3, Castlégar News November 8, 1989

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Thank You"

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Electoral Dis ssland Trail Highway District: Kootenay Boundary No.9 Project or Job Number: 8. 5905.A Project or Job Ds project consis tion and installation of fencing at both end Castlegar footbrid.ge removal of rubbish pile

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ty Bid Bond

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0.H. HUTTON District Highvvays Monager Ministry Official

No. 581 Squadron Air Cadets and Sponsoring Body THANK YOU te ken, Dairy Queen, Anthony s F p Burge P Recreation Commission No. 8 Slocan Valley

I their com ing the past

ond who assist r in. Thank therhead and

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Socreds not

poll says

VANCOUVER British ¢

(CP) The imbians believe wrong on

cjudiced

additional onvention IPL those wrong to ued to

¢ 26 per cent r

ute within

Jer Zalm and then: Neil Vant

after telling jokes

were later

ypes at a

juring the

their

told laration in Christian or

mmunitie rd members

aid they believe prejudiced inst the nat

mmunity, to 39

‘ent who believe it i

--- WANTED —

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197 Columbia Ave., Castlegar

November 8, 1989

cl

Alliance status in question

VANCOUVER (CP) The federal government has threatened to pull the charitable status of dne of the country’s largest anti-abor tion groups

Alliance For Life was told of the move by Revenue Canada last

Thursday — the day before the federal government unveiled its new abortion bill

“The government is trying to call our educational work political,"’ said Heather Stilwell of Vancouver, the alliance’s past

president. “But we'll quietly do what we've been asked 10 do to go through the appeal process.’

The Winnipeg-based alliance has links 10 most anti-abortion groups in the country

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QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS

ourism boom creates pro

British Columbia’s beautiful Queen Charlotte Islands are a natural and archeological treasury. Haida Indians claim the islands as their home and part of the island group has been established as 2 national park

attracting tourists — and problems. By MIROCERNETIG

ANTHONY ISLAND, B.C, (CP) — The Haida watchman had never seen anything like it in 16 years of guarding storm-lashed Anthony Island from grave robbers and heavy-footed wayfarers

A very large woman tourists landing on the Queen Charlotte Islands — was bouncing atop the moss-covered beam of an ancient In dian longhouse as though it were a trampoline.

one of a growing troop of

“‘Look,"’ she puffed, each bounce sending shud ders through one of the priceless archeological remnants that have made Anthony Island a heritage site.

“It... just

nited Nations world

break.”” The modern tourist is a dangerous new species for the South Moresby region of the Queen Charlotte Islan

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Castlegar News

ds, the dagger-shaped national park reserve often called Canada’s Galapagos Islands

For centuries the 300-kilometre-long archipelago, off the northwest coast of British Columbia, remained hidden in mist and mystery. It-was know# only to fur traders, whalers and Haida Indians, who sometimes at tacked and sank trading ships from their 15-metre-long war canoes

TOURIST TRACK

Now the islands’ 1,500 remaining Haida and the federal government are battling pollution, over crowding and a host of troubling problems that come with being on the tourist track

“There are too many visitors,"’ warns Dick Wilson, a

full-blooded Haida Indian who began the watchman program on Anthony Island in 1973 to protect fhe island from looters and curiosity seekers. Since then the Haida have expanded the program to about half a dozen areas in the park that they consider too valuable or fragile to leave unguarded

“You've gotta have controls,"’ Wilson says

But two Years after allocating $106 million to set up the park reserve and help Anthony Island change its economy from logging to tourism, the federal gover nment is still struggling to cope with the tourism ex plosion on the Charlottes.

Fearful of prejudicing a looming land-claims battle

with the Haida who never signed over title of the

Racial

Racial tension and stiff prices mar the beauty of British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands. The ten- sion is between the majority white and minority Haida residents, but both groups are quick to cash in on visitors.

By MIRO CERNETI

SANDSPIT, B.C. (CP) — When the topic of race relations is mentioned in Dwayne Gould's pickup truck, it’s hard to tell what's more explosive — the two boxes of dynamite crammed behind the passenger seat or the driver

“*What we’ ve got up here in the Queen Charlottes is like apartheid in South Africa,’’ booms the grizzled logger, who explained the dynamite was for blasting logs and stumps

“But here it’s whites who are being denied their rights.””

Among the 4,500 non-natives on the Queen Charlotte Islands, ther are rumblings over what many see as toadying by the federal government to the minority population of 1,500 Haida Indians.

Two years after Ottawa allotted $106 million to turn the bottom half of the archipelago into the South Moresby National Park reserve, racial tension is growing

Mostly it is fuelled by disillusionment with lacklustre economic spin-offs from Canada’s most ex Pensive park and-by-pereeived favoritism toward the Haida

MAY ‘BLOW UP*

‘There's kind of a resentment building,”” says the 61-year-old Gould, who serves as South MOresby's elected representative on the regional district, the municipal body that governs the area

“Things are getting worse. It might blow up in our faces.””

One issue galling many non-native residents is the illegal permit system the Haida have implemented on some popular tourist spots in South Moresby

The Canadian Parks Service — the federal agency ‘charged with managing the park — tells visitors the $25 permits are illegal. But the parks service admits to having used its boat to carry supplies to the Haida wat chmen who routinely turn visitors back if they don’t pay up.

“It's sheer hypocrisy,"’ says Patrick Armstrong, a former logger who led a fight for more than a decade to

wpe pre

is Ne

islands — Ottawa has chosen a snail’s pace in drafting a management plan for Canada’s most expensive park VISITORS POLLUTE

Already that foot-dragging is threatening a delicate balance that made the archipelago a treasury of ar cheological and ecological wonders

* On Anthony Island, at the southern tip of the park, candy wrappers increasingly turn up under rotting logs; pop cans corrode among the beach driftwood; crude holes have been dug by grave-robbers looting sacred burial caves; chunks are missing from the totem poles peering seaward

* At Burnaby Narrows, a shallow channel farther

tension

allow continued logging on South Moresby fair?’

Is this

The Haida, who were nearly wiped out by smallpox at the turn of the century, maintain they are simply cat ching up for past injustices

Dick Wilson, a full-blooded Haida and expert in Haida history and archeology, says the islands belong to his people and views the white man as a visitor sometimes an intruder

“This is Haida land,” he said. ‘*We never gave it to you.”

Loggers like Armstrong believe the federal gover nment ignored concerns over their livelihoods and caved in to pressure from the Haida and environmentalists to set up the park

The loggers now say a disappointing number of spin-offs from tourism prove they were right

“I'm not sure why itis,”’ says Steve Suddes, a parks service official, ‘*but the feeling | have from most mer

chants is that business is down

Totem

A famous collection of totem poles is crumbling on the Queen Charlotte Islands — but that’s as it should be, say the Haida, who object to the poles going into jowever, there may be ways to maintain the

e honoring the Haida beliefs.

By MIRO CERNETIG

NINSTINTS, B.C. (CP) The totem. poles marking the abandoned Indian village of Ninstints look as though they are being ravaged by leprosy

Black holes gape where eyes and noses should be The wood, cracked and silvery with age, is as soft as sponge. A gentle tap can send chunks tumbling into the wild grass.

What archeologists view as the world’s most significant collection of standing totel poles is quickly crumbling into the ground of Canada’s newest national park reserve, the South Moresby region of the Queen Charlotte Islands

But at Ninstints — the haunting village that in 1981 earned Anthony Island its designation as a United

Nations world heritage site — the Haida watchman is

NY

Y —<

north that becomes a magnificent tidal pool at low tide, hikers are literally crushing starfish, marine plants and microscopic creatures with their feet

* On Hot Spi Island, volcanically heated mineral springs were closed to bathers after some suf fered infections from fecal coliform leaching into the water. The source? Probably visitors relieving them: selves in nearby woods

* And despitea long history of island lootir has been done to catalogue or protect abandoned Haida villages that date back thousands of years and offer secrets on a civilization once almost destroyed by small

pox

Kevin Newton, a fast-talking entrepreneur tryi to cash in on tourism, theorizes many visitors are you backpackers with little money who bypass hotels and restaurants for the outdoors and caimpfires jokes Newton, who

reakfast place. **I call

‘I don’t call them pegpl runs a bus service and a bed. them cheaple.”*

Too many ‘‘cheaple’’ can make for a long winter in the Queen Charlottes, where living costs are high since everything must be either floated or flown in

To cope, some residents have developed what may seem a somewhat sharkish attitude to the islands and those visiting them

Goetz Hanisch, a West German who settled in the islands in 1981 to beat the rat race, ferries visitors from

s home in Rose Harbor to the abandoned Haida village of Ninstints on the archipelago’s western tip.

On the way over from the old whaling station, the only privately owned land in South Moresby, Hanisch tells people the Charlottes are what the |"Earth looked

Such problems are likely to increase. The tourist parade is still grgwing after an international publicity campaign by the Haida to save South Moresby trom logging The number of tourists landing at Sandspit airport a ramshackle affair on South Moresby’s northern and docking at the ferry terminal has reached-23,000 ago.

boundary almost double the total four years

It’s a tremendous influx for the Queen Charlottes, estimated to have only 6,000 inhabitants, most of whom live in the northern islands

The Canadian Parks Service responsible for the park actually visited South Moresby

the federal agency can only estimate how many A program to keep track of visitors has yet to be set up

Estimates, however, are that this fear more than 8,000 tourists stayed in the park for an average of 10 days, or a total of at least 80,000 visitor days. The projection is that the number of days visitors spend in the park will grow to 178,000 by 1998

“The fects of tourism,”

’s certainly apprehension here about the ef

admits Ron Hooper, South Moresby’s superintendent. “It’s a very significant and fragile area.’

Hooper, an easy-going man whose job demands equal measures of diplomacy and management, believes a plan for the park can still be ready by the target of 1991

SET LIMITS

That plan — which Hooper stresses the gover

nment wants to reach in full partnership with the Haida

is likely to include restrictions on some areas. As well, companies offering kayak and boat trips will probably need operating licences and visitors will require permits, asin other national parks

Hooper hopes parts of that plan will be hashed out this winter so other problems can be solved as well. High on the agenda:

— Rats and raccoons, introduced in the northern Charlottes decades ago, are now migrating into:the park. They are a major threat to sea birds that nest on the ground and incliff walls.

Safety programs are needed to cope with people who show up in the area with rented kayaks and little awareness of the dangers of the open ocean

HAIDA ACT

So far, however, the Haida have refused to for mally discuss the park’s management

Instead, they have unilaterally embarked on their own management plan, charging tourists $25 for per- mits to visit certain areas.

The Haida have also prevented camping in some places and banned all air travel to Anthony Island

The measures are illegal areas since under law the rocky islands of South Moresby belong to all Canadians

But no eyebrows are raised in the park office when the subject comes up. Indeed, the watchman of Haida Gwaii

except in Haida reserve

as the Charlottes are called by the Indians — receives mostly praise at the office

‘Our hope is that the Haida Gwaii watchman “They play a

program will expand,” says Hooper

significant role.”

‘getting worse

like before time On the way back, Hanisch’s quoted price for the 20-minute voyage inexplicably jumps to $150 from $100. It’s hard to argue when a chartered float plane is waiting on the other side with the meter ticking at $40 an hour Hanisch is also quick to offer that if the federal government decides to buy his share of Rose Harbor, the trees are worth $5 million Over on Hot Springs Island, which the Haidas closed to tourists after the volcanic pools became polluted, a fierce-looking Haida watchman stares at the bear tooth around his neck and turns jolly when he thinks what some tourists spend on the Queen Charlot tes People pay thousands of dollars to look at this place (the islands} Tknov Don’t make me laugh so hard

says William (Bunty) Greene saysa visitor. **We did answers Greene,

Wincing from a toothache. “Tr hurts

poles crumbling

unperturbed Sure, in 20 years a lot of them will be nothing

predicts Dick Wilson, sitting on the edge of Ninstints shell-strewn beach, watching a full moon glint off more than a dozen teetering totems

“But these poles are supposed to go back to the forest

MUSEUM RESPECTS

The western notion that archeological treasures whether pyramids or cedar totems — must be preserved for posterity is being turned on its ear by the Haida

And in contrast to the often rapacious collecting by museums at the turn of the century, British Columbia's Royal Museum appears ready to respect Haida wishes that no more of the Ninstints totems be taken down and carted off to glass cases,

“Peggle have thiggerrible, terrible hang-up of trying to presefvé everything,"* says the museum’s Mary-Lou Florian, an expert on preserving wooden artifacts

Itisn’t always the best thing todo Still, maintaining the totems is possible.

Since the Charlottes’ stinging winds are thought to wear down the poles by only millilmetres each century the real enemy is dampness

White blotches of fungus and hidden dry rot grow every year. Tiny seedlings ‘send roots into weakened wood, eventually causing entire sections of carvings to falloff

CLEAN, PRESERVE

Twice a year Wilson takes out an aluminum scaf fold, places it beside the totems and removes those plan ts. But he admits it’s impossible to keep up with the relentless growth

A likely solution is opening the totems to more sunlight by cutting back the forest, as well as concocting a new preservative treatment for the wood. Florian says she could probably do all that but smiles when asked if it will happen

“re not going to do anything until the Haida

and Parks Canada invite usin

continued on page C4

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