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writings to our mother
tive peoples as Turtle Island. The Gwaii Haanas National
Park and Haida Heritage Site is widely considered one of
the world’s best managed nature reserves. From seeing
the blight of garbage dumped on these sites, which Karl
Dockstader aided me in a clean up effort to remove, I saw
one of the benefits of this style of management. It is the
presence of Haida Watchmen who live on various parts
of the protected area to protect their natural and cultural
heritage.
In Vancouver there is an fine example of an urban
First Nations Park, the Pacific Spirit Regional Park. It
emerged out of negotiations with the Musqueam Nation,
and protects six hundred acres of forests. It has also led
to a revival of many ancient native crafts and recreational
activities, most notably around canoeing.
A first nations park can reverse the toxic legacy of the
assault on native peoples and their earth respecting cultures. Disturbed areas of the Thundering Waters site could
become interpretive centers for the healing of this abusive legacy. The park could become the first step in a
broader legacy to protect the threatened wetlands of the
vanished Lake Tonawanda basin on both sides of the border. These are composed of magnificent old growth oak
groves, that surround vernal pools. This environment is
every bit as beautiful as the great tourist mecca of the Everglades.
5. More Species Keep Being Discovered in Thundering Waters Forest.
When writing my last two submissions, I pledged that
I would not repeat here what I said in earlier submissions,
but confine myself to new evidence. In this regards, following my submissions, I was stunned after viewing photographs by Emma Lee Fleury, of yet another threatened
species here, the Nine Spotted Lady Beetle.
It is a terrible thing that the Nine-Spotted Lady Bee-