Long Live a Free Magpie - A lesson in compromise
After about 10 years of awareness campaigns, a bunch of trips with dignitaries of all kinds and way too much boardroom meandering, the Magpie River situation is coming to a head... the dam being build by Hydromega is about to be activated.
For those who don't know the history, I was first introduced to the Magpie River by Eric Hertz of Earth River, my partner in Chile and a long-time friend and associate. Eric runs his upper class clientele down some of the most exotic trips and has graciously taken me on his journey from a kayak standpoint. It is because of him, I've had the chance to bring our little paddling community to these great rivers. Over the last 30 years, Eric and his guides have recorded most of the first decents in the World (both commercial and expedition) and has developed very high end trips on the Futaleufu in Chile, the Yangtze in China, The Colca in Peru, the Umpana in Equador, the Po Tsangpo in Tibet as well as the Magpie River in Quebec. Sadly all these rivers are endangered. Where there's rapids, there's dams.
It was during the Great Whale river protest movement when we first met. Eric introduced me to his program of concervation by outdoor sector development and his work with Robert Kennedy Jr and a bunch of other key spokespersons. From there on in, their role continued to be public education, litigation within the general public, and I began to get involved by bringing awareness to these rivers to the kayaking world. I ran trips on some of these rivers (Futa and Colca), wrote articles, and brought some of the paddling world's great personalities to these rivers as witnesses and helped push for these endangered rivers towards becoming paddling destinations. We produced films, booked clients and helped locals build resort businesses.
The Magpie was a very challenging scenerio. The business environment there included mining, daming, forestry and some tourism. The tourism sector were not loud enough and had never tried to mix in with the economic environment enough... result, the damming and forestry companies ran roughshod over them as they pleased. The Hertz, Kennedy and McBeath mix was not working there as walls were very high between the sides... we filmed, wrote and protested, no avail. What finally worked was comprimise.
ECO Quebec became a new player in this fray. They had over 15,000 member organizations and NO idea of their potential power. I keynoted at one of their congresses and quickly formed a workgroup. I asked the entire 4K + audience to raise their hands if they had ever sat on a town council or committee... very few hands raised... mayor?... No hands raised. Truth is well demonstrated here in Mississippi Mills, if you want to effect change, you need to be part of the decision making process. Our protests on the Magpie didn't work because all we did was agrivate and force the dam builders and townships to draw lines in the sand. The little group at ECO Quebec developed a new strategy of education and compromise. And it worked.
They got 3 ECO members onto the Economic Development committee in all three townships involved in the dam project. We sat with them and, with the help of the Canadian Tourism ministry, presented statistics and a business plan for the river. The plan included one dam, instead of 4, and a grant from the government for 200K towards the development of adventure tourism and the provision that they release enough water during paddling season as to not effect the Magpie river experience at all.
Compromise.
We are raising more money for the Quebec Rivers Foundation as we try the same model elsewhere in Northern Quebec... so feel free to buy the Long Live a Free Magpie video HERE. The film won the National Paddling Film Fest (US) and stars your's truely as well as Steve Fisher, Tyler Curtis, Brendan Mark, Jose Rodrigues and many other Champs. View trailer .
