According to Spô’zêm Nation traditional understanding, the spotted owl is a messenger. Above all else, remember that.
Skaloola, the northern spotted owl, has lived in the forests of the Salish territories since the old times when the boundaries between humans and animals were blurred.
The Spô’zêm Nation (formerly known as Spuzzum) is a Salish tribal group, part of Nlaka’pamux territory in BC’s Fraser Canyon. Chief James Hobart, in his submissions on the Spotted Owl Recovery Strategy to the government of Canada last year, explained how Skaloola came to be in the form we see today:
Long ago, when creatures were still human, Skaloola the Owl stole children. Hiding in the edges of our villages, Skaloola would watch for our children who wandered too far away or stayed out too late after dark. Skaloola would snatch our children up and put them into a sack carried on his back and run away into the mountains with them.
Then one day, Creator sent Coyote the Transformer to the Nlaka’pamux to deal with all the people who were dishonest, lazy, cruel, or not living in a good way. Those ones were transformed into animals so they would not be able to harm other people.
Skaloola, thief of children, became one of the transformed ones. He became a night bird who would be too small to carry off our children. In his transformed state, Skaloola was once again a friend to people, and is our kinfolk who would warn us of impending danger.
Spô’zêm Chief James Hobart speaking at the recent First Fish Ceremony. | Photo by Joe Foy
These days, the last known wild-born spotted owl in Canada lives in Spô’zêm Nation territory. Spô’zêm has found itself at the centre of the fight to bring Skaloola back from the brink of disappearing. Spô’zêm has stepped up.
How did it come to this? The short answer: blame Canada.
Most spotted owl forest habitat was left outside of park protection
Confederation happened when some of the eastern provinces first joined together in 1867. Soon after that, plans were drawn up to build a railroad to the Pacific shore and bring British Columbia into the confederation. The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway was the link to what became the city of Vancouver almost two decades later.
With “Canada” now layered over Indigenous Nations’ territories, and with a brand new railway in place, the logging industry quickly began to expand and spread inland from the coast.
The old growth forests of Skaloola, from Lillooet to the US border and from the crest of the Cascade Mountains to Howe Sound, were mapped out and parcelled off over time to logging companies that began to cut down the old trees at a faster and faster pace with each passing year.
The author in recently logged federally mapped spotted owl critical habitat along the Silver Skagit road near Hope, BC. | Photo by Joe Foy
Early forest conservation efforts included establishing Garibaldi Provincial Park in 1920. But in a pattern that would repeat itself time and time again, the new park boundaries were skewed towards alpine meadows, peaks, and glaciers, leaving most spotted owl forest habitat outside of park protection – and thus open to logging.
In the early 1900s, prior to the spread of industrial logging operations, the government of Canada estimates that the spotted owl population may have numbered 500 pairs.
The spotted owl was first assessed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada as Endangered in 1986. By 1991, it was estimated that fewer than 100 potential breeding pairs lived throughout the owl’s range in the Salish territories.
By 2004 an estimated 25 adult spotted owls were left. A provincial captive breeding and reintroduction program started operating in 2007, resulting in a large portion of the remaining wild adult owls being captured and caged in a Fort Langley facility.
As of September 2023, there were 37 known spotted owls in BC. One wild-born owl was last confirmed in the forest in 2022, two captive-bred owls were released in 2023, and 34 owls are in the captive breeding facility, including seven chicks born in 2023.
Canada needs to fix what it broke.
Throughout this narrative, one thing has remained constant. BC has continued to issue logging permits for spotted owl habitat and Canada has failed to stop them.
But maybe, just maybe, things are about to change.
Canada is in the final stages of putting in place a Spotted Owl Recovery Strategy, including a map of critical habitat requiring protection. The rough numbers are as follows: 200,000 hectares of critical habitat that are mostly already protected in parks and other forms of semi-protected forests. And a further 200,000 hectares of critical habitat of forests that are currently not protected at all.
This didn’t just happen, of course. Since 1986, submissions by First Nations, tens of thousands of letters from people all over, countless protests and demonstrations, and multiple court challenges finally pushed Canada into proposing a recovery strategy.
So what is the message of the spotted owl?
Well, I think it is this: Canada broke the forest in the Salish territories by allowing BC to log too much. Canada needs to fix what it broke. Canada needs to work in partnership with the Salish Nations to ensure that BC’s old growth logging stops and that all 400,000 hectares of spotted owl critical habitat identified are protected – now.
I’m thinking humanity is going to need the good counsel of Skaloola in the years ahead.
Photo by Joe Foy
Joe Foy is the protected areas campaigner for the Wilderness Committee.
