigenous communities; as a life form, its importance in this complex interconnectedness we call an ecosystem, is beyond measure. (A well-known salmon researcher, in this room, once declared that “Salmon aren’t a keystone species; they’re much more important than that.”)

Concurrently, government may yet grant mining concessions for trivial sums to speculators, with less history in Canada than my dog, so that they can extract resources from, and lay waste to, the sacred headwaters, Canada’s Serengeti, where, in a long day’s walk, you could drink from the headwaters of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers to quench your thirst.

Quoting Wade Davis, Canada’s current Massey lecturer: “The cost of destroying a natural asset, or its inherent worth if left intact, has no metric in the economic calculations that support the industrialization of the wild.” Stewards witness this set of values every day, in the form of a thousand tiny cuts.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada defines stewardship as “an ethic that embodies cooperative planning and management of environmental resources with organizations, communities and others to actively engage in the prevention of loss of habitat and facilitate its recovery in the interest of long-term sustainability.”

SEHAB has gained ground in its ability to represent and advocate for the parties referred to above - volunteer stewards - especially those who participate in the Department’s Community Involvement Program. This increased capacity, and with it recognition from other organizations and government, stems from the Board’s ability to effect a coherent strategy of advocacy, from information-gathering through prioritizing to bringing truth to power.

At the same time, it is a sobering thought to recently learn that at least one community involvement project is paying the bills by selling salmon eggs to other NGO’s, and that Area and Regional Managers are now directly involved in the choice of projects that Community Advisors support.

I look forward to a year of less ephemeral and more tangible progress toward the conservation and protection of wild salmon populations and habitat, and a demonstration from DFO Managers that they recognize the intrinsic value of life forms like the Pacific Salmon, especially if they plan to continue the orchestration of the Community Involvement Program.