Podcasts about triquet island

Melting Mountain Glaciers For many years it has been believed that Canada's western mountain glaciers, also known as the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, melted some 12.5 thousand years ago. A new study published in the Journal Nature by researcher Brian Menounos and his team is shedding new light on just when our mountains became ice-free. Deciphering the story of ice melt across western Canada's mountain has far-reaching implications. By understanding how ice melted thousands of years ago, we can also build better models to predict how current alpine ice sheets, like the one in Greenland, may melt in the future. It also helps to understand the challenges of previous theories of an "ice-free corridor" in terms of human migration to the North American Continent. And finally, it also is an important part of the story of ocean level fluctuations as a result of the increased meltwater. When we talk about landscapes we need to understand two concepts, inheritance and consistency. When we look at changing climates over the millennia, we also need to look at the associate landforms that each climate typically creates. In the mountain west, for instance, the mountain landscape was first carved by the power of water. Water dissects the land in a very specific way. It takes advantage of the contours as well as weaknesses in the rocks to guide its flow. Water passes over rocks of varying hardness including soft shales and harder limestones. Softer rocks will be worn down more quickly while harder rocks remain more resistant to the power of water. Cracks or fissures will be widened and over time, the landscape begins to be divided by mountain summits and intervening v-shaped valleys carved by water. When glaciers later inherited this water forged landscape, they inherited the same valleys previously carved by water and began to renovate them. Narrow V-shaped valleys were renovated into broad u-shaped valleys typical of valley glaciers. High on the mountains, glaciers also formed on cliff ledges and any area where snow could accumulate. As these glaciers moved, they enlarged the ledges upon which they sat and in many cases created round bowl-shaped depressions called cirques. I often refer to cirques as glacial nurseries as the ice usually formed there and then would overflow down the valley as it exceeded the ability of these bowls to contain the ever-increasing volumes of ice. Rock and debris fell onto the ice and some hitched a ride, just like a modern-day conveyor belt. It would later be deposited along the ice margins in linear ridges called moraines. Most of the rock becomes incorporated into the glacier and gets scraped and scoured along the base of the glacier. It's this action that allows glaciers to modify the landscape. Today, water has re-inherited this ice-modified mountainscape and is once again altering the cirques and u-shaped valleys. Consistency refers to the simple fact that processes acting on the landscape within a particular climate are the same processes that acted on the landscape at other periods of similar temperature and moisture. The way water changes the mountains today is the same way it would have done thousands or even millions of years ago. Each climate creates its own types of landforms but is always working with vistas carved by successive climatic periods. As a naturalist, this is what I love to look for in the surrounding peaks. Where can I find the impacts of previous climates and how are the current changes in climate affecting how water will shape the mountains long into the future. Brian Menounos' study helps climatologists to not only more accurately understand how our mountain glaciers melted, but also how similar landscapes today may react in the future. Just like looking at a star in the sky represents light that may have traveled for thousands or millions of years before it reached your eye, our mountains may represent a time capsule of how other mountain glaciers may melt in the future. One of the challenges facing this study was the fact that most previous studies found that the glaciers in western Canada only melted around 12.5 thousand years ago. This date was the result of Carbon dating. Carbon dating has been a tried and true way of dating materials for decades, but once you get into high mountain landscapes, it runs into problems; there's not a lot of carbon at high elevations. The carbon used for dating comes from ancient plants and once you hit the upper alpine environment, you find yourself in a land of rock and ice with little to no plant life. This may have added significant error to the dating. If you take a walk to the far end of Lake Louise in summer, you'll enter a land where winter is still king, and where glaciers have only recently revealed the landscape that was previously hidden by ice. You'll also notice that there is little regrowth on much of the lower valley as you hike up to the Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse. Once glaciers disappear from a mountain valley, it may take a millennia or more before it becomes fully reclaimed by plant communities. This means that the carbon that was being measured in previous studies may have represented plants that colonized the valley long after the glaciers had disappeared. Newer dating methods that don't rely on carbon offered some additional ways to get a better date. Beryllium is a mineral most of us have never heard of. It's a highly toxic and carcinogenic mineral, but it's also one of the lightest metals in the world and has a correspondingly high melting point. These characteristics make beryllium very important in today's cell phones, aeroplanes and even missiles. One isotope, beryllium 10, like carbon 14 is radioactive. The radioactivity is created by cosmic rays colliding with atoms on Earth. In the case of beryllium 10, it's caused when cosmic rays hit oxygen atoms in the bedrock. A layer of ice acts to stop these rays and so measuring how much beryllium 10, which is found in the quartz rocks so common in the mountains, can help to tell us when the rocks were exposed by melting glacial ice. Menounos and his team measured 76 samples from 26 locations to see if dates could be more accurately determined using this new dating method. They visited glacial moraines across British Columbia in order to test the theory that many areas may have been ice-free much earlier than previously believed. The great ice age, the Pleistocene, ended some 14,700 years ago when climates suddenly warmed. At the peak of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, the amount of ice was similar to what can be found in present-day Greenland. The results showed that the moraine samples fell into two age ranges, 12,800 to 15,000 years for the older locations and 9,800 to 13,000 for the younger sites. If we work with the average ages of 13,900 and 11,400 years respectively, the study showed that large areas of the mountain glaciers had already melted prior to earlier estimates of 12,500 years ago. It also shows that ocean waters off the coast of British Columbia would have risen by approximately 4C between 15,500 and 14,000 years ago. This would have melted most of the low-elevation glaciers, leaving only the highest mountain regions ice-free. Also during this period, meltwater would have contributed to sea level increases of 2.5 to 3 metres. In other terms, the mountain glaciers lost half of their mass in less than 400 years. This also changed the ice sheet into a series of interconnected alpine glaciers, and icefields, gradually leaving us with the landscape we recognize today, just on a much much more extensive scale. This study shows that vast amounts of ice had been lost from the mountain landscape at least 2,000 years earlier than previously thought. It also shows that ice sheets as large Greenland's can also melt at a very fast rate. Essentially, once the melt starts, it can take place very quickly. While it may seem that this actually adds to the possibilities of human migrations towards a possible "ice-free corridor", the study shows evidence that low elevation travel routes would have remained ice-choked until long after the migrations would have needed to occur. Way back in episode 6 I talked about some of the new evidence that was rendering the ice-free corridor to the dustbin of history. You can check it out at www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep006. The most recent archaeological evidence shows that people had already arrived in North and South America as far back as 14,500 years ago. Assuming that early migrants made it across the ice-free corridor even 13,000 years ago, there is little chance they would have spread to Monte Verde in southern Chile by 14,500 years ago, yet there are archaeological sites that date to that period. Essentially, it's out with the ice-free corridor and in with the kelp highway. What the heck is the kelp highway you ask? Well, it refers to a coastal migration rather than an inland one. It wasn't long ago that this was considered fringe science. All the archaeological eggs were in the ice-free corridor camp and there was little research into an alternative option. Over time though, ancient sites began to appear across the coastal areas of North and South America that kept pushing the tenure of first nations further and further back. Currently, the oldest sites are 14,500 years old in places like the Page-Ladson site in Florida. As far south as this site seems today, this underwater site revealed evidence of mastodon bones that showed signs of human butchering. Even much further south, on the southern end of Chile, lies the Monte Verde site. In 1975 the remains of a Gomphothere, an animal considered to be ancestral to modern-day elephants was found and this spurred further investigations. These revealed amazing artefacts well preserved in a peat bog that included butchered Gomphothere bones, stone hearths, the remains of other local animals, wooden house posts and even bits of animal skin clothing. To most archaeologists used to having to deal with hearths and stone tools, this site was incredibly rich, largely due to the preserving qualities of peat. Again, the dates stretch back to some 14,500 years. Prior to sites like this, the Clovis culture was considered to the be the oldest North American indigenous culture, but these and many more sites are now pre-dating the Clovis culture which was believed to have arrived via the ice-free corridor between 12,900 and 13,200 years ago. So how exactly did these pre-Clovis cultures find themselves in the New World - well that's the kelp highway? Essentially it refers to a coastal migration of peoples confident in traveling by boat along coastal areas taking advantage of plentiful supplies of kelp and seafood that was available. The ice-free corridor Clovis migration has been suffering a death by a thousand cuts over the past few years. Doubtless, Clovis people did take advantage of a corridor across the Bering Strait but it is now clear that they were the followers and not the leaders. They would still have arrived several millennia after the coastal regions had already been settled. In Episode 37, I talk about a new site off the coast of British Columbia that begins to add fuel to the kelp highway migration theory. One of the Achilles heels of this potential migratory route in the past has been the lack of evidence of a coastal migration. A newly announced site on Triquet Island has revealed artefacts at least 14,000 years old. This makes it the oldest archaeological site in Canada and helps to finally build a trail of breadcrumbs to support a coastal migration. We still need to push the chronology back further if we are to bring well-established populations of humans to the southern tip of South America by 14,500 years ago, but perhaps this is a good start. One of the great aspects of science is that until you actually look for something, it may be hiding in plain sight. Some science is the result of just plain luck…looking for one thing, and discovering another. Sometimes, we're just looking in the wrong place. With renewed interest in a coastal migration, there will be more and more resources focused on examining sites that might have been visited by our very oldest ancestors. While part of me laments the loss of a good story on an ice-free corridor migration right past my doorstep, another part of me loves the fact that an entirely new archaeological story is now unfolding. Just to throw another wrinkle into the equation. We're still assuming a migration across the Bering Strait that hugged the Pacific coast of North America. What if these paleo sailors were more adept than we give them credit for? We know that Aboriginal Australians were there by 50,000 years ago. They would have had a more challenging, open-water voyage in order to discover this new continent. Maybe we're just beginning to scratch the surface in a new whodunnit of New World migration. A really unique site in California shows the potential for some kind of early human as far back as 130,000 years ago. The site was found in 1992 beside a highway site near San Diego California. While archaeologists are quibbling about a few hundred years here and there when dating sites, this site has come in more than 100,000 years before anyone thought humans could be in the new world. The site features a partial skeleton of a mastodon that appears to have been butchered by paleo-humans. The outrageous preliminary dating of the site kept it on the fringes until new dating techniques to confirm early dating. This resulted in the new research being published in the Journal Nature just in April of 2017. Every new discovery leads to new rabbit holes of investigation, confirmation, peer review, and then new questions. This site is so wacky early that if it's confirmed by subsequent research, then all human migration theories on the planet will be up for grabs. It's so old that we would be talking about hominids as opposed to humans. I can't wait to see how this story ends. Perhaps we are just at the beginning of a new mystery? Stay tuned. Next up - The greatest land geographer to ever live David Thompson's early years The history of the exploration of Canada is filled with the names of great men. Names like Simon Fraser, Alexander Mackenzie, Samuel Hearne, Anthony Henday, and David Thompson. All of these men were great explorers but in the final tally of simple achievement, none could hold a candle to David Thompson, or as the first nations knew him, the man who looks at stars. Thompson was born on April 30, 1770, in Westminster, England. His family was poor and after his brother was born two years later, his father died leaving the family even the more destitute. The day before his 7th birthday he was enrolled in the Grey Coat School in Westminster. At the time, it was a school devoted to educating poor boys. Its goal was "to educate poor children in the principles of piety and virtue, and thereby lay a foundation for a sober and Christian life". By all accounts, Thompson was an able student and this brought him to the attention of the School Board. In the minutes of their December 30, 1783, meeting it states: "The Master also reports that application was made by the Secretary belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, to know, if this Charity could furnish them with 4 boys against the month of May next, for their settlements in America. The Master, by order of the Treas (sic) wrote a letter informing the Governor and Directors that there were but two boys that had been taught navigation in the school, which two boys they desire may be qualified for them, vis: Samuel John McPherson and David Thompson." What an adventure for a boy of only 15…or was it? Apparently, Samuel McPherson didn't think so as he did a runner the following day rather than be packed off to the new world. Thompson, on the other hand, embraced the opportunity and on the minutes of the Grey School dated June 29, 1784, he was apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company. The minutes state: "On the 20th of May David Thompson, a mathematical Boy belonging to the Hospl (sic) was bound to the Hudson's Bay Company and the Trear then paid Mr Thos. Hutchins, Corresponding Secretary to the said Company, the sum of five pounds for taking the said Boy apprence (sic) for seven years". I can imagine that when the Company ship the Prince Rupert departed London in May of 1784 that many things must have been going through the mind of this bright 15 year old boy. Part of him must have been terrified to leave the only home he had ever known for a vast wilderness. Thompson reflected on his years at the Grey School writing in his journal: "Books in those days were scarce and dear and most of the scholars got the loan of such books as his parents could lend him. Those which pleased us most were the Tales of the Genii, the Persian, and Arabian Tales, with Robinson Crusoe and Gullivers Travels : these gave us many subjects for discussion and how each would behave on various occasions." Doubtless, stories of the hardships awaiting him must have reached his young ears, yet he embraced his fate and soon after, the new world for the rest of his life. As the ship approached the coast of North America he wrote: "We now held our course over the western ocean ; and near the islands of America saw several icebergs, and Hudson's Straits were so full of ice, as to require the time of near a month to pass them ; this being effected the three ships separated, one for Albany and Moose Factories, another for York Factory, and the third for Churchill Factory at which last place we arrived in the beginning of September 1784." Thompson continued: "Hudson's Bay, including Jame's Bay, may be said to be an inland sea, connected to the Atlantic Ocean by Hudson's Straits…On its west side it receives Seal, Churchill, the Kissiskatchewan (now known as the Nelson), Hayes, Severn, Albany, and Moose Rivers; on the east side Ruperts and several other Rivers, the names of which are unknown as they come from barren, desolate, countries." What a first impression it must have been for Thompson? Fort Churchill was isolated at what must have seemed like the end of the world, especially when he learned: "The Factory is supplied once a year with goods and provisions, by a Ship which arrives on the last days of August, or early September, and in about ten days is ready for her homeward voyage; the severity of the climate requiring all possible dispatch." Thompson saw adventure along with hardship. In autumn, just like they do today for the viewing pleasure of thousands of tourists, the polar bears arrive at Churchill. Thompson wrote: "The polar Bear now makes his appearance, and prowls about until the ice at the sea shore is extended to a considerable distance ; when he leaves to prey on the Seal, his favourite food : during his stay he is for plunder and every kind of mischief, but not willing to fight for it." While the cold and the wind bothered all, there was little snow until the latter part of December when: "a north east snow storm of three days continuance drifted the snow to the height of the stockades and over them, and filled the whole yard to the depth of six to ten feet, which could not be cleared, and through which avenues had to be cut and cleared of about four feet in width ; and thus remained till late in April, when a gradual thaw cleared the snow away. From the end of October to the end of April every step we walk is in Snow Shoes. The Natives walk with ease and activity, and also many of us: but some find them a sad incumbrance, their feet become sore and their ankles sprained; with many a tumble in the snow from which it is sometimes difficult to rise." The winds of Hudson Bay are legendary. Any snow that falls quickly forms in huge drifts. After spending three weeks on the Bay this fall, I can see how the stockades would catch the drifting snow and how it would fill the enclosed yard as well. The climate is the great arbiter in the north and he wrote: "The country, soil, and climate in which we live, have always a powerful effect upon the state of society, and the movements and comforts of every individual, he must conform himself to the circumstances under which he is placed, and as such we lived and conducted ourselves in this extreme cold climate. All our movements more, or less, were for self-preservation : All the wood that could be collected for fuel, gave us only one fire in the morning, and another in the evening…" "The interior of the walls of the House were covered with rime to the thickness of four inches, pieces of which often broke off, to prevent which we wetted the whole extent, and made it a coat of ice, after which it remained firm, and added to the warmth of the House, for the cold is so intense, that everything in a manner is shivered by it" When the summer sun arrived, so did the swarms of mosquitoes. Thompson wrote: "Summer such as it is, comes at once, and with it myriads of tormenting Musketoes ; the air is thick with them, there is no cessation day nor night of suffering from them. Smoke is no relief, they can stand more smoke than we can, and smoke cannot be carried about with us. The narrow windows were so crowded with them, they trod each other to death in such numbers, we had to sweep them out twice a day ; a chance cold northeast gale of wind was a grateful relief, and [we] were thankful for the cold weather that put an end to our sufferings. " "different Persons feel them in a different manner ; some are swelled, even bloated, with intolerable itching ; others feel only the smart of the minute wounds ; Oil is the only remedy and that frequently applied ; the Natives rub themselves with Sturgeon Oil, which is found to be far more effective than any other oil. All animals suffer from them, almost to madness, even the well-feathered Birds suffer about the eyes and neck. The cold nights of September are the first and most steady relief." At one point, Thompson began to wonder why he had been brought at all: "It had been the custom for many years, when the governors of the factory required a clerk, to send to the school in which I was educated to procure a Scholar who had a mathematical education to send out as Clerk, and, to save expenses, he was bound apprentice to them for seven years. To learn what ; for all I had seen in their service neither writing nor reading was required, and my only business was to amuse myself, in winter growling at the cold ; and in the open season shooting Gulls, Ducks, Plover and Curlews, and quarelling with Musketoes and Sand flies." After spending a year at Churchill, he was sent to York Factory after the supply ship had arrived at Churchill in 1785. He was sent out, accompanied by two natives, on foot, without provisions, to walk 240 km in the cold of autumn to bring mail that had arrived on the ship to another fort. He was accorded a single blanket to keep him warm at nights. At the same time, two natives would be sent from York Factory to Churchill. This would give each fort current information about the state of the other while also forming as a ready means of communicating between the forts. They were dropped at Cape Churchill and while Thomson was given a blanket, his guides were given a gallon of strong whiskey. Alas, the day was lost as they quickly set down to consume the spirits. Thompson always opposed the use of whiskey in the fur trade and banned it from any post that he was in control of. The next day they walked all day without breakfast or lunch, and in the evening his guides shot a goose and three ducks. He arrived on Sept 13 and spent the winter in the fort and quickly settled into a new routine. The natives that walked with him were given 3 gallons of brandy and 4 pounds of tobacco. The fall and winter are spent collecting all manner of food, fishing, snaring hares, hunting geese in the fall and ptarmigan in the winter, and basically trying to stay warm. The forts had to be completely self-sufficient. March and April seem to be the months when snow blindness is most prevalent. Thompson writes: "As I never had it, I can only describe the sensations of my companions. Accustomed to march in all weathers, I had acquired a power over my eyelids to open, or contract them as circumstances required, and to admit only the requisite quantity of light to guide me, and thus [I] prevented the painful effects of snow blindness. In the case of those affected the blue eye suffers first and most, the gray eye next, and the black eye the least ; but none are exempt from snow blindness ; the sensations of my companions, and others, were all the same ; they all complained of their eyes, being, as it were, full of burning sand ; I have seen hardy men crying like children, after a hard march of four months in winter. Three men and myself made for a trading post in the latter part of March. They all became snow blind, and for the last four days I had to lead them with a string tied to my belt, and [they] were so completely blind that when they wished to drink of the little pools of melted snow, I had to put their hands in the water. They could not sleep at night. On arriving at the trading Post, they were soon relieved by the application of the steam of boiling water as hot as they could bear it, this is the Indian mode of cure, and the only efficient cure yet known, but all complained of weakness of sight for several months after." The Bay men had mastered the north country. As they expanded their influence further west, they encountered the peoples of the Blackfoot Confederacy, in particular, the Peigan. He wasn't the first to visit the Blackfoot, that honour was reserved for Anthony Henday who visited the area in 1754. Henday was trying to sell an impossibility though. He was trying to convince them to go to the Bay to sell their furs. This was pretty much a non-starter for a population of the grasslands. He learned that, rather than travel long distances to the Bay, the Blackfoot would sell their furs to the Cree, who would, in turn, trade them to the Company at York Factory for a profit. An additional wrinkle was that the rival Northwest Company had built forts far more convenient to the Cree and they would get the best furs long before the remaining poorer quality pelts made their way to the Bay. The Northwest Company sent men out, onto the land, to meet, live with, learn the languages of, and in some cases, intermarry with the indigenous people of the hinterlands. The Blackfoot, while they enjoyed the whiteman's trade goods, they really didn't need them, and they definitely didn't want trading posts in their territory. They also were in a position to manage trade across the continental divide to British Columbia. Essentially, any Hudson's Bay Man wanting to visit B.C. would have to go through them. To negotiate with the Blackfoot, the company sent James Gaddy who spent three winters living with the Peigan in the foothills west of Calgary. In 1787, 17-year old David Thompson accompanied him. At this point, nobody had realized that David was no ordinary teenager. He kept a careful journal and decades later would use it to write his memoirs. Thompson described the people that he stayed with and the stories shared with him by them: "The Peeagan in whose tent I passed the winter was an old man of at least 75 to 80 years of age ; his height about six feet, two or three inches, broad shoulders, strong limbed, his hair gray and plentiful, forehead high and nose prominent, his face slightly marked with the small pox, and alltogether his countenance mild, and even, sometimes playfull ; although his step was firm and he rode with ease, he no longer hunted, this he left to his sons ; his name was Saukamappee (Young Man) ; his account of former times went back to about 1730…" Saukamappee was not of the Peigan, today referred to by the name Pikani. He was part of a Cree nation known as the Nahathaway with whom the Pikani were closely allied. Both nations were constantly at war with the Snake or Shoshone Indians to the south. Usually, they were very well matched in terms of weaponry and few people died in their skirmishes…at least in the early days. Saukamappee related how the arms race began to alter the balance of power as horses and guns began to appear. "By this time the affairs of both parties had much changed ; we had more guns and iron headed arrows than before ; but our enemies the Snake Indians and their allies had Misstutim (Big Dogs, that is Horses) on which they rode, swift as the Deer, on which they dashed at the Peeagans, and with their stone Pukamoggan (war clubs) knocked them on the head, and they had thus lost several of their best men. This news we did not well comprehend and it alarmed us, for we had no idea of Horses and could not make out what they were. Only three of us went and I should not have gone, had not my wife's relations frequently intimated, that her father's medicine bag would be honored by the scalp of a Snake Indian." Guns and horse began to change the landscape of the plains. The Pikani won with the help of the Nahathaway guns. Thankfully, the Snake Indians didn't have any horses with them in this battle. A few days later, Saukamappee saw his first horse, a dead one that had been killed in a different skirmish. The Peigan were able to keep the Snakes gun-poor as they were able to control access to the Hudson's Bay and Northwest Company supply of trade goods. This allowed the Peigan to expand greatly across the plains until they encountered an unstoppable foe - Smallpox. "While we have these weapons, the Snake Indians have none, but what few they sometimes take from one of our small camps which they have destroyed, and they have no Traders among them. We thus continued to advance through the fine plains to the Stag River when death ca

Ancient archaeological Site found on the Coast For as long as I can remember, archaeologists have been talking about the ice free corridor that ran from Alaska, across the Bering Strait to Russia and all the way past Calgary. We were told that this was the route that the ancestors of all the first nations on the continent would have taken as they migrated from Asia to the new world. Back in episode 6 (www.mountainnaturepodcast.com/ep006 I talked about some chinks in the armour of that tried and true theory. Two studies cast some serious doubt on the ice free corridor migration. In one study, researchers looked into a large glacial lake called Lake Peace that sat smack dab in the middle of the corridor. It would have completely blocked the route of any traveler looking to make their way through the corridor. As they examined the sediments below this lake, they learned that food animals like bison and jack rabbits didn't show up in the sediments until around 12,500 years ago. They theorize that the landscape did not support enough food for anyone migrating through the area before that time. The lack of food resources would have stopped any large scale migration. By the time this route would have opened up, archaeological sites farther south would have made these travelers followers rather than leaders. Other studies have shown possible human sites in Monte Verde South America at least 15,000 years ago and in Florida 14,500 years ago. It seems there must have been another way to get south. A second study looked at bison populations through the ice free corridor. Researchers investigate 78 skulls from now-extinct steppe bison and examined the mitochondrial DNA. They also carbon dated the fossils. Prior to the opening of the corridor, both populations had been separated for a long enough period to be considered different genetic populations. It wasn't until 13,000 years ago that the two groups of bison began to intermingle. The fossil dates also imply that the corridor opened up from south to north as opposed to the other way around. Based on the dates of some of these other sites, like Monte Verde, people had already made it south of the corridor by that time. Scientists have long speculated about a possible coastal migration route, but for years, there was not a speck of evidence of an actual coastal migration. Part of the reason is likely that some areas would have been submerged by rising ocean levels as the glaciers melted. Finally, recent discoveries off the coast of British Columbia have found a 14,000-year-old site on Triquet Island, a lonely island some 133 km north of Port Moody which is located on the north end of Vancouver Island. 14,000 years makes this site one of the earliest cultural sites on the continent, with the exception of a few already mentioned in this story. It also shows there may have been a viable coastal route long before any ice-free corridor opened up. The first nations that call Triquet Island home are the Heitsuk Nation. For generations,  their oral traditions have talked about an area of land that never froze during the ice age. The Hietsuk stayed there as a refuge during those years. For the Heitsuk, it is an affirmation of their long-held oral history. It is also yet another example of first nations oral histories proving to be more factual than some of the western histories. After all, it was first nations stories that led to the discovery of both of the lost Franklin ships over the past several years after remaining hidden to history for more than 170 years. The site revealed fish hooks, spears and fire making materials. All it took was a small amount of charcoal from one of the fire pits to carbon date the site. One of the most puzzling parts of the story is that in the area of Triquet Island, the ocean levels remained fairly consistent over the millennia. This allowed for the island to remain inhabited throughout many thousands of years. As archaeologists excavated through the layers of dirt, with each representing a layer of time, they could see an evolution of hunting and fishing techniques. The research was led by Alisha Gaubreau, a Ph.D. student at the University of Victoria, along with a scholar from the Hakai Institute. This research organization focuses on long-term studies of remote areas of coastal British Columbia. This is an amazing discovery and may help to spur a flurry of new studies across a variety of scientific disciplines as researchers try to ferret out additional clues to potential coastal migration routes. Does this mean that nobody walked through the ice-free corridor - absolutely not. They may not have been the first to see the lands south of the corridor, but I still like to think of them as the first Calgary Stampede. A Ribbon of Steel was just a National Dream When we look at the opening up of western Canada, two great events stand out. The fur trade which opened a vast land to exploration, and the Canadian Pacific Railway. This ribbon of steel really is the tie that binds this nation together and without it Canada might not exist...at least not in the way it does today. Prior to our building an all Canadian railway, a lot of talk drifted north from the U. S. about annexation of the Canadian west. One American politician was elected with the rallying cry of 54-40 or fight! Forget the 49th parallel, they wanted everything up to the 54th. That would have put a real dent in western Canada especially when you realize that communities like Banff are just on the 51st parallel. When we hear about the ‘Oregon’ territory, it was NOT the state of Oregon, it was a much larger area. It included present day Oregon, Washington and the lower half of British Columbia. It was much later that the various states were delineated. Well lucky for us, but unlucky for Americans, American intentions were diverted south by the Civil War. What that horrible conflict did for Canada was it bought us time, time to cement our sovereignty over our western lands. Prior to B.C. joining confederation, it had already experienced a gold rush in 1858 that saw some 30,000 prospectors flood into the territory. As a result, the British government created the colony of B.C. that same year. Just 6 years later, in 1964, they instituted a kind of representative government. Simultaneously the colonies in the eastern part of British North America were talking about Confederation. A legislative assembly with a regional governor was established in 1866 which placed Victoria as the capital. Some debate occurred in British Columbia about joining the fledgling nation of Canada in order to provide some security against American aspirations in the western portions of North America, especially after the U.S. purchased Alaska in March of 1867. While there was support in B.C. towards joining Canada, there was also some staunch opposition. However in 1869, when Canada purchased Rupert’s Land and the Northwest Territories from the Hudson’s Bay Company, suddenly the new nation was right up to the eastern boundary of the colony. A three person delegation was sent to Ottawa and after some heated debate, politicians in Ottawa did what politicians do, they sat down with their counterparts from British Columbia and they began to make promises. They said: “if you join Canada we’ll build you a railway” and British Columbia said ‘sold’. In fact, they joined Canada so fast that they joined as a full province on July 20, 1871, when this country was just 4 years old. That may not sound impressive, until you realize that Alberta and Saskatchewan did not become provinces until 1905, more than 30 years later. Nobody knew better than British Columbians how important this link with the rest of the country would be, but also how impossible it would be to build. The government dispatched an army of surveyors across the western wilderness in order to find a route for the transcontinental railway. Pierre Burton in his book The National Dream stated: “no life was harsher than that suffered by members of the Canadian Pacific Survey crews and none was less rewarding, underpaid, overworked, exiled from their families, deprived of their mail, sleeping in slime and snowdrifts, suffering from sunstroke, frostbite, scurvy, fatigue and the tensions that always rise to the surface when weary dispirited men are thrown together for long periods of isolation, the surveyors kept on, year after year Pierre Burton in his book The National Dream stated: “no life was harsher than that suffered by members of the Canadian Pacific Survey crews and none was less rewarding, underpaid, overworked, exiled from their families, deprived of their mail, sleeping in slime and snowdrifts, suffering from sunstroke, frostbite, scurvy, fatigue and the tensions that always rise to the surface when weary dispirited men are thrown together for long periods of isolation, the surveyors kept on, year after year “No life was harsher than that suffered by members of the Canadian Pacific Survey crews and none was less rewarding, underpaid, overworked, exiled from their families, deprived of their mail, sleeping in slime and snowdrifts, suffering from sunstroke, frostbite, scurvy, fatigue and the tensions that always rise to the surface when weary dispirited men are thrown together for long periods of isolation, the surveyors kept on, year after year They explored great sections of Canada--the first engineers scaled mountains that had never before been climbed, crossed lakes that had never known a white man's paddle and forded rivers that were not on any map. They walked with a uniform stride developed through years of habit, measuring the distances as they went, checking altitudes with an aneroid barometer slung around the neck and examining the land with a practiced gaze, always seeing in the mind's eye the finished line of steel--curves, grades, valley crossings, bridges and trestles, tunnels, cuts and fills” Seventy-four thousand kilometres of Canadian wilderness were surveyed during the first 6 years of the survey. Of that, 12,000 was properly charted. Many of the people we refer to as ‘surveyors’ were really just the first step of the process. Men like A.B. Rogers really should be referred to as the pathfinders. A long line of others would need to follow their footsteps once a route was determined. First came the axemen who cleared the route of brush, making way for the chainmen. They would break the line into 30m or 100-foot sections and place a stake at the end of each section and labeled with how many chain lengths it was from the start of the division. Behind them came the transit men. They’re the mathletes of the crew. They’ll look at each bend in the route and estimate the angles of the turns. They note river crossings, changes in landscape and obstacles the route may encounter. And finally, come the levelers who placed elevation benchmarks every 1,500 feet or 457 metres. By 1877, 25,000 bench marks had been placed and more than 600,000 stakes had been pounded in by the Chainmen. It wasn’t long before the chief surveyor, Sandford Fleming found it difficult to find men that were tough enough to endure the challenges of survey life. By mid-summer 1871, he had already dispatched some 800 men on 21 survey parties but many of them were unfit to the task. As he wrote: "Many of those we were obliged to take, subsequent events proved, were unequal to the very arduous labour they had to undergo, causing a very considerable delay and difficulty in pushing the work." He also had to deal with political meddling and nepotism. He was constantly pressured to hire family members or friends of eastern politicians. With unfit and incompetent men in the wilderness, entire crews simply abandoned their posts when the going got tough. In the season of 1871-2, two parties simply quit and wandered home when the temperatures started to get cold. The surveyors traveled through areas where the local first nations had never before seen a white man. On surveyor, Henry Cambie came across a group of natives that would simply not believe that hair actually grew on his face. Another surveyor accepted a seat on a bear skin rug next to a young native woman, not realizing that that was the equivalent of a marriage proposal. After a few tense negotiations, he managed to trade her back to her father for a nice ring that he had been wearing. In the winter of 1875-6, the expedition of E.W. Jarvis in the Smoky River Pass in the Rockies really highlighted the hardships these surveyors endured. In January, Jarvis, along with his assistant C.F. Hannington and dogmaster Alec Macdonald headed out from Fort George with 6 natives and 20 dogs. The weather dropped to -47C. One evening Macdonald knocked on the door of their winter shack completely encased in ice from head to toe. Another day, as they got the dogsleds ready to go in the morning, the lead dog stood up, gave a feeble tail wag and then fell over dead with his legs frozen solid right up to the shoulder. They carried few supplies and just two blankets each and a thin cotton sheet for a tent. After a time, they began to suffer from ‘mal de raquette’ or snowshoe sickness which left them lame simply from walking hundreds of kilometres in large snowshoes. As can often do in the mountains, they experienced a brief chinook wind on one occasion with the temperature increasing from -42C to +4C in a single day. The sudden change left them exhausted. Another morning, they were mushing along the frozen surface of a river when they had to stop suddenly when they found the entire dog team on the thinly frozen overhang of a waterfall. Beneath their feet, the river plunged 65m. Another evening, they made camp beneath the beautiful blue of a glacier. In the middle of the night, huge blocks of ice broke off of the glacier and came crashing through their camp. They described: "masses of ice and rock chasing one another and leaping from point to point as if playing some weird, gigantic game" Surprisingly, even though a chunk of limestone more than 3 metres thick bounced past them, they were left somewhat dazed but even more surprisingly, unharmed. By March, their dogs were dying on a daily basis and the men began to believe that they would never see their families again. At one point Hannington wrote in his journal: "I have been thinking of 'the dearest spot on earth to me' - of our Mother and Father and all my brothers and sisters and friends--of the happy days at home--of all the good deeds I have left undone and all the bad ones committed. If ever our bones will be discovered, when and by whom. If our friends will mourn long for us or do as is often done, forget us as soon as possible. In short, I have been looking death in the face..." In the end, though they did survive. Hannington had lost 15 kg and when they finally reached Fort Edmonton and received fresh food and water it brought on spasms of dysentery and vomiting as it had been so long since they had eaten proper food. In the end, they covered 3036 km over 162 days on the trail. Fifteen hundred of those kilometres were done on snowshoes with the final 530 carrying all of their supplies on their backs because, by this time, all their dogs were dead. Usually, about this point, people come up with a pretty good question...why? Clearly, the work left a little to be desired and the pay, well the pay was even worse. The answer to that question can also be summed up in one word – immortality. They hoped that somewhere along the way their name would linger on a map or, hope beyond hope, that they would go down as the man who had found the route through which the transcontinental railway would pass. We’ll continue this story in future episodes. Golden Eagles People often have a vision of the mountains with eagles soaring overhead and wolves howling in the distance. These idealized pictures often hide the harsh realities of mountain life. It's a tough place to earn a living. In 35 years of guiding, I have yet to hear a wolf howl, lots and lots of coyotes, but nary a wolf. Never has a cougar crossed my path, wolverines, yes, but no cougars. The mountain landscape is a place of secrets with animals and birds constantly striving to survive in a landscape that constantly conspires against them. Travel to the north coast of British Columbia and you've entered the land of milk and honey for many animals and birds. You'll find yourself tripping over bald eagles and great-blue herons. The density of black and grizzly populations can be an order of magnitude higher than it is here simply because there is more food. Golden eagles are a northern specialist. They thrive in high latitude landscapes hunting many of the small game animals that share their environment. They are also the most popular avian national animal. Golden eagles are the emblem of Albania, Germany, Austria, Mexico, and Kazakhstan. They are an exciting siting in the Canadian Rockies, but in 1992, biologist Peter Sherrington stumbled upon something truly unique on an outing in Kananaskis Country in March of that year. As he looked up from the top of a small summit, he noticed a tiny speck high above him. As he studied it, he realized it was a golden eagle. Cool, I've just won the wildlife lottery for the day. Before long though, there was another speck, and then another. Any time you see a single golden eagle is exciting, but to see more than one, astounding. By the end of the day, he had counted more than 100. It didn't take Sherrington long to realize that something was out of the ordinary. As he put it in a recent story in the Calgary Herald: "Every time we looked up, there were more golden eagles,” he said. “Everybody thought of the mountains as barriers, but we established they were very serious avian highways.” Sherrington has spent every spring and fall since staking out the area as the research director for the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation. Now at age 72, he has the opportunity to share the spectacle with thousands of visitors each year that flock to the area to see the spring and fall migrations of golden eagles. Just how many eagles pass through this area every spring and fall? When the foundation first began tracking eagles, there were some 4,000/season. Last year only saw 2,500. In fall of 2007, they witnessed almost 5,500 golden eagles. According to Sherington, this is "the greatest eagle migration in the world, and it's right on our doorstep. It truly is a world-class phenomenon." The drop in numbers of the years that the foundation has been counting the eagles is a reflection of the environments that they call home. They overwinter in the states where they are occasionally captured in traps meant for coyotes. However, it may be more a reflection of snowshoe hare populations in their summer homes in the far northern areas of Alaska and the Yukon. It won't be long before the eagles begin to point south at the end of the summer nesting and hunting season. If you'd like to volunteer with the foundation or learn more about their work, you can visit them on their website at www.eaglewatch.ca. Next up, British Columbia abdicates its responsibility for managing wildlife New BC Wildlife Agency Announced Conservation organizations in British Columbia are reeling after the provincial government announced the creation of a new Wildlife Management Agency to be funded by hunting revenues. In late March 2017 the B.C. Government announced that all the revenue from hunting licenses would be reinvested into wildlife management in the province. B.C.'s Minister of Forests, Steve Tomson called it "a significant investment and significant initiative on the part of the provincial government". He went on to state: "This will have great benefit for wildlife populations and wildlife management in British Columbia. It will benefit rural communities throughout the province," Along with a proposed budget of $5million in the first year and revenues of 9-10 million on subsequent years, $200,000 was budgeted as part of a consultation process to determine the structure and priorities of the new agency. British Columbia organizations related to hunting are applauding the move, including the B.C. Wildlife Federation, Guide Outfitters Association of B.C., Wild Sheep Society of B.C., Wildlife Stewardship Council and the B.C. Trappers Association. All five agencies signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in supporting the new agency. Not a single, not consumptive conservation organization has stepped up to support this new agency. As a biologist, this seems like the hunting groups are lining up to manage the organization and that seems a little like the fox guarding the chicken coop to me. Time and again, hunting organizations focus only on huntable species. How do we protect the remainder of the 136 species of mammals, 488 species of birds, 20 amphibians and 16 reptiles? On June 27, twenty-three organizations focusing on protecting wildlife in British Columbia sent an open letter to the province. The organizations include the B.C. SPCA, Bear Matters, Get Bear Smart Society, Humane Society, Raincoast Conservation Foundation, the Wildlife Defense League, Wolf Awareness Inc and Zoocheck Canada, amongst numerous other stakeholders. In the letter, they state: "The wildlife of the province belongs to all British Columbians and has by law been held by the government in trust, to conserve the wildlife itself, and to ensure the rights of all members of the public. The British Columbia Wildlife Act states that “Ownership in all wildlife in British Columbia is vested in the government.” That means that elected representatives can be held accountable for their wildlife decisions through general elections and in courts. Indeed, a groundswell of public unhappiness with the way our wildlife has been mismanaged (grizzly bear trophy hunt) was a significant issue in the recent election." It continues "In announcing the proposed new agency, Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett stated in the media that “The government is afraid to manage wolves, or afraid to manage grizzly bears in some cases because of the politics of that. Hopefully, an agency that is separate from government can make decisions that are in the best long-term interest of wildlife and just forget about the politics and do what is best for the animals.” The letter continues: "We are sorry to learn that Minister Bennett believes our government representatives cannot apply the wildlife laws and science in an unbiased manner, since we believed that’s what they were elected to do. However, they are accountable to voters, whereas an independent agency would not be. It would have no duty to represent all British Columbians, and would be far more susceptible to influence by special interest groups." Finally, the letter calls for the government to: Cancel the plan for an “independent” agency. Increase the wildlife management staff and funding of government ministries. Recognize that BC has a biodiversity crisis; it requires a shift in focus from juggling numbers of game animals for hunters, to applying the science of ecology. Recognize that all British Columbians are stakeholders in our wildlife. All interest groups should be equally empowered. Only about 2% of the total BC population are registered hunters, whereas a huge majority of British Columbians care about the welfare of our wildlife and ecosystems. A wildlife agency that is not tied to the government for accountability would mean that there was no requirement for the province to intervene in wildlife matters. It creates a situation where special interest groups can move in and manage based on their own agenda. In addition, if the funding is based upon hunting revenue, there is an inherent motivation to increase that revenue by granting more hunting permits. It's a negative spiral that could easily result in priorities being shifted away from things like wildlife viewing and towards consumptive uses like hunting and trapping which fund the program. Numerous studies have shown that wildlife viewing brings in much more money to the provincial coffers than does hunting. This is particularly true for iconic species like whales and grizzly bears. Birding as well is a huge economic driver. And generates 10s of millions of dollars annually to the B.C. economy. Under the species at risk at, the B.C. Government is required by law to develop recovery plans for designated species. They cannot simply sidestep federal law by saying that we aren't in charge of wildlife anymore. I stand with these organizations against a government that is abdicating its responsibility to manage wildlife in a sustainable way. If you want to get involved, send a letter to your MLA if you live in British Columbia. Every voice counts.