Northwest British Columbia Research Articles

From Integration to Segregation: Government Education Policy and the School at Telegraph Creek, British Columbia, 1906–1951

This article explores the unique circumstances surrounding the provincial school at Telegraph Creek in northwestern British Columbia, which was initially established for white settler children by Presbyterian missionaries in 1906. Local public school trustees permitted the attendance of Indigenous (specifically Tahltan) children year after year to maintain the minimum enrolment required to receive provincial funding. Combined with an annual tuition grant from the Department of Indian Affairs for the schooling of status Indian children, the Telegraph Creek public school functioned as an integrated school until provincial, federal, and missionary authorities interfered in the 1940s. This paper demonstrates how decisions made by both provincial and Indian Affairs officials leading up to the 1949 cost-sharing agreement to build a new school at Telegraph Creek were far from benign. Indigenous children in northwest British Columbia became the objects of a post-war educational policy that promoted integrated schooling and, ironically, facilitated segregation.

The influence of climate change, site type, and disturbance on stand dynamics in northwest British Columbia, Canada

Stand and disturbance dynamics are key processes that need to be assessed along with climate‐species interactions if we are to better understand the impacts of climate change on species. In this study we investigated the biotic interactions (competition) between species, the influence of disturbance type, and changes in resource availability (moisture and light) on the response of six tree species to climate change in the northwest region of central British Columbia, Canada. Two ecological models were parameterized, linked together and coupled to climate change scenarios to explore the interactions between: (1) the response of species in the regeneration phase and (2) the role of disturbance, resource availability and competition on determining stand composition and productivity. Climate change was found to reduce soil moisture availability which resulted in a decline in regeneration potential for all species on dry sites and negative to neutral responses on sites with higher water availability. Following fire, stand dynamics and composition were modeled to undergo significant changes under the 2080s climate compared to current climate conditions on dry and mesic sites. Changes in stand dynamics under climate change were marginal following bark beetle disturbances. While significant changes to stand dynamics were found on dry sites, the presented results suggest that the sites with the highest moisture availability maintain the same general stand dynamics and composition following disturbances under climate change. This study highlights the need to consider species response to climate change in interaction with existing stand conditions, disturbance type, competition, resource availability, not just temperature and precipitation.

Corporate ecology: BC Hydro’s Stikine-Iskut project and the unbuilt environment

For every successful megaproject, there are dozens that have failed to launch, left as paper remains, imaginary geographies of development and enterprise. Although most scholarly attention focuses understandably on the projects which have been built, we need to look again at those projects that have been put aside, rejected, and cancelled. Failed projects produce unbuilt environments, and these have their own peculiar effects. This paper interrogates the planning, development, debate and abandonment of a massive infrastructure project in a remote area of northwest British Columbia. BC Hydro’s attempt to build five dams on the Stikine and Iskut Rivers in the late 1970s and early 1980s never materialized. However, in the ten-year attempt to justify the economic and environmental cost of the proposed dams, BC Hydro commissioned several dozen large resource inventories and analyses of biophysical, cultural, socioeconomic and hydrological data in the Stikine Watershed, where this information had been largely absent. In doing so, BC Hydro circumscribed the terms of the debate around dam construction, framed the constituents of the debate and reordered knowledge about the region. Locals and other interested parties began to engage with the river differently. I argue that the apparatuses of scientific, engineering and technological engagement that were implemented by BC Hydro resulted in both material and discursive changes to nature in the Stikine. I develop the concept of ‘unbuilt environments’ to understand the changes that emerge in the wake of failed infrastructure projects.

The Todagin Creek landslide of October 3, 2006, Northwest British Columbia, Canada

The Todagin Creek landslide is located at 57.61° N 129.98° W in Northwest British Columbia. A seismic station 90 km north of the landslide recorded the event at 1643 hours coordinated universal time (UTC; 0943 hours Pacific daylight time (PDT)) on October 3, 2006. The signal verifies the discovery and relative time bounds provided by a hunting party in the valley. The landslide initiated as a translational rock slide on sedimentary rock dipping down slope at 34° and striking parallel to the valley. The landslide transformed into a debris avalanche and had a total volume estimated at 4 Mm3. An elevation drop of 771 m along a planar length of 1,885 m resulted in a travel angle (fahrboschung) of 21.3°. The narrowest part of the landslide through the transport zone is 345 m. The widest part of the divergent toe of the landslide reaches a width of 1,010 m. Landslide debris impounded a lake of approximately 32 ha and destroyed an additional 67 ha of forest. The impoundment took 7 to 10 days to fill, with muddied waters observed downstream on October 13. No clear linkage exists with precipitation and temperature records preceding the landslide, but strong diurnal temperature cycles occurred in the days prior to the event. The Todagin Creek area appears to have an affinity for large landslides with the deposits of three other landslides >5 Mm3 observed in the valley.

Is the health of British Columbia's forests being influenced by climate change? If so, was this predictable?†

Over 14 million hectares of lodgepole pine-dominated forests in British Columbia (BC), Canada, have been severely impacted by the current mountain pine beetle epidemic. Simultaneously, a Dothistroma needle blight epidemic in northwest BC has been responsible for killing thousands of hectares of pine plantations and has even resulted in the death of mature trees, which is unprecedented. Both of these globally significant forest pest epidemics have been linked to climate change. The beetle epidemic has grossly exceeded the scale of all previously recorded outbreaks, in large part due to a lack of cold winters. In this sense, the link to global warming is relatively straightforward and foreseeable. Of all climate change projections, the prediction of an increase in winter temperatures has been associated with as high a degree of confidence as any. The Dothistroma needle blight epidemic and its link to climate change were not so predictable. Based on weather records over the past four decades, short-term increases in mean summer precipitation correlate closely with historical records of Dothistroma outbreaks in the northwest. The current most severe outbreak has occurred during a prolonged period of above-average summer precipitation. An increase in summer precipitation would more typically be thought of as beneficial for forests, but that increase in moisture has improved the conditions for a pathogen that has outweighed any benefits. Similar trends of increasing incidence and severity for other forest pathogens in BC appear in areas that have been receiving increased summer precipitation. Conversely, in the southern interior of the province decreased summer precipitation and increased drought conditions are resulting in stressed trees which can favour root diseases. Early indications are that climate change will have profound effects on forest health. Some effects will be more predictable than others.

Sexual Reproduction and Gene Flow in the Pine Pathogen Dothistroma septosporum in British Columbia

Dothistroma septosporum has caused a serious needle blight epidemic in the lodgepole pine forests in northwest British Columbia over the past several years. Although ascocarps had been observed in British Columbia, nothing was known about the contribution of sexual reproduction, gene flow and long-distance dispersal to the epidemic. Amplified fragment length polymorphism and mating-type markers in 19 sites were used to generate population and reproductive data. Overall, evidence suggests a mixed mode of reproduction. Haplotypic diversity was high, with 79 unique and 56 shared haplotypes (possible clones) identified from 192 fungal isolates. Overall, mating-type segregation did not differ significantly from 1:1; however, random mating was rejected in most populations in the index of association and parsimony tree-length permutation analyses using the full data set and, when using clone-corrected data sets, more of the smaller populations showed random mating. Two of the smaller populations consistently showed random mating for both tests using both clone-corrected and noncorrected data. High gene flow is suggested by no differentiation between 14 of the 19 sites, several of which came from young plantations where the pathogen was not likely present prior to the current outbreak. The remaining five sites showed some level of divergence, possibly due to historic separation and endemic pathogen populations. Results indicate a high evolutionary potential and long-distance dispersal in this pathogen, important to consider in future forest management.

A Population-Based Analysis of Injury-Related Deaths and Access to Trauma Care in Rural-Remote Northwest British Columbia

Injury rates and injury mortality rates are generally higher in rural and remote communities compared with urban jurisdictions as has been shown to be the case in the rural-remote area of Northwest (NW) British Columbia (BC). The purpose of study was to identify: (1) the place and timing of death following injury in NW BC, (2) access to and quality of local trauma services, and (3) opportunities to improve trauma outcomes. Quantitative data from demographic and geographic databases, the BC Trauma Registry, Hospital discharge abstract database, and the BC Coroner's Office, along with qualitative data from chart reviews of selected major trauma cases, and interviews with front-line trauma care providers were collated and analyzed for patients sustaining injury in NW BC from April 2001 to March 2006. The majority of trauma deaths (82%) in NW BC occur prehospital. Patients arriving alive to NW hospitals have low hospital mortality (1.0%), and patients transferring from NW BC to tertiary centers have better outcomes than matched patients achieving direct entry into the tertiary center by way of geographic proximity. Access to local trauma services was compromised by: incident discovery, limited phone service (land lines/cell), incomplete 911 emergency medical services system access, geographical and climate challenges compounded by limited transportation options, airport capabilities and paramedic training level, dysfunctional hospital no-refusal policies, lack of a hospital destination policies, and lack of system leadership and coordination. Improving trauma outcomes in this rural-remote jurisdiction requires a systems approach to address root causes of delays in access to care, focusing on improved access to emergency medical services, hospital bypass and destination protocols, improved transportation options, advanced life support transfer capability, and designated, coordinated local trauma services.

Expansion of outlet glaciers of the Juneau Icefield in northwest British Columbia during the past two millennia

Radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating of glacially overridden stumps and detrital wood indicates that two outlet glaciers of the Juneau Icefield advanced shortly before the ‘Little Ice Age’. Tulsequah Glacier advanced to within 2.4 km of its all-time Holocene limit between AD 865 and AD 940. Llewellyn Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in British Columbia, advanced sometime between AD 300 and AD 500, and reached to within 400 m of its Holocene limit between AD 1035 and AD 1210, well before the climactic, ‘classical’ ‘Little Ice Age’ advances of the past several centuries. Our data show that some glaciers in western North America were extensive and expanding at times when alpine glaciers have, in the past, been assumed to be restricted. The evidence raises questions about how to define the time of the beginning of the ‘Little Ice Age’ and, perhaps more importantly, about the utility of the term.

The outbreak history of Dothistroma needle blight: an emerging forest disease in northwestern British Columbia, Canada

Native pathogens are normally limited in the damage they cause by host resistance and (or) environmental conditions that limit one or more phases of the disease cycle. Changes to host or environmental conditions can relax these limits and result in disease emergence. Until recently, Dothistroma needle blight (Dothistroma), caused by Dothistroma septosporum (Dorog.) Morelet, has had only minor impacts on native forest trees in western North America. Over the past decade in the forests of northwestern British Columbia, Canada, Dothistroma has caused extensive mortality in managed plantations of lodgepole pine ( Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.), and even mature pine trees are succumbing. We used dendrochronological techniques to reconstruct the temporal patterns of past Dothistroma outbreaks in the area using tree-ring series from sites with documented outbreaks. We found that Dothistroma outbreaks in northwest British Columbia have occurred periodically over the last 174 years, with an increase in outbreak incidence and extent since the 1940s. The most distinct change observed in the outbreak history has been the greater severity and synchrony among the sites affected during the current outbreak. A recently observed climate change trend over the study area may represent an environmental trigger that synchronized the current outbreak causing the widespread emergence of the disease.

Species patterns in foliar nitrogen concentration, nitrogen content and 13C abundance for understory saplings across light gradients

Soil nitrogen (N) supply and uptake by regenerating trees is an important ecosystem attribute but difficult to quantify in partial-cut forests where light availability varies. The foliar attributes of N concentration (N%) and N per unit area (Na) may help characterize the influence of soil nutrition, but ideally the relationship between soils and foliage would be tested separately by species across well-defined light gradients. To do this, we examined foliar attributes of four tree species across gradients of light availability in 12 year-old partially-cut forests in northwest British Columbia, Canada. There were no differences in forest floor or mineral soil N mineralization rates across the light gradients, and for western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and hybrid white spruce (Picea glauca x sitchensis), this consistent level of soil N supply corresponded with unchanging foliar N%. In contrast, foliar N% of Betula papyrifera (paper birch) and Thuja plicata (western redcedar) declined with shading, perhaps due to shifts in root-shoot biomass allocation for B. papyrifera, and climatic constraints on shade tolerance for T. plicata. Leaf δ13C approached an asymptote at approx. 40% full light for the coniferous species, but increased linearly with light for B. papyrifera. Foliar Na was linearly correlated with leaf δ13C for three species, reflecting the dual effect of light and nutrition on photosynthesis processes, and suggesting that foliar Na may be a simple parameter to integrate both resource constraints on regenerating saplings. These results demonstrate both support for and limits to foliar attributes among species in isolating soil N effects against light constraints in partial-cut forests.

A Queen's Drowning: Material Culture, Drama, and the Performance of a Technological Accident

Drawing on ethnographic data collected among residents of northwest British Columbia's coastal and island residents, I examine a technological accident: the sinking of the M/V Queen of the North. This accident is examined as an instance of social drama, as a succession of what Victor Turner calls breach, crisis, redress, and reintegration and what in this case I call wrecking, coping, inquiring, and mending. Ethnographic description, performative representation, and dramaturgic analysis of the sinking yield the impression that the Queen of the North was a person. Examined throughout this article are the performative processes through which the personhood and agency of this material object is accomplished. In so doing I posit an original dramaturgic approach to technoculture.

Plants and habitats — a consideration of Dene ethnoecology in northwestern CanadaThis paper was submitted for the Special Issue on Ethnobotany, inspired by the Ethnobotany symposium organized by Alain Cuerrier, Montréal Botanical garden, and held in Montréal at the 2006 annual meeting of the Canadian Botanical Association/l’Association botanique du Canada.

This paper discusses local understanding of plants and habitats, based on the linguistic evidence [terms for plants and (or) habitats] gathered from ethnobotanical and ethnoecological field work conducted with several Dene Nations of the Canadian northwestern boreal forest and adjacent regions. Nations involved in the study include Gwich’in (Mackenzie Delta Region), Sahtú’otine’ (Great Bear Lake), Kaska Dena (southern Yukon), and Witsuwit’en (northwest British Columbia). Key plant-related habitats include meadow, “swamp”, forest, “willows”, and “brush”. The ethnobotanical classification of willows is explored in conjunction with the explanation of the Dene habitat concept. In local classifications, ‘willow’ is not co-extensive with the genus Salix , but includes a variety of medium to tall woody shrubs that lack either conspicuous flowers, ‘berries’, or thorns; these may include shrubby species of Salix, Alnus , Cornus , and Betula . Shoreline and alpine environments are also discussed as plant habitats. Dene use of alpine environments and resources is ancient, according to the results of recent alpine ice patch research in the Yukon region. The Human dimensions of habitat knowledge are presented. Indigenous concepts of plant taxa and of landscape associations or habitats may differ substantially from those of scientific botany and ecology, and are based in a holistic and interactive ethnoecology.

Seismic tomographic cross-sections of the Bowser Basin in northwest British Columbia, Canada

Abstract First-break travel time picks along about 250 km of the Lithoprobe SNORCLE deep reflection profile were inverted using a 2-D crossing-ray tomographic method to estimate bulk P-wave speed within the uppermost 2 km of crust beneath the Bowser Basin in northwest British Columbia. The purpose was to assess the usefulness of resulting wave-speed models in defining local stratigraphy and structure and in petroleum exploration more generally. Two areas were investigated in detail. Near the Oweegee Dome, deeper levels of exposure at the surface and stratigraphic correlations with a nearby drill hole suggest that a marked regional increase in wave speed occurs at the contact between the lowermost Bowser Lake Group strata and lava flows of the underlying Hazelton Group. Near the northwest corner of the Bowser Basin, a triangle zone inferred from surface structure does not show clearly in the seismic wave-speed model but does contain distinctive horizontal layers of higher wave speed that represent thrust duplexes, igneous intrusions, or mineralization.

Perceptions of landscape change in a rural British Columbia community

As forest dependent communities throughout British Columbia transit from traditional timber dependence to alternative and sometimes less extractive uses of the forest, the challenge for landscape managers is to plan change that respects the attachments that local stakeholders have for their landscape. Examining local preferences and developing a fuller understanding of the dimensions or factors that local stakeholders use to inform their assessment of landscape change is an essential part of developing future landscape management frameworks that have broad local support. The following paper presents research conducted in the upper Skeena Valley of Northwest British Columbia, where local aboriginal and non-aboriginal community members were asked to describe the factors that affected their evaluations of alternative landscape management scenarios. In addition to engaging in a complex assessment of alternative consequences, participants provided lengthy commentaries on the cultural appropriateness of particular landscape conditions, and conceptions of landscape care or ‘visible stewardship’.

Radiocarbon Dating and Dietary Stable Isotope Analysis of Kwaday Dän Ts'inchí

We report here on the results of AMS dating and isotopic analysis of the frozen human remains named Kwaday Dän Ts'inchí and associated materials recovered from a glacier located in Northwest British Columbia, Canada in 1999. The isotopic analysis of bone collagen (bulk and single amino acids) from the individual indicates a strongly marine diet, which was unexpected given the location of this find, more than 100 km inland eroding out of a high elevation glacier; however, bulk hair and bone cholesterol isotopic values indicate a shift in diet to include more terrestrial foods in the year before death. The radiocarbon dating is not straightforward, as there are difficulties in determining the appropriate marine correction for the human remains, and the spread of dates on the associated artifacts clearly indicates that this was not a single use site. By combining the most recent date on a robe worn by Kwaday Dän Ts'inchi with direct bone collagen dates we conclude that the individual likely dates to between cal A.D. 1670 to 1850, which is in the pre-(or early) European contact period for this region.

Habitat attributes and chestnut-backed chickadee nest site selection in uncut and partial-cut forests

We examined the relationship between habitat attributes and nest-site selection by chestnut-backed chickadees ( Poecile rufescens (Townsend, 1837); hereinafter chickadees) in uncut and partial-cut forests in northwest British Columbia. We described the characteristics of uncut sites and compared them with structurally modified partial-cut sites (mature and old forests). We then compared the use and selection of habitat by chickadees at uncut and partial-cut sites at three spatial scales: (1) the stand (19–24 ha uncut or partial-cut stand), (2) the nest patch (a 0.031 ha patch centered on nest trees), and (3) the nest tree. At the stand scale, we found no correlation between the density of breeding chickadees and the characteristics of uncut and partial-cut sites. At the nest-patch scale, chickadees in uncut and old partial-cut sites selected nest patches with higher densities of broken-top trees compared with available habitat within territories. At the nest-tree scale, chickadees selected nest trees with boring insects and broken tops in uncut and mature partial-cut sites and large trees with boring insects in old partial-cut sites. Our results suggest that chickadees exhibited flexibility in resource selection but also selected resources with similar attributes at the nest-patch and nest-tree scales. Managed stands that maintain a range of tree species and conditions, including live trees with areas of disease, insect attack, and damage, will provide the specific structural attributes used for nesting by weak cavity excavators such as the chickadee.

Glacier changes in southeast Alaska and northwest British Columbia and contribution to sea level rise

The digital elevation model (DEM) from the 2000 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) was differenced from a composite DEM based on air photos dating from 1948 to 1987 to determine glacier volume changes in southeast Alaska and adjoining Canada. SRTM accuracy was assessed at ±5 m through comparison with airborne laser altimetry and control locations measured with GPS. Glacier surface elevations lowered over 95% of the 14,580 km2 glacier‐covered area analyzed, with some glaciers thinning as much as 640 m. A combination of factors have contributed to this wastage, including calving retreats of tidewater and lacustrine glaciers and climate change. Many glaciers in this region are particularly sensitive to climate change, as they have large areas at low elevations. However, several tidewater glaciers that had historically undergone calving retreats are now expanding and appear to be in the advancing stage of the tidewater glacier cycle. The net average rate of ice loss is estimated at 16.7 ± 4.4 km3/yr, equivalent to a global sea level rise contribution of 0.04 ± 0.01 mm/yr.

Nest Survival of Chickadees in Managed Forests: Habitat, Predator, and Year Effects

Abstract We examined the influence of year, habitat, and predators on nest survival by monitoring 69 natural cavity nests of the chestnut-backed chickadee (Poecile rufescens) across a range of uncut and partial cut stands in northwest British Columbia during 2000–2003. We considered 3 spatial scales of habitat: 1) the stand (19–24 ha of uncut and partial cut stands), 2) the nest patch (a 0.03-ha patch centered on nest trees), and 3) the nest tree. At each scale we hypothesized that nest survival time of chickadees differed among years, as a result of harvest treatment, habitat characteristics, and predator activity. Nest predation rates fluctuated among years: 56% in 2000, 64% in 2001, 10% in 2002, and 12% in 2003. We identified the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) as the dominant nest predator. At the stand and nest patch scales, only the covariate year reliably predicted survival time: Risk = 1.81 (Year 2001) for both models. At the nest tree scale, we found the most support for a model with year ...

WEIGHTED DISTRIBUTIONS AND ESTIMATION OF RESOURCE SELECTION PROBABILITY FUNCTIONS

Understanding how organisms selectively use resources is essential for designing wildlife management strategies. The probability that an individual uses a given resource, as characterized by environmental factors, can be quantified in terms of the resource selection probability function (RSPF). The present literature on the topic has claimed that, except when both used and unused sites are known, the RSPF is non-estimable and that only a function proportional to RSPF, namely, the resource selection function (RSF) can be estimated. This paper describes a close connection between the estimation of the RSPF and the estimation of the weight function in the theory of weighted distributions. This connection can be used to obtain fully efficient, maximum likelihood estimators of the resource selection probability function under commonly used survey designs in wildlife management. The method is illustrated using GPS collar data for mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus de Blainville 1816) in northwest British Columbia, Canada.

Basanite glaciovolcanism at Llangorse mountain, northern British Columbia, Canada

The Llangorse volcanic field is located in northwest British Columbia, Canada, and comprises erosional remnants of Miocene to Holocene volcanic edifices, lava flows or dykes. The focus of this study is a single overthickened, 100-m-thick-valley-filling lava flow that is Middle-Pleistocene in age and located immediately south of Llangorse Mountain. The lava flow is basanitic in composition and contains mantle-derived peridotite xeno- liths. The lava directly overlies a sequence of poorly sorted, crudely bedded volcaniclastic debris-flow sediments. The debris flow deposits contain a diverse suite of clast types, including angular clasts of basanite lava, blocks of peridotite coated by basanite, and rounded boulders of granodiorite. Many of the basanite clasts have been palagonitized. The presence and abundance of clasts of vesicular to scoriaceous, palagonitized basanite and peridotite suggest that the debris flows are syngenetic to the overlying lava flow and sampled the same volcanic vent during the early stages of eruption. They may represent lahars or outburst floods related to melting of a snow pack or ice cap during the eruption. The debris flows were water-saturated when deposited. The rapid subse- quent emplacement of a thick basanite flow over the sediments heated pore fluids to at least 80-100°C causing in-situ palagonitization of glassy basanite clasts within the sediments. The over-thickened nature of the Llangorse Mountain lavas suggests ponding of the lava against a down-stream barrier. The distribution of similar-aged glaciovolcanic features in the cordillera suggests the possibility that the barrier was a lower-elevation, valley- wide ice-sheet.