Coast Salish Gatherings

1
Coast Salish Gatherings

• A Coast Salish Environmental Policy Dialogue

2
Coast Salish Gathering

• An annual trans boundary policy platform for the
  Coast Salish leaders to have meaningful dialogue
  about environmental policies and actions with the
  federal, state, and provincial governing agencies
  of the Salish Sea Eco Region.
• The Gathering is not a form of government to
  government consultation.

3
Coast Salish Unique Partnership

• Equal Partnership
• Based on treaty rights, aboriginal rights and
  title, sacred responsibility
• Based on our sacred obligation to land and Mother
  Earth
• Ancestral Stewards of the land and water since
  time out of mind

4
2008 Gathering Accomplishments

• In consensus these actions were approved
• Approved Prologue and Mission
• Common language to support our message to the
  world
• Approved Coast Salish Evironmental Action Plan
• Actions to address 2005-2007 Living Environmental
  Inventory of Issues

5
XE XE SKAL to protect our Coast Salish Life
ways

• Adequate funding to address capacity and
  implementation needs for Coast Salish Tribes and
  Nations
• Adequate marine resources to sustain the
  spiritual, subsistence, and economic endeavors of
  our aboriginal Coast Salish communities.
• Adequate terrestrial resources to sustain the
  ceremonial, medicinal and cultural crafts of
  our Coast Salish People.
• Adequate clean air, water and land to sustain and
  protect the health of our Coast Salish People.
• Adequate educational outreach program for the
  ecosystem that consists of Coast Salish
  Traditional Ecological Knowledge to support our
  cultural, spiritual, dietary practices.

Culture, Water, Land, Air and Resources
6
2008 Accomplishment continued

• Approved Coast Salish Gathering Action Projects
• Tribal Journey Water Quality Gathering Project
• Collaboration with Coast Salish Leaders and Canoe
  Journey Captain to gather water quality
  information from the Salish Sea during the 2008
  Canoe Journey Project
• Partners Coast Salish Aboriginal Council, Coast
  Salish Canoe Journey Captains and United States
  Geological Survey Department
• Shared Information Database
• Provide networking and communication tool for
  Tribes and Nations to share information

7
Coast Salish Tribal Journey 2008 WQ Project

• 18th Annual Tribal Journey
• Cowichan, BC NAIG
• 100 Canoes
• 28 Tribes and 44 First Nations
• Simultaneous Data Gathering
• Traditional Coast Salish Routes

8
Blending TEK and Science

• Strengthen Aboriginal
• Environmental Stewardship
• Protect and sustain Salish Sea
• Ecosystem as Coast Salish did
• for millennia

9
2008 Tribal Journey Science

• Canoes will tow YSI 6920 probes GPS
• Weight 5 lbs

Data to be Gathered Georeferenced,
time-synched Temperature Conductivity
(Salinity) Dissolved Oxygen Turbidity pH TSS
Technicians will assist Canoe Families in
maintaining instruments and downloading data
along the Journey
10
Proof of Method
Yukon River Inter-Tribal Council USGS
(Schuster) Summer 2007
11
Why? Impacts to nearshore habitat function

• Deteriorating WQ
• Summer high stress
• High temperatures
• Low dissolved oxygen
• High river runoff (turbidity)
• Sea lice
• Algal blooms

• Canoe Ideal Platform
• little water disturbance
• Nice speed (5-10 kts)

12
Land use impacts channelization rivers/deltas

• Focus/increase flow velocity
• - alters stratification/mixing
• - alters salmon migratory path
• - alters productivity
• - focus/increase sediment
• - increases turbidity
• - reduces light/suffocates fish
• - alters substrate/benthic habitats

USGS Coastal Habitats in Puget Sound Project
13
River channelization sediment plumes
Tide -3.2 ft
Tide -2.1 ft
High particulate, nutrientlower light
Tide -1.1 ft
14
Alters substrate and habitats
Deep rocky
Hole filling
15
Sea Farms

• Concentrates
• Nutrient
• Waste
• Parasites
• Invasive species

Ruby Berry, GSA Chief Darren Blaney, Homalco
16
Expected Outomes
Partnership Science Crossing Political
Borders Empower stewards of Salish Sea
Expected Products
Maps (tracks of parameters, correlated with
time)Interactive GIS data layers (links to
SSHIAP) Coast Salish Regional Water Quality
Database
17
Future Directions

• Future Journeys
• - monitor trends, changes
• - support vessel activities - depth profiles -
  discrete samples
• Coast Salish Focused Studies
• - Time-series/Process studies- issues of
  concern- areas of concern

18

• The partnership sustains Coast Salish
  Lifewaysfor today and tomorrow!

We thank the support ofCoast Salish Skippers
and Canoe Families, Chairmen, Elders and
youthNW Straits CommissionUS Geological Survey,
EPA, Environment Canada