Success Doesn't Just Happen, It's Planned For

A Method To Assess The Cumulative Effects Of Land Use & Dispossession On The Indigenous Seasonal Round

I've been leading a lot of #CumulativeEffects work in Secwepemcúl’ecw, the unceded Traditional Territory of the Secwépemc Nation. The people of this indigenous Nation have lived in southern British Columbia, Canada, for over 10,000 years and their Territory is the largest of all First Nations in British Columbia occupying almost 20% of the Province.

In the Virtual Time Machine Podcast, I discuss how we can travel back in time to see how the Secwépemc lived for thousands of years, directly from the land, long before the arrival of Settlers. In the spring, summer and fall, they would travel to different areas of Secwepemcúl'ecw to gather the various resources from they land they needed to survive. This moving around for resources is characterized in English as the 'Seasonal Round'.

Obviously, food was a critical resource. Here is an excerpt from BC School District 73 website about this.

“In winter people...

The Big 5 Threats To Grizzly Bears - It's Not Trophy Hunting

Hunting is no longer the biggest fire burning at the grizzly bear’s cave door.

No, I’m not a Grizzly Bear Biologist and I'm not a hunter. I am a Systems Ecologist & Professional Forester – much of my career’s work has centered around understanding the cumulative effects people and nature have on one another and using that knowledge to help plan for a future we all want.

This week the fledgling new British Columbia Government announced it will fulfill an election promise by banning “Trophy Hunting” of Grizzly Bears in the Province.

But you can still kill them as long as you pack the meat out and turn in the head, paws and hide to the Government – and providing you are not in the Great Bear Rainforest.

It appears that killing grizzly bears is not really perceived as a threat to their survival – but the social acceptability of killing them for “sport” does appear to be on the decline.

To understand...