Bute Inlet National Park?

by Lars Hawkes, Powell River Peak, Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Recently I visited Bute Inlet; what I saw was much more spectacular than any photograph can depict.

What makes this area unique is the fact that Bute Inlet cuts a long fjord right into some of the highest mountains in BC. The sheer drop of these glacier-covered mountains right to the ocean is hard to comprehend unless you have been there.

This is a unique environment, a habitat of grizzlies and the marbled murrelet, and an overlooked national treasure that in my opinion should become Bute Inlet National Park.

Some people call this the Canadian Himalayas and British Columbia Magazine recently named a trip to Bute Inlet one of the “50 things to do before you die.”

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Seeing glacier-covered Bute-area mountains with some of the largest vertical drops in the world at the end of turquoise and jade green inlets, is a lifetime treat. There’s a great view of Mt. Waddington with its enormous icefields a few kilometres up a gravel road from the mouth of Homathko River. Waddington is BC’s highest mountain at 4,019 metres.

The BC government is promoting the development of private run-of-river electrical independent power projects (IPPs) in the Bute Inlet and its tributaries. This will cause permanent environmental and visual damage and scar the landscape with wide electrical transmission line corridors, unlike previous logged areas that eventually grow back to real forests. While IPPs have a potential on some BC rivers, this area including Mt. Waddington, can only produce power for a few months after the snow melts when BC doesn’t need extra power, and thus it would be earmarked for export to the United States.

This area has a higher use: Bute Inlet National Park.

The government has not allowed a comprehensive land and resource plan on this part of the coast. Local governments, first nations and other interested stakeholders have been denied the opportunity to consult with each other and the provincial government to find shared goals and reach overall consensus. The most appropriate use of the land has not been properly identified as of this date. Good land use planning starts with the big picture and then tackles the details of the second stage of planning, such as locations for IPPs with public comments on their environmental impact.

Fortunately the BC Utilities Commission, after a thorough study, recommended against IPPs in the Bute area. We now have some breathing room for government to go back and do a more thorough planning with public input. This will only happen if we all write a letter to the BC government and the federal government requesting this. Please do so.

We owe this to future generations; this is our responsibility so please visit Bute Inlet as soon as possible.

I think first nations should have the opportunity to own and operate a resort area in Bute Inlet National Park.

Lars Hawkes grew up in Norway and worked as a packer and guide in Banff National Park and BC’s Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park. He is a sculptor, and has been a machine fabricator. He continues to hike and enjoy the backcountry.