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VANCOUVER — The concept of what a park is and how it functions to protect the landscape is being redefined in British Columbia by First Nations in ways that some might find surprising.
At a totem pole-raising ceremony on the weekend, the Tsilhqot’in First Nation announced plans to create Dasiqox Tribal Park, the latest in a series of declarations by native organizations aimed at protecting massive swaths of territory.
Dasiqox covers about 300,000 hectares of some of the most spectacular landscapes in Canada. The Valhalla Wilderness Society, which has long advocated protecting the area, describes it as “a vast mountain enclave for grizzlies” and other wildlife.
Unlike federally designated national parks and provincial enclaves, the First Nations concept in B.C. aims to create protected areas under the jurisdiction of native people, with potential room for resource extraction. While not new, these parks allow First Nations to control logging, mining and other activities in a particular region, which might otherwise be open to unfettered use by business.
In a series of interviews, Tsilhqot’in chiefs made it clear that their idea of what a park is, is very different from what most Canadians might think.
“I’d say generally a park has a poor connotation; it almost supposes it has no activity whatsoever in it,” said Chief Russell Myers Ross.
The boundaries of Dasiqox Tribal Park, he says, have been drawn to reflect the needs of the grizzly bears, the moose, the wolves and the other wildlife. But within that sweeping landscape, the Tsilhqot’in people see room for some development too.
Propose a mine or logging operations in a provincial or federal park and you will trigger angry protests in B.C.
But Chief Myers Ross said development can occur in Dasiqox Tribal Park – as long as it is done in a way that reflects the cultural and environmental values of the Tsilhqot’in.
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