User:Eye101/Hells Gate Slide Sandbox

History (Danielle)
The first recorded history of Hells Gate is found in the explorer Simon Fraser's journal from 1808, where he describes this narrow passage as "a place where no human should venture, for surely these are the gates of Hell." Long before the arrival of Simon Fraser and as early as the end of the last ice age, Hells Gate was a First Nations congregation ground for settlement and salmon fishing. Archaeological evidence from old occupation sites and isotope analysis of human skeletal remains suggest that settlement and migration patterns for indigenous peoples in the Fraser Canyon correlated with the seasonal migration patterns of Pacific salmon. During the last deglaciation 4000-6000 years ago, long tongues of ice formed wedges and dams in the basin above the canyon, resulting in the formation of large reservoirs and new lakes—creating optimal spawning grounds for salmon. During this inter-glacial period, salmon began to populate the Fraser River and used Hells Gate passage as their route to upstream spawning grounds. Constricted by two steep subvertical granodiorite walls, the incredibly narrow passage and high water velocity made this part of the upstream journey by salmon extraordinarily difficult. Salmon would closely hover along the shores of the river or rest in its back-eddies. As a result, Hells Gate’s geology provided the indigenous fishers with superb opportunities to readily catch salmon congregated at the river’s edge attempting to elude the strong currents and rough waters. Hells Gate became one of the most popular fishing stations along the Fraser River— pre and post-colonial contact— where large numbers of natives, and eventually European settlers, congregated during the summer months to fish for migrating salmon. Standing on adjacent rocks or on specially constructed wooden platforms extending from surrounding cliffs, fishermen would use long dip nets to snatch the salmon. As Matthew Evenden asserts, the native culture along the Fraser River was built on a “salmon economy.” After Simon Fraser explored and charted the river in the early nineteenth century, it became (and Hells Gate with it) an established corridor between the Pacific Ocean and the interior of what was to become British Columbia. As Fraser discovered, Hells Gate would be a point that was passed by, but never through. Safe water transportation through the 115 foot wide opening at Hells Gate proved virtually impossible.

(The route of the present Trans-Canada Highway through the Fraser Canyon parallels, roughly, the fur brigade trail of the Hudson's Bay Company, which was built over the shoulder of the Cascade Mountains high above the east bank of Hell's Gate, as the route north from Kequaloose (opposite Spuzzum) was completely impassable, even for mules. Beginning with the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858 Canyon a usable mule trail was built through the Canyon towards the 'Eye of Morello', a route which the new colonial government invested in heavily to build the Cariboo Wagon Road. The Cariboo Road was completed in 1864 but destroyed by CPR construction in the 1880s.  A road through the canyon was not opened again until 1922 as the Cariboo Highway. The Canadian Pacific Railway runs through the canyon. Construction through the canyon took four years and was completed in 1884. Across the river is the Canadian National Railway. Originally called the Canadian Northern Railway, this stretch was completed in 1914. Rockslides during construction narrowed the channel just above Hell's Gate, resulting in the need for the present fishways. The Hells Gate Tunnel of the Trans-Canada Highway is immediately north of the parking lot for the air tram.)

Hells Gate Slide (Danielle)
This section will focus on the Hells Gate Slide itself, beginning with the construction of the Canadian Northern Railway which spurred the slide. It will discuss how human impact and the slide changed the water ecology and what measures were initially taken in order to solve the issue. Danilar (talk) 21:51, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

(Construction of the Canadian Northern Railway in 1914 blasted thousands of tons of rock into the river below the railroad grade which further constricted the river and damaged sockeye salmon runs. Thirty years of scientific planning and several years' construction have not completely repaired the damage. Hell's Gate's fishways, built by a joint Canadian-American Commission, were completed in 1946.)

Environmental Impacts (Anastasia)
The main focus of this section would be damage to the local environment due to the slide. It would address the impact the Hells Gate slide had on the fish habitat, particularly focusing on the sockeye salmon runs disruption. It would then explore the decline in the salmon population due to the incident and would focus on the relocation of the salmon, which was unable to reach the spawning grounds, into other rivers. --AnastasiaU. (talk) 06:30, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Social and Political Impacts (Alex W)
In this section we will look at the social impacts on the native fisheries and on the commercial fisheries that happened as a result of the hells gate slide.

The International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission (IPSFC) (Isaac)
After decades of dispute over who should get what quantity of the Pacific Salmon catch, Canada and the United States two nations successfully negotiated a joint management and catch agreement, called the Pacific Salmon Convention (PSC) of 1937. This convention created the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission (IPSFC) (now the Pacific Salmon Commission), which was to carry out the convention’s mandate and conduct an eight-year study of pacific salmon. The Commission would shape their mandate based on findings from this research. American researcher William Thompson headed the research team for the Commission, which tagged fish at various upstream locations, from which data could be collected for analysis. One of these sites happened to be at Hells Gate, where scientists captured fish along the banks with fill nets, tagged them, removed some of their scales for racial analysis, and released them back into the river. In 1938, the commission discovered what appeared to be a blockage of Fraser sockeye salmon at Hells Gat. Fish were turning up in tagging nets more than once, being held up behind the narrow passage of river, or sometimes appearing far downstream. Based on these findings, Thompson decided to place increased emphasis on Hells Gate beginning in 1939.

In 1941 something exceptional happened with the Salmon migration. Whereas in previous years it appeared that Salmon were blocked for up to a week per spawning season, this year the blockage lasted for months, from July through October. Thompson took this opportunity to significantly increase tagging operations, exclaiming with pride that his was “‘one of the most extensive tagging programs of its kind ever undertaken.’” By reviewing historical research data, Thompson set his analysis of Hells Gate in a wide historical context, and using his own studies he concluded that the rock obstruction at Hells Gate was the primary cause of the decades long decline in salmon in the Fraser River. As a solution to this problem, the construction of several fishways began in 1944.

International Dispute (Isaac)
The decision to build fishways was not uncontroversial. Canadian zoologist William Ricker, who was one of the original scientists with the IPFSC and quit one year later, became an outspoken critic of this decision and of Thompson’s research. Ricker challenged the foundational finding of Thompson’s research: that only 20% of fish could pass through Hells Gate. He claimed that these data were so selective that they were unreliable and misleading. Two reasons for this, which Ricker believed could have been easily overcome with adjustments to research methods, were that the fish tagged would have been from a highly selective sample of weaker fish than average, and that tagging itself may impede a fish’s ability to subsequently swim through the rapid water at Hells Gate. Ricker stated that Thompson did not properly address these issues, and that therefore “they may be sufficient to completely invalidate the conclusion that” Hells Gate is a serious obstacle for salmon migration. Ricker also challenged other aspects of Thompson’s research, including his assumptions about the casual relationship between water levels and successful passage through Hells Gate and that there appears to be evidence (based on sex ratios above and below Hells Gate) to suggest that no significant obstruction existed after the initial clean up.

Ricker’s criticisms and Thompson’s subsequent response sparked a major controversy in the fisheries research community, what seen by both those involved and those in the wider community as a battle waged along national lines. Some believed Ricker had a grudge against Thompson and the IPSFA because of their success in discovering the Hells Gate blockage and the same this brought Ricker and the Biological Board of Canada, of which he was formerly a part. One such colleague of Thompson’s, Richard Van Cleve, labelled Ricker’s criticism as the expression of a “personal grudge” against Thompson and the IPSFC, and “an attack on all biological fisheries work on the Pacific.” Thompson, too, believed that Ricker’s motivations were not based on scientific grounds, and that he had a duty to expose them for what they were. His response shifted the debate away from Hells Gate to the merits of Canadian fisheries researchers. He argued that the Fisheries Research Board of Canada had intentionally or unintentionally overlooked the fact that something was amiss at Hells Gate after the initial cleanup. Either possibility was an insult to Canadian scientists: “they were fools, or lackeys, or both.”

Beyond these criticisms of Ricker and Canadian fisheries science, Thompson based the majority of his defence on spawning returns after the construction of the fishways. He claimed that as fish numbers were improving, the fishways were obviously necessary and a success.

The two sides to this dispute each advocate for different remedial action. Thompson argued that environmental factors were to blame for the decrease of Pacific Salmon. Ricker on the other hand believed that over-fishing was the primary threat to the Fraser salmon run, and that it would be a “gamble,” to rely solely the fishways as means of conservation. Instead, he argued, stringent regulations should be placed on salmon fishing less they be threatened by over fishing. And worse, he claimed, conservationists and fishers alike may take the construction of the fishways as an excuse to relax their vigilance, which would consequently threaten the survival of the Fraser salmon.

Aerial Tramway
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