Squamish Nation - Wild Spirit Places
NSÍIYX - NITEM TL'A (ELAHO VALLEY) - NEXW - AYÁNTSUT (SIMS CREEK) - PAYÁKENTSUT (WEST CALLAGHAN VALLEY) - ESTÉ - TIWILH (WEST SIDE OF SQUAMISH RIVER) - KWÁYATSUT (UPPER CHEAKAMUS) - SU7 (UPPER SOO) - NCH'KAY (BROHM RIDGE)
Milestones
1995 – The Uts’am - Witness Program begins. People are invited to Sims Creek to experience the wilderness and Squamish Nation culture
1996 - 2000 – International Forest Products (Interfor) logs parts of the Sims and Elaho Valleys. The Wilderness Committee surveys the Elaho Valley to Meager Creek trail.
2001 – The Squamish Nation completes a landuse plan for their territory. Several areas, including the Upper Elaho and Sims are declared Wild Spirit Places. Interfor ceases logging in the Wild Spirit Places out of respect.
2003 – The Vancouver-Squamish-Whistler Region is awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
2005 – The Sea-to-Sky landuse planning committee recommends that the BC government enter into negotiations with the Squamish Nation over the future of the Wild Spirit Places.
a gift to the world
British Columbia, the best place on Earth! Beautiful BC! Supernatural BC! From our license plates to our billboards British Columbians like to boast about our high quality of life, cultural diversity and the natural beauty and abundance that surrounds us.
In 2010, when the Winter Olympics and Paralympics come to our neck of the woods, we’ll all be showing the world the best we have to offer. And now, thanks to the Squamish Nation, BCers have something else very special to be proud of. Squamish Nation Wild Spirit Places (Kwa kwayex welh-aynexws) are about to be showcased to the world! The Squamish Nation is comprised of just over 3,000 Salish people who are the descendants of the aboriginal peoples who have lived for thousands of years in the present day Greater Vancouver area; Gibson’s Landing and Squamish River Watershed.
Concerned about logging and urban sprawl rapidly eating up their natural landscape, the Squamish Nation completed an ambitious land use planning process for the forests and wilderness of their territory in 2001. As a result, the Squamish Nation Band Council began designating Wild Spirit Places where logging and industrial development are prohibited.
Today, there are five Wild Spirit Places and two Sensitive Areas, which are proposed for Wild Spirit Place status. All seven are located in the Squamish/Whistler area comprising 100,000 hectares of some of the most spectacular tracts of glacier crowned mountains, cascading rivers and ancient forests to be found anywhere in the world. They are home to grizzlies, wolves, eagles, salmon, moose, deer and a host of the other wild creatures that make this region famous amongst nature lovers.
The Wild Spirit Places are protected lands, but they aren’t parks. Parks are usually designated in Canada by either the provincial or federal governments. The seven Wild Spirit Places have been designated solely by the government of the Squamish Nation to recognize that these areas have always existed as special places.
The Wild Spirit Places are called upon to do more than a park. Besides protecting wild landscapes and animals, they have been put in place to conserve and showcase the Squamish Nation’s cultural landscape too. Sacred sites, locations of traditional stories and ancient plant gathering and hunting grounds, are just a few of the treasures that the Squamish Nation has chosen to safeguard within their Wild Spirit Places.
But can the Wild Spirit Places survive? So far, the government has not officially recognized the Wild Spirit Place designations. Because it is the BC government that grants permits for logging and other industrial uses the fear is that the Wild Spirit Places could be developed and destroyed under BC government permit at some future date. Currently the BC government is conducting a landuse study process of their own in the Squamish/Whistler area. If the government chooses to officially recognize the Wild Spirit Places in law, then these gems can truly be protected for all time.
Read on to find out about the Wild Spirit Places and what you can do to make sure they live on for our children’s children and beyond.
