Gwaii Haanas Research Articles

Using Video Surveys to Access Dispersed Backcountry Visitors' Norms

Image Capture Technology (ICT), or the capture and editing of photographic images using microcomputers, has been used in a variety of settings to assess social and ecological impacts. This study illustrates the application of this technology in a VHS videotape survey designed to assess visitors' norms for varying numbers of watercraft, sounds from aircraft and motorized boats, and the acceptability of floating outfitting camps. Acceptability ratings for three setting contexts (access areas, attraction sites, and wild places) within Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, British Columbia, were evaluated. Methodologically, use of the videotape survey proved to be a cost effective vehicle in evaluating both sight and sound impacts. More than 75% of the respondents indicated that the images served as useful reminders of their visit and helped them articulate their norms. These normative standards were consistent with other studies conducted in backcountry areas. The implications of this technology for addressing natural resource management issues are discussed.

Modeling the trophic effects of marine protected area zoning policies: A case study

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly being recognized as an alternative management tool for conserving marine resources and ecosystems. By integrating organism dispersal rates, ecosystem interactions and fishing effort dynamics, ECOSPACE, a spatially explicit ecosystem-based modeling tool, allowed us to compare the ecological consequences of alternative MPA zoning policies within the proposed Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area, located off the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. The desired effects of MPAs include higher fishery yields, the conservation of biodiversity, and/or the preservation of intact ecosystems. However, ECOSPACE predicts that when MPAs are small, species interactions and movements may make these objectives difficult to achieve. ECOSPACE suggests that the effects of MPAs are reduced at their boundaries where fishing effort is predicted to concentrate. Furthermore, top predators may become more abundant within MPAs, which could lead to a depression of their prey species and a subsequent increase of species at even lower trophic levels. Trophic cascade patterns and density gradients across boundaries are nontrivial departures from our simple expectations of how MPAs protect areas and will force us to reconsider what constitutes effective conservation. Our ECOSPACE model indicates that the establishment of multi-use buffer zones may help alleviate these realistic but worrisome ecological predictions. When coupled with an overall reduction in harvest pressure, ECOSPACE suggests that a MPA with a large core `no-take' zone and large buffer will result in the greatest increase in organism biomass. The use of marine zoning may be an effective management tactic to reduce social conflict and conserve marine ecosystems.

Early human occupation in British Columbia

Preface Prologue 1. Introduction to Early Human Occupation in British Columbia The Fluted Point and Plano Traditions 2. The Prehistory of Charlie Lake Cave 3. The Significance of the Fauna from the Charlie Lake Cave Site 4. Paleoindian Sites in the Vicinity of Pink Mountain The Intermontane Stemmed Point Tradition 5. Early Human Presence in Banff National Park 6. Early Post-Glacial Habitation of the Upper Columbia Region The Pebble Tool Tradition 7. The Pasika Complex Revisited 8. Early Period Components at the Milliken Site 9. Early Namu 10. The Early Namu Archaeofauna 11. The Old Cordilleran Component at the Glenrose Cannery Site The Microblade Tradition 12. Early Maritime Culture Complexes of the Northern Northwest Coast 13. Early Period Archaeology in Gwaii Haanas: Results of the 1993 Field Program 14. Comparative Analysis of Microblade Cores from Haida Gwaii 15. The Early Prehistoric Occupation of Kitselas Canyon 16. The Namu Obsidian Industry Transitional Cultures 17. The Early Prehistory of the Mid Fraser-Thompson River Area 18. Coquitlam Lake: An Early Lithic Component in the Lower Mainland 19. Early Surface Collections from the Alberni Valley Epilogue 20. The Later Prehistory of British Columbia References Index

Conserving Habitat and Biological Diversity: A Study of Obstacles on Gwaii Haanas, British Columbia

W ith concern growing for protecting natural ecosystems, biological diversity, genetic resources, and subsistence economies, it is useful to construct frameworks to evaluate institutional capabilities for expanding conservation planning programs. The experience of the Haida, a northwestcoast Native American people inhabiting the Queen Charlotte Islands (also called Haida Gwaii) on the north coast of British Columbia, provides an opportunity to examine the evolution of conservation frameworks leading to joint and comanagement of natural areas and resources.' The Haida Gwaii example is distinct, particularly compared with the United States, because of the use of sovereignist strategies to stop unsustainable exploitation of ancient temperate rainforests. Unresolved questions of sovereignty and land and resource ownership provided the backdrop for unique alliances between non-Native environmentalists and Native activists, some of whom are nationalistic. Although recent efforts to resolve issues of hereditary titles over the southern part of the archipelago, Gwaii Haanas, which was formerly referred to as Moresby, have been partially successful, various obstacles continue to undermine conservation efforts.2 Institutional obstacles to habitat protection and ecosystem management began in 1851 when the Crown colony of British Columbia began to annex the islands.3 Despite repeated Haida assertions of sovereignty and traditional tenure since that time, the colonial and subsequent British Columbia provincial and Canadian federal governments denied these rights and managed the land and its wealth based on non-Native priorities. Until recently, respective governments did not support a framework for establishing viable protected areasespecially for the conservation of local biological diversity. Nonrenewable extractive operations, particularly clearcut logging of old-growth forest and mining, have been contentious throughout the region because of subsequent losses of traditional resources. Furthermore, Parks Canada, a federal agency that became involved in Gwaii Haanas land management after British Columbia ceded its responsibility for management to the Canadian government in 1988, had not emphasized management of natural habitat and protection of biological resources. Instead this agency had historically been more concerned with providing public services for tourism. In the 1974-87 South Moresby conflict, the Canadian government reacted slowly to the dispute between interests supporting rapid, largescale clearcut logging versus those advocating conservation of temperate rainforest, until as a compromise the provincial government agreed to cede jurisdiction. This 1988 agreement involved an expensive compensation package for wilderness preservation. But the Haida Nation and the Canadian federal government only forged a basis for joint management of Gwaii Haanas in 1993, and vestiges of colonial land management patterns still hinder the stewardship of forests, wildlands, biological resources, and traditional cultural sites on Gwaii Haanas, as in much of the Pacific Rim.

The Effect of Island Size and Isolation on Old Growth Forest Habitat and Bird Diversity in Gwaii Haanas (Queen Charlotte Islands, Canada)

We surveyed the vegetation and bird faunas of forests on 65 islands in the Gwaii Haanas archipelago of British Columbia, Canada, ranging in size from 1 to > 100000 ha, using point counts at a uniform distance from the shore. Variation in habitat structure was correlated with variation in island area and isolation. Only among the smaller islands did the number of bird species recorded decrease with area. As some species became rarer with decreasing island size, others became more common. The distribution of bird species among the islands was correlated with the distribution of habitat features that were consistent with the biology and ecology of each species. In only a minority of species was their distribution related to area and isolation per se rather than to habitat features correlated with island size and isolation. Hence, we considered that variation in habitat structure mediated by area and isolation was the key factor involved in determining the local composition of the bird community. Only for a few species restricted to the largest islands, or missing from the very small islands, were high rates of extinction related to small population size the most parsimonious hypothesis explaining species distribution patterns. Our results emphasise how considering only the relationship between numbers of species and island area can mask all but the roughest species distribution patterns and prevent a deeper understanding of the biology of islands

Haida Indian Land Claims and South Moresby National Park

(1990). Haida Indian Land Claims and South Moresby National Park. American Review of Canadian Studies: Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 7-30.

Self-organization theories and environmental management: The case of South Moresby, Canada

This article presents a new approach to the analysis and management of large-scale societal problems with complex ecological, economic, and social dimensions. The approach is based on the theory of self-organizing systems—complex, open, far-from-equilibrium systems with nonlinear dynamics. A brief overview and comparison of different self-organization theories (synergetics, self-organization theory, hypercycles, and autopoiesis) is presented in order to isolate the key characteristics of such systems.