New ways of seeing nature

Stewards of Splendour: A History of Wildlife and People in British Columbia
by Jennifer Bonnell

Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum, 2023
$34.95 / 9781039900004

Reviewed by Dennis A. Demarchi

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The history of wildlife in British Columbia is a broad topic and not as simple as it would seem at first glance. Dr. Jennifer Bonnell brings a fresh vision to the history of wildlife use, conservation, and management in British Columbia. To my knowledge there have been only a few books that have tackled this subject in the past, but none of these looked at First Nation use or environmentalist’s concerns. Of course there have been many, even countless, reports and conference proceedings that deal with species or habitat descriptions and management and even some that consider a broad overview such as the Centennial Wildlife Society of British Columbia’s Our Wildlife Heritage: 100 Years of Wildlife Management (1987), but most of our knowledge rests with oral history, which of itself can be quite ephemeral. For example, information gained by government biologists is usually not passed down to others, leaving new recruits to learn on their own. Dr. Bonnell has done an admirable job capturing some of that knowledge by interviewing many people from a wide diversity of disciplines and cultures.

The book explores British Columbians’ changing relationship with wild animals and their habitats from the period of pre-contact Indigenous history, prior to 1774, to the present, from the early game legislation of 1904 to the 2020 ban of Grizzly Bear hunting. The book consists of five parts containing 13 chapters each of which is a stand-alone essay; plus there are detailed introduction and conclusion sections. As well, Dr. Bonnell has provided a nineteen page glossary of terms used. Included within each chapter is a highlighted species or activity that pertains to the topic of the chapter. For example, in Chapter 1 – “Wildlife Stewardship Among Indigenous Peoples before 1774,” the Eulachon fish and fishery is discussed; while in Chapter 7, “The Conservation Imperative,” California Bighorn Sheep transplants are singled out as an activity of note. There are many more examples that bring an additional perspective to each chapter.

Chapter by chapter Dr. Bonnell highlights the slow progression of wildlife use, exploitation, and conservation from the original inhabitants to the fur trade and then the influx of miners and settlers. The slow development of the game warden service and hunting regulations fell to one man, and his vision: A. Bryan Williams. During the 1930s and ’40s the emphasis was on licencing, regulations, and predator control. It was only near the end of the 1940s that scientific game management began to gain hold in the Province, through the BC Game Commission in consultation with the University of British Columbia under the leadership of Dr. Ian McTaggart-Cowan. Chapter Five highlights his influence.

I found it interesting to read that the Conservation Officer Service is now taking the lead on consulting with First Nations on wildlife conservation and harvesting. This is an issue that had caused much bitterness and animosity in the 1950s and early 1960s when the newly appointed regional game (wildlife) biologists were first hired to manage wildlife. The then game wardens (now conservation officers) thought it was their prerogative to set the seasons and hunting regulations and to promote predator control, but when the biologists began to institute scientific analysis to game management there was no love lost between the game wardens and biologists. Later the deployment of the Conservation Officer Service to a broader environmental enforcement role further distanced them from wildlife management. It seems that now they are returning to their former activities.

In the 1950s and ‘60s there were only six game (wildlife) biologists located in the province, namely Vancouver Island (Nanaimo), Lower Mainland (Vancouver), Thompson- Okanagan (Kamloops), Kootenay – Boundary (Cranbrook), Cariboo-Chilcotin (Williams Lake) and headquarters (Vancouver). Later this was expanded to include the north, at Prince George, and the Okanagan was made a separate region (Penticton).  It was in the mid-1970s under the newly elected NDP government under Dave Barrett that Bob Williams expanded the Fish and Wildlife Branch to include two additional regional offices at Smithers and Fort St. John and created a habitat protection section. In the spring of 1973, five of us were able to coral Bob Williams, the Minster of Forests, Lands and Water and of Recreation and Conservation in a hotel room during a B.C. Wildlife Federation Convention in Prince George; from that simple meeting, instead of being chastised by the minister, the role of the habitat protection biologist was formed and the Habitat Protection Branch was created.

That expansion was short-lived; when the subsequent Social Credit party became the government under Bill Bennett and auxiliary staff was laid off and the role of habitat referrals was undermined. It wasn’t until the 1990s under the NDP government lead by Mike Harcourt that an expanded cohort was allowed. Forest Ecosystem Specialists were placed in each forest district to assist with forest harvesting management that included wildlife conservation. That too was short-lived; when Glen Clark became premier, he implemented austerity measures that saw the firing of senior managers and junior staff. Things remain that way, with subsequent Liberal and NDP governments, to this day. For example, when the John Horgan NDP government was elected with a minority, a deal was made with the Green Party for their support – one of their conditions was the banning of Grizzly Bear hunting in the province, except for the First Nations. Neither the provincial Grizzly Bear specialists nor the regional wildlife biologists were consulted. Grizzlies were used for political gain at the expense of sound management decisions.

Although it is not highlighted in Dr. Bonnell’s book, it seems by following the discussion as presented that most past Provincial governments abdicated their responsibility to manage wildlife, instead they appear to consider wildlife conservation as an impediment to economic development, rather than taking on the challenge of managing multiple resources for the people. Divesting their wildlife management responsibility to First Nations is just another example of not considering that this resource belongs to all the people of the province not just a select few. It is easy to denigrate the ‘other’ as being incapable or not fully aware of nature’s way, even the separation into natives and non-natives is a way of devaluing the wildlife conservation contribution made by diverse groups and individuals throughout the province’s history.

The 1993 Protected Areas Strategy is mentioned in Chapter 11 – “Forestry and Wildlife.” What is known is that it was while Jake Masselink was Assistant Deputy Minister of Parks, during a 1992 meeting with four senior staff representing BC Parks, Habitat Protection and Wildlife branches, that it was agreed that wildlife considerations had to be included in any new park proposals and such new parks should be on a provincial representation basis. This decision was an important one for British Columbia for it meant that for the first time any new Protected Area would be considered as a represented ecosystem across the entire province and not just recreation areas where there was the most vocal push and least industry interest. With that move the Provincial Protected Areas Strategy happened fast, far faster than anyone realized that it could and we more than doubled the area of the provincial parks in just a couple of years, surpassing the stated target of 12% of the Province protected in parks.

An important example was mentioned in the Initiative Profile on page 314. Many people take or are given credit for creation of the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area, some of whom only came on the scene after it was finalized, but it was a quiet public servant, Gordon Goodman, who worked long hours travelling across the Province getting buy-in from three separate planning groups in northeastern BC, the oil and gas industry, plus reporting back to his Director and Assistant Deputy Minister in Victoria, who made sure that it happened. The final decision was made to place 6.4 million hectares under a special legislation management regime that included Provincial Parks and distinct wildland and management zones.  

The book reflects on the number of biologists and technicians who dedicated themselves to protecting and managing wildlife and wildlife habitat, most of whom not only had to deal with other resource ministries or resource developers, but also their own managers and administrators who took it upon themselves to ‘control’ their staff. Most buckled under that pressure but a few proceeded on course. Those were not 8:30 to 4:30 guys (yes they were all guys back then): they were always on the job and they were there to conserve the wildlife resource for the betterment of the people of British Columbia.

Each of us who read this book will bring different experiences and perspectives: I have been a part of and ancillary to many of the stories and issues highlighted in the book. Of course, I have my own clear view of what was going on, but I certainly bow to others that were interviewed for this book for theirs.

Stewards of Splendour will be used as reference in decades to come, as such I wish that it had been produced on better quality paper and stich-bound and that the maps were shown larger and in colour; speaking from personal experience, most people cannot orientate themselves to places in the province without topographic features and names. Dr. Bonnell has provided 100 pages of references and notes at the end of the book, notes that added to the information being discussed in the main text, those notes should have been set as footnotes, leaving only the references to the end.

I am sure that when Dr. Bonnell was contracted to write the history of wildlife management and conservation in British Columbia, she could not have envisioned the depth of exploration and detail her study would take. This is after all a masterful presentation of the complicated history of one of British Columbia’s natural resources and the people involved in that resource. The histories and personal recollections would not have been easy to coalesce into a single, comprehensive story and she is to be commended for doing so. This book should be compulsory reading and study in every university and college teaching wildlife conservation in the province and for every new recruit to the government’s wildlife management programs.

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Dennis A. Demarchi is a graduate in range and wildlife ecology from the universities of British Columbia (BSA 1966) and Idaho (MSc. 1970). He was a practicing biologist for the BC Government from 1969 to 2000. He has worked as the provincial habitat specialist in several regions of the province from the East Kootenay, Chilcotin, and Peace River before moving to Victoria to work on habitat inventory (biophysical) mapping projects in many regions across the Province. In 1988, he developed the Provincial ecoregion classification that was used in the 1992 Protected Areas Strategy and for trans-border conservation of forest carnivores (1992) and Grizzly Bears (2000). In addition to his regular duties Dennis served on several strategic planning panels: BC Range Program Review 1989; Provincial Wildlife Strategy to 2001 (1991 & 1994); Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy 1995: and Habitat Protection Strategic Direction 1996. In retirement he has continued working on the Ecoregion classification and has become the President of the Biodiversity Centre for Wildlife Studies and the editor of its flagship journal Wildlife Afield. He has written several articles on wildlife habitat and has co-authored the 2015 book Ian McTaggart-Cowan, and co-wrote the Wildlife Habitat – The Impact of Settlement chapter in the 1987 book Our Wildlife Heritage both were mentioned in Dr. Bonnell’s book. He resides in Victoria BC.

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster