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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Trees in BC killed by pine beetles. Photos by Lorraine Maclauchlan, Ministry of Forests, Southern Interior Forest Region, BC
When we were driving in BC recently we saw a lot of territory that looked like the pictures above. Those dead trees are due to the pine beetle, which has been thriving too well due to recent warm winters due to, you guessed it...global warming. I'd heard something about this beetle on the radio, but it did not sink in until I saw for myself: mountainside after mountainside of completely dead trees. The government website says that "ministry surveys detected 8.5 million hectares of red-attack in 2005." It's a strange time for logging, because the dead trees represent a boom economy right now, but a big shortage coming up. Logging communities, of which there are many, are going to really suffer. The government FAQ informs that development trusts have been set up to "give communities the ability to pursue new opportunities for stimulating economic growth and job creation." ie: yikes. Naturalists are also anticipating increased pressure to log in conservation areas and parks that are currently protected.
On our road trip we got to stay a day in the Clearwater Valley with Trevor Goward, lichenologist, naturalist and gracious host extraordinaire. He makes an ecological arguement against cutting down the dead pines because they provide the perfect environment for a lichen that caribou like to eat. Once we got up north we saw a lot of caribou and a lot of lichen, both super stunning to look at.
Snapshots from Muskwa-Kechika by Sally McKay
At the artist exploration camp in the Muskwa Kechika, we got to know people from Northern BC who are worried about development. Several of the participants live in prairie land near Dawson Creek where natural gas wells are springing up all over the place, flaring and off-gassing right by people's farms and homes. Artist Karl Mattson said, "I have a bad feeling that the North is going to get raped."
Snapshots from Muskwa-Kechika by Sally McKay
The Muskwa Kechika, where the camp was held, is an absolutely gorgeous area that is remarkably undeveloped. (The dead trees in the photo above are not from pine beetle, but from naturally occurring forest fire.) Because the area is so large, it represents an opportunity for us to protect a really significant chunk of wilderness. Wayne Sawchuk, naturalist, photographer, and one of the organisers of the camp along with writer Donna Kane, had some really interesting things to say about humans and wilderness. He has been going deep into the Muskwa Kechika for 20 years, and he obviously has a deep love and respect for the area. He suggests that human perception of wilderness is a key to preservation. Wayne said "the idea of the frontier is over. It's very sad, but we have to accept it."
Snapshots from Muskwa-Kechika by Sally McKay
The way I am understanding this right now is that we need to acknowledge the importance of wilderness, not only in the empirical sense of preserving species and habitats, but also as a concept of human cultural value. Wilderness is an important aspect of how we understand the world, and we are in very real danger of destroying it. The preservation of natural areas directly serves human cultural interests, as well as wildlife interests. It is very sad to think of nature the same way we might think about exhibits in a museum, but we nevertheless need to face our romantic notions of the great wild 'other' beyond our imaginative powers, as even the wilderness ideal itself will not survive us without our direct and organised intervention ... I think ... it's abstract ... I'm still mulling all this over.
Snapshots from Muskwa-Kechika by Sally McKay
One thing that is not at all complicated is that the Muskwa-Kechika is freakin' beautiful, and keeping it that way seems like a very good idea.