The voice
of B.C. s organized fishing industry workers
LETTERS
Third party claims just
The following letter was sent to Project North, with a copy to the UFAWU. It is printed here by permission.
On April 29, at the Tangled Nets: Who gets the fish"? forum I was surprised and upset at the attitude of some people who identified themselves as being from Project North.
In their zeal for the cause of aboriginal fishing rights, they found it necessary to reject with scorn the concerns of the UFAWU for jobs in the commercial fishery.
I support aboriginal fishing rights of First Nations people. I believe that a definition of these rights should include recognition of some commercial rights. Courts, however, have not spoken on this issue.
The UFAWU has a good record of support for aboriginal claims. As these claims are being settled, there is bound to be some economic difficulty for different sectors of our economy. We must find ways of dealing with economic dislocation for third parties.
The April 14 pastoral message on the Canadian economy from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops speaks of the "powerlessness of the unemployed workers" in today's economy.
If people from Project North are truly interested in helping First Nations people to achieve a greater measure of justice, they would do better to encourage a process of dialogue and understanding — not self-righteous confrontation with a group like the UFAWU which is in support but also has important concerns of its own which need to be addressed.
REV. JIM MANLY,
Vancouver
Costly 'copters
Groping for excuses to waste child care dollars on Cold War 'copters, Kim Campbell proclaims that British Columbia's northwest coast is not adequately patrolled.
So where was she when Skeena MP Jim Fulton helicoptered to the rescue of the Eliza Joy, one of several Canadian fish boats seized in Dixon Entrance by the U.S. Coast Guard? She was too busy converting our fishing grounds into an expressway for nuclear submarines to answer the phone.
Fulton used an off-the shelf Bell Jet Ranger, worth about $100 million. You could buy a hundred of these machines (or 10 hovercraft) for the price of a single EH-101.
NORMAN ABBEY,
Gabriola Island
The Fisherman welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should be brief.
SAVING A TOP SALMON RIVER
Quesnel system rivals the Adams but logging threatens its future
By DOUG RADIES
This is a story about the Quesnel River salmon and the steps we must take as a society to protect the habitat.
The Quesnel River originates 800 km inland from the mouth of the Fras-er River in the central Interior of B.C. Traditional territory of the Carrier and Shuswap nations, it is a vital source of fresh water to the Fraser, draining portions of the rugged and extensively glaciated Cariboo Mountains, the rolling Quesnel higlands and the relatively flat Cariboo Plateau. The most outstanding feature of the watershed is Quesnel Lake, which is not only the largest in the Cariboo but also the deepest in B.C.
Four of the five Pacific salmon stocks spawn in the Quesnel system. Pinks spawn in the lower reaches while coho, chinook and sockeye utilize spawning substrate in the headwater tributaries.
The Quesnel River is the furthest north that coho travel up the Fraser River. But it is the Quesnel sockeye that give this great river its international reputation.
The Fraser River basin produces more salmon than any other river system in the world. Historically, the Quesnel sockeye runs were the largest of the Fraser River tributaries. However, with the construction of the Quesnel River dam — built for placer mining in 1896-97 — and the Hell's Gate slide in 1913, the Horsefly and Mitchell River populations (the two most productive tributaries for sockeye on the Quesnel system) had declined by 1941 to a total run of about 5,000 fish and less than 1,000 spawn-ers.
Although the Quesnel Dam was removed in 1921, there has been a steady increase in demand for the
resources in the Quesnel River basin. Fertile floodplains have been cleared for agricultural purposes and efforts for a sound management strategy by the Pacific Salmon Commission in the 1950s were challenged by the increasing demand for timber by mills in Quesnel and Williams Lake.
In 1958, Weldwood began driving logs on the Quesnel River which had considerable impact on the fish in the Quesnel system. Bulldozers worked in the river to re-define channels so that logs could move freely. But despite the pressures, Quesnel sockeye populations continued building.
In 1989, the total Quesnel sockeye run was 11,700,000 fish and the landed value of the commercial catch was $87 million, or 69 per cent of the Fraser River total. The escapement for that year was was 1,870,000 sockeye and a subsequent dominant Quesnel sockeye run is expected this summer.
The remarkable comeback from the historical low of 1941 is attributed to the relative health of the Quesnel River and its headwater tributaries. It is predicted that in time the Quesnel will surpass the Adams River to become once again the greatest sockeye producer in the Fraser River basin.
But that goal may never be reached if the forest industry in Quesnel, Williams Lake and the Robson Valley has its way. Virtually all of the headwaters of the Quesnel River are scheduled for clearcut logging within the next five years.
Never before has the health of the Quesnel system been so seriously threatened. In an attempt to feed overbuilt mills with a dwindling wood supply, logging companies are now moving into the steep upper reaches of the Quesnel watershed.
A recent report by Triton Environmental Consultants for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans warns: "Streams chaining the Cariboo Moun-
tains are in general confined in their steep upper reaches by steep and unstable hillslopes and are frequently impacted directly by avalanche tracks. The headwaters of these streams are heavily glaciated and often carry large sediment loads. Most streams have built prominent deltas at their confluences with mainstem rivers and lakes. As a a result, the potential for hills-lope instability impacts on streams ch-ainingthe Cariboo mountains is considered high."
In the four years since it took over the forest licence from Star line Mills, West Fraser Timber has roaded and logged six major tributaries of Quesnel Lake and the company's five-year plan shows no sign of slowing down.
West Fraser is not alone in the Quesnel River watershed. Other major forest companies include Lignum, Jacobsen Brothers and Weldwood. Jacobsen Brothers have aggressive plans for Moffat Creek, McKinley Creek, Quesnel Lake's north and south shores and the headwaters of the Horssefly River.
To counter this short-sighted industrial onslaught, the Cariboo Mountains Wilderness Coalition (CMWC), a broad-based lobby force, proposed in 1991 the full protection of the Quesnel River headwaters. This would not only safeguard the major source of fresh water to the Quesnel system but would also link Bowron Lake Provincial Park to Wells Gray Provincial Park, protecting the entire wet western slopes of the Cariboo Mountains.
In the spring of 1992 the NDP government placed a temporary moratorium on any further development in the majorioty of these critical watersheds to provide "breathing space" for Stephen Owen's Commission on Resources and the Economy (CORE) to establish a regional planning process in the Cariboo.
The Ministry of the Environment is currently conducting an environmental assessment of the impact of this past winter's logging in Blue Lead Creek, a valuable fisheries stream on the east arm of Quesnel Lake that was not deferred in 1992. But the focus of the audit is on the site-specific impact, not the long-term cumulative impact associated with continuous road-building and forest removal over time.
The CMWC claim that full protection is the best management tool to preserve critical fish and wildlife habitat. In recognizing that it is not practicable over the entire land base, tb-coalition is calling for a reduction in the grmiial allowable cut in the Quesnel River watershed to accommodate full protection in some areas while providing options for truly sustainable resource use in areas designated for integrated resource management. That would include no-logging buffer zones on all streams and changes in forest practices.
The government will be making a decision on the Cariboo Mountains Park proposal at the end of this year. Now is the time for fishers can join in this positive step towards a better way. Please write a letter to John Crosbie, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans in Ottawa and Michael Harcourt, Premier of B.C., expressing your concern over the future of the Quesnel River system. If you want to volunteer your help, call 685-8269.
Letters from you, prime users of the Quesnel River fishery, will carry a strong message.
DOUG RADIES is a researcher and campaign co-ordinator for the Cariboo Mountains Wilderness Coalition.
THE FISHERMAN / MAY 24,1993 • 5