Executive Director  

Rivers Without Borders is seeking a talented and enthusiastic individual to protect the best wild rivers in the transboundary watersheds of British Columbia and Southeast Alaska.  The successful candidate will strengthen the organization as a skilled, collaborative, dynamic, strategic and innovative leader.   Significant campaign experience, proven fundraising expertise and sound management abilities are necessary for the position. 

Applicants must reside between Seattle and Whitehorse.

Send cover letter, resume, writing sample and references by May 30, 2008 to ben@riverswithoutborders.org. 

Download full job description (pdf) 

Development Director

Rivers Without Borders is seeking an inspired, experienced and innovative new team member in our work to protect the best wild rivers in the transboundary watersheds of British Columbia and Southeast Alaska.  The development director will build on organizational successes by growing and diversifying our fundraising base and managing all development activities. 

The position is part-time ~50%.  The candidate must live between Seattle and Whitehorse.

Send cover letter, resume, writing sample and references by May 30, 2008 to ben@riverswithoutborders.org. 

Download full job description (pdf) 

Pictured above are Taku River Tlingit First Nation spokesperson Sandra Jack and BC Minister of Agriculture and Lands, Pat Bell.  They’re standing on either side of a poster that signals the end of the land use framework agreement process, and the beginning of a two to three year land use planning and implementation process in the Taku watershed.  Which areas will be set aside for development?  Which areas will be conserved or identified as off-limits to industrial development?  Which areas do the Taku River Tlingit hold dearest in terms of cultural and historical significance?  Some zoning decisions or land designations may end up being fairly straight-forward, whereas others  may take years of negotiation.  Decision-makers involved acknowledge there will be difficulties during the process to come.  Three Taku River First Nation representatives, two provincial representatives, and a member representing the Atlin Advisory Planning Commission (AAPC) will be at the table during this shared decision making process.  The framework has put into place a structure that will have enormous significance for wildlife, fish, land and water in the Taku.

See BC’s Ministry of Agriculture and Lands news release. 

At the signing ceremony Minister Bell praised TRTFN leadership and particularly the TRTFN spokesperson. "We are here today thanks in large part to Sandra Jack’s leadership, and her willingness to work collaboratively with the province," said Bell.  He predicted that the co-management planning process in the Taku would likely be a model for the rest of BC.  It would also put the "New Relationship" between BC and First Nations into practice in this land use planning context.

The Taku is a region of high biodiversity, sublime landscapes, and little development.  Hopefully a vision that goes beyond sustainable development (taking into account the rich wildlife of the region and the unparalleled salmon runs of the Taku River) will be drawn up by BC, TRTFN and the AAPC.

Sadly, Rivers Without Borders can no longer claim to have Cupid on its staff roster. Nola Poirier moved on to other good work this January, and we miss her and the creativity and compassion she infected us all with. This Valentine’s Day the Canadian government is again poised to make a decision regarding the wild heart of the Taku. While Nola and her alter-ego Cupid won’t be sending poetic epistles off to the Canadian Prime Minister today, we know that she still holds the Taku and the other transboundary rivers in her heart.

We hope that all of you will be thinking of the Taku today and in the coming weeks and months as well. British Columbia, Alaska and Canadian federal agencies will be making a decision regarding the use of huge hoverbarges hauled or pushed up and down the Taku by experimental and untested "amphitrac" amphibious vehicles in the coming weeks and months. The hoverbarges would haul tons of mineral concentrate down river and return with loads of diesel fuel and toxic chemical reagents. More information on the ongoing environmental assessment and permitting processes and how you can get involved can be found elsewhere on the Rivers Without Borders site.

Sun through Yukon River ice fog - view from office at 10 am, Jan 28 

RWB would like to pay tribute to all staff members at YCS who were such amazing organizational roommates over the last few years.  If cohabitation could always be this way, then wouldn’t life be much simpler, easier?  Georgia Greetham! Lewis Rifkind! Karen Baltgailis! Sue Kemmett! 

Perhaps it was partly my July arrival at RWB that prompted this shift into a slightly larger space… Things got a bit tight in the basement of the YCS blue house.  Karin Sparks so graciously allowed me to occupy a small desk in the corner of her basement office.  Although I liked the desk very much, I ended up occupying different terminals in the YCS ‘upstairs’ offices, on days there were vacant work spaces.  Depending on one’s perspective, my presence in the building was inconsistent or absent.  I don’t like to be easily situated anyway!

David MacKinnon may be surprised by the sheer brightness of the bright new locale.  He still hasn’t seen his new office, freshly painted white, and flooded with direct sunlight.  He’s been out of town for a while now but we expect him in today.  He may need to be eased into the new space, which bears no resemblance to the dark bunker-like space he was operating out of for many years.  He may also have some difficulty restraining himself from gazing at the lovely Grey Mountain from his executive director’s chair! RWB staff are preparing for his eventual appearance and have put into place mitigating strategies to smooth-over his adjustment…

As for Karin, who works half-time at RWB, she will need to walk about 50 feet down the hall from her other half time job.  Convenience.  Proximity.  This new office will be warm and she will not require a space heater to be running most of the year under her desk as she did in the old RWB office.  There will be a ceremonial smashing of this heater!  Wait, I mean, we will donate the space heater to a community free-store…

While the many months of winter and the accompanying dark can test ones resolve not to burden the climate with a trip to the tropics somewhere around February, we can certainly count our blessings living in a place where human activities have not made the same mark on the land that they have further south. As we move into 2008, our resolution here at Rivers Without Borders is to keep it that way. Why repeat the errors made and harm done in other places? The transboundary region is a very special place and we work every day to ensure that it is recognized as such and gets managed to maintain its unique values.

May 2008 be a great year for Grizzly bears, wild salmon, caribou, wolves, moose, mountain goats, thin horn sheep, black bears, eulachon, bald eagles, and every other species that loves this part of the world … including you and yours!

This memo was submitted by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game critiquing the proposal to operate a hoverbarge on the Taku River. It was submitted shortly before the Alaskan permitting process was set to commence late in 2007.

Download Memo.

Clear and cold water… nothing does the trout crave more than this!  This is becoming a rarer phenomenon, and fish populations are in varying states of risk across the United States.  Water temperatures are rising, people are encroaching upon habitat with roads, culverts, stream barriers, industrial activity and farming.   Lower portions of creeks and rivers are often quite polluted. 

In order to secure affected fish populations - between 40% to 90% losses are predicted in the study for various watersheds across the US - TU has a four step strategy for fish preservation: 1. Protect, 2. Reconnect, 3. Restore and 4. Sustain. 

TU recommends protecting remaining critical habitat watersheds.  Headwaters provide clean and cold water that trickles down into water systems.  Headwaters are the beginning of appealing lifestyles for trout and salmon.

Reconnecting habitats that have been disrupted from human encroachment, either from damming, water diversion, or culverts is of absolute importance.  A watershed that is severed by a dam prevents trout from accessing the right water at the right time. 

Restore entire watersheds, not just a stream or a river.  The broader the distribution of fish over a variety of habitats encourages their resilience in different conditions.  Trout are likely to face greater variations in the years to come, as temperatures are expected to rise, and fresh water is likely to become increasingly rare.

Finally, it is imperative to reconnect Americans with lands and waters that have sustained them.  City dwellers and drastic lifestyle changes in the last couple generations have disconnected the average urban person from nature, and how the natural environment maintains its balance.  Sustaining in terms of fish populations is the other connotation to this… 

Severe population depletion is likely if serious interventions are not taken, according to the study.  Protecting watersheds from short-sighted polluting developments is one way to keep fins flapping.  Another is to keep small creeks and rivers shaded, to keep temperatures cooler and more ideal.  Stop diverting water away from key habitats.  Build roads away from waterways. Monitor and evaluate conditions of waters under stress. 

Read TU’s study for yourself, and apply their recommendations to a river near you. 

With the Galore Creek mine dead in the water, British Columbia’s plans for an electrical line into the Stikine region are also now in question. Investor confidence in the BC mining industry has been shaken, while the problems of mining companies underestimating costs and relying on faulty feasibility studies are in the spotlight. People and communities that bet on the promises of Galore Creek will take a hit. Alaska should heed several key lessons from this situation.

First, Alaska should develop its own sustainable energy strategy that promptly gets Southeast Alaska communities off expensive, dirty diesel power. Alaskans should not pin hopes on wishful mega-projects like constructing an electrical intertie from Southeast Alaska to the BC transmission line now under question. With no BC line to connect to it is an intertie to nowhere.

Second, Galore is an example of how these projects are often much less than what they appear to be and that the mining industry’s economic predictions are often wrong. Communities should very, very carefully weigh promises from mining companies against economic realities like rising development costs and against the existing fisheries, hunting and tourism economies that mines can negatively impact.

Third, Alaskans should take a hard and skeptical look at Redcorp Ventures’ Tulsequah Chief mine and the hoverbarge access proposal. Redcorp is facing several of the same rising costs that hurt Galore, yet Redcorp has not redone its feasibility study in light of this. What if Redcorp goes belly up in the midst of the project, leaving a legacy of toxic acid mine drainage and harm to salmon and salmon fishermen? Redcorp needs to demonstrate that its project is still economically feasible or they should stop wasting everyone’s time and money.

Fourth, Alaska should take the time needed to fully review the hoverbarge proposal and determine if Redcorp is actually capable of operating in an environmentally safe way in the Taku. Their track record of failing to stop ongoing acid mine pollution at the Tulsequah Chief does not inspire confidence. Their financial situation is in question. Evidence that the hoverbarge poses serious risks to salmon and wildlife is growing. And, in a slap in the face to the Alaskan public, Redcorp is submitting its permit applications a week before Christmas, forcing the public comment period through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Enough is enough. Alaska should enforce a moratorium on permitting of the Tulsequah Chief and its hoverbarge until a bi-national watershed plan is developed that gives Alaska guarantees that our fisheries and other interests in the Taku will be protected.

Even returning north isn’t much of a remedy, since up here I still so often remain in the same swirl of email traffic, overdue reports, phone messages, and blah, blah, blah. The remedy was going to a place that is unplugged and wood fired. Watching squirrels dart across the snow from windowside in the warmth of the loft. Wandering through shallow snow to a ridge with beautiful views of Whitehorse’s Grey Mountain and the Yukon River Valley.

I’m not advocating that we all scatter into the bush to haul wood and carry water for the remainder of our days. I’m just convinced that the right choices for the land and its future can only be made when we carry the edifying body memory of having walked it, slept on it, and felt the wind blow across it. That can be pared away from you pretty quickly in the rush of day to day. I pledge not to let that disconnect happen again, and I am very happy to know I have friends who will hold me to it.

Shannon and her crew at SWCC have been instrumental among the group of elders and ENGO’s campaigning to protect the Sacred Headwaters from Royal Dutch Shell’s coalbed methane proposal.  See SWCC’s website and the Sacred Headwaters website for details on how this is going. 

Shannon does the work she does with SWCC for a variety of reasons, not least of which is her familial connection to the area she lives in.  Her family has lived in the Kispiox valley for generations.  Her parents and grandparents have communed extensively with the land, and have lived comfortably within the surrounding wilderness.  Once she realized she was about to have a child of her own, her passion for local environmental issues actually increased.  "I am doing this for my child, for the one that is on the way, and for future generations," says McPhail.

So, she has one child and another on the way, and she’s not receiving a wage as an executive director!  "We’ve paid out about $6500 in total wages over the last four years… a pay cheque would be nice, but it’s not a necessity," she says.  

"When I’m tired, feeling spent and ready to drop after a day full of meetings, I remember that my children’s futures are seriously in jeopardy.  That keeps me going."

McPhail did not identify with a lot of the stereotypical characterizations of environmentalists while growing up.

"I used to think environmentalists were just a bunch of hippies… I used to guide big game expeditions. My dad is a rodeo stock contractor.  Now he works with me as a SWCC board member." Conservation and sustainable development for Shannon and her father involves responsible hunting, and fishing.  It includes partnering with elders groups on issues affecting traditional First Nations lands.  "I’m not anti-development.  I believe development should embrace a mandate of minimal risks for the maximum benefit for local populations.  Communities’ wants and needs should drive discussions about development, not corporate or governmental agendas," she adds.

The mandate of SWCC is to foster a healthy, sustainable economy and healthy cultures rooted in the thriving wild salmon watershed of the Skeena River.  

Among those who inspire Shannon to do the work that she does are the Klabona Keepers, an elders group based out of Iskut, BC, dedicated to protecting the Sacred Headwaters from irresponsible industrial development. 

"The Klabona Keepers are about as inspiring as it gets.  They are willing to sleep in wall tents for almost 3 years with their families to keep watch at the road leading into the Sacred Headwaters, off the Cassiar highway," says McPhail.

They are losing money, they are sacrificing their time to protect future generations. They stand behind their convictions, they cannot be bribed, they are even willing to go to jail in order to stand up for what they know to be true."

Wild salmon, culture, local economies, ways of life are reasons enough for Shannon to strive forth with the work that she does.  These factors should not be sacrificed for any company’s bottom line. 

Author’s note: If I were a development company Shannon was campaigning against, I’d simply throw in the towel.  Shannon is persuasive, inspiring and an unassuming leader who is capable of getting a group to coalesce around her by being inclusive and funny.