“A small and self-serving group with guidance from the BC Ministry of the Environment is trying to drive a wedge in the long, happy and mutually advantageous alliance between the good people of the Skeena Valley and the traveling anglers from around the world who have treasured this resource and taken its side when it has been threatened.”

-Thomas McGuane

Fly Rod & Reel just posted a doozie of a story about the drive to largely eliminate non-resident angler access to some of British Columbia’s best steelhead rivers, and writer Seth Norman asked me to give the problem a little ink. Why?

Non-resident anglers (that’s most of us) are not only being shut out of the fisheries (and the process), but Norman believes there’s an ulterior motive here.

After all, what group benefits when you drive a wedge between wealthy foreign anglers (NRAs for the purposes of this story) and local guides, thereby bankrupting those who have a stake in maintaining healthy fisheries?

Any guesses from the Undergrounders?

Answer: the resource extraction folks (mining and energy companies), who suddenly won’t have foreign fishermen bankrolling fights to protect resources – something that’s happened in BC several times, including a recent victory to keep Shell from developing coal-methane beds.

Whew. Sound a little far fetched? It did to me – until I read Norman’s piece, where he makes a convincing case (if not for conspiracy, then for unmitigated incompetence).

First, here’s the backstory:

Hundreds of Canadian businesses with thousands of employees will be crippled or bankrupt if the British Columbia Ministry of Environment (MoE) passes proposed regulations to limit or ban non-resident steelheaders on the Skeena River and its tributaries: Kispiox, Bulkey, Babine, Morice, Skawala; also the Zymoetz (Copper).

Frightened stakeholders in the area estimate damage to the local economy at between $35 and $50 million per year, and losses to local property values in the hundreds of millions.

“What could be so bad,” you say? Here’s a taste of the restrictions out-of-area anglers will face should they invest thousands traveling to the area (hint: they won’t):

Non-Resident Alien anglers (NRAs) shall be:

  • Banned from one or more resident-only waters
  • Banned altogether from fishing two “premier,” Class 2 rivers, unless fishing with select BC guides
  • Banned from fishing other premier rivers on Saturdays, or both week-end days
  • Required, unless fishing with select BC guides, to apply in advance for lottery tickets that would permit winners to purchase licenses for one eight day period, valid on (the only) river they may fish at this time, regardless of conditions
  • Banned from fishing property they own on premier rivers unless accompanied by a select BC guide, or in possession of a winning lottery ticket with the eight-day and other restrictions described above

You read it right – even non-resident property owners couldn’t fish the rivers on their property unless accompanied by the “right” BC guide.

These draconian restrictions aren’t designed to protect the fishery or even to milk non-resident anglers to the benefit of the local economy. Instead:

“They will bankrupt us,” declares a Skeena lodge owner, anonymous here for fear of retaliation. “That’s why they kept us off the ‘Working Committees’ that came up with these options using the MoE ‘toolbox.’ That’s why the committees kept everything secret, until somebody leaked the draft just before the end. Nobody will travel thousands of miles and spend thousands of dollars to put up with rules like these…We’ll go bankrupt and the Ministry knows it.”

At its best, the process behind the development of the rules is corrupt. At its worst, it’s a process designed to deliver a pre-determined outcome – an outcome that Norman believes has more to do with frustrated resource extraction companies than moronic resource management groups.

To whit:

“There is another: that the allies here—NRA steelheaders, and steelhead-dependent Canadian businesses—are not merely victims of a flawed MoE process, but the targets.

The same stakeholders facing devastation actively supported First Nation and Canadian conservationists in a (so far) successful fight against putting fish farms on the Skeena. They fought again, helping conservationists and First Nation protesters stop (so far) Royal Dutch Shell’s coal-bed methane exploration in that river’s Sacred Headwaters.

NRAs contributed—politically and through donations to these, especially to the campaign that stopped Shell in 2006—the year MoE re-opened the dormant AMP process.

The same allies questioned and may oppose construction of a $4.5 billion segment of pipeline through the area, a project of the American giant Enbridge, Inc. In 2006, Enbridge temporarily abandoned this effort. On November 4, 2008, Enbridge set up two new Skeena-area offices.”

When gross incompetence or extractive-industry funded conspiracy are your two best choices, then it’s clear one of the world’s best steelhead fisheries might be circling the bowl.

What to do?

First, read Norman’s story here.

Then, my strategy is simple – contact the players (names & email addresses at end of story), though whatever you do, don’t send abusive emails to anyone. That, my friends – if Seth Norman’s worst fears are true – is precisely what the bad guys want:

“At every turn of this investigation, I found misleading declarations that it was mainly NRAs—by implication, angry, ugly Americans in particular–who object to the changes in regs that will devastate Canadian businesses.”

Instead, make it clear that the financial implications of the proposed rules are significant – that you and your friends would never invest your dollars in the BC economy under those rules, a fact which would likely doom the local steelhead-related outdoor industry to bankruptcy.

Don’t question anyone’s intelligence or their parentage, just firmly ask that they reconsider – and also ask why so many stakeholders were shut out of the rule-making process.

I believe Norman might be writing a “Part II” followup, and we’ll keep an eye on this one for you.

UPDATE: The Way Upstream blog published an excellent post about this in November, and a couple of the comments below the story are excellent.

Honourable Gordon Campbell, Premier
premier@gov.bc.ca
Phone:250 387-1715; Fax:250 387-0087
PO Box 9041
STN PROV GOVT
Victoria BC

Honourable Barry Penner, Minister of Environment and Minister responsible for Water Stewardship and Sustainable Communities
Env.minister@gov.bc.ca
Phone: 250 387-1187 Fax: 250 387-1356
PO Box 9047
STN PROV GOVT
Victoria BC
V8W 9E2

Honourable Bill Bennett, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts
TCA.Minister@gov.bc.ca
Phone: 250 953-4246; Fax: 250 953-4250
PO Box 9071
STN PROV GOVT
Victoria BC
V8W 9E9

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