EVER FIGHTING BEAUTY

Tamed Beauty

High above the valley floor, the glaciated peaks of the Purcell and Rocky Mountains gleam in the warm spring sun.  Their stores of water are unleashed from wintry confines and come cascading down, down, down through alpine lakes and rocky creeks, past ancient trees and forest groves, down into the mighty Columbia River. The river accepts this offering and drinks it in. Thousands of streams and hundreds of rivers are swallowed and the river swells with abundance. Eventually, Columbia reaches the Pacific Ocean, passing over two countries, under towering mountain ranges and through countless lakes. 

Columbia’s cycle is constant yet unpredictable. Each spring the river’s mood can change, from calm and tranquil to fast and furious. It is Columbia that shapes the landscapes and decides what is left behind for another year or what is taken to the sea. 

The river is grandmother to the mountains, having shaped their valleys for thousands of years, gently pushing through on her journey. She is mother to the great salmon, who live their lives under her guidance and nurturing. She is sister to the tribes of First People, who feed on the salmon she brings each year. She is aunt to wintering deer, elk and moose, who come down from the mountains to feed on the plants she has kept for them frozen in the ice. She is friend to the birds who stop in for a much-needed break on their long migration. She is life. 

But she is broken. No longer is Columbia the provider of food; no longer is the mother carrying her children. Where once the river ran free, her water flowing through canyons with reckless abandon, Columbia silently behind the concrete walls of the dams built to contain her spirit. She grows and grows, covering the land with water until they wish to send her on her way. Eventually she tumbles through the human machinery constructed to harness her natural power. The river is sent across the two countries, over mountain ranges, into the towns by means of a labyrinth of wires, boxes, and signals.  There is little she understands about this system that ends in light, sound or movement of great machines. Never once has she complained about this added labour. Rather, she offers her swollen waters to pool behind the walls every spring, awaiting release. The river carries on knowing that there is one place where her spirit reigns free. The Columbia Wetlands, Columbia’s source. For 180 km, she is allowed to provide and nurture life as she has since she was created.  She dances through to a tune as old as time, curving and caressing as she moves. The tune invites her to slow down and welcome her neighbors in the pools, or it forces her to increase tempo through a narrow passage. Whatever the tune, her steps are always in time, never faltering. Her dance inspires those who know her to commit to preserving the unmistakably unique character and spirit of Columbia.

Within this stretch, the origin of this vast river is on display for the world to recognize.  And recently the world has, inviting the Columbia Wetlands to join forces with other Living Lakes and by crowning her glory as a Ramsar wetland. One dedicated group of people in particular has taken responsibility for her well-being. Wildsight has been working for many years to ensure that the integral qualities of this unique stretch of the Columbia are maintained into perpetuity.

In the community of Invermere, three young women are working to unite local landowners by knocking on their doors to inform them about the "Windermere Lake Project". In order to ensure that the purest water possible feeds the wetlands, these women in Invermere are creating change in the way humans view the water on which they live and play. 

Throughout the Columbia Wetland communities, the Wildsight program, "Classroom With Outdoors" takes hundreds of children on trips to visit the wetlands in their backyard. They experience this giver of life in her most productive and important role. Children are drawn to the complexity and diversity of the Columbia system.

The river’s strength is obvious as grandmother, as mother and even as teacher. However, it is up to her neighbors, the humans of the Columbia Valley, to become her stewards and support her. Columbia is broken, but if we can continue to protect the integrity of her source, we will preserve a mighty river of days gone past into a future where her importance will only increase.

By Carmen Gustafson, B.Sc.