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TR TH M EA E S A P TY TO P 1 A RY I N ND BE G TR HIN EA D TY 2

BALANCING OUR LOVE FOR ALBERTA’S BANFF NATIONAL PARK WITH CONSERVATION

SEA

WOLF MEET B.C.’S UNIQUE

COASTAL PREDATOR THE RISE OF

URBAN FARMING THE ART OF

INUIT TATTOOING

+ B.C. TURNS 150, RARE EARTH ELEMENTS, 100 YEARS OF INSULIN, OCEAN OPTIMISM, PETER MANSBRIDGE ON THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE AND MORE!

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Break free in Waterloo Region, with over 500 km of stunning on-road bike lanes and exhilarating off-road shared-use trails. From open country vistas to the liberating flow of the Hydrocut, we’ve got every joy two wheels could ask for. For maps and itineraries, visit explorewaterloo.ca.

CONTENTS

JULY/ AUGUST

2021 ON THE COVER The photographer observed this female jogging down the beach multiple times a day in search of food for her cubs.

Photo by Steve Woods

THE AMAZING SEA WOLVES OF THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST

First Nations and scientists work side by side to better understand and protect coastal wolves in B.C. By Ziya Tong

TOP: STEVE WOODS/CAN GEO; BOTTOM: DENISE PETERSON

FRESH FROM THE CITY

Already gaining steam before the pandemic, interest in urban farming — and hunger for hyper-local food — has soared. A look at three Canadian takes on the urban farming phenomenon. By Caitlin Stall-Paquet with illustrations by Colin White

SMOTHER NATURE

In Banff National Park, Alberta, as in protected areas across the country, managers are struggling to balance the desire to experience wilderness with an imperative to conserve it By Ryan Stuart

KAKINIIT

Inuit tattoos, or kakiniit, were once banned. Now they are worn with pride. Photography by Denise Peterson with text by Jana Angulalik

CANGEO.CA

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: MICHELLE VALBERG/CAN GEO; ANDAYA VINCENT; JACQUI OAKLEY/CAN GEO; CHRIS BRACKLEY/CANGEO; BRYAN CHU/CAN GEO PHOTO CLUB; ERIKA SQUIRES/CAN GEO PHOTO CLUB

D E PA R T M E N T S

DISCOVERY

17 INTERVIEW Marine conservationist Amanda Vincent shares her optimism for the future of the oceans

20 WILDLIFE Talking turtles, spider mite silk, missing salmon and more

10 BIG PICTURE

73 YOUR SOCIETY

Celebrating Canada’s grandeur

News from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society

12 EXPOSURE Showcasing our photo community

The September/October issue has a magical mystery tour of this amazing country in the “ultimate Canadian geography quiz”

Sharing CanGeo via Instagram

26 HISTORY How British Columbia joined confederation 150 years ago (and why it almost didn’t happen)

78 OUR COUNTRY

Charting how treaties 1 and 2, signed 150 years ago, helped shape Canada

Rivalry and teamwork led to the discovery of insulin at the University of Toronto

76 COMING UP

14 IN A SNAP

30 ON THE MAP

23 PLACE

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

Retired news anchor Peter Mansbridge on why the Northwest Passage takes his breath away

28 INFOGRAPHIC The rare elements that bring the smart to your smartphone

DIGITAL CONTENTS

WAT C H

CALL OF THE COASTAL WOLVES Written and edited by Fellow Russell Clark, Call of the Coastal Wolves follows a group of filmmakers over a two-week expedition as they endeavour to film the elusive sea wolf. This short film asks viewers to reflect on their impacts on the natural world.

COMMENT ON ‘BEHIND THE SAILS’ (MARCH/APRIL)

ON ‘AMET*’ (MAY/JUNE)

What a thrill to open the magazine and see the reproduction of my friend William E. deGarthe’s painting of Bluenose. Not only is the article excellent, but it is wonderful to read about a ship Bill painted often. Bill passed away in 1983, leaving his gallery and land to the Nova Scotia government. Perhaps this year, with all the work to improve Peggy’s Cove, they will be able to repair and reopen their inheritance. The artist always said, “I must leave something to draw people to the cove. The fishing is dying, so a new way for the cove to survive must be found.” He learned to sculpt and carve to tell the story of Peggy’s Cove to generations yet to be born. Thank you to Canadian Geographic for an excellent publication. Marg Demers Kanata, Ont.

I was excited to read “Amet*,’ your wonderful story about the lost Beothuk of Newfoundland. Exactly 50 years ago, as an undergrad in a historical geography course at Western University in London, Ont., I submitted a research essay about the disappearance of this proud people. So little had been known and recorded at that time, and I recall being particularly moved by the fact that it seemed like an organized effort on the part of the European colonists to destroy this important part of Canada’s heritage. I’m glad that the legend lives on through today’s researchers who continue to provide us with new insights into this rich part of history. Ron Ritchie Collingwood, Ont.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

Editor’s note: Canadian Geographic has published the art and maps drawn by Shanawdithit, the last known living Beothuk. Find them online at cangeo.ca/mj21/beothuk.

TRAVEL SPOTLIGHT: THE DRIVE-IN MOVIE

WAT C H

In the summer of 2020 — the first summer of the pandemic — Canadians revisited an outdoor pastime that celebrates its 91st birthday this year. With regular movie theatres closed, drive-ins were suddenly all the rage. Nostalgia buffs rubbed shoulders (figuratively, of course) with a new generation of drive-in movie fans. cangeotravel.ca/ja21/drivein

RE:LOCATION DOCUMENTARY SERIES This compelling series highlighting community relocations in Canada aired on the Cable Public Affairs Channel over four weeks this past spring, and you can now stream it online at your convenience. The entire series will also air on CPAC in a two-hour block on Canada Day.

COVER VOTE There is a first for everything. While our team has overruled the cover image vote from our audience poll in the past, we’ve only done so in the case of a close vote. This time, despite the voters’ clear preference for the first option, we decided to trust the expertise of our internal team and go with the unanimous opinion of our staff and newsstand advisor Scott Bullock that option two would sell best at newsstands. If it’s not a winner, we have no one to blame but ourselves. 53%

SOCIAL

25%

22%

#CAPTIONTHIS Your comments on this group photo by Matt Janzen (@borealplainsphotography) of five northern saw-whet owlets had us giggling for days! These are two of our favourite comments from Instagram.

“Siblings … they can be such a pain in the neck!” — @asbjorn.horn “We all saw it. We all smelled it. We all know!” — @smileslegend

CONNECT WITH US ONLINE @CanGeo

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@CanGeo

youtube.com/canadiangeographic

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CANGEO.CA

CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE, TOP: MAXWEL HOHN; JACKIE CHALLIS, TOURISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, INUVIK NWT; MATT JANZEN (@BOREALPLAINSPHOTOGRAPHY)

www.cpac.ca/documentaries or relocation.canadiangeographic.ca

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK Crowds gather to take in the vista around Sulphur Mountain in Banff National Park, Alta.

GETTING OUT THERE

LISSANDRA MELO/SHUTTERSTOCK

WHILE IT HAS BEEN UNQUESTIONABLY TERRIBLE in so many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a few silver linings. Noteworthy among them: an apparent increase in the number of people exploring nature. Avid hikers like me will have seen first-hand this new found, or renewed, desire to get outside. But this silver lining has its own dark cloud. Numerous times in 2020, after arriving to jammed parking lots, I abandoned hikes in areas I used to frequent. Other trails were so busy, it took much of the enjoyment out of the experience — I want to quietly commune with nature; I don’t want it to feel like I’m visiting a crowded mall. Coincidentally, the balance between access to nature and its preservation is a challenge that has been top of mind for decades at perennially popular spots such as

Alberta’s Banff National Park. A little more than a decade ago, only the five busiest days at the park saw more than 28,000 visitors per day. Now, every day from mid-June through September exceeds that lofty figure. In “Smother nature” (page 50), Ryan Stuart explores how park managers are trying to deal with the conundrum of connecting hundreds of thousands of Canadians to nature while at the same time ensuring that the park’s storied flora and fauna are protected. I suspect many of us want the same “wild” experience. And this challenge reinforces how important it is to protect, manage and possibly expand our park system. Perhaps there’s another silver lining here after all? Something to consider this summer on the trail. —Aaron Kylie To comment, please email editor@canadiangeographic.ca or visit cangeo.ca.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

For inside details on the magazine and other news, follow editor Aaron Kylie on Twitter and Instagram (@aaronkylie).

CELEBRATE CANADIAN

“

The RCGS has provided me with the opportunity to not only communicate my research on seabirds and changing Arctic ecosystems, but also share the unique and beautiful places I have worked across the Canadian Arctic. I feel honoured to share my journeys with Canadians across the country!” —Emily Choy, RCGS Fellow

Your subscription to Canadian Geographic magazine makes you a Member of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and supports educational programming, expedition funding, research grants and many other Society-led geographical initiatives. Learn more at rcgs.org/member

BIG PICTURE Celebrating Canada‘s Grandeur

PHOTO BY MICHELLE VALBERG The sun was just rising, the water like glass, when Michelle Valberg spotted this great blue heron stalking its prey along the shoreline of Sharbot Lake, Ont. Alone in her kayak, she observed the bird from afar, taking more than 1,000 images as it hunted frogs, fish and even dragonflies. When the heron waded past a dramatic rock backdrop and jabbed its head into the water, she seized the opportunity to capture the moment, perfectly reflected.

Michelle Valberg is a Photographer-in-Residence at Canadian Geographic. Follow her on @michellevalbergphotography.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

CANGEO.CA

EXPOSURE Showcasing our photo community

PHOTO BY BRYAN CHU The underwater photographer was getting ready for his final dive of the day, the boat floating with engines off above a kelp forest near Port Hardy, B.C., when a mother sea otter and her pup popped up. Sea otters are a vital part of coastal ecosystems, keeping kelp forests healthy by eating the sea urchins that graze on the plant. Join the Canadian Geographic Photo Club at photoclub.cangeo.ca and upload your best shots for a chance to be featured online or in the magazine!

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

Blue Berry has done wonders for my eyes! Claudette is a retired secretary. When she was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration, she knew she had to do something. Blue BerryTM was exactly what she was looking for.

explained the benefits of colourful fruit pigments on eye health. So, I went straight to the pharmacy and bought my first box.

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MY OPTOMETRIST WAS IMPRESSED Berry every day, my optometrist noticed an increase in optical pigments in my eyes. I was noticing an improvement too, as I was enjoying reading stories to my grandson. I now also enjoy the scenery when I take my daily walks. I am thrilled. I will surely keep taking Blue Berry as it has done wonders for my eyes and highly recommend this prod-

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IN A SNAP Sharing Can Geo via Instagram

@herry.with.an.e Herry Himanshu Admiral, Sask.

@karaokeefe Kara O’Keefe

@s.bakush Shafique Bakush

Chance Cove, N.L.

St. Lawrence River, Gaspé Peninsula, Que.

@janetbrownphotography Janet Brown

@mitch_explores Mitchell Jay

Cedar waxwing, Enderby, B.C.

Near Conklin, Alta.

Find us @CanGeo and share your best photos with us using the hashtag #ShareCanGeo.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

Where are Canada’s major pipelines and transmission lines located?

What types of energy facilities are found in my province?

Where does energy in Canada come from and how does it get to me?

HOW DOES THE ENERGY THAT POWERS OUR LIVES GET TO US? Explore Energy IQ’s new Interactive Energy Map to learn all about energy production and transmission in Canada! Visit energyiq.canadiangeographic.ca for more information about Canada’s energy story.

Picture Perfect This could be your photo. *

A gray treefrog is perfectly camouflaged atop a lichen-covered branch.

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PHOTO CLUB * Steven Rose/Can Geo Photo Club Brighton, Ont.

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DISCOVERY

INTERVIEW

Amanda Vincent, director and co-founder of the Project Seahorse conservation organization, at China Beach in San Francisco, Calif.

Amanda Vincent The marine conservationist shares her passion for seahorses and marine life by encouraging young minds to save tomorrow’s oceans

ANDAYA VINCENT

INTERVIEW BY RAYLENE LUNG

To read an extended interview with Amanda Vincent visit cangeo.ca/ja21/seahorse.

It was a small beginning for Project Seahorse, says Amanda Vincent, director and co-founder of the now-global non-profit organization dedicated to conserving seahorses. Founded in 1996 with Heather Koldewey, Project Seahorse is a group dedicated to securing marine ecosystems through extensive research and effective action — with Vincent at its helm. She’s also the chair of both the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s seahorse, pipefish and seadragon specialist group and its marine conservation committee. Winner of numerous awards for her research work, including the Rolex Award for Enterprise and, most recently, the US$250,000 Indianapolis Prize, she is equally committed to teaching the next generation of conservationists at the University of British Columbia. Vincent spoke to Canadian Geographic about how protecting seahorses fits into the success of ocean conservation on a worldwide scale. On why seahorse conservation is important Seahorses are the most fantastic flagship species to generate action for the ocean. That’s partly because they’re so magical in and of themselves. But they also represent the complexities of ocean conservation. They CANGEO.CA

On her approach to conservation Conservation to me is real gains for wild populations and wild places. Project Seahorse has a mind map that

Time to explore! GUIDED HIKING AT THE COLUMBIA ICEFIELD JASPER NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA

you could think of as a cross-section of an onion. Right at the centre, you might have seahorses. But to do anything good for seahorses, you’ve got to be looking after the marine communities, habitats and ecosystems in which they live. You’ve got to look at miners, fishers, dredgers, dumpers, shippers and coastal developers, and

WHICH THEY LIVE.’

On training future conservationists Early in your career, you want to make the mark yourself. Later in your career, you want to grow the group of people who can make the difference for the long-term future of the ocean. My graduate students are one set, and my undergraduate students are really important to me. We’ve also trained hundreds of people through internships, volunteer work and collaborative endeavours. If I can give them a leg up or support them, that’s really reassuring. I’m not going to be around forever. It’s absolutely vital that I convey my enthusiasm, my passion, but also my expertise, to people who are going to carry that torch forward.

work with them to make good decisions. They will make better decisions if their families are fed and they have a decent income. Then beyond that, you’re worried about law and order and economic governance and opportunity at the regional, national and global levels. If you want to do anything really good for seahorses, you have to keep all those layers in mind.

On her motivation I love the ocean. I love seahorses. And we’re seeing change, we’re seeing opportunity, we’re seeing possibility. Today, there’s a sea of pressures — no pun intended — bearing down on our oceans. But if you find the right approach, you can often relieve some of those pressures surprisingly quickly. So, I have a lot of hope and a lot of optimism.

‘TO DO ANYTHING GOOD FOR SEAHORSES, YOU’VE GOT TO BE LOOKING AFTER THE MARINE COMMUNITIES, HABITATS AND ECOSYSTEMS IN

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Vincent comes face-to-face with a longsnouted seahorse in Étang de Thau, the largest of a string of lagoons that stretches along the Mediterranean coast of France.

have economic value, cultural value, medicinal value, ecological value. They’re subject to many of the major pressures on the ocean. They also live in sea grasses, mangroves, coral reefs, estuaries, macroalgae, kelp and seaweed. These are all critical nursery habitats for most of our world’s fisheries. The corollary is that seahorses respond really well to a range of conservation actions. So, whether it’s protected areas or fisheries regulation or managing coastal development properly or paying attention to climate change, seahorses represent the benefits that can come from putting our hearts into actually effecting change.

DISCOVERY

WILDLIFE

“CLICK! CLICK! SQUEAK!” FOR MANY YEARS, scientists believed turtles to be voiceless. But now we know there are more than 45 species of turtles that can vocalize — and University of Toronto researchers are eavesdropping on some chatty snapping turtle hatchlings. They found the turtles made a variety of noises, from clicks and squeaks to a kind of fart sound while still in the egg — and that the vocalizations became progressively more complex as the hatchlings broke their way through their eggshells and started to emerge from their nests. It’s hypothesized that the sounds are cues for the other hatchlings to get moving so they all hatch at once (and thus are less likely to be picked off by predators).

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

Social dilemma THE WOLF PACK PLAYS A KEY ROLE in a wolf’s survival — there’s safety in numbers, and intricate social structures make hunting and rearing young more successful. But disease is more easily spread in a group. Scientists studying canine distemper and mange in Yellowstone wolves found that disease reduced both the number of groups and the size of the infected groups. This adds to our understanding of the link between social structure and disease transmission — and can allow for better conservation strategies for social animals.

OPPOSITE PAGE: ERIKA SQUIRES/CAN GEO PHOTO CLUB. THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: ISTOCK/MILEHIGHTRAVELER; TONY WILLS; ISTOCK/RANDIMAL; ZOOTAXA

“Stronger than steel” On the fly WHILE EXPLORING fossil-rich deposits in southern British Columbia and northern Washington, paleontologists from B.C.’s Simon Fraser University have solved a 150-year mystery and discovered a new group of fossilized insects in the process. Scientists had been misidentifying a group of insect fossils as damselflies — dragonfly-like bugs that flit around freshwater habitats eating other bugs. But this new group had distinctively “odd-shaped” heads, with non-protruding, rounded eyes, so they named them Cephalozygoptera, meaning “head damselfly.” The team also discovered new species and families, including the family “Whetwhetaksidae,” from the word “whetwhetaks,” meaning dragonflylike insects in the language of the Colville People, whose land the fossils were found on.

HUSBAND-AND-WIFE RESEARCHERS Miodrag and Vojislava Grbic from Western University in London, Ont., look to nature to find inspiration to create new nanomaterials. Their muse: the tiny gorse spider mite, which spins a silk twice as stiff and 400 times as thin as spider silk. More impressive: gram per gram, the spider mite’s silk has a tensile strength up to four times greater than steel. Being biocompatible and biodegradable, the nanoparticles created from the mite silk blueprint have applications in fields ranging from vaccine delivery to food production to regenerative medicine.

30,000 MISSING SALMON SCIENTISTS AND FISHERY MANAGEMENT GROUPS are baffled by the mysterious disappearance of tens of thousands of chinook salmon from the Yukon River. Last year, Alaska’s Pilot Station sonar site, near the mouth of the Yukon River and the Bering Sea, counted some 77,000 fish passing by on their way upriver to spawn. But by the time the fish swam past the Eagle Station sonar site, over 1,700 kilometres upstream near the Alaska-Yukon border, the count was closer to 49,500. Officials are investigating.

Read Canadian Geographic‘s latest wildlife stories at cangeo.ca/topic/wildlife

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DISCOVERY

PLACE

Diabetes breakthrough A century ago, the medical school building at the University of Toronto was the site of the groundbreaking discovery of insulin BY SUSAN BÉLANGER

IF THE WALLS COULD TALK, the old medical school building at the University of Toronto would have some extraordinary stories to tell. This building witnessed one of the great advances in medicine — the discovery of insulin in 1921 to 1922. It was also privy to the teamwork — and the rivalries — that spurred this momentous scientific breakthrough. Before insulin, Type 1 diabetes was a death sentence. Only through rigorous

starvation dieting could patients gain a few extra months or years of life. Their near-miraculous recovery to full health after being treated with insulin was one of the most dramatic features of the discovery. The speed of the breakthrough was equally breathtaking. On May 3, 1922 — just 50 weeks after their research began — the Toronto team announced the discovery to the Association of American Physicians in

Washington, D.C., earning them the first standing ovation from the association in 20 years. For decades, the discovery of insulin has almost always been credited to Frederick Banting and Charles Best. This is especially true at U of T, which in 1923 created a Banting and Best Chair of Medical Research, followed by the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research and the Banting Institute (1930) and, in 1954, the Best CANGEO.CA

THOMAS FISHER RARE BOOK LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

The old medical building, which opened in 1903, was home to Frederick Bantingg’s laboratory.

Hospital. That shot was the first successful human trial of insulin. Much of the early research on insulin took place in the old medical building. Opened in 1903, it featured state-ofthe-art technology, including facilities for animal research. But Banting, a wartime surgeon, lecturer and doctor turned medical researcher, was unimpressed. When he arrived in 1921, the operating room had lain unused for years and needed a thorough scrubbing to make it usable. Located just below the building’s tar-and-gravel roof, it also became unbearably hot during the summer (on at least one occasion in August, Banting and Best escaped to the rooftop with one of their dogs for some fresh air). Banting’s resentment over the stifling working conditions eventually boiled over into a heated confrontation with Macleod, and although the professor agreed to some of his demands, the incident proved to be the start of Banting’s lifelong hostility toward Macleod. Early laboratory testing took place in room 221, a small space within the physiology department. In October

Susan Bélanger is the administrator of the History of Medicine Program at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and has a keen interest in medical history.

Teddy Ryder was one of the first patients to take part in Banting’s insulin trials. The photos, taken in July 1922 and July 1923, show his dramatic recovery. 1921, Macleod provided a larger laboratory with two dog cages and a desk. This laboratory is the subject of Banting’s 1925 painting The Lab (an accomplished artist, Banting mainly painted landscapes in the style of the Group of Seven). In November 2018, the painting of that storied lab sold at auction for more than $300,000.

BEFORE INSULIN, TYPE 1 DIABETES WAS A DEATH SENTENCE. The Banting and Best myth was overturned in 1982 by U of T history professor Michael Bliss, whose book The Discovery of Insulin restored Macleod and Collip to their rightful place as co-discoverers. In 1990, a new plaque acknowledging the collaboration was erected outside U of T’s current medical sciences building, which opened in 1969. Its auditorium, which stands on the site of the building where the insulin research took place, was named in honour of J.J.R. Macleod, thus ending the Banting and Best monopoly at U of T.

THOMAS FISHER RARE BOOK LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Institute. After Best’s death in 1978, a second research chair and a Banting and Best Diabetes Centre were established in his honour. But even as the accolades rained down on the duo, there was one outstanding exception. The 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded jointly to Banting and John J.R. Macleod. The physiology professor, who headed up the laboratory where the research took place, had been much more involved in the research than was later acknowledged. Enraged that Macleod was honoured alongside him rather than Best, Banting shared his prize money with Best. Macleod, meanwhile, split his share of the prize with the fourth member of the team, J. Bertram Collip, a young biochemist on sabbatical from the University of Alberta. Collip’s essential contribution was producing a purified pancreatic extract, which was administered on Jan. 23, 1922, to Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old diabetes patient at the Toronto General

DISCOVERY

HISTORY

A crucial piece British Columbia joined Confederation 150 years ago. But it almost didn’t happen. BY LESLIE ANTHONY

ELECTIONS BC

WHEN SOLVING A JIGSAW PUZZLE, you first set the corners in place, then the edges, all while scheming how to fill in the middle. The Dominion of Canada came together in a similar way, and the key cornerpiece was British Columbia. Adding the province established the basis for a coast-to-coast country, whose quilt of intervening territories was eventually sewn together with the thread of a transcontinental railway — a promise that sealed the deal for B.C. The Canada we know today, however, almost didn’t happen. Strong forces wished for B.C. to remain a British colony under the rule of a partially elected, partially appointed assembly — not forced to adopt a fully elected or “responsible” government. Another contingent wanted B.C. to join the U.S., where most of its trade was transacted. But proConfederationists benefited from a little luck — and some benevolence from Ottawa. Founded in 1858 during the Fraser River gold rush, B.C. joined Vancouver Island as one of British North America’s two Pacific colonies. That same year, a man named Amor de Cosmos arrived on Vancouver Island. A Nova Scotian photographer who’d made his way through the California goldfields, he had changed his name while there to Amor de Cosmos from William Alexander Smith to reflect a love of grandiose aspirations. De Cosmos founded The British Colonist newspaper, in whose premiere issue he advocated merging the two Pacific colonies. After that came to pass, de Cosmos helped organize the Confederation League in 1868 to rally support for a union with the newly minted country of Canada. Unsurprisingly, he was up against unelected members of the colonial government who feared for their jobs and pensions. One of these was Governor Frederick Seymour, whose death in 1869 and replacement by union-friendly Anthony Musgrave shifted the debate. The stage was set for B.C. in 1870, when Canada purchased the vast area between the Great Lakes and Rocky Mountains from the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Manitoba and the Northwest Territories joined Confederation. The Confederation League’s 37 resolutions outlining terms for a union included Canada paying down the colony’s debt, provincial control over education, immigration and landallocation policies, and the building of a wagon road between B.C. and the East. A delegation delivered the proposals to Ottawa, along with a request to maintain its colonial government. But Canada insisted on a responsible government model; to sweeten the deal, it agreed to pensions for unelected officials who’d be displaced, spotted B.C. three senators and six members of Parliament, and exchanged the swampy wagon road for a rail link to the Pacific. On July 20, 1871, these terms were passed by both the B.C. assembly and Parliament to create Canada’s sixth province. De Cosmos would be its second premier. Sadly, for all their talk of unity, B.C. officials of the time were against land concessions to First Nations, refusing to negotiate treaties or recognize land title, leaving most of the province on unceded land. The Canadian Pacific Railway was finally completed in 1885, the jigsaw filled in with Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905. Ultimately, B.C.’s entry into Confederation realized the dream of a “sea to sea” country — a mari usque ad mare — the motto on Canada’s coat of arms. Read more stories about historic maps at cangeo.ca/topic/map-archive.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

ELECTORAL DISTRICTS Cariboo District, as defined in a Public Notice from the Lands and Works Office on the 15th day of December, A.D. 1869, by the desire of the Governor,and purporting to be in accordance with the provisions of the 39th Clause of the “Mineral Ordinance, 1869”, shall constitute one District, to be designated “Cariboo District,” and return Three Members. Lillooet District, as defined in the said Public Notice, shall constitute one District, to be designated “Lilooet District,” and return Two Members. Yale District, as defined in the said Public Notice, shall constitute one District, to be designated “Yale District,” and return Three Members. Kootenay District, as defined in the said Public Notice, shall constitute one District, to be designated “Kootenay District,” and return Two Members. New Westminster and the Coast Districts, as defined in the said Public Notice, other than and except that portion thereof next herinafter defined as New Westminster City District, shall constitute one District, to be designated “New Westminster District,” and return Two Members. All that tract of land indicated as the City and Suburbs of New Westminster upon an Official Map now deposited in the Lands and Works Office, Victoria, which Map is designated “District of New Westminster,” “Suburbs,” bears the Official Seal of the Lands and Works Department, and is signed “R. C. Moody,” the exact boundaries of which tract of land are defined on the said Map by a dotted line and by the bank of the Fraser River, shall constitute one District, to be designated “New Westminster City District,” and return One Member. All that tract of land indicated as the City and Suburbs of New Westminster upon an Official Map now deposited in the Lands and Works Office, Victoria, which Map is designated “District of New Westminster,” “Suburbs,” bears the Official Seal of the Lands and Works Department, and is signed “R. C. Moody,” the exact boundaries of which tract of land are defined on the said Map by a dotted line and by the bank of the Fraser River, shall constitute one District, to be designated “New Westminster City District,” and return One Member. The tract of land comprised within the Municipal limits of the City of Victoria, as defined by law for the time being, shall constitute one District, to be designated “Victoria City District,” and return Four Members. Those tracts of land included within Nanaimo, Mountain, Cedar, and Cranberry Districts, as defined on the Official Maps of those Districts now deposited in the Land Office, Victoria, and which Maps are designated respectively “Nanaimo District Official Map, 1859,” “Cranberry District Official Map, 1859,” shall constitute one District, to be designated “Nanaimo District,” and return One Member. Those tracts of land included within Cowichan, Quamichan, Somenos, Comiaken, Shawnigan, Chemainus, and Salt Spring Island, as defined on the Official Maps of those Districts now deposited in the Land Office, Victoria, and which Maps are designated respectively “Cowichan District,” “Quamichan District,” “Somenos District,” “Comiaken District,” “Shawnigan District,” “Chemainus District Official Plan,” and “Salt Spring Island District,” shall constitute one District, to be designated “Cowichan District,” and return Two Members. That tract of land defined on the Official Map of Comox District now depostited in the Land Office, Victoria, under the name “Official Map, Comox District,” shall constitute one District, to be designated “Comox District,” and return One Member. Those tracts of land, other than and except Victoria City District hereinbefore mentioned, comprised within the Victoria, Lake, North Saanich, and South Saanich Districts, as defined on the Official Maps of these Districts now deposited in the Land Office, Victoria, and which Maps are designated respectively “ Victoria District Official Map, 1858,” “Lake District,” “North Saanich, 1859,” “South Saanich Official Map, 1859,” shall constitute one District, to be designated “Victoria District,” and return Two Members. Those tracts of land comprised within the Metchosin, Esquimalt, Sooke, and Highland Districts, as defined on the Official maps of those Districts now deposited in the Land Office, Victoria, and which Maps are designated respectively “Metchosin District Official Map, Anno 1858,” “Esquimalt District Official Map, 1858” “Sooke District Official Map, 1858,” “Highland District Official Map, 1862” shall constitute one District, to be designated “Esquimalt District” and return Two Members. Provided that all Islands not hereinbefore mentioned, and parts of Islands, adjacent to any of the above Districts in Vancouver Island, shall be included in the Districts which are nearest to those Islands, and are part of Islands, respectively. Schedule A, The Constitution Act 1871

This map is based on a map of British Columbia completed in 1870 by the Hon. J.W. Trutch, Chief Commissioner of Land and Works and Surveyor General. The detail maps of urban centres were created from maps found in the BC Archives. The Nanaimo map was provided by the Nanaimo Community Archives. These maps show an approximation of the most densely populated areas in the province when B.C. joined Confederation.

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DISCOVERY

INFOGRAPHIC

Inside your smartphone How so-called rare earth elements are powering our modern tech — and where to find them 60

BY ABI HAYWARD

NEODYMIUM, DYSPROSIUM and PRASEODYMIUM are used to make magnets that cause your phone to vibrate.

WITH ILLUSTRATION BY KAT BARQUEIRO

There’s yttrium and lanthanum and cerium and terbium. Europium, gadolinium, dysprosium, neodymium… You may not know the slightly more obscure elements featured in Tom Lehrer’s catchy jingle that has helped generations of students memorize the periodic table of elements. But they’re likely in your pocket. The average smartphone contains a number of these rare earth elements, known as the lanthanide series of the periodic table (yes, scientists, technically yttrium is a “transition metal,” but it’s often lumped in with the rare earth elements because its properties are similar). These elements bring the smart to the smartphone. The vibrant colours to the screen. The vibration to the ringtone. They’re also used in television and computer screens, automobiles, clean energy and aerospace tech. They’re not all as rare as their name might suggest, although extracting them from the ground can be expensive. And due to their chemical properties, they’re not typically found concentrated in one place. Rare earth elements are classified as either “light” or “heavy” — the “light” ones are relatively abundant, while the “heavy” ones live up to their name. Heavy rare earth elements, such as terbium and dysprosium, are in limited supply — and the supply chain is dominated by China. Canada is not yet a global producer of rare earth elements. But it has the potential to be, with an estimated 15 million tonnes of rare earth oxides in the ground and numerous advanced exploration projects. Saskatchewan has large deposits of neodymium, with the Hoidas Lake project possibly having the potential to supply 10 per cent of North American rare earth needs. And in the Northwest Territories, workers broke ground this past spring at the Nechalacho mine near Thor Lake, contracting the first Indigenous business to extract minerals on their own territory. The mine will not use chemicals to extract the elements on site; instead the ore will be sorted using advanced sensors and puffs of air. Scientists, meanwhile, are on the hunt for alternatives to satisfy the huge demand for these elements — and there may be many others but they haven’t been discovered.

Nd Dy Pr

Pr Gd Nd PRAESODYMIUM, GADOLINIUM and NEODYMIUM are used in magnets in the speakers.

PERIODIC TABLE GROUP POST-TRANSITION METALS TRANSITION METALS LANTHANIDE SERIES

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TIN is used in an oxide that allows the screen to function as a touch screen.

ALUMINUM features in a compound that makes up the glass of many smartphones, and it is also used in the battery casing.

Au Cu Ag Precious metals like COPPER, GOLD and SILVER are used for microelectrical components in your phone.

Tb Eu Dy Pr La

TERBIUM, EUROPIUM, DYSPROSIUM, PRAESODYMIUM, LANTHANUM and YTTRIUM are used to create the bright colours on the screen.

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BY CHRIS BRACKLEY WITH TEXT BY SHEILA NORTH

This year marks a century and a half since treaties 1 and 2 were signed

For the record

Exploring Cartography

ON THE MAP

O One of the most startling views from anywhere in southern Manitoba is from an open field at sunrise or sunset. Standing under the vastness of the sky on a cloudless day can make you feel small and even take your breath away. The scenic river basins and fertile lands have made the region an alluring place to live for thousands of years. This land is where Canada started to take shape as the country it is today. This land is where treaties 1 and 2 were signed in August 1871 between the British Crown and some of the original people from these lands — Treaty 1 was with the Anishinabek and Swampy Cree of southern Manitoba, while Treaty 2 was with the Anishinabek of southern Manitoba. These were the first of 11 numbered treaties signed that expanded Canada — with promises made to the original people of the area in exchange for large tracts of land. Negotiations over Treaty 1 started in July 1871, with about 1,000 First Nations attendees. “How are we to be treated?” wondered Chief Mis-Koo-Kenew (also known as Henry Prince) of what is now Peguis First Nation. “The land cannot speak for itself. We have to speak for it; and we want to know fully how you are going to treat our children.” The treaties laid out where lands reserved for settlers and original peoples would be. Promises were made for schools to be built; for a modest annuity of between $3 and $5 for each “Indian”; and for items such as twine, ploughs, boars and oxen for some elected Chiefs, headmen and councillors. The treaty documents also describe how the Indians agreed to “release, surrender and yield up to Her Majesty the Queen, and Her successors forever” the land reserved for settlers, to not have “intoxicating alcohol” on reserve lands and to “maintain perpetual peace between themselves and Her Majesty’s white subjects, and not to interfere with the property or in any way molest the persons of Her Majesty’s white or other subjects.” If you read only the federal government documents on treaties, you might get the sense that it was because of the good graces and charity of the British Crown and settlers that First Nations would be allowed to keep existing on the lands reserved for them. However, when you talk to Elders and other knowledge keepers, you learn that when the then Chiefs signed the documents, they had a different understanding of the treaties. They considered the process sacred — that the agreements were made between three parties: the Creator, settlers and themselves. You would also understand that ceding land was not a concept held, because they felt the land ultimately belongs to the Creator, they were of the land, and therefore they couldn’t possibly give it away. If you know First Nations Peoples you would see that the concept of sharing, caring and protecting people — and the territory — was and is extremely important to them. By signing the treaties, they were helping the settlers who may not have survived the elements without them. To this day, opinions vary on how treaty agreements were reached and how they can be interpreted or implemented. The difference in the benefits of the agreements for each side of signatories is as vast and wide as the prairie sky.

1871 MAP: TRADING POST, MISSION AND TRANSPORTATION ROUTE DATA BASED ON PLATE 17, HISTORICAL ATLAS OF CANADA, VOL. 2

The amazing

SEA WOLVES OF THE

The wolves emerge from the rainforest at dawn. The pack stops to howl on the beach, perhaps to mark their territory.

Great Bear Rainforest

FIRST NATIONS AND SCIENTISTS WORK SIDE BY SIDE TO BETTER UNDERSTAND AND PROTECT COASTAL WOLVES LIVING IN THE GREAT BEAR RAINFOREST

STEVE WOODS

BY ZIYA TONG

says William Housty. If you’re walking along the creek beds of the Great Bear Rainforest and see decapitated salmon scattered about, it’s a telltale sign that sea wolves have been in the area. “They just take a bite out of the head, and everything else is left fully intact.” This unusual feeding strategy has evolved among the coastal wolves that live in and around Bella Bella, B.C. Housty was born and raised here. His grandmother is head of the Wolf Clan of Heiltsuk Nation, and he chairs the Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department Board. The wolves, he says, are shrewder than the local bears, who eat the fish whole and as a result are often riddled with tapeworm. Eating the head alone might also be a way to avoid “salmon poisoning,” a bacterial infection from eating raw fish with infected parasites that can be fatal to dogs and other canids. “Wolves are very, very intelligent animals,” continues Housty, “We respect them, and they respect us.” I listen rapt as he shares stories of living 34

alongside these beautiful howlers in his home territory, but I’m also a bit embarrassed — embarrassed as I, too, grew up in British Columbia, but never realized we had “sea wolves” living on the coast. Until recently, scientists didn’t know much about sea wolves, either. Paul Paquet is a leading wolf expert and senior scientist at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, a nonprofit conservation science organization that, since 1990, has focused on the power of research to protect the lands, waters and wildlife of coastal British Columbia. He says the first inkling that these wolves were unique was “discovered” in the 1930s by a zoologist named Ian McTaggartCowan, who noticed fish-eating wolves on coastal islands. It was only in 1998, however, that research on these particular wolves began in earnest. But Paquet is clear to point out that the existence of these animals was certainly not news to the coastal First Nations, whose knowledge of the wolves dates back to their

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earliest origin stories. After all, how do you discover something you’ve always known? This is why today, Paquet along with the other scientists who work in the Heiltsuk territory take an integrative approach to studying the wolves; one that pairs traditional ecological knowledge with modern science. This strategy has its foundation in a consilience model, or the bringing together of different ways of knowing and evidence from multiple sources, to develop a more holistic understanding of the wolves. And what it has revealed about coastal wolves and their habitat is fascinating. First, sea wolves — or marine wolves as they’re also known — are fast, powerful swimmers. Housty remembers an encounter he and his

Ziya Tong ( @ziyatong) is an award-winning science broadcaster and author. Her first book, The Reality Bubble, was shortlisted for the RBC Charles Taylor Prize.

KLAUS POMMERENKE; MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO; MAP DATA: WOLF DATA DERIVED FROM RAINCOAST ALLIANCE MAPS AND REPORTS; HEILTSUK TERRITORY DERIVED FROM HEILTSUK INTEGRATED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT MAP; WOLF RANGE DATA 2021: THE IUCN RED LIST OF THREATENED SPECIES. VERSION 2. IUCNREDLIST.ORG. DOWNLOADED OCT. 4, 2015.

“THE WOLVES EAT THE BRAINS”

The wolves eat only the brain of the salmon, which allows them to avoid tapeworm and other parasites found in the raw flesh.

father once had while boating: “We looked ahead of us and we could see something in the water. We couldn’t tell what it was, but it was moving. As we got closer, it was actually two wolves swimming across the channel.” One reason the wolves are tricky to spot, is because they move stealthily in the water, their backs and bodies submerged, and with only their eyes, ears and snouts peeking above the surface. The wolves aren’t just dog paddling, either; they’re distance swimmers. There is at least one pack on Goose Island off the coast, about 13 kilometres from Bella Bella, and there is no other way to get there except to swim. We also know that the wolves aren’t sedentary. Many of them migrate through the archipelago, swimming from island to island throughout the year. At times, they’re tracking the salmon, but other times they show up even when there’s no salmon to be found. That’s because sea wolves have a diverse diet. A recent study found that it can be up to 85 per cent marine-based: lone wolves take down seals and otters, while packs have been spotted feasting on the occasional whale carcass. The carnivores also, surprisingly, eat shellfish. Using their paws, they dig in the sand for clams, and use their powerful jaws to crack open the shells of mussels. As for the remaining terrestrial diet? Like their larger mainland counterparts, the timber wolf, sea wolves also hunt moose and black-tailed deer.

IT WAS CHESTER “Lone Wolf” Starr, a Heiltsuk Elder and mentor to many of the Raincoast scientists, who

pointed out some key differences between the mainland and marine wolves — inspiring the hypothesis that the latter may be genetically distinct. Subsequent testing has revealed they are, indeed, distinct, even though geographically the two are close neighbours. Today, we know marine wolves have an extensive range, from southern Alaska all the way south to Vancouver Island. And while a typical pack size is five or six individuals, what’s harder to pin down is a precise population number. That’s because working with Indigenous knowledge

keepers means the scientists must respect the animals. The wolves are family. And capturing and tagging family is not allowed. To get more data, scientists have had to look to a non-invasive technique. Luckily, nature is the original mother of invention, and the wolves conveniently leave behind a rich source of data every day: feces. Heather Bryan, a former student of Paquet’s and now a professor in ecosystem science at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, remembers one of her first tasks as a wolf CANGEO.CA

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

The wolves aren’t just dog paddling; they’re distance swimmers.

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OPPOSITE PAGE: STEVE WOODS; THIS PAGE TOP: CHRIS DARIMONT; BOTTOM: STEVE WOODS

Clockwise from top left: Sea wolves have a diverse diet. This one is having a snack of kelp; the wolves are powerful swimmers and often move between islands; the occasional whale carcass makes for a welcome change of diet; four cubs play in a bed of kelp.

Clockwise from top: Scavenging wins out over hunting when a whale carcass washes up; the unique diet of the coastal wolves includes salmon; prowling the beach to see what has washed up.

ONCE UPON A TIME, WOLVES — next to humans — were the most widely distributed terrestrial animals on Earth. The wolf is a keystone species in First Nations’ stories and remains a keystone figure in First Nations culture. In settler societies, however, the “big, bad wolf” plays the role of the villain in our tales. We have banished and demonized this majestic animal and, in many places, hunted and culled the wolf to near extinction.

When asked about the threats facing the coastal wolves, Housty and Paquet point to three that stand out as most significant: industrial logging, climate change and trophy hunting. Logging is detrimental for the obvious reason that it destroys the rainforest habitat of both the wolves and their prey. Clear-cuts disturb the soil and increase run-off, which in turn affects marine species such as salmon. Climate change, too, is beginning to have an impact. As Housty notes, prey animals are now coming into the territory at different times and in different numbers. With heat changing the onset of the seasons, their timing is off, and this causes ripples throughout the food chain.

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THIS PAGE: STEVE WOODS; OPPOSITE PAGE: KLAUS POMMERENKE

researcher: “The first thing you have to do is put [the scats] in the oven and cook them for a few hours.” The heat kills off parasites and harmful bacteria so the team can work with sterile samples. She recalls sitting in class, while her classmates sniffed around as “this warm aroma started filling the room — this smell of cooking scats took over the whole biology building.” So it’s fair to say, perhaps, that when it comes to wolf research, “non-invasive” is a relative term. Today, more than a decade and 7,000 scat samples later, scientists have a much clearer picture of the wolves’ ecology and physiology. The scat has revealed information about their genetics, their hormone levels and the types of parasites and bacteria they harbour. Hair and bone fragments found in the droppings also offer details on their prey. And while the scientists may not have the help of GPS collars, the scat samples do offer a different form of location mapping, offering data on the animals’ range and habitat. Critically, of course, there’s the value of the DNA obtained from the feces. Information gleaned through DNA analysis aligns with Elder Chester Starr’s initial observation that marine wolves are genetically distinct.

The wolf is a keystone species in First Nations’ stories and remains a keystone figure in First Nations culture.

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But there is also very good news and it speaks to the power of conservation under Indigenous land management. Today, wolves are largely safe from the threats of logging and hunting in Heiltsuk territory. That’s because 55 per cent of this land is protected, and the rest is under ecosystem management. Only 11 per cent is open to industry. Working together with coastal First Nations, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation has also developed an effective campaign to stop hunting. Using funds it started raising in 2005, the foundation has bought out all the remaining commercial hunting licences in the Great Bear Rainforest and Kitlope Conservancy, bringing a permanent end to the commercial guiding of trophy hunting in 38,800 square kilometres of B.C.’s Great Bear Rainforest. This partnership between scientists and First Nations is a leading example of what can be accomplished when both groups work side by side on conservation. Housty estimates that this year, in his territory, the wolf numbers are up. But beyond the numbers, the protection of this ecosystem is something you can literally see on the wolves’ faces. That is, just as men age and grow white beards, a white muzzle on a wolf is an indication of age and maturity. The fact that today there are plenty of sea wolves with white muzzles in the Heiltsuk territory is a beautiful and powerful testament to their longevity on the coast. 40

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

TOP: KYLE ARTELLE; BOTTOM: STEVE WOODS

above: A white muzzle is an indication of age and maturity. right: This cub will benefit from a campaign to stop hunting.

Fresh from ALREADY GAINING STEAM BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, INTEREST IN URBAN FARMING — AND HUNGER FOR HYPER-LOCAL FOOD — HAS SOARED. A LOOK AT THREE CANADIAN TAKES ON THE URBAN FARMING PHENOMENON. BY CAITLIN STALL-PAQUET WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY COLIN WHITE

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

the city

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THE EARLY DAYS OF THE

pandemic threw well-established Canadian food systems into disarray. In April 2020, news reports told of dairy farmers across the country having to dump millions of gallons of milk down the drain due to supply management issues when restaurants, hotels and schools shut down. And, as borders closed, the fact that Canada imports more produce than it exports became both a worry and a talking point (in 2019, Canada imported $6.37 billion in fruit and $3.9 billion in vegetables, mainly from the U.S., China and Mexico). An ongoing conversation was launched. How much food should Canada obtain through major food importers and multinational companies? Would we do well to become more self-sufficient? The global food sovereignty movement, which had been building momentum since its grassroots conception in the late ’90s, quickly gained traction with its focus on the rights of people everywhere to access healthy and sustainable food. One of the pillars of the movement lies in using local food systems to reduce the distance between producers and consumers.

Three Canadian companies have successfully pioneered solutions aimed at bringing farms closer to home — and educating the next generation of agricultural innovators.

GREENHOUSES IN THE SKIES I can see bright blue sky through the glass of Lufa Farms’ greenhouse roof in the northern Montreal neighbourhood of Ahuntsic — while sitting in front of my laptop in my home office. Because of the pandemic, I’m unable to visit the farm for the type of educational activities Lufa Farms hosts to teach students, and curious adults, the ins and outs of urban rooftop agriculture and the role it can play in a city’s food supply chains. Instead, the organization’s public relations coordinator, Rosa Moliner, is giving an enthusiastic virtual tour of the hydroponic farm where they grow plants in water enriched with a nutrient solution rather than in soil. She explains how their closed-loop system works,

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

recirculating about 90 per cent of the water that’s pumped through long, white plastic channels out of which plants are growing, with the other 10 per cent either absorbed by the plants or evaporated — which means water waste is at practically zero. “You can see the water trickling right now!” says Moliner excitedly, holding her phone up to one of the large channels that is emptying out excess water and doing a very convincing impression of a babbling brook. The trickling water is laced with minerals you’d find naturally occurring in soil — like magnesium, iron and potassium — and it drips into a trough that leads to a filtration receiving tank, where it is treated before being recirculated. The water reserves sit in the basement beneath this almost 3,000-square-metre greenhouse, Lufa

Caitlin Stall-Paquet ( @CaitlinStallP) is a Montrealbased writer and editor whose work has appeared in The Walrus, Elle Canada, The Globe and Mail, the CBC, Chatelaine, Xtra and enRoute. Colin White ( @colinwhite) is an Ottawa-based illustrator.

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Farms’ original facility. It was the first commercial rooftop farm in the world when it opened in 2011. The organization’s mission was clear from the get-go: feeding Montrealers directly with hyper-local produce available yearround to help reconnect them with where their food comes from. Lufa Farms has since opened three more, larger, greenhouses, with the newest Ville Saint-Laurent location in the city’s northwest launched during the pandemic — at 15,217 square metres, it’s bigger than the others combined and is the single largest urban farming facility in the world. Lufa Farms distributes its produce through community-supported agriculture baskets (known as CSAs), where customers can customize their weekly basket through an online marketplace. Many other small farms charge a mem46

bership fee at the beginning of the season, a smart model because that’s when farms have upfront expenses, like seeds and farming materials. Right after Lufa launched in 2011, it had around 200 die-hard locavore subscribers. The farm soon built an online marketplace where, in addition to vegetables, people can order Quebec cheeses, meats, beer and plenty more. Now Lufa ships in the ballpark of 25,000 baskets a week. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with people trying to avoid trips to the grocery store, new accounts jumped — as did order sizes. Lufa’s expansive new facility opened not a day too soon. Its size might be recordbreaking, but the Ville Saint-Laurent greenhouse’s production is laserfocused, growing exclusively eggplants and Lufa’s all-star crop: tomatoes.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

Co-founder and greenhouse director Lauren Rathmell, who studied biochemistry at the city’s McGill University, says, “We joke that when we started, no one on the team or anyone we knew had ever grown or sold a tomato.” Now, winter-hardened Montrealers go nutty for Lufa tomatoes, with various varieties available yearround thanks to this new location. Though its original facility is just one-fifth the size of the new behemoth, the Ahuntsic branch is still a crucial link in Lufa’s growing chain. Moliner shows off row upon row of channels sprouting peppers, fresh herbs and arugula, before heading further into the garden where they’re experimenting with growing microgreens in a vertical farming system: trays neatly lined with produce are lit by purplish LEDs and stacked about two metres high. As this operation showcases, innovative indoor agriculture can play a key role in feeding an increasingly urban world in which space is a precious commodity. And growing food closer to where people live cuts down on transportation-related carbon emissions. Growing everything indoors also allows farms to produce next to zero water waste and avoid herbicides and insecticides (thanks, walls). Much like their space-efficient structures, the benefits stack up, so it’s no surprise vertical agriculture is expected to increase by more than 25 per cent globally by 2027.

VERTICAL FARMING TRENDS Gregg Curwin clued into the vertical farming trend a decade ago. Three years after founding the microgreens farm GoodLeaf in Bible Hill, N.S., in 2011, Curwin headed to Japan, where urban centres are notorious for being low on space, to learn more about the practice. He wasn’t alone in seeing the (highly controlled) light; vertical farms have been sprouting up all over the globe. In 2018, French start-up AgriCool raised $28 million to grow fruit in windowless

containers just outside Paris, while the San Francisco-based agri-tech firm Crop One teamed up with Emirates Flight Catering that same year to build the world’s largest vertical farm in Dubai, where water scarcity makes the format a necessity. In the U.S. alone, the industry is projected to reach a value of US$3 billion by 2024. After selling direct to consumers and local restaurants in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Curwin’s GoodLeaf expanded to launch on a commercial scale in 2019, opening its main facilities in Guelph, Ont. Since the company now works primarily with large-scale wholesale buyers such as Loblaws and Whole Foods, this move was made to be as close to the customers as possible. Canada usually imports $2.5 billion worth of produce from California annually, so the border closing during the pandemic was a reminder for

GoodLeaf that Canada needed to be more self-reliant. “With the borders closed and threatened to remain closed for some time, people started to be very nervous about the ability to bring fresh produce in,” says GoodLeaf farm manager Shawn Woods. Selling tastier and more nutritious greens thanks to lowered travel time is

the equivalent of a 1.2-acre farm, with annual yields between 362 and 453 tonnes of baby kale, pea shoots and other microgreens. Because of improved LED technology, vertical farms are able to create so-called “ light recipes,” fine-tuning the wavelengths to plants’ needs — and because they emit far less heat than halogen and incandescent lights, bulbs can be closer to the goods without scorching them. Along with being a radical space saver, this format also means GoodLeaf’s farms use about 95 per cent less water than a regular farm. Massive air handling units remove heat and water vapour from the rooms, then condense and reuse the water, at a rate of more than 10,000 litres every 24 hours. Maybe most relevant in the long term, GoodLeaf has the advantage of never being at the mercy of the

” W HEN T H E P ANDEMI C HIT, FO O D I NSECURI T Y W A S WI DESP READ. ” GoodLeaf’s top concern, though (some vegetables can lose up to 50 per cent of their vitamin C within a week of being harvested). There are also a ton of other benefits to its agricultural model. Its growing facilities sit on an approximately 4,000-square-metre space, but thanks to stacked trays, they produce

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elements: it’s not affected by drought and rainfall patterns that have become increasingly unpredictable, or new waves of invasive pests brought about by the climate crisis. “We can grow foods just as well in the inner city as we can out in the country because we’re agnostic to arable land,” says Woods. “Because we grow indoors and create our own weather, [climate change] doesn’t affect our produce.” Its facilities aren’t greenhouses, mind you, since they’re windowless. Instead, these are hyper-controlled plant factories where the heavy lifting is done by custom-made robots, and into which they pump carbon dioxide to feed the plants. These types of facilities have shot up — even two years ago, Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph, never thought we’d be having these conversations. “We’re looking at a technological revolution here. Over the next generation, a lot less of our fruits and vegetables are going to come from fields in California and a lot more of 48

them are going to come from greenhouses and vertical farms in Ontario,” says Fraser, referring to strawberries grown by Mucci Farms in greenhouses on the north shore of Lake Erie, which are now ripe nearly year-round.

GROWING BACKYARD FARMS In 2009, Gray Oron and Ilana Labow started an urban agriculture experiment in Oron’s backyard in Vancouver. That experiment quickly became several backyards, one of which was next to a school, and the activities caught a teacher’s attention. From there, Oron and Labow’s community organization Fresh Roots pivoted to working with schools to grow gardens. Their goal is to get kids excited about agriculture and help them understand everything that goes into putting vegetables on their plate, from seed all the way to the farmers’ market.

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Though Fresh Roots works primarily with two schools in Vancouver and the Suwa’lkh school in Coquitlam, the experience is not restricted to those who study there. Kids from different schools bus over to participate, bringing together people from diverse backgrounds as part of Fresh Roots’ mission of fighting discrimination and racism through shared agriculture. When the pandemic hit, food insecurity was widespread within large portions of the population. In the face of heightened need, Fresh Roots shifted its programming between April and August 2020 to focus on preparing about 70,000 meals for families. Though this temporary move filled a need, it’s not a sustainable model. One of the most important facets of what Fresh Roots does “is recognizing that emergency food and the food bank model is not a long-term solution to food security,” says the organization’s executive director, Alexa Pitoulis. Instead, a key for building sustainable solutions is giving kids what she

calls food literacy. “Sometimes the magic is that they see their peers eating kohlrabi for the first time, and all of a sudden, we have a whole bunch of kohlrabi lovers,” says Pitoulis. “But sometimes it’s just seeing the bees and understanding the pollinator role, and … it takes them off in a different direction.” An important part of Canada’s future food systems will be getting as many hands on deck as possible and engaging the interest of younger generations. Because it combines farming with new tech, GoodLeaf is in a good position to inspire young people with intersecting interests. Along with cooperating with food banks to minimize waste, the company works with young farmers to introduce them to their technology, and it has held seminars in junior highs and elementary schools to get kids excited about different ways to grow.

Lufa Farms is also keen to get the next generation involved in rethinking food. Here, capturing young imaginations lies in letting nature do its thing. During school field trips, staff explain how they introduce lady bugs and parasitic wasps into their greenhouses to control pests naturally rather than using insecticides.

“W E’ R E L OOKI NG AT A TEC TECHH NOL OG I CAL REVO LU T I ON H ERE.” Before ending our video call, Rosa Moliner flips her screen to show a small box filled with sawdust hanging from one of the white plastic channels. Inside are wriggling parasitic wasps that will help control the population of aphids, small sap-sucking creatures that enter the greenhouse

when the windows are open and proceed to snack on the plants. Fraser says regardless of whether it’s hands-in-the-dirt or learning about robotics, the bottom line is that students need to better understand future food systems. Though indoor agriculture is fast-evolving, he says there are still gaps in robotics and harvesting technology that need to be filled by education and policy. “Universities and colleges have to start training students on technologies around vertical [ farming], data, robotics and automation,” says the researcher. In other words, students need to start learning about Canada’s agricultural system when they’re young and be encouraged to think creatively about where, and how, our food comes to us as they move through the school years and beyond, because they will soon be the ones in charge of stocking our grocery aisles.

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Smother DAVID CLARE/ALAMY

A busy day by Moraine Lake in Banff National Park, Alta.

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nature IN BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA, AS IN PROTECTED AREAS ACROSS THE COUNTRY, MANAGERS ARE STRUGGLING TO BALANCE THE DESIRE TO EXPERIENCE WILDERNESS WITH AN IMPERATIVE TO CONSERVE IT

BY RYAN STUART

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the park nestled among the iconic Rocky Mountains has always been a popular draw: Banff accounts for about a quarter of all visitors to Canada’s 48 national parks. But in recent years, visits surged to a record 4.2-million people each year. Locke had seen the congestion of cars and people increase dramatically. He knew if his trio wanted a parking spot at the lake, they would have to get there early. Like alpine early. It wasn’t early enough. “At 6 a.m. the parking lot was already full,” says Locke. The family turned their backs on Moraine Lake’s iconic view of the Valley of the Ten Peaks and drove 14 kilometres to Lake Louise and its 500-stall parking lot. They snagged one of the last spots. A little shocked, but no less entranced by the beauty, the three set off along the lakeshore trail, admiring the teal waters backstopped by the weeping white walls of Mount Victoria. They turned uphill on the popular path to the Lake Agnes Tea House, a cosy café snuggled against an alpine tarn.

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It’s a short, 3.5-kilometre hike and they arrived before the tea house opened for breakfast at 8 a.m. — but not before a lineup had formed as if it were a trendy bar in downtown Calgary. Locke’s party got the last table. The wait for the toilet was already 15 people long. “Banff is bursting at the seams,” says Locke. “There’s a sense of overwhelming demand for the place, and it’s ruining the visitor experience.” In the last decade, the number of people enjoying Banff has increased by 33 per cent, from about three million to four million people a year. The crushing growth of visitors is a phenomenon mirrored to varying degrees across the country and around the world. Popular trailhead parking lots fill early, and guests line

Freelance journalist Ryan Stuart ( @ryanpstuart) is a contributing editor to explore and Ski Canada and also writes for Outside and Men’s Journal among other publications.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: NIELSVK/ALAMY; DAN LEETH/ALAMY; PAUL ZIZKA AND BANFF & LAKE LOUISE TOURISM

WAKING UP AT 5 A.M. is what mountaineers call an alpine start. The early rise gives climbers time for a challenging day in the mountains — or to travel before rising temperatures increase avalanche danger or thunderstorm risk. Harvey Locke’s early wake-up was for a more humble and troubling reason. He just wanted to hike with his son and daughter on one of the worldclass trails near Moraine Lake in Banff National Park, Alta. Locke is no stranger to the park and the world’s natural wonders: a longtime Banff resident, he is also founder of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, a plan to connect protected areas from Wyoming to northern Canada, and the past chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Commission on Protected Areas. It was July 2019, and Canada’s oldest and most popular national park was crowded. With its snowy glaciers, turquoise lakes, flower-filled meadows, jagged skylines and abundant wildlife,

Crowds at the Lake Agnes Tea House (left) and Lake Louise (above) overwhelm otherwise impressive park vistas (right).

up to snap selfies at bucket-list viewpoints and attractions. At the same time, the managers of these special places are struggling to balance the impact of so many boots and cars, garbage and toilet flushes on wildlife and their habitats. The global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns gave some tourist destinations a respite. But in many parks, the symptoms of overcrowding only increased, as seemingly everyone rushed outside to trails and protected areas to soak in the mental and physical benefits of time in nature. The pressures are especially pronounced in Banff: a cross-country rail line and highway run through it, a town and three ski resorts sit inside its boundaries, and 1.5 million people live on its doorstep. (In 2020, despite the park being closed for two months and almost zero international travel-

lers, staff recorded 3.2 million visitors.) And as a UNESCO world heritage site and the country’s oldest national park, Banff is often seen as setting the standard for Canada’s parks system. If Parks Canada can

figure out how to deliver a visitor experience worthy of a national park while still balancing the protection of wildlife and the conservation of habitat in Banff, it will be closer to managing parks better everywhere. CANGEO.CA

crowds is something Parks Canada and tourism businesses in the park are working on. To help calm things, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism stopped promoting the summer season in 2016, shifting to encouraging visitors to come during the quieter shoulder seasons. And rather than recruiting new tourists, staff at Banff National Park are focusing their message on how they want visitors to behave when they get to the park. They know it’s not just the visitor experience in danger. 54

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: HECKE61/SHUTTERSTOCK; JAMES ANDERSON; JAMES GABBERT/ISTOCK; TIM NOKES; ROBBERT BOUWSMA/ALAMY; CHENG FENG CHIANG/ISTOCK

BANFF’S GROWING REPUTATION for

“More humans in the parks increases the number of wildlife conflicts and visitor safety issues,” says Steve Michel, the national humanwildlife conflict management officer for Parks Canada. “It’s concerning. The pressure is rising, and it’s putting ecology at risk.” The bump in Canadian visitors during the pandemic coincided with an increase in people walking off trails, getting too close to animals, littering and improperly disposing of garbage, says Michel. The consequences played out in Banff last July when conservation officers had to euthanize two wolves

within one week. Both had become habituated to humans. The park worked with tourism organizations, media and other sources of visitor information to coordinate a consistent message about the potential impacts of visitor behaviour and how to interact safely with wildlife. But Michel says understanding the motivations of people and how to steer them to good behaviour is one of Parks Canada’s weaknesses. “We have a good handle on habitat and wildlife,” he says. “We struggle with the human dimensions and psychology issues.” Plus, the park system has focused resources on ecology over social sciences for decades, and particularly since a major round of budget cuts in 2012, says Michel. But today’s pressures are helping the park evolve. Take for instance, a solution at the Lake Minnewanka Lakeside Trail, the scene of a number of recent serious incidents between mountain bikers and grizzlies. The easy answer could have been to ban the cyclists. But hikers who also use the trail had had fewer conflicts. So, the park took a closer look at the altercations and saw that they were concentrated around the summer berry season. That allowed for a more targeted solution: restricting the Minnewanka Trail to just hiking during July and August.

Banff National Park is popular with visitors for a range of wilderness experiences, including wildlife encounters that in some cases prove dangerous. Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the park and its townsite attracted huge crowds.

It’s an example of the balance that defines Daniella Rubeling’s job. “We’re always looking for creative ways to host people without an unnecessary strain to the ecology of the park,” says the visitor experience manager for Banff National Park. “A lot of the work I do is looking ahead. How do we address the issues we have now with a future audience in mind? How can we support ecological integrity and high-quality visitor experience? We have a lot of tools at our disposal.” For example, in prime grizzly bear habitat, hikers have to travel in groups of six or more. Bears are less likely to interact with a larger group of people, and the presence of bears alone is enough to discourage some hikers. In other areas, the park prohibits dogs, and in some areas, no one is allowed. Banff isn’t the only place dealing with overcrowding, so Rubeling says they are looking at what works elsewhere for more ideas. Technology will definitely play a role. A free hiking trail app in Colorado reduces overcrowding on trails and overflowing parking lots with live web

cameras and trail traffic counters. In the future, smartphone notifications could suggest alternative destinations and pass on info such as trail closures, campground status and traffic congestion. To limit numbers, Parks Canada already uses reservations to control the number of people on Pacific Rim

National Park Reserve’s West Coast Trail and in the Lake O’Hara area of Yoho National Park, B.C. This strategy works well to maintain the wilderness feel and preserve ecological values, but the demand is so high it’s often difficult even for locals to get a reservation. CANGEO.CA

But that doesn’t have to be the case. On weekends and holidays, crowds used to inundate Muir Woods National Park near San Francisco, Calif. The park’s only parking lot would overflow, people trampled vegetation to find a moment of solitude among the park’s towering redwood trees, and neighbouring residents complained about the congestion. In 2018, the park adopted a mandatory reservation system. It didn’t change the total number of visitors; it just spread them out more evenly by limiting daily numbers. Now Cassie Anderson, the park’s supervisory ranger, says on peak days there are thousands fewer people in the park. Nearby residents say they’ve 56

noticed a big difference in congestion. Visitors, meanwhile, report a quieter and calmer experience. And staff are less harried and stressed, giving them more time to connect with visitors. Says Anderson: “We decided that we didn’t have to accept that having lots of people meant degrading the attraction of the place.”

PARKS CANADA’S MANDATE, coincidentally, is to manage national parks to protect the attractive natural and cultural heritage for present and future generations, while fostering

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understanding, appreciation and enjoyment. But how do you protect a place as it is at the same time as encouraging people to come? That conundrum didn’t exist when Banff was founded as a tourist attraction in 1885 following the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The original 26-square-kilometre park, Banff Hot Springs Reserve, focused on the Sulphur Mountain seeps of warm, mineral-rich water near the present townsite. Most of the early tourists were wealthy and from the east coast of the United States. When not soaking in the purported healing waters, they started venturing through the wilderness on horseback. They found glacier-carved hanging valleys hiding lakes stained stunning shades of blue and green. They climbed into vast alpine meadows where they spotted grizzly bears and bighorn sheep. And they scaled craggy summits to find a sea of more glaciercapped peaks beyond. In those early years, the focus of growing the national park network was promoting tourism, says Ted Hart, the author of several books on the history of Banff and national parks. “The only way the parks system survived and expanded was for it to pay its own way,” says Hart. “The preservation aspect was barely mentioned.” That changed in 1930 with the passage of the National Parks Act. The threat of hydroelectric dams and resource projects in Banff and other parks motivated a mandate shift to maintaining them “unimpaired for future generations.” Since then, Parks Canada’s conservation focus has continued to grow, largely powered by opposition to tourism development proposals in Banff. It started in the 1960s with a plan to build roads and visitor facilities in many of the pristine

PAUL ZIZKA AND BANFF & LAKE LOUISE TOURISM; MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO; MAP DATA: SPENDING FROM PARKS CANADA FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2019-2020; VISITOR STATS PROVIDED BY PARKS CANADA

Banff has had some success mitigating human-wildlife conflict through seasonal limits on biking near Lake Minnewanka.

‘BANFF IS BURSTING AT THE SEAMS. There’s a sense of overwhelming demand for the place, and it’s ruining the visitor experience.’

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valleys, progressed to two failed bids to host the winter Olympics and included a major expansion of the village of Lake Louise led by oil company Esso. By the 1970s, public opposition to these proposals led to the birth of a fledgling environmental movement in Calgary

author of 15 books on wildlife and conservation, he spent 34 years working in conservation management, including a stint as superintendent of Banff from 2008 to 2011. His career began as a Canadian Wildlife Service biologist in 1977 as part of a team con-

‘We’re always looking for creative ways to host people WITHOUT AN UNNECESSARY STRAIN TO THE ECOLOGY of the park.’ (including the establishment of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, now a national non-profit) and a pivot by Parks Canada to focus on the idea of ecological integrity. One of Kevin Van Tighem’s first jobs came out of that shift in focus. Now an 58

ducting a wildlife inventory in Banff. Managers used the resulting information to divide the park into five zones, each allowing different levels of use and infrastructure development, mostly dependent on the importance of the habitat for wildlife. It remains

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largely unchanged, with only two per cent zoned for hotels, roads, trails and other infrastructure. “Zoning was always a compromise,” says Van Tighem. “The best areas for wildlife are in the valley bottom where the town and highway are. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn good.” It helped control the impact of people in the park for a while, but by the early 1990s visitor numbers were spiking as both domestic and international travellers came flocking to the park. “National parks represent who we are as Canadians,” says Van Tighem. “And Banff is the epitome of the park system. Visiting Banff makes Canadians feel more Canadian.” Outside the country, Banff’s mountains, rivers, glaciers and wildlife represent the iconic image of Canada, he says. For foreigners, visiting Banff is visiting Canada. Torn between tourism promoters and environmentalists, the park system commissioned the Banff-Bow Valley Study in 1994. The independent assessment found that “unless we take immediate action, the qualities that make Banff a national park will be lost.” Its 500 recommendations shaped the future of Banff and the park system, says Van Tighem. The study led to fencing and wildlife overpasses along the Trans-Canada Highway, both firsts in Canada. And it pushed back at development pressure. The park bulldozed a cadet camp and closed the airport to create a wildlife corridor, limited the size of the Banff townsite and restricted future expansion at the three ski resorts. “Overall, they did a pretty darn good job balancing intensity of human use and protecting ecological integrity,” says Van Tighem. The number of people coming to the park stayed fairly flat for more than a

CHRISTOPHER BECERRA/SHUTTERSTOCK (LEFT); PAUL BABY (RIGHT)

Banff’s managers have long recognized the challenge of balancing human use (left) and ecological integrity (right).

decade, then started to decline slightly. In 2010, Van Tighem was tasked with writing the decade-long management plan for the park. He says he talked to Canadians from every province before presenting his proposal to bureaucrats in Ottawa. “Canadians said they wanted us to fix the park up but not add new activities or developments,” he remembers. But the national executive body of Parks Canada was concerned about declining park use. Under the Parks Canada Agency Act, services are supposed to be paid from visitor fees. Most parks fall short. But Banff is a cash machine, producing more than it uses and thus subsidizing less-visited parks. “There was always a very strong emphasis on marketing and promotions in order to increase visitor numbers,” says Van Tighem. In the end, the executive inserted a target goal to increase the numbers of visitors by two per cent annually. The plan called for wooing day trippers and the less adventurous with the likes of biking trails and learn-tocamp programs.

What they didn’t see coming was growing interest in what parks were already selling, says Van Tighem. Hiking, rock climbing and backcountry skiing were gaining in popularity. Social media apps, such as Instagram, were taking off, adding particularly photo-worthy locations, like Moraine Lake and Lake Louise, to lists of the “10 most beautiful places on Earth.” Meanwhile, a little more than an hour to the east, Calgary was booming; the population grew from 880,000 people in 2001 to 1.3 million in 2019. Visits to national parks throughout the country climbed steadily for a decade, reaching a peak of 16.8 million people in 2017 when Parks Canada eliminated entry fees as part of the nation’s sesquicentennial celebrations. Elsewhere visitor numbers plateaued or dropped slightly after that, but in Banff they kept going up — to 4.2 million in 2019. Although Parks Canada closed all national parks in April and May of 2020 as part of COVID-19 lockdowns

(which reduced visitors across the country by 28 per cent compared with 2019), in Banff, the total number of people in the park from June to December was off by only a few percentage points, despite no international tourists, who normally make up half the summer visitors. If prepandemic trends continue, it’s estimated Banff could welcome five million people by 2030.

TO HANDLE THOSE KINDS of numbers, something’s got to give, says Joe Pavelka, an ecotourism and outdoor leadership professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University who has studied visitor management in Banff and other protected areas globally. But he doesn’t think limiting the number of daily visitors as in California’s Muir Woods National Park would work. “Banff is Canada’s darling park,” he says. “It would be politically difficult to tell people they can’t come visit.” CANGEO.CA

train from Calgary’s airport to Banff townsite’s train station, a large intercept parking lot nearby and free shuttle buses running throughout the park. It’s a solution, he says, that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also relieving congestion and parking headaches. “In Banff, the tipping point is not the number of people; it’s the number of cars,” says Pavelka. And if you dramatically reduce the number of vehicles, you subsequently reduce the number of people. But at a certain point, too many people is still too many people. Research on grizzlies in Banff found that as trail use increases, bears

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: STEPHEN DOREY/ALAMY; DAMIAN BLUNT AND BANFF & LAKE LOUISE; HARVEY LOCKE

Instead, Pavelka is an advocate of getting visitors out of their cars. Banff does have a shuttle service from Calgary and throughout the park, and ridership was growing quickly. Within the park, it increased 21 per cent between 2018 and 2019. (Unfortunately, it fell dramatically during the pandemic.) Pavelka would like to see shuttles become the only way to access the park’s trails, just like in Utah’s Zion National Park. There, visitors leave their cars outside the park and ride shuttle buses to trailheads. Pavelka is part of the group Banff National Park Net Zero 2035, which advocates for something similar: a high-speed

move around to avoid the people, which means they’re expending more energy and eating less. Increase trail use beyond 17 groups per day and the bruins start avoiding the area altogether. A recent study in the Bow Valley by Parks Canada, Alberta Environment and Parks, and researchers from the University of Montana and the University of British Columbia found development and recreation reduced the highest-quality habitat for carnivores by 14 per cent. In Jasper, Alta., the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society blames Parks Canada’s failure to restrict human use as the main impetus for the extirpation of a mountain caribou herd in Jasper National Park. And mass transportation will do nothing to reduce crowding on trails. “Just jamming more people onto shuttle buses is not going to protect ecology or make the quality of the experience of hiking at Moraine Lake better,” says conservationist Harvey Locke. With increasing demand to visit, the only way to preserve ecology and improve the visitor experience, says Locke, is with more parks. That approach worked in the 1970s when the Alberta government started

creating a series of provincial parks on Banff’s southern and eastern borders. Kananaskis Country, as it’s known, acted like a release valve for Banff. Fifty years later, those new parks are as popular as Banff. In 2020, a record 5.4 million people visited Kananaskis Country (Banff recorded 3.2 million visitors — in just 10 months). “Banff and Kananaskis are full,” says Locke. “We need more protected places for people to enjoy.” New parks along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains would provide a destination for residents and a diversion that might shorten the time visitors spend in the national park, says Locke. Creating parks would also fit with the federal government’s pledge to protect 30 per cent of the country by 2030. But even with more parks, Locke thinks Banff will still need quotas and reservations to maintain the quality of the visitor experience in particularly busy areas such as Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. Whatever Banff decides to do, the rest of the nation is watching. Because Parks Canada is better funded, the people managing provincial and regional protected spaces

and parks look to the national organization for leadership on everything from climate change to managing visitors says Sarah Elmeligi, the national parks coordinator for the southern Alberta chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. The COVID-19 pandemic might have given them room to experiment. As it reopened in June 2020, Banff National Park kept part of the Bow Valley Parkway closed to vehicles. The empty scenic road was popular with cyclists. In the townsite, parts of the main drag were made walking-only to provide more social distance. The simple, inexpensive and popular moves improved the visitor experience without any impact on ecology. Both will continue in more limited forms in the future. These are the kinds of innovative ideas Pavelka thinks Canadians want to see. “Parks Canada needs to take some chances,” he says. “I think they’re going to find Canadians understand they have a tough job. We’re going to support them. We’re going to forgive a few mistakes. I think they’re going to find Canadians really love their parks.”

Parking lots, both existing and new (left), may contribute to crowding in Banff. One solution: more transit (above).

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Kakiniit INUIT TATTOOS, OR KAKINIIT, WERE ONCE BANNED. NOW THEY ARE WORN WITH PRIDE. PHOTOGRAPHY BY DENISE PETERSON WITH TEXT BY JANA ANGULALIK

A family of two generations comes together to showcase their traditional tattoos. Left to right: Jacqueline Lafrance, Tammy Omilgoetok, Bessie Pihuak Omilgoetok and Geneviève Lafrance.

top: Sisters Geneviève Lafrance, Jacqueline Lafrance and Tammy Omilgoetok pose for photos near Freshwater Creek. bottom: Tammy Omilgoetok (left) holds her sister Jacqueline Lafrance‘s hand as they show their traditional tattoos.

Jana Angulalik is a kakiniit artist, esthetician and writer from Iqaluktuuttiaq (Cambridge Bay), Nunavut. She has written for CBC and the National Post. She is currently studying social work at Nunavut Arctic College. Denise Peterson is a photographer from Iqaluktuuttiaq. Her work has appeared in Up Here magazine.

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A RIVER INTERTWINED in legend as old as time runs gently from Iqaluktuuttiaq Lake to the Arctic Ocean — and nestled along the estuary among low-rolling hills is my hometown, Iqaluktuuttiaq (Cambridge Bay). This river, or kuugaq as we say in our mother tongue, Inuinnaqtun, is a popular spot to fish all months of the year. So too is the enormous lake it runs from and the ocean it flows to. Ovajuq is a legend that shares the story of a family of giants that lived on Kiilinik Island long, long ago. They starved to death and formed our three mountains; their bladders had burst and eventually formed the many streams, rivers and lakes found on Kiillinik Island, our home. Much like our knowledge that has seen us through thousands and thousands of years, some of our kakiniit (traditional Inuit tattoos) are still being passed down from generation to generation. I often find myself wondering: what lands did our birthright markings travel and which waters did they navigate when we Inuit lived a solely nomadic lifestyle? Some tattoos fuse modern with traditional designs; others are older than Canada, older than the borders separating Inuit Nunangat, older than the English language. Hand-poking today consists of poking modern tattoo ink into the skin, one dot at a time, whereas skin-stitching is a method where a needle and thread dipped in ink is sewn through the skin and leaves a mark that darkens as it heals — methods older than any books we can find information on kakiniit in. Our markings survived the years they were banned by our colonizers. Now our beautiful kakiniit are being proudly worn, coming out of secrecy, filling up spaces and faces. Whether they are hand-poked, skin-stitched or machine work, they are always only for Inuit to wear. Our kakiniit are here to stay. Never to be banned again. Never to carry shame again.

IT WAS NO SURPRISE that Tammy Omilgoetok, granddaughter of matriarch Bessie Pihuak Omilgoetok and the late Paul Omilgoetok, agreed to have her family’s photo shoot at “the River,” where Tammy is often seen casting her rod with the midnight sun. Eight o’clock in the evening in mid-August above the Arctic Circle is filled with pastel skies and a sun that we’re getting used to seeing set once again after a summer with 24-hour sunlight. A perfect night not only to honour kakiniit but also to honour some of the women who wear them proudly, so willing to share with the world, with you. Letting beauty flow like the kuugaq, we all laughed on that brisk, late summer evening. It was important to photogra-

pher Denise Peterson and me to work with Pihuak first and foremost because she is the oldest tattooed woman in our community, wearing her traditional forehead and wrist markings at the age of 81 — markings she remembers her great-grandmother wearing, and now she wears them along with three of her granddaughters. It was as if time had stopped or slowed down — even the undulating stream seemed to have paused in awe. One by one, the captivating and eloquent matriarch Pihuak and her family arrived and made their way riverside. I was completely mesmerized and wondered if the fish swimming beside us also halted mid-water to see four generations of Omilgoetok women and children dressed in their best handsewn outfits, with the wind helping itself, dancing in their hair. Head to toe in Inuit beauty. For one of Pihuak’s granddaughters, Geneviève Lafrance, her wrist markings from her great-great-great-grandmother bring a sense of pride and identity. It’s a statement that her family is still here. And they aren’t going anywhere.

THE SAME WATER THAT FLOWS from the kuugaq can be seen here at West Arm, matching the beauty of Darlene Iryirituk Dyer, who graciously took a break from her three beautiful children to share with us her story of her mother bearing tattoo — signifying she is a mother — found on her chest. Although this may not be a traditional tattoo, the mother bearing tattoo resembles an amauti, the traditional garment used by Inuit women to carry their babies. After weeks of being patient for clear weather, on a late August evening the skies seemed to clear up and the winds died down just for Darlene, Denise and me as we met up along an arm of the ocean — even the mosquitos had left us in peace. Darlene is as vibrant as hot pink sunsets yet gentle as pastel sunrises, a woman who effortlessly embodies the traits of the sweetest mother and a woman who nurtures all those she loves. Her forehead and chest tattoos are two ways she draws her strength, as she finds they represent her as a whole being, as if her tattoos were always meant to be. She shares with me that the dots on her forehead tattoo represent her new skill of sewing, a skill that allows her to provide beautiful garments for her family and brings her closer to her culture. “I proudly wear my markings to help carry into the future generations what my family had lost,” she says. Other ways of gathering strength and creating joy include making memories on the land with her family and friends. As she shared with us such deep and wonderful meanings, I couldn’t help but wonder if the birds watching her from the sky were swooning at the timeless and beautiful being she is. CANGEO.CA

AS THE RIVER FLOWS from summer into fall, Ariel Anisalouk Taylor stood before Denise’s camera, showing her cheek and wrist hand-poked tattoos. On a September evening with winter around the corner and a crisp in the air, she confidently posed in front of Iqaluktuuttiaq, our hometown of 1,700 people. Her markings represent her family to whom she is daughter, sister and aunt. She feels strongly connected to her culture through wearing her tattoos — and immense pride that she is one of a few but growing number of young Inuit with facial tattoos. When I see Ariel, I often wonder how many ancestors are smiling down because she wears her kakiniit so magically, for kakiniit were once banned and done only in secret. Now look at us, look at her: our youth are thriving.

FINALLY: AMAAMAGA, my mother, a sweet saxifrage flower yet a fierce warrior of a human. She has an enormous heart filled with love, despite the effects of genocide that she faced, and that we as Indigenous People still face to this day. Alone, she raised three children and three grandchildren, all while healing from her wounds and passing on valuable and loving knowledge along the way. At the age of 55, she received her first kakiniit, her forehead tattoo that represents her holding her late daughter, Patricia Anne Kikpak. This marking helped my mother through her grieving process by allowing her to finally let my sister rest. It allowed Amaamaga to move on with her life, releasing

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

her daughter to the afterlife where she awaits. Often, our forehead markings, before our culture was interrupted, signified entering womanhood — the first tattoo to mark shortly after menstruation began. Now, we are reclaiming our culture and adapting it to fit our life today. My mother’s forehead tattoo is such an example of reclamation, healing with the aim to thrive instead of just surviving. And this year, at the age of 58, Amaamaga finally received her chin tattoo that she had been waiting for me to give her since I learned how to handpoke and skin-stitch in 2017. As I prepared to give my first facial tattoo, on my mother’s chin, I peered over my shoulder to see Amaamaga calmly sewing a pair of mitts, looking peaceful and content. I took this moment to be grateful for the strength she has carried through her 58 years. I became emotional because she taught me the value of intergenerational healing — a common aspect and a thread between all Inuit who are tattooed. There we were, healing together. I remember the enormous feeling of pressure and pride with each poke as the afternoon sun filled my home. Like the never-ending flow of our kuugaq, my mother’s strength and love for her family, her people and her community has never ceased. Her session was the calmest session I have ever had, only the sound of the needle hooking her skin, allowing ink to enter and become one with her. Once her chin was completely marked, I placed my tattooed forehead onto hers, and while we shared a moment in the physical world between just us three Inuit ladies, I knew without a doubt that our ancestors filled the room and finally I didn’t have to wonder where my strength comes from — I was looking right at her, my mother tattooed, beaming with pride and joy with her new kakiniit.

Our markings survived the years they were banned by our colonizers.

opposite page: Matriarch Bessie Pihuak Omilgoetok (centre right) and her granddaughters Jacqueline Lafrance, Tammy Omilgoetok and Geneviève Lafrance. clockwise from top: Jana Angulalik‘s leg tattoos and pualuuk (mittens); Darlene Dyer shows her face and chest tattoos; Geneviève Lafrance (left) and sister Tammy Omilgoetok (right) show their wrist tattoos on the banks of the kuugaq.

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Clockwise from top: Bella Angulalik smiles in excitement as she waits to see her traditional chin tattoo. Bella had her forehead tattoo completed by another Inuk tattoo artist, to whom Bella is also related; Bella beams with pride as she is shown her kakiniit, handpoked by her daughter, Jana Angulalik (pictured). Both women have matching forehead tattoos that were handpoked by their relative; Ariel Taylor shows her intricate traditional tattoos for photos taken in mid-September.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

There we were, healing together. top: Darlene Dyer with her facial and chest tattoos. The chest tattoo — or mother bearing tattoo — is given to Inuit women after they become mothers. bottom: Tammy‘s daughters Lily and Alicia join in for a photo with their great-grandmother Bessie. From left to right: Lily Evetalegak, Tammy Omilgoetok, Bessie Omilgoetok and Alicia Omilgoetok.

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Look at us, look at her: our youth are thriving.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

Clockwise from left: Jana Angulalik is photographed at sunset; Ariel Taylor shows her cheek and wrist tattoos in front of her hometown Iqaluktuuttiaq (Cambridge Bay); Darlene Dyer laughs in the wind at West Arm.

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THE NEW FILMMAKER-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM SUPPORTS BIG IDEAS ON THE BIG SCREEN

C A N

FILMMAKER IN-RESIDENCE

ights, camera, action! A great documentary is groundbreaking, with the power to change minds and actions — to make the world a better place. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society and Canadian Geographic have affirmed their commitment to this genre of visual storytelling with the announcement of a Filmmaker-inResidence program. Matt LeMay will be the inaugural Filmmaker-in-Residence, a prestigious role that will give him opportunities to bring his stories to wider audiences. “For over a decade, I have been honoured to use film as a medium to tell and share stories with a strong focus on reconciliation and the environment,” says LeMay. “I am grateful to have been selected as Canadian Geographic’s inaugural Filmmaker-in-Residence and believe that this new partnership and platform is a unique opportunity to amplify many Indigenous voices, histories and cultures.” An award-winning Métis filmmaker, LeMay is an innovator in the field of educational documentary film. He has channelled his passion for addressing social justice issues that affect First Nations and Métis

TOP: COURTESY MATT LEMAY; SIDEBAR: MICHAEL SCHMIDT

communities into documentaries that showcase the power of Indigenous storytelling and the importance of protecting the natural environment. “We are thrilled to add an artist of LeMay’s experience and ability to our growing network of Canada’s best content creators,” says Gilles Gagnier, the Society’s chief operating officer. LeMay’s current work includes The Future of Michif, a documentary chronicling the history, struggle and resilience of the Métis of Saskatchewan on their journey to self-determination. The Métis in the province find themselves in the midst of a cultural and political resurgence as they move toward modern self-governance agreements with the federal government. The Filmmaker-in-Residence program aims to recognize compelling documentary filmmaking that explores and celebrates the country’s geography, people and wildlife to make Canada better known to Canadians and to the world. The position underscores the organization’s commitment to open new horizons and make change through the power of documentary filmmaking. —Canadian Geographic staff

SOCIETY BRIEFS THE SOCIETY WELCOMES Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Jean Trebek and Rear-Admiral Rebecca Patterson as Honorary Fellows. An outdoor enthusiast, Trudeau was recognized for his commitment to the environment, including Indigenous-led conservation programs, while Trebek was honoured for her past and present support of the Society, which meant so much to her late husband. Patterson noted that she was “delighted that my service to Canada has been connected to the RCGS mission.” CONGRATULATIONS TO Pascale Marceau and Eva Capozzola, the first all-women team to reach the summit of Yukon’s Mount Lucania on April 26. The lesser-known peak, Canada’s third tallest, is rarely climbed due to its remoteness and notoriously harsh weather. The expedition was funded in part by the Society. THE CLASSROOM ENERGY Diet Challenge celebrated record levels of participation this past spring. The awardwinning program, presented by Canadian Geographic Education and Shell Canada, inspires students to conserve energy. Between February and late April, more than 550 classrooms took part in 17 challenges geared to making students more energy aware and promoting the importance of reduced energy use.

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Y O U R S O CIE TY | F EL L OWS

FEATURED FELLOW: TED IRNIQ

Ted Irniq, owner of Tikippugut Outfitting, organizes trips to Qaummaarviit Territorial Park (main photo) and other areas near Iqaluit.

On starting his own expedition business I have always loved travelling up North. When I was a young boy, my father used to take me out on monthlong trips over many miles. This was pre-GPS, where we used to just use a compass, a map and my father’s memory. Those experiences made me want to start up a business like this so other people can make similar memories. 74

On what a typical tour looks like A typical tour leaves from Iqaluit and heads down the bay to see some of the higher mountains nearby, along with checking out a 30-metre-high waterfall. We explore little nooks and crannies of hidden bays that you wouldn’t typically see standing outside a house in Nunavut. With this, people can whale watch, polar bear watch, look for seals or even fish. Our shortest trip is to Qaummaarviit Territorial Park for a cultural presentation and short hike, and another trip is to Bay of Two Rivers for fishing. I also run cod fishing trips to Ogac Lake. Our longer trips, which are up to 12 hours, include travelling down past Pugh Island and into Hidden Bay and Leach Bay for berry picking and a hike. I try to not be a routine guide business. Essentially, whatever the traveller wants to experience I try to make it happen. If people come with interesting ideas to experience the North, I change up my schedule to try to bring those ideas to life.

On what he loves most about his job Interacting with people and being on the land fuels me. I think the best part is taking someone who

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC JULY/AUGUST 2021

is from town or enjoys the outdoors as much as I do — taking them to experience something new and something they haven’t seen before. Seeing their eyes light up in wonderment or excitement or joy makes this job so worth it. One person was so moved by the experience that they actually cried because they got to see a site where their family used to camp. I am not just running tours for people from the south; I’m also taking local residents to discover something new, or some place that brings back happy memories.

On the importance of facilitating tours in the Arctic I’m from Nunavut, so this is where my life is. I have a history here. With these expeditions I organize, I find travelling by land and by ocean to be very spiritual. Although we now use modern technology to help us navigate, being able to have that authentic experience of travelling within the North like my father did is absolutely inspiring. —Interview by Samantha Pope Read more about the expedition that discovered the wreck of the Nova

Zembla High Arctic whaling ship at cangeo.ca/ja21/novazembla.

COURTESY OF TED IRNIQ

n August 2018, a Royal Canadian Geographical Society flag expedition discovered the wreck of a 19th-century Scottish whaling ship off Baffin Island. A previously undocumented archeological site and the first High Arctic whaling ship ever discovered, it helped shed light on a little-understood part of Canada’s past. The discovery was made during a commercial cruise through the Northwest Passage and Greenland. The post-doctoral fellows who discovered the ship, Michael Moloney and Matthew Ayre, were accompanied by crew member and Society Fellow Ted Irniq. After working with the cruise company for seven years, Irniq founded his own expedition business, Tikippugut Outfitting, in Iqaluit in 2019. Canadian Geographic spoke to Irniq about guiding others who wish to explore Canada’s Arctic.

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COMING UP OCEAN AMBITIONS

ULTIMATE QUIZ

For millennia, people have perceived the ocean as endlessly bountiful. Now our oceans are under pressure — from global warming, overfishing, shipping, pollution and more. An upcoming “On the Map” highlights how Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, a collaboration of more than 400 marine industry companies and organizations, is supporting a new generation of innovators determined to ensure a sustainable ocean economy.

It will definitely be all over the map. From north to south and west to east, Canadian Geographic’s annual “Ultimate Canadian Geography Quiz” tackles cartography. The September/ October issue features a magical mystery tour of this amazing country with quiz questions that range from tricky to downright tough.

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QUIZ CARTOGRAPHY EDITION!

Royal Canadian Geographical Society Westaway Explorer-in-Residence Adam Shoalts releases a spine-tingling adventure book in October. The Whisper on the Night Wind: The True History of a Wilderness Legend takes on a spooky Labrador legend and the expedition Shoalts went on to investigate it.

CAN GEO KIDS! Cute baby animals! Cool infographics! Inspirational interviews! The Can Geo Kids special issue is delightfully readable, chock-full of colourful photos, quizzes and games. Learning about Canada’s people, places, wildlife and history is interactive and fun. Available on newsstands and digital newsstands now. 76

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Subscribe or renew today at canadiangeographic.ca/subscribe or by calling 1-800-267-0824. The September/October 2021 issue hits newsstands on Aug. 16, 2021.

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OUR COUNTRY Revealing Canada

The retired news anchor recalls the emotions he felt while sailing through the Northwest Passage

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My job has taken me across the whole country, from big cities to small towns. But the area that excites me the most is the Arctic, specifically the Northwest Passage. A lot of people think of the Arctic as a barren wasteland of tundra and ice, but it’s spectacular in its beauty. There are mountains, vast bodies of water and an abundance of wildlife like seals, walruses and bird life. When you are one of the lucky few who get to travel to this part of our country, you want to tell other people about it. I have always been fascinated by the mystery surrounding the voyage of the Franklin expedition. In 2006, before the successful searches to find the two ships [in 2014 and 2016], I was sailing through the Northwest Passage on a Canadian icebreaker. “Northwest Passage” by Stan Rogers was playing from the loudspeakers. We were frozen in that moment, listening to Stan’s words about the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea. At that point, we still didn’t know what happened to the ships and crew. The Northwest Passage never fails to take my breath away. Being aware of what’s happening in the North is so important, and we must listen to our Inuit brothers and sisters because they have been ready to teach us for centuries. Ninety per cent of Canada lives in southern Canada, so it dominates our understanding of our country. And yet there’s so much more to Canada, both physically and culturally. The Arctic really does change your perception of who we are as a country. When I am there, I feel truly Canadian. Our North is such an inspiring force. —As told to Samantha Pope

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