To write this issue’s column on the theme of “Paddling Places,” I started by thinking back through many of the lovely spots I’ve paddled over the years: the Gulf Islands, the east and west coasts of Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, Desolation Sound, Discovery Islands—so many places, so many memories.

So many, in fact that I couldn’t quite remember which ones I’ve already written up for the magazine! So I went to the Back Issues section of the WaveLength website (www.WaveLengthMagazine.com) where the stories from past issues are freely available.

As I browsed these past writings, I started sketching the route of each trip on a map, and then added the routes of those trips about which I haven’t yet written. This parade of memories—a sort of paddler’s “Life List”—brought a smile to my face. I recommend you reflect on your own paddling or boating career when you get a chance.

When I finally sat back and looked at all the lines I’d made, I realized that I had a virtual outline of the Strait of Georgia. Sure there were trips to other areas—Clayoquot Sound, Haida Gwaii, Baja, and overseas—but the majority of my paddling and other boating (especially those of my Mothership Meandering columns) have occurred in Georgia Strait. And that convinced me that instead of choosing any single trip to relate this time, I should try to write about Georgia Strait as a whole. After all, for many paddlers and boaters in British Columbia, Georgia Strait is where we’ll spend most of our time.

For more information on specific locales within Georgia Strait, I invite you to look online at WaveLength’s Back Issues as a starting point, at my articles and those of other writers over the years. To help, I’m including a key to my articles there.

For those of you less familiar with the strait, I’d also like to offer a brief account of how this special place came to be, and then look at some of the challenges facing Georgia Strait today and tomorrow, which should concern us all.

HOW IT CAME TO BE
Georgia Strait is the remarkable inland sea around which close to three quarters of all British Columbians live. Lying on a southeast to northwest orientation, stretching 135 miles long by an average of 25 miles across, Georgia Strait (and adjacent Puget Sound in Washington State) are sheltered from the full impact of the Pacific Ocean by mountains on Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula.

The strait began to form millions of years ago when colliding tectonic plates created the Georgia Depression. When the last glacial period ended some twelve thousand years ago, the rising seas fed by melt-water filled up the Georgia Basin, and the Gulf and San Juan Islands rose, rebounding from the glacial weight.

With the rising waters, Georgia Strait spread itself into all the low points in the scoured, folded and fissured landforms, creating myriad inlets, passages and coves. And life returned to the glacially devastated coast: plant ecosystems progressed to stately forests, salmon established in rivers, human beings traveled down the coast and developed a rich salmon/cedar culture which thrived for thousands of years.

European sailors first visited here only a little over two hundred years ago, and settlement was slow, but the area’s temperate climate and sheltered waters made development inevitable.

Vancouver, in my 1950s childhood, was still a small city dominated by the Hotel Vancouver and very few other landmark buildings. Growing up with TV shows about New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, we seemed to be stuck out on the fringes of the real world. But times have changed. Vancouver is now a world class destination, studded with towers—a veritable Manhattan of the west. It regularly ranks among the top cities in the world.

Is all this development for the best? Even my own half century is sufficient hindsight to have some doubt. While a 1970 study by Canada’s federal government called Georgia Strait “one of the world’s most spectacularly beautiful and ecologically rich areas,” today Parks Canada says that southern Georgia Strait is “Canada’s most at-risk natural environment.”

WHAT’S AT STAKE
An estimated 3000 species of plant and animal life spend all or part of their lives in Georgia Strait, among them about a dozen species of marine mammals (seals, porpoises, dolphins, killer whales and sea lions); almost 200 species of fish; over 100 species of marine birds; more than 1500 invertebrates; and 500 marine plant species (including about 200 varieties of seaweeds).

These populations are facing serious threats from air and water pollution, and a legion of other factors to do with urban growth and resource exploitation. Climate change will bring new stresses, not the least of which is sea level rise.

Georgia Strait is important not only in a biological sense, but is essential to millions of people for income, transportation, recreation and spiritual sustenance. These waters are important for commercial, sports and aboriginal fishing. Many others work these waters in transport, towing and other forms of marine commerce. Tourism is the fastest-growing industry and now probably the most important one for the region.

The 2010 Winter Olympics will bring much attention Vancouver’s way. All eyes will be on the athletes competing on the snow and ice. But remember, all that snow and ice will melt into the Strait. So turn your eyes to the great water on our doorstep and consider what you can do to help keep it alive and well.

GEORGIA STRAIT ALLIANCE
In 1990, a group of concerned citizens founded the Save Georgia Strait Alliance and launched an annual marathon fundraiser, inviting swimmers, rowers, paddlers and sailors to participate in saving the Strait by crossing from Sechelt to Nanaimo (17 miles). From its early years, the group engaged in public education, including a symposium on the “State of the Strait,” in addition to its signature marathon event. Since that time GSA has developed strong programs aimed at finding solutions to leading environmental threats to Georgia Strait, working collaboratively with other environmental groups and government agencies to create the conditions for change around the region.

GSA’s ToxicSmart program teaches people how to eliminate toxic products from their homes and gardens so they can improve their family’s health and protect the Strait from toxic runoff. GSA’s Stewards of the Strait program gives paddlers and other recreational users practical ways to minimize their impact on the marine environment. Their award winning Green Boating program helps recreational boaters to leave a clean wake throughout the strait. Their Salmon Aquaculture program aims to protect wild salmon from the negative impacts of open netcage fish farming.

GSA remains the only citizen organization devoted exclusively to the marine environment of this whole region. It’s a respected, fact-based, professional organization, with membership in communities all around the Strait. Among its members are former government cabinet ministers, senior corporate executives, professionals, small business people, unions, fishermen, tourism operators, local environmental groups, and hundreds of individuals who contribute in any way they can, with money or volunteer help.

As Rafe Mair, a GSA member and former BC Minister of the Environment, has said, “Georgia Strait Alliance is a tireless advocate for wild salmon and the marine environment and must be supported by all who love this province.”

To give you some idea of the scope of their work, I suggest you check out www.GeorgiaStrait.org. Here you’ll find a list of their programs, downloadable publications, and lots of useful links and background resources. You can reach GSA at gsa@georgiastrait.org or call 250-753-3459 (Nanaimo) or 604-633-0530 (Vancouver).

ALAN’S COLUMNS ON GEORGIA STRAIT