A beaver sits in water, surrounded by brush and weeds

By T.G. Northcote

From the Introduction:
"Impacts of man on western Canadian lakes are usually thought of as having started after the influx of European settlers, especially during the latter half of the 1800's. And yet in at least one such lake - Kootenay - the native Indian population a century beforehand may have taken for food nearly as large a biomass of salmonid fishes as does an intensive recreational fishery at present (Northcote, 1972 a,b). Nevertheless, native exploitation of fish stocks, even when moderately intensive, probably did not endanger them to the extent that European man more recently has done primarily through degradation of the environment. Two of the largest lake systems in southwestern Canada - the Kootenay and the Okanagan - both have been subject to such treatment and effects on salmonid stocks and each have been examined in some detail... The causes and course of eutrophication have been quite different in these two systems, as have other impacts of man. Herein these will be compared and contrasted, particularly with reference to their effects on recreational fishes."

See the Report [PDF]. Note: scanned copy of original document.

Our Website Uses Cookies

The OCCP website uses cookies. Some are essential for the operation of the site. Others (i.e. tracking cookies) help us improve our site and its user experience.

It's your choice whether to allow cookies or not. Please note, however, that rejecting cookies, may disable some site functionality.