A Positive Feedback Loop to Celebrate: Environmental Protection & Outdoor Recreation
Adventure is a two way street. Gear gets us out of our homes and into the outdoors, but it’s the beckoning of the landscapes that requires us to procure the equipment and explore terrain in the first place. How do these landscapes that call on the wild in us come to exist? Of course, there is an evolutionary weave of plate tectonics, climate, weather, erosion, glaciers, and volcanoes that continually mold the planet, like an artist’s hands with clay. What’s often not recognized is the role of homo sapiens in shaping landscapes, and how human communities have been a force for stimulating greater ecological and biological abundance on earth. Today, 80% of the world’s biodiversity exists on Indigenous land, and this is no coincidence. In the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations people have been stewards of the salmon guild since time immemorial. The salmon guild is made up of over 200 animals that feed on salmon species and leave carcass remains in the terrestrial environment, which nourish the old growth rainforest and support the immense growth and vitality of this temperate rainforest ecosystem.
Hiking views on the shoulders of Banff National Park. Photo: Outmost archives.
Human communities have been a part of cultivating the bountiful, the blue washed and the verdigris that we see from the ocean, to forest and sky, yet our industrial systems tell another story. Since the onset of the industrial revolution in the 18th century, linear economic growth that has been underpinned by fossil fuel based energy and chemicals has led to the depletion of the world’s soils, overfishing, plastic pollution, desertification, species extinction, deforestation, and, most notably, the climate crisis which is knocking on, flooding, and burning at our doors. This situation has been facilitated by the ability for corporations to privately acquire “natural resources”, also known as the outdoor spaces that communities rely on for all aspects of their wellbeing, including recreation.
In the early 1960’s, scientific awareness and environmental concerns grew in response to industrial activities on privatized land, leading to protests, the formation of powerful environmental nonprofit organizations, and government lobbying. This encompasses the release of Rachel Caron’s famous environmental classic, Silent Spring, released in 1962. This publication brought urgent attention to the adverse impacts pesticide have on bird populations, which catalyzed a ban on DDT in 1972 in the United States and 1985 in Canada. In the 1970’s, Canadian environmentalists channeled their focus into addressing major energy projects, as seen with Mackenzie Valley Pipeline in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, which got shut down. South of the border, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was enacted in 1970, the first major U.S. environmental law. NEPA mandates that all federal agencies must complete a formal environmental assessment and process before taking any action anticipated to have substantial impact on the environment.
The history of environmental policy and progress far exceeds what’s noted here, which needs to be more widely recognized, and will colour the rest of this piece. Historically, people have stood up for the environments they live, work and play in that are threatened by corporate activity. With this, when people are able to enjoy outdoor spaces and express themselves through diverse forms of recreation, they are more likely to empathize with those outdoor spaces and dedicate energy to protecting those locales. This conjures a positive feedback loop we can all celebrate: more environmental protection, equating to more recreation, inspiring more environmental protection, and so on. We are here to find what we love in the outdoors and let it move us. In turn, we need to reciprocate all that we’re given by our surroundings to enact greater protections for all people to equitably enjoy and access, and so that the generations to come have healthier and safer environments to live in and explore amongst. With this in mind, here are two case studies from across North America which illustrate victories for watershed restoration and protection and the positive implications this has had for outdoor recreation.
In 1969, the Cuyahoga River near downtown Cleveland, Ohio was set on fire as sparks from a nearby passing train ignited debris that was drenched in oil. This was not the first occurrence, records state that the river had become ablaze at least 12 times before this incident, but it was luckily the last. As Lorraine Boissoneault states in Smithsonian Magazine, “the water was nearly always covered in oil slicks, and it bubbled like a deadly stew. For more than a century, the Cuyahoga River had been prime real estate for various manufacturing companies. Everyone knew it was polluted, but pollution meant industry was thriving, the economy was booming, and everyone had jobs.” Though the 1969 fire was relatively small compared to those past, increased media coverage of the disaster along with a shift in community perception and call for action led the city to restore the river from pollution. Voters approved a $100 million bond program to fund the cleanup, in addition to sewage system enhancement.
Fast forward over fifty years, the Cuyahoga River is now a prized recreation site for kayaking, swimming, fishing and stand-up paddle boarding. Continual work has gone into advocacy, cleanups and environmental policy - put forward by the community, nonprofits, the municipality and the federal government. Community leaders have underscored the need for equitable access to recreation on the river, as lower socioeconomic and BIPOC communities live farther from the river and face more barriers to river recreation. The nonprofit Canalway Partners is working to address this, which involves constructing a path along the Cuyahoga River Canal, making it more easily accessible to all Cleveland residents. In restoring natural spaces for human enjoyment, we need to continue to analyze who is benefitting and who is left out, as the way this has usually played out is wealthy and white individuals having greater use of these places. Twenty years after this incident, the Clean Water Act was passed in the United States, which created regulations for waste disposal in water. The act is motivated to ensure that all rivers across the country are swimmable and fishable.
Coming back to Canada, over 4000 km from Cleveland, another victory for clean waters and outdoor avocations is exemplified by Tsilhqot’in First Nation in a legal battle against Taseko Mines in 2020, who were attempting to develop an open pit copper and gold mine southwest of Williams Lake. This would have also involved turning the sacred Fish Lake into a toxic tailings pond. Chief Joe Alphonse was at the helm of leading the movement against Taseko Mines, and during the dispute, he stated in an interview for The Tyee, “if there is any spillage from the lake, the impact is going to be enormous, it’s going to be not just us as Tsilhqot’in people, but all users along the Fraser River downstream from us, and out in the ocean, the commercial fisherman, the tourist operators that depend on fishing for sockeye, chinook, steelhead, you name it, all of those people are going to be impacted.”
Rafters exploring the Taskeo River. Photo: Dave Prothero.
Now, after over a ten year battle, the Taseko Mine project is defeated forever, leading to a waterfall of efficacious effects for fish, habitats, the use of the area for Tsilhqot’in traditional purposes and culture, the health and wellbeing of current and future Tsilhqot’in First Nation community members, as well as all other folks who live in British Columbia. On this foundation of social and ecological stability, uninhibited recreation will continue at Fish Lake and downstream waters for campers, hikers, swimmers and all other pastime pleasures that clean waters create capacity for. Supporting Indigenous Nations in protecting their territories from extractivist multinational corporations is key in this, for both regenerating the planet and ensuring that recreation in protected sites is developed in accordance with Indigenous sovereignty, and ensuring Indigenous peoples, along with other marginalized populations, have access to recreation in protected sites.
As Robin Wall Kimmerer states in Braiding Sweetgrass, “it is not enough to weep for our lost landscapes; we have to put our hands in the earth to make ourselves whole again.”10 We also have to put our hands into and along the earth to heal it. This is what Outmost is provoking, supporting individuals in being present outdoors doing what they love using necessary and sustainable resources. As we’ve discovered, this creates an opportunity for people to want to steward the places they visit, and engage in environmental protection efforts, for the intrinsic rights of nature, for the diverse communities present today, and those yet to come who also deserve the great honour of experiencing this earth’s magnificence.
Get outdoors and get the most out of your gear. Let this fuel you to do good. Repeat.
