#5

Opinion: Wild Spaces are vital to our collective health

“Cultures around the world have long recognized natural settings as a balm for the soul” (Douglas Chadwick 2021).  I would argue that we are far better served by connecting with nature, spending time outdoors, hiking, camping, foraging, fishing, and hunting.

The pocket park at the end of the block is a nice amenity and a wonderful place to play with your kid, but reaping the real benefits of nature requires a more immersive experience. This provincial election is an opportunity to adjust course.

I’ve experienced firsthand how much outdoor living is key to improving my physical and mental health. I’m not certain we need a lot of scientific studies to understand the value of spending time in wild places, but scientists have done a pile of them anyway. Research has shown that being in wild places quiets the mind, that sunsets and greenery relax our bodies, that the sound of leaves in the wind or the trickle of a stream releases your mind from worry, and that natural settings increase feelings of harmony.

Being in the backcountry can prevent or reduce obesity, as you move through the landscape harvesting natural foods. If eating the output of a global industrial food system worries you, it might be time to reconnect with nature.

Curated parks are great, and we encourage expanding urban greenspace, but they are not a substitute for wilderness.

To protect our access to the land and our ability to hunt and fish, the East Kootenay Wildlife Association is pushing to bring transparency and inclusiveness to co-management negotiations taking place in the Kootenays. All B.C.’s stakeholders need to be at the table if we are to share an abundant and sustainable future.

In my role with the East Kootenay Wildlife Association, I urge the provincial government to legislate an independent agency to manage wildlife sustainably, based on data and science, free from the whims of politicians.

 

I believe we are standing at the edge of a very steep precipice, and that it is up to each of us to engage with our elected officials and candidates for office and ensure that they hear our concerns.

I urge you to raise your voice, stand up for science-based wildlife and demand that our elected officials Put Wildlife First.

Ask questions of your candidates and demand answers.

#4 OPINION: It’s time to guarantee public access to public resources

British Columbia’s natural assets are the envy of the world, but our ability to access wild places and enjoy the outdoors is being overrun and accessed by many modes of motorized and non-motorized modes of transportation, into areas only once attainable by foot.

The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation protects wildlife as a shared public resource, allocated fairly to common folk. It is meant to be democratic and forward-looking. Over the past 30 years, British Columbia has drifted away from this egalitarian, sustainable model, particularly as the government embraces short-term political expediency.

Earlier this year, people were rightly outraged when the provincial government tried to rush changes to the Land Act and the backlash convinced our elected officials to rethink their strategy and restart their public consultation process. This lack of consultation is causing confrontations, habitat destruction and disruption to wildlife rearing and feeding areas.

As you can see in the picture below, all of us have an effect on wildlife and the reason why some regulation of our activities are needed, especially during critical times such as rearing of young, use of critical habitat for survival and moving through essential corridors. To have proper and thoughtful restricted activities requires engagement with the public to make them aware of where and when wildlife and habitat needs to be left alone or less frequented to arrive at meaningful stewardship planning.

By doing this we will ensure that all British Columbians can enjoy the beauty and the bounty of this province in perpetuity.

Ask questions of your candidates and demand answers.

#3 OPINION: Responsible Wildlife Management MUST be backed by Responsible Science derived Data.

Centuries ago, Leonardo da Vinci advised “Learn to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else”.

We must get back to science-based wildlife management and halt BC’s slow-motion natural catastrophe here in the Kootenays as well as the rest of BC, something the East Kootenay Wildlife Association has been striving for a number of years.

Many of our iconic wildlife species are in decline, best exemplified by the progressive extinction of the mountain caribou herds of the southern Kootenays. Record low populations of mule deer, elk, and bighorn sheep in the Kootenays are lined up like dominos waiting to fall into the same abyss.

We are witnessing a slow-motion natural catastrophe, made worse by the provincial government’s steadfast refusal to make wildlife management decisions that are backed by science. Elected officials drag their feet to implement Stewardship Plans and opt for Limited Entry Hunting of many species with no science-based data to support this decision and no evidence that this action will address the declines.

The provincial government is failing to properly manage wildlife through science. Many wildlife populations in B.C., once healthy and growing, are now unhealthy. Politicians are making cougar decisions without cougar data, moose decisions without moose data, and sheep decisions without sheep data.

In the absence of data, in the absence of evidence, decisions about wildlife allocations and quotas are being driven by politics. The collapse of the Thompson River Steelhead population, Caribou extinction in the southern Selkirk Mountains are sad examples of proper management! With the coming of Chronic Wasting Disease to our ungulates and Whirling Disease in our fishery what political wisdom do we here in the Kootenays now face?

In 2020, the provincial government’s Together for Wildlife strategy promised to implement evidence-based decisions, supported by research and monitoring. That science-based approach has been guided by wildlife inventory in accordance with the Provincial Framework for Moose Management in B.C. But after creating this framework, the government has apparently abandoned it. This is unreasonable and ill-advised.

Management decisions are being used as sweeteners in reconciliation negotiations and garner votes within the urban population. Proposals to change the Hunting and Trapping Regulation will further erode hunter access and days on the land without scientific rationale. Unabated access to the alpine and fragile ecosystems continues with little to no enforcement in current restricted areas and the continued eroding of the experience nature brings in these areas.

The government admits there is no scientific basis for many of the new restrictions, nor any science-based plan. The sooner all British Columbians return to the table for good-faith negotiations, buttressed by thorough wildlife counts, the faster we can move toward a future of shared abundance.

Ask questions of your candidates and demand answers.

#2 Opinion: It is up to us to conserve our wild spaces

British Columbia’s neglect of wild things and wild spaces is a slow motion trainwreck.

With a provincial election coming this fall, the stakes could not be higher for B.C. wildlife and habitat, not to mention fresh and saltwater anglers, hikers, campers, hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. Iconic species are in obvious decline and candidates for office ignore us at their peril.

We need to convince our elected officials to Put Wildlife First and we have the numbers to make it happen. B.C. is home to 300,000 freshwater anglers, 275,000 saltwater anglers, 316,000 firearms license holders, and 110,000 licensed hunters. The EKWA represents 3700 members with 9 organizations. The numbers are in our favour.

The East Kootenay Wildlife Association (EKWA) is working to ensure that candidates and parties Put Wildlife First in their platforms. EKWA is engaging with candidates and parties, holding town halls, and encouraging the public to vote alongside our members with wildlife in mind. Make sure you know which candidates and parties are committed to independent, science-based resource management, with transparent, legislated objectives for improvement.

British Columbia has been defunding the environment and wildlife management for nearly 50 years. Dollars dedicated to wild things and wild spaces have declined from more than five per cent of total provincial expenditures to about one per cent. Less than one percent of your tax dollars are going to take care of what we all cherish.

Stated another way, the provincial government’s allocation for natural resource management as a proportion of the total budget is down more than 75 per cent. Budget dedicated directly to fish and wildlife management is even less.

B.C. has long profited from natural resource extraction. We must use some of that money to ensure that service roads are removed, extraction sites are rehabilitated, forests are maintained, and habitat is restored. B.C. is failing on every count.

We can influence this election candidate by candidate, vote by vote. If you want to see a change in how our wildlife is managed, you must attend campaign events and talk to your local candidates. It is vital that they hear our concerns everywhere they go.

Ask questions of your candidates and demand answers.

Unless the province sets aside a meaningful portion of our provincial budget for our renewable resources, we will continue to see fish and wildlife decline, experience massive uncontrollable wildfires, and suffer the consequences of widespread flood and drought.

You are not powerless in this struggle. Elections in B.C. are won and lost by a few thousand votes across swing ridings. The outdoors community, EKWA members, hunters, and anglers number in the hundreds of thousands. We can decide the next election. 

Use your voice. Loudly.

#1 Opinion: Healthy, organic food for my table

Are we doomed to become like indoor cats, hunkered down with limited space to roam, and eating food from a box? The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation protects wildlife as a shared public resource, allocated fairly to common folk, and managed based on sound science. It is meant to be democratic and forward-looking.
Over the past 30 years, British Columbia has drifted from this egalitarian, sustainable model, particularly as the government embraces short-term political expediency over science-based decision-making. For decades, the narrative around public consultation has always been the same. Write to your MLA. Talk to your MLA. They represent you.
Members of the outdoor community are trying to get the government’s attention. The BC Wildlife Federation along with the East Kootenay Wildlife Association organized a series of open houses across B.C. to engage with elected officials and candidates for office and demand an end to backroom dealing.
We are witnessing a slow-motion natural catastrophe in the absence of data, in the absence of evidence, decisions about wildlife allocations and quotas are being driven by politics. The result is a creeping conversion of General Open Season hunts into Limited Entry Hunts and the erosion of allocations for some species by 50, 80, or even 100 per cent, with no discernable scientific reasoning.
 B.C. is home to 300,000 freshwater anglers, 275,000 saltwater anglers, 316,000 firearms license holders, and 110,000 licensed hunters. The numbers are in our favour. We need to convince our elected officials to Put Wildlife First and we have the numbers to make it happen. Candidates for office ignore us at their peril.
B.C. has long profited from natural resource extraction. We must use some of that money to ensure that service roads are removed, extraction sites are rehabilitated, forests are maintained, and habitat is restored. In B.C. the proportion of the Provincial Budget spent on renewable resource management has steadily decreased, in 2024, less than 1% of the Provincial Budget will be spent on renewable resource management. B.C. is failing on every count.
We can influence this election candidate by candidate, vote by vote. If you want to see a change in how our wildlife is managed, you must attend campaign events and talk to your local candidates. It is vital that they hear our concerns everywhere they go.
Ask questions of your candidates and demand answers.