Into the lair of the white bear (page 4)
A black bear emerges from the forest and ambles down to the
creek. Pausing to fix us with a glance, it paws up a salmon.
We sit, cameras ready, watching and being watched. Suddenly,
another bear appears from the brush 100 metres downstream.
Looking like a polar bear that has taken a wrong turn south,
the spirit bear wades into the creek. I look at Jo, a veteran
police
officer from Ottawa. She has tears in her eyes.
BEARING WITNESS
Getting there Maple Leaf
Adventures is offering four trips
into the Great Bear Rainforest
in 2008, between April and October.
The trips variously start
in Prince Rupert, Bella Bella or
Port McNeill, all of which are
accessible by regular, daily
commercial flights. Maple Leaf
offers full travel planning assistance
and arranges for taxi or
shuttle services to and from airports.
For more information, go
to mapleleafadventures.com or
call (888) 599-5323.
Staying there Prince Rupert has
a broad range of hotels and motels.
Among them, the Crest
Hotel has outstanding views of
the city’s waterfront. In Port
McNeill, try the Haida
Way Hotel,
Beach House Bed and Breakfast or
At Water’s Edge Bed and
Breakfast.
For those who prefer the outdoors,
there are private and
provincial campsites in the area.
In Bella Bella, no accommodation
is necessary because guests
of Maple Leaf Adventures arrive
and depart for the Great Bear
Rainforest on the same day.
Playing there
In Prince Rupert,
explore the Cow Bay area, which
is lined with interesting cafés
and shops. From there, it is a
short walk to the Museum
of Northern B.C., which features
traditional northwest coast architecture
and exhibits that explore
the rich history of the area’s
First Nations.
If you like to fish, Deep
Sea Charters offers half- and full-day
trips, guided by an expert fisherman.
In Port McNeill, check out the
Just Art Gallery,
for its impressive collection of
aboriginal art, much of which is
from local First Nations artists.
For those who want to
explore below the surface, a network
of caves is only an hour’s
drive from Port McNeill. Little
Hustan Caves Regional Park offers
cavers a short walking trail, a
viewing platform and a honeycomb
of caves just waiting to
be discovered. Bring boots with
good traction, a flashlight and
a helmet. Take the Zeballos
turnoff from Highway 19 and
follow the signs.
|
The bear pauses to sniff the air. “He smells some hairless
twolegs,”
whispers Captain Smith.
For the next hour, the world’s rarest bear sorts through
the
salmon buffet spread upon the creekside in search of caviar, casually
ducking its head beneath the waters to better see the parade
yet to spawn.
Back at his boat, Robinson describes the many threats to the
spirit bear’s survival. Though it’s illegal to hunt
the white bear,
it’s perfectly legal to hunt its sisters and brothers, and “any
black
bear shot on this island is probably taking a recessive gene for
a white bear.” Rumours have been circulating that a kermode
was shot. If so, Robinson thinks a suitable punishment can be
found in the ancient aboriginal tradition of burying a slave in
the ground beneath a new totem pole. As he speaks, a barge
carrying a forest’s worth of logs passes through the waters
behind him.
THE FIRST NATIONS VILLAGE of Klemtu was a fishing
community until the salmon downturn several years ago.
There, we meet Francis Robinson, a 70-year-old elder of the 400
Kitasoo/Xai’xais peoples who live in Klemtu (half of whom
are Robinsons). Maple Leaf Adventures and a couple of other
small-scale ecotour operators have signed protocol agreements
with Klemtu, paying to be in its territorial waters (the funds
sponsor a watchman program to halt bear poaching) and inviting
the Kitasoo/Xai’xais to communicate and interpret their culture
to guests. It’s part of a drive to change the local economy
from resource extraction to conservation while honouring
local traditions.
At his village’s stunning new cedar longhouse, its magnificent
totem poles standing sentry, Robinson relates the story of
the spirit bear. It was the raven who created the world, he says.
When he created the bears, he made one in every 10 white in
order to remind the world of the ice age. Shortly after the longhouse
was built in 2002, says Robinson, a spirit bear swam over
to it. “Our chief was not surprised. He said it was just one
of our
relatives coming to visit.”
Walking back to the Maple Leaf, accompanied by a stray dog
that looks half wolf, we pass a boat delivering a load of farmed
salmon to the Klemtu processing plant. The longhouse, the most
spectacular in the Great Bear Rainforest, was financed by donations
from fish farms and other organizations. “Human industry
is the largest-scale experiment we’ve ever done,” says
Smith.
“Protected areas are our only controls. They will be our blueprints
for future generations to put the world back together
again.” At the mouth of the river, I see a wild chum leaping
high
into the air.
Deborah Campbell is a writer based in Vancouver.
|
