Re: [Paddlewise] Saturation Point

In my area, northern Ontario, land use is quite an issue.  In short, unless a
serious effort is made, land gets logged over and water gets dammed up.  Road
access brings development of various types.  It takes a great deal of work by a
great many people to protect wilderness.  Where do we find these people?  Among
others, we draw on outdoor recreation oriented groups -- hikers, birders,
paddlers, climbers, etc.  I submit that there is a direct correlation between
interest in paddling and interest in wilderness protection.  Obviously not all
paddlers are environmentalists, but many are.  More importantly, many people
become environmentalists after their awareness of environmental issues has been
raised through their participation in paddling.

As pertains to sea kayaking in particular, let's take a look at Lake Superior
in the Thunder Bay, Nipigon, Rossport, Terrace Bay shoreline area.  Most of it
is pristine, and it is an international destination for sea kayakers.  Much of
it is being designated as a National Marine Conservation Area.  Without paddler
involvement in the designation process, this probably would not have happened
at all, and certainly would not have encompassed as great an area as is
expected to be covered.  Yes, this will lead to even more paddlers, opening up
the problem of the area being loved to death, but this is a far easier problem
to deal with than the pressing problem of resource extraction and development.
It is relatively easy to institute a permit system when compared against
stopping the logging industry or the mining industry.

We live in an era of extinction -- right up there along with the top half dozen
historic extinctions, including the Cretaceous, Permian, Ordovician, Devonian,
Triassic, and Pleistocene.  The overall extinction rate is somewhere about a
hundred times over background, and in specific areas (e.g. invertebrates in
tropical rainforests) the rate is about a thousand times over background.
Protecting significantly sized tracts of land, and corridors between these
tracts, will help slow the extinction rate.  Doing this requires public
recognition of the problem, and public participation in the solutions.  How do
we educate people as to these problems and then motivate them to act?  One way,
among many, is through participation in paddling.  Think of paddling as an
entry point into environmental awareness and activity.  The more people who
flow through entry points into the world of environmental awareness and
activity, the better chance we have in slowing the extinction rate.

Yes, it is theoretically possible for paddlers to love an area to death, but
before backing off on the promotion of paddlesports, lets take a cold hard look
at both where the most devastating environmental impacts are coming from and
where the solutions are coming from.  Yes, whale watching in the St. Lawrence
has been associated with negative impacts on the whales, but this is trivial
compared to what pollution in the seaway has done to the whale populations, and
public interest in protecting these whales has gone a long way toward reducing
levels of pollution.  Yes, paddling has had a negative effect on parts of the
Colorado in the Grand Canyon, but without public activism the canyon was
scheduled to have been dammed over.  Yes, hiking in Yellowstone has slightly
affected Grizzly populations, but the problem is insignificant when compared to
the long term impact due to lack of corridors outside the park, and only public
interest will help change this.  And back here in northern Ontario?  Yes, sea
kayakers can have a negative impact on caribou breeding grounds (e.g. islands
at the south end of Pukaskwa, a national park on the north shore of Superior
just to the east of the proposed National Marine Conservation Area).  Yes,
hikers and shoreline campers can have an impact on cougar populations (which
may be extinct locally, though there are occasional unconfirmed sightings).
But these impacts are easily dealt with through limiting access where
necessary.  More importantly, these impacts are trivial compared to the impact
of logging on a massive scale over millions of hectares.  If promoting paddling
can help people become aware of and involved in helping the environment, then
let's keep on promoting.

Let's promote paddling hand in hand with promoting the environment.  Let's
educate new paddlers as to the impact they are making in their activities, and
then broaden this out to education on the primary impacts on species isolation
and extinction, namely massive land use changes.  As environmentalists,
paddling offers a powerful tool for us to capture people's hearts and minds.
Let's not miss the boat.

Cheers,
Richard Culpeper
Environment North



Doug Lloyd wrote:

> I spoke with a dealer at the PT Symposium who was elated at their sales
> this past year, and all the new paddlers at the symposium showing interest
> in his boats. I said that was "too bad".
>
> "Excuse me", came the reply, "What do you mean by that?"
>
> I said that means more people on the water, more impact. Does anyone think
> there are too many people participating these days? Who's worse,
> recreational paddlers or guide outfits (there was an earlier post on this)?
> Should we all stop encouraging new growth, boycott symposiums, stop
> teaching? Any thoughts, or is this not a valid question in the kayaking
> community, yet?
>
> BC'in Ya
> Doug Lloyd
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