The industrious logger by a fallen tree and gold panner hunched over a stream are the iconic images of British Columbia. While these may initially appear to be unrelated industries, their histories were inevitably intertwined with the creation and development of BC as a province and a part of Canada.
Let me set the stage, back before the West became so wild. Before any country had laid claim to the land that is now British Columbia, it was mostly under the control of fur trading companies in the area and the First Nations or native people that had originally lived there. One thing that surprised me in my research on this topic was the actual size of the native population at this time. The history books always made it seem as though the population of BC was mostly composed of Europeans. Many First Nations had a lot more control of the area than some might believe solely because their knowledge of the area provided the expertise needed to navigate the dangerous rivers and mountain passes. Fur traders at the time were very dependent on the native people to get around.
The biggest player in the fur trade at the time was the London-based Hudson Bay Company. The HBC was kind of the eyes and ears on the ground for the British Empire at the time; Canada was a little too far away and spread out for Britain to bother sending resources to claim and defend it. Most of the British investment at the time was put into hot countries, such as India, South Africa, and Australia, which were thought to be more valuable (spices versus fur hats). Therefore, the men involved with the Hudson Bay Company tended to be the same people the British put into positions of power once BC had become a colony.
The biggest threat to the stability of the HBC in New Caledonia (now BC’s mainland west of the Rockies) was from American “mountain men” coming in to trap beaver and other animals for their pelts as well. In an effort to deter Americans from moving further North, the HBC trapped all the beavers in the Snake River Valley so if they did move north, they would only find a wasteland devoid of the animals for which they were looking.
In 1849, the Hudson Bay Company moved its headquarters from Fort Vancouver to the more convenient location of Fort Victoria and Vancouver Island became a British colony with Victoria as its capital. As I mentioned before the leading members of the HBC were often put in positions of power by the British government and this case was no different. The senior HBC officer James Douglas was appointed governor of Vancouver Island and was put in charge of the British subjects in New Caledonia.
The joint roles he performed created a conflict of interest as he was affiliated with the largest company in the area and the government meant to control resources and manage the land. In fact, James Douglas and the HBC knew about gold in BC long before it was made known to the British government or the public. The First Nations had known about gold in their rivers and its value to the Europeans, but bands like the Haida in Haida Gwaii (then Queen Charlotte Islands) did their best to keep this fact hidden from the Europeans. The Haida people tried to prevent the HBC from exploring their islands, but they didn’t have any luck if they wanted to continue trade with the HBC. In 1857, the HBC slipped up. James Douglas sent a shipment of gold he collected from the First Nations down to San Francisco and the word spread that the HBC was trading gold with the First Nations in BC.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Robots in Disguise
As you've probably guessed by my lack of a conscious effort, I've been super busy with school. Our schedule is packed with all kinds of lectures, hikes and "cultural experiences". We're in Alberta now, so I'm going to try and go through the BC highlights in this post, so I don't get too far behind.
When I left you off last we were in Lillooet. From there we headed further north to UBC's Alex Fraser Research Forest at Gavin Lake. What a beautiful facility! It’s a shame I didn’t get to use it in my undergrad, but, as they say, better late than never. There were canoes to take out on the lake, a three foot high ramp for jumping a bike into the lake, the resident fiddle band and a sauna. Everything was so much fun and it was hard to believe we're actually receiving credits for this! The first night we all alternated relaxing in the sauna and jumping into the lake. We even partook in the Finnish practice of beating yourself on the back with aspen branches. As ridiculous as it sounds, it does feel like a strange kind of massage and was welcome after all the day's driving.
The next day we went around the research forest and learned about their shelterwood harvesting research. The idea of shelterwood is to harvest the large trees in a stand and leave all the little natural regeneration in the understory, so that you a) don't have to plant as much, b) the trees already have a headstart at growing , and c) it doesn't look like a clearcut...'cause it's not. It's a really neat idea (not that it's a very new one) and I've never seen a logging operation that looked as beautiful as this one. See below :-)
That evening we had a bonfire and decided to fire up the sauna (pun intended). The night ended on an exciting note when the enthusiasm of the group to create the perfect sauna caused the overheating of the wooden roof. The teamwork we’ve developed over the last week really showed as we all rushed to put out the fire together. I didn't realize fire fighting would be part of the course material, but it's something I've always wanted to try!
The next day was a lot of driving interspersed with a trip to visit the West Fraser sawmill in William's Lake. Then it was time to say bye to BC and get handed over to the Albertans. A horrible fate some might think, but it was assuaged by the surplus of funds providing us with a white water rafting trip down the Fraser River up near Mount Robson. We had a blast and the guide was so impressed when he had to call as back out of the 7 degree river for our end-of-the-trip swim in the Fraser. That's what happens when you travel with a bunch of Scandanavians!
When I left you off last we were in Lillooet. From there we headed further north to UBC's Alex Fraser Research Forest at Gavin Lake. What a beautiful facility! It’s a shame I didn’t get to use it in my undergrad, but, as they say, better late than never. There were canoes to take out on the lake, a three foot high ramp for jumping a bike into the lake, the resident fiddle band and a sauna. Everything was so much fun and it was hard to believe we're actually receiving credits for this! The first night we all alternated relaxing in the sauna and jumping into the lake. We even partook in the Finnish practice of beating yourself on the back with aspen branches. As ridiculous as it sounds, it does feel like a strange kind of massage and was welcome after all the day's driving.
The next day we went around the research forest and learned about their shelterwood harvesting research. The idea of shelterwood is to harvest the large trees in a stand and leave all the little natural regeneration in the understory, so that you a) don't have to plant as much, b) the trees already have a headstart at growing , and c) it doesn't look like a clearcut...'cause it's not. It's a really neat idea (not that it's a very new one) and I've never seen a logging operation that looked as beautiful as this one. See below :-)
That evening we had a bonfire and decided to fire up the sauna (pun intended). The night ended on an exciting note when the enthusiasm of the group to create the perfect sauna caused the overheating of the wooden roof. The teamwork we’ve developed over the last week really showed as we all rushed to put out the fire together. I didn't realize fire fighting would be part of the course material, but it's something I've always wanted to try!
The next day was a lot of driving interspersed with a trip to visit the West Fraser sawmill in William's Lake. Then it was time to say bye to BC and get handed over to the Albertans. A horrible fate some might think, but it was assuaged by the surplus of funds providing us with a white water rafting trip down the Fraser River up near Mount Robson. We had a blast and the guide was so impressed when he had to call as back out of the 7 degree river for our end-of-the-trip swim in the Fraser. That's what happens when you travel with a bunch of Scandanavians!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
A Conscious Effort
I am going to try to write in my blog more religiously (though I've said this before) while I am at field school. I need to write a blog of what we do each day anyway, so that should be a good incentive to just continue the writing.
Today I had to do a lecture on the BC gold rush, particularily how it relates to the town of Lillooet where we're staying. We ran out of time during the day due to excessive enjoyment of our Joffre Lakes hike just outside of Pemberton, so I had the privledge of doing my lecture in the pub. Each of the students from BC was asked to do a presentation on something related to forestry in BC and I chose the gold rush, aka the least forestry related topic. It was unfortunate that my first choice BC parks was already taken, but I did learn a lot from my topic being the gold rush. It's amazing what they don't teach you in school.
It was an extremely effective way to have to do a lecture. It was more of a conversation or "story time". I told the history of BC and they played a drinking game where they had to drink every time I said "gold". Making the lecture all the more fun and my lapses in memory all the less memorable! I will hopefully post a blog with all I learned about BC during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. It is a remarkable story that I am surprised I never learned in school. Much more interesting than incessant babble about the Hudson Bay Company and lacross!
In any case, I think the lecture was a success (at least in everyone's intoxicated state) and I was able to finish of the night with a Finnish (pun intended) lesson. Again, I would like to post the Finnish that I've learnt so far and to thank our resident Finn for all his assisstance in my education. He has been more than patient and deserves all the beer I plan on giving him!
Today I had to do a lecture on the BC gold rush, particularily how it relates to the town of Lillooet where we're staying. We ran out of time during the day due to excessive enjoyment of our Joffre Lakes hike just outside of Pemberton, so I had the privledge of doing my lecture in the pub. Each of the students from BC was asked to do a presentation on something related to forestry in BC and I chose the gold rush, aka the least forestry related topic. It was unfortunate that my first choice BC parks was already taken, but I did learn a lot from my topic being the gold rush. It's amazing what they don't teach you in school.
It was an extremely effective way to have to do a lecture. It was more of a conversation or "story time". I told the history of BC and they played a drinking game where they had to drink every time I said "gold". Making the lecture all the more fun and my lapses in memory all the less memorable! I will hopefully post a blog with all I learned about BC during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. It is a remarkable story that I am surprised I never learned in school. Much more interesting than incessant babble about the Hudson Bay Company and lacross!
In any case, I think the lecture was a success (at least in everyone's intoxicated state) and I was able to finish of the night with a Finnish (pun intended) lesson. Again, I would like to post the Finnish that I've learnt so far and to thank our resident Finn for all his assisstance in my education. He has been more than patient and deserves all the beer I plan on giving him!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Fighting for the Right to Party
I had a weird moment today where I realized just how old the Beastie Boys are. I always thought the song "Fight for Your Right" came out while I was in high school 'cause that's when it was the most popular and when I first heard it. But my 30 year old friend was sure it came out while he was in high school. Then I talked to a coworker who's almost 40 and he was sure it came out while he was in high school. Imagine being so influential as to directly impact the lives of high school students across at least two decades. It really give me a whole new respect for 40 year old rappers.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Symphonic Dancing
Last Christmas my dad decided that he had too much stuff, so for his presents he asked for experiences rather than his usual request for socks and electronics. My mom was already getting him season tickets to a theatre and my brother was taking him out for lunch, so I had to come up with an original idea and decided to get him tickets to the symphony. There were four tickets, so I figured I would go with him once and the second time he could go with my mom.
Unfortunately for me, my mom said she had no interest in going to the symphony, so now I get to go to the symphony twice. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love classical music, but if I’m going to listen to any type of music I would much prefer dancing to it over just sitting. Luckily for me, my father decided to pick the “pop” series of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s performances. The first one, that we’ve already attended, was A Century of Broadway. This was fantastic because I could easily recognize various tunes and they had two amazing singers, so it was much more entertaining than if it had been just the music. Another really interesting aspect of the performance was that the singers gave us a mini history lesson of how each of the songs influences Broadway music and why they were chosen. It was really interesting to see how Broadway musicals and music styles had evolved over the last century and they did an amazing job of singing and playing in such a wide variety of styles.
One thing that really struck me as different from a concert setting was how everyone just sat quietly appreciating the music. Music is just such a wonderful way to express your passion and portray emotions, that I can’t understand why people just sit and listen to it. I suppose, not everyone feels music through dancing and movement. I could feel the people around me taking in the story the music was telling them. They just absorbed it and processed it in their mind, where I would have had to express it in some way. I think that’s a really neat skill to have. To be able to almost meditate on the emotions instead of having to express them through song or dance or art or tears. I think I would like to be able to be completely still and be one with the music. I think I may have to try it out at the next symphony. Although A Night At the Cotton Club might not be the best situation for serenity.
Unfortunately for me, my mom said she had no interest in going to the symphony, so now I get to go to the symphony twice. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love classical music, but if I’m going to listen to any type of music I would much prefer dancing to it over just sitting. Luckily for me, my father decided to pick the “pop” series of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s performances. The first one, that we’ve already attended, was A Century of Broadway. This was fantastic because I could easily recognize various tunes and they had two amazing singers, so it was much more entertaining than if it had been just the music. Another really interesting aspect of the performance was that the singers gave us a mini history lesson of how each of the songs influences Broadway music and why they were chosen. It was really interesting to see how Broadway musicals and music styles had evolved over the last century and they did an amazing job of singing and playing in such a wide variety of styles.
One thing that really struck me as different from a concert setting was how everyone just sat quietly appreciating the music. Music is just such a wonderful way to express your passion and portray emotions, that I can’t understand why people just sit and listen to it. I suppose, not everyone feels music through dancing and movement. I could feel the people around me taking in the story the music was telling them. They just absorbed it and processed it in their mind, where I would have had to express it in some way. I think that’s a really neat skill to have. To be able to almost meditate on the emotions instead of having to express them through song or dance or art or tears. I think I would like to be able to be completely still and be one with the music. I think I may have to try it out at the next symphony. Although A Night At the Cotton Club might not be the best situation for serenity.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Tolerance
I've been thinking a lot about tolerance this week. I'm not sure that I've come to any conclusions, but it's the thought that counts.
There are two people in my life that frequently make, in one case, racist and, in the other case, homophobic comments. Now, in the '90s it seemed like everyone just pretended that people's differences didn't exsist, whereas now it's alright (to a certain extent) to poke fun at natural variation as long as all variations are mocked equally. So, at first I assumed the candidness of their words to be this natural progression between extremes.
I was wrong. I've now come to realize that they're just racist and homophobic. The thing is that I still don't think they are bad people. I disagree with what they say, of course, and their words make me very uncomfortable, but I've come to know them before I learned of their beliefs. In my mind they are just ignorant and perhaps I can help them overcome this, but in the interm what do I do?
When I commented to a mutual friend that the homophobe's comments were upsetting me, she said that they should be more careful voicing their opinions in such a public environment, but that they had the right to these opinions none-the-less. I suppose that's what really got me thinking becuase my immediate reaction was that they don't have the right to these opinions. But that's just me being intolerant of their intolerancem and doesn't that make me a hypocrite.
I suppose this is the exact debate surrounding free speech. It is free up until a certain point. Up until people get hurt. But people are so diverse in their opinions that someone's bound to get hurt at nearly every point. So, where do you draw the line? Or should there even be a line at all? Instinct tells me there should be a line, but those are the instincts of someone firmly on the socially acceptable side of that line...
I talked about this with another friend and she said that it doesn't really matter if there are the so called "backwards" thinkers in our society because they will become less backward as the whole society progresses. Theoretically, I can see how that would be the case, but in practice it feels as though we've reached a divergent point. We may have all progressed together up until a certain state and now we're dividing into different groups of extremists with no hope of a middle ground. I suppose that this is an impossible claim for me to make since I never lived at a time where women were burned at the stake for strange behaviour.
In conclusion, there is none. Maybe I should be open minded to people's intolerances or maybe I should call them on it and have them question their beliefs. Either way I feel as though my natural instinct to shun their behaviour or angrily retort solves nothing and just portrays my own bias and intolerance...
There are two people in my life that frequently make, in one case, racist and, in the other case, homophobic comments. Now, in the '90s it seemed like everyone just pretended that people's differences didn't exsist, whereas now it's alright (to a certain extent) to poke fun at natural variation as long as all variations are mocked equally. So, at first I assumed the candidness of their words to be this natural progression between extremes.
I was wrong. I've now come to realize that they're just racist and homophobic. The thing is that I still don't think they are bad people. I disagree with what they say, of course, and their words make me very uncomfortable, but I've come to know them before I learned of their beliefs. In my mind they are just ignorant and perhaps I can help them overcome this, but in the interm what do I do?
When I commented to a mutual friend that the homophobe's comments were upsetting me, she said that they should be more careful voicing their opinions in such a public environment, but that they had the right to these opinions none-the-less. I suppose that's what really got me thinking becuase my immediate reaction was that they don't have the right to these opinions. But that's just me being intolerant of their intolerancem and doesn't that make me a hypocrite.
I suppose this is the exact debate surrounding free speech. It is free up until a certain point. Up until people get hurt. But people are so diverse in their opinions that someone's bound to get hurt at nearly every point. So, where do you draw the line? Or should there even be a line at all? Instinct tells me there should be a line, but those are the instincts of someone firmly on the socially acceptable side of that line...
I talked about this with another friend and she said that it doesn't really matter if there are the so called "backwards" thinkers in our society because they will become less backward as the whole society progresses. Theoretically, I can see how that would be the case, but in practice it feels as though we've reached a divergent point. We may have all progressed together up until a certain state and now we're dividing into different groups of extremists with no hope of a middle ground. I suppose that this is an impossible claim for me to make since I never lived at a time where women were burned at the stake for strange behaviour.
In conclusion, there is none. Maybe I should be open minded to people's intolerances or maybe I should call them on it and have them question their beliefs. Either way I feel as though my natural instinct to shun their behaviour or angrily retort solves nothing and just portrays my own bias and intolerance...
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
April
Well that was an interesting little hiatus. Usually, when I take a break from blogging it's because there's nothing interesting happening in my life that I want to share, but this month it's been because I've been super busy. My schedule hasn't completely eased up, but I'm making time for an update!
Bird Banding
I spent two weeks in the middle of April volunteering with a bird banding project at Iona Beach near the Vancouver Airport. Bird banding is a method of monitoring bird populations that both remain in an area and migrate through it. You do this by setting up mist nets (ie. very fine nets that the birds have trouble seeing) and checking at regular intervals if they have caught anything (usually every 30 minutes, so the birds don't get too cold from having their wings all dishevelled). Then you carefully extract the birds. This is the hardest part because the birds can get themselves quite tangled and you don't want to hurt them. Once the birds are extracted, you put them in a cloth bag until you get to the banding stations, so they calm down.
Once back, you take the bird out of the bag, making sure you're holding it properly with it's head between your index and middle finger and the rest of your hand cupping it's body. Then we get to the actual banding. If the bird hasn't been captured before you get to take a tiny metal band with a number imprinted on it, open it, and close it around the bird's leg like an anklet. You record the number and all the bird's vital statistics; age, sex, wing length, tail length, fat stored, weight and any other comments about their health. Then you release the bird and if you recapture it you can learn more about the local population. Since you're never going to catch all the birds and the ones that have been captured once are going to be more cautious about getting caught again, you can't tell the total population by doing this, but you can get an idea of whether it's stable, growing or declining!
Bird banding is something that I've wanted to try doing since I was in first year of university. In my first forestry class, they had us write up a resume of how we would like our resume to look once we'd finished university. It was a really neat exercise and definitely gave me an idea of possible summer work experiences and internships I could participate in. A lot of the really interesting ones were bird banding, for two reasons. One, a lot of them were international and in the tropics at that! And two, there was so much variety in the type of projects and what you could learn. Birds are, I suppose, similar to a lot of other things in nature in that you don't really find them interesting until you learn more about them. I can definitely understand the appeal of birding, especially after my hands on experience banding. There are so many different kinds of birds, even in a place like Canada, and compared to mammals, amphibians and even insects, they're relatively easy to spot or identify by their calls.
I had a great experience banding and it was nice to put my degree to good use, especially since I'd been feeling that it's been a little wasted working at the restaurant. While I may not have been the most helpful person on the banding team, I learned a lot. I especially learned that handling birds is just a lot about experience and practice. The man running the whole program was amazing! A birding wizard! He was able to tell when you had got one step and were ready to move onto the next, even if you weren't sure you were ready. You could tell he'd been bird handling for years and was really comfortable with it.
One day, it was right when we had arrived at 5:30am, we were walking along the paths opening up the mist nets and there on the path in front of us was a little Northern Saw Whet Owl sitting on a vole on the path in front of us. Apparently these tiny owls have a "dear in the headlights" reaction to light, so the wizard whips out his cell phone and ninja slowly stalks the owl with his hand. He moves so slowly you can barely tell he's moving and then SNAP! He reaches down and quickly grabs the owl with his bare hands! It was abosolutely amazing and after he let us all hold the incredibley light and soft saw whet owl. It was such an awesome (in the true sense of the word) experience and made me wish to aspire to such natural greatness!
Bird Banding
I spent two weeks in the middle of April volunteering with a bird banding project at Iona Beach near the Vancouver Airport. Bird banding is a method of monitoring bird populations that both remain in an area and migrate through it. You do this by setting up mist nets (ie. very fine nets that the birds have trouble seeing) and checking at regular intervals if they have caught anything (usually every 30 minutes, so the birds don't get too cold from having their wings all dishevelled). Then you carefully extract the birds. This is the hardest part because the birds can get themselves quite tangled and you don't want to hurt them. Once the birds are extracted, you put them in a cloth bag until you get to the banding stations, so they calm down.
Once back, you take the bird out of the bag, making sure you're holding it properly with it's head between your index and middle finger and the rest of your hand cupping it's body. Then we get to the actual banding. If the bird hasn't been captured before you get to take a tiny metal band with a number imprinted on it, open it, and close it around the bird's leg like an anklet. You record the number and all the bird's vital statistics; age, sex, wing length, tail length, fat stored, weight and any other comments about their health. Then you release the bird and if you recapture it you can learn more about the local population. Since you're never going to catch all the birds and the ones that have been captured once are going to be more cautious about getting caught again, you can't tell the total population by doing this, but you can get an idea of whether it's stable, growing or declining!
Bird banding is something that I've wanted to try doing since I was in first year of university. In my first forestry class, they had us write up a resume of how we would like our resume to look once we'd finished university. It was a really neat exercise and definitely gave me an idea of possible summer work experiences and internships I could participate in. A lot of the really interesting ones were bird banding, for two reasons. One, a lot of them were international and in the tropics at that! And two, there was so much variety in the type of projects and what you could learn. Birds are, I suppose, similar to a lot of other things in nature in that you don't really find them interesting until you learn more about them. I can definitely understand the appeal of birding, especially after my hands on experience banding. There are so many different kinds of birds, even in a place like Canada, and compared to mammals, amphibians and even insects, they're relatively easy to spot or identify by their calls.
I had a great experience banding and it was nice to put my degree to good use, especially since I'd been feeling that it's been a little wasted working at the restaurant. While I may not have been the most helpful person on the banding team, I learned a lot. I especially learned that handling birds is just a lot about experience and practice. The man running the whole program was amazing! A birding wizard! He was able to tell when you had got one step and were ready to move onto the next, even if you weren't sure you were ready. You could tell he'd been bird handling for years and was really comfortable with it.
One day, it was right when we had arrived at 5:30am, we were walking along the paths opening up the mist nets and there on the path in front of us was a little Northern Saw Whet Owl sitting on a vole on the path in front of us. Apparently these tiny owls have a "dear in the headlights" reaction to light, so the wizard whips out his cell phone and ninja slowly stalks the owl with his hand. He moves so slowly you can barely tell he's moving and then SNAP! He reaches down and quickly grabs the owl with his bare hands! It was abosolutely amazing and after he let us all hold the incredibley light and soft saw whet owl. It was such an awesome (in the true sense of the word) experience and made me wish to aspire to such natural greatness!
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