28 - Wednesday, September 23, 1992 - North Shore News

The Run of The River, by Mark
Hume, New Star Books, $14.95

~ IVERS ARE the veins _

and arteries of the

great sea-to-sky-
and-back circulatory system
of the earth.

tn places like Egypt, dominated °
by a single great waterway, people
tend to be more sensitive to its

_ Importance; for millenia Egyptians
have recognized that their very ex-
istence is a “gift of the Nile.’’

Here in B.C., we're accustomed
to such an abundance of great
rivers running through our cities
and towns, beside our highways,

_ Nourishing our forests and
replenishing our fisheries, pro-
viding us with cheap and prof-
itable hydro-power, that we are in
serious danger of complacently
allowing our whole yast and in-
tricate riverine system to become
terminally sclerotic.

“ta these portraits of 11 B.C.

“givers, Vancouver Sun journalist

“Mark Hume delivers an
unapologetically uncompromising
diagnosis of the misuse and abuse
of our water resources. In almost
every case Hume examines, fish

_. are the harbingers; when a B.C.

_ tiver is under stress, the first sign is

:. a drastic decline in the salmon run
or trout population.

Anyone who’s ever held a fish-
ing rod knows there aren't as

the story

Mark Hume examines the senseless destruction
of the environment in portraits of 11 B.C. rivers

John Moore
BOOK REVIEW

_many fish as there used to be,

even 20 years ago, but for once
those convenient whipping-boys
— the commercial fishermen —
are mostly let off the hook.

The incredibly prolific salmon
could easily have withstood the
excesses of a less than prudent
fishery a lot longer, but for one
factor: the destruction of their
spawning grounds, whether by
damming of rivers for power, toxic
pollution from mining operations
or the massive environmental
degradation caused by clear-cut
logging of old-growth watersheds.

Hume’s argument, implied
throughout, is simple: the fish, and
the tourism income generated by

. healthy sports fisheries and un-

touched wilderness areas.are real-
istically renewable, self-sustainin
resources. Mining and watershed
logging are not; they’re short-term
fast-buck propositions with per-
manent environmental and finan-

| “WV author reads from work

2 WEST. VANCOUVER author
~ Jancis Andrews will read ex-
erpts from her book of short

> stories, _ Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
¢Let Down. Your Hair, this-Friday

“tat Margaret’ Gabriel Bookseller

“in Vancouver. . a

The public reading is being
= sponsored by. the Canadian
“Poetry Association of Van-
couver. Vancoiiver authors Sue
Nevill and Vivian. Marple. and
Burnaby writer Eileen. Ker-

naghan will join Andrews at the
reading.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel Let
Down. Your Hair, published by
Cacanadadada Press, is An-
drews’ first published collection
of short stories. ~

Tickets for the 8 p.m. reading
are $3 in advance or at the
door. Margaret Gabziel
Bookselier is located at 3036
W. Broadway:

For information phone 874-

0554 or 738-2665.

welcomes

LINDA SVENDSEN

. Author, teacher

at Park Royal Shopping Centre

SATURDAY, SEPT, 26th
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Ms. Svendsen will be signing copies of
-her powerful new book = ~

MARINE LIFE

Eight interlinked stories about one family's difficulty
in maintaining love and achieving trust.

“FHE BOOK
COMPANY Pig
We are what you read

~ Park Royal Shopping Centre
Phone: (604) 922-5125 © Fax (604) 922-5171

Vancouver ® Kelowna ® Calg

ary ® Edinoutone Toronto

*Oltawae Montrenl© Hutifax

cial disadvantages.

The salmon regenerate
themselves three or four times ina
single decade; an old-growth wa-
tershed takes millenia to reach
climax, and when you cut it all
down, you also condemn the wa-
tershed’s salmon run, a product of
millions of years of site-specific
evolution.

Writing as an outdoorsman,
Hume is fiercely lyrical on the
subject of salmon, grizzlies, and
the unique marginal birds that in-
habit the last temperate rainforests
on this planet, which happen to
constitute our own back yard.

But even his poignant evocation
of the spiritual desolation suffered
by native peoples displaced from
valleys they have inhabited for
10,000 years, pales beside the flat
journalistic recitations of statistics,
the accounts of rivers you could
cross with dry feet walking on the
backs of tens of thousands of
spawning salmon less than 100
years ago where now it’s a good
year if.100 fish return to spawn.

A million years of evolution lit-
erally “sold down the river’ in
less than a century. oo

If the numbers move you to
tears, the smug quotes from log-
ging and mining industry
spokesmen, not to mention our
elected representatives, who seem
to regard themselves as a form of
exalted commission salesmen,
should move you to outrage.

This is not a book you can
peruse astride a comfy fence-rail.

We have the misfortune to live,
asthe old Chinese curse goes, in
“interesting’’ times.

Selection may
vary from store
to store

‘11’S FUN AS MM
IT’S DIFFERENT * |
IT’S FOUR-PART HARMONY

DOGWOOD CHORUS seeks new
women members. All voices, especially’
low range. No need to read music...

Meet Tuesdays 7:45 p.m. i). :
5 ‘ Highlands Schooi -.@ -
S 5) 3150 Coiwood, North Vancouver”:
For further information, please call:

_929-7061, 980-3584, 984-6370 .

WEEKDAY
SPECIALS.

Sunday-all kids meals °1%?

Monday-seniors discounts

Wednesday-8” pizza. °4%
(items 1-20)
Hot Wings 25¢ ea. -

Thursday- ribber. dinner. Ae

Tuesday_ pasta night

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