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magazine / ma07
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March/April 2007 issue |
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FEATURE
Keepers of the forest
Meet the dedicated cedar warriors working to save the last remaining old-growth giants on Haida Gwaii
Excerpt of story by Joanna Fultz with photography by Farah Nosh
Jaalen Edenshaw remembers gathering
clams as a child on the beaches of Haida Gwaii
(the Queen Charlotte Islands), off the coast of
British Columbia, just south of the Alaska
Panhandle, and listening to the stories his father
would unravel about the cycle of life. Edenshaw,
now 26, learned how black bears hunt for salmon
along the riverbanks and carry their feast into the
forest. The remains of the salmon nourish the
great western red and nearly extinct yellow
cedars, each ring representing a piece of the fish
deposited in the soil.
top
Over thousands of years, the cedars, in turn,
have sustained the Haida, providing raw material
for majestic cultural works, including totem
poles, canoes and longhouses. But five decades of
logging have rendered these "monumental cedars"
— perfectly straight, virtually knotless trees
more than 100 centimetres in diameter and over
400 years old — exceedingly rare. Of fewer than
1,000 identified in recent years, only a fraction
remain, because the towering giants are also the
most highly prized by loggers. But even if all
logging were to cease, the Haida estimate that the
current supply is enough for only 20 years of
monumental Haida art. To protect this resource
beyond the next generation, they are waging a
battle to secure a 1,000-year supply.
For the rest of this story, visit your local newsstand or go to our store to buy this issue.
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