Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Vancouver visit heightens environmental concerns
The Vancouver travel guide offered advice on finding our way around the city: “when in doubt, remember the mountains are to the north.” Good advice in normal times, but during our five day stay in this British Columbian City, we’d have to resort to other means to get our bearings. That’s because, for the most part, the mountains were so shrouded in thick smoke they were hidden from view.
The source of the smoke was from as many as 600 wildfires blazing all over the province.
Since the British Columbia fire season officially began back on April 1, there had been over 1,000 wildfires recorded, and for the second year in a row, the B.C. government had declared a provincewide state of emergency. The smoke settling on the city forced some tourists with respiratory problems to cut their vacations short. The local newspapers reported that such “apocalyptic” conditions put athletes at so much risk that a number of planned triathlon events had to be cancelled.
Vancouver resident Tim Holmes, who hosted my Salish Sea salmon fishing trip, believed that the wildfires and their fallout was bad, but that last year had been even worse. The ongoing elevated fire hazard with dry tinderbox conditions struck me as odd, given the marine west coast climate here with its extensive rainy season that generally runs from October to May. “I first visited Vancouver in July,” reported Frenchman Sacha Sarfati, a fishing companion on that trip, “and the weather was great, sunny and mild. But then when I came back in February to start my job here, all it did was rain, rain so hard that, no matter how big your umbrella, you still got soaking wet.”
Another subtle testimony to the extent of the rainy season here is the choice of boats used by fishermen and charter captains. One of the most popular models on our east coast is the center console, but I didn’t spot a single center console anywhere on the Salish Sea that trip. Enclosed cabin boats were the order of the day. When I asked Holmes about this, he explained that most anglers and charters here fish year round, meaning that for seven or eight months, you’d likely be fishing in a driving rain, making the open air center consoled an impractical option.
Given so much rain for so many months, I reasoned that with the forests saturated after months of rain, it should logically reduce the chance of wildfires. Holmes just smiled and shook his head. “With so little humidity here in the spring and summer, it’s so arid that the forests dry out almost instantly which quickly results in conditions ripe for wildfires.”
The extended and devastating fire season in western Canada (as well as the western United States) has become the new norm, one that environmental scientists blame on climate change, and it is having a ripple effect. Newspapers here reported that the wildfires not only polluted the air, but also negatively impacted the water through unchecked runoffs of nutrients that, for numerous reasons, dangerously impaired water quality.
Toxic contamination of orca habitat also threatens the endangered resident killer whale population here, along with vessel noise and dwindling stocks of Chinook salmon, the orca’s primary food source.
Yet another dire threat to sea life here and worldwide is plastic, mile after mile of it, gumming up our oceans and corrupting the marine environment. A few restaurant chains have banned the use of plastic straws, a token gesture to address the problem, and one widely mocked by the environmentally challenged. Straws are barely the tip of the plastic iceberg, but at least their banishment draws attention to a broader concern.
The magnitude of the global plastics problem was also the focus of the Vancouver Aquarium during our visit there. A number of displays reflected how vast amounts of debris from the devastating Japanese earthquake and Tsunami in 2011 had eventually made its way to North America’s northwestern coast causing extensive environmental headaches. But many exhibits emphasized how plastic pollution in all shapes and sizes threatens sea life and the ecosystem in general. The artistic vision fueling these exhibits was courtesy of artist Douglas Coupland.
Of course the aquarium’s primary focus is on sea life itself while featuring fish, octopi, jellyfish, amphibians, reptiles and rescued marine mammals that included harbor seals, sea lions, river otters, sea otters, and a pacific whitesided dolphin name Helen that put on quite a show for the visitors that day.
But Coupland’s major year-long exhibit, dubbed Vortex, is intended to highlight an escalating global conservation crisis: ocean plastic pollution.
Displays ranged from the dangers of fibers from clothes containing plastics like nylon, polyester, acrylics, and spandex, disgorged from washing machines into the environment to sea turtles fatally mistaking discarded plastic bags for jellyfish (a favorite food of the turtle clan).
These scenarios, along with images of lost or discarded fishing gear killing untold numbers of marine life each year and chemicals from microscopic, poisonous, plastic particles seeping into the food chain (along with the consequences of our unchecked and endless wildfire seasons) should make those of us who care about the environment exceedingly nervous.
YOUNG WATERFOWLERS PROGRAM
The Brandywine Red Clay Alliance and the Delaware Nature Society will host their Young Waterfowlers Program on four Wednesdays, October 3 and 17, November 14, and December 5 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Ashland Nature Center, 3511 Barley Mill Rd in Hockessin, DE. The program, designed for youngsters ages 11 to 17, combines hunting with an appreciation of wetlands and wildlife. Topics include identification of waterfowl, conservation ethics, retriever training, decoy carving, safety skills and good sportsmanship. An optional guided hunt at the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge or private farms will be offered at the conclusion of the program. Cost for the program is $125 with a family membership in the BRC or DNS also required. For more information call 610-793-1090 or visit www. brandywineredclay.org.