Campbell River
A Haig-Brown Symposium on
Sustaining Wild Salmon:
Moving from Words to Action
B. Riddell, Fisheries and Oceans Canada,
Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo, BC
Campbell River, BC August 16, 2008
Thoughts
from Roderick
Haig-Brown …
in relation to
Canada’s Wild
Salmon Policy
Roderick Haig-Brown,
1908 - 1976
RHB’s writings demonstrate
a breadth of knowledge and
concerns, in-depth
understanding of salmon and
their habitats, and deep
concern for the future … &
some recreational fishing.
Insights about salmon:
- home stream theory and migration
behaviour (Return to the River, 1941)
- ecosystem values (A River Never
Sleeps, 1944; November)
Writer, naturalist, conservationist,
… and inspiration
- the importance of multiple ages,
value of estuaries, etc.
Canada’s WSP at a Glance
Goal
Objectives
Restore and maintain healthy and diverse salmon
populations and their habitats for the benefit and
enjoyment of the people of Canada in perpetuity
Safeguard the
genetic diversity of
wild Pacific salmon
Maintain habitat and
ecosystem
integrity
Manage
fisheries for
sustainable
benefits
1) Standardized monitoring of wild salmon status
2) Assessment of habitat status
Strategies
3) Inclusion of ecosystem values and monitoring
4) Integrated strategic planning
5) Annual program delivery
6) Performance Review (new)
Guiding
Principles
Conservation of
wild salmon and
their habitat is the
highest priority
Obligations
to First
Nations
Sustainable
Use
Open
Process
Key words within the WSP and related
thoughts from RHB’s writings.
1. Conservation and sustainable use
2. Ecosystem values
3. Wild salmon
4. Integrated strategic planning
(Regional management process)
1. Conservation and Sustainable use:
R Haig-Brown. 1961. Conservation Defined. In: The Living Land.
B.C. Natural Resources Conference.
Conservation is a dynamic, not a static, conception.
It means putting them (resources) to use, seeking
a valuable return … and at the same time ensuring
future yields of at least equal value.
It means having enough faith in the future to
respect the future and the needs of future people,
accepting moral and practical restraints that limit
immediate self-interest, it means finding a measure
of wisdom and understanding of natural things …
1. Conservation and Sustainable use (continued):
Since it (conservation) deals for the future as well
as the present, it must always be as much an act
of faith as an intellectual exercise.
“… these simple instances (examples in text)
emphasize the first principle of conservation
today – the protection and improvement of
habitat, that whole set of natural conditions and
circumstances that contributes to the successful
propagation and development of renewable
resources.”
“… basic resources of any country are soil and
water and, largely depending on these, climate.”
Definition of Conservation in WSP
“Conservation is the protection, maintenance,
and rehabilitation of genetic diversity, species,
and ecosystems to sustain biodiversity and the
continuance of evolutionary and natural
production processes.”
Recognizes use but emphasizes the future …
Recognizes the importance of habitat …
Accounts for the unknown future …
Sustainable use in the WSP:
“Sustainable use is the use of biological
resources in a way and at a rate that does
not lead to their long term decline, thereby
maintaining their potential for future
generations to meet their needs and
aspirations.”
Canadian Biodiversity Strategy: Canada’s response to the
Convention on Biological Diversity. Environ. Canada. 1995.
2. Ecosystem Values …
The inclusion of “ecosystem values” in the WSP
was not so much related to the issues of
economic evaluation or recognizing the “natural
capital” in our west coast ecosystems.
Rather, it recognized that salmon are an
integral component of our west coast
ecosystems and important to healthy marine,
freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems.
Salmon management should recognize the value
of salmon to broader ecosystem values, not just
the value of ecosystems to salmon. In 2005,
the WSP was a commitment to do this.
2. Ecosystem Values … in RHB’s writing.
While RHB never referred to ecosystem values, he
clearly understood and wrote about them.
I would summarize his writings into 3 themes:
a. The ecosystem function of salmon (1944! quotes from
A River Never Sleeps, November chapter)
b. Recognition of the importance of a species ecology in
effective management. (1966 essay, Some Approaches
to Conservation) “… ecologies are the key to the
preservation of all forms of wildlife, …”
c. The role of man(kind) and our impact on natural
ecosystems. (The Drama of Our Environment, 1970
speech. pg 216 in Writings and Reflections. 1982.)
How would managers fare based on
ecosystem values?
Pre-WSP, 2005
WSP
Post
WSP
With a few
exceptions
We’ll
see
3. Wild Salmon … it seems safe to conclude the
RHB was a natural fish guy from the beginning!
“… Nothing about fish is easy to prove when
you come right down to it. Look how many
‘proven’ things have been disproved in this
century – the advantages of artificial
propagation over natural spawning, for
instance.” pg. 18, Return to the River. 1941.
A negative perspective on artificial
production continues in his 1972 essay “Some
thoughts of Paradise (in Writings and
Reflections. 1982)
3. Wild Salmon continued:
“The best way of restoring salmon and steelhead
runs to their full glory is the hard way: close
protection and management of existing stocks,
stream rehabilitation and improvement, and
greatly improved land management. In the long
term there is, I believe, no other way than this.”
pg. 195
“No conceivable system of hatcheries could ever
produce more than a fraction of the results we
can expect from natural restoration, and the
cost of even a partial attempt would be
prohibitive.” pg. 198
3. Wild Salmon in the WSP:
Definition: Salmon are considered “wild” if they
have spent their entire life cycle in the wild and
originate from parents that were also produced
by natural spawning and continuously lived in the
wild.
The requirement in this definition that a wild
salmon must complete more than one full
generation in the wild is intended to safeguard
against potential adverse effects resulting from
artificial culture.
How would we fare based on the conservation
of wild salmon and the role of enhancement?
WSP
Pre-WSP, 2005
We’ll
see
But I could
well be
corrected!
Post
WSP
Priority for wild salmon
and assumed successful
integration of
Strategies 1 to 3.
4. Integrated strategic planning
Surprising to me were very relevant comments in his
chapter Defining Conservation, in his book “The Living
Land”.
“ I have written so far as though each resource
were separate in its own compartment and its
users in complete control of all its affairs. This
is not so at all. Nearly all resource uses
conflict in some measure, some to the point of
mutual intolerance.” pg. 24
4. Integrated strategic planning … RHB cont.
“multiple use with priorities” … is an ideal , a sort
of guiding philosophy that cannot always be
realized but which clearly points in the way to
wise management of natural resources.
It puts emphasis on co-operation rather than
competition, and by so doing suggests new and
profitable areas of research and leads to
discoveries that might not have otherwise
have been reached.” pg 25
4. Integrated strategic planning … RHB cont.
Because the future is unknown and changes in
many unforeseen ways from its obvious
probabilities, he (mankind) can only try the matter
out. But there is no excuse for not trying. It is a
matter of puzzling a way among the conflicting
ideas and advices and opinions, and reaching
decisions as honestly as may be. (concluding para
of chapter)
The BC Natural Resources Conference recognized
the inherent conflicts between resource uses but
did not identify a decision process.
4. Integrated strategic
planning … WSP
DFO will consult with First Nations,
Provincial and Territorial
governments, communities, and
stakeholders to design an effective
integrated planning process that
respects people’s interests in Pacific
salmon, land and waters,
watersheds, fisheries, and marine
areas. This Policy does not dictate
that process. Those affected need to
be directly involved in the process
design and implementation.
Pg 27 WSP
Resource-based industry
Multiple resource councils
First Nations
Regional Districts
Municipal govern.
Provincial Departments
Federal departments
Establishing a
Regionally-based,
Integrated,
Ecosystem-based
planning structure for
BC is likely the
greatest challenge to
the future
conservation of wild
Pacific salmon … but
there are examples
developing within
salmon interests.
What are limitations to progress?
• multiple valuable resources with historical impacts
• resource “trade-offs” and compromises imply winners
and losers, not win-win situations
• peoples values and cultural backgrounds do differ
• decision process should be democratic, but processes
have been ineffective representing Nature (RHB)
• public apathy to processes and decisions …. “What can
an individual do?” (RHB)
• Who initiates such large scale change & who pays?
• What decision authority would a regional planning
process have and who would monitor recommendations?
• What is in it for me?
BC First
Nation
“language”
groups
describe
approximately
8 to 10
geographic
regions that
have strong
relationship
with B.C’s
Eco-region
maps, and the
WSP’s Joint
Adaptive
zones.
Moving from words to actions
requires that we address this issue
of regionally based integrated
planning structures and processes
… but that’s the task for tomorrow.
RHB
PBS 1908
Dr. Bill Ricker
1908 was a pretty good year!
I only wish that I had met RHB after
reading his thoughts, but thanks for the
opportunity to participate.