Editor:
The devastating fire in Jasper brought to mind comments made by a First Nations guest speaker at an event last February in Cochrane.
Joe Gilchrist is a member of the Skeetchestn Indian Band, part of the Secwépemc Nation. He’s also a traditional firekeeper and co-founder of the Interior Salish Firekeepers. He spoke passionately about the need for better forest management to help create optimum living conditions for our forests and grasslands.
To open his talk, Gilchrist said his grandmother used to tell him that if you can’t walk on the land barefoot, you know something is wrong. A forest overgrown and covered in wildfire fuels is unhealthy and hurts to walk on, much like the grassland that’s overdue for a burn and covered in dead, prickly vegetation.
“That forest isn’t healthy, it’s sick,” he said. “Spiritually speaking, there’s always a battle between the light and the dark. If the forest is dark, it’s because it’s too thick and it hasn’t been looked after.”
For anyone hiking much of Kananaskis, the Bow Valley, Banff or Jasper, your own eyes and ears will verify what Joe Gilchrist was talking about.
So I’ll ask, how many times do any of us take to heart what our grandmother is telling us? When our past has so much to teach us, are we really willing to learn if we aren’t willing to listen?
Paul Baumberg,
Dead Man’s Flats
