The Grassland Debates: Conservationists, Ranchers, First Nations, and the Landscape of the Middle Fraser,” Published in BC Studies, Issue #160 (Winter 2008/2009)
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GRASSLAND DEBATES: CONSERVATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE CARIBOO-CHILCOTIN, BRITISH COLUMBIA by Joanna Isabel Emslie Reid A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (GEOGRAPHY) University of British Columbia (Vancouver) October 2010 © Joanna Isabel Emslie Reid 2010 ii Abstract This thesis explores how a rural landscape – the area from Lillooet to Williams Lake along the Fraser River in British Columbia‟s Cariboo-Chilcotin region – becomes the subject of increasing grassland conservation activity and with what consequences. Along the Fraser River lies the northern extent of a once vast, now endangered ecosystem called the Pacific Northwest Bunchgrass Grasslands. The landscape is the traditional, unceded territory of the Secwepemc, St‟at‟imc and Tsilhqot‟in Nations. Ranchers have occupied and used the land since the late 1860s; for many years, the well-known Gang Ranch was the largest in North America. It is a dramatic and ecologically significant landscape to which many people hold strong attachments. Since the 1930s, scientists, government officials, activists, and academics have travelled the region within a broad framework of conservation; these practices have intensified dramatically since the 1990s. My central research questions are: (a) how has scientific conservation extended over this rural landscape and created new social forms; and, (b) how do different people – conservationists, ranchers, and Aboriginal community members – relate to subsequent changes. I argue that ecological ideas, travelling through conservation networks, change the social meaning of the landscape, though in unpredictable ways. I explore the middle Fraser as a site of growing conservation interest and activity. This work is situated within literatures on resource geography and environmental politics in British Columbia, which emphasize complex interrelationships among environmentalists, Aboriginal communities, and rural, non-Aboriginal people who depend on resource use activities for their livelihoods. I am also interested in the productive, disciplinary nature of scientific and state knowledge, as described in the literature on eco-governmentality. However, I see conservation as a set of discourses and practices, dynamic and emergent in a very active material, social world. In this view, I am influenced by Actor-Network Theory, which emphasizes a decentering of agency. Even as conservation changes the meaning of the middle Fraser, it is always through constant, complex negotiation with many different people and diverse non-human elements. iii Preface All research and writing was done by Joanna Reid. Parts of this research appeared in an article entitled “The Grassland Debates: Conservationists, Ranchers, First Nations, and the Landscape of the Middle Fraser,” published in BC Studies, Issue #160 (Winter 2008/2009). Related sections can be found in Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the dissertation. This research received its UBC Behavioural Research Ethics Board Certificate of Approval on June 14, 2007. Its certificate number was H07-00182. iv Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Preface ............................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. iv List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vi List of Images .................................................................................................................. vii List of Maps .................................................................................................................... viii Acronyms .......................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ x Chapter 1: Introduction: The Middle Fraser .................................................................. 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 The Middle Fraser .................................................................................................... 4 Conservation and Social Change ........................................................................... 10 Methods .................................................................................................................. 17 Thesis Outline ........................................................................................................ 23 Chapter 2: Grassland Conservation ............................................................................... 30 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 30 Early Range Science and Networks ....................................................................... 34 The 1970s: The Grazing Debates ........................................................................... 37 ENGOs ................................................................................................................... 43 Working Ranches for Conservation ....................................................................... 49 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 58 Chapter 3: Ranching and Grassland Conservation ...................................................... 61 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 61 The “Wild West”: Frontier Mythology and Cowboy Culture ............................... 64 Grassland Knowledge ............................................................................................ 70 Ranch Regulation ................................................................................................... 77 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 83 v Chapter 4: Grasslands, Bureaucracy, and Aboriginal Title and Rights .................... 86 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 86 Reserve Creation and Ranch Establishment .......................................................... 90 New Bureaucratization of Aboriginal-Settler Relations ........................................ 97 Aboriginal People and Grassland Conservation .................................................. 108 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 114 Chapter 5: Exclosures: Grassland Monitoring ........................................................... 115 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 115 Producing the Fence: Exclosure Monitoring ....................................................... 118 Fence Crossings ................................................................................................... 127 Perceptions of Ecological Complexity and Change ............................................. 137 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 140 Chapter 6: The Churn Creek Protected Area ............................................................. 143 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 143 From Ranch to Protected Area ............................................................................. 147 CCPA Regulation: Unintended Consequences, New Opportunities ................... 162 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 171 Chapter 7: Conclusions ................................................................................................. 174 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 174 Conservation and Power ...................................................................................... 176 Continuing Social Conflict .................................................................................. 179 References ....................................................................................................................... 191 Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 210 Appendix A: Interviewee Consent Form (Sample) ...................................................... 210 Appendix B: “The Gesture” Short Story ...................................................................... 213 vi List of Tables Table 2.1: Grassland NGOs ............................................................................................... 44 Table 2.2: Land Trust Owned Working Ranches in BC .................................................... 55 vii List of Images Image 2.1: Sign at the Entrance