| |
The
Story of the Kokanee and its Bioregion
There
is a morning, back in time, when this region of British Columbia
they call the Kootenay changed from ice and rock to land and water,
from Pleistocene to Holocene.
This morning can be described neatly in multiples of ten;
glaciers lay across the landscape a thousand meters thick; the postglacial
morning took about a thousand years, and it happened ten millenia
ago. Through this extended
morning, through the modern day that follows, to the geological
heartbeat we call the present, a region emerges, a region of rivers
and lakes and mountains, that becomes known as the Kootenay.
Through this region there swims a fish.
It is an extravagant gift from the Pacific Ocean, an elusive
flash of molten silver, a lustful reproductive torrent of fire engine
red, a marvel of Interior adaptation, an icon of regional culture,
and a pawn of industry. Its name has cycled through cultures, as Oncorhynchus nerka, kukeni, redfish, kokanee, but not one of them,
not even the scientific, ever completely possessing the fish.
(Brief
excerpts from the author’s work--a manuscript documenting the life
history and current management of the kokanee, a landlocked salmon.
The kokanee's identity as a regional symbol of the Kootenays is also explored,
in a bioregional context. The entire manuscript
will be published in book form by New Star Publishers in 2000.)
Prepared by
by Don Gayton
|
