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While this might seem like an impediment to free and open travel on the BC coast, especially for kayakers,
In the more congested Barkley Sound to the south, the Toquaht First Nation has gained title to many of the islands scattered to the north and west of the famous Broken Group Islands of Pacific Rim National Park. The band has also gained recreation tenures on the larger Stopper Islands for future cultural tourism opportunities. Again, their gains won't necessarily restrict kayakers and other visitors. "We definitely don't want to keep anybody out. We don't want to make private those lands that used to be public," said Anne Morgan, the cultural education coordinator with the Toquaht First Nation. In fact, the treaty stipulates ensuring public access to the Stopper Islands. The band had originally sought the islands as part of the treaty package, as they are significant to the band's heritage, Morgan said. But the large islands were too expensive: They were told if they wanted the Stoppers, it would be the only land that they'd get. "We told them we were only going to sign off if we could see the islands protected through a park. We never want to see them logged. It's our burial site. We're working diligently to get them protected as heritage sites." The band also gets most of the shoreline around Toquart Bay, the main kayaking launch site for the Broken Group, but as part of the treaty agreement, the launch and campsite are protected for public use. Visitors may even see benefits from the treaty, as the bands plan to develop new tourism services in addition to opening cultural centers. Morgan also doesn't envision the coast being parceled off to private interests: "We're working on some type of system so the land can never be sold to the outside beyond the band," she said. One change visitors can expect is a return to the traditional names in Barkley Sound. For instance, Maggie Lake near Barkley Sound, once incorrectly interpreted by Europeans, will go back to the proper native name, either Maikee or Maikii depending on how the phonetics are finally decided. The lake is named after Morgan's grandfather; there never was a Maggie. "History will be coming out with the names," Morgan said. "The story of what's there will be told just by the place names." Expect Toquart Bay to also revert to its correct name of Toquaht. A Marine Trail Kayakers have been fortunate in the past that the bulk of the BC coast has either been Crown land or parkland, not private-meaning the ability to camp almost anywhere. But it's a freedom that has been taken for granted, as kayaking campsites outside parks have no formal standing, meaning they can be usurped by other interests such as fish farms, resorts, log booms and shellfish tenures. A drive to protect the coast for kayakers began in about 1993 when Peter McGee took a kayaking trip down the BC coast. That year and again in 1996 he made a rough inventory of sites and initiated a process that ultimately led to the creation of the British Columbia Marine Trail Association. The vision for the marine trail involved a string of campsites every 10 to 12 miles from Washington State to British Columbia's Alaskan border. At one time the association had 500 members. And then the association died and remained dormant for most of the next 10 years. The political will to see it through had evaporated. The BC Ministry of Forests, at the time in charge of recreation sites along the coast, went through cutbacks that curtailed their support of new sites, closed existing ones and divested operation and maintenance of most of those remaining to interested volunteer groups. The lack of government support left the BC Marine Trail Association in limbo. The demise of the association came when McGee moved to Toronto in 1998. As the founder, executive director and the general driving force, the momentum floundered. Chris Ladner, a Vancouver-based outfitter, held the reins as best he could. "I held three annual general meetings, and I was the only one who showed, so I gave up," he said. Paperwork lapsed and the association became dormant, even as competing demands for coastal areas rose. When forestry company McMillan Bloedel threatened to log Blackberry Point on Valdes Island in the Gulf Islands, it became a pilot project for the BC Marine Trail Association. It was an early but sobering success. They struck an agreement with the forestry company, created a campsite and built a $20,000 composting toilet. Volunteers even helped maintain it-for the first few weeks, Ladner said. Then that too lapsed. "We realized how much work managing one site was, as opposed to 500," he said. Ladner cites a lack of a sense of urgency among kayakers for the ultimate disintegration of the BC Marine Trail Association. "There were no real threats, so people were saying 'why bother? I can camp here like I always have.' I kept saying, 'It's not always going to be like this.'" He's being proven right. There is a short but undramatic history of conflict among kayakers and other users. The outcome always tends to be the same: The kayakers get squeezed out. The examples are usually small and minor, but together add up to a pattern. For instance, in Desolation Sound, shellfish farmers concerned with human waste in Okeover Inlet pressured BC Parks to follow a management path to quietly draw kayakers away from the inlet instead to the outer waters; camping is off-limits in some portions of the inlet. And in the congested killer-whale watching and kayaking area around Telegraph Cove, Hanson Island, a key camping island, was handed over to First Nations' management, allowing the bands to sell commercial tenures that effectively close some areas to public access on what is otherwise public land. Farther south, in the Gulf Islands, the creation of a new national park (aptly named Gulf Islands National Park Reserve) has made numerous islets off limits to the public, thereby removing about a half-dozen campsites from use in an area where access is already restricted by private property. In fairness to the motives of the park planners, the islets are being closed for the right reason-they support some of the best remaining examples of the rare coastal bluff ecology, best exemplified by springtime blooms of tiny plants that cling to life on the thin dirt cover. Finally, in late 2007, a new campsite was approved on Saturna Island at Narvaez Bay-the first added since the park's inception in 2003. The most popular commercial kayaking destination on the BC coast, Johnstone Strait, has become the focal point of concerns over conflicting use. Commercial tour operators want to guarantee clients a place to stay, while casual kayakers are finding public beaches commandeered by commercial operators. The conflict has made Johnstone Strait the subject of a pilot project called Limits of Acceptable Change. The purpose of the project is to determine how much an area can be changed for recreational use before the area's attractiveness as a recreational destination is destroyed. Renewed Interest Among Kayakers Issues with parks, private land and the Maa-nulth treaty have spurred kayakers into renewed action to rejuvenate the marine trail concept. One group working behind the scenes is the Outdoor Recreation Council of British Columbia, which is carrying on the mandate from BC Marine Trail Association for a linear trail from border to border. A consortium of kayak groups in BC is hoping to widen that scope by protecting kayaking campsites along the entire BC coast. In particular, the Nanaimo Paddlers Club has begun a drive to create a so-called West Coast Marine Trail from Port Hardy to Tofino by adding about 15 new campsites to the string of sites already protected within provincial parks along the north and west Vancouver Island coast. And with the mandate for recreation sites now in the hands of the Ministry of Tourism, political interest in the concept is also returning. If BC does have one success story for kayakers, it is Sechelt Inlets Provincial Marine Park, a collection of about a half-dozen pocket parks along Sechelt Inlet and its two arms. The park protects a network of campsites used as one of BC's most popular kayaking routes. It may serve as a model for how the entire coast might look for kayakers in the future. Peter McLaren, the president of the Pacific International Kayak Association and one of the key players in the new marine trail initiative, sees spurring kayakers to action as the main hurdle. "Paddlers are by our nature independent, and we enjoy the recreation because it's private and allows us to be by ourselves with the surrounding nature," he said. "This need to be solo may be our downfall if we don't heed the wake-up call to act." John Kimantas is the Vancouver Island-based author of six titles, including The Wild Coast series of BC kayaking guidebooks and the BC Coastal Recreation Atlas series. His kayaking experience includes every major passage and channel on the BC coast with the exception of the Queen Charlottes, which are on the list. You can follow his journeys at: www.thewildcoast.ca For More Information Pacific International Kayak Association: www.pikakayak.com Maa-nulth First Nations: www.maanulth.ca British Columbia Ministry of Forest and Range (search for "Maa-nulth"): www.gov.bc.ca/for |
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