Marine Conservation Protocol for Bute Inlet

Coast Mountain Expeditions is pleased to support the recent agreement between the Xwˆ©malhkwu (Homalco) First Nation and the Georgia Strait Alliance. www.GeorgiaStrait.org

The Xwˆ©malhkwu, whose traditional territory includes Bute Inlet, are
developing economic activities which sustain the wild species and natural ecosystems of this magnificent watershed. www.bearsofbute.com

As part of the Xwˆ©malhkwu vision, Coast Mountain is offering kayak expeditions to the Orford River's PapKnach Grizzly sanctuary during the September salmon runs.

Read more below about Bute Inlet and Xwˆ©malhkwu First Nation.

The Future of Bute Inlet
by Eric Blueschke

Bute Inlet is a rugged strip of water carved into the Coast Mountain Range 50 kilometers northeast of Campbell River. Bute cuts 66 kilometers into the mainland where the Homathko and Southgate Rivers, running from the glaciers and ice fields high up in the mountains, feed into the head of the inlet. This remote and pristine area of the British Columbia coastline lies within the traditional territory of the Homalco First Nation; they have called Bute Inlet home for thousands of years.

Nowadays, given global competition for scarce resources and the recognized importance of Aboriginal consent, First Nations everywhere are having to make critical choices that will affect their way of life far into the future. In the case of the Homalco First Nation, one of these choices has been whether or not to support open-netcage salmon aquaculture in Bute Inlet. The decision to not support salmon aquaculture did not come overnight for the Homalco, but only after careful consideration of the issues and consultation with Band membership.

According to Chief Darren Blaney, the issues of greatest concern include the risk of disease and parasite transfer to wild salmon stocks, the escape of farmed salmon, waste and pollution emanating from salmon farms and questionable economic benefits for Band membership.

Chief Blaney is clear about Homalco’Äôs vision for Bute Inlet, saying, ’ÄúWe support economic development that does not put our environment at risk’Äù.

In pursuit of that vision, the Homalco Band is developing a framework for sustainable economic infrastructure while at the same time working vigorously to protect Bute Inlet from an incursion of salmon farms, a proposition driven by industry.

As Chief Blaney sees it, tourism plays a large part in Homalco’Äôs future. The Band currently operates an ecotourism business called ’ÄòBears of Bute’Äô. Tourists are brought from Campbell River aboard the 32-foot Chinook Spirit to grizzly bear viewing platforms on the Orford River. The Orford, halfway up Bute, is one of three major salmon-bearing rivers in the inlet and is home to one of Homalco’Äôs traditional villages. The Band also operates a salmon hatchery on the Orford, and in the late summer and fall coastal grizzly bears are sure to be seen gorging on the five species of salmon that return to spawn each year.

’ÄúWild salmon are integral to our culture and to the well being of Bute Inlet’Äù, says Chief Blaney. ’ÄúWe want to make sure that whatever we do helps preserve and restore them.’Äù

The Homalco Band is building new relationships with a variety of stakeholders in the area, including local tourism operators, government agencies and non-governmental organizations. Together with these stakeholders they are investigating a number of economic development possibilities including a larger role in the management of Bute Inlet resources, joint ecotourism ventures with local sports fishing lodges, and the restoration of historic hiking trails. By working towards environmentally sustainable forms of economic development, the Homalco First Nation hopes to preserve and restore Bute Inlet for generations to come.

April 29, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Xwˆ©malhkwu (Homalco) First Nation and Georgia Strait Alliance Form Partnership

CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C - The Xwˆ©malhkwu First Nation and the Georgia Strait Alliance today announced the signing of a protocol agreement outlining how the two groups will work together on marine restoration and protection initiatives in Bute Inlet and its surrounding waters.

’ÄúWild salmon are integral to our culture and to the well being of Bute Inlet,’Äù said Chief Darren Blaney. ’ÄúSigning this protocol with the Georgia Strait Alliance is another step towards protecting and restoring this precious resource in our traditional territory. We want to continue to build bridges as we work towards economic development that does not put our marine environment, and the industries that depend upon it, at risk.’Äù

’ÄúWe are very pleased to be addressing resource use issues in partnership with the Xwˆ©malhkwu First Nation and look towards continued relationship building and information gathering with other stakeholders in the area,’Äù remarked Jim Manly, Board President of the Georgia Strait Alliance. ’ÄúXwˆ©malhkwu and the Georgia Strait Alliance have recently collaborated with researchers studying the interactions of sea-lice between wild and farmed salmon. We hope to help address the lack of research on the impacts of net cage fish farming that exists in the lower Johnstone Strait and Bute Inlet area.’Äù

Bute Inlet cuts 75 kilometers into the mainland and is located 50 kilometers northeast of Campbell River. Since 2001 the area has been proposed as an alternate location for environmentally problematic salmon farms in Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound. The proposal has met stiff opposition from key stakeholders including the Xwˆ©malhkwu First Nation, local communities, the commercial and sports fishing sectors, the eco-tourism industry and the Comox Strathcona Regional District, which denied zoning for the proposed sites in August of 2001.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is currently conducting an environmental assessment of the proposed Downie Range site, located in lower Bute Inlet. In addition, final recommendations of the Johnstone-Bute Coastal Plan, a provincial planning process designed to identify acceptable uses in the designated area, are expected shortly. Although the Johnstone-Bute Coastal Plan Advisory Committee has recommended the area of lower Bute Inlet as unsuitable for finfish aquaculture, the recommendations of the committee are still subject to ministerial sign-off. Approval of the Downie Range site would contravene provincial criteria that require siting to be consistent with approved local government bylaws for land use planning and zoning.

’ÄúWe are hopeful that the Minister of Sustainable Resource Management will abide by the recommendations of the Advisory Committee and resolve this ongoing conflict,’Äù said Eric Blueschke, Local Outreach Coordinator of the Georgia Strait Alliance. ’ÄúWe wish to move forward and work collaboratively towards the restoration, protection and sustainability of Bute Inlet.’Äù


Island First Nation Backs Off Fish Farming

Scuttling its aquaculture ambitions, the Homalco Nation inks a key agreement to help protect waters around Bute Inlet.

Tue., May. 4, 2004

By Quentin Dodd
www.TheTyee.ca

A B.C. First Nation that was looking to begin salmon farming has dramatically reversed course by closing ranks with an environmental organization it once opposed. The two groups signed an unusual cooperation agreement to help protect a lengthy stretch of the Canadian West Coast against the fish farming industry.

Legally-drafted protocols are usually signed between non-government organizations and the federal or provincial government, but the elected chief of the Xwemalhkwu (Homalco) First Nation based in Campbell River got together with the president of the Georgia Strait Alliance Thursday to ink a written commitment that the two groups will work together for the restoration and preservation of marine waters in Bute Inlet ’Äì the traditional home base of the Homalco ’Äì and its surrounding area.

Chief Darren Blaney said he mistrusts the B.C. government and remains anxious it might use new legislated powers it gave itself late last year, to force salmon farms into place in the Homalco’Äôs claimed territorial waters in and around the inlet, against the wishes of the First Nation. (See earlier Tyee article.)

’ÄúI’Äôm suspicious. I don’Äôt trust them,’Äù Blaney acknowledged, adding that he hopes to sign similar protection and cooperation agreements with both the Klahoose and Sliammon First Nations, who also have territorial waters adjoining the area the Homalco are claiming.

The comment was made following the official signing of the pact with the GSA under president Jim Manly, a formal protocol drawn up by a Vancouver lawyer. The mutual commitment was negotiated with GSA fisheries personnel over close to 18 months since Blaney took over leadership of the Homalco, now based out of a new reserve set up a few years immediately south of Campbell River.

Previous chief was pro-farming. Under the previous, now-ousted chief, the FN seemed favourable towards salmon aquaculture, including fish farms. It set up a hatchery to help restore salmon runs to three major river systems in Bute, and it conducted talks with at least one fish-farming company about having some pen sites relocate to the area from unsuitable sites off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

But Blaney said that all that changed after he was elected and the company indicated it couldn’Äôt commit to hiring numbers of Homalco members for as long as five years, because it had to give first consideration to its own personnel from the existing farms.

The Homalco quickly withdrew its support of proposed sites in Bute, adding weight to recreational fishermen, area resorts and members of the Comox-Strathcona Regional District board of directors against net-pen sites in the area. It still continued to operate the Orford River enhancement hatchery in the inlet, and is interested in concentrating on operating bear-watching tours in the area.

Both sides expressed pleasure at Thursday’Äôs protocol-signing ceremonies. Blaney said in a statement that wild salmon are integral to the Homalco’Äôs culture and the wellbeing of the inlet. He called the signing ’Äúanother step towards protecting and restoring this precious resource in our traditional territory’Äù.

Manly referred to recent collaboration between the two organizations, with researchers studying the interaction between wild and farmed salmon regarding sea-lice.
’ÄòRight to farm’Äô can’Äôt compel First Nations

The ceremony was also attended by regional board chairperson Jim Abram, who said he doesn’Äôt agree with Blaney’Äôs fears about the government perhaps eventually forcing fish farms on the First Nation.

Abram, who was present at Blaney’Äôs invitation, acknowledged that after it opposed various farm-site rezoning applications in its area - and particularly around Bute ’Äì the regional district had its own concerns about the new right-to-farm legislation and particularly it including fish-farming.

From discussions stemming from that, Abram said his clear understanding is that the right-to-farm legislation is targeted at local governments rather than First Nations ’Äì which government agencies are legally required to consult on issues potentially impacting their traditional territory.

Abram said he, six board directors and number of C-SRD staff members met with B.C. Agriculture, Food and Fisheries Minister John van Dongen several months ago, about the legislation. They were specifically assured - in front of ministry officials - that the new legislation admittedly includes fish-farming but is designed to enable the government to overrule local government bodies only once they have shown themselves to be ’Äúunreasonable’Äù by choosing to stand against industrial development without a sound basis to do so and without following proper procedure.

Minister: fish farm opponents not ’Äòunreasonable’Äô

Abram, whose area of representation on the C-SRD includes Bute and who has stood against a number of site-rezoning applications for would-be fish farms alongside other rural C-SRD directors in the past, said van Dongen directly stated that the CSR-D hasn’Äôt proven to be unreasonable in his view. So van Dongen reassured he and the cabinet wouldn’Äôt be likely to step into the approvals process in the C-SRD area.

Abram also disputed that there has been any pattern of acceptance or rejection of salmon farms in the regional board’Äôs handling of rezoning bylaws in the past. He said that while the board has turned down nine rezoning applications from the industry, in that same period it approved
about 26, one of them for a site at Churchhouse, in the Homalco’Äôs waters near the mouth of Bute Inlet.

Another farming application

The board has received another salmon-farm rezoning application for the Raza Island area close to the entrance to Bute, and is slated to hold a formal public hearing on a rezoning bylaw for the site, on Quadra Island May 18.

GSA fisheries coordinator Eric Blueschke, a sportsfishing guide for one of the tourist lodges on nearby Stuart Island for the last 16 years, has indicated he will likely bring out numbers of fishing guide and recreational fishermen to the hearing, to oppose the rezoning proposal.

Blueschke was the GSA’Äôs lead negotiator on the formal protocol signed in the Homalco’Äôs Community Centre on the reserve Thursday, and the alliance has been firmly against salmon-farming expanding in the near-shore waters of the BC coast for close to a decade.

Campbell River journalist Quentin Dodd is a regular contributor to The Tyee.

The Georgia Strait Alliance is a member of the Coastal Alliance for
Aquaculture Reform. For more information please visit www.farmedanddangerous.org.


Chief touts environmental agreement

Grant Warkentin/The Mirror May 5/04
www.campbellrivermirror.com

Partners: Officials from the Homalco First Nation and the Georgia Strait Alliance celebrated their new partnership last Thursday in front of the band's office. The environmental group gave band officials vests emblazoned with the Georgia Strait Alliance logo, which they decided to show off.


By Grant Warkentin - Mirror Staff


By forming an alliance with an environmental group, the Homalco First Nation is returning to its roots, says band chief Darren Blaney. "A big part of the Homalco culture is tied into the ocean and its resources," he said last Thursday after signing an agreement with the Georgia Strait Alliance. "I'm happy that we're here today to sign this agreement because it will help our community to build it (the inlet) up."

The band and environmental group signed the agreement last week, solidifying the Homalco First Nation's departure from previous band government's fish farm-friendly decisions. Last year the band decided to back out of a deal the previous band council had made with Heritage Aquaculture to allow fish farms in traditional Homalco territory."We had to look at what wasn't working in our territory," Blaney said.

Jim Manly, the Georgia Strait Alliance's board chair, signed the agreement with Blaney and said it sets an example for other First Nations in the province. "It's an agreement because we share common goals," Manly said. "This has to be the basis of all co-operation between the people of B.C."

Eric Blueschke of the Alliance, who has been working with the Homalco for the past two years, agreed and said the agreement will help the two groups continue to protect the Bute Inlet's environment and wildlife. "Hopefully with this agreement we can continue to work together towards the objectives we've set out," he said. Blaney said years of fish farming have damaged the inlet. He pointed to the former community of church House, which he said has been made inhabitable by fish farming. He said the band and Alliance will continue to restore and improve whatever they can in the inlet. "Everything that we've tried to do has been to try and build up the inlet," Blaney said.

Last year the band decided to concentrate on its hatchery program and eco-tourism business instead of make deals with fish farming businesses. Now, the band is working to restore parts of its traditional territory and last year raised a new totem pole, the first in a century, at its hatchery site and centre of the band's bear-watching tour business.