Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition: Working together to protect our landscape and lifestyle

January 31 2012 »

SWCC is seeking an Events and Volunteer Coordinator

Events and Volunteer Coordinator Position – 2012

The Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC) is seeking an outgoing go-getter, who can ensure our fundraising and educational outreach events run smoothly, and our amazing volunteers are well organized and supported. You must be super organized, self motivated and able to think on your feet.

In this role you will report to the Executive Director and work closely with the local community, volunteers and SWCC’s Communications Director.

Purpose of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition:

To cultivate a sustainable future from a sustainable environment rooted in culture and a thriving wild salmon ecosystem.

Job Description

The Event and Volunteer Coordinator (EVC) is responsible for the successful organization and implementation of SWCC outreach and education events as well as the overall supervision of the volunteer workers who assist with our projects, programs and events. The EVC will report directly to the SWCC Executive Director.

Duties include but are not limited to:

Event organization duties:
• Creating and adhering to event work plans for each event
• Following SWCC’s community organizing principles
• Organising logistics of events e.g. securing venues, projectors, sound systems etc.
• Helping to promote each event to ensure maximum attendance
• Collaborating with SWCC Director of Communications on media relations and publicity
• Keeping track of hours & expenses on a monthly basis
• Adhering to the pre-approved budget for each event
• Writing reports/evaluations on events
• Maintaining a consistent supply of merchandise for events
• Attending regular action meetings
• Providing regular progress updates to Executive Director

Volunteer co-ordination:
• Supervision and organizing of volunteers
• Recruitment of new volunteers
• Scheduling and conducting orientation of new volunteers
• Scheduling volunteer work times and following up on no-shows
• Communicating with volunteers and resolving any problems
• Motivating volunteers to stay involved
• Organizing and scheduling continuing educations for the volunteers
• Organize volunteer functions, such as summer BBQs
• Providing regular progress updates to Executive Director
• Attending regular action meetings

Mandatory Qualifications & Experience

• Good communication and people skills
• Motivated, self-starter able to work without supervision
• Good organizational and time management skills
• Computer skills
• Working with diverse communities and people
• Event organizing experience
• Community volunteer experience
• Excellent writing skills

Assets
• Experience with event and community organizing
• Excellent computer skills including Mac, some graphic design, spreadsheets
• Excellent public speaking and presentation skills.

Salary
Negotiable

Please send resumes to:  info@skeenawatershed.com

January 19 2012 »

Carr Clifton’s Sacred Headwaters photography exhibit a huge success!

Carr Clifton Photography :: 1211 Genesee Road :: Taylorsville, CA 95983
530.284.6205 :: www.carrclifton.com

Carr Clifton’s spectacular photographs of the Sacred Headwaters are causing quite the stir in the US. The opening reception was a huge hit and the exhibit, featuring thirty-two fine art prints which celebrate the Sacred Headwaters, is set to be a huge success.

We feel so privileged to have artists such as Clifton share the beauty of our own backyard with the world and join us to protect the Sacred Headwaters!

December 19 2011 » Home Feature

Sacred Headwaters Book Now Available

In a rugged knot of mountains in northern British Columbia lies a spectacular valley known to the First Nations as the Sacred Headwaters. There, three of Canada’s most important salmon rivers—the Stikine, the Skeena, and the Nass—are born in close proximity. Now, against the wishes of all First Nations, the British Columbia government has opened the Sacred Headwaters to industrial development. Imperial Metals proposes an open-pit copper and gold mine, called the Red Chris mine, and Royal Dutch Shell wants to extract coal bed methane gas across a tenure of close to a million acres.
In The Sacred Headwaters, a collection of photographs by Carr Clifton and members of the International League of Conservation Photographers—including Claudio Contreras, Paul Colangelo, and Wade Davis—portray the splendour of the region. These photographs are supplemented by images from other professionals who have worked here, including Sarah Leen of the National Geographic.
The compelling text by Wade Davis, which describes the region’s beauty, the threats to it, and the response of native groups and other inhabitants, is comple- mented by the voices of the Tahltan elders. The inescapable message is that no amount of methane gas can compensate for the sacrifice of a place that could be the Sacred Headwaters of all Canadians and indeed of all peoples of the world.
Wade davis is explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society and is the author of numerous books, including Light at the Edge of the World and The Clouded Leopard. He has lived and worked in the Stikine as a park ranger, guide, and anthropologist since 1978. He and his wife, Gail, own Wolf Creek Lodge, the closest private holding to both the Sacred Headwaters and the proposed site of the Red Chris mine.

December 13 2011 » News Clippings » opednews.com

Where The Waters Begin - Shell, Fortune Minerals And Salmon

Where The Waters Begin – Shell, Fortune Minerals And Salmon

By Merv Ritchie

Map detailing the origins of all the Northwest BC waters at Mount Klappan in the Tahltan Territory by Terrace Daily News

“A picture is worth a thousand words’ is a common phrase and in this case a picture is worth the preservation of not only all Northwest life but maybe all life. Words are not enough.

The above picture is of a BC Government produced map. It shows the details of the source of all the major Northwest BC rivers. The Stikine, known as the “Grand Canyon of the North” is one of the last great unspoiled salmon producing rivers. Two others, the Nass and the Skeena Rivers have their origins here, at the Spatzizi Wilderness Plateau and Mount Klappan.

All the rivers flowing off of Mount Klappan and the Spatzizi Wilderness Plateau, which run east, flow into the Stikine River. The Stikine then wraps around this region in a huge arc flowing east, then north, then west, then south into the North Pacific waters of Alaska.

The Little Klappan River captures all the North and the West flowing waters from Mount Klappan and the Spatzizi Wilderness Plateau, which joins the main Klappan River flowing directly into the Stikine, in its westward arc, just east of Highway 37 north of Iskut, BC.

The Skeena River originates along the southern and eastern edges of Mount Klappan capturing all the remaining waters flowing West and South not captured by the Little Klappan River.

Just to the west of the Little Klappan and Skeena Rivers is a small mountain range of peaks in the Skeena Range which defines the border of the Regional District Kitimat Stikine and the Regional District Bulkley Nechako. This range is called the Slamgeesh range and the northern end on these peaks is called the Groundhog. Like the peak of the roof of a home the waters run off each side. To the east these waters run into the Little Klappan and the Skeena River. To the west the waters flow into the Nass River and the main Klappan River and there is a small lake at the origin of these two rivers. The North end of this lake flows into the Klappan River and the south end of the lake flows into the Nass River. This region is truly the top of our world.

It is this entire region, detailed and defined above, which the BC Government has identified and labelled as the Provincial Government Coal Reserve. The mineral exploration and lease holders have for decades called it the Groundhog. Today two Companies are actively preparing to disturb this territory.

Map detailing BC Provincial Government Coal Reserve located at the headwaters of these major rivers by Terrace Daily News

Royal Dutch Shell is preparing to employ a method to extract the Methane gas trapped and contained within the coal fields by using an extremely poisonous and polluting activity called Fracking. Fortune Minerals is planning to simply tear down Mount Klappan and the surrounding territory to take the coal away.

Reason and logic demonstrate a simple truth, this is nature’s water filter for all life. As can be shown by using an aquarium water filter or even a counter top Brita water filter, coal and charcoal are the highest premium water purity and filtering systems.

The Klappan region, the Ground Hog and the Spatzizi Wilderness Plateau are at the height of the Northwest. All waters flow from this high point into every river and every water source. It is this natural “Coal Bed’ field that provides the purity for all the salmon bearing streams and rivers. The Klappan is the incubator, the nursery, the life source of every living thing. To disturb this region is to sacrifice all life on Planet Earth. This might sound dramatic but it truly is this important. All North Pacific waters, this means most marine life, depend on the Salmon originating from the pure Klappan waters. All Northwest BC Rainforest habitats (25% of the worlds rainforests) depend on the returning spawning salmon for their nutrients, from the Bears and Wolves to the trees which derive a significant portion of their nutrients from rotting salmon carcasses left in the woods by the carnivores who have already fed on them. These forests produce the oxygen we all need to breathe.

Astoundingly, these rivers are attempting to deliver a message to humanity by forming the profile of a human face looking east as if to warn humanity of our folly.

Profile of human face looking east formed by the major rivers of northwest BC, Canada by Terrace Daily News

The Klappan is the origin of the life cycle. Today the BC Liberal Party and the associated BC government is urging the completion of a rail line through to the Klappan to assist Fortune Minerals and others to extract the Coal. Royal Dutch Shell is now pursuing their gas extraction plans pushing the BC Government to allow them to proceed.

Any and every person who encourages and facilitates this proposal is quite bluntly a traitor to humanity and all life. There is no excuse, nothing to excuse, no manner in which to justify such an abhorrent attack on the blood stream of all Northwest life. In a reasonable world those who participated in destroying such an indispensible, essential and even mandatory system for survival would not just be expelled they would be executed. What would be a reasonable action to take against an individual or corporation that destroyed your food source for hundreds of years?

This concept is an all out attack on everything life sustaining. It is imperative that all peoples take all action to prevent any incursion into these regions. Anything less is not just cowardly it is unforgivable.

December 12 2011 » Multimedia » Moldy Chum blog

Make the Sacred Headwaters gas drilling ban permanent!

Set to expire in December of 2012, environmental groups are calling for an existing provincial moratorium on drilling in the Sacred Headwaters to be extended indefinitely.

LINK (Via: The Vancouver Sun)

A new book, The Sacred Headwaters: The Fight to Save the Stikine, Skeena and Nass, by Wade Davis, Carr Cliton and Robert Kennedy Jr, is do out on the 14th.

December 06 2011 » News Clippings » Vancouver Sun

Make Sacred Headwaters gas drill ban permanent: eco-groups

By Gordon Hamilton

Pictured is the Sacred Headwaters region of Northwestern B.C., Divide Mountain where waters from its slopes and Mount Klappen form the source of Stikine, Nass, and Skeena rivers. Environmental groups opposed to a Shell Canada proposal to drill for coal-bed methane in the headwaters are calling for an existing provincial moratorium on drilling in the region to be extended indefinitely.
Photograph by: Vance Culbert, Vancouver Sun

Environmental groups opposed to a Shell Canada proposal to drill for coal bed methane in the headwaters of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine rivers are calling for an existing provincial moratorium on drilling in the region to be extended indefinitely.

In 2008, prompted by strong regional opposition to the gas extraction program, the province placed a four-year moratorium on Shell’s gas-drilling tenure in the region, called the Klap-pen Basin, but referred to as the Sacred Headwaters by environ-mental activists and first nations. With that moratorium set to expire in 2012, ForestEthics and the Skeena Watershed Coalition say the province risks putting its natural gas industry under the environmental spotlight if it allows Shell to go ahead.

The Klappen controversy is one of two energy development plans for the northwest coming under increasingly strong opposition as the region braces for an unprecedented resources boom. Communities, first nations and environmentalists are also lining up against Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline plan.

ForestEthics spokesman Andrew Frank said in an inter-view that up until now, the B.C. gas industry has been spared the type of reaction Enbridge’s oilsands pipeline has fuelled. The same arguments behind the provincial moratorium are still true today and the province is putting at risk the entire natural gas industry if it allows this one development to go ahead, he said. “The Sacred Headwaters would be the poster child for what’s wrong with B.C. regulations,” he said.

The eco-groups say that under current regulations, Shell can drill 4,000 wells and clear thousands of kilometres of roads. The groups want Premier Christy Clark to make the four-year moratorium permanent. In a television interview one year ago, then-energy minister Blair Lekstrom said the moratorium is coming off in December 2012.

The Klappen Basin is rich in wildlife and one of the rivers that originates there, the Skeena, supports a $110-million-a-year fishery, said ForestEthics campaigner Karen Tam Wu.

She said gas drilling would require a network of roads in one of the province’s last wilderness areas as well as the potential for gas extraction to result in pollution to the three rivers.

“Permanently banning coal bed methane in the Sacred Headwaters would be an important signal to British Columbians that the government is serious about responsible development of the province’s unconventional gas resources. If the government allows coal bed methane to be developed in a pristine wilderness like the Sacred Headwaters, it would signal that B.C. truly is the Wild West where nowhere is off-limits.”

Shell Canada received the provincial land tenure in 2004 to explore for coal bed methane. The province granted the tenure after Shell signed a memorandum of understanding with the leaders of the Tahl-tan First Nation. But strong community opposition to the drilling resulted in a change in leadership. The Tahltan began blockading roads in 2007.

Calls to Shell Canada were not returned.

ghamilton@vancouversun.com

December 05 2011 » Media Releases

Conservationists Ask Christy Clark to Ban Coalbed Methane Drilling in BC’s Sacred Headwaters

Conservationists Ask Clark to Ban Coalbed Methane Drilling in BC’s Sacred Headwaters, Once and For All
With moratorium set to expire in one year, the Sacred Headwaters offer a potential political win for BC’s Premier – or a potential PR nightmare for gas development

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA— There is one year remaining on the BC government’s moratorium on coalbed methane drilling in the Sacred Headwaters, and conservation groups ForestEthics and the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition are calling on Christy Clark to institute a permanent ban on drilling in the area.

The request comes as the groups are ramping up their campaign against Shell and the BC government, to protect the Sacred Headwaters. A lump of coal and giant greeting card were delivered this morning to Royal Dutch CEO, Peter Voser, at his office in the Hague, Netherlands, issuing a one year ultimatum for Shell to abandon its plans to drill in the headwaters, and reminding the company that 60,000 people have signed a petition opposing its plans.

“Natural gas could face the same backlash as tar sands if Shell’s destructive plans for the Sacred Headwaters are allowed to proceed,” says Karen Tam Wu, Senior Conservation Campaigner with ForestEthics. “What happens in the Sacred Headwaters will determine the image of natural gas development in BC Shell and Christy Clark have one year to make sure it’s the right one.”

To illustrate the risk of Shell’s plans, the groups have created a coalbed methane simulation map. Current regulations would allow the drilling and fracking of over 4000 wells, and the clearing of thousands of kilometers of roads in the Sacred Headwaters, the birthplace of three of North America’s most important salmon rivers, and numerous First Nations’ creation stories.

“Four years ago, the BC government listened to northwestern communities and pushed pause on drilling in the Sacred Headwaters. Now it’s up to Premier Clark to follow that path to its logical conclusion,” says Shannon McPhail, Executive Director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. “A permanent ban would indicate to local communities, First Nations and the rest of British Columbia that the government is committed to establishing a truly responsible industry.”

Last week, the groups placed ads at Shell Canada President Lorraine Mitchelmore’s favourite ski hill in the Canadian Rockies, featuring breathtaking photos and reminding her that the Sacred Headwaters are “Out of Bounds”.

The Sacred Headwaters are located in northwest British Columbia, about 600 kilometres north of Terrace, BC They are home to grizzly bears, caribou and moose. In 2008, the BC government imposed a four-year moratorium on Shell’s activities in the area. The headwaters have been listed on the Outdoor Recreation Council’s Most Endangered Rivers List for the past two years.

Photos of today’s action at Royal Dutch Shell headquarters and copies of the coalbed methane simulation map are available upon request.

December 01 2011 » Media Releases

Coalbed Methane: Shell President Is “Out of Bounds” in BC’s Sacred Headwaters

Coalbed Methane: Shell President Is “Out of Bounds” in BC’s Sacred Headwaters
New ads at Lorraine Mitchelmore’s favorite ski hill are reminders that Sacred Headwaters are out of bounds.

VANCOUVER, B.C. – Shell Canada President, Lorraine Mitchelmore, is “out of bounds” in her company’s pursuit of coalbed methane development in BC’s Sacred Headwaters, according to new ski hill ads placed by conservation groups ForestEthics and the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition.

The Sacred Headwaters, in Northwest British Columbia, are the birthplace of several First Nations creation stories and three of North America’s most important wild salmon rivers. They are home to grizzly bears, caribou and moose. Shell currently has plans to drill thousands of coalbed methane wells in the area.

Click the ads below to view them as full-sized images >>

“Lorraine Mitchelmore can work for the weekend and head for the ski hill, without thinking about the dire consequences her company’s actions would have in the Sacred Headwaters, but First Nations and residents of Northwest B.C. would have to live with irreversible impacts forever”, says Karen Tam Wu, Senior Conservation Campaigner with Forest Ethics. “We want to keep this issue top of mind for her, all of the time.”

The ads, which feature breathtaking photos of the Sacred Headwaters with glaring “Out of Bounds” signs, criticize Shell’s plans to drill thousands of wells and build thousands of kilometres of roads. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking – a controversial practice linked to water pollution, methane leaks, and extreme water usage – would be used to extract the gas.

“All downstream communities have rejected Shell’s proposal to frack in the Sacred Headwaters, “ says Shannon McPhail, Executive Director of Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. “Wild salmon and wildlife like moose, which thrive in this area, are the lifeblood of our communities’ cultures, livelihoods, and traditions. The ads are a reminder to Mitchelmore that the Sacred Headwaters are off limits.”

The Sacred Headwaters. the shared source of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers, is located in a remote region of northwest British Columbia, about 600 kilometres north of Terrace, B.C. In 2008, the B.C. Government imposed a four-year ban on Shell’s activities.  The Sacred Headwaters has been listed on the Outdoor Recreation Council’s Most Endangered Rivers List the past two years.

November 15 2011 » Media Releases

2011 Municipal Election Candidate Surveys

WHO WILL PROTECT OUR WILD SALMON? YOU DECIDE

SWCC & Friends of Wild Salmon surveyed candidates from Smithers, Terrace, New Hazelton, Prince Rupert & Kitimat. Below is the list of 5 questions they were asked. The candidate responses have been pasted directly below and no corrections of spelling, context or grammar were made to ensure their answers were delivered exactly how they were received.

We have done this so you can make an informed vote this November 19th. You MUST vote, it’s the way to ensure your values are reflected in decisions that your mayor and council are making. It doesn’t matter if you don’t live in town, you can still vote for your Regional District representative.

“Where/How do I vote?”:http://www.elections.civicinfo.bc.ca/2011/

Questions:
1. What do you perceive as the single greatest human- caused threat to Skeena wild salmon?
2. If elected, what will you do to ensure sustainability of our Skeena wild salmon?
3. Do you support or oppose the Enbridge pipeline? 4. What do you think is the single greatest opportunity
for non-industrialized community economic
development?
5. Do you support protection of the Sacred Headwaters?_

SMITHERS

Taylor Bachrach
1. In terms of specific threats to salmon, I believe open-net fish farms are the most worrisome, particularly with the news that a new virus is spreading to wild salmon populations.
2. As mayor, I would speak out in defence of our wild salmon economy, including supporting our in-river commercial fishery and sport-angling sector. I will also make cumulative impacts and the health of wild salmon foremost considerations in all deliberations on resource development.
3. I do not support the Enbridge pipeline.
4. Our diverse economy is our greatest strength, and has protected us from the ups and downs that have hurt other communities. Supporting local small businesses and entrepreneurs in our community is a big opportunity, particularly in the creative and knowledge-based sectors. Tourism is also an underdeveloped sector, and deserves greater emphasis. I believe these provide good complements to our traditional resource industries, which remain essential.
5. I support a long-term solution in the Sacred Headwaters that safeguards the area from coalbed methane drilling and provides economic development opportunities for local communities.

Cress Farrow – Could not reach/Did not respond
Norm Adomeit – Could not reach/Did not respond
Mark Bandstra – Could not reach/Did not respond

Phil Brienesse
1. Currently the largest threat would be open net fish farms but looking forward the Enbridge Gateway Pipeline poses a real threat to wild salmon and the people who depend on them for food and their employment. The benefit to our area is so small and the threat to the environment and peoples financial and personal well being is so great. One study valued the fishery in the Skeena River system at 110 million dollars annually. If we value our streams, rivers and wild salmon, we cannot support Enbridge or open net fish farms
2. I will work with local groups such as FOWS, SWCC, Local Guides, Sport Fisherman, First Nations and others in as open and inclusive a consultation process as possible to work on solutions and use that information to lobby the provincial and federal governments for the changes that are needed to ensure the sustainability of our wild fish stocks and a quality experience and way of life on the river for everyone. 3. As I stated above I am opposed to the Enbridge Pipeline. In July of 2010 over 819,000 gallons of oil spilled from an Enbridge pipeline in Michigan polluting the Kalamazoo river. Over a year later there is still pockets of submerged oil in the river. This is just one of a number of recent pipeline spills. So many people depend on our river systems here. The consequences of a spill like this in our river system would be devastating.
4. We need to start looking closer to home for economic development. Small business is the backbone of so many communities but they rarely get the support they deserve. Tourism operators, fishing guides and the retail sector that serve
the fishing community our important to our local economy. Mining, Industry, and Forestry will always be important components of our communities but we cannot put all of our eggs in one basket or we will be at the mercy of rising and falling commodity prices and the boom bust cycle. We must also ensure that one development does not adversely affect another established industry.
5. The sacred headwaters is the birthplace of our local river system. As I have mentioned in previous questions the fishery aspect of the river alone is worth over 110 million dollars annually. We must be careful that development does not affect established industries and that we protect our natural environment. Ideally the wishes of the Tahltan people who live in the Sacred Headwaters would be respected. They could take a leadership role in partnership with industry to promote development that works for all involved.

Pauline Goertzen
1. The single greatest human threat to Skeena wild salmon in my opinion is climate change. With waters warming, seasons changing, water levels shifting with so many influences of warming this would threaten not only Skeena wild salmon the environment, and many other factors linked to their habitat,
2. Smithers need continue with their carbon plan as a community to lead in methods to reduce carbon emmissions, and ensure we support responsible fish management practice, explore research into methods and locations to attract and grow other forms of industry that is sensitive, safe, and enhances this resource, and finally help to create more awareness about the importance of wild salmon to the quality of life and culture of the Bulkley Valley.
3. No.
4. Single greatest opportunity for non-industrialized community economic development in my opinion is local food development and business support; for local consumption and distribution in general (perhaps even exported with specialty products) – through various value added opportunities including fruit, veggies, berries, meat and yes, fish!
5. Yes.

Bill Goodacre
1. The single greatest threat to wild salmon is fish farms and the many attendant problems, most notably diseases.
2. If elected I will ensure that the Town of Smithers is kept up to date on issues related to the rivers and fish and furtherthat the Town gets involved advocating for wild salmon.
3. I am unalterably opposed to the Enbridge pipeline.
4. I personally feel that the knowledge and cultural workers of this community will be our next economic engine.
5. UnequivocallyYES!!!!!

Scott Groves – Could not reach/Did not respond
Dan Mesec – Could not reach/Did not respond

Charles Northrup
1. Human actions are the greatest threat to all environments and we need to “do better” not less about it.
2. I believe an elected official has to concentrate on their specific authority and jurisdiction to govern while encouraging all citizens to engage at all three levels of government; municipal/regional/, provincial, and federal. I have worked hard in the municipal decision making process in favor of doing “what is right” for the communities interest in maintaining and enforcing established policy and regulation. Listening and being afforded the opportunity to hear all sides on every issue is key in the decision making responsibility; as every issue has three sides.
3. Smithers Council was the first Municipal Council to bring the three sides around the “Endbrige pipeline” together in a public forum. I believe that goal to ensure the public obtained the most information possible from all sides was the right action. Personally I feel the initial presentations we received opposing the way the “tar sands are mined” is the best approach. If we are going to continue mining our Canadian tar sands, we have to ensure they are done in a safer and improved manner. I am still undecided “if” oil is to be transported, what is the safest manner; opposed to yes or no. Is it okay in someone else’s backyard but not mine?
4. I believe Tourism with a camera and opportunity to “feel and experience” is our single greatest non-industrialized option.
5. I sat on the Real Estate Foundation selection committee for the “2011 B C Land Champion award” that choose Mark Angelo as the 2011 recipient. Mark is an internationally renowned river conservationist. I have spoken not only about protecting “sacred headwaters” but all our “taking for granted” of our most precious commodity, water, since being elected. Some day Smithers may even have water metres and filtered storm drainage. Mark Angelo received the award November 4, 2011.

Michael Sawyer
1. While I believe that global warming is the single greatest human-caused threat to Skeena wild salmon, I also believe that the ability of Skeena wild salmon to adapt to global climate change is severely exacerbated by the cumulative effects of all human activities on both the terrestrial and fresh and salt water aquatic habitats. These cumulative effects include increased linear disturbance densities throughout the watershed, changes in water quality and quantity, unsustainable recreational and commercial harvests, activities of exploitative industries such as the mining, forestry and oil and gas industries, and more recently, diseases.
2. The Smithers Town Council must speak for the interests of its citizens and while many of the forces affecting Skeena wild salmon are outside of municipal jurisdiction, this will not prevent me from seizing ever opportunity to use my position on Council to advocate for the improved management of human activities that could adversely affect wild salmon. This will involve working closely and collaboratively with citizen groups and other regional interests that are concerned about the sustainability of the Skeena wild salmon, along with other municipal, provincial, national, and international governments with interests in conserving on wild salmon.
3. I am clearing on the public record as being opposed to the proposed Enbridge pipeline project. 4. Depending on how “non-industrialized” is defined, I believe that there are many secondary and tertiary opportunities for re-processing and manufacturing of wood products (ie doors, windows, moulding, ect) for regional use and for export to domestic and international markets. Why do we continue to export raw logs to China when that wood could be used to create sustainable, high quality jobs in our communities. Once these industries are up and running I would turn my attention to attracting technology based businesses that are involve in environmentally and socially sustainable industries. 5. I believe that the Scared Headwaters must be protected if we want long term security that oil and gas industry activities will not adversely harm the regions biological, social and cultural values. In the absence of meaningful protected area status, Shell will doggedly continue with its goal to exploit the regions natural gas resources and given recent developments towards creating a major natural gas pipeline corridor in the southern Skeena watershed, I believe it is imperative that protect status be pursued without delay.

Cheryl Ann Stahel
1. Industry’s deliberate disassociation from undeniable impacts of self interested pursuits for money/control/power over the environment – no matter the cost to habitats or the expressed concerns of all peoples. (28) 2. Follow your lead: ‘… ensure the sound stewardship of our natural resources while promoting sustainability … raising awareness … ’. Participate in events and learning opportunities, move those voices ahead to tables municipal councilors can be heard at. I am a lay-person in this issue but believe in this issue. (50)
3. Oppose.
4. Local governments need to function based on solution focused thinking… diversifying healthy-living amenities is an investment in sustainable economic development. (20)
5. Forever.

Ken White
1. I think the greatest human-caused threat to Skeena wild salmon, as with most wild animals, is irreversible loss of habitat. Salmon have adapted to numerous changes throughout their history on this planet, and have been able to survive these changes. While overfishing is also a threat, this can be regulated to enable depleted stocks to recover. Destruction of their spawning and feeding habitat will not allow for recovery of stocks, and could leave to extirpation.
2. If elected as town councillor, I would advocate for the importance of retaining our wild salmon stocks, and would ensure that any fish-bearing streams within Smithers town boundary not be negatively impacted by any town operations or developments. I think beyond the town limits, town councilors are somewhat limited in the impact they can have. Since salmon habitat
crosses many jurisdictions, many decisions are made at a higher level than the municipality. That being said, working collaboratively with these other levels of government and NGOs, I would make sure that wild salmon sustainability has a high profile.
3. I oppose the Enbridge pipeline project for the following reasons: 1) I don’t think the risks associated with a pipeline of this size outweigh the benefits. The chances that a pipeline rupture could occur are high, and the increased tanker traffic would also increase the chance of a spill; 2) I don’t think a large number of local jobs will be created, and; 3) The shipping of condensate across the Pacific Ocean is encouraging our continued reliance on fossil fuels. I believe we need to start looking at alternatives, in order to wean ourselves off fossil fuels.
4. Increased tourism is the greatest opportunity that northwestern B.C. has for non-industrialized community development. Recreational tourism brings people to the community, and these people spend money that allows for development. Most tourism is low impact to the environment, and allows for the development of businesses to supply goods and services to the tourists. The development of these businesses is also essential in engaging the human resource, and leads to community development and stability. I think more work needs to be done to encourage tourism in our area, and I would definitely be an advocate for tourism if elected.
5. I personally support the protection of this important area. If I am elected to Smithers town council, I will take any opportunity there is to support the protection of the Sacred Headwaters. Unfortunately, I think the ability of a town councillor to influence decisions like the protection of the Sacred Headwaters is limited by the location of the Headwaters (outside of the town’s jurisdiction), and the levels of government that are involved in creating protected areas. Smithers town council could certainly show support at the municipal level, and advocate for protection whenever possible.

Frank Wray
1. I believe that the greatest human-caused threat to the Skeena (and indeed all) wild salmon is the lack of a cohesive management plan for the resource. All stakeholders including sports fisheries, commercial fisheries (both American and Canadian), salmon farmers and Native fisheries need to come together to establish a resource management plan that ensures that we are able to protect Wild Salmon stocks and still utilize the resource to the advantage of all.
2. As a member of Town Council, we have to help in whatever way we can. Mostly, we can help by strongly voicing concerns to the more senior levels of government. At the council level, our most effective tool is to maintain the health of the portion of the Bulkley River and its tributaries that flow through Smithers. We can do this by ensuring that our sewage continues to be treated effectively and that our storm drains are filtered before their outfall into the river and our streams. The South Trunk storm sewer project allows us to use our wetlands to help naturally filter our storm sewer outflow, so Council should continue to pursue funds to connect the trunk to the main lines.
3. At this time, I personally oppose the Enbridge pipeline. As a member of the current council seeking re-election, I stand by our decision to not issue a “yes” or “no” position, based on the fact that such a decision would not have been unanimous, and would have possibly left us in the position of having the newly elected council issuing a contrary position within a month of our council having issued a position, thus diluting any message being sent by the Town of Smithers.
4. If we want to leave “industrialized” out of the equation, then commercial support of the “industrialized” developments should probably be left out as well… In that case, I would have to say tourism continues to be a great area of growth, but we have to be careful to ensure that we keep our area attractive
to tourists. For example, it is excellent that we have tourists coming in to fish our waters, but we have to make sure that we don’t allow the waters to be overfished, or the “fishing” tourism sector will suffer.
5. Until we fully understand the impacts of development, I support protection of the Skeena Headwaters.

PRINCE RUPERT

Kathleen Bedard
The survey doesn’t allow varying degrees of agreement or disagreement with the limit of 100 words, but I have answered the first and second question.
I perceive over-fishing and pollution as the greatest human- caused threats to Skeena wild salmon but I do not necessarily think it is the fishers on the North Coast who are over-fishing, as I am aware of very creative and sustainable fishing practices being employed, but is resulting from fishing practices before they reach the Skeena and pollution from outside the region. Ensuring the sustainability of Skeena wild salmon is not a direct mandate of a City Council. It resides with organizations such as yours to lobby for proper fishing practices and maintenance; hopefully, with the support of Council.

Corinna Morhart – Could not reach/Did not respond

Jack Mussallem
1. To much escapement; disease in the spawning channels.
2. Lobby for increased enhancement.
3. Ad Mayor, and on any topic, must wait for the review process to end, before providing comment.
4. Greater enhancement and fuller utilization of wildlife and fish stocks. We have very scenic and beautiful areas that can be shown to the world, Canada has favored nation status with China, there’s a tourism opportunity.
5. Yes.

Anna Ashley
1. There are many human-caused threats to Skeena wild salmon. The biggest threat would be global warming and its effects on water temperature and climate which ultimately affect salmon stocks, especially as they spawn. If salmon cannot recognize the waters they came from, as they return to the rivers, then the life cycle is interrupted and as a result salmon stocks decline. Policies need to be created that reflect environmentally sound practices in business and industry and funding must be available to support their implementation. This also means holding government agencies to task on enforcing environmental policies around resource use.
2. Since fisheries are under federal jurisdiction, municipal levels of government do not have any power to create policies around this matter. However, there is power in working together with our fellow municipalities and organizations such as the Union of BC Municipalities to put forward resolutions that protect our wild stocks. It is my belief that municipal governments should lobby other levels of government to create, fund and enforce policies that support sustainability, and environmentally sound practices to ensure that there is a sound balance between environmental, economic, social and cultural considerations.
3. I believe in economic and environmentally sustainable resource use. As a Prince Rupert citizen, I don’t believe the Enbridge pipeline is worth the risk. There is virtually no financial benefit in terms of jobs, or revenues for our city. It is a huge risk to our quality of life and the industries we rely on in our community such as sport and commercial fishing, tourism, and aquaculture in the event of an oil spill. As a councillor however, I believe it is the people of Prince Rupert that should decide whether or not they want projects like the Enbridge pipeline.
4. The single greatest opportunity for non-industrialized community economic development is in the area of Tourism, which although technically an industry, does not have the same effect on the environment as other resource industries. It is renewable and sustainable while providing many jobs and a lot of revenue to our city. There are huge opportunities for the development of the tourism sector in our region, due to our beautiful coastlines, majestic mountains, pristine waters and abundant wildlife. We can partner with our first nations neighbours, and neighbouring local governments, to expand this sector in the areas of cultural and eco-tourism.
5. The proposed development in the Sacred headwaters would potentially contaminate the watershed at its source which would have wide ranging impacts on the entire ecosystem. This can cause such things as contaminated drinking water, depleted salmon stocks (destruction of spawning beds), loss of wildlife habitat, loss of revenue and resources for the sport and commercial fishing industry, as well as others. I don’t believe the currently proposed resource extraction from this area is environmentally sound or sustainable due to the nature of the process being proposed for use.

Judy Carlick-Pearson
1. I believe that over conversation is a huge threat to our sustainability, as well as pollution. I grew in and around the fishing industry and so I appreciate proper management of our resources. I also believe that protecting our waters is a crucial component when it comes to talking about our future. We need to do what’s best for our waters and lands and think
strategically about the our future as a marine city.
2. In my platform I state “Promoting economic development with the intention of hiring locally and training locally. While also keeping in mind that there are no environmental or community risks involved in projects”
3. Yes, I believe that the Pipeline could generate more jobs in our communities however, the risks are very visible and not worth jeopardizing our waters. We need to protect our waters at all costs. I understand that people think that the Pipeline will help develop our help community but it may also may ruin our livelihood, sustenance and future as a marine city.
4. Nocomment.
5. Yes

Gina Garon
1. My perception is that the single greatest human caused threat to skeena wild salmon is the possible contamination from tailings from mining sites and other heavy industrial contaminates.
2. If elected, I will ensure that we continue to lobby our federal and provincial governments to protect Skeena Wild Salmon
3. Personally, at this time, I do not support Endbridge as I still have alot of unanswered questions ….What I do know is that I do not want to be held responsible for the devastation that will occur when there is a catastrophic oil spill , be it on the ocean
or inland…….I have questioned them several times at council meetings and they continually are unable give the responses that I need in order to make an informed desicion.
4. I believe there are many opportunities for non- industrialized community economic development. What the single greatest opportunity is…..I would have to explore those opportunities…..it is not up to me to decide…..it is up business to decide what that looks like…..perhaps food production is a possibity…..be it mariculture, aquaculture, salmon ranching, shell fish production…..harvesting mushrooms from the forest floor……and other plants that might be used in phamasutical applications…..there are endless opportunities to be explored.
5. Yes, I do support protection of the Sacred Headwaters.

Christo Holmes – Could not reach/Did not respond
Kinney Nelson – Could not reach/Did not respond
James Kirk – Could not reach/Did not respond
Conrad Lewis – Could not reach/Did not respond

Gabriel McLean
1. Supply and demand market.
2. I do not have an answer for you because I am not aware of municipal powers over the issue of wild salmon. I am prepared to learn how and at what level I could be educated and involved.
3. Support
4. Alternate hydro power generation.
5. YES

Jennifer Rice
1. At the present moment I think the greatest human-caused threat to Skeena wild salmon would be the federal government
that the people of Canada have put in leadership. Unfortunately, the present government does not seem to understand the value of wild salmon to the people of British Columbia. This is demonstrated by recent endorsements for the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project from federal ministers before the review of the project has even been completed. It is also demonstrated by the recent cancelling of the funding of the PNCIMA (Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area) process. This marine planning process will help plan for the future determining areas allocated for specifics uses including First Nations use, commercial use and protected areas.
2. If elected I would support economic and community development projects that are in tune with the values of the people that live in the Northwest. That includes a life and culture where salmon and other species of fish are valued and not put at risk.
3. I do not support the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines proposal that would see 1200 kms of twin pipelines running from the Alberta tar sands to the town of Kitimat. The project would mean crossing 1000s of fish-bearing streams and would introduce super-tankers to Northern waters that would be required to navigate the rocky shores of Douglas Channel. While all development has an environmental impact to a certain degree, the risks of this particular project far outweigh the benefits
4. This is a great question and should be posed to the people who live here. I think the possibilities are limited to our collective imaginations. One possibility would be local energy production such as small wind turbine generated, or tidal produced energy. Not only is this an economic opportunity for Prince Rupert but it helps build community resilience. We are after all, a small and isolated community at the end of a road.
5. I do support the protection of the Sacred Headwaters — The Headwaters of the Skeena, Stikine and Nass rivers. These 3 great rivers are of tremendous economic and cultural significance to the people of the Northwest. Putting these rivers at risk by drilling for coal bed methane is a risky practise that has a record of poor success with much environmental degradation. This activity has the potential to destroy fish and fish habitat including eulachon, a species at risk and of great importance to local First Nations hence I support the protection of the Sacred Headwaters.

Farley Stewart – Could not reach/Did not respond
Joy Thorkelson – Could not reach/Did not respond
Robert Vallee – Could not reach/Did not respond

TERRACE

Don Dunster – Could not reach/Did not respond
Jennifer Lewis – Could not reach/Did not respond

Bruce Martindale
1. Industrialization of the Basin. Federal Government Treating Salmon as a commodity, Forestry treating habitat as expendable. Pipeline building arguing short-term damage is reasonable, and long-term pipeline risks are manageable. We need to put the fish first in our consciousness and actions.
2. I will bring the River into every conversation, into every promotion, and into the consciousness of the people. I will develop a stewardship position, first through the Terrace Community Forest Strategic Plan and then through advocacy and promotion of those standards. I welcome insight and participation in this process next spring if I am elected. I have also long advocated for our region to be called the Skeena Region “officially” to remind us why we are here in all our actions.
3. I am absolutely opposed to any Pipleline carrying Crude Oil or Bitumen through our mountains, across our streams and beside our rivers. I oppose any crude tanker , big or small, shipping through our Northern channels and waters. I have been front and centre on this issue since I was elected, challenging our Council to move to an opposition role so we can begin to challenge this project before it is too late.
4. I am particularly interested in the local food movement, and with the right policies and promotion I believe we can approach sustainability in this field and stream, particularly as we begin to respect our resources as lifegiving and not just commodities. For example, our Community Garden has over 50 plots un- used, and I am dedicated to promoting that fact this spring. My Waste Diversion Action Plan also has at its core, entrepeneurial access to the waste streams so that innovative solutions can be found and local industry can be developed around waste as we move toward the Zero Waste goal
5. Yes. In fact in a private meeting with Shell as they were promoting their plans for Kitimat (now public knowledge), I brought up the Sacred Headwaters and asked if they were prepared to include that project into their social contract with our communities as they move to develop a Natural Gas Pipeline. I received no answer, but it the type of question you might expect from me when I get the chance. I realize that this issue is on the horizon and I am prepared to cahallenge Council to take a stand, as opposed to the Neutral position they have currently.

David Pernarowski
1. At the moment, the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project.
2. All decisions we make as a community and in this region relating to economic development should ask that question. Our decisions must respect the environment and not impact wild salmon.
3. I do not support the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project. I believe that we can’t afford to have even one spill into our rivers and streams or into the ocean from the oil tankers.
4. Our greatest opportunity for non-industrialized community economic development is creating bio-energy from wood waste and building large commercial greenhouse operations to grow organiz produce year-round.
5. Yes, I support the protection of the Sacred Headwaters. The movie, ‘Awakening the Skeena’ with Ali Howard provided an excellent visual reason why we need to treasure the Headwaters and our river systems.

Merv Ritchie
1. The lack of unity of the people of the region along with the numerous disparate groups, including environmental groups, to stand as one entity to protect the region is the greatest threat. Currently no activity is ongoing except the spillage of nuclear waste from Japan into the migration habitat of all salmon stocks. The potential threats include; placement of fish farms on migration routes, proposed coal mining along with coalbed methane drilling in the Klappan region and the potential of a tanker breaking up loaded with raw bitumen releasing hundreds of thousands of litres of carcinogens into the environment.
2. The Skeena River runs through Terrace. The fishing industry provides a significant part of the economic foundation for Terrace. Therefore, any activity, from the headwaters at the Spatzizi Plateau to the waters the migrating salmon pass through, becomes a serious issue of concern. As Mayor I will ensure these habitats are protected to the highest standards such that the waters of the Skeena River will allow the salmon to flourish. This includes monitoring the catch allowances for sport and commercial fishing to provide our council an opportunity to make informed inquires to, and of, the Federal and Provincial governing authorities.
3. I oppose Enbridge building a pipeline to carry the proposed bitumen product from the Tar Sands of Alberta to Douglas Channel at Kitimat for transport in VLCC and ULCC tankers. I would support, if the shipment of petroleum is necessary, the containerized transport by cargo carriers and rail. I would never support the present day method of bulk carriers with the raw petroleum product uncontained. Nor would I support the proposed tank farms on the shores of Douglas Channel, or anywhere. All transport of this product should be in double skinned, vacuum sealed containers, from the origin to the destination.
4. Without any doubt it is the First Nations Culture. This has been virtually ignored and has the potential to bring ten times the travelling tourist and revenue to the region than the salmon fishing ever will. With very little investment, simply the nurturing of the elders and the youth of the eight Nations of the region; the Nisga’a, Haisla, Haida, Tsimshian, Tlingit, Gitxsan, Wet’suwet’en and Tahltan, we might be able to become an attraction of international notoriety. The immense revenues derived from this activity could fund infrastructure projects to further enhance the culture working as a perpetual economic engine.
5. Yes. What is referred to as the Sacred headwaters is the Klappan region. This area borders the Spatzizi Wilderness Plateau and has been identified as holding a massive quantity of Coal called the Groundhog deposit, which Fortune Minerals plans to mine. This deposit acts as a water filter for three major rivers of the northwest; the Stikine, the Skeena and the Nass. These rivers provide
the lifeblood and nourishment for everything living in the northwest. There is no location in British Columbia that has more significance to such a wide array of habitat. The Sacred Headwaters is just that, sacred.

Tamara Ainscow – Could not reach/Did not respond
Bruce Bidgood – Could not reach/Did not respond

Lynne Christiansen
1. over fishing and mismanagement
2. I am not a biologist and would rely heavily on input from experts in this field.
3. I am opposed to enbridge
4. recreation and eco-tourism
5. yes

James Cordeiro
1. I think the single greatest threat is irresponsible resource extraction. Certainly there are industrial projects that can take place without increasing the risks to our river systems. It is important that as a community we look past quick economic gains and instead focus on projects that will have a lasting benefit to the region without jeopardizing our environment.
2. Municipally, we can work with higher levels of government and agencies on issues outside municipal jurisdiction. An area within the control of the City and Regional District is waste management. With a soon to be recycling drop off centre, I would like to see the city and RD work to prevent dumping in and around our river. I would propose a “Keep it out of the River” campaign encouraging recycling of products, eliminating tipping fees at the dump for items that are not returnable, and increasing fines for illegal dumping. This would help to keep our water system cleaner.
3. I oppose the Enbridge pipeline. Terrace and local businesses earn millions of dollars a year from tourism and fishing. We will see an economic benefit from construction of the pipeline but that benefit will come and then go, whereas proper stewardship of our rivers will provide economic benefit year after year.
4. The most viable non-industrialized development would be First Nations and Ecotourism. That said there would still be environmental impacts associated with increasing tourism such as increased traffic through YXT. We will need to look at some industrialized economic development if we are to promote growth and give tax relief to homeowners as explained in question 1.
5. I am on record from the 2008 election opposing coal bed methane extraction in the Scared Headwaters.

Marylin Davies – Could not reach/Did not respond
Brian Downie – Could not reach/Did not respond
MaryAnn Freeman – Could not reach/Did not respond

Chris Gee
1. Climate change, Shell, Enbridge, and the hydro power project frenzy currently overtaking our region, all make it near the top of my list but, the single greatest threat comes from finger pointers like myself who lay blame on others for the slow moving catastrophe of biosphere degradation. Almost everyone I know (I include myself in this), over consume resources and are addicted to fossil fuels. Herein lies the systemic source of the single greatest threat to Skeena wild salmon.
2. I will do everything in my power to encourage Terrace City Council to officially oppose Enbridge and Shell’s CBM plans.
3. OPPOSE!
4. Expansion of our local food system.
5. Yes, with all my heart.

Tyson Hull – Could not reach/Did not respond
Dan LeFrancois – Could not reach/Did not respond

Michael Ross
1. Fish farming. I am, by no means, an expert. The more I learn, the more they scare me. This was the first thing that came to mind, there are others.
2. Elected officials are attaching a higher priority to sustainability in general as they become more aware of its significance, and certainly have some influence in their respective areas of responsibility. I, as a city Councillor,
may advocate the cause of our wild salmon, get resolutions passed, promote education and create awareness but; it will be ineffective unless it is done “up and down the river” so to speak. I used the word “heartened” earlier, with respect to your survey, because it sends the message “people are watching” and may help to motivate the greater co-operation that is required.
3. Tampering with the Sacred Headwaters, the Enbridge pipeline and the associated oil tanker traffic have the potential to destroy our way of life as effectively as any invading army and must be opposed with as much tenacity. I have said this before and there is not enough money to change this stand.
I will interject here, a Direct Democracy, where people, (not politicians or committees), are the final authority on any issue, would have the power to stop these actions cold. No appeals, no “ifs ands or buts”. 4. Tourism (and the associated recreational and service industries) Win/ win. Maintain the beauty and the ecology while deriving a very prosperous livelihood and preserving tradition. For so long it was “Super Natural BC”. Now, we are on course for supernatural BC – as in “nothing left but ghosts” We must apply our wisdom soon. The “boom/bust” cycles have been cancerous and destructive. Tourism may prove to be slower growth but will be healthy growth, and will immunize us from this cycle.
5. Tampering with the Sacred Headwaters, the Enbridge pipeline and the associated oil tanker traffic have the potential to destroy our way of life as effectively as any invading army and must be opposed with as much tenacity. I have said this before and there is not enough money to change this stand. I will interject here, a Direct Democracy, where people, (not politicians or committees), are the final authority on any issue, would have the power to stop these actions cold. No appeals, no “ifs ands or buts”.

Stacey Tyers
1. Enbridge
2. I will advocate that we take stands. That it is our responsibility as a community and a council to protect and respect our environment. We must also stand by First Nations people who too often are consulted as a token gesture and not truly listened to. This is not an acceptable practice, we must ensure we hear them.
3. Oppose, The potential risks outweigh the potential benefit.
4. Small Business Services. Whether arts, culture, food etc.. We need to support, train and encourage more small business.
5. Yes, we need to protect our communities and maintain their extensive beauty and environmental benefit for the generations to come. Greed should never overpower the desire to ensure stability and sustainability for the generations to follow.

KITIMAT

Randy Halyk
1. Simply put fish farming and the lack of action by government and DFO on this very serious threat.
2. There is little a local government can do other than lobby the Provincial and Federal Governments to protect our salmon. Support good science and reject environmentally dangerous projects. Organizations like Friends of Wild Salmon need to take action. Learn about what the issues are that affect our salmon and support real Salmon not just ideologies. Sustainable programs are essential to maintain any fishery. River lake and stream enhancement is a no brainer yet both DFO and Provincial Fisheries would rather sit on their hands and watch our waterways be degraded
by unsustainable practises. Hatcheries are a great stopgap measure to maintain a fishery but why not fix the problem instead of just massaging it. Even the Hatchery system has been eroded, budgets have been cut, programs curtailed, people laid of. Wouldn’t it be smarter to bring our waterways back from the brink stop overfishing and start repairing? I have witnessed and been involved in restoration projects in other provinces that have not only saved waterways but have created sustainable fisheries. Projects that may have an initial high capital cost, but in the long run cost far less because once restored that fishery need only to be protected and will produce far more fish. The cost of stewardship programs in far less than maintaining hatcheries.
3. NO,
4. Good question. I recently watched a documentary on sustainable living; the premise was somewhat akin to the 100
mile diet. The idea is to develop a sustainable community to the point that growth is not needed to maintain a healthy life style and economy. You would still need industry and commerce but it would be as clean and environmental maintainable. A utopian dream world but the documentary had examples of communities in a number of countries around the world working within that framework. I look forward to hearing the answer from far smarter people than myself.
5. Yes

Joanne Monaghan
1. Illegal fishing
2. Lobby
3. By law that our council has set out, I am neutral and will remain so until the environmental review comes out.
4. Green issues, like biomass (eg Pytrade, a company from Germany that is dealing in Bio mass, heat and electricity from wood waste, pellets from wood waste and briquettes from cardboard), and tourism.
5. I believe that is a question that should be sent to the NCLGA, as that organization of elected officials covers that area.

Danny Nunes – Could not reach/Did not respond
Jim Thom – Could not reach/Did not respond
Joshua Callahan – Could not reach/Did not respond
Bob Corless – Could not reach/Did not respond
Edwin Empinado – Could not reach/Did not respond
Mario Feldhoff – Could not reach/Did not respond
Phil Germuth – Could not reach/Did not respond

Rob Goffinet
1. Previous to this past year, I would have said logging, but lately with the possible commercial fish-farm introduced viruses into Pacific wild stocks, I would say open-net fish farming may prove to be the greatest threat. Definitive scientific study must be done on this subject.
2. As an elected District of Kitimat Councillor with a close working relationship with our Skeena MLA Robin Austin, and our Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen, I will work towards the replacement of open-net fish farms with closed containment systems coupled with enforcement of best forest practices regarding logging. I also endorse continued, full support of the DFO’s Kitimat River Fish Hatchery. 3. I am on record as being opposed to the Enbridge Northern Gateway (Bitumen) Pipeline. I believe it poses a grave risk to the more than 1000 water courses that it will traverse between Alberta and the BC Coast, as well as posing an unacceptable and possibly catastrophic threat to the entire North Coast through it’s use of super tankers to export the bitumen offshore.
4. In Kitimat, the development of the sport fishing industry, as well as boating, kayaking and eco-tourism focused on the Douglas Channel and on the North Coast in general, is the greatest non-industrial opportunity for development.
5. Yes. I am in favor of making the moratorium on natural gas extraction in the head waters of the major salmon bearing rivers of the northwest a permanent one. I am concerned that through the application of modern techniques like hydraulic fracturing the major water courses of the Northwest could be severely damaged threatening the fish stocks and natural eco-systems of these rivers.

Mary Murphy
1. The greatest human-caused threat to the Skeena wild salmon, is over fishing, my perception, followed by leaching into the rivers.
2. Education on the maintenance of our fish supply. There have been many changes over the years, and fishing has taken on a specialized kind of fishing, and I am not concerned with the sport fisherman. Lobby the government on strengthen environmental laws, and enforced compliance with the communities and industries.
3. At this time I feel that The Enbridge pipeline, has too many risks, which outweighs the benefits. I am willing to sit down with the government, the industry and communities to insure environmental laws are upgraded and risks are addressed. We have a huge appetite for this commodity, and I don’t hear any solutions, we need to be part of the future building in order to address the huge environmental concerns. That means being part of what we perceive as the projected good and bad changes.
4. Our area is filled with many opportunities by its prestige protected waters, and all that our wonderful Douglas channel has to offer, we also have beautiful surrounds, wonderful culture and traditions. but all that should be looked at with all aspects, I am hopping that we are not looking at elimination of all industries? that is not the answer, we need balance of sustainability which includes, a balance between industry, environment concerns, and social responsibilities.
5. Absolutely support the protection of the Sacred Headwaters, the culture, the protection of the beautiful pristine beauty of this beautiful land, and this can be done with honesty and analysis to the fullest, proposals coming forward. Working with communities, government and industries…to ensure our community needs are met.

John Pacheco – Could not reach/Did not respond

Jack Riddle
1. In the past I would have considered over fishing by ALL concerned as the most damaging to our wild Skeena Salmon. However, at this time I feel that the proposed Enbridge pipeline running past the Skeena and it’s tributaries, in close proximity to the Skeena watershed, the very greatest threat.
2. I will work diligently to get all concerned to remove the threat of the Enbridge pipeline.
3. Obviously I am opposed to Enbridge.
4. Tourism. We are smack dab in some of the most beautiful, most pristine and mostly undamaged part of the world and lets show case it.
5. Yes – this is where the watershed begins. Without the Headwaters we don’t have drinking water, our wild life downstream are stressed, our First Nations peoples who rely so heavily on salmon for their diet have their way of life wiped out, etc. etc..

Joe Salema
1. The greatest human cause threat to the wild salmon would be an oil spill on the west coast, straight up, if we let enbridge in, it’ll only be a matter of time before we experience thee inevitable.
2. If elected I would work with what resources we have as a council to try and keep our oceans clear of oil tankers. 3. I am OPPOSED to the Enbridge pipeline. I don’t need no report to convince me of how I feel on this issue.
4. I believe that the single greatest opportunity for non- industrialized community economic development would have to be the tourism business along with a small business approach geared toward our wilderness and wildlife.
5. Yes I do support the protection of our sacred headwaters.

Corinne Scott – Could not reach/Did not respond
Carl Whicher – Could not reach/Did not respond

New Hazelton

Robert Henwood – Could not reach/Did not respond
Gail Lowry – Could not reach/Did not respond

Norm Andersen
1. I perceive that the single greatest human-caused threat to Skeena wild salmon is overfishing.
2. If I am elected I will be willing to hear from various groups on what their concerns or suggestions are in regards to ensuring sustainability of our Skeena Wild Salmon. I think that being on council we can access the government and voice potential concerns.
3. I am on the fence in regards to whether I am for or against the Enbridge pipeline. I am for it as it will create jobs for the building of it. I do realize that once built it won’t employ many. I also think that there is the potential for many environmental disasters. I think that in order for this to pass there needs to be very strict regulations and safety precautions in place before it is given the go ahead. I am not sure if the benefits outweigh the negatives.
4. I think that the single greatest opportunity for non-industrialized community economic development is to enhance current tourism in this area. We need to maximize on what our community can offer whether it be through eco adventure or historical/cultural adventures. I think that all of the communities need to come together to collaborate and see how the existing tourism can work together to create a bigger attraction to potential visitors.
5. Yes I support the protection of the Sacred Headwaters. I have had the opportunity to see that part of the country and it is amazing. This area is so important as it is the start of all of the water systems in our area as well as other areas. If the headwaters are damaged….so too are our water systems.

George Burns – Could not reach/Did not respond
Braunwyn Henwood – Could not reach/Did not respond
Richard Simms – Could not reach/Did not respond

Ray Sturney
1. Coalbed Methane extraction in the headwaters.
2. I am not running for council to protect our wild salmon and will not bring the matter up to council. I have supported and will continue to support the opposition to coalbed methane extraction and any other threat to our rivers, lakes and streams.
3. I oppose oil tanker traffic on our coast. The best way to stop the tankers is to stop the pipeline.
4. The tourist industry. We have, in the Skeena (Kispiox) Bulkley valleys, a vast hiking area, full of mountains, lakes, streams, birds, plants and animals, all in a pristine environment. We are one of the best kept secrets in natural Canada.
5. Yes.

Pete Weeber – Could not reach/Did not respond
Mike Weeber – Could not reach/Did not respond

Janet Willson
1. I think that one of the greatest threats to Skeena wild salmon is the danger of contaminating an area of the river if there were an industrial accident. Both road and rail follow the Skeena closely for long distances.
2. I feel that an additional threat could be the over harvesting of wild salmon before and after they enter the Skeena.
3. I am opposed to the Enbridge pipeline.
4. Tourism is a great opportunity for non industrialized community economic development. We should continue to promote and build on it.
5. I support protection of the Sacred Headwaters

October 12 2011 » Media Releases

10,000 Salmon Finish Exhibit in Prince Rupert

The very successful 10,000 Salmon project on display in Hazelton last year, swam it’s way to Prince Rupert for the summer.
The brightly coloured fish swam on their posts along the bank in Cow Bay and were one of the first things thousands of visitors arriving on the cruise ships saw.
All summer long there was a mecca of activity surrounding the salmon and it was a huge hit for both tourists and locals alike.
A big thank you to the city and councillors of Prince Rupert who were not only enthusiastic about bringing the fish to their shores but also did everything they could to help make the project a success.
If one was to hang out on the bench by the fish they would most likely hear things like, “Wow, look at the size of this watershed!”, “Did you read some of those fish, there are some very passionate children here,” “I had no idea there were so many tributaries along the Skeena,” and my personal favourite, “Protecting this is so important, we should find out how we can help.”
When the fish first arrived many locals also brought their children down to look for their little paper fish on the larger ones and watching one child find her’s was a thrill.
She called to her dad and jumped up and down and then she had her picture taken several times beside her creation. Even more impressive, she started telling her dad about what she had learned and even mentioned the song she sang in the “Up Your Watershed” concert that came to Rupert in the spring.
Now that the tourist season is winding down, it’s time to take the fish down as well. Due to the wet summer and UV rays, the fish are definitely fading and may not make another appearance next summer.
However, the bottom line for all of us involved is they have done a phenomenal job of getting peoples attention, spreading the word about the importance of protecting both the salmon’s habitat and the Skeena Watershed in general and they have also brought communities, families and children all across the Northwest together in a positive and creative way.
In closing, We would like to send out 10,000 cheers to the 10,000 salmon project, the staff and volunteers of SWCC and the residents and tourists who shared in the vision of the importance to protect our fish, waters, watershed, wildlife and more.

Feel free to email the City of Prince Rupert a big thanks for hosting such a great event in their community…sometimes it’s nice for politicians to hear about the good things they do!

September 01 2011 » News Clippings » Fly Fusion Magazine

Sacred Headwaters - Protecting BC’s Most Endangered Watersheds

Read article onFly Fusion’s Website

May 18 2011 » Media Releases

Up Your Watershed Comes to the Skeena

The communities of Hazelton, Kitimat, Prince Rupert and Smithers are hosting Up Your Watershed! concerts in celebration of watershed stewardship, salmon conservation and the fabulous, unique rivers of British Columbia. Singers/songwriters/producers Holly Arntzen and Kevin Wright of the Artist Response Team (ART) will join with choirs of local students to perform songs that are the “leading edge of environmental folk pop to rock your world!”

The Up Your Watershed! project is based on the Voices of Nature Community Outreach Model pioneered by ART. Voices of Nature weaves together music, education and ecology to inspire positive action. Other projects include Salish Sea (ocean protection), Water For Life (water conservation), Winds of Change (climate change) and Cycle of Life (endangered species), through songs that speak right to the heart.

The educational foundation for Voices of Nature are School Music Programs where Skeena watershed students have been learning songs over the past couple of months. Teachers are provided with ART’s award-winning Educators’ Handbooks that provide activities linked to the song lyrics that fulfill Provincially prescribed learning outcomes in science, social studies, language arts and other subjects. The Up Your Watershed! concerts are a forum to celebrate students’ learning and leadership in protecting the Skeena’s beautiful and precious ecosystems. Students sing and deliver their own messages about positive actions. A special focus is being brought to the importance of the small things we all can do, such as recycling beverage containers—an action within the power of a child.

Even very young children can make an informed choice about whether to throw their drink boxes into the garbage can or the recycling bin…whether to put their apple cores into the trash or the compost bin. Students learn how recycling reduces their ecological footprint, which helps protect the habitats of endangered species they love…like salmon, bears, eagles and big trees! They latch onto facts like these: when you recycle one aluminum juice can, it saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours!

Music is the medium; songs are the message; the messengers are artists and children. The result is joyous and effective engagement and action.

The coalition of partners producing the Skeena Up Your Watershed! Tour are the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, Encorp Pacific and the Artist Response Team (ART).

Be sure come out with families and friends, to these concerts that put our communities young people at centre stage and will raise the roof! May 19 – Hazelton Community at Hazelton Secondary School May 24 – Kitimat at Mount Elizabeth Secondary School May 27 – Prince Rupert at Conrad Elementary School May 31 – Smithers at Della Herman Theatre

ALL SHOWTIMES AT 7pm Admission is FREE Call (250)842-2494 for more info or visit: http://www.skeenawatershed.com
Have an Event?
See event page for listings

April 30 2011 » Media Releases

Rachelle van Zanten Releases Music Video about Sacred Headwaters

Rachelle Van Zanten – My Country (Official Video) from Taylor F. on Vimeo.

Slide guitarist and songwriter Rachelle van Zanten just released a music video of her hit song, My Country. This rock-and-roll anthem sheds a powerful and intimate light on an issue close to van Zanten’s home and heart: the future of BC’s Sacred Headwaters.

The Sacred Headwaters is the shared birthplace of BC’s Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers, and the site of a coalbed methane gas development proposed by Shell. The new video highlights the region’s wild landscape and social struggle that has put the Sacred Headwaters in the international media spotlight.

“From the moment I saw the photo of Shell employees facing off against the Tahltan elders, women and children trying to protect the Sacred Headwaters, I felt a burning desire to write about it,” said van Zanten, “This new video aims for the heart of the issue – the fact that there is much more at stake that just a special place.”

“Northern BC’s culture and communities are being put at risk by controversial industrial proposals like Shell’s coalbed methane despite unanimous regional opposition. There’s only so much these rivers will take before people are left without the abundant salmon and clean water that we depend on.”

Smithers-based videographer Taylor Fox spent eight years capturing footage of the Sacred Headwaters story alongside filmmaker Monty Bassett. In 2005, Fox and Bassett filmed the arrest of 15 Tahltan elders after they blockaded Fortune Minerals, a mining company planning to build an open-pit coalmine in the Sacred Headwaters.

“The archival footage of the arrests worked seamlessly with Rachelle’s lyrics and her live performance at the Sacred Headwaters Music Fest in Iskut,” said Fox. “It all came together in such a powerful way.”

“Much of our work focuses on celebrating life in the north with little mention of the underlying issues that threaten the unique social fabric that keeps people in the north connected,” Said Shannon McPhail, executive director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. “This video scratches the surface to reveal the dirtier side of what happens when multinational companies meet community resistance in northwest BC.”

“The My Country music video is a tribute to all the people around the world standing up for their watersheds,” said van Zanten.

Born and raised in northwest B.C., van Zanten has performed with Feist, Blue Rodeo, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, and Sue Foley. Her latest tour schedule took her through Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, India and Nepal.

Check out Rachelle’s website

Watch HD version

Email us your thoughts on this video – we’d love to hear your feedback

April 29 2011 » News Clippings » Muskeg News

Van Zanten Premiers Protest Video

By Gina Clark

For decades, musicians such as Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and John Lennon have sung about the important issues of the day, from war to poverty to racism. That tradition continues tonight when Rachelle van Zanten premieres her new music video “My Country” at the Tom Rooney Playhouse. She will also be performing an acoustic show. The event is hosted by the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition.

Van Zanten was inspired to write the song when she saw photos of the Tahltan Elders standing up to Shell, trying to protect the Sacred Headwaters. She says she wanted to write a song that could resonate with the people up here.

“I know many Northwest people can identify with the line ‘my Harlem grows 500 miles from the city ‘neath the poplars and the evergreens,’” she says. “I wanted to convey pride, passion, and concern for this country while making the music and melody catchy.”

She said the music video is far from the usual Much Music kind of vibe, but she thinks viewers would like it. It features the Sacred Headwaters and the Tahltan People, as well as van Zanten herself. She said she loves it because it is real, it evokes emotion and it makes people think.

Shannon McPhail, Executive Director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, says the song has become a rallying cry for communities faced with development, adding that the video speaks volumes about the way government awards oil and gas companies tenures and drilling rights.

McPhail said the Coalition wanted to do this tour for a couple of reasons. One is to get the music video out into the region since she says Shell is not going away.

The other reason, says McPhail, is to honour the people that stood up to protect the Sacred Headwaters from development plans. “When they were arrested, the Sacred Headwaters weren’t a household name, but because of their courage, we now know it’s one of the most spectacular and important places on the planet, and so does the rest of the globe,” says McPhail. She hopes that the audience will learn about the issue, be inspired by the music and turn that inspiration into action.

Joining van Zanten on tour are two youth bands from Hazelton, the Racket and Blind Vinyl. The band members range in age from 15-20 and van Zanten says they remind her of early Led Zeppelin.

McPhail says if they make money from the event, it will support the Coalition’s Youth on Water Program, but the goal is not to make money. They believe there are not enough cool events for local youth and they wanted to do something fun for the youth of the region, she says.

“It’s really easy to look at some other place or some other celebrity and wish that they lived here. We often fail to recognize the things we already have right here,” says McPhail. “We really wanted to give people something incredible from their region, something they can be proud of. Ali Howard’s swim of the Skeena in 2009 was the beginning of that. We have so many amazing locals doing some really amazing things and we want to showcase them to the world.”

The show begins at 7 p.m. April 29. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for youth and free for kids 12 and under.

See article on Muskeg News

Watch Video

March 31 2011 » Media Releases

Canada’s First Non-Profit Community Ski Co-op in Terrace

A newly minted non-profit community co-operative, My Mountain Co-op, is trying to buy Shames Mountain Ski Area near Terrace, BC for $2 Million. By April 30, 2011. Ambitious? Yes. But how co-ops strengthen and bind the social fabric of community are well-recognized mainstays of the co-operative movement.

In the case of Shames Mountain, the social benefits of maintaining Ski Area operations are plain to see. The ski hill is one of the advantages of the area. It helps recruit and retain local professionals including health care workers, environmental consultants, and management level employees. For an area that’s been hammered by the dying forest industry, Shames Mountain is integral to the community.

Prior to forming the Co-op, a group of like minded professionals and ski enthusiast got together and formed a non-profit society called Friends of Shames. That group did two years of legwork. They hired professional consultants to assess the lifts, buildings, water and sewer systems, environmental concerns, terrain and what have you. From that, a feasibility study was completed along with a 5 year business plan. The assessment determined that a non-profit community co-operative was the best business model.

Why try to raise the money in such a short timeframe? Darryl Tucker, a founding member of the Co-op replies, ‘The current owners have had enough. They’re former business owners in the area who have retired. Even though they know the value of the hill to the community and what a great loss it would be if it shut down, they can only put their retirement funds into the business for so long. It’s time for another group to step up. My Mountain Co-op hopes to do that.’

Memberships are well-priced at $299 for individuals and $599 for businesses, with bragging rights that you own a ski hill, part of the deal!

Join My Mountain Co-op at http://www.mymountaincoop.ca

Contact:
Darryl Tucker 250-615-9509

February 18 2011 » Media Releases

Conservation groups comment on continuation of moratorium in the Klappan

The British Columbia government confirmed earlier this week that the moratorium established in 2008 on Royal Dutch Shell’s coalbed methane development project in northwestern British Columbia — in an area also known as the Sacred Headwaters — would continue through 2012.

“The BC government’s decision to continue the moratorium allows time for affected communities living within the three watersheds to craft a permanent solution to protect the Sacred Headwaters,” said Karen Tam Wu, Senior Conservation Campaigner for ForestEthics.

“The future for the Sacred Headwaters needs to consider cumulative impacts of all developments within the region, and determine what projects can go ahead that safeguard the watersheds’ unique values — clean water, wild salmon, and cultural heritage — while providing meaningful employment to communities. Coalbed methane does not fit with these values, “ said Shannon McPhail, Executive Director for Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition.

“Salmon is the cornerstone upon which these communities’ culture and identity have evolved. We will not tolerate wild salmon being guinea pigs for Shell’s coalbed methane experiment,” said Karen Tam Wu, Senior Conservation Campaigner for ForestEthics.

“While Shell profits $2.5 million per minute, no amount of money will appease the communities of northwestern British Columbia to betray our wild salmon, “ said Ali Howard, representative for Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, who swam the entire Skeena River in 2009 to raise awareness.

February 08 2011 » » Women & Environment

Skeena Sisters: Fighting to save a sacred river system

By Amanda Follett

Last summer, Ali Howard cannonballed into the Skeena River’s headwaters in northwestern British Columbia’s Spatsizi Plateau. She raised one arm, then the other, for the first strokes in her 610-kilometre swim to the Pacific Ocean. Inside, she felt immense anxiety — tumbling whitewater, whirlpools and tidal currents were only a few of the challenges ahead — and she silently said a prayer to “Mother Sister Skeena”.
Howard had no idea how apt the impromptu pseudonym, which stayed with her throughout her 28-day journey, would become. The river would beat her down — Howard compares it to feeling humbled by a sibling — while keeping her safe in its maternal grasp.

“We were so well protected and embraced by the river. It felt like we were being led down and mothered,” says the 34-year-old Smithers woman. “The Skeena absolutely brought out the best in me. I didn’t know my own potential. Discovering it was the greatest gift of the river.”

Howard is just one in a handful of women in northwestern B.C. that have fought to save a watershed currently threatened by resource development. The Spatsizi Plateau — dubbed the Sacred Headwaters for its conspicuous role as the birthplace for the Nass, Stikine, and Skeena rivers — is currently under the gaze of multi-national corporations like Royal Dutch Shell, which has fought to begin coalbed methane exploration in the area.
As the headwaters for three of the province’s top salmon-producing watersheds, the Spatsizi Plateau (known as Klappan to the local Tahltan First Nation) supports a partially-subsistence culture that has thrived in the area for countless millennia. In recent years, members of the Tahltan Nation built and occupied a roadblock shelter at the Klappan River Road turnoff. In 2006, the blockade resulted in several elders being arrested when Shell was granted a court injunction to proceed with its exploration.

Unlikely activists
Rhoda Quock lives in nearby Iskut, a mostly aboriginal community a few hours’ drive south of the Yukon border, tucked in the shadow of a mountain and home to only few hundred residents. A mother of four, Quock was an unlikely spokesperson in the battle against Shell’s interest in the Sacred Headwaters. Born and raised in Iskut, it was her passion for the land and her traditional culture that brought her to the frontlines of a fight with a multi-national corporation with billions to gain from the methane gas that lies below Klappan Mountain, where her family’s traditional hunting camp is located.
“Sure, we can say let’s go for the money now, but in 30 or 40 years, when it’s a boom and bust, what are the kids going to have?,” Quock said in an interview several years ago, just as the battle with the oil and gas magnate was igniting. Despite the argument that drilling and mining would bring much needed jobs to the area, Quock and her supporters, a local elders’ group known as the Klabona Keepers, desperately tried to communicate the importance of maintaining the area’s long-term sustainability. “It’s just not for sale,” she said about the Tahltan’s traditional hunting and fishing grounds in the Klappan.
Lillian Campbell, a Tahltan elder who lives 80 kilometres further north in Dease Lake, echoes Quock’s opposing voice. Her feisty demeanor earned her the nickname Tiger Lil and she was one of the elders arrested during the 2006 standoff with Shell. The charges against the grandmother, then in her late 60s, were later dismissed. The following year, she was honoured as a finalist in the Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Awards.

A common passion brought together these strong Tahltan women with people like Shannon McPhail, who was born into a guide outfitting family on the Kispiox River, a tributary of the Skeena. McPhail, an outspoken force, has given birth to two young children during her years fighting development in the watershed. She created the non-governmental organization Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition in response to proposed threats to her family’s fishing business and the lifestyle she has always known.
“I was the daughter of a big game outfitter and a rodeo contractor and my husband worked in the oilsands. So I wasn’t the most likely candidate to get started on this,” she says, describing her organization’s beginnings as “a bunch of local yokels” who set out to fight development in their valley. “Rhoda Quock has four children and she’s running the Klabona Keepers, she’s dealing with the second largest company on the planet. She gave birth to twins during this whole battle. She gave birth right when this whole thing got started and she’s raising twins plus her two other kids.”
Another friend joked to McPhail, “You bring your kids everywhere. You even brought them to the revolution!”

Sacred swim
It was McPhail, whose family owns the Bear Claw Lodge where Howard works as a chef, who convinced the former water polo player to take the plunge in swimming one of North America’s mightiest rivers. When Howard offhandedly suggested getting another distance swimmer to take on the task, McPhail’s response was simple: “You swim. You do it.” Howard agreed.

On Aug. 15, 2009, Howard became the first person to swim the Skeena River in its entirety when she pulled herself onto a wharf at Port Edward on B.C.’s northwest coast. Her efforts were recognized soon after by outdoor retail giant Patagonia, which created its first-ever annual Activist Award for the swimmer. Howard has also been nominated for National Geographic Adventure magazine’s Adventurer of the Year award.
She attributes her safety, a strong team dynamic, and the warm reception she received in numerous communities for allowing her to have the profound experience of living as one with the Skeena River for a month. “It really felt like we were operating in a state of grace. It allowed me to take everything in stride and experience everything with an open mind and, especially, an open heart,” she says. “When we were in the communities people spoke about it — that we were swimming with the ancestors.”

Just as the river brings together its tributaries, similarly these women’s common bond with the watershed brought them together in a fight against what many would feel typifies the masculine: industry, economy, and capitalism. With limited budgets, they stood up to an industry that seeks to pillage the landscape of its ability to yield for future generations and gave Premier Gordon Campbell’s pro-industry government pause in its crusade to sell the Sacred Headwaters.

In 2008, the province declared a two-year moratorium on coalbed methane development. The gas, which has never successfully been developed in British Columbia due to strong public opposition, is relatively new and its extraction methods untested. The moratorium expires this year. It remains to be seen if the Klappan — a magical place where the tracks of grizzly, caribou, moose, and wolf can all be seen within a few square feet — will be safe from the precious gas that lies beneath its surface.

Dissent within the Tahltan Nation — between those who welcome the jobs that come with resource development and those that want to protect traditional lifestyle —resulted in a change of government. In 2007, an Iskut Band Council election saw the council replaced by an all-female chief and council. The Tahltan Central Council, which represents all three bands within the nation, replaced chair Jerry Asp — a central and much vilified figure in the nation’s initial dealings with mining companies like BCMetals and Fortune Minerals — with Annita McPhee.

Today, at the Klappan River Road turnoff, a spray painted plywood sign hands askew, reads “Save our Sacred Headwaters” reminding passersby that the battle for these traditional hunting and fishing grounds has not yet been won. Families still gather at the roadblock shelter to cook moose meat over the campfire, play cards around a circular table, and talk about ongoing threats to their traditional lifestyle.
More than 100 kilometres upriver, in the wild and vast Spatsizi Plateau, the Skeena River begins its tireless journey to the Pacific Ocean. As it has since time immemorial, Mother Sister Skeena provides sustenance for the delicate and diverse ecosystem it supports, which further supports a lifestyle held close by those that love and revere its waters. Through the efforts of women that identify with its nurturing spirit, the Skeena — at least for the time being — will continue to support the lives and cultures that thrive in northwestern B.C.

Amanda Follett lives and writes in Smithers, B.C., a small northern community that never fails to amaze her with its colourful characters and cultures. Last fall, Amanda completed a Master of Communication specializing in intercultural communication through Royal Roads University in Victoria. Her thesis explored media coverage of the Sacred Headwaters issue.

February 07 2011 » Skeena Swim

Times Colonist Reviews Skeena Swim Film

AWAKENING THE SKEENA

Where: Odeon/Empire Capitol 6

When: Feb. 6, 9: 30 p.m./Sat., Feb. 12, 4 p.m.

RATING: 3

Full disclosure: I groaned when I first heard about this movie, figuring it would be just another eco-rant for outdoorsy types. My bad. As it turns out, the film’s account of Ali Howard’s remarkable one-month journey -becoming the first person to swim the 610 km length of B.C.‘s Skeena River from its sacred headwaters to the Pacific Ocean -is just one reason to see director Andrew Eddy’s gorgeously photographed tribute to grassroots activism as Howard and her supporters raise awareness of this pristine wilderness threatened by methane gas exploration. It’s as much a breathtaking travelogue and adventure film as an environmental documentary -one that engagingly makes you realize what a treasure this watershed is, and how important it is to protect it from industrial destruction before it’s too late.

Twitter: @michaeldreid

February 01 2011 » News Clippings » Daily Utah Chronicle

National Geographic speaker to examine effects of drilling

~By Doug Jennings

Wade Davis, a Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist and Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic, will be speaking at the City Library on Thursday on environmental preservation in British Columbia. Davis will focus specifically on plans threatening the Sacred Headwaters, an ecosystem that could potentially be threatened by mining and development.

“Royal Dutch Shell wants to drill more than 1,000 coal bed methane gas wells in the Sacred Headwaters, threatening communities, wildlife and wild salmon,” according to Sacred Headwaters’ website. “Concerned citizens from around the world are calling for steps to safeguard the Sacred Headwaters from Shell’s gas drilling.”

The site is located in an alpine basin that is the source of three different rivers and acts as an important cultural location for the indigenous Tahltan of the region. Canadian environmental think tank, the Pembina Institute, has expressed concerns over what kind of effects mining and development could have on untouched wilderness and Tahltan communities.

Davis is a visiting scholar for the environmental humanities program, said Heidi Camp, assistant dean of the College of Humanities. He visits campus regularly, meeting with graduate students in the department to discuss their research in addition to speaking in the community.

In 2010, he joined efforts with Bobby Kennedy, son of former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, to create an IMAX documentary about changes in the Colorado River since its original exploration by 19th century explorer John Wesley Powell. The film was screened at the U, and included an appearance by Bobby Kennedy’s daughter.

February 3rd 7-9pm @ Salt Lake Main Library Auditorium, Salt Lake City Utah
Admission is FREE
More info

d.jennnings@chronicle.utah.edu

January 24 2011 » Multimedia » Rabble.ca

PODCAST - Wade Davis on the Sacred Headwaters

Alternatives Podcast

Resource exploitation in the Sacred Headwaters of northern B.C.
Wade Davis on the imminent threat from resource exploitation in the Sacred Headwaters of northern British Columbia.

January 15 2011 » News Clippings

Wade Davis fights for Sacred Headwaters

Wade Davis

Violating the Sacred

IN A RUGGED KNOT of mountains in the remote reaches of Northern British Columbia lies a stunningly beautiful valley known to the First Nations as the Sacred Headwaters. There, on the southern edge of the Spatsizi Wilderness, the Serengeti of Canada, are born in remarkably close proximity three of Canada’s most important salmon rivers: the Stikine, Skeena and the Nass. In a long day, perhaps two, it is possible to walk through open meadows, following the tracks of grizzly, caribou and wolf, and drink from the very sources of the rivers that inspired so many of the great cultures of the Pacific Northwest, the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en, the Carrier and Sekani, the Tsimshian, Nisga’a, Tahltan, Haisla and Tlingit.

The only other place I know where such a wonder of geography occurs is in Tibet, where from the base of Mount Kailash arise three of the great rivers of Asia, the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra, vital arteries that bring life to more than a billion people downstream. Revered by Hindu, Buddhist and Jain, Kailash is considered so sacred that no one is allowed to walk upon its slopes, let alone climb to its summit. The thought of violating its flanks with industrial development would represent for all peoples of Asia an act of desecration beyond all imaginings. Anyone who would even dare propose such a deed would face the most severe of sanctions, in both this world and the next.

In Canada, we treat the land quite differently. Against the wishes of all First Nations, the government of British Columbia has opened the Sacred Headwaters to industrial development. These are not trivial initiatives. Imperial Metals Corporation proposes an open pit copper and gold mine processing 27,000 tonnes of ore a day from the flank of Todagin Mountain, home to the largest population of Stone’s Sheep in the world. Its tailings pond, if constructed, would drain directly into the headwater lake chain of the Iskut River, the principal tributary of the Stikine. Over its 25-year lifetime, the mine would generate 166 million tonnes of toxic tailings and 279 million tonnes of waste rock, which would need to be treated for acid mine drainage for over 200 years.

Imperial Metals’ Red Chris project is but one of several industrial schemes proposed for the Sacred Headwaters. Fortune Minerals and West Hawk Coal would tear into the headwater valley itself, on a similar scale, with open-pit anthracite coal operations that would level entire mountains.

The largest project, proposed by Royal Dutch Shell, involves extracting coalbed methane from the same anthracite deposit, across an enormous tenure of close to 400,000 hectares. Should this project go ahead, it would require a network of several thousand wells, linked by roads and pipelines, laid upon the landscape of the entire Sacred Headwaters basin. Coalbed-methane recovery is by all accounts a highly invasive process. To free the methane from the anthracite, technicians must fracture the coal seams with massive injections of chemical agents under high pressure. Using as much as 1.3 million litres at a shot, the technique creates enormous volumes of highly toxic water. More than 900 different chemicals, many of them powerful carcinogens, are registered for use, but for proprietary reasons companies do not have to disclose the identity of the solutions employed at any given site.

Environmental concerns aside, think for a moment of what these proposals imply about our culture. I recall overhearing a conversation some seasons ago at a neighbouring lodge between an assistant deputy minister of mines and an engineer from the Red Chris project. They had just come down by helicopter from the site and they could not stop speaking about how beautiful it was, how many sheep they had seen, how extraordinary the vistas were from the height of the mountain. They both said that they had never seen such a beautiful place in their lives. As it turned out, it was the first time either of them had come so far north. They had never ventured beyond the Yellowhead Highway and here they were in a land they had never known, stunned by the beauty of a mountain it was their bureaucratic and corporate mission to destroy.

This was a powerful lesson for me, which I raised when I met some months later with Gordon Campbell, BC’s premier at the time. I was amazed to learn at that meeting that he too had never seen the Stikine. The Premier of British Columbia, the elected representative of all the people, had never visited a region encompassing fully a quarter of the province he presumed to govern. That a head of government would authorize a major industrial initiative of such consequence without having ever visited the region to be so irrevocably changed was rather startling.

I suspect that few of the principals of Imperial Metals ever saw this country until they began to set in motion their plans to transform it for their own personal gain. I understand this, as it is their business to do so. But I was astonished to learn from their proposal that their project is not economically viable unless Canadians subsidize it through the construction of power lines.

Moreover, the BC government’s preferred option, the $404-million-, 287-kilovolt Northwest Transmission Line, would access $130-million from Canada’s Green Infrastructure Fund (formerly the Canada EcoTrust for Clean Air and Climate Change). Meanwhile, a 2008 analysis by The Pembina Institute calculates that rather than lower greenhouse gas emissions, the Northwest Transmission Line would increase them by up to 1200 per cent. As currently proposed-, it would not even tie in nearby First Nations, allowing them to retire their diesel-burning generators.

That these tax dollars will be drawn from a fund conceived to improve the environment and then used to open up the Sacred Headwaters to industrial development represents a level of political cynicism that I have never before witnessed in the affairs of a major industrialized nation state.

We accept it as normal that people who have never been on the land, who have no history or connection to the country, may legally secure the right to come in and by the very nature of their enterprises leave in their wake a cultural and physical landscape utterly transformed and desecrated. What’s more, in granting such mining concessions, often initially for trivial sums to speculators from distant cities, companies cobbled together with less history than my dog, the government places no cultural or market value on the land itself. 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. No company has to compensate the public for what it does to the commons, the forests, mountains and rivers, which by definition belong to everyone. It merely requires permission to proceed. This is very odd, if you think about it, and surely reflects a mindset that ought no longer to have a place in a world in which wildlands are becoming increasingly rare and valuable, even as we strive as a species to live in a sustainable manner on a planet we have come to recognize as being resilient but not inviolable.

The people of the Sacred Headwaters, the men and women of the Iskut First Nation who have rallied against these developments, have a very different way of thinking about the land. For them the Sacred Headwaters is a neighbourhood, at once their grocery store and sanctuary, their church and schoolyard, and their cemetery and recreational area. They believe that the people with greatest claim to ownership of the valley are the generations as yet unborn. The Sacred Headwaters will be their nursery. The Iskut elders, almost all of whom grew up on the land, have formally called for the end of all industrial activity in the valley and the creation of a Sacred Headwaters Tribal Heritage Area.

Beginning in the summer of 2005, Iskut men, women and children, together with Tahltan supporters from Telegraph Creek and beyond, have maintained in all seasons an educational camp at the head of the only road access to the Sacred Headwaters. Those who would violate the land they hold in trust have been denied entry. Those who accept and revere the land as it is have been welcomed. With everyone, they have shared their vision of a new era of sustainable stewardship both for their homeland and the entire northwest quadrant of the province. Meanwhile, the BC government has never agreed to consider the cumulative impacts of licensing as many as five new mines in the region, has failed to consider phasing in development over time and at no point has shown any interest in determining if these initiatives would pass a “positive contribution to sustainability” test, as it did for the Kemess North Project.

In the end, what is at stake is the future of one of the most extraordinary regions in all North America. The fate of the Sacred Headwaters transcends the interests of local residents, provincial agencies, mining companies and those few among the First Nations who favour industrial development at any cost. The voices of all Canadians deserve to be heard. Gordon Campbell, to his immense credit, attached his legacy to the fight against global warming, boldly calling for a 33-per-cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. What better way to celebrate such a profound and courageous act of leadership by our former premier than to say that no amount of methane gas, no volume of gold or number of jobs can compensate for the sacrifice of a place that can be the Sacred Headwaters of all Canadians…

Photos for Wade Davis’s article were made possible by the International League of Conservation Photographers. Many thanks also to the contributing photographers. Buy this issue to fully enjoy their amazing photography in the context of Wade Davis’ warning call for three of Canada’s most threatened salmon rivers. Photographers: Graham Osborne | Paul Colangelo | Tom Peschak/saveourseas.com | Wade Davis.
View full article

January 14 2011 » Media Releases

Shell targeted by residents in new ad campaign

January 06 2011 » Home Feature

Volunteers Needed for Adventure…and Hard Work

We need help! LOTS of it! If you’re interested in participating on research expeditions, helping revive old trail systems, working on our website, or organizing fun events – WE NEED YOU!! Come hang out with the SWCC team and make a difference.

Here are some examples of the sorts of things we need help with:
1.) TECH STUFF: Helping us keep our website up to date (can do this from anywhere…just need a computer – we’d LOVE it if you were here with us to hang out though)
2.) RAFTING: World Rivers Day is September 25th, 2011. We need a bunch of people to jump in the raft with us in Telkwa. We have the raft, the life jackets and the helmets…we just need some people to float with us. Free BBQ afterwards.
3.) EVENT: Winter film nights will happen 1 night a week in October-March. We need people to help host these evenings with us.
4.) FUNDRAISING: Host an SWCC House Party to help us raise funds for our work and projects.
5.) EXPEDITION/FIELD WORK: Trail scouts needed to find, trim and map trail systems in the region
6.) EXPEDITION/FIELD WORK: Research assistants to come on 1 or more expeditions to act as research helpers. Lots of hiking, rafting and outdoor work. No experience necessary
7.) LABOUR: We’ve just expanded our office and need people to help us get it into ship shape. This includes building shelves, decorating, finding bookshelves and other furniture.

If you have an event or something that you think needs to happen in our communities – contact us, we’d like to help.

There’s LOTS more coming up – we’ve just got to get it all uploaded onto this website!! Whew – come on folks, drop us a line and we’ll hook you up with some SWCC style adventure!

(250)842-2494
info@skeenawatershed.com

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January 04 2011 » News Clippings » Burnaby Newsletter

2011 Hopes & Plans: A closer look at our rivers with Mark Angelo

Mark Angelo is a longtime advocate of river conservation and the founder of both BC Rivers Day and World Rivers Day. He is chair of the Rivers Institute at BC Institute of Technology and has received numerous awards for his efforts, including the Order of British Columbia, the Order of Canada and the United Nations Stewardship Award. In addition to advocating, he has experienced rivers firsthand, paddling along hundreds of them around the world.

Q: Were there any surprises for you in river conservation in 2010? Please elaborate.

My biggest surprises this year were of a positive nature. For example, it was exciting to see such a massive global turnout this year for World Rivers Day, which involved well over 60 countries and millions of participants. This went far beyond our expectations and the event continues to grow. It’s also exciting to know that the origin, or genesis, of this international celebration can be found right here in B.C. In addition, another very pleasant surprise was the unexpectedly large return of sockeye salmon to the Fraser this year. This was the biggest return in a century and something indeed worth celebrating!

Q: What do you think is the most pressing issue in river conservation right now and why?

Across our province, I think there’s still much to be done in terms of ensuring our waterways are adequately cared for. We’ve made some progress on specific fronts and some local governments, such as Burnaby, have been quite progressive in protecting local streams. But if you scan the entire province, many of our rivers continue to face an array of threats associated with pollution, inappropriate development, urbanization, the excessive extraction of water and the building of dams.

Q: What are your plans to help address this, or other, issues in the new year?

Through the Rivers Institute at BCIT, we’re involved in an array of activities including applied research, various special projects relating to river conservation and restoration, and public awareness activities such as Rivers Day. We also try to mentor and support the next generation of river stewards; young people who will become our river champions of the future. My hope is that all of these activities, in conjunction with the good work that many other groups and individuals are undertaking, will help address at least some of these issues. In addition, we’re organizing a “Water for Life” benefit concert on April 7 at the Michael J Fox Theatre. This program will be a mix of inspiring stories, stunning images and great music, all focused on the importance of water and the need to be good water stewards, wherever we might live. The show will also be filmed as a major Global TV special with all proceeds benefitting worthy water-related initiatives, both locally and abroad. Tickets will go on sale Feb. 1 through Ticketmaster.

Q: What would be the best thing that could happen in river conservation in 2011?

I think we have the world’s finest river heritage right here in B.C. and yet our waterways continue to face an array of threats and pressures. A number of these were highlighted in the most recent “endangered rivers list”, which included problems around excessive water extraction on interior rivers such as the Kettle and Coldwater; concerns about proposed coalbed methane development in the “sacred headwaters” of the Nass, Stikine and Skeena Rivers (three of our finest salmon rivers); and uncontrolled development and a loss of habitat along the “Heart of the Fraser” between Hope and Mission, one of the most productive stretches of river anywhere in the world. In addition, there’s a myriad of other concerns ranging from the lack of an effective strategy and plan for independent power project development to the urgent need for a new Water Act that strikes a better balance between water extraction and the protection of aquatic ecosystems. So the best thing that could happen in the coming year would be to make progress on all of these fronts!

Q: The worst thing?

As a long time river advocate, I’ve seen my share of ups and downs over the years—and I’ve always believed that the worst thing that could happen to any sector in a given year is to make no progress, or even take a step backwards. I try to remain hopeful though that this won’t happen.

Q: What are your hopes for the community in the new year that have the best chances of actually happening?

I’m very upbeat about our own community and I see a very vibrant future, both in the short and long term. And looking at the many natural areas that have been set aside in communities such as Burnaby (totaling about 25 per cent of the land base), I believe we have a unique opportunity here to strike an appropriate balance between a sound economy, a good environment and an excellent quality of life.

Q: Give us your wildest and craziest prediction?

In response to a similar question last year, after a disastrous 2009 sockeye return, I said my “wildest and craziest prediction” would be to see a massive salmon return in the fall of 2010. In light of what happened, perhaps if I answer this again in the very same way, we’ll be fortunate once more in the fall of 2011.
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January 01 2011 » Skeena Swim

Skeena Swim film available for purchase

Get your copy of Awakening the Skeena:
Purchase online
Wholesale Purchases (Retailers or Large quantities) – contact Filmmaker, Andrew Eddy
Our SWCC headquarters in Hazelton is now stocked with DVD’s for purchase as well. Call (250)842-2494 for more information or send us an email
The film is $20 (+$5 shipping and handling from the SWCC office, $7 for US orders)

Terrace:
Misty River Books

Smithers:
Mountain Eagle Bookstore

See the film trailer

December 15 2010 » News Clippings » Interior News

Coalition Makes Top 10

10,000 Salmon, the project shown above, was an artistic collaboration and one of the many projects under the Skeena Watershed Coalition. The group was named to Tides Canada top 10 list.

By Shannon Hurst – Smithers Interior News

The Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition was recognized for their hard work and dedication to addressing important environmental and social issues and for their leadership and vision when they were named as one of Tides Canada Top 10 recipients last week.

For the past seven years, Tides Canada has profiled 10 outstanding initiatives and organizations that inspire Canadians to make the world a better place.

SWCC Executive Director Shannon McPhail said they are committed to continuing to work towards a greater future for the area and the communities they love.

“We’re honoured to help represent the communities of Northwestern B.C. and this award is a reflection of all the organizations and communities that have dedicated their time and energy towards a better future, we are only as strong as the people that support us,” said SWCC Executive Director, Shannon McPhail,

“We love where we live and the people who live here and will never stop doing this work.”

Since it’s creation in 2004, the SWCC has been working towards “cultivating a sustainable future from a sustainable environment rooted in culture and a wild salmon ecosystem.” They have spearheaded numerous great projects and were instrumental in keeping Royal Dutch Shell from further exploratory drilling for Coalbed Methane in the precious Headwaters of the Skeena. They have also been the founders of fun, community oriented projects such as the 10,000 wild salmon installation that was a collaboration of thousands of salmon designed by thousands of children across Northwestern BC. The colourful salmon decorated the banks of the Skeena in Old Hazelton last summer and were a huge hit with both residents and tourists. Yet their most notable project that is still gaining momentum is the Awakening the Skeena swim by Ali Howard that is creating waves across North America to this day. There are many other great initiatives that they are working on or have been a part of but it was the following that earned them the honour of the Tides Canada Top 10: Working effectively as a coalition of diverse communities united in their pursuit of environmental and cultural sustainability for British Columbia’s Skeena Watershed and Sacred Headwaters.

The unique school programs and a summer conservation camp for the region’s children and youth that teach about fish and wildlife, First Nations culture and the importance of the Skeena watershed.

For getting people focused on solutions over problems and working closely with First Nations to

teach the cultural components of their projects and programs.

As well as the major project, Awakening the Skeena, a film which follows Ali Howard on her historic swim of the 610-kilometre Skeena River, uniting communities with each other and with their shared watershed, and raising awareness of the threats to the Skeena’s health; it has premiered in film festivals across North America.

Other winners this year came from the Yukon, the Arctic, Nova Scotia and Alberta and Ontario. There focus was on things such as food, forests, water and watersheds, climate and energy, urban sustainability and indigenous cultures. All of which President and CEO of Tides Canada, Ross McMillan said all deserved recognition.

“It’s remarkable to see such diverse groups coming together to find solutions that work for people and the planet,” McMillan said. “The leaders behind these initiatives are having incredible impact as they promote new ways to solve some of our most pressing social and environmental problems. They all deserve recognition and sustained support for their great work.”

To learn more about the Tides Canada top 10, visit their website at http://www.tidescanada.org/top10.

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December 08 2010 »

SWCC Honoured as Top 10 Organization in Canada

Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC) is pleased to announce that it has been named one of Tides Canada’s Top 10 recipients today.
The Tides Canada Top 10 initiatives that have demonstrated exceptional leadership, vision and real-world impact in addressing important environmental and social problems.

Since 2003, Tides Canada has profiled 10 outstanding initiatives and organizations that inspire people throughout Canada to think in new ways and to make the world a better place.

Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition was chosen for:
1.) Working effectively as a coalition of diverse communities united in their pursuit of environmental and cultural sustainability for British Columbia’s Skeena Watershed and Sacred Headwaters.
2.) Unique school programs and a summer conservation camp for the region’s children and youth that teach about fish and wildlife, First Nations culture and the importance of the Skeena watershed.
3.) Getting people focused on solutions over problems and working with First Nations to teach the cultural components of their projects and programs.
4.) Awakening the Skeena, a film which follows Ali Howard on her historic swim of the 610-kilometre Skeena River, uniting communities with each other and with their shared watershed, and raising awareness of the threats to the Skeena’s health; it has premiered in film festivals across North America.

“We’re honoured to help represent the communities of Northwestern BC and this award is a reflection of all the organizations and communities that have dedicated their time & energy towards a better future, we are only as strong as the people that support us,” says SWCC Executive Director, Shannon McPhail, “We love where we live and the people who live here and will never stop doing this work.”

This year’s Top 10 includes initiatives from the Yukon, northern British Columbia, the Canadian Arctic, Nova Scotia, Alberta and Ontario. They focus on food, forests, water and watersheds, climate and energy, urban sustainability and indigenous cultures. The recipients include coalitions of diverse parties working past traditional differences in pursuit of shared goals.

“It’s remarkable to see such diverse groups coming together to find solutions that work for people and the planet. The leaders behind these initiatives are having incredible impact as they promote new ways to solve some of our most pressing social and environmental problems. They all deserve recognition and sustained support for their great work,” said Ross McMillan, President and CEO of Tides Canada. Visit http://www.tidescanada.org/top10 to learn more about the Top 10, view videos and images of their work and check out past winners.

About Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition – SWCC works towards cultivating a sustainable future from a sustainable environment rooted in culture and a wild salmon ecosystem. SWCC was founded is 2004 by a diverse group of people that live and work within the watershed.

About Tides Canada – Tides Canada provides uncommon solutions for the common good by leading and supporting actions that foster a healthy environment and just society. Tides Canada provides philanthropic, financial and project management services to change makers — philanthropists, businesses, activists and civil organizations, and works to increase the impact of Canada’s forward-thinking charities and nonprofits.

November 19 2010 » News Clippings » Vancouver Observer

Gasland Brings Sickening Reality of Fracking Home

Water’s not supposed to bubble like that unless it’s Perrier,” exclaimed the detective, as he examined tap water from a cattle ranch adjacent to natural gas drilling wells. The detective proceeded to light water streaming from the tap on fire.

“Methane…benzene…all these chemicals are implicated in cardiovascular and respiratory disorder, endocrine disruption…nerve system destruction” a doctor explained to a lab technician, who presented the doctor with water sample results from the ranch.

These are the scenes from a recent episode of CSI, but sadly, it is not just television drama. These are the effects Albertans and Americans are living with as a result of oil and gas companies employing a technique called hydraulic fracturing to drill for natural gas. The stories of these residents have been featured in CBC’s Passionate Eye and Gasland, a Sundance Festival Special Jury Award winner.

Here in British Columbia, where the “unconventional gas” industry is burgeoning, we have much to learn from the experiences of our neighbours.

And Ground Water report writes:

It’s become a cliché that water is the new oil. Experts predict that clean, fresh water will, by the end of the century, be as precious and hard to find as black gold is now. Business magazines and websites are already instructing investors on how to profit from the coming market in water. (See http://seekingalpha.com/article/117760-water-the-new-oil.)

But in the movie, Gasland, directed by Josh Fox, homeowners light their drinking water with a match and watch it burst into flames. Is this the future?

Gasland, the winner of Special Jury Prize – Best US Documentary Feature – Sundance 2010, warns that it will be, unless policy makers stop natural gas companies from developing more and more reserves—-in backyards of ordinary people all over the world. Hydraulic fracturing is spreading across the world, Fox tells viewers. And before you know it, your drinking water may be combustible, too.

It is happening all across America and now in Europe and Africa as well. Rural landowners wake up one day to find a lucrative offer from a multinational energy conglomerate wanting to lease their property. The reason? In America, the company hopes to tap into a huge natural gas reservoir dubbed the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. Halliburton developed a way to get the gas out of the ground—a hydraulic drilling process called fracking—and suddenly America finds itself on the precipice of becoming an energy superpower.

But what comes out of the ground with that natural gas? How does it affect our air and drinking water? GASLAND is a powerful personal documentary that confronts these questions with spirit, strength, and a sense of humor. When filmmaker Josh Fox receives his cash offer in the mail, he travels across 32 states to meet other rural residents on the front lines of fracking. He discovers toxic streams, ruined aquifers, dying livestock, brutal illnesses, and kitchen sinks that burst into flame. He learns that all water is connected and perhaps some things are more valuable than money.

All about fracking

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking (also fraccing), is a method used by oil and gas companies to extract elusive sources of gas. Millions of gallons of water are mixed with sand and chemicals, then injected underground at high pressure in order to fracture the rock, allowing natural gas to flow.

Increased demand for fossil fuels and technological advancements, such as fracking, have made previously more difficult and expensive sources of gas – the “unconventional” kind – more profitable to extract. Coalbed methane (CBM), tight, and shale gas are among the types of unconventional gas.

The make up of fracking fluid is a proprietary mix that is as tight-lipped a secret as Colonel Saunders’ secret spice mix. But there are more than 11 secret herbs and spices, more like hundreds of toxic and/or cancer-causing chemicals.

Toluene, naphthalene, ethylene glycol, used in paint thinners, mothballs, and antifreeze, respectively, are some of the chemicals on the ingredient list. While some of the concoction can be recovered, much of it remains underground, and where it flows is unpredictable.

Effects of fracking

Somehow methane and other chemicals are finding their way into residents’ water supply. Water wells and homes are exploding. Animals, fish, and people are getting sick. A chemist in Louisiana, recounts in Gasland, the experiences of athletes who were suffering from arsenic poisoning as a result of drinking large quantities of contaminated water. Their doctors asked “Do you think your spouse is poisoning you?”

Testing of drinking water that has reportedly become murky and flammable after gas drilling began in the vicinity of homes provides little reassurance for residents. Companies like Encana, who has operations on both sides of the border, conclude that the methane is “naturally” occurring. (Plutonium and mercury are also “naturally” occurring.) Other companies tell residents there is “nothing wrong with the water that can be a result of oil and gas production” in the area.

Because homeowners do not often think to test water quality before drilling occurs nearby, it is difficult to make the link. It is even more difficult to point a direct finger at industry when companies are not required to disclose the chemical contents of the fracking fluids.

Companies will not admit culpability. They will, however, happily truck in water to families who live in areas adjacent to drilling as a neighbourly gesture. In return, some residents are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Why fracking is allowed

In the US, a loophole recommended by former vice president Dick Cheney, exempts fracking from the Safe Water Drinking Act. This loophole has become known as the Haliburton Loophole, because Haliburton is one of the main companies that produces hydraulic fracturing chemicals. (Recall that Cheney was former CEO of Haliburton and holds shares worth more than $12 million.)

In B.C., the Water Act, which prohibits dumping contaminants or substances that would adversely affect groundwater quality, does not apply to any wells drilled for oil and gas. Under the Oil and Gas Activities Act, companies need to obtain permits to frack, but they are not required to disclose the secret ingredient list. The Oil and Gas Commission, the agency that oversees oil and gas industry in British Columbia, has said that future amendments to the Oil and Gas Activities Act may require companies to list fracking fluids.

Fracking in British Columbia

Companies like Shell are actively developing unconventional gas sources in the northeast corners of British Columbia. Shell also has its sights set on drilling for coalbed methane in the headwaters of the Skeena, Nass, and Stikine Rivers in NW British Columbia. This area, known also as the Sacred Headwaters, is a pristine complex of alpine lakes and streams, home to bears, moose, goats, sheep, and salmon, and is culturally significant for many First Nations. Shell’s proposal earned the Sacred Headwaters top honours on the Outdoor Recreation Council of British Columbia’s Most Endangered Rivers list this year.

Since fracking has leaped from documentary world to prime time television, perhaps this signifies the beginning of a much needed public dialogue. Unconventional gas development in British Columbia is on a major growth trajectory, and now is the time to discuss how our water resources are managed.

Gasland will be showing Sunday, November 21st, 3.45 at the VanCity Theatre.

November 03 2010 » News Clippings » Telluride Mountainfilm Festival

Mountainfilm Announces Grant Winners

Inaugural Mountainfilm Commitment Program Provides $25,000

Telluride, Colorado (November 2, 2010) – Five grantees, from a field of 75 filmmakers, photographers and adventurers, will each receive $5,000 and an Apple laptop computer to help with new projects that key into Mountainfilm’s mission of educating and inspiring audiences about issues that matter. The grants will be the first made under the new Mountainfilm Commitment initiative designed to help ensure that important stories are told – and heard.

“The projects we’re supporting with grants cover very diverse ground but we think each are really worthy, compelling and vital,” said Mountainfilm Executive Director Peter Kenworthy. “We were at real pains to narrow the field because we were presented with such outstanding applications. We think our top five choices reflect the kind of breadth, depth and excellence that Mountainfilm strives for in its programming. We couldn’t be more pleased or excited to be partnering with them.”

Kenworthy said the granting initiative was inspired by Mountainfilm Festival Director David Holbrooke’s desire to both give back to the community of filmmakers, artists, and explorers that so generously supports Mountainfilm and to help broaden the impact of new critical stories. “David cooked up the idea and, with the help of staff and our board of directors, we were able to give it structure and make it a reality,” he said. “It’s a really exciting initiative for an organization like ours and we feel very pleased and privileged to have successfully launched it and look forward to continuing it.”

The five winning grantees, and their projects, are:

Isaac Brown, director/producer, Terra Blight, a documentary about America’s consumption of computers and the hazardous waste we create in pursuit of the latest technology. The film examines the unseen worlds of one of the most ubiquitous toxic wastes on our planet. Despite the fact that the United States produces the most e-waste of any nation, it currently is the only industrialized country that does not regulate the exportation of that waste. Terra Blight will ensure you never look at your old computer the same way again. Brown previously made Gimme Green, which played at Mountainfilm 2007.

Richard Linnett, director/producer, Paradox Valley U.S.A., a documentary about how a potential global nuclear renaissance could start in Paradox, Colorado – not far from Telluride – because of a proposed new uranium mill that would be the first in this country since the Cold War. The mill’s outspoken supporters are people from nearby uranium mining towns who need jobs. Opposition comes from a loose alliance of activists who argue that toxic waste, dust and radioactivity will foul the food chain and water supply, creating personal health hazards while destroying property values. Meanwhile, there has been a worldwide resurgence of support for nuclear power and leading environmentalists are reversing their long held anti-nuclear positions – a core paradox facing opponents of the mill, and a key conflict driving the story. Linnett has been filming in and around Telluride for more than a year.

Lucian and Natasa Muntean, directors/producers, Mbambu and the Mountains of the Moon, a documentary about a sixteen-year old girl, Mbambu, from a small village at the foot of the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda, who wants to be the first in her family to complete secondary school. Because her family is poor, Mbambu earns her high school tuition by guiding foreign trekkers. Her mentor in this work is an ex-poacher who inspires Mbambu to educate Ugandans about the dangers and drawbacks of poaching. Mbambu, in turn, enlists her amateur drama group to take on the cause. Their previous film, Journey of the Red Fridge played at Mountainfilm 2009.

Katie Mustard, director/producer, Soul of the Sea, a documentary that follows the unrelenting desire of one woman – Hayley Shephard – to solo kayak the most challenging waters on the planet for the sake of saving an animal on the brink of extinction – the world’s largest flying bird, the Albatross. Undeterred by hurricane-force winds and a wildly treacherous sea, wilderness guide and expedition leader Shephard set out in January 2010, set out to make the first ever solo kayak around South Georgia Island. However like Shephard’s hero, Sir Ernest Shackleton – the Antarctic explorer who turned disaster into the most famous lesson in survival, her expedition did not go as planned.

Paul Colangelo, photographer, Sacred Headwaters, Sacred Journey, a photographic exposition of the shared birthplace of three of British Columbia’s great salmon-bearing rivers, the Stikine, Skeena and Nass, and one of the largest predator-prey ecosystems in North America, now threatened by resource development. Known as the “Serengeti of the North”, it supports large populations of grizzlies, wolves, woodland caribou, moose, mountain goats and stone sheep. This land has come under threat of numerous resource developments including a proposed coalbed methane development that would fracture nearly a million acres of wildlife habitat with wells, pipelines and roads, and a proposed open-pit gold and copper mine that would destroy the most important habitat for stone sheep in the world. There will be a gallery exhibit at Mountainfilm 2011 and longtime friend of the festival Wade
Davis, who is involved in this project will speak about it at the Awareness into Action Symposium.

Holbrooke said he was thrilled that so many worthwhile applications were submitted and gratified that, within just a year, the new program had gone from conception to funding. The hardest part by far, he said, was choosing the grantees. “It was ridiculously difficult – much harder than selecting films for the festival,” he said. “Most of the projects submitted were worth funding.” He also lamented that no grants were being made in the first year to local
Telluride-area applicants and said he looks forward to addressing that next year. “There were a couple of local projects at the conceptual stage that have enormous potential,” he said. “We hope to see those back next year for latter-stage production or post-production funding. There are so many talented local filmmakers and photographers, artists and adventurers and this program was created – partly – with them in mind and I very much hope that next year, we are able to support a project that is homegrown in Telluride.”
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October 26 2010 » News Clippings » The Cleanest Line

Conservation Photographers Focus on Canada’s Sacred Headwaters

See full article and photos

We first learned about the work of the International League of Conservation Photographers through their compelling work on behalf of threatened regions in Patagonia. This summer, they’ve been lending their honed expertise and incomparable imagery to the fight for some of Western Canada’s most treasured landscapes. We’re pleased to share this story, from National Geographic Explorer and award-winning author, photographer and researcher, Wade Davis, on behalf of Canada’s Sacred Headwaters region.

In a rugged knot of mountains, in the remote reaches of northern British Columbia, lies a stunningly beautiful valley known to the first nations as the Sacred Headwaters. There, on the southern edge of the Spatsizi Wilderness – the Serengeti of Canada – are born in remarkably close proximity three of Canada’s most important salmon rivers: the Stikine, Skeena and Nass.

[A calm lake in the Sacred Headwaters. Photo: Claudio Contreras, courtesy of iLCP]

In a long day, perhaps two, it is possible to walk through open meadows, following the trodden tracks of grizzly, caribou and wolf, and drink from the very sources of the three rivers that inspired so many of the great cultures of the Pacific Northwest: the Gitxsan and Wet’sutwet’en, the Carrier and Sekani, the Tsimshian, Nisga’a, Tahltan, Haisla and Tlinglit. Keep on for another three days, and you’ll reach the origins of the Finlay, headwaters of the Mackenzie, Canada’s greatest river of all.

The only other place I know where such a wonder of geography occurs is in Tibet, where from the base of Mount Kailas arise three of the great rivers of Asia – the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra – vital arteries that bring life to more than a billion people downstream. Revered by Hindu, Buddhist and Jain, Kailas is considered so sacred that no one is allowed to walk on its slopes, let alone climb to its summit. The thought of violating its flanks with industrial development would represent for all peoples of Asia an act of desecration beyond all imagining. Anyone who would even dare propose such a deed would face the most severe of sanctions, in both this world and the next.

In Canada, we treat the land quite differently. Against the wishes of all first nations, the B.C. government has opened the Sacred Headwaters to industrial development. The most ominous project is a proposal by Royal Dutch Shell to extract coal-bed methane gas from the area’s anthracite deposit, across an enormous tenure of close to a million acres. Should this project go ahead, it would imply a network of several thousand wells, linked by roads and pipelines, laid on the landscape of the entire Sacred Headwaters basin.

Coal-bed methane recovery is, by all accounts, a highly invasive process. To free the methane from the anthracite, technicians must fracture the coal seams with massive injections of chemical agents under high pressure – as much as 350,000 gallons at a shot – a technique that, in some deposits, liberates enormous volumes of highly toxic water. More than 900 chemicals, many of them powerful carcinogens, are registered for use, but for proprietary reasons, companies do not have to disclose the identity of the solutions employed at any given site.

Environmental concerns aside, think for a moment of what such proposals imply about our culture. We accept it as normal that people who have never been on the land, who have no history or connection to the country, may legally secure the right to come in and, by the very nature of their enterprises, leave in their wake a cultural and physical landscape utterly transformed and desecrated. What’s more, in granting such mining concessions, often initially for trivial sums to speculators from distant cities, companies cobbled together with less history than my dog, the government places no cultural or market value on the land itself.

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. No company has to compensate the public for what it does to the commons, the forests, mountains and rivers, which, by definition, belong to everyone. It merely requires permission to proceed. This is very odd, if you think about it, and surely reflects a mindset that ought no longer to have a place in a world in which wild lands are becoming increasingly rare and valuable.

The people of the Sacred Headwaters, the men and women of the Iskut First Nation who have rallied against these developments, have a very different way of thinking about the land. For them, the Sacred Headwaters is a neighbourhood, at once their grocery store and sanctuary, their church and schoolyard, their cemetery and country club. They believe that the people with the greatest claim to ownership of the valley are the generations as yet unborn. The Sacred Headwaters will be their nursery. The Iskut elders, almost all of whom grew up on the land, have formally called for the end of all industrial activity in the valley and the creation of a Sacred Headwaters Tribal Heritage Area.

Since the summer of 2005, Iskut men, women and children, together with Tahltan supporters from Telegraph Creek and beyond, have maintained an educational camp at the head of the only road access to the Sacred Headwaters. Those who would violate the land they hold in trust have been denied entry. Those who accept and revere the land as it is have been welcomed. With everyone, they have shared their vision of a new era of sustainable stewardship both for their homeland and the entire northwest quadrant of the province. After more than two years on the line, they are not about to give up.

In the end, what is at stake is the future of one of the most extraordinary regions in North America. The fate of the Sacred Headwaters transcends the interests of local residents, provincial agencies, mining companies and those few among the first nations who favour industrial development at any cost. The voices of all Canadians deserve to be heard. B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, to his immense credit, has attached his legacy to the fight against global warming, boldly calling for a 33-per-cent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020. What better way to celebrate such a courageous act of leadership than to say to Royal Dutch Shell that no amount of methane gas can compensate for the sacrifice of a place that can be the Sacred Headwaters of all Canadians.
_____________________________

From iLCP’s RAVE (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition) Director, Trevor Frost:

The international League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), with support from Patagonia, joined this campaign by launching a Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition (RAVE) after receiving an invitation from Wade Davis, an iLCP Fellow, and the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC) (another Patagonia Grantee) to document the region for a photo book that will be published Fall 2011. The photographers on the RAVE included Wade Davis, Paul Colangelo, Carr Clifton, Joe Riis, and Claudio Contreras. A campaign will be be built in coordination with SWCC around the launch of the book that will include a traveling exhibit and lecture/slideshows by Wade and others. Now is the critical time to act: the moratorium on mining in the Sacred Headwaters will cease in 2012. Other partners on the RAVE included the Bateman Centre at Royal Roads, long time Patagonia ally Bruce Hill at the Headwaters Initiative, the Swift Foundation, and the Wilburforce Foundation. Take action here: http://skeenawatershed.com/projects/detail/sacred_headwaters_campaign/
or upload a personal video message of why you support the fight for the Sacred Headwaters to iLCP’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/conservationphotography

October 25 2010 » News Clippings » West Coast Environmental Law

Will BC’s cabinet shuffle unleash Mr. Hyde on the environment?

Most governments have at least two distinct personalities when it comes to environmental protection. In the spirit of Hallowe’en this Sunday, let’s call them Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll recognizes the need to protect our environment, while building a sustainable economy, even if that means saying “no” sometimes to economically lucrative industrial operations. Dr. Hyde is the part of government that starts salivating at the thought of all the lovely tax dollars and short-term economic growth flowing in. At different points in time one or the other personality may appear more dominant.

This morning (October 25th) Premier Campbell restructured his cabinet. One of the most significant features of the new Cabinet is the creation of a new Ministry, the Ministry of Natural Resource Operations (MNRO), to be headed by Minister Steve Thomson. This new Ministry is given responsibility for a wide range of natural resource approvals, including (see the government release for the full list) approvals related to:

* Crown land allocation and authorizations; * Forests and range authorizations * Independent power production * Mines and minerals titles, permitting and inspections; * Water use planning and authorizations * Fish, wildlife and habitat management * Pests, disease, invasive plants and species * Archaeology and Heritage Conservation Act permitting

Essentially this new Ministry is a “one stop shop” that industry can come to for most, if not all, approvals it might need from the BC government. This is being done to facilitate industry access to government approvals.

The MNRO has all the powers that the government’s Mr. Hyde persona would love to have, without much in the way of the responsibility to plan for environmental protection.

And the question is: how will the Ministries responsible for the Dr. Jekyll persona – that is for environmental planning and protecting crown land, forests, fish, the environment and heritage conservation – be able to exercise control over the Mr. Hyde persona? How will the left hand talk to the right hand?

A Blogger, BC Iconoclast, has already posted his thoughts on the new Ministry, and he seems to miss this fundamental point, writing:

What we have is a ministry that will be taking on a lot of planning roles from a host of different ministries.

With respect to BC Iconoclast, there is nothing in the reshuffle to indicate that the new Ministry is responsible for planning akin to the former Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management (it’s named the Ministry of Natural Resource Operations, not Management).

If we need to look to an historic example of this type of one-window approach to approvals, the example would be Land and Water BC – a Crown Corporation which, in the early 2000s, aggressively authorized commercial use of public lands, sold public properties and issued water permits with little public accountability in a misguided effort to promote economic development – a clear illustration of what happens when the Mr. Hyde personality is allowed to run things. Land and Water BC was eventually dropped, in part due to public protest about the controversial liquidation of public lands.

The Ministry of Natural Resource Operations is also responsible for the Oil and Gas Commission, another entity intended to provide a one-window approach to environmental approvals. West Coast has written recently on that agency’s apparent inability to properly regulate water use by the Oil and Gas industry.

If the new MNRO wants to have environmental credentials, it will need to demonstrate in short order that it is not just an approval-granting machine, a personification of Mr. Hyde, but that it accepts its marching orders from the Ministries that have a more Dr. Jekyll-like mandate, and that environmental concerns are appropriately and responsibly addressed in its deliberations. [Update – 26 October 2010 – More details about the shuffle are emerging]

What does it mean for the budget?

If the separation of environmental power from environmental responsibility is not alarming enough, it’s worth considering what this means for funding for environmental policy-making and planning in next year’s budget.

Until now when a government cut funding to the Ministries of Environment, Forests or Tourism, industry also suffered – through longer wait-times to get approvals for water use, logging or interference with heritage sites. This created an incentive, even from a Mr. Hyde point of view, to ensure at least a minimum level of funding to these Ministries.

That incentive is now gone, since these approvals will now be routed through the Ministry of Natural Resource Operations, which, one presumes, will be well funded.

Happy Hallowe’en!

By Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer

P.S. As an aside, we were surprised to note that the Ministry of Natural Resource Operations is responsible for “Aquaculture licensing and regulation.” For the most part this industry is now federally regulated as a result of Alexandra Morton’s court case on the subject, and the provincial government has indicated that it accepts that ruling.

October 14 2010 » Home Feature

Swim Team on Tour with “Awakening the Skeena” & BIG Auctions!

Get your bid in on the” guided fishing”:http://www.skeenawatershed.com/auction and” heliski”:http://skeenaheliskiing.com/ trips – Auction closes January 15th.

Thanks to Islas Secas in Panama, and the Skeena Heliskiing for donating these epic adventures. Check it out.

Get your copy of Awakening the Skeena:
Purchase online
Wholesale Purchases (Retailers or Large quantities) – contact Filmmaker, Andrew Eddy
Our SWCC headquarters in Hazelton is now stocked with DVD’s for purchase as well. Just in time for Christmas!! Call (250)842-2494 for more information or email us
The film is $20 (+$5 shipping and handling from the SWCC office)
See the film trailer

October 14 2010 » News Clippings » Globe and Mail

Canada not ready for Shale Gas Boom

Canada’s fledgling shale gas industry faces a growing clamour for tighter regulations and greater protection of local water sources amid fears that aggressive drilling techniques carry a heavy environmental cost.

The enormous potential of shale gas resources is considered a “game changer” in the North American energy landscape, promising large supplies of relatively low-cost fuel for decades. But the industry is encountering stiff opposition in Quebec, New York state and other jurisdictions where residents and environmentalists worry that drilling techniques using chemical-laced water, a process known as fracking, pose a threat to drinking water and wildlife.
More related to this story

Will Canada’s Water be Protected in the Rush to Develop Shale Gas?

As Quebec holds raucous and divisive hearings over the future of its promising shale industry, a new study to be published Thursday by the University of Toronto argues that Canadian regulators are wholly unprepared for the shale gas boom that is sweeping North America.

“To date, Canada has not developed adequate regulations or public policy to address the scale or cumulative impact of hydraulic fracking on water resources,” says the report by Ben Parfitt, a Victoria-based researcher whose work was commissioned by the water program at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.

Mr. Parfitt said the federal government is virtually absent from the discussion, while provinces issue oil companies with individual water-use permits despite having little understanding of the cumulative impacts of increasing drilling activity, no public reporting on the chemicals or amount of industrial water withdrawals and no systematic mapping of the country’s aquifers.

Without a more robust regulatory approach, “rapid shale gas development could potentially threaten important water resources, if not fracture the country’s water security,” Mr. Parfitt wrote in the study, which will be formally released Thursday at a day-long Munk School conference.

The international oil industry is investing heavily in North America shale plays. Just last weekend, Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM-T18.16-0.25-1.36%) announced it is teaming up with Norway’s Statoil ASA for a $1.3-billion (U.S.) acquisition of properties in Texas’ Eagle Ford shale. As well, China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) said it is investing $1-billion for a one-third stake in Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s Eagle Ford play.

In Canada, companies like Talisman, Encana Corp., (ECA-T30.73-0.15-0.49%) and U.S-based Apache Corp. are planning massive investment in northeastern B.C. and western Alberta, notably in the prolific Horn River and Montney plays. Companies are also eager to develop Quebec’s Utica shale zone and in New Brunswick. As well, the industry is applying the drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques to other oil and unconventional gas fields in Alberta and Saskatchewan – using high-pressured, chemically-treated water to break open tight formations and release the trapped hydrocarbons.

The industry acknowledges that massive expansion of shale development through hydraulic fracturing could threaten water supplies if not properly done, but insist that provincial regulators and the companies themselves are prepared to meet the challenge through water recycling, and tapping salt-water aquifers.

In northeastern B.C., “there is a realization the full-blown development in some of these shale regions is going to tax the water availability if we go forward with a traditional, business-as-usual approach to how water is used,” said Kevin Heffernan, vice-president of Calgary-based Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas, a industry-backed association.

“And certainly the industry is very, very aware that shale-gas development is water intensive and is working hard to find approaches that are going to make sense for the long term,” Mr. Heffernan said in an interview.

But Mr. Parfitt suggests the industry – with the blessing of the B.C. regulator – is forging ahead with development plans in British Columbia and elsewhere while key questions remain unanswered.

While the industry claims there is no evidence that hydraulic fracturing has contaminated aquifers, the researcher cited a number of cases in the United States where ground water was tainted during nearby drilling activity. And there is no requirement in Canada for companies to disclose what chemicals they use in fracturing – as there is in several states.

As well, there has been no assessment in B.C. – or other provinces – of how the industry will be able to dispose of massive amounts of waste water that is produced during the drilling, a key concern regarding possible surface water contamination.

“The pace of the shale gas revolution demands greater scrutiny before more fracture lines appear across the country,” he said.

See full article

September 28 2010 » News Clippings » Elizabeth May's Blog

Wade Davis supports Greens; Greens support his effort to protect Sacred Headwaters

~ Elizabeth May See online version

On Saturday night in Vancouver, the Green Party received an overwhelming and ringing endorsement from anthropologist Wade Davis. This year, Wade Davis delivered the prestigious Massey lectures. Wade’s work for decades has focused on the threats to endangered peoples — the indigenous peoples of Sarawak and the Amazon. On Saturday, he shared, in an impassioned talk, how he now feels he is one of those endangered peoples. Imperial Metals is planning a huge copper and gold mine in his beloved Stikine Valley, right near his home.

I have blogged before about the Red Chris mine, but for its impact on environmental law — not for the impact on the land itself. Mining Watch Canada, represented by Eco-justice, took the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. A giant mine like Red Chris should have had a comprehensive study review, but the Department of Fisheries and Oceans ducked the review by describing the project as only the infrastructure, not the mine itself. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Harper government could not do what they did — examine the impact of the mine by narrowing the impacts and ignoring the mine. Even though the court ruled the government had broken the law, the Supreme Court said that it would allow the Red Chris mine to go ahead and lectured the government not to do it again. So the Harper government decided to change the environmental assessment law so it can, in future, describe a project any way it wants. The Harper government broke the law and then re-wrote it so it can do so again and again. In a real sense, they have broken the law permanently by changing it such that it will never again require full assessments.

Meanwhile, what of the Red Chris mine? The local First Nation, the Tahltan, describe the area where the mine is planned as the “Sacred Headwaters” – the birthplace of three major salmon-bearing rivers of the Stikine, Nass and Skeena. Streams will be dammed and the water bodies used as toxic dumps. Wade showed slide after slide of breathtaking beauty and abundant wildlife. The area has the largest population of Stone’s Sheep as well as grizzly, moose and caribou. He made the point tellingly: none of the bureaucrats who approved the mine had ever even visited the area.

The real loss of irreplaceable wilderness while decision-making is in the grip of the most anti-environmental government in Canadian history gets lost in the media coverage of long guns and long forms. If we do not stand up and oppose the destruction of the Sacred Headwaters, when we finally emerge, as we surely will, from this dark and bleak era of Harper-rule, we will find the death of spectacular wilderness an unbearable price to have paid.

September 28 2010 » News Clippings » rabble.ca

B.C. Rivers Day on the Bulkley

~Tyler McCreary See online version of story
On Sunday, my wife and I went canoeing. Admittedly not usually an event considered newsworthy, this trip was significant for two reasons. First, it was for the thirtieth anniversary of B.C. Rivers Day. Second, it was our first trip together on a B.C. river, and only my wife’s second time in a canoe.

B.C. Rivers Day is a province-wide event, or rather series of events, held every year on the last Sunday in September. Proclaimed by communities across B.C., local organizers host dozens of events across the province to raise public awareness about rivers and the benefits they provide to communities. Over 75,000 people participate in more than 100 events each year, celebrating the role of rivers in our lives as sources of water and salmon, as paddling areas and historic highways, and as geographic features that both astonish us with their breathtaking beauty and quietly remind us that we are home.

But as Rivers Day highlights all there is to celebrate, it also profiles the threats to our waterways. Created in 1980 by Mark Angelo, the initial Rivers Day consisted of forty people spread among five rafts floating down the Thompson River to raise awareness about the need to protect our rivers. Along their trip they cleared junk from the river, including a couple cars Angelo convinced local towing companies to remove. Reflecting on the collection of garbage they assembled by the day’s end, Angelo decided that the event should be annual.

Angelo got the provincial government to officially recognize the day to protect and celebrate rivers, and over the years, dozens of communities have participated. Angelo argues that “B.C. Rivers Day has done much to increase public awareness while encouraging people to get involved in river stewardship.”

B.C. Rivers Day’s success led to the establishment of first Canadian Rivers Day in 2002 and then World Rivers Day in 2005 as part of the United Nations Water For Life Decade. While Canadian Rivers Day is hosted on the second Sunday in June, World Rivers Day is celebrated alongside B.C. Rivers Day at the end of September.

Along the Bulkley River in the northwest interior, folks decided to celebrate Rivers Day in 2010 with series of events, involving first a paddle, then a barbeque, then another paddle, and finally more food and drinks. Gladys Atrill and the folks at Northern Sun Tours organized the flotilla of paddle craft heading down the Bulkley River from the Walcott Bridge.

Due to the heavy rains in the preceding days the river had risen significantly and turned a chocolaty brown. Barbara, my better half, was clearly seeing the worst in the situation. Watching the river speed by from the sand bar, she was less than confident in either her or my abilities. (It probably didn’t help that in our only other canoeing adventure we dumped the canoe over some small rapids).
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Fortunately, the support of a community of paddlers helped calm her anxiety. Francois Depey quietly provided some last minute instructions that provided additional confidence on the water. Away from shore, the river seemed far gentler as we floated along, part of the fleet of sixty-five people paddling down the waterway.

Around noon, we arrived at the opening of the Bulkley River Recreation Centre. After bring the canoe to shore, we found Skeena Wild Conservation Trust and Glacier Toyota provided barbequed salmon and potato salad and hot cider, while the Round Lake Community Association organized speakers, music, and prizes.

The celebration began with an opening by a hereditary chief from the Laksamshu (Fireweed) clan of the Wet’suwet’en, who was responsible for the territory. Ali Howard, a woman who swam the length of the Skeena River to raise awareness about development issues on the river, gave a brief speech noting the importance of rivers. Then local musicians provided the backdrop for a community celebration. The barbeques steadily cooked fish, and people slowly ate, mingled and chatted, while children ran and played.

Eventually the paddlers returned to their boats, and completed the final leg of the journey, a fifteen minute float to the Quick Bridge. There the Friends of the Morice and Bulkley hosted an informal gathering with drinks and snacks, and group photo alongside a mounted sign saying no to Enbridge’s proposed tar sands oil pipeline.

Grasping upon the political origins of B.C. Rivers Day, the Friends of the Morice and Bulkley united their celebration of the river with opposition to the development activities that threaten it. The group had issued a call for community members to organize myriad events along the waterway, celebrating clean rivers and demonstrating resistance to Enbridge. Recognizing that an oil pipeline spill would endanger the river and everything that depends upon it — salmon, wildlife, water quality, recreation, jobs, and a way of life — Friends of the Morice and Bulkley collected photos from these different events to support their campaign to protect these rivers.

While we are happy to support such a campaign, the pictures from B.C. Rivers Day also represent something else for Barbara and I. They represent a canoe excursion that did not involve an involuntary swim, and the beginning of a discussion about the possibility, indeed necessity, of getting our own canoe.

September 24 2010 » News Clippings » Vancouver Sun

New Water Act may help protect endangered Sacred Headwaters

By Karen Tam Wu, Special to the Sun

The last Sunday of September marks Rivers Day, the day when people around the world celebrate one of the planet’s greatest resources — our rivers. This Rivers Day in British Columbia, however, may be one to mourn.

In May of this year, the headwaters of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers, an area known as the Sacred Headwaters, were declared the most endangered rivers in our province. Royal Dutch Shell’s plan to drill for coal-bed methane (CBM) is the biggest threat to three of our greatest salmon rivers.

During his keynote address at the World Energy Congress in Montreal last week, Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser extolled the virtues of unconventional sources of natural gas as the answer to worldwide hunger for energy, and he claimed the risks associated with extraction were worthwhile. Voser dismissed public concern about the impact of hydraulic fracturing, a technique used to drill for natural gas, on freshwater resources. Voser called for relaxing of regulations to allow natural gas development to “reach its potential.”

Seen somewhat as the messiah who can lead the world to B.C.‘s wealth of natural gas, Bill Bennett, B.C. minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources, became an instant celebrity at the congress.

Given Bennett and Voser’s comments last week, it sounds like B.C. is going full speed ahead in the natural gas business. While some risks of development may be mitigated, ecologically unique and sensitive areas, such as the Sacred Headwaters, should never be endangered in the first place.

The Sacred Headwaters is an intricate complex of lakes and streams, amid delicate alpine meadows, lush with alpine shrubs and flowers. The Skeena is the second longest river in the province and the second-most productive salmon-bearing river in North America. Subjecting an area so abundant with pure freshwater to gas extraction and the subsequent impacts on the local and downstream communities, wildlife and fish that depend on the rivers — the arteries of the landscape — is cause for grief.

Well pads, pipelines and roads associated with CBM would transform this picturesque landscape into an industrial checkerboard. Burying our heads in the sand would only review an equal, if not worse horror underground.

To fracture rock seams to allow the gas to rise to the surface, hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is employed. Millions of gallons of water spiked with an industry trade-secret recipe of hydrocarbons (e. g. diesel, benzene, MTBE) and sand are blasted into the ground at high pressure. Some of the injected fracturing fluids are recovered, but much remains underground. Where these toxic chemicals flow underground is unknown and unpredictable. Thanks to loopholes in, and exemptions to, regulation, companies are not required to disclose the full ingredient list of injected chemicals, or which are toxic and/or carcinogenic.

The impacts of fracking that communities have reported in the U.S., where commercial-scale CBM extraction has been occurring, are frightening: fish and other aquatic life suffering from decreased water flow in streams and lakes; residents lighting their tap water on fire; drinking-water wells, and even homes, exploding; fish kills due to fracturing fluid spilling into wetlands and creeks; and cattle dying due to contaminated surface water.

This could sound like the makings of a eulogy for the Sacred Headwaters, but there’s hope. The B.C. government is modernizing the Water Act. It was originally passed in 1909 — a time when the West was being settled. Social, economic and ecological conditions were very different from current reality.

To protect our precious water resources, a modernized Water Act must:

- Prioritize values such as basic human needs (e. g. clean, non-flammable drinking water) and ecologically based flows to protect fish and wildlife.

- Regulate groundwater usage.

- Require oil and gas companies to fall under the same requirements as other users, and apply for a licence from the Ministry of Environment, rather than repeatedly obtaining short-term leases through the oil and gas commission.

- Enable local involvement in water resource planning and management, which will prevent firms from monopolizing the resource.

These simple principles will go a long way to addressing the loopholes that currently allow the industrial free-for-all on our water resources that is taking place in the extreme corners of our province, unbeknownst to most of us. A strong Water Act, which protects our water and our rivers, and allows unique places, such as the Sacred Headwaters to thrive, will be cause for celebration.

Karen Tam Wu is an energy campaigner with ForestEthics, a non-profit agency with staff in Canada and the United States.

September 20 2010 » Home Feature

Skeena Swim Film to show at Calgary International Film Festival

Awakening the Skeena will make it’s first festival premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival you’re invited. Film-maker, Andrew Eddy, will be in attendance alongside Ali Howard and her “enchanted” Swim Team.

So come join the fun, SWCC members, volunteers, staff & swim team will be making the journey to Calgary in a salmon decorated convoy and you can jump on board.

We have invited staff from Shell Canada to attend and hope they will make an effort to come see the very film they helped to inspire.

See more about this event

September 14 2010 » News Clippings » CTV News

Shell spending billions to boost natural gas development

Shawn McCarthy

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is betting big on a global shale gas “revolution” and will soon be producing more natural gas than crude oil as it develops properties in Canada, the United States and China.

In the next few years, the international oil company expects to more than triple its production of gas in North America, despite the current glut of gas on the market, Shell chief executive officer Peter Voser said in an interview Monday.

“And we could have more if we want to do so, depending on prices and markets,” Mr. Voser said after delivering a speech to the World Energy Congress, a meeting of energy executives and politicians.

The company plans to spend up to $4-billion in the next few years to develop its Groundbirch property in northeastern British Columbia, and the Marcellus properties in Pennsylvania and New York state that it acquired from East Resources Inc. in a $4.7-billion (U.S.) deal that closed this summer.

“We will be more gas than oil by 2012,” Mr. Voser said, referring to Shell’s production in terms of barrels-of-oil equivalent.

On that basis, the company will see natural gas grow to roughly 58 per cent of its production volume by the end of the decade, from 48 per cent currently.

Mr. Voser acknowledged that North American gas prices are depressed but said the market will move into better balance in the longer term. He expects demand for natural gas to climb as energy consumers – particularly in the power sector – get used to the idea of the abundant supply of gas, as well as its low price and environmental benefits. Globally, he forecast that natural-gas consumption will grow by 25 per cent by 2020 – twice the growth rate of oil.

But it is critical, he said, for governments to impose a price on carbon-dioxide emissions to create incentives for consumers to invest in lower-emitting fuels like natural gas.

While governments have promised some form of carbon prices, the effort in North America has stalled after the U.S. Congress failed to pass a climate bill, and the Canadian government waits to follow the American lead.

The Shell executive extolled the virtues of natural gas and its environmental benefits on a day when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a public hearing in New York state about the impact of shale gas drilling on local water systems.

Environmental groups and some landowners have complained the oil companies are threatening water supplies through the use of hydraulic fracturing, which uses high-pressure, chemically-laced water to crack the shale rock and free the gas.

New York state has essentially prohibited the development of shale gas while it studies the issue, a ban that includes properties Shell acquired from East Resources.

The EPA has in the past said there is no evidence that hydraulic fracturing has contaminated ground water, but there have been documented cases of surface pollution and of methane contaminating well water as a result of nearby drilling operations.

Shell also faces protests over its plan to develop coal-bed methane resources in northwestern British Columbia, in the area know as a Sacred Headwaters, which feeds the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers.

Mr. Voser said the company is used to dealing with environmental concerns, and does not expect the protests to seriously impede the development of shale gas or other unconventional gas resources.

In his speech, the Shell CEO acknowledged that most energy development entails risks and that “things sometimes can and do go wrong” – a clear reference to BP PLC’s disastrous blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

“But let’s remember that energy is the lifeblood of civilization,” he said in his speech.

“Whether we like it or not, producing energy and delivering it to billions of customers around the world comes with certain risks.”

He said the industry has to manage the risks as effectively as possible.

North America is far ahead of the rest of the world in developing unconventional gas reserves, but Mr. Voser said he expects significant growth in Australia, in China and eventually in Europe and South Africa.

But he said the surge in unconventional supply will delay development of Arctic gas and the pipelines required to bring that fuel from the Alaska and Canadian offshore.

“There will be natural gas [developed] in the Arctic but you are most probably talking quite long term now. But I think it will be developed over time.”

September 14 2010 » News Clippings » CBC News

Natural Gas Risks Worthwhile - Shell CEO

Jolan Bailey, a volunteer with the B.C. environmental group Forest Ethics, shares anti-cbm gas literature with Peter Voser, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, at the World Energy Congress. Photo submitted by Andrée Forest

The promising natural-gas industry carries environmental risks as companies work harder than ever to unlock it, a top international oil executive conceded Monday at the World Energy Congress in Montreal.

‘Whether we like it or not, producing energy and delivering it to billions of customers around the world comes with certain risks. Rather than closing our eyes to that reality, we must confront risks and manage them.‘—Peter Voser, Royal Dutch Shell CEO

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser told delegates at the conference that the world is on the cusp of a natural gas supply boom.

He said recent events – like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill – are a reminder that sometimes things can go wrong.

“I realize that there’s some public concern that fracturing could affect fresh water layers in the ground,” Voser said in his keynote speech at the conference.

“We take that concern seriously … Whether we like it or not, producing energy and delivering it to billions of customers around the world comes with certain risks.

“Rather than closing our eyes to that reality, we must confront risks and manage them as effectively as we can.”

However, Voser strongly defended the potential of natural gas as a clean and abundant energy source that will help countries reduce their overall greenhouse gas emissions. He even called on governments Monday to loosen regulations, and allow natural-gas extraction to reach its full potential.

The head of Europe’s largest oil company says the fuel will play a bigger role in the global energy mix in the coming decades.

He predicts the world’s annual natural gas demand will increase by 25 per cent by 2020 – and almost 50 per cent by 2030 – as emerging countries like China continue to grow.

“A key question is whether the world’s appetite for natural gas will keep pace with supplies,” Voser said.

Tapping into deep gas reservoirs is easier than ever with the help of new technology — and Canada is home to many promising reserves trapped underground.

Shell owns extraction rights in British Columbia, where the corporation is already producing enough gas to power more than 400,000 homes. Voser used Shell’s operations in B.C. to illustrate Canada’s potential in shale and tight gas, both of which must be extracted from rock deposits.

In one unconventional extraction method called hydraulic fracturing – or “fracking” – water, chemicals and sand are blasted down a well to release gas from shale.
‘Fracking’ is controversial

Shale gas production has ignited public fears of water contamination in Quebec and B.C., where the drilling – either exploratory or productive – has already begun.

Exploratory drilling in lowlands along the shores of the St. Lawrence River this past year have prompted some communities to call for a moratorium on shale gas activity.

Those concerns have prompted the Quebec government to schedule public hearings this fall and conduct an environmental review on the issue.

Quebec is also set to review its mining laws later this year.

September 13 2010 » Media Releases

CEO of Royal Dutch Shell Confronted by Protestors at World Energy Congress

ForestEthics volunteer, Jolan Bailey handing the spoof document to Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Peter Voser. Photo courtesy of ForestEthics.org

(Vancouver, B.C.) – Before his keynote address today at the World Energy Congress in Montreal, CEO of global energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, Peter Voser was confronted by environmentalists to “get the Shell out” of Sacred Headwaters.

A brochure, mocked up as a Shell publication, was handed out to Voser and 1000 Congress attendees, ridiculing Shell’s activities to drill coalbed methane in the Sacred Headwaters.

“Shell cannot call themselves socially responsible when they have dismissed and undermined clear opposition from residents and communities in the Skeena, Nass, and Stikine watersheds,” said Shannon McPhail, Executive Director of Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. “Shell has never commercially produced coalbed methane in British Columbia – not to mention in salmon-bearing ecosystems or vulnerable alpine environments. I don’t think the Sacred Headwaters and our wild salmon should be their guinea pigs. Shell needs to respect our community’s demands and ‘get the Shell out’.”

Shell holds a 400,000 hectare tenure to drill for coalbed methane, a form of natural gas found in coal seams. “Shell would drill 1,500 to 10,000 wells for commercial-scale extraction. The pristine landscape would be transformed into an industrial checkerboard of roads, wellpads, and pipelines,” said Karen Tam Wu, Energy Campaigner with ForestEthics.

“Royal Dutch Shell purports to be a leader in tackling the ‘Clean Energy Challenge’. Does that include threatening the wild salmon ecosystems communities depend on for sustenance and economic well-being? Or putting the habitat of endangered caribou and grizzly bears at risk?” asked Tam Wu. “There is no way coalbed methane can be developed without altering this fragile alpine environment.”

An ad was also taken out in local newspapers, demanding the company abandon its operations in the headwaters of three major salmon-bearing rivers in northwest British Columbia. The headline of the ad, placed by ForestEthics and Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition reads “Three of the great salmon rivers run from [the Sacred Headwaters]. So should Shell.”

The British Columbia government placed a temporary ban on Shell’s activities in December 2008, for a period of two to four years. This last March, the Sacred Headwaters were declared the Most Endangered Rivers in British Columbia, due to Shell’s coalbed methane proposal. UNESCO has also said the area meets its criteria for a World Heritage Site.

Media Contact:

Claudia Li, ForestEthics Communications Officer, 604-331-6201 ext. 224
_

August 03 2010 » News Clippings » Terrace Standard

Youth on the Water

YOUTH On the Water (YOW) participants scout out the Copper River’s waters below before taking it on in their rafts. YOW participant Owen Merrill guides the raft down a section of the river.

SCRAMBLING UP the side of a canyon they scout out the river. The powerful, churning and pumping white water below is their destination and there’s no turning back.

They make their way through the glacial waters of the Copper River, manning the rafts and scouting out obstacles like sweepers – fallen trees – in order to make the best line down the river.

This is just one afternoon for local youth who participated in the new program, Youth On the Water (YOW), free for participants and developed by Chris Gee with the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. The program is in it’s second year, taking place last summer in the Hazletons, and coming to Terrace this year.

The nine lucky participants included Kylie Anderson, Luke and Mitch Sabal, Moses Watts, Owen Merrill, Dane Cameron, Jonas Coxen, Dillon Jensen and Patrick Moore.

The group spent the last two weeks on the waters of the northwest, learning the ins and outs of river raft guiding, first on Lakelse Lake, then taking it up a notch to the Copper, Kitimat and Skeena River.

They learned swift water rescue and river raft guiding techniques, including nearly 10 different rope ties, and how to read the water and choose the best line to travel. Guest speakers also covered educational units on specific topics such as fish species and life-cycles, wildlife habitat, First Nations culture and other current threats to the Skeena River watershed.

Ali Howard, who swam the entire length of the Skeena River last summer to raise awareness about industrial threats to the watershed, also paid the participants a visit near the end of the course.

“It’s a great opportunity to learn tangible and transferable job skills, the notion that a person can maneuver down a river, that is a huge self esteem booster,” said Gee.

The program also opens the doors for youth who may not have ever had an opportunity to be on the water, and that goes for Anderson, the lone female participant.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, I just never had the opportunity,” she says. “It’s a lot of learning, but it’s interesting….I’ve enjoyed everything, it’s all pretty awesome, it’s an amazing opportunity.”

Anderson says she know only a bit about the watershed, but taking the program has given her a more in depth insight to how everything works, with a lot more detail.

Kim Ward-Robberts facilitated the program with help from Hatha Callis with Skeena Valley Expeditions, guiding the youth through all the different units that make up the program.

This is also a starting point for some participants who are now interested in taking on a career as guides, including Watts and Mitch and Luke.

“That is the reason why I wanted to take it, I want a career in outdoor recreation as a guide,” says Mitch.

It’s evident that the program was an engaging, challenging and rewarding experience as participants tried their hand at tying different knots on the bus ride to the put-in site on the Copper, taking turns shouting out answers to Callis’ and Ward-Robberts questions about what they’ve learned so far.

And when asked what their favourite part of the program was, most answered, “well, everything.”__

July 27 2010 » News Clippings » Terrace Standard

Youth Take it to the Water

LOCAL YOUTH hit the calm waters of Lakelse Lake last week to practice flipping a raft and learning techniques to pull themselves out from the water and back onto the safety of the raft. This is an essential ability to learn before they take a raft down a river with faster flowing water.

BEING able to confidently guide a raft down swift white water is just one of the accomplishments youth will walk away with from a unique new program here.

The name is Youth On the Water (YOW) and it encourages youth to get outdoors and to learn about the watershed they live in.

Right now eight local youth are in their second week of the program, learning things like how to be a river raft guide, rope ties and swift water rescue.

The program started on July 19 and has had participants progress from working in Lakelse Lake, to taking on rapids in the Copper River. This Monday they were also treated to a visit from Ali Howard, who swam the entire length of the Skeena River last summer to raise awareness about industrial threats to the watershed.

The program is in its second year, first taking place last summer in the Hazeltons. It was developed by Chris Gee with the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, with a goal of connection youth to the water.

Check in next week for more on YOW.

June 15 2010 » Home Feature

10,000 Salmon Art Project - Exhibit is OPEN!

Last year, we sent Northwest B.C. students 10,000 salmon templates to be coloured and decorated to carry forward the spirit of the Skeena Swim. Over 6,000 of these salmon were returned to us, beautifully decorated by youth from pre-school kids to Grade 12 students and even a lot of teachers. The salmon have been applied to 28 giant paper-maché salmon as part of a new regional art project, Grand Opening on June 18.

The exhibit will continue until the end of October. We are honoured and blessed by the incredible support received from schools, teachers, students and community members. This project truly embodies the spirit of the Skeena swim and will help that spirit of celebration and connection continue in our watersheds.
Thanks to all those that have helped us get this project going:
Village of Hazelton, The Senden Group, Bruce Chandler, Misty Rivers Art Council, Diamond Willow Boys, Cynthia McCreery, Randy’s Image Design Signs, BV Printers, Jeannine Knox, Julia Hill, From the Heart Studio, Ali Howard and MANY others!!

Communities that participated in the project include:
New Hazelton, South Hazelton, Old Hazelton, Two Mile, Moricetown, Smithers, Houston, Skidegate, Masset, Charlotte City, Gingolx, New Aiyansh, Gitwinsilkw, Terrace, Port Edward, Prince Rupert, Gitsegukla, Kitwanga, Gitanyow, Kispiox, Stewart, Telegraph Creek, Iskut, Dease Lake, Nass Valley, Gitanmaax, Glen Vowell, Kitimat, Telkwa, and Greenville.

A big thank-you to our SALMON SPONSORS: Each of these organizations/businesses sponsored 1 of these giant salmon for $500!!
Driftwood Foundation
Bulkley Valley Credit Union
Eberts Family
Prince Rupert Back Country Recreation Society
Good Hope Cannery
Silver Hilton Lodge – Sponsored 6 giant salmon!
Billabong Road & Bridge Maintenance

Want to sponsor a salmon too? Contact:
Shannon McPhail, Executive Director
Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition
(250) 842-2494 or 842-8738 (cell)
Shannon@skeenawatershed.com
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June 13 2010 » » Terrace Standard

Getting Youth on the Water

By Molly McNulty
THIS SUMMER eight lucky youth will have the opportunity to take part in a unique program which will provide river raft guide training, along with invaluable knowledge about the watershed.

The program is called Youth On the Water (YOW), developed by Chris Gee with the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. This is the second session for the program, which is free for the youth, taking place last summer in the Hazeltons. The program is now expanding with sessions this summer in Terrace, Smithers, Moricetown and Hazelton.

Gee developed the program because of a personal love of the river and water, and says that any means of connecting youth with the watershed is a valuable endeavour. “The idea is to connect young people to water in such a way that they take the opportunity to understand the value of the river beyond resource extraction,” says Gee. “It’s a great opportunity to learn tangible and transferable job skills, the notion that a person can maneuver down a river, that is a huge self esteem booster.”

Youth will learn swift water rescue and river raft guiding techniques, but guest speakers will cover educational units on specific topics such as fish species and life-cycles, wildlife habitat, First Nations culture and other current threats to the Skeena River watershed. YOW participants in Hazelton last year were able to take part in Ali Howard’s historic swim of the Skeena River by meeting her and her team on the water and guiding them into the community.

“I was absolutely thrilled, I could not believe the change in the young people, the confidence that was evident in their appearance, they way they walked, talked…some kids in the program didn’t know that right in their backyard they have a river people come from around the world to visit,” he says. Gee also notes that another important aspect of the program is to engage youth for future battles to protect the watershed from industrial projects. “We can only sustain our energy to fight against bad industrial [plans] for so long, big companies like Shell or Enbridge they can out wait all of us, what do they care to wait 15 to 20 years …the struggle now is people will be burnt out and tired, if we can in some way connect young people so they can recognize the need to take up the struggle against these poorly planned industrial projects,” he says.

Kim Ward-Robberts will facilitate the program in Terrace this summer, which runs from July 19 to 30. She says they will start out on the lake and gradually move onto an easy section of the Copper or Skeena River, with help from Hatha Callis with Skeena Valley Expeditions.

For this year’s session Ward-Robberts is looking for a letter of intent from eight enthusiastic youth (four boys, four girls) ages 16 to 20. “We want people who want to be out there,” she says.

Interested youth can send a letter of intent to Ward-Robberts at kimmyward@hotmail.com, deadline is the end of June.

May 27 2010 » » Reuters

Enbridge files Gateway pipeline plan, fight looms

By Allan Dowd

Enbridge says line can be operated safely

Native group calls it “act of aggression” (Updates with opposition reaction, adds details)

VANCOUVER, May 27 (Reuters) – Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO). asked Canadian regulators on Thursday for permission to build its controversial Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to the Pacific Coast.

The long-anticipated announcement sets the stage for a bitter battle with environmental and aboriginal groups who say the risk of a tanker accident along the rugged and picturesque British Columbia coast is too great.

“The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project will open important new markets for Canadian crude oil; it will create jobs and a substantial long-term boost to our nation’s economy as well as the communities through which it will pass,” Enbridge Chief Executive Patrick Daniel said in a statement.

The C$5.5 billion ($5.2 billion) project would move up to 525,000 barrels a day of oil from Alberta to the port of Kitimat, British Columbia, giving Asia direct access to Canada’s vast oil sands via tankers. The line would also be used to import condensate.

Enbridge has said it wants the Northern Gateway line in operation by 2016.

Opponents lashed out at the filing, with the spokesman for a British Columbia aboriginal group calling it “an act of aggression” and “arrogant”, given that it comes while crews are still fighting the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“This means all out war,” said Art Sterritt, a spokesman for the Coastal First Nations.

Opponents released a poll on Wednesday saying 80 percent of British Columbians would oppose increased tanker traffic along the coast, which has been restricted on a voluntary basis since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

Enbridge said the eight-volume regulatory application it filed with the National Energy Board will demonstrate that the 1,172 km (760 mile) line and tanker traffic can be operated safely.

“Construction and operation of the Northern Gateway pipeline system and marine terminal will be a model of world-class safety and environmental standards,” Daniel said in a news release.

Enbridge says that fears of a disaster are unfounded, because Kitimat, a small industrial and forestry community, has been visited safely by more than 1,500 ships carrying petrochemical products over the past 25 years..

Modern tankers are built to withstand accidents such as the grounding of the Exxon Valdez, which helped prompt restrictions on offshore energy development on Canada’s West Coast, the company and pipeline supporters say.

Legal observers have said the BP Plc (BP.L) spill in the Gulf of Mexico could strengthen any aboriginal claims and that native groups’ concerns about the environmental impact of a spill must be addressed before the line is built.

Sterritt said compensation for territorial rights lost if the pipeline is built may not be possible because the cultures of some native Indian communities would be wiped out in the event of a major tanker accident and oil spill.

The Northern Gateway Alliance, a coalition of businesses and residents who support the project, welcomed Enbridge’s announcement and said the line would bring needed economic development to the region.

See full article

May 20 2010 » Media Releases

385km Stand Up Paddleboard Expedition Completed Successfully

Squamish  resident  Norm  Hann  has  completed  what  many  thought  was  impossible.    His  385km  Stand  Up  Paddleboard  expedition  through  Canada’s  Great  Bear  Rainforest  started  in  the  Haisla  Village  of  Kitimat,  B.C  on  May  8th,  and  ended  yesterday  in  the  Heiltsuk  village  of  Bella  Bella,  where  he  was  greeted  by  a  large  gathering  of  local  residents,  including  school  children,  hereditary  chiefs,  elders  and  other  community  leaders.      With  stops  in  Hartley  Bay,  Klemtu  and  as  far  west  as  the  Moore  Islands,  the  expedition  helped  bring  awareness  to  the  environmental  threat  the  proposed  Enbridge  oil  pipeline  and  tanker  traffic  will  have  on  the  Great  Bear  Rainforest,  its  people  and  wildlife.  Hann  also  visited  a  number  of  vital  food  harvesting  sites  for  First  Nations,  which  are  at  risk  from  potential  oil  spills.  The  expedition  served  to  galvanize  support  amongst  coastal  residents  in  opposition  to  the  proposed  oil tanker  route.  
“It  was  an  incredible  journey.  The  weather  allowed  us  to  visit  wild  and  remote  places  rich  in  wildlife  and  traditional  foods.  This  expedition  confirmed  how  special  and  rare  this  coastal  environment  really  is.  First  Nations  from  Kitimat  to  Bella  Bella  expressed  how  valuable  their  natural  resources  are  to  their  livelihood  and  sense  of  place.  They  were  in  full  100%  support  of  not  having  oil tankers  on  our  coast.   Our  team  was  honoured  to  be  welcomed  into  their  communities  and  we  were  fortunate  to  have  their  guidance  throughout our trip.” 
Hann  runs  Mountain  Surf  Adventures  in  Squamish  and  has  been  a  professional  outdoor  guide  in  the  Great  Bear  Rainforest  for  ten  years  and  is  very  connected  to  the  land  and  its  people.  As  a  fishing,  kayaking,  wildlife  and  bear  viewing  guide  he  has  introduced  people  from  all  over  the  world  to  the  Great  Bear Rainforest. 

To  schedule  an  interview  with  Norm  Hann,  please  call Shannon  at  604‐818‐7426  or  email  at  standup4greatbear@gmail.com. 

To  read  a  detailed  account  of  the  StandUp4GreatBear  Expedition  please  visit   http://www.mountainsurfadventures.blogspot.com  

May 07 2010 » News Clippings » The Georgia Strait

B.C. needs permanent solution for threatened Sacred Headwaters

Photo: Brian Huntington

~Karen Tam Wu

In a mystical place called the Sacred Headwaters, three of B.C.’s wildest rivers—the Nass, Skeena, and Stikine—are born. These three magnificent rivers are a only one- or two-day walk from each other—a rare phenomenon in nature. The Sacred Headwaters is a culturally significant area for First Nations. It is here where Royal Dutch Shell proposes to extract coal-bed methane.

Don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of the Sacred Headwaters. The region isn’t on the Alberta-B.C. road map folded up in my glove compartment. It’s another five to seven hours north off the map—depending on who’s driving. The Skeena is the second longest river in B.C. The Grand Canyon of the Stikine is a run attempted by only the world’s most skilled and daring kayakers, who must navigate turbulent hydraulics, like the Hole That Ate Chicago. The Nass, Skeena, and Stikine are among the most productive salmon-bearing rivers in our province. The Sacred Headwaters is the jackpot for wildlife fanatics like me. Most of Canada’s iconic animals—moose, caribou, wolves, mountain goats, and grizzly bears—roam undisturbed. This place is the farthest I can imagine being from a decent soy latte.

Due to threats from Shell’s proposed plans to develop CBM, the Sacred Headwaters topped the Outdoor Recreation Council of British Columbia’s 2010 most endangered rivers list.

Coal-bed methane is a natural gas, primarily used for household heating. To extract methane found in coal seams 100 to 1,000 metres underground, Shell would need to pump groundwater out. A mix of water, sand, and an industry-trade-secret recipe of chemicals, like benzene, MBTE, and other hydrocarbons, is often injected into the ground to fracture coal seams to free the methane. Each well could produce between 10,000 and 20,000 gallons of wastewater high in salts and chemicals like arsenic and ammonia. Where the injected chemicals would flow underground is unpredictable. Between 1,500 and 10,000 wells would be drilled for production. A pad roughly the size of a baseball field would be constructed for each well, and three-metre-wide roads would be built to connect each well.

Salmon migrate 610 kilometres up the Skeena to spawn in the Sacred Headwaters. Coal-bed methane would desecrate this ecological marvel and transform it into an industrial checkerboard. Pollution- and sediment-laden water would poison fish, clog their gills, and suffocate their eggs.

Shell began its exploration phase by quietly putting in three test wells in 2004 and planned to drill 14 more by 2008. When residents from the Nass, Skeena, and Stikine watersheds caught wind of Shell’s plans, First Nations, ranchers, and environmentalists united. Destruction of the rivers that bring the fish that define their cultures and traditions is unthinkable. Local residents blockaded, rallied in the streets, and held public summits. In 2008, the communities passed resolutions opposing the development of coal-bed methane in the Sacred Headwaters.

In December 2008, the B.C. government heeded the opposition and placed a temporary ban on Shell’s drilling. The two- to four-year moratorium would allow time for First Nations and local communities to gather “sufficient information” about CBM development and to obtain water quality data “sufficient” to determine “potential” impacts of CBM.

Last week, Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources Blair Lekstrom confirmed on Global TV news that 2012 would be the expiration of the moratorium. The government’s imposing of the initial ban in 2008 is laudable, but two more years will not make CBM development more palatable to local communities. In two more years, it will still be sacrilegious to subject these intertwined ecosystems of pristine rivers, thriving salmon stocks, and bountiful wildlife to coal-bed methane development in the Sacred Headwaters.

On a recent trip up north crossing the frozen Stikine, the emerald Nass, and the mighty Skeena, I was beside myself with excitement when we crossed paths with caribou. I was reminded that these wild spaces are our sanctuaries, and are part of our national identity and culture. It’s time we treated them with the reverence they deserve.

I urge you, Minister Lekstrom, to find a permanent solution for the Sacred Headwaters.

Karen Tam Wu is an energy campaigner for ForestEthics in Vancouver. ForestEthics is a nonprofit with staff in Canada and the United States that recognizes that individual people can be mobilized to create positive environmental change—and so can corporations. Armed with this philosophy, ForestEthics has secured the protection of more than 65 million acres of endangered forests. ___

May 03 2010 » » Emagazine.com

Behind the Greens - Ali Howard, River Activist

By Erich Volkstorf

In August 2009, a young chef named Ali Howard, concerned about the dangers facing the Skeena River in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, swam the river’s entire 380-mile length. The headwaters of the Skeena lie within a few miles of the headwaters of two other great rivers, the Stikine and the Nass. This area, known as the Sacred Headwaters, is in danger from industrial development.

Shortly after she completed her swim, Howard was awarded clothing giant Patagonia’s first ever Activist Award. She currently speaks in the U.S. and Canada about the dangers facing the Skeena River watershed.

1. E Magazine: What are the issues facing the Sacred Headwaters?
Ali Howard: One of the main threats is Royal Dutch Shell’s plan to drill for coal bed methane right at the source of those three rivers. Putting a project like that right at the headwaters doesn’t make any sense because it could compromise the integrity of all three river systems. Another project is Enbridge Inc.’s pipeline to carry oil from tar sands in Alberta out to the coast at Kitimat. That would compromise not just the watershed but super tankers on the coast would affect the marine ecosystem.

2. E: Why should people living outside British Columbia be concerned?
A.H.: The Skeena watershed represents one of the few remaining ecologically intact systems in the world. It’s one of the largest undammed watersheds in the world. That alone is notable. It’s a clean water system. Those factors I think make it something that everybody can be concerned about. We have a chance right now to build a model for watershed stewardship and management that could be a worldwide model.

3. E: What inspired you to swim?
A.H.: I had read an article about a Slovenian man named Martin Strel who swam the Amazon River from source to sea. I mentioned it to my friend Shannon at the the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. I said that she should get a hold of him to see if he would do something with her about the Skeena because he swims for clean water systems. And Shannon looked at me and said, “Well, you live here and you swim, so you do it”.

4. E: Were you an experienced swimmer? A.H.: I played water polo at an elite level. But I haven’t played in 10 years.

5. E: Has that swim changed your perception of the Skeena River?
A.H.: I had a great amount of respect for the river going into the project. It was never about conquering the river. During the swim I really just felt like a vessel being used to carry people’s thoughts and ideas. It became a very personal relationship for me with the river. I really felt like I was being embraced by her and carried along safely.

April 29 2010 » Media Releases » SWCC Special Bulletin

BC’s Minister Announces Sacred Headwaters Moratorium to 2012

Hazelton, BC April 29, 2010 – A permanent ban on coalbed methane drilling is required to protect wild salmon habitat in B.C.’s Sacred Headwaters, say Northwest B.C. groups. The groups were reacting to government speculation that the current two-year drilling moratorium will remain in place beyond 2012.

The B.C. government demonstrated leadership by putting the moratorium in place in 2008, but extending the moratorium does not resolve the issue. It’s time to take the final step toward permanent safeguards for the Sacred Headwaters,” said Pat Moss with Friends of Wild Salmon.

In 2008, the BC government imposed a moratorium on Shell’s coalbed methane exploration for a minimum of two years – and not exceeding four years – to allow time for First Nations and other communities to determine the impact of development on water. On a Global TV program on Monday, Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Blair Lekstrom stated that, the moratorium had to continue “ until there is consultation and agreement with local communities…it looks as though 2012 would be the expiration of the agreement.”

“I think government is trying to do the right thing,” said Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition executive director Shannon McPhail. “we have seen the disturbance coalbed methane causes on the land – even under the best case scenarios – and it’s simply unacceptable. Rather than conducting further studies and consultation, which will only reaffirm our opposition, let’s use the extension period to create a long-term solution for the Sacred Headwaters.”

Both Friends of Wild Salmon and the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition are calling on the B.C. government to permanently safeguard the Sacred Headwaters instead.

“A permanent ban on drilling would end the conflict, protect B.C.’s most endangered waterway and provide long-term certainty. Coalbed methane would be a huge source of greenhouse gases; foregoing its development would be consistent with the government’s green energy agenda. It would be a win-win for government, residents and our wild salmon,” said McPhail.

Located in northern B.C. east of Iskut, the Sacred Headwaters is the shared birthplace of three of the province’s most important salmon rivers: the Skeena, Nass and Stikine. It is often called the “Serengetti of the North” for its abundant wildlife populations. Earlier this month, the BC Outdoor Recreation Council listed the Sacred Headwaters as B.C.’s most endangered waterway.

April 26 2010 » Multimedia » Global TV-BC Newscast

Moratorium in Sacred Headwaters EXTENDED

link to online broadcast

April 22 2010 » News Clippings » Canadian Press

Aboriginals warn PM not to weaken environmental laws

VICTORIA — Proposed changes to federal environmental law are an effort to cut aboriginal people out of talks around sensitive projects — including one announced just this week — and conflict will be the result, native leaders say.

The Aamjiwnaag First Nation of Sarnia, Ont., and about 20 other First Nations have written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper demanding he withdraw the amendments to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

Ron Plain, an Aamjiwnaag member, said Thursday the proposed amendments — part of the Conservatives’ Jobs and Economic Growth Act — could result in some sensitive projects proceeding without environmental assessments and proper consultations with aboriginals.

“It’s looking for ways to not consult when it pertains to environmental assessments on major projects,” Plain said Thursday in an interview.

“Without a federal environmental assessment, we won’t be notified of anything of these federal projects. They will just go ahead.”

Plain’s letter to Harper says the proposed Environmental Assessment Act amendments give the federal minister complete discretion on setting the focus for assessments.

The letter reminds Harper that governments must engage in a meaningful consultation process with aboriginals that includes discussing potential impacts on their rights and interests.

“It is baffling why you would now seek to avoid conducting a fulsome planning process for projects enabled by your government,” said the letter.

“Such a regulatory arrangement can only lead to additional conflict between project proponents and aboriginal peoples across Canada.”

Annie Roy, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency in Ottawa, said the amendments focus on three areas:

— Strengthening the role of the federal assessment agency to conduct studies on major projects.

— Giving the environment minister more authority to focus assessments on key areas of projects.

— Making permanent 2009 temporary regulations that exempt routine public infrastructure projects from environmental assessment.

Plain said the courts have consistently sided with aboriginals when it comes to backing their rights to be consulted on projects that may impact their lives.

He said natives are prepared to fight Ottawa to maintain their rights when it comes to environmental projects.

“The government holds private industry’s hand to the fire,” he said. “Well, their hand needs to be held to that same fire.”

He said the Sarnia area, and especially the Aamjiwnaag First Nation, is known for its extensive chemical pollution due to the area’s many petrol-chemical refineries.

“My community was called the most polluted spot in North America by the National Geographic Society,” he said.

Earlier this week, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell announced his province will proceed with the steps necessary to build a third massive hydroelectric dam in northeastern B.C.

Aboriginal groups in the region have said they have not been consulted on the so-called Site C project, which must yet go through an environmental assessment.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, suggested Harper’s proposed amendments are aimed squarely at watering down the environmental process for projects like Site C.

“If mega projects such as … Site C are approved, it will be at the great expense of the constitutionally protected rights of indigenous peoples and the precious environmental legacy that many British Columbians hope to share with future generations,” Phillip said.

The proposed Site C dam, located near Fort St. John, will create an 83-kilometre-long reservoir and will flood almost 5,400 hectares of land.

The dam will generate enough electricity to power 460,000 homes for a century, and is slated for completion in 2020.

Last February, the B.C. government called for amendments to the federal government’s Canadian Environmental Assessment Act “to create a unified federal-provincial review process that does away with redundancy and unnecessary costs.”

Campbell said last winter there are currently more than $3 billion in provincially-approved projects “stranded in the mire of federal process and delay.”

April 22 2010 » News Clippings » Houston Today

Skeena Swim Feature Documentary on Tour

Click here to find out more!
Skeena swim feature documentary on tour
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Houston Today

* MP not impressed with throne speech * Environmental review process questioned * Former premier fighting HST * Snowpacks low * Northwest MPs give Enbridge a firm ‘NO’

BC North

* Awakening the Skeena premiers at home * Movie honours Skeena spirit * Skeena boys ready for zones * Management Puzzle 5 SKEENA ANGLER * Documentary tackles some local issues * Various topics under discussion MP on economic tour

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Published: April 21, 2010 5:00 AM

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Andrew Eddy, Ali Howard and an amazing group of individuals that completed the 650 kilometre adventure down the Skeena River last summer were all on hand for the first screening of the new documentary Awakening the Skeena last Monday at the Roi Theater.

“We’re here in Smithers for the first screening of Awakening the Skeena, which is the film about Ali Howard’s swim of the Skeena River this past summer, so it’s our chance to bring it home and show a lot of people the film, people who helped us out and were part of the big adventure,” said Eddy, a Toronto based film maker.

Gas giant Shell is planing on drilling for Coal Bed Methane at the Sacred Headwaters of the Skeena River, a major spawning ground for Pacific Salmon. So last summer Ali Howard and a team of concerned conservationists decided to follow Howard as she swam the entire length of the Skeena River in an attempt to bring the issue to the masses and push for a permeant moratorium on the drilling in the Sacred Headwaters.

“I hope people will get the message of hope. I hope they appreciate the amazing commitment that an individual made, that Ali made.

“That they draw from that belief that they can make a difference them selves in whatever they do. But also to realize that we all don’t have to do big things, if we all did little things they would move ahead.

“And I also hope they appreciate the theme that some times out of sight is out of mind and you need to tell your story to a bigger audience can appreciate that there’s something pretty amazing up here that needs protecting,” Eddy said.

Currently the film is on tour throught the northwest and over the next eleven months will be show around Canada and will premier on cable television later this year.

For more information contact the SWCC at http://www.skeenawatershed.com

See full article

April 21 2010 » News Clippings » Interior News

Awakening the Skeena Premiers at Home

Wetsu'weten Chief, Roy Morris opens the premier with a traditional song & drumming

~Dan Mesec, Smithers Interior News

“I hope people will get the message of hope. I hope they appreciate the amazing commitment that an individual made, that Ali made. That they draw from that belief that they can make a difference them selves in whatever they do. But also to realize that we all don’t have to do big things, if we all did little things they would move ahead. And I also hope they appreciate the theme that some times out of sight is out of mind and you need to tell your story to a bigger audience can appreciate that there’s something pretty amazing up here that needs protecting,” Eddy said.

Currently the film is on tour throught the northwest and over the next eleven months will be shown around Canada and will premier on cable television later this year.
link to full article

March 29 2010 » News Clippings » Royal Bank of Canada

Majority of Canadians consider water to be Canada’s most important natural resource

The majority of Canadians (53 per cent) rank freshwater as the country’s most important natural resource; ahead of forests (20 per cent), agriculture/farmland (14 per cent), oil (eight per cent) and fisheries (two per cent), according to the 2009 Canadian Water Attitudes Study released today.

More than eight in 10 think Canada will have a freshwater shortage problem if we do not pay attention to conservation. But despite this appreciation of the value of freshwater, Canadians continue to waste it at alarming rates, using five times more water per day than they think they do.

This level of consumption must change, says leading water expert Bob Sandford, following today’s release of the 2009 Canadian Water Attitudes Study, a national opinion survey on Canadians’ awareness, perceptions and habits related to freshwater. The survey, in its second year, was commissioned by Unilever and RBC, and is endorsed by the Canadian Partnership Initiative of the United Nations Water for Life Decade. Full survey results are available for NGOs and other interested parties – {encode=“corporateresponsibilityreport@rbc.com” title=“contact us”}.

“We have a disturbing paradox in Canada when it comes to our freshwater,” says Bob Sandford, chair, Canadian Partnership Initiative of the UN Water for Life Decade. “On the one hand, Canadians appear to value water as a crucial natural resource and understand that conservation of this precious resource is critical. Yet unfortunately at the same time, they don’t seem to know how much water they use each day or where it comes from.”

The Canadian Water Attitudes Study indicates that Canadians believe they use an average of 66 litres of water per day, for drinking, showering, bathing, toilet flushing, laundry and dishwashing. In fact, they actually use five times more – with an actual consumption of about 329 litres per day. Canadians not only underestimate the amount of water they use, but their water habits actually worsened in 2009. For example, the length of showers taken by Canadians increased from 2008 to 2009. Canadians rank second only to the United States in terms of highest per capita water use in the developed world. In comparison, Europeans consume less than half of the water Canadians do.i

There are both serious financial and environmental implications to wasting water.

“While Canadians understand the value of water, they don’t think about its cost or the larger impact on the environment. Irresponsible and inefficient water use directly contributes to climate change. For example, running a tap for five minutes uses as much energy as leaving a 60-watt lightbulb burning for 14 hours,” ii says Sandford. “If water is our most important natural resource, as I believe it is, we need to start using it more responsibly and efficiently, for our country and for the planet.”

“Irresponsible use of water has environmental implications for today, but even more so, for tomorrow,” says John Coyne, vice president, legal and corporate affairs for Unilever Canada. “This study highlights the need for increased awareness about how Canadians use water. The inefficient use of water is a critical dialogue in which governments, NGO’s, business and individuals must engage. For our part, Unilever is committed to leading by example as we reduce our water footprint from operations and supply chain through to the consumer use of our products.”

“Freshwater is essential for human health and all life on earth, so it’s really ‘the’ cause for the ages,” said Shari Austin, vice president, corporate citizenship, RBC. “It’s important for people to understand the value and vulnerability of our water resources, which is why we undertook this survey. That’s also one of the reasons we created the RBC Blue Water Project, our grant program of $50 million over ten years to help protect our watersheds and ensure access to clean drinking water.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE POLL:
Additional Key Themes/Regional Trends

Pollutants and mass exports perceived as biggest threats to Canada’s freshwater supply

Canadians believe the following to be the biggest threats to Canada’s freshwater supply: run-off pollutants from land to water (19 per cent); mass export of water to the US (17 per cent); illegal dumping of toxins (12 per cent); mismanagement of water by municipal, provincial and federal governments (12 per cent); global warming and climate change (eight per cent)
Only six per cent of Canadians believe wasteful use of water by consumers to be a threat to Canada’s freshwater supply

Canadians’ concern for water equals concern for stability of financial markets

Eighty-five per cent of Canadians say they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about the stability of the financial markets; while 84 per cent of Canadians say the same about the long-term supply/quality of Canada’s freshwater
More Quebecers are concerned about the long-term supply and quality of Canada’s freshwater (80 per cent) than the stability of the financial markets (72 per cent)
Eighty-nine per cent of Canadians believe there is a growing freshwater crisis on the planet, and 66 per cent think that Canada is at risk of freshwater supply shortages

Canadians losing confidence in our water supply and safety

Confidence that Canada has enough freshwater for the long term has declined by 11 points, from 81 per cent in 2008 to 70 per cent in 2009
Canadians’ confidence in their region’s available water has declined, from 84 per cent in 2008 to 74 per cent in 2009
Quebecers (58 per cent) have the least amount of confidence that Canada has enough freshwater to meet its long-term needs
Quebecers (68 per cent) and Albertans (67 per cent) have the least amount of confidence that their region has enough freshwater to meet their needs

Attitudes toward water safety are changing

Canadians’ confidence in the safety of Canada’s water supply has declined, from 81 per cent in 2008 to 72 per cent in 2009
Quebecers (54 per cent) have the least confidence in the safety and quality of Canada’s water supply
While most Canadians (68 per cent) still drink their tap water, only 4 in 10 (41 per cent) drink it directly from the tap without first filtering or boiling
One-third of Canadians do not drink the tap water in their home

Attitudes toward conservation

Ninety-five per cent of Canadians believe it is important to conserve freshwater on an ongoing basis
Most people (86 per cent) believe they are making reasonable efforts to conserve freshwater
Only 30 per cent believe that corporations, businesses and industry are making reasonable efforts to conserve freshwater
Significantly more Canadians put effort into electricity conservation than water conservation (28 per cent versus 3 per cent)
Only 40 per cent of the population knows how much they pay for water each month, versus 73 per cent who know what they pay for electricity
Seventy-two per cent of homes in the Prairies say they have water metres; this compares to 39 per cent of Canadians in general
Quebecers (63 per cent) are most likely to know that a bath uses more water than a 10-minute shower
Albertans (90 per cent) are most likely to say that they are making reasonable efforts to conserve freshwater; Atlantic Canadians (83 per cent) are least likely to say this

About the Survey
The 2009 Canadian Water Attitudes Study included an online survey administered by Ipsos Reid from February 5 to 12, 2009. It included a sample of 2,165 adult Canadians from the general population across Canada. The results are considered accurate to within ± 2.2 per cent 19 times out of 20, of what the results would have been had the entire adult population in Canada been polled. The data were weighted by region, age and sex according to 2006 Census data.

About Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the United Nations Water for Life Decade
The United Nations Water for Life Decade is a globally proclaimed decade for action on water quality and availability issues. While each country in the world will be focusing on its own water quality and availability issues within the larger context of the global fresh water situation, the Canadian initiative has been defined by a nation-wide public and private sector partnership aimed at identifying and responding to regional and national water issues. The United Nations Water for Life initiative in Canada exists to put Canadian water issues into a global context. The Canadian United Nations Water for Life partnership initiative is housed, and has its research home in the Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative at the University of Lethbridge.

For more information about the Canadian partnership initiative in support of the United Nations Water For Life Decade visit http://www.thinkwater.ca.

March 24 2010 » News Clippings » Vancouver Sun

Kettle River, Sacred Headwaters most endangered rivers in BC, recreation council says.

The "Sacred Headwaters," an area of northern B.C. near the south end of Spatsizi Pleateau Wilderness Park that is the source of the headwaters of the Skeena, Nass, and Stikine rivers. Coalbed methane development is proposed for the area. It is on the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC's annual top ten list of endangered rivers. Photo: Brian Huntington

One of B.C.’s smallest rivers and the source of three of its biggest are tied atop the Outdoor Recreation Council’s list of the province’s top-10 most endangered rivers released Wednesday.

The Kettle River, which flows through southern B.C. and into Washington state east of Osoyoos on Highway 3, topped the council’s annual list because of low water flows and high temperatures that threaten fish.

The report says the problems range from excessive water extraction to development, including Big White’s proposed extraction of 1.8 million litres due to expansion of the ski hill and new condo development and snow making.

The report calls for a watershed management plan that would put the brakes on “seemingly unbridled development now taking place in the upper watershed.”

Tied with the Kettle River is an area of northwestern B.C. known as the Sacred Headwaters, source of the salmon-bearing Stikine, Skeena, and Nass rivers.

Shell Canada is interested in coal bed methane gas extraction in the headwaters, located south of Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park.

The headwaters is home to some of the greatest abundance of wildlife in the province, including caribou, Stone sheep, grizzly bears and wolves.

A provincial moratorium on coal bed methane development in the headwaters is due to expire in December, but should be made permanent, the council states.

The council describes coal bed methane extraction as a “highly invasive process that would compromise the biological richness” of the area. The generation of vast amounts of waste water, high in salts and heavy metals, poses a risk to groundwater aquifers, it concludes.

Mark Angelo, the council’s rivers chair and an Order of Canada recipient, said in an interview that the long list of threats to rivers around the province include pollution, development, power production, and excessive extraction.

These threats cry out for change to B.C.’s Water Act to “ensure the needs of fish and river ecosystems are adequately considered before making decisions on water extraction for various industrial uses.”

The B.C. government is conducting a review of the Water Act, established in 1909.

The government says the four goals of modernizing the Water Act are: protection of stream health and aquatic environments; improvement of water governance arrangements; introduction of more flexibility and efficiency in water allocation; regulation of groundwater use in priority areas and for large withdrawals.

The council whose members number about 100,000, has for the past 18 years compiled a list of B.C.’s top-10 endangered rivers, based on responses from members, the general public and resource managers.

Angelo, who is also chair of the Rivers Institute at BCIT, said the list has had a “significant and positive impact” on raising awareness of threats to rivers among the public and government officials.

The Flathead River in southeast B.C. was named the province’s most endangered river in 2009 due to international concerns over proposed coal mining and coal bed methane extraction. Last month, the B.C. government announced a ban on mining, oil and gas, and coal development in the Flathead basin.

The upper Pitt River topped the list in 2008, after which the province killed a developer’s proposal to run a transmission line from a vast run-of-river power project in the remote watershed through Pinecone Burke Provincial Park.

Other rivers on the 2010 list, along with specific threats to them, are, in order:

2. Coldwater River – water extraction, development.

3. Fraser River – urbanization, industrial development, pollution.

4. Peace River – hydroelectric dam proposal.

5. Similkameen River – cross-border dam proposal.

6. Glacier/Howser creeks – independent power proposal.

7. Elk River (East Kootenays) – development, increasing selenium levels, wildlife migration issues.

8. Coquitlam River – excessive sedimentation, urbanization.

9. Salmon River (Langley) – excessive groundwater extraction, development.

10. Bute Inlet rivers – independent power proposal.

March 23 2010 » Media Releases

First Nations Unanimously Oppose Enbridge Pipeline

First Nations Say They Will Not Allow Pipelines and Oil Tankers Carrying Alberta’s Tar Sands Oil in British Columbia
“This is where Enbridge hits a wall”

VANCOUVER (March 23, 2010) –First Nations stood as a unified block today – on the 21st anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill – to announce their opposition to a proposed Tar Sands pipeline that would bring expanded amounts of Tar Sands oil from Alberta to British Columbia, where the oil would be shipped by oil tankers to overseas markets, notably China.

“We will protect ourselves and the interests of future generations with everything we have because one major oil spill on the coast of British Columbia would wipe us out,” said Gerald Amos, Director, Coastal First Nations, an alliance of nine First Nations. “This bountiful and globally significant coastline cannot bear an oil spill. This is where Enbridge hits a wall.”
Coastal First Nations from Vancouver Island to the BC/Alaska border are unanimous in their opposition and are joined by the vast majority of First Nations affected along the pipeline route from Kitimaat to Alberta. These First Nations – whose territories are all directly impacted by the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline – stood in unity today to voice their opposition. The Coastal First Nations issued a declaration from their First Nations governments:

…in upholding our ancestral laws, rights and responsibilities, we declare that oil tankers carrying crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands will not be allowed to transit our lands and waters.

The Athabasca Chipewyan Cree First Nation located near Alberta’s Tar Sands also offered their support with Chief Allan Adam saying, “From experience I know that any industrial development and potential pollution within traditional territories of the First Nations not only jeopardizes the land, the people and wildlife today, but for generations to come… I do not support doing business with Enbridge now and in the future.”

To date no First Nation in Canada – and no municipality – has publicly supported Enbridge’s proposed pipeline, which would increase Tar Sands oil production by 30 per cent. Tar Sands oil produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil.

“Nothing threatens our way of life more than contaminated water and destruction of wildlife. Today, we invite First Nations around the world to join us in solidarity in our fight against this pipeline development and to a put a stop to oil tanker traffic,” said Terry Tegee, Vice President, Carrier Sekani Tribal Council.

Also today, an unprecedented grouping of 150 First Nations groups, businesses, environmental organizations, and prominent Canadians – including Dr. David Suzuki, Margaret Atwood and Neve Campbell – ran a full-page ad in today’s Globe and Mail with the headline ‘This was Exxon’s gift to Alaska. B.C. Can Expect the same from Enbridge.’

Contact:
Art Sterritt, Executive Director, Coastal First Nations: 604-868-9110 or 604-696-9889 Gerald Amos, Director, Coastal First Nations: 250-632-1521 or 604-696-9889 Terry Tegee. Vice President, Carrier Sekani Tribal Council: 250-640-3256

March 23 2010 » News Clippings » The Province

Enbridge Pipeline Project ‘Dead’

Coastal First Nations director Gerald Amos (right) listens to drummers as an unprecedented coalition of protest groups came together Tuesday in Vancouver to oppose Enbridge's tarsands pipeline. Photo: Bill Keay, PNG, The Province

An “unprecedented” alliance of more than 150 First Nations, environmentalists, unions, businesses and even Olympic athletes have united to oppose Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline across B.C.

First Nations leaders vowed on Tuesday to use “every possible means” to stop Enbridge from sending Alberta tarsands oil by pipeline to Kitimat and then by tanker down the B.C. coast.

“We’ll start with every legal means we can, and we have many, including our constitutionally-protected rights and title to these lands and waters,” Coastal First Nations director Art Sterritt said in Vancouver.

“There are many court decisions backing us, but failing all of that, our people have said they will blockade tankers in their little vessels. This is not an uphill battle, this is the wall. Enbridge has just hit the wall. As far as we’re concerned, this project is dead.”

Enbridge, a Calgary-based energy transportation company, wants to build two 1,170-kilometre pipelines from Edmonton to a new port site near Kitimat, in a $4.5-billion project to move tarsands oil to Asia.

A 36-inch “west” pipeline would carry 525,000 barrels of petroleum per day from Edmonton to Kitimat. An “east” pipeline would carry 193,000 barrels a day of condensate from Kitimat to Edmonton. Condensate is used to thin petroleum for pipeline transport.

Enbridge also plans to build a marine terminal near Kitimat, with two ship berths, storage tanks for petroleum and condensate and “first-response capabilities.” Enbridge spokeswoman Jennifer Varey said Tuesday that the company is preparing to file a regulatory application with the National Energy Board in coming weeks. “As such, it would not be appropriate to conduct in-depth media interviews this close to the filing,” Varey said.

Varey said Enbridge has set up five community advisory boards “made up of a cross-section of . . . First Nations, business leaders, local government and environmental organizations” to consult locals. Enbridge also must “undergo a comprehensive and rigorous regulatory-review process to ensure the project is in the interest of the Canadian public,” she said.

But Gerald Amos, director of the Coastal First Nations, an alliance of nine major aboriginal groups, vowed “we will protect ourselves and the interest of future generations because one major oil spill on the B.C. coast would wipe us out.”

Amos insisted that a major oil spill on land or water is inevitable. Said Amos: “We entered this room with one heartbeat on this issue, on what is the 21st anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.”

On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground, dumping 41.8-million litres of crude oil and fouling 2,090 kilometres of coastline.

As well as massive fish kills, about 250,000 seabirds, nearly 3,000 sea otters, 250 bald eagles and 22 killer whales died following the spill.

Sterritt read out a list of Olympic athletes opposed to the project, including Canadian speedskater Kristina Groves, freestyle skier Kristi Richards, snowboarder Justin Lamoureux and Alpine team member Trevor White, as well as several Canadian Summer Olympic athletes.

February 01 2010 » » CTV - Olympics, via Globe and Mail

Inspiration Glows with a Shade of Green

Amy Verner
‘This is zero calories, not zero waste,” Laurie Gallant said, pointing to a bottle of Coke Zero on Saturday in Smithers, B.C., just minutes after watching the Olympic Torch Relay pass through the town’s main street.
Yesterday, the environmental consultant and entrepreneur was one of 16 eco-conscious locals selected to carry the torch in nearby Terrace on behalf of the World Wildlife Federation.
But for all the excitement and pride she feels, Ms. Gallant knows she’s partaking in an event that is leaving a rather large carbon footprint, from the convoy’s exhaust emissions to the souvenirs.
“A lot of giveaways are probably going to end up in our landfills,” said Ms. Gallant, whose company, Footprint BC, develops programs on recycling and sustainability with companies, schools and native communities.
She’s right; there are a lot of giveaways. RBC’s team hands out branded tambourines and balloon noisemakers, while Coke has been distributing aluminum bottles of soda, plastic commemorative bottles with LED lights, and flags.

The cynical viewpoint would be that the relay is little more than an exercise in coast-to-coast brand building. But with all signs pointing to Vancouver 2010 being the greenest Winter Olympics on record, many initiatives have been put in place to create a greener Torch Relay.
Those bottles, for instance, are made from recycled material. As part of the relay, RBC has created an “Eco-Home” powered by solar panels, and a solar water tank provides radiant heating to its truck. According to an RBC fact sheet, net carbon emissions associated with RBC vehicles, air, rail travel, hotel accommodations and other relay logistics have been neutralized through carbon offsets. The torchbearer kit included recycled plastic banners that turn into tote bags.
From a flight between Fort Nelson and Terrace yesterday, Torch Relay program director Jim Richards said the relay addresses environmental concerns without making them an overzealous focus.
“Did we want to build a relay as green as possible or did we want to inspire and engage an entire nation? When we weighed the priorities, we were going to give presence to the inspirational [element],” he said, noting that prospective torchbearers were encouraged to suggest ways to make their lives greener.

WWF-Canada sat on the judging panel, selecting individuals for their commitment to active living and environmental sustainability. The WWF’s presence in the relay is largely owing to its year-old relationship with Coke; in Canada, Coca-Cola donated $1-million to a four-year water stewardship partnership. The company also gave $200,000 to the organization’s polar bear campaign and $150,000 for Earth Hour.
“This is an issue that touches fabric of everyone’s life,” said Gerald Butts, president and CEO of WWF-Canada. Having carried the torch in Toronto, Mr. Butts said the Terrace team showcases a range of people committed to the Northern Coast’s wildlife and watershed concerns.

Among yesterday’s runners was Ali Howard, who swam all 610 kilometres of the Skeena River to raise awareness about conservation of the waterway, and Norma Kerby, an environmental educator at Northwest Community College in Terrace.
“It’s so important to bring conservation issues from the global to local level,” said Mike Ambach, who oversees the WWF’s office in Prince Rupert along with James Casey. Both men were also torchbearers yesterday.
For those who can’t reconcile why the WWF would accept support from a company like Coca-Cola, Mr. Butts offered his take: “You can rail against the fact that they exist or help them improve. We have clearly chosen the latter path.”
Still, the WWF is limited in how it can spread its message during the Olympics. “Sponsorship is well beyond our financial capacity and there are rules in how you use Olympics in marketing,” he said.
“Some would say that we’re missing a big marketing opportunity, but it’s not really about marketing. I think Coke’s installation will be the greenest installation; we’ve been a part of that but we don’t want to overclaim our role.”

Meanwhile, Ms. Gallant of Footprint BC believes that despite such positive steps as Coke’s recycled plastic uniforms, the relay’s sponsors missed a big opportunity to support local communities. “You know what would have been cool? If Coca-Cola donated $5,000 in every community to help with recycling programs.”
Yet she ultimately had no second thoughts about carrying the flame. “I’m looking at this as setting the foundation for a greener Olympics in the future,” she said. “I’m getting in on the ground floor.”

See full article

January 27 2010 » Media Releases » Dogwood Initiative

Broken Promise: BC’s Coalbed Methane Rules Inferior

Back in 2007 Gordon Campbell’s government promised BC would have the best standards for coalbed methane practices in North America. Almost three years later an investigation by Dogwood Initiative has found this promise was broken. The protection British Columbia offers landowners, communities, water and wildlife give less protection than other jurisdictions.

New reports from the Dogwood Initiative confirm provincial rules on coalbed methane exploring, drilling and production do not live up to the standards set in other places to safeguard against the intense industrial development that accompanies coalbed methane.

Coalbed methane is an unconventional form of natural gas. The number of proposals has skyrocketed since 2007 when the provincial government declared it to be a cornerstone of its Energy Plan. There has recently been significant controversy over projects in the Telkwa, Fernie, Princeton, Campbell River and the Sacred Headwaters areas.

Dogwood Initiative’s Best Practices for Coalbed Methane in BC report documents other jurisdictions more rigorous requirements for:

1. Protecting water quality;
2. Flaring gases;
3. Cumulative impacts;
4. Consultation and unbiased decision-making;
5. Royalties for public resources;
6. Reclamation of land damaged;
7. Lessening noise pollution;
8. Visual Impacts; and
9. Setback from houses and schools.

BC’s broken promise is especially troubling given the government continues to provide massive subsidies ($539 million was budgeted in 2010 for royalty reductions and road and pipeline credits to the oil and gas industry) of taxpayers’ money effectively subsidizing fossil fuel developments like coalbed methane.

“If the government wants to overcome the widespread community opposition to coalbed methane they’re going to have to strengthen their rules,” commented Dogwood Initiative Executive Director Will Horter. “So far they have not met any of the best practices in North America.”

The report, Citizens Guide for Coalbed Methane in BC, is designed to help people affected by proposed coalbed methane operations in their communities to understand the potential impacts and to help them participate more effectively in the approval processes to ensure their interests are protected.

January 06 2010 » Home Feature

Skeena Swim Film Officially ON TOUR!

Northern BC: Swim the Skeena

~Dave Quinn

A month of cold-water immersion, punishing rapids and unflagging community support

Although my Kootenay backyard, to which I am forever and irrevocably bonded, features some of the most diverse wildlife habitats in southern Canada, a staggering network of industrial roads and hydroelectric developments has irreparably dulled the sharp edge of wilderness here. An estimated 50 to 60,000 kilometres of forestry and mine roads spread like veins across the Kootenay high country, and both of our major rivers – the Columbia and Kootenay, have been dammed. The last salmon runs reached the upper Columbia River in the early 1940s, their way blocked forever by Washington’s Grand Coulee dam. Yet as a wilderness lover I am drawn to areas without these impacts – places where entire drainages, hundreds of kilometres long, are still unroaded, and where rivers still flow freely.

Northern British Columbia is one of those places.

A 2007 canoe trip on northern B.C.‘s Stikine River, one of three waterways that rise from the Spatsizi Plateau to make their way to the Pacific Ocean, hooked me on the area. The Stikine, along with the Nass and Skeena rivers, are true ecosystem arteries – conduits for the timeless flow of nutrients to the oceans and the return of critical minerals and proteins in the countless bodies of salmon who return to these rivers and their tributaries to complete their life cycles.

I thought a 10-day canoe trip on a wild northern river was pretty hard-core. That is, until I heard of Ali Howard;s truly epic 28-day, 610-km swim of the Stikine’s big-sister-river, the Skeena. Yes, that’s right, swim.

Howard immersed herself in the frigid Skeena to raise awareness of the threats of Shell’s proposed coal-bed methane drilling in the Sacred Headwaters and Enbridge’s proposed tar- sands oil pipeline (Westworld magazine features the Stikine and CBM threats to the Sacred Headwaters in its Winter 2009 issue “Landmarks: The Last Wild River”). Ali Howard summed up a month of cold-water immersion, punishing rapids, inspiring community support, and above all, the story of the Skeena, in Vancouver on Thursday December 3 at UBC Robson Square.

With the efforts of people like Ali, and support from people like you, hopefully the Skeena will never join the much-diminished Columbia River on the shameful list of watersheds to which salmon no longer return.

See full article

December 02 2009 » Media Releases

BC should keep Shell’s gas drills out of the Sacred Headwaters for good: Skeena Swimmer

Skeena Swimmer, Ali Howard, as she addresses a supportive crowd of 100's in Hazelton

Smithers, BC) – One year after the BC government put a
moratorium on Shell’s coalbed methane drilling project in northern BC’s Sacred
Headwaters, support for permanently protecting the area remains strong.

That’s what southern British Columbians are hearing this week from Ali Howard,
the 33-year-old who in August became the first person to swim the length of the
610-kilometre Skeena River. Howard is in Vancouver and Victoria presenting a
multimedia show of her trip.

“Our communities applauded the government’s move to put a drilling moratorium
in place last year,” said Howard. “Now, with our province in the global spotlight,
the BC government has the perfect opportunity to implement permanent safeguards
for this remarkable area.”

The Sacred Headwaters is the shared birthplace of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine
Rivers – three of British Columbia’s most important wild salmon rivers. Shell
wants to drill over 1,000 coalbed methane gas wells in the Headwaters’ sensitive
subalpine ecosystem, which residents fear will harm wildlife and salmon spawning
habitat.

“Northwest residents have clearly demonstrated that they will not allow a project
such as Shell’s to proceed under any circumstances,” said Shannon McPhail,
executive director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition. “Permanent
safeguards for the Headwaters would be welcomed by a broad cross section of
our communities.”

This is a message Howard heard many times over the course of her historic swim.

“When we stopped in communities along the Skeena, protecting the Sacred
Headwaters was the first thing people wanted to talk about,” said Howard.
“People share a deep understanding that the health of the river’s birthplace is
critical to the health of everything downstream.”

Prior to last December’s moratorium announcement, Shell’s coalbed methane
project drew strong opposition from First Nations, municipalities, NGOs, guide
outfitters, and tourism operators. There were protests at Shell’s AGM in The
Hague, ads in the Financial Times of London, and street rallies in northern BC.

The Skeena Swim multimedia show will be presented in Vancouver on Thursday,
December 3 at UBC Robson Square beginning at 7:00pm.

Contact:
Ali Howard: 250-877-9188
Shannon McPhail: 250-842-8738
Learn more about the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition at
skeenawatershed.com

November 24 2009 » News Clippings » Terrace Standard

One Epic Journey Down the Skeena

ALI HOWARD completed her monumental swim of the Skeena River months ago, but in some ways her journey is just beginning.

Howard is currently in the midst of a whirlwind six-week tour spreading the message of the Spirit of the Skeena Swim, finishing up three days of presentations in Terrace last week.

Howard, along with photographer and member of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition Brian Huntington, arrived in Terrace on Wednesday Nov. 18 and throughout three days visited schools such as Skeena Junior Secondary, Cassie Hall Elementary, Caledonia Secondary and Clarence Michiel.

On Thursday, Howard and Huntington paid a visit to the students at Clarence Michiel, showing a slideshow and video clips of her 610 km journey down the Skeena River from the Sacred Headwaters to the Pacific Ocean.

Howard brought along her trusty gear, including her bright red helmet, life jacket and her boogie-style board which protected her from the river’s bottom in shallow areas, for the students to test out.

Howard explains that this tour is important in order to continue the conversation about the Skeena watershed and having her physically swim the length of the river really helps put the whole scope of the watershed and the salmon who call it home into perspective for the youths.

Howard and Huntington explain that it helps every community along the watershed to see how connected they are by the river and by the salmon, as at each school when they asked the students if their family fishes, or if they have salmon in their freezer, almost every student raised a hand.

“It’s an easy way to demonstrate a simple idea…do you get salmon,” says Howard.

Throughout her journey, Howard says the voices of the communities along the watershed were heard: a unanimous desire for a healthy sustainable future for the river.

“[Everyone has] different interests but all agree that the salmon are invaluable, it’s what connects us,” she says.

Howard adds that the swim opened doors to the connection between conservation and communities, to come together to support wild salmon.

“The cultural ties [to the river] are very strong here…I’m just a vessel carrying a message,” says Howard.

Another piece of their work will be a province-wide art project involving small cut out paper salmon.

Around 10,000 were distributed to all the schools on the tour to be coloured and designed any which way and after they are all collected, they will be used to create a larger scale art project.

But for now, the coalition’s immediate goal is for the provincial government to permanently ban coalbed methane development in the birthplace of the Stikine, Skeena and Nass rivers where her swim began: the Sacred Headwaters.

So Howard and her crew will travel down south to Victoria and Vancouver, meeting with government and hosting workshops with organizations about community building.

November 20 2009 » News Clippings » Terrace Standard

Ali Howard Shares Historical Swim With Students

ALI HOWARD, centre, with students at Clarence Michiel Elementary School yesterday after her presentation on her Spirit of the Skeena Swim.

By Molly McNulty

ALI HOWARD is in the midst of a whirlwind six-week tour spreading the message of the Spirit of the Skeena Swim by finishing up three days of presentations in Terrace today.

Howard, along with photographer and member of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition Brian Huntington, arrived in Terrace on Wednesday Nov. 18 and throughout their three days in town visited Skeena Junior Secondary, Cassie Hall Elementary, Caledonia Secondary, Clarence Michiel Elementary, E.T. Kenney Primary, Kiti K’shan Primary, Parkside, Uplands Elementary, Thornill Primary, Thornhill Junior and Thornhill Elementary.

Yesterday afternoon Howard and Huntington payed a visit to the students at Clarence Michiel, showing a slideshow and video clips of her 610 km journey down the Skeena River from the Sacred Headwaters to the Pacific Ocean.

Howard brought along her trusty gear including her bright red helmet, life jacket and her boogie-style board which protected her from the river’s bottom in shallow areas.

Howard and Huntington explain that it helps every community along the watershed to see how connected they are by the river and by the salmon, as at each school when they ask the students if their family fishes, or if they have salmon in their freezer almost every student raises their hand.

“It’s an easy way to demonstrate a simple idea…do you get salmon,” says Howard.

Throughout her journey Howard says the voice of the communities along the watershed were heard: a unanimous desire for a healthy sustainable future for the river.

Next up Howard and her crew will travel down south to Victoria and Vancouver, meeting with government, hosting workshops with organizations about community building and talking with foundations about promoting and supporting the coalition’s work for the future.

October 28 2009 » Home Feature

Making your donation count while we’re on tour

Ali Howard and her “Enchanted Swim Team” will be touring the province for the next 6 weeks showing slides from their epic journey down the Skeena River. Their adventure started in the grizzly friendly meadows of the Sacred Headwaters and took them through 610km of winding river and whitewater to the Pacific Ocean near Port Edward, BC. Ali is starting her tour in the same place she started her swim – in Tahltan territory and will work her way down the region. Sorry grown-ups, this tour starts with our youth – Ali will be visiting every single school in the watershed from November 4-27th before making her way to Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle in December. If you don’t see your school on the tour schedule, please call or email us and we’ll try to make sure we bring Ali by for a visit.

School Tour Dates
Nov 4 – Klappan School (Iskut) & Dease Lake Secondary
Nov 5 – Tahltan School (Telegraph Creek)
Nov 6 – Gitsegukla Elementary & Kitwanga Elementary
Nov 13 – Houston Secondary, Silverthorne Elementary, Twain Sullivan Elementary
Nov 16 & 17th – Moricetown, Hazelton Secondary, New Hazelton Elementary, South Hazelton Elementary, John Field, Kispiox Elementary
Nov 18, 19 & 20th – Skeena Junior Secondary, Cassie Hall Elementary, Caledonia Secondary, Clarence Michiel Elementary, Et Kenney Primary, Kiti-K’shan Primary, Parkside, Uplands Elementary, Thornill Primary, Thornhill Junior, Thornhill Elementary
Nov 23 & 24 – Prince Rupert Secondary, Charles Hayes, Conrad Street Elementary, Lax Kxeen, Pineridge, Westview
Nov 26 & 27 – Smithers Secondary, Lake Kathlyn, Muheim, Telkwa Elementary, Walnut Park

DOWN SOUTH:
November 30 – Victoria Events Centre
December 1 – Meeting with Provincial Government
December 2&3 – Hanging out at MEC in Vancouver during the day
December 3 – Robson Square Theatre
December 4 – How to create an Inclusive Community Workshop – Vancouver
December 6 – Slideshow & Storytelling hosted by Lindsay Eberts – Seattle
December 7 – Creating the Conditions for Change workshop/presentation – Seattle
December 8 – Presentation/Skeena Workshop – Portland

During this tour, Ali and team will be meeting with government, hosting workshops with organizations about community building and talking with foundations about promoting and supporting our work for the future. It’s a jam packed schedule and Ali is excited to travel and talk with folks. Only she could just finish working for 2 months straight with no days off as a chef, then jump into a 3 week tour of schools in the north, then a 10 day tour of Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle and Portland before going back to work as a chef for 4 months!!!

We are so blessed to have her as a member of our community!

THANK-YOU ALI!!!

Call for more information:
(250)842-2494
info@skeenawatershed.com

October 09 2009 » » straight.com

Rachelle van Zanten’s music reflects a love of the natural world

~by Steve Newton
The roar of a chain saw is audible in the background when Rachelle van Zanten answers her cellphone, but it’s not horror-movie mayhem that’s causing the racket; the rootsy blues-rocker is working in the bush in Houston, B.C., pruning spruce trees for forest-fire mitigation. From the time she could walk, van Zanten was hiking, running, and riding horseback in the Francois Lake area of northern B.C., and now she spends all her nonmusical time fighting forest fires or working with tree-planting companies, staying as close to nature as possible.

“It’s a big part of who I am,” she declares, “and a big part of my music.”

Van Zanten’s abiding love of the natural world—and her deep desire to protect it—can be heard on her new album, Where Your Garden Grows. Take a song like “My Country”, which was inspired by the environmental efforts of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition.

“They have done incredible things to protect the Skeena watershed from being obliterated by Royal Dutch Shell, with their coal-bed methane-gas wells,” she says, “so I was very inspired to protect my lake and the rivers around it and join their fight to keep the water clean up here.”

Before recording Where Your Garden Grows van Zanten set off on a musical pilgrimage throughout the U.K. and Europe, hanging out with British rockers—including members of Robert Plant’s band and Mick Jagger’s brother Chris, whom she describes as “a great country artist”—and visiting Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Box Wiltshire, England. Gabriel’s sound engineer introduced the 33-year-old singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist to famed knob-twiddler Tchad Blake, whose credits include Paul Simon, Tom Waits, and Pearl Jam. After being won over by her material, Blake agreed to mix van Zanten’s latest disc at his Mongrel Studio near Bath, England.

The folksy stylings of van Zanten’s 2006 solo debut, Back to Francois, have been usurped on her latest CD by a more rocking approach, with her slide-guitar work featured prominently throughout, particularly on the primal opener, “Showerhead”, and the Zeppelinesque instrumental “Black Horse”. She’s a big fan of American slide specialists such as Derek Trucks and Ben Harper, but her main bottleneck influence is Pender Island’s Lester Quitzau.

“I’ve been playing slide for eight years or more,” she points out, “so it’s a big part of my writing. It’s my second voice, for sure.”

See full version

October 02 2009 » » Mother Nature Network

Ali Howard Makes Top 10 List of Most Intriguing Environmentalists

Forget Kermit’s famous lament, “It’s not easy being green.” It’s actually never been easier. What’s hard, though, is to stand out and make a big difference (like this naked biker — see our #3 choice). That takes more than recycling plastic bottles or signing petitions. It calls for extraordinary action. What follows are a few who’ve dared to do more — environmentalists who walk their eco-talk in bold, daring and creative ways. What remains is a lasting impression — and, hopefully, lasting change. (Text by Sidney Stevens) View this article online

1. Julia Butterfly Hill
Tree-sitter extraordinaire, Hill lived for two years in the canopy of an ancient Redwood tree she affectionately named Luna to prevent it from being logged. After climbing down 10 years ago, she wrote a book called The Legacy of Luna and has continued redefining eco-activism ever since. From inspirational speaking to founding the Engage Network to a possible biopic (starring Rachel Weisz), civil disobedience will never be the same.
Photo: GSMattingly/Flickr

2. The Big Green Bus
Take 15 Dartmouth students with an eco-message, put them on a bright green veggie-oil-powered bus (retrofitted with solar panels and bamboo floors), and you might just get your point across — namely that with a few simple actions each of us can fight climate change. Big Green Bus participants logged 12,000 miles this past summer, crisscrossing the country and stopping in 50 cities to spread their sustainability message.
Photo: Kawakahi K. Amina

3. Naked Bike Riders
Nothing like some skin to sell your message. Taking its cue from the advertising industry, World Naked Bike Ride began organizing its au naturel rides five years ago in cities around the world. Its message: that cars promote oil dependency and spew dangerous fumes that harm cyclists, pedestrians and the planet. Oh, and that bicycles and human bodies (of all sizes, shapes and painted colors) are beautiful.
Photo: CyclingCaptured

4. Greta Browne
This 65-year-old grandmother of three proves that unusual eco-action isn’t just for the young or (bare-it-all) outrageous. Browne, a retired Unitarian minister, blogger and gypsy at heart from Bethlehem, Pa., recently trekked 1,150 miles on foot from New Orleans to Rouses Point, N.Y., to raise awareness about climate change. For Browne, it was more than just a walk — it was “a prayer, a meditation and an action.”
Photo: Courtesy Greta Browne

5. Edina Tokodi
Looking for ways to push her green message to jaded city-dwellers, Hungarian-born Tokodi drew inspiration from urban street gangs. She turned to graffiti. Instead of spray paint and gang slang, though, she opted for moss and a message of eco-harmony. Tokodi’s animal and nature shapes — applied to buildings and barren walls throughout her Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond — invite people to touch and reconnect with nature.
Photo: Jozsef Valyi-Toth

6. The Lorax
Sure he’s unusual because he told truth to power. (Who can forget “I speak for the trees.”) But the Lorax also makes our list because of what he is — one of the most enduring oddball characters to emerge from the fertile mind of Dr. Seuss. This “shortish,” “brownish,” “mossy” eco-hero still speaks for the trees — and all victims of unbridled development. And now he’s becoming the star of his own 3-D movie.
Photo: Miss Rogue/Flickr

7. Mary Mattingly
Many artists envision future worlds, but few actually inhabit them. Not so Mattingly, a sculptor and photographer. Unsettled by predictions of rising sea levels and a post-apocalyptic future à la Waterworld, she dreamed up the Waterpod, a sustainable barge with gardens, greywater system, alternative power and chickens. Mattingly and crewmembers lived on board last summer, docking around New York to showcase their new eco-habitat.
Photo: Leyla T. Rosario

8. Johnny Appleseed
Folk hero John Chapman just might be the great granddaddy of low-carbon living. This 19th-century vegetarian, nature-loving preacher and businessman traversed the Midwest on foot in secondhand clothes, planting apple nurseries with free seeds from cider mills. His mission: to help settlers build self-sustaining communities in harmony with nature. He often bartered and channeled a portion of profits toward rescuing horses from slaughter.

9 Ali Howard
What better way to spotlight eco-threats to the salmon-rich Skeena River than by making a splash? Literally. Howard, a 33-year-old resort chef and water polo player, donned a wetsuit last summer, jumped in at the headwaters of British Columbia’s second longest river and didn’t stop swimming until she reached the Pacific Ocean. Battling rapids, frigid water and whirlpools, she and her support team completed their epic 379-mile eco-odyssey in 28 days.
Photo: Brian Huntington

10. John Francis
After witnessing the devastation of a 1971 San Francisco oil spill, Francis gave up motorized transportation and chose to stay silent. But it wasn’t the silence of apathy. It was a roaring silence that’s still being heard. His marathon wordless walk (recounted in his book Planetwalker: 22 Years of Walking. 17 Years of Silence) helped him reconnect with nature and inspired his earth-stewardship group Planetwalk.

September 29 2009 » Skeena Swim

Skeena Swim Film Trailer - RELEASED

We will posting it to our website soon – in the meantime, we’re stoked to share the link for Awakening the Skeena film trailer.

It’s going to be AWESOME!!

September 21 2009 » Home Feature

A Letter from Ali

Dear SWCC Members,

Thank you for helping make the swim a great success. Whether you have been an SWCC member for years or have recently joined, you understand and appreciate what an incredible watershed the Skeena is. It was my great privilege to have the opportunity to learn more about the landscape, the river, and the proud communities of the Skeena during 26 memorable days. I was honoured to speak with many watershed residents; these conversations energized me and validated the core idea behind the trip. Swimming the Skeena was never about “Ali Howard ‘conquering’ a river”; rather, it was an effort to work with, and for, a magnificent but vulnerable waterway, its watershed, and its people.

While the individual accolades that have followed are much-appreciated honours, they fail to acknowledge the importance of supporters like yourself; without your commitment to the watershed this trip would have been impossible. Nor do they begin to credit the team that accompanied me on the journey. It is a very strange and humbling experience to have a group of people completely devoted to one’s safety and comfort. I am indebted to Aaron, Andrew, Brian, Shannon, Matt, Jim, Kimmy, and, especially, Chris for their selflessness and, most importantly, their friendship.

As the Skeena thrives, may we all thrive.
Ali Howard

September 16 2009 » Skeena Swim » Terrace Daily Standard

Skeena Swimmer Wins First Activist Award

Outdoor clothing giant Patagonia has awarded Ali Howard its Activist Award for her historic swim of the 610-kilometer Skeena River earlier this summer.

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard presented Howard with the award which comes with $5,000 yesterday at the Skeena Salmon Habitat Conference in Smithers.

“I was so inspired by hearing about Ali’s swim, that at Patagonia we decided to start a Patagonia Activist Award. And I think of no one better in the last year to give this award to than Ali,” Chouinard told the crowd.

“Some of us have a lot of free time and can volunteer for good causes, some of use are good speakers and can get up and speak about the injustices of the world, and some people have strong arms and legs and great courage and can swim the Skeena,” Chouinard said.

Howard’s swim took her from the alpine meadows of the Sacred Headwaters where the Skeena is born, to the tidal estuary where the river meets the Pacific Ocean. She undertook the swim to raise awareness of the Skeena and threats to its health, including coalbed methane drilling and pipeline development.

In receiving the award, Howard noted Chouinard’s own contribution to environmental conservation:

“Under Yvon’s leadership, Patagonia continues to be a corporate leader in sustainability. I’m humbled and grateful at the response the swim continues to receive.”

Spirit of the Skeena Swim 2009 is a project of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition.

September 16 2009 » Media Releases

Skeena Swimmer Wins First-Ever Patagonia Activist Award

Outdoor clothing giant Patagonia has
awarded Ali Howard its Activist Award for her historic swim of the
610-kilometer Skeena River earlier this summer.

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard presented Howard with the award – which
comes with $5,000 – yesterday at the Skeena Salmon Habitat Conference in
Smithers.

“I was so inspired by hearing about Ali’s swim, that at Patagonia we decided
to start a Patagonia Activist Award. And I think of no one better in the
last year to give this award to than Ali,” Chouinard told the crowd.

“Some of us have a lot of free time and can volunteer for good causes, some
of use are good speakers and can get up and speak about the injustices of
the world, and some people have strong arms and legs and great courage and
can swim the Skeena,” Chouinard said.

Howard’s swim took her from the alpine meadows of the Sacred Headwaters
where the Skeena is born, to the tidal estuary where the river meets the
Pacific Ocean. She undertook the swim to raise awareness of the Skeena and
threats to its health, including coalbed methane drilling and pipeline
development.

In receiving the award, Howard noted Chouinard’s own contribution to
environmental conservation:

“Under Yvon’s leadership, Patagonia continues to be a corporate leader in
sustainability. I’m humbled and grateful at the response the swim continues
to receive.”

Spirit of the Skeena Swim 2009 is a project of the Skeena Watershed
Conservation Coalition.

August 20 2009 » Home Feature » Prince Rupert Daily News

Historic swim makes a huge splash at the Cannery

Monday, August 17, 2009
by George T. Baker

Ali Howard’s swim was more than just about Howard.
It was about the Sacred Headwaters, the Skeena River, and the people who depend on them – and the
people Howard depended on.
“I don’t feel that this is a personal achievement,” reflected Howard. “I know it sounds contradictory, but the
whole time we prepared for the swim and during the swim, I felt like a vessel for a greater cause.”
Ali Howard is not religious, but as she pulled herself out of the water for the final time on her historic 610
km swim down the Skeena River she would be forgiven for thinking that there was some heavenly hierarchy
watching over her.
Actually, they were in the water with her the whole time, which is partially why Howard won’t take the full
credit for her swim.
For every stroke on the way there were eight enchanted believers paddling beside her and making sure she
kept it together.
Their names matter, too – Brian Huntington, Kim Ward Roberts, Aaron James, Matt Lewis, Andrew Eddy,
Shannon MacPhail, the absent Jim Allen, and the man responsible for Howard’s safety, Chris Gee.
“This is about protection,” said Gee concerning the swim’s message about the Skeena -though he could
have easily been talking about Howard. As he stripped his gear off for the final time, he remained on topic.
“This river is vital to the well being of all the people in the province.”
No person has ever swum the entire Skeena River. No one. There are whirlpools the size of living rooms,
rapids that bite like mad dogs and currents that can sweep people away in a blink of an eye. It is unlikely
that Howard would ever have made it without her team.
Looking back on it, Gee was amazed that they had even taken it up.
“I can’t think of a time in my life that I held that much responsibility,” said an emotional Gee. “Now that I
am here, it is all I can do to keep myself from crying.”
That Howard had completed the swim is history in the making. But there was a greater point to the
journey.
According to Gerald Amos of the Headwaters Initiative, an environmental organization that has fought
against drilling and for the protection of the river, the current voluntary moratorium on the coalbed methane
drilling in the Sacred Headwaters could be lifted as soon as next year.
It is hoped that Howard’s swim marks another shot across the bow towards oil giant Shell’s hope for a
coalbed methane production future for the Sacred Headwaters – so named because it is the headwaters for
three important rivers in the province, the Stikine, the Nass and, of course, the Skeena.
The swim has also become a rallying point for a large percentage of the Northwestern members of this
province who are against what they believe to be the continued degradation and over consumption of vital
salmon stocks in one of B.C.‘s largest salmon reservoirs.
Given that this year’ salmon season was dismal, with many Skeena salmon that were expected to return
never showing up, Team Howard believes this is another reason, amongst a variety of them, that Shell’s
plan is unsuitable for the region.
Howard has become the celebrity vessel in the vain of another British Columbian, Terry Fox. Much in the
manner that Fox galvanized Canadians by trotting down the highway almost 30 years ago to raise
awareness about cancer, Howard has done the same by swimming the Skeena.
What was amazing to most who witnessed Howard during her experience was how calm she was given
the circumstances. And how level and determined she remained while well-wishers wondered if it was
really possible for a human to swim that distance – when even her own team thought it was best to pull in
from the Skeena. The test was immense.
Had they seen Howard in some more private moments they may have felt vindicated. According to
McPhail, what well-wishers almost never saw were the times after a leg of the swim when Howard would
come to shore and collapse on the riverbed, waiting for her team to rescue her as she curled up into a fetal
position absolutely exhausted by a river that never relents.
What distant supporters never saw were the times when emotions ran low and a laugh was needed and it
would be McPhail – the very woman responsible for Howard jumping in the river in the first place – who
would provide a chuckle either in the canoe beside Howard or during camp at night.
They weren’t witness to the comedy when a black dog fell into the river. Howard – who had been trained to
do this if one her teammates fell in the river – instinctively tossed a throw bag at the bewildered mutt (yes
the dog survived).
They weren’t there for the evening of terror near the Shames stretch when most of the team hid in fear from
a howling wolf that never approached, but made its presence known until morning.
Throughout it all there was Team Howard, which was not limited to the offshore crew. There was also an
onshore team making sure that Howard’s swim was received well at the different stops on the journey – and
Saturday in Port Edward was no different.
Organizers such as Ingrid Granlin, spoke briefly to the Daily News – in between running from one spot of
the Cannery grounds with a flat of Diet Coke to another spot of the Cannery grounds to make sure parking
did not get out of hand – about how the communities have received the swim.
“We are realizing just how important the Skeena is to people in the Northwest,” said Granlin.
Granlin then ran away because two tourists in a behemoth Winnebago with a sedan hauled behind were
taking up too much parking space.
Salmon were jumping all over the passage as Howard approached North Pacific’s landing dock. Many
observers noted their behaviour and remarked that this was what it was all about. Amongst them were
Howard’s parents, Alex and Jim from Ottawa, there at the end just as they had been during the other large
moments of Howard’s life.
“As we have said often,” said father Jim before Howard made it to shore, “we’ve always been proud of all of
our kids. But now we are in awe of Ali.”
Asked what he made of it all, now that his daughter had made it to shore, Jim’s voice wavered and his
eyes moistened as he walked gingerly down the cannery’s boardwalk.
“I’m a bit weepy right now. I’m not a religious man by any means. But I have been on rivers all my life and
have been lucky, so to see her come out of the river was a relief. There is a spirit out there for sure. I’m a
believer today.”
Asked about her father’s comments, Howard could not have agreed more.
“This was an enchanted trip. There absolutely was a spirit with us,” said Howard. “The conditions could
not have been better and everything that was needed was provided for.”
After lunch, Howard and her team were treated to a collection of signing, speeches and gift presentations
from dignitaries and honoured guests… and several standing ovations.
And when it was time for Howard to speak, the swimmer who was visibly spent from her journey
approached the microphone. Before she spoke, she stared at her 10-member team as if she was unable to
summon words without their energy.
Something was happening, though no one in the crowd could say just what it was until a jumble of words
came out of Howard’s mouth. But her team knew full well.
“I’m just a normal person who did something neat,” understated Howard, perhaps yet unable to fully grasp
her monumental achievement.
It all seemed peculiar to her – not unwelcome, but strange. She had become a celebrity and symbol for a
cause she believed in. Kids with Ali Howard training cards asked her to sign their cards. A man asked her
to sign a T-shirt for him. An interview was almost impossible because so many people wanted to meet her
and greet her or just shake her hand. She had become something different and something more.
She had left a 33-year old water polo player and resort chef. Now she was Michael Phelps and David
Suzuki rolled into one. The swim had changed her life forever. There was no going back now.
“I hope to remain part of the discussion about the watershed’s future. I would be privileged and honoured to
be part of that.”
How could a discussion begin without her?

August 19 2009 » Skeena Swim » Prince George Citizen

Canoers share a greeting steeped in tradition

A small group of people from Prince Rupert had the privilege of accompanying swimmer Ali Howard on the last leg of her 610 km swim of the Skeena River Saturday morning.

Paddling a 42-foot fiberglass voyageur canoe, the all-ages crew met 33-year-old Howard and her support team at Cassiar Cannery in the water, floating slowly with the current, during the last hour of the swim.
With time to kill, so as not to arrive at North Pacific Cannery before schedule, the support team paddling in kayaks and canoes chatted with the Rupertites.
Team member Shannon McPhail, activist with the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, invited everyone to introduce themselves.
“Hi I’m Ali and I guess I just swam the Skeena,” Howard said, breaking the ice.
She looked thoughtful as she floated in the water, close to kayaker Chris Gee of Hazelton who has been with her through the whole journey.
When Howard introduced herself, everyone else pounded their paddles against the boats in appreciation.
“Thank you elders for coming on this ride,” McPhail called out, addressing the four elders in the voyageur canoe.
“It’s an honour to paddle with you. We’ve been riding from Terrace in this Porche of a boat,” McPhail added, referring to the war canoe the team has had on loan from artist Roy Henry Vickers.
~by Monica Lamb-Yorski
Within a few moments of being asked by McPhail if the elders could sing a song or tell a story, elder Leonard Alexcee began singing on his own, the beat methodical, the tones low.
A big smile broke out on his face as people thanked him by banging their paddles against the boat again.
“I made up that song just now,” Alexcee answered, with one of his notorious grins. “It means Come On. Come On. Let’s Rock.”
Pausing, he looked up again and said, “I ask the creator to keep the river clear and bring back the salmon every year. Ali, I officially welcome you here.”
McPhail invited people in the large canoe to introduce themselves and share thoughts as to why they were along for the paddle.
For two in the group, it was their first time in a canoe, including elder Betty Comeau.
“This is amazing,” Comeau commented.
Mona Alexcee said her ancestors made a living on the river.
“We can’t hear their voices now, but I hope we’re doing them justice with Ali bringing attention to the river. Our people got their winter food along this river. My father told me you could almost walk on the backs of the salmon here at one time. It’s an honour for me to be here in person to escort you in and look to the future. Thank you very much, Ali.”
McPhail acknowledged feeling like the ancestors have supported the trip through all the gifts and help the team has received along the way.
“If anything had gone differently it could have gone very wrong,” she said. “Things we didn’t foresee desperately needing, fell into place.”
As the Rupert canoe left the group to paddle down to North Pacific Cannery, leaving Howard to swim her last leg of the journey, Howard’s brother Chris, who also lives in Telkwa, said the swim has made his sister realize she’s happy when she’s swimming.
“I think she’s a little sad now that the swim is ending,” he said. “She’s emotionally attached to the river now and people are attached to her. I think it’s great.”

August 18 2009 » Skeena Swim » Terrace Standard

Skeena River is a Gift That Needs to be Protected

~by Robert Hart
Ali Howard has just swum the Skeena River, from its headwaters to its mouth, ending her epic journey at the historic North Pacific Cannery while making some history herself. Ali has undertaken this feat of endurance to remind us of the gift that the Skeena River is to us: one of the longest free running, unpolluted rivers in the world and one of the largest sources of wild salmon on the planet.

Her swim reminds us of what a resource the Skeena is to us and that it is worth saving in its present state: a clean, working river that binds us and sustains us as a community.

Enbridge is planning to build a pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands to Kitimat, a pipeline over 1,100 kilometres long, carrying dirty oil across 1,000 streams and rivers. The Tar Sands are creating a toxic wasteland that could reach the size of 4 Vancouver Islands and are our fastest growing source of global warming pollution. So building another pipeline to transport this increasing production not only threatens the whole planet but creates a direct threat to us.

Enbridge has had more than 65 oil spills annually. That number can only go up with over 1,000 kilometres of new pipeline. In the next 20 years, the number of spills could easily be over 1,000 and some of them would inevitably be along the Skeena. There is no way to contain an oil spill on a fast moving river. Can you imagine a Skeena without salmon?

But the danger to us does not stop there. There would be over 300 supertankers a year taking the oil from the pipeline terminal at Kitimat to buyers in China. During the lifetime of the pipeline, that amounts to 1,000s of supertankers from this project alone. But once this pipeline is approved, there would inevitably be more.

Other companies are already planning to build them and the amount of coastal tanker traffic would then increase dramatically. The tankers would have to navigate some of the most treacherous inland waterways in the world. There are places on the route where they would have to be assisted by up to four sea going tugboats in order to make the necessary turn in the tight, rock strewn waterways between Hartley Bay and the Pacific. They would then encounter a coast that has some of the worst weather anywhere, high winds and high seas. It is a more difficult route than the one the Exxon Valdez was following when it struck a rock and poured thousands of barrels of oil onto the Alaskan coast.

That coast remains polluted to this day. As if we needed reminding, the route passes the site where the Queen of the North went down. A major spill is not probable. It is inevitable.

For what? The pipeline’s construction will bring few jobs to the North. Its maintenance will provide fewer still. The salmon in the Skeena create a local economy worth $110 million a year. A healthy coast has supported communities for thousands of years. Who would pay for their destruction?

Not Enbridge. The Skeena and the North Coast are clean, healthy and working to provide us with a sustainable economy. No corporate interest has the right to destroy this, or even endanger it in any significant way, in order to make a profit for their shareholders.

As Ali swam through our territory, she was greeted at each river community. Hundreds of people welcomed her and cheered her on. Ali’s swim challenged us to be mindful of the importance of the Skeena in our lives and the need for us to protect it from mindless development. We are challenged to make our own swim into the waters of community action. Even if we have to swim upstream.

Robert Hart is a past Chair of the Sierra Club, BC Chapter and remains an advocate for sustainable development

August 17 2009 » Skeena Swim » BC Local News

Howard completes historic swim

Published: August 16, 2009 7:00 AM

0 Comments

Ali Howard was all smiles yesterday as she received a well deserved hand from the crowd as she finished her 610 kilometre, awareness-raising swim of the Skeena River.

It had taken her 28 days to swim from the Sacred Headwaters to the Pacific Ocean. Howard and her safety team tackled the swim to raise awareness of the Skeena River and highlight threats to its health, like coalbed methane drilling and pipeline development.

Howard spent four to eight hour per day on the river, at all times wearing floatation device, drysuit and helmet.

Howard and her team stopped at communities along the way, at one point joined by Skeena NDP MP Nathan Cullen. Many residents on the swim route came out to support Howard on her journey.

It was no different in Prince Rupert; hundreds of onlookers and well-wishers made their way out to the North Pacific Cannery near Port Edward, and Tsimshian dancers welcomed Howard with the steady beat of their drumming.

There was also a feast and dance at the Nisga’a Hall featuring Rachel Van Zanten and Los Gringos Salvajes.

August 17 2009 » Skeena Swim » CFTK Television

Ali Howard Completes Her Epic Swim

Mon, 2009-08-17 08:03.
Local News
It began nearly four weeks ago in the Sacred Headwaters — and ended Saturday at the North Pacific Cannery at Port Edward.

Ali Howard’s 610-kilometer “Spirit of the Skeena” swim finally concluded as she rode the tide up to the dock area near the cannery, with over 100 supporters cheering her on.

Howard’s goal all along was to try to focus attention on the Skeena River, and to help unite the people living along its banks in a common cause to keep it healthy and vibrant.

She also wanted to show people what one person can accomplish.
“I think anybody can make a difference by finding something they really believe in and are passionate about, and devoting time to that, an appreciation for that, and then sharing that with others,” said Howard.

After her welcome at the cannery, Howard and her entourage drove into Prince Rupert, for an evening celebration at the Nisga’a Hall.

John Crawford — Terrace; reported by Gilda Diaz (Kitsumkalum) and Sahar Nassimdoost (Port Edward)

August 16 2009 » Skeena Swim » Vancouver Sun

Ali Howard completes first-ever Skeena River swim

Vancouver Sun, August 16, 2009

PRINCE RUPERT – Ali Howard has completed the first-ever swim of the 610-kilometre Skeena River, British Columbia’s second longest river.

She ended her 28-day effort today in Port Edward where a crowd of hundreds cheered wildly as she approached the dock at the North Pacific Cannery.

“This has been an extraordinary journey that I feel blessed to have been part of,” said Howard.

“The landscape of the Skeena is powerful beyond words, and I hope everyone who has been inspired by this adventure will find a way to protect their watershed for the future,” said Howard.

Howard spent four to eight hours per day on the river and was protected from hazards and the river’s cold water by a PFD, drysuit and helmet.

“The lower river was particularly challenging,” said Howard. “We knew dealing with the tides and the winds off the ocean was going to be tough, and the past few days have proven that the mighty reputation of the lower Skeena is deserved.”

Along the swim route, entire communities came out to meet Howard and share in her journey. From Kispiox and Hazelton to Gitseguecla and Kitsumkalum, families lined the shores, took to the river in boats, and held feasts in her honour.

“I come away from this trip feeling truly inspired by the potential of our communities of committed people living in place and working together to take care of their home. If there’s a place in the world where we can make it work, this is it,” said Howard.

Howard’s success will be celebrated tonight in Prince Rupert with a feast and dance at the Nisga’a Hall featuring Rachel Van Zanten and Los Gringos Salvajes.
© Copyright © The Vancouver Sun

August 15 2009 » Skeena Swim » Media Release

She made it! Ali Howard finishes first-ever Skeena River swim

NEWS RELEASE

AUGUST 15, 2009 (PRINCE RUPERT) Ali Howard has completed the first-ever swim of the 610-kilometre Skeena River, British Columbia’s second longest river. She ended her 28-day effort today in Port Edward where a crowd of hundreds cheered wildly as she approached the dock at the North Pacific Cannery.

“This has been an extraordinary journey that I feel blessed to have been part of,” said Howard.

“The landscape of the Skeena is powerful beyond words, and I hope everyone who has been inspired by this adventure will find a way to protect their watershed for the future,” said Howard.

Howard spent four to eight hour per day on the river and was protected from hazards and the river’s cold water by a PFD, drysuit and helmet.

“I come away from this trip feeling truly inspired by the potential of our communities – of committed people living in place and working together to take care of their home. If there’s a place in the world where we can make it work, this is it,” said Howard.

Howard’s success will be celebrated tonight in Prince Rupert with a feast and dance at the Nisga’a Hall featuring Rachel Van Zanten and Los Gringos Salvajes.

Contact:
Ingrid Granlin: (250) 877-3163

August 15 2009 » Skeena Swim » Terrace Daily Online

Ali Howard Completes Swim with Salmon

Merv Ritchie

UPDATE: Video at the North Pacific Cannery of Ali Howard and the Swim team of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalitions’ return can be watched HERE

For those that recall the very beginning days of the Greenpeace movement, this monumental effort by Ali Howard to swim the entire length of the Skeena River had some eerie similarities. As Ms. Howard was making her final trek alongside the Port Edward shoreline salmon were seen jumping along side her. It was the salmon, the health of the waters, specifically the Skeena River and the spawning beds that Howard was swimming to raise awareness of the threats to its security.

There may be some form of extra sensory perception that we need to comprehend. As the Greenpeace zodiacs attempted to get in the way of the whaling boats they discovered that the whales themselves would swim around behind them anyways. The same kind of thing happened today as the salmon all came to swim with Ali Howard.

Approximately 300 people arrived to witness Howard as she swam ashore at the old North Pacific Cannery, which is now a museum. A ceremonial canoe arrived first coming from the Cassier Cannery site bringing Tsimshian dancers to greet Howard when she arrived. Crowds lined the walkways and ramp looking over Inverness Pass at the mouth of the Skeena River.

As her arms and legs hit the water propelling her to the waiting spectators salmon were seen jumping in front, behind and alongside. The speed she moved was surprisingly quick. The drums and the songs were ringing through the air as the crowds were cheering, screaming and clapping. Howard pulled herself up onto the dock and was greeted by hugs and cheers followed by a drumming procession into a main hall in the cannery building where the celebrations were held.

August 15 2009 » Skeena Swim » Vancouver Sun

Protester swims B.C.’s second-longest river

By John Colebourn, Vancouver Province

Ali Howard is the first person to swim British Columbia’s second-longest river.

Howard finished her arduous 28-day 610-kilometre journey down the Skeena River Saturday at 12:30 p.m. reaching her final checkpoint at the Pacific Cannery docks in Port Edward, on the northwest coast of B.C.

She was greeted by hundreds of well-wishers and was later treated to a community banquet to celebrate the epic trip.

“This has been an extraordinary journey that I feel blessed to have been part of,” said Howard, who arrived on shore to a cheering crowd.

Howard’s swim took her from the alpine meadows of the Sacred Headwaters where the Skeena starts, to the tidal estuary where the river meets the Pacific Ocean.

She swam the Skeena to raise awareness of the fragile river system that she said is being threatened by coal bed methane drilling and pipeline development.

“The landscape of the Skeena is powerful beyond words, and I hope everyone who has been inspired by this adventure will find a way to protect their watershed for the future,” said the Ottawa native.

The 33-year-old water-polo player and resort chef began the swim on July 21.

She had no previous river-swimming experience, so she trained for two months on two of the Skeena’s tributaries, the Bulkley and the Suskwa.

During her swim on the Skeena, Howard spent four to eight hours a day on the river and was protected from hazards and the river’s cold water by a life jacket, drysuit and helmet.

She had a daunting task trying to navigate through the Skeena and said the last section was the toughest.

During the swim, entire communities came out to greet Howard and share in her journey.

“I come away from this trip feeling truly inspired by the potential of our communities — of committed people living in places and working together to take care of their home. If there’s a place in the world where we can make it work, this is it,” said Howard.

Throughout the swim she said she was motivated by drivers honking and waving while they passed by on the highway.

Howard navigated the river’s narrow canyons with the help of professionals including a first-aid attendant, videographer and chef.

The crew followed her with equipment on whitewater rafts, which they traded for sturdy canoes once they got closer to the ocean.

August 14 2009 » Skeena Swim » CFTK News

Ali Howard’s Epic Swim To End Saturday in Port Ed

John Crawford — Terrace, reported by Gilda Diaz

A 28-day, 610 kilometer swim comes to an end tomorrow for Ali Howard.

The 33-year-old Bulkley Valley woman is scheduled to splash ashore at the North Pacific Cannery Museum in Port Edward tomorrow afternoon at around 1pm.

A member of her support team, Shannon McPhail, explains how the idea of the “Spirit of the Skeena” swim came about.

“She suggested having a person swim the Skeena, and she was inspired by guy named Martin Strell who swims rivers all over the world in the name of conservation,” says McPhail. She adds “I said, `well we don’t want somebody foreign swimming our rivers, you swim Ali, you do it!’ And it was a big joke but she looked at me and said, ‘yeah, okay, I’ll swim the Skeena!’ And that is literally how it all started.”

Howard’s goal was to make people aware of how important the Skeena is to the communities of the northwest, and to warn of the dangers posed by industrial development. She says she’s been overwhelmed by the response.

August 14 2009 » Skeena Swim » Nanaimo Daily News

Prince Rupert. Swimmer’s Skeena River swim nearing end

Ali Howard is only 26 kilometres from the end of her mega-swim.

By Saturday afternoon, she will emerge from the Skeena River as the first person to swim B.C.‘s second longest river in its entirety.

She will reach her final checkpoint at the Pacific Cannery docks in Port Edward near Prince Rupert, where a community banquet will be set up to celebrate her 28-day trip.

The Ottawa native said she gets a boost of adrenalin from drivers who honk, whistle and wave at her as they pass by on the highway.

The water polo player and resort chef, 33, began the 610 kilometre swim on July 21.

August 14 2009 » Skeena Swim » Vancouver Province

610-km swim almost finished

By Carmen Chai, Times Colonist

Ali Howard is only 26 kilometres away from land.

By Saturday afternoon, she will emerge from the Skeena River as the first person to swim B.C.‘s second-longest river in its entirety.

Howard will reach her final checkpoint at the Pacific Cannery docks in Port Edward near Prince Rupert, where a community banquet will be set up to celebrate her 28-day trip.

“We’ve had a hectic past few days. Long, long swim days and lots of cold water,” Howard said via satellite phone to her audioblog on Wednesday night.

“Energy’s lagging, but I’m happy for everybody’s support.”

She said she gets a boost of adrenalin from drivers who honk, whistle and wave at her as they pass by on the highway.

The 33-year-old water-polo player and resort chef began the 610-km swim on July 21.

She had no previous river-swimming experience, but she trained for two months on two of the Skeena’s tributaries, the Bulkley and the Suskwa.

Howard has swum against Class 4 whitewater rapids and navigated the river’s narrow canyons with the help of professionals including a first-aid attendant, videographer and chef.

The crew followed her with equipment on whitewater rafts, which they traded for sturdy canoes once they got closer to the ocean.

Each night, Howard and the team prop up tents and camp along the river after a full day’s progress.

The expedition is costing about $30,000, money raised from donations and sponsors.

Howard said she undertook the historic swim to raise awareness about the threats to the Skeena watershed.

At issue is Royal Dutch Shell’s plan to drill for methane near the head-waters, home to wildlife and a salmon-spawning habitat.

August 14 2009 » Skeena Swim » Prince Rupert Daily News

Swimmer’s Skeena River swim nearing end

Ali Howard is only 26 kilometres from the end of her mega-swim.

By Saturday afternoon, she will emerge from the Skeena River as the first person to swim B.C.‘s second longest river in its entirety.

She will reach her final checkpoint at the Pacific Cannery docks in Port Edward near Prince Rupert, where a community banquet will be set up to celebrate her 28-day trip.

The Ottawa native said she gets a boost of adrenalin from drivers who honk, whistle and wave at her as they pass by on the highway.

August 13 2009 » Skeena Swim » Times Colonist

Ottawa native swimming entire length of Skeena River

PRINCE RUPERT — Ali Howard is only 26 kilometres from the end of her mega-swim.

By Saturday afternoon, she will emerge from the Skeena River as the first person to swim B.C.‘s second longest river in its entirety.

She will reach her final checkpoint at the Pacific Cannery docks in Port Edward near Prince Rupert, where a community banquet will be set up to celebrate her 28-day trip.

“We’ve had a hectic past few days. Long, long swim days and lots of cold water,” Howard said via satellite phone to her audioblog on Wednesday night. “Energy’s lagging, but I’m happy for everybody’s support.”

The Ottawa native said she gets a boost of adrenalin from drivers who honk, whistle and wave at her as they pass by on the highway.

The water polo player and resort chef, 33, began the 610 kilometre swim on July 21.

During the 28-day venture, Howard swam against Class Four whitewater rapids and navigated the river’s narrow canyons with the help of staff and professionals including a first-aid attendant, videographer and chef.

The crew is following her with equipment on whitewater rafts or canoes.

The expedition is costing about $30,000 with money raised from donations and sponsors.

Howard undertook the swim to raise awareness about the threats to the Skeena watershed.

August 13 2009 » Skeena Swim » Explore Magazine - Outdoor Blog

Swimming the Skeena

In the June issue of explore, we ran a story on Alison Howard, a B.C. woman who was planning on swimming the entire 610-kilometre length of the Skeena River, to raise awareness of threats to the watershed.

The 33-year-old resident of Smithers started her swim on July 21, and since then has stroked her way through all sorts of challenging conditions. (You can read about her swim on the Spirit of the Skeena Swim website.)

Alison is expected to finish her swim this Saturday, at noon in Port Edward. You can show up to celebrate with her then, and there’s also a party planned for 7:30 p.m. in Prince Rupert.

Congratulations to Alison!

August 13 2009 » Skeena Swim » The Northern View

Skeena River swim ends Saturday at North Pacific Cannery

After 28 days, Ail Howard’s swim down the Skeena will wrap up on Saturday at North Pacific Cannery.

By Shaun Thomas – The Northern View

Published: August 11, 2009 11:00 PM

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After 28-days spent swimming the Skeena River from its origin at the Sacred Headwaters, 33-year old Ali Howard will conclude her journey with a special ceremony at North Pacific Cannery in Port Edward this Saturday.

The public is being invited to welcome Howard at North Pacific Cannery when she arrives at one p.m., with organizers asking people to be at the cannery between 12 and 12:30. Her arrival on the North Coast and the end of her journey will be marked by speeches and food for those in attendance and, due to the lack of parking at the facility, a shuttle will take people to North Pacific from the parking area along Skeena Road at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Throughout her swim Howard says she has been “overwhelmed, to say the least” by the response from the many who have attended community events along the route.

“When we conceived the swim, the idea was to get the community out to celebrate with us, and people are. It’s almost surprising how many people have come out to share their stories of the river and their goals and expectations for the Skeena,” said Howard from her stop in Kispiox on August 6.

“It’s a humbling experience to come in and be welcomed by people with such hospitality and such open arms…The swim is going so well to date. I think something much greater than the sum of its part is occurring. It’s been an exceptional journey with a fantastic response.”

And while looking forward to stepping onto the dock at the Cannery to end her swim, aimed at raising awareness of the importance of the Sacred Headwaters and the Skeena watershed to those in the Northwest, Howard said she also doesn’t want the journey to be

over.

“It’s a fantastic journey and something I am so happy to be on. It’s something that I think will carry on even after the swim is done.”

On August 4 Howard was joined in the water by Skeena – Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen, who joined Howard in her swim from Kispiox Village to Hazelton.

August 11 2009 » Skeena Swim » CFTK Television

“Spirit of the Skeena” Swim Now in the Home Stretch

Local News

The “Spirit of the Skeena” swim is scheduled to end this Saturday at Port Edward, but the fight to preserve the watershed goes on.

That’s what members of Ali Howard’s team are saying, as the Bulkley Valley woman is now past Terrace, in her goal to swim the entire length of the river.

Team member Shannon McPhail says one of the reasons for this event is to draw attention to the importance of the Skeena River to northwest communities.

“And the next step after this swim is over is just remain vocal and up front about what you would like to see in your watershed,” said McPhail. She added “We all live here: first nations, non first nations, tradespeople, businessowners, miners — everybody! We all live here, and call this our home”

Howard arrived in Terrace Sunday, to a rousing welcome at Kitisumkalum. She was called a hero by many of those present last night, but she doesn’t see herself that way.

“I don’t consider myself a hero at all,” said Howard. “I make my living in the watershed, and I grew up in Ottawa, I’m not originally from here, but the way that I’ve been embraced by the community that I live and work in really made me want to give back.”

Howard says the every day people speaking out for what they believe in are the real heroes.

John Crawford — Terrace, Reported by Gilda Diaz

August 10 2009 » Skeena Swim » Terrace Daily

Ali Unites the People of the NW

There is no describing the emotional impact on almost everyone who witnessed this event. The shouts from the shores and the bridges were one thing to see and hear as she passed through Terrace but as she arrived at the Kalum River the monumental energy and determination of this woman, her absolute commitment was not just awe inspiring, it was an example of bravery, honour and inspiration that had tears flowing from even the toughest and hardened individual.

First Nations Chiefs and Matriarchs were emotionally moved as were the crowds surrounding this incredulous moment.

Watch the video HERE and witness her as she fights the current to cross the Kalum River when she arrived at the Kitsumkalum Reserve. It was a moment of beauty.

The president of the Nisga’a Nation, Nelson Leeson, acknowledged her efforts and concurred with the Haisla representative Gerald Amos, Ali Howard has brought all the peoples of the Northwest together for a common purpose, to protect the life of the unpolluted Skeena waters. Terrace Mayor Dave Pernarowski also spoke about the inspirational impact she has made.

Watch the Ceremonies HERE.

Ali Howard passed under the old Skeena Bridge at around 3:00pm Sunday accompanied by four large river rafts, a number of kayaks and a large ceremonial canoe. Ali continued to swim every inch of the length of the Skeena River and will continue until it reaches the Pacific Ocean, 610 kilometers from where she started, where the water was only ankle deep and you could almost step across it.

On Saturday evening the entourage was entertained by the Kitselas after they swam to shore at the Kitselas Canyon. Beginning the swim again on Sunday they were greeted to great cheers all along the shore line and the bridges. After passing around Terrace, as the Skeena does, the crew all took a break on a gravel bank across the Skeena River from Brauns Island to warm up next to a fire.

People were lined up along Skeena Street and along the banks of the river on Frank Street. As Ali Howard approached the Kitsumkalum Reserve the current of the Kalum forced all the rafts off to the edges, none could continue against the heavy fast flow. Howard however continued to swim the entire length of the channel, refusing to give up an inch of it to the message she was sharing.

When she finally reached the launch at Fisherman’s wharf on the east side of the Kalum River, Ali worked her way up the shore line and then in a flash and a burst of energy that can only be likened to something super human, she plunged into the raging current with arms and legs driving her half way where the force of the current was interrupted by the highway 16 bridge pillar and log jam. She paused for just a few moments and then drove ahead again to screams and cheers and drumming such that the air and the moment was electric with astonishment.

Both of the Native leaders from the outlying lands who were at the Kitsumkalum territory on Sunday wish to encourage all the leaders, from all walks of life, from all nations, to join together in Prince Rupert when this team arrives on the 15th of August. They express how important the river is to everyone and how this one woman has created a spark that has ignited a fire.

The Skeena Swim final event, where all are encourage to attend in; droves, flocks, hordes, etc. etc. is at both Port Edward and Prince Rupert. They expect to arrive and celebrate at the North Pacific Cannery in Port Edward at Noon on Saturday. The celebrations will then move to the Nisga’a Hall in Prince Rupert beginning at 7:30 pm. This will be an evening family event featuring a live concert by Los Gringos Salvajes of Smithers and northern BC’s one and only female rock star Rachelle Van Zanten. They will be providing lots of food and nourishment for those gathered.

One marvelous woman indeed. Join her as she arrives in Prince Rupert on August 15, 2009 to conclude this 610 kilometer swimming journey. Follow at http://www.skeenawatershed.com

August 09 2009 » Skeena Swim » Terrace Standard

The Skeena River brings in Ali Howard

TODAY ALI Howard arrived in Terrace at the Kitsumkalum boat launch as part of The Spirit of the Skeena Swim; 610 km from the sacred headwaters to the Pacific Ocean.

Howard has been in the river since July 21 and will wrap up her 28 day journey on Aug. 15 at De Horsey Island, North Pacific Cannery.

Howard and her team were greeted by a friendly crowd at the boat launch, with a special welcoming from the Kitsumkalum Tsimshian First Nations.

August 07 2009 » Skeena Swim » CFTK News

Ali Howard Swims Into Terrace This Weekend

Local News

Ali Howard’s “Spirit of the Skeena Swim” brings her to Terrace this weekend. The Bulkley Valley woman’s 610-kilometer journey has already taken her from the “Sacred Headwaters” in the Klappan area through the Hazeltons, as she tries to draw awareness to the Skeena’s value and its vulnerability. She’s been accompanied by a support team, including scout kayaker Kim Ward-Robberts, who says public support for Ali has been incredible.
“I thnk it’s beyond anyone’s expectations — it’s been great, wonderful,” says Ward-Robberts. She adds “People are coming out of the woodwork and just coming to fill the banks of the Skeena and I think that’s exactly what she would have hoped for and it’s been overwhelming response.”

Tomorrow (Saturday), Howard is expected to arrive at Kitselas Canyon. On Sunday at 11, she’ll swim from there toward Terrace, passing under the old and new bridges at around 3 or 3:30, arriving at the Kitsumkalum boat launch for a community celebration at 5. Her ultimate destination is the mouth of the river near Prince Rupert next Saturday.

August 05 2009 » Skeena Swim » Terrace Standard

She’s Swimming the Skeena

Molly McNulty

ALI HOWARD is proving that the human spirit is an unstoppable force as she takes on the challenge of swimming the Skeena River; 610 km from the sacred headwaters to the Pacific Ocean.

Yesterday, Howard entered her second week on the Skeena River, proving to be a force of strength and determination while travelling down the second longest river in the province, and one of the world’s longest undammed rivers.

Howard is making history as the first person to swim the Skeena and this is also the first time a group will travel the length of the river in a single expedition. But Howard states that this isn’t about making the record books, it’s about raising awareness for the Skeena watershed.

“I hope people and residents of the Skeena start to think about the watershed in a new way, and really become a part of the discussion about its future,” said Howard, before embarking on this life changing journey. “If we start talking about it now, 10 to 15 years down the line when development starts to happen…we will have a louder voice, it will serve us well in the future. The watershed is [our] home and the health of it will affect [our] future.”

The plan formed when Howard heard about Martin Strel, a man who swims the world’s longest rivers – including the Amazon – to raise awareness. Howard is friends with Shannon McPhail, the director of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, and passed on the idea that they should get someone to swim the Skeena, unaware that that person would be her.

Howard stresses that she’s not the world’s best swimmer or a champion athlete, she’s just an average person who wanted to raise awareness to preserve the Skeena.

Howard, who’s originally from Ottawa, makes her living along the watershed working at a lodge in Kispiox and says that she couldn’t ask for a better place to live.

She wanted to give something back to it, adding that some people take the area and river for granted when others come from all over the world to enjoy it.

Some key areas she hopes to shed some light on by completing the swim is the fact that the Skeena is one of North America’s greatest rivers, which all five species of wild salmon along with steelhead call home, and the threat of industrial development along the river.

Current threats to the functioning ecosystem are Shell’s proposed plan to drill for coalbed methane in the sacred headwaters, which is where the Skeena, Nass and Stikine Rivers originate. In 2008, after strong opposition from the public, the provincial government agreed upon a two year moratorium on Shell’s plan for drilling.

The second development being proposed is Enbridge’s twin pipeline that will transport crude oil 1,100 km from the Alberta tar sands to the port of Kitimat, where tankers will then transport the oil internationally. This proposed pipeline’s route would cut through the Skeena watershed.

Howard’s idea to bring awareness to the watershed is already paying off, as a film crew from out east has jumped on board to document the entirety of the journey.

“It’s definitely surreal, it’s a total foreign experience for me to be this magnet for the media, and just people stopping me in the street, but it’s amazing. The response has been so positive,” said Howard, who stresses that although she’s the face behind the journey, it’s a huge group effort.

“It’s a group effort…a big group working on this one and I’m just one spoke in the wheel for sure,” added Howard.

Many people helped Howard along the way with her training and a team of about 10 others are travelling with her down the river, including safety and scout kayakers, a raft guide and logistics coordinator to name a few.

Howard is scheduled to cruise into the Terrace area at the Kitsumkalum boat launch Sunday Aug. 9, and is hoping to complete the journey with a celebration at De Horsey Island, North Pacific Cannery on August 15.

Note from SWCC. North Pacific Cannery is located in Port Edward, BC at 1889 Skeena Rd.

August 05 2009 » Skeena Swim » The Globe and Mail

Swimmer feels the spirit of the Skeena

Mark Hume

Vancouver — From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail Last updated on Wednesday, Aug. 05, 2009 04:01AM EDT

As the member of Parliament for Skeena-Bulkley Valley in northern British Columbia and natural resources critic for the New Democratic Party, Nathan Cullen is used to jumping into big issues.

But he never got into a topic quite as deeply as he did this week when he pulled on a neoprene wet suit, a helmet, a life jacket and, with water rescue specialists hovering nearby in kayaks, joined environmental activist Ali Howard in the middle of the brawling Skeena River.

“We had a nice chat as we swam,” said Mr. Cullen yesterday, safely back on dry land. “But even with the neoprene suit and the life jacket I kept getting my head pushed under by the waves.”

That wasn’t the worst of it. Trying to swim around one point he got body slammed into rocks.

“It is enormously powerful,” he said of the river.

When he emerged it was with a sense of awe for Ms. Howard, 33, a Smithers-based chef and former player with the Ottawa Titans water polo team, who is swimming from the headwaters to the ocean.

“The idea of this woman swimming the whole river is incredible – it’s daunting,” said Mr. Cullen.

Her epic journey is bringing attention to the environmental threats facing the river, which runs 600 kilometres from the Spatsizi Plateau, where coal-bed methane drilling is proposed, to the Pacific, near Prince Rupert, where overfishing is a concern.

It’s a big, fast moving river with standing waves the size of haystacks, whirlpools and log jams.

A member of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, Ms. Howard was about half-way through her 28-day swim on Monday when Mr. Cullen and Doug Donaldson, the NDP MLA for the riding, joined her in the water near Hazelton. Greeting them on the river bank were about 400 people and another 50 – including her mom and dad, Alex and Jim Howard, who’d come from their home in Ottawa – provided an escort in native ceremonial canoes.

Speaking by satellite phone yesterday, Ms. Howard said it was an emotional reception after weeks of swimming with her nine-member support crew through the Skeena wilderness where they saw almost no one else.

Despite tackling some wild water, she said she has never been afraid and hasn’t had any close calls.

“Every day my feelings grow stronger for the river. The trip feels enchanted,” she said. “Something is happening here that’s more powerful than our collective parts, that’s getting us down the river.”

Ms. Howard, who trained by swimming back and forth across some of the smaller rivers in the area until she dropped from exhaustion, said the upper Skeena was full of “fast, big, crazy water.”

Now the river is broader, but more powerful.

“It looks a lot gentler, but there are a lot of boils and whirlpools,” she said.

After spending so much time in the water, her body can sense the river hydraulics and she’s figured out how to use giant whirlpools to slingshot her downstream.

“If you time it right, you can kick out before you start going upstream again,” she said.

Ms. Howard said she’s also developed a deep sense of wonder for salmon.

Safety, she said, remains a key concern and she has a kayak within reach at all times, while a second kayak scouts ahead.

Todd Stockner, logistics planner for the expedition, said the only time Ms. Howard got out of the river to walk was when they came to two Class 5 rapids, where the water was so violent even the inflatable support raft couldn’t go through.

“She’s swum virtually every inch of the river. She has been fearless. And her swimming skills have impressed everyone,” said Mr. Stockner. “She is pushing the crew downriver. She’s swimming so fast they have to paddle to keep up.”

And she’s having fun.

“You see her out there sometimes in big water, and she has this huge smile on her face,” he said.

Ms. Howard, who wears a dry suit over two layers of insulated clothing, gets in the river every day by 10 a.m. and swims until 4 p.m.

She expects to reach Terrace on Sunday and to finish in Prince Rupert on Aug. 15.

July 30 2009 » Skeena Swim » METRO VANCOUVER

Skeena swimmer braves white water

The woman swimming British Columbia’s second-longest river to raise awareness of potentially harmful development projects is through the major white water portion of the trip.

Ali Howard has swum more than 200 kilometres and completed about a third of her journey. Since July 21, she has spent nine hours a day in the water supported by a team of nine crew in two kayaks and two rafts.

As the Skeena’s tributaries continue to empty into it, the river becomes wider, deeper and less rocky but hazards such as whirlpools and strong currents appear.

Howard, who works as a chef but is a former water polo player, is expected to arrive in Hazelton on Aug. 3 for a community celebration.

July 28 2009 » Skeena Swim » Vancouver Sun

Gallery: Ali Howard swims the Skeena River

Click here to view photos from the start of the Skeena swim posted on the Vancouver Sun website.

July 26 2009 » Skeena Swim » Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa Citizen Quote of the Week

Ottawa Citizen ran a quote from Ali in the “Quote of the Week” section on page A2.

View PDF of the Ottawa Citizen.ottawacitizen_jul26.pdf

July 25 2009 » Skeena Swim » Ottawa Citizen

Ali noted in the Ottawa Citizen Index

The Citizen listed the numbers associated with Ali’s swim in “The Citizen Index” section of the Saturday edition. Ali’s photo and details are halfway down on the right-hand side of the attached PDF.

View PDF of the Ottawa Citizen.

July 23 2009 » Skeena Swim » Vancouver Metro

Skeena Swim: 2 days down, 26 to go

Download PDF of the Vancouver Metro.

July 22 2009 » Skeena Swim » By Stuart Hunter, The Province

Woman begins Skeena River swim to raise awareness

It was tough to find water deep enough to dive into — but that didn’t stop Ali Howard from landing a perfect cannonball Tuesday to start her epic 28-day swim down the Skeena River.

The 33-year-old from Hazelton hopes to be the first person to swim the river’s entire length, in an attempt to raise awareness about potential threats to the watershed of B.C.’s second-longest river.

“Ali finally found a pool that was deep enough for a cannonball,” Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition executive director Shannon McPhail told The Province.

“It was only about four feet deep but she had beautiful form.”

Wearing a helmet, knee and shin guards and a drysuit to protect her from the rocky shallows of the Skeena’s Sacred Headwaters, Howard, a resort chef and accomplished water polo player, is due to arrive in Prince Rupert on August 15 following her 610-kilometre Spirit of the Skeena Swim 2009.

Howard will face a route full of whirlpools, log-jams, whitewater rapids up to Class Four in size, and two waterfalls that she’ll have to portage around.

She said she’s been training for a couple of months in the the Suskwa and Bulkley rivers, tributaries of the Skeena, which is home to the province’s second largest salmon fishery. “My swim is inspired by the salmon,” Howard said in a news release.

“They’re a powerful metaphor of connectedness and an important part of our way of life. “Everything that happens in our watershed affects the salmon.”

Two of the key concerns at the Sacred Headwaters, a key salmon spawning habitat which also supplies the Nass and Stikine rivers, are proposed coalbed methane drilling and a pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to Kitimat, said the SWCC.

“We have an opportunity here to do things differently — to have vibrant communities and a healthy watershed,” Howard said.

“I’m hoping my swim will help permanently safeguard the watershed from developments that threaten its ecosystem.”

Howard will be accompanied by an eight-person support team. She said safety is a key factor. You can follow her swim at http://www.skeenawatershed.com/swim.

July 22 2009 » Skeena Swim » Calgary Herald

Woman begins Skeena River swim to raise awareness

It was tough to find water deep enough to dive into – but that didn’t stop Ali Howard from landing a perfect cannonball Tuesday to start her epic 28-day swim down the Skeena River.

The 33-year-old from Hazelton hopes to be the first person to swim the river’s entire length, in an attempt to raise awareness about potential threats to the watershed of B.C.‘s second-longest river.

“Ali finally found a pool that was deep enough for a cannonball,” Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition executive director Shannon McPhail told The Province.

“It was only about four feet deep but she had beautiful form.”

Howard will face a route full of whirlpools, log-jams, whitewater rapids up to Class Four in size, and two waterfalls that she’ll have to portage around.

“They’re a powerful metaphor of connectedness and an important part of our way of life. “Everything that happens in our watershed affects the salmon.”

“We have an opportunity here to do things differently – to have vibrant communities and a healthy watershed,” Howard said.

“I’m hoping my swim will help permanently safeguard the watershed from developments that threaten its ecosystem.”

Howard will be accompanied by an eight-person support team. She said safety is a key factor. You can follow her swim at http://www.skeenawatershed.com/swim.

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