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News
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Harry Setah: Snowy Mountain Cowboy's Last Ride
Wednesday Oct 14, 2009
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The day dawns cold and clear. Fresh snow sprinkles the mountains and catches the light from the rising sun.
We look forward to the events before us with mixed feelings; great sadness for what has brought so many together and the grief of a special family, yes. But as well profound gratitude that we are able to share in this day. Today is Harry Setah's last ride on this earth.
We came to know Harry well over the past eight or nine years. We came to admire his stamina and courage in the face of adversity and his dedication to the protection of his land and people.
We came to enjoy his great sense of humour and the ability he had to always come up with just the right words when being interviewed for film or other media.
He was not a man to be taken lightly.
On arriving at his home in the magnificent setting of the Nemiah Valley, close under the mountains that have led some to call this magical place the 'Nepal of Canada', we see the riders already gathering. There are chiefs from Stone, Anaham, and Redstone, and of course Chief Marilyn Baptiste from Xeni and past chief Roger William. All of Harry's family and friends who are able to, will ride this day to honour Harry and provide support for Laura. They will accompany Trina, Jessica and Nick, Harry's three beloved children, on this journey through the woods and across the prairie that Harry so loved.
There are forty three horses and forty two riders. Somewhere near the lead, Lawrence Elkins leads Harry's little black with empty saddle to which are attached Harry's ashes and old leather chaps.
A timeless quality attends this ride on this truly beautiful day in this special place. One would have to be made of stone not to be moved almost beyond bearing. Faces are solemn, many tearful. But there is great pride here, too, great pride and shared smiles. Truly we are witnessing a sight and an occasion very rare in this strange twenty-first century world.
At the rodeo grounds in early afternoon, many stand to speak or to sing in testimony to the place Harry Setah held in this small and remote community. The strength of people whose lives are not easy and who know that life is short is easy to feel. Many express love and admiration as well as profound sorrow at Harry's passing.
Chief Ervin Charleyboy recites the Rodeo Cowboy's Prayer:
“Our gracious and heavenly Father, we pause in the midst of this occasion, mindful and thoughtful of the guidance that you have given us.
As cowboys, Lord, we don't ask for any special favours, we ask only that you let us compete in this arena, as in life's arena. We don't ask to never break a barrier, or to draw a round of steer that's hard to throw, or a chute fighting horse, or a bull that's impossible to ride. We only ask that you help us to compete as honest as the horses we ride and in a manner as clean and pure as the wind that blows across this great land of ours.
So when we do make that last ride that is inevitable for us all to make, to that place up there, where the grass is green and lush and stirrup high, and the water runs cool, clear, and deep - you'll tell us as we ride in that our entry fees have been paid.
These things we ask.
Amen.”
Later in the afternoon, a dedicated group of riders head up the slope of Mount Nemiah with Harry's little riderless black horse. This is to be a Harry's last run on the Mountain Race course. As usual it takes the better part of an hour for them to reach the start point.
Then, we hear the word, “They're coming” and within seconds the first rider, Roger William, roars across the creek and out onto the rodeo grounds, closely followed by Jimmy Lulua and June Cahoose, and Harry's riderless little black horse as well.
Somewhere – somewhere, somehow, Harry has to be enjoying this, too!
Nanenuwes?in, Harry. Sechanalyagh.
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Harry Setah, Wild Horse Ranger, RIP
Tuesday Oct 06, 2009
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HARRY SETAH - December 24, 1951 - October 1, 2009
This is a very sad day.
Harry Setah was irrepressible, irreplaceable, and seemingly indomitable. But the spirit called and Harry has left us.
Harry was appointed as Canada's first and only Wild Horse Ranger when the Xeni Gwet'in First Nations Government created the ?Elegesi Qayus Wild Horse Preserve seven years ago. As Ranger, Harry patrolled the vast area of the Preserve on horseback and on his “Japanese Quarter Horse”.
Known for his stamina and relentless energy, those who rode with him can attest to his skill with horses, the great knowledge he possessed of his territory, and his dedication to its protection.
Harry was a warrior in the best sense of that word. In the spirit of his people he was fierce in defence of that which mattered to him.
He was also possessed of a wit and sense of humour that aptly expressed his joy in life and the job he did. He was one of the most quotable people ever interviewed. He loved his family, his people, and his land. Harry represented the spirit of that land and of its wild creatures.
We were privileged to see Harry, Laura, and son Nick at our cabin just two weeks ago. They had arrived on horseback and it was a good visit as usual. We laughed and joked, drank tea, and talked of family things. Harry said he was looking forward to retiring. As usual I told him he said that every year and that we didn't take him seriously. He was irreplaceable after all!
It is ironic that the spirit came for Harry as hearings into his residential school experience were taking place.
Our hearts go out to Laura, Jessica, Trina, Nick and Harry's grandchildren.
Ride on, old friend. I cannot imagine that wild land without you and know your spirit will guard it yet.
David Williams for the Board of FONV
Photo by Drew Rouse
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Fire Report
Monday Oct 05, 2009
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FONV issued a preliminary report regarding the Lava Canyon fire on September, 3, 2009. This 66,719 hectare fire is one of the largest this province has ever seen and has burned much of the northern half of the Brittany Triangle and well beyond.
Photo by J. Bhattacharyya
While still listed as “active”, the fire is now 100% contained and controlled according to Ministry of Forests, Protection Branch.
The Brittany Triangle is the core area of the Aboriginal Wilderness Preserve and the “?Elegesi Qayus Wild Horse Preserve”. Both were established by the Xeni Gwet'in First Nations Government in order to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat and to safeguard their rights in the land, including the right to subsist on the harvest of that land. That right was confirmed by the landmark decision of Justice Vickers in the Supreme Court of B.C. on November 21, 2007.
In co-operation with XGFNG, FONV concentrates much of our wildlife research in this core area. We have monitored the progress of this lightning caused fire since it was discovered August 2nd. We have been concerned for wildlife, including the wild horses, and for the ecological integrity of the area as a direct result of fire. We have experience from the 2003 Chilko wildfire that burned over 29,000 hectares of our study area in Nunsti Provincial Park. We have been able to monitor recovery from that fire for six years. Because of this our greatest concern is for the effects that might result from the Ministry of Forest efforts to fight the fire. Fire fighting efforts, especially bulldozed fireguards, can cause much greater long term ecological damage than fire.
Our monitoring to date has consisted of regular watch on the Ministry of Forests Firewatch web-site (http://bcwildfire.ca/hprScripts/WildfireNews/OneFire.asp?ID=318), keeping in regular satellite telephone contact with the Lava Canyon information officers, a meeting with Protection Branch staff in the field and our own foot reconnaissance of the south west corner of the fire zone. Our efforts to get a helicopter flyover of the fire area from Protection Branch in August and September were unsuccessful. Throughout those months we were in the area immediately to the south of the fire we had to leave every evening and retreat to a tent camp set up a safer distance from the fire.
Mid-way through August we were forced to curtail two research projects because the areas we were working in were either too close to the fire for safety or were actually being burned.
Our reconnaissance on foot took place in the latter half of September. Our field notes indicate we “walked twenty five kilometres on a coolish, sunny day with very little cloud or wind”. This walk took place in northern Nunsti Park.
We saw evidence of what was a low intensity burn, though we could cover only a very small portion of the burned area in the time available. The meadows in the area were almost entirely unaffected. There were none of the peat fires that had such a devastating effect in the meadows burned in 2003. The fire had done a good job of burning the fuel that consisted of downed trees and debris on the edge of the meadows. It had burned many of the standing beetle killed trees. Overall, the burn was spotty with large unburned areas interspersed with lightly burned and some more heavily burned areas. All of this is consistent with our earlier experience and we can expect that recovery will follow a similar pattern; that is, rapid in many areas with rich pine grass growth under what was a living lodge-pole pine canopy, yet much slower in heavily burned areas where it will take several years for new growth to manifest.
We observed many animal tracks either in the burn area or nearby, including back bear, horses, deer, moose, coyote and wolf. There were several coveys of grouse in the burn area.
An assessment of the ecological impact of burn throughout the rest of the northern Brittany will have to be made early in 2010. We emphasize that the area discussed here is but a tiny portion of the land affected by this very large fire.
What does worry us is the large bull-dozed fireguard that was put in to contain the south-western edge of the fire. We noted a crude hole dug out on the edge of one of the most beautiful lakes in the Brittany, possibly to create a pumping station. Running north and south from this lake along its eastern edge, the guard goes north to the Chilko River and south to connect with an old 2003 east/west fireguard in Nunsti Park. FONV raised funds and volunteers to decommission this fireguard in 2005/06. The wild nature of the park and the core Preserves area is seriously compromised by this guard. It is precisely the kind of result we had hoped would be avoided in the Brittany, and which can be so devastating to the ecological integrity of this special place without complete decommissioning. Even if decommissioning is done with great diligence, the scar will last for over a hundred years.
While walking this guard we noted that it had been pushed through only September 3rd.
We are sympathetic to Protection Branch with their limited resources and to those who felt their homes and assets were in danger from this fire should it have changed direction. We suffered many anxious days as we watched this fire approach our own location, and are grateful to the timely reports we were able to receive from Protection Branch personnel. Nevertheless, when it is deemed necessary to construct fireguards into parks or other protected areas, it should be government policy to decommission them and do complete restoration.
The use of fireguards is discussed at length in our March, 2005, report, ROADS TO NOWHERE, Technical Review of Ecological Damage & Proposed Restoration Related to BC Ministry of Forests Control Actions – 2003 Chilko Wildfire, BC“ by Wayne McCrory, RPBio. http://www.fonv.ca/activities/research/
A consequence of the fire may be a large morel mushroom harvest in 2010. The new fireguard provides access into the burn. While this can provide an opportunity for a onetime cash infusion into the local economy it can also compromise the ecological integrity of the Brittany and of Nunsti Park if uncontrolled. From previous experience we can anticipate new ATV trails, uncontrolled campfires, lost mushroom pickers with attendant vast search and rescue effort and costs, exposed latrines and a great accumulation of garbage.
- No attempt to decommission the new fireguard should be made until after the 2010 mushroom harvest. To do so will simply invite the cutting of new trails to access the burn.
- Access in 2010 should be controlled by Xeni Gwet'in First Nation Government and possibly other Tsilhqot'in and BC Parks personnel through a permit system (N.B. It is illegal for the general public to harvest mushrooms in a Class A provincial park like Nunsti Park).
- Access should be directed to the west side coming off the new fireguard, rather than from the south up through the new Captain George Town Grizzly Conservancy area and Nunsti Park. It may be necessary to close the gate on the access road to this area in cooperation with the Xeni Gwet’in First Nations government, B.C. Parks and other local interests.
- Effort should be made to ensure that any benefit derived from the mushroom harvest in the Brittany accrue to the Xeni Gwet'in people first.
- Restoration: Following the 2010 mushroom season we recommend the Ministry of Forests undertake a program of complete restoration of the new fireguard in the Brittany, including re-seeding of the bull-dozed areas with lodgepole pine. After the 2003 fire MOF re-seeded fireguards with grasses that are not indigenous to the area. Had these taken hold they would have further compromised the ecological integrity of the area. Re-seeding is a cheaper alternative to re-planting. We have noted that, though lodge-pole pine does re-colonize fireguards eventually, the process is very slow. Re-seeding will ensure an immediate start to re-growth. Ideally, deactivation should include deep cross-ditching and boulder blockages and otherwise denying access to the entire length of the guard. Restoration efforts should include returning disturbed ground to the original contours.
End note: Fires like the 1009 Lava Canyon fire and the other great fires that devastated the province in the summer of 2009 are to some degree the products of human agency, including human caused climate change. Many years of fire suppression resulting in more even aged stands of trees mean a fire will burn more intensely over a larger area. The uneven burning we saw when we inspected a corner of this fire, where in many places the fire was of low intensity, was due to a more natural regime of small fires over the years having resulted in uneven aged stands of trees. The pine beetle outbreak, on the other hand, a direct result of milder winters and global warming caused by excessive CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, contributes to a massive build up of fuel in the form of dead trees that increases the intensity of fires. It is primarily (though not exclusively) the older, less vigorous trees, those protected by fire control, that are attacked by the pine beetle. Finally, this was one of the driest summers on record. There was virtually no precipitation at all for two months, and only one heavy rainfall from May to September.
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FIRE!
Thursday Sep 03, 2009
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Here is an up-date on the status of the “?Elegesi Qayus Wild Horse Preserve” and the Brittany Triangle as a result of major fires in the area.
The Lava Canyon Fire, the largest in western Canada at 63,000 ha (as of September 3, 2009) has now completely burned the northern half of the Brittany Triangle. It has also crossed the Taseko River to the east and the Chilko to the north. This fire has come right down to the old fireguard that crosses the Brittany west to east. This old fireguard was constructed in 2003 to contain the Chilko fire that burned all of Nunsti Park at that time.
Fortunately the old 2003 burn and water bombers prevented a re-burn in most of the park
As the Brittany is the core wild horse area of the Preserve this event has been of great concern to us. Some of us have been in the area continually from the start of this fire as were conducting or providing support for the ecological wildlife research that is part of our mandate. Unfortunately, due to fire danger we were unable to complete the work we had planned for this field season. We have in fact apparently lost to fire several of the meadows in which doctoral candidate, Jonaki Bhattacharyya, had laid out transects. We were scheduled to return to these in August.
Because Ministry of Forests, Protection Branch, has built a bulldozed fireguard in the Brittany, from Lava Canyon in the west to connect with the old fireguard, we are expecting to see some of the problems we encountered in 2003 surface again in 2010. One is a massive mushroom picker invasion. In 2004 this resulted in great ecological damage to a wilderness area, theft and vandalism, and even loss of life. To this day we pick up garbage from that occasion.
While fire is a natural part of the ecosystem, and we can anticipate a healthy recovery and even ecological benefit from the fire itself, we do have grave concerns:
 1.What of the wildlife, including the bands of wild horses? We anticipate that the larger animals, with perhaps a few exceptions, will have escaped the fire. Large bands of wild horses have been seen running across the Whitewater and forestry roads east of the Taseko River. Unusually large numbers of bears have been seen outside the fire area. We have had more bear encounters, including with large grizzlies (all grizzlies are large at close quarters!), than ever before. On the other hand, many small animals will perish in such a fire. Recovery will take longer for their pre-fire numbers re-establish. The loss of small rodents and hare that many predators rely upon will mean that those predators will take several years to come back in any numbers. However, by next year and the year after, new pine grass growth will bring the wild horses back to feed where they have not before and numbers will probably grow as they have in the previous burn. Other wild ungulates, and those who prey upon them, especially grey wolves, will follow. In short, with one possible exception, we have no fear of a permanent negative effect on wildlife, including wild horses. Indeed, we see a net benefit for a few years.
2.What of wild meadows and peat fires? The possibility of peat fires in the wild meadows is a worry. In 2003 the Ministry of Forests declined to extinguish these and we faced the possible loss of this critical habitat. Only the efforts of FONV and a cohort of dedicated volunteers saved the meadows by extinguishing and then rehabilitating over a hundred fire areas. This represented the saving of priceless wild horse and grizzly bear habitat. We will be walking the new burn this fall and checking for what has to be done. If necessary we will put out the call for volunteers.
3.What of the new fireguard and the mushroom picker invasion that will arrive next year? We have already made recommendations to the Xeni Gwet'in First Nations Government that preparations be made to monitor and control the mushroom picking. Managed properly, this can be a good source of revenue for Tsilhqot'in people, and especially for the people of Nemiah. It will be important to have a permit and monitoring system in place to control ecological and private property damage. We will work closely with XGFNG to bring this about. Further, we have suggested that the B.C. Ministry of Forests not attempt to decommission the new fireguard until after the first year's mushroom harvest. Should they attempt to do so, the pickers will simply create many new ATV trails around them. Following the 2010 harvest, decommissioning should be as thorough as possible with recommended re-seeding with lodgepole pine. While some natural re-seeding has taken place in the old 2003 fireguards, re-seeding would accelerate the process.
Photo by J. Bhattacharyya
4.Why the fireguard? In the report we commissioned following the 2003 Chilko fire “Roads to Nowhere” we recommended no fireguards in the Brittany. Fires should be managed but they cannot be stopped once they reach a certain size. Fireguards ultimately do more ecological damage than fires themselves. We recommend that MOF protect assets like houses and cabins with sprinklers. In this case that advice was not followed. We must deal with the consequences. Because of our intimate knowledge of the fire area and of the prevailing weather patterns, we do not believe, at this juncture, that the new fireguard was necessary. This will no doubt be a controversial opinion.
5.What's good about the fire? Fire renews. A new, healthy pine forest will spring up over the next few years. New pine-grass growth will provide feed for the wild horses for a year or two until the meadows recover. Almost all of the beetle killed trees have burned. Almost all merchantable timber has burned. Logging in the Brittany is a dead issue in the lifetime of almost everyone alive today. Less is known about hydrology changes following fire, but in this drying era we suspect that the north Brittany will see much more standing water over the next few years. This can be a boon to wildlife, and particularly to wildfowl.
6.What of the research programs FONV supports or does on its own? We are informed that sufficient data has been already gathered for the doctoral thesis that will result from the wild horse ecology study to draw scientifically valid conclusions. The overall impact will apparently not be great for this work. This is important and welcome news. The DNA testing program that FONV carries on with the wild horses will be somewhat curtailed for a year or two. The vast area from which we were planning to collect horse hair this summer and fall has been burned. The Masters student we provided support for and our grizzly habitat mapping project with the Craighead Environmental Research Institute are virtually complete and unaffected.
We will post further up-dates as we collect information and are able to access the burn area in the weeks ahead.
David Williams
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