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Ron Campbell
By Ian Band
When the sun sets and hits the trees to the west
Ron Campbell was only two when his life was forever changed by the construction of the Grand Rapids hydroelectric dam near his community of Moose Lake, Manitoba. He is by no means the only one affected by this so-called development; thousands of other lives have been significantly impacted over the years. Yet, his story provides another unique perspective on how conservation, and particularly boreal forest conservation, is critical for the future.
In 1962, Ron and his family had no alternative but to relocate their homestead at Moose Creek to higher ground, which is the presently the site of his community of Moose Lake. Their move was a result of the projected floodwaters caused by the Grand Rapids Hydro Dam, “Cedar Lake and Moose Lake became one big reservoir.” Ron witnessed the devastating impact the flood had on the entire region and most notably the livelihood of the people of his community.
In order to support her family, Ron’s mother, a single parent, moved the family to Reed Lake in the summer months, where she found work as a cook in his great Aunt Helen Ellicott’s lodge and outcamps. With the arrival of winter, Ron moved back to the community of Moose Lake to live with his grandparents. His grandparents, aunts, and uncles helped raise him to respect the traditional values of his Aboriginal heritage.
Growing up in the small fishing and trapping community of Moose Lake, Ron spent a great deal of time in the wilderness and on the lakes in the area. As a youth, he learned to fish, trap, and hunt, and often ventured out armed only with a homemade slingshot, matches and a little bit of salt. Over the years, Ron would set out to develop his survival and traditional skills passed down to him from his family.
“Often, I would leave in the early mornings, alone or with friends, to enjoy what the boreal forest offered. Usually, I did not return until the sun was setting towards the west. To this day my children will ask me, ‘Dad when will you be home from hunting?’ I would jokingly answer, ‘When the sun sets and hits the trees to the west.’ This is the way I lived. To this day, I respect the environment I live in, and do what I can to teach my children, and others, the same values I have learned.”
A Dedication to Natural Resources and Conservation
Ron has had a detailed resume since childhood, illustrating his dedication to Manitoba’s natural resources and environment. He is involved, “in all aspects of natural resource management including wildlife, fisheries, and forestry.”
As a teenager, Ron started working with his uncles as a commercial fisherman, and later in forestry as a faller and skidder operator at Moose Lake loggers. Ron worked there for roughly five years. In 1983, an opportunity to work for the Manitoba Government came through the Northern Flood Agreement.
Ron worked in his community as a Natural Resources Management Assistant for 17 years. Like many other jobs, he set personal goals, held aspirations, and faced roadblocks along the way. In 1999, Ron was granted a two-year leave of absence to pursue a career in Natural Resource Management Technology. Ron graduated from University College of the North in 2001 with a diploma. Ron accepted employment with the Manitoba Government as a Natural Resource Technician. He has since been promoted to Regional Fisheries Technician with Manitoba Water Stewardship-Fisheries. In 2005, Ron successfully completed a two-year Aboriginal Management Development Program offered through the Civil Service Commission in Winnipeg.
Ron has also been actively involved in the monitoring program for lake sturgeon in the Saskatchewan River. This program enables him to utilize various methodologies such as capture and recapture techniques to determine the current population and sustainability of Lake Sturgeon for domestic, sport, and commercial use. Currently, Ron is working on a thesis examining, “morphometric analysis and relationships of lake sturgeon populations in the Saskatchewan River” as part of a reclassification process aimed to promote him a “Biologist II” designation.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge and the Future of the Environment
Given Ron’s unique education and experience, he is well positioned to understand a convergence of traditional and modern approaches is necessary to solving today’s environmental challenges including those of our boreal forests. He explains, “A combination of past intensive commercial logging and the alteration of our mature boreal forests by industrial development is only one component of many that is increasing the temperature of our climate.”
Moreover, Ron believes, “Too much emphasis is placed on strictly scientific evaluations, we need to implement Traditional knowledge as a component with Western knowledge in natural resource management. I am very familiar with traditional knowledge and acknowledge the impact and value it has for the first and current inhabitants of this land.”
“I am determined to collect data based on the traditional knowledge gained and passed down from many of our elders. This database will include cataloguing interviews with various community elders with respect to traditional and environmental changes they have seen in the past, and continue to see. This information will be preserved for the use of all generations to come.”
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) “is cumulative knowledge that can date back hundreds of years.” Aboriginal resource management practices have stood the test of time, largely because they were enforced culturally and socially. TEK is based on diachronic data (long-time data generated in one area) by resource users themselves, compared to the heavier reliance on mechanical instrumentation measurements found in Western science.
The value in passing down knowledge for generations has been essential to the survival of First Nations people who depend on a close relationship with the natural environment for their traditional way of life; however, every human being relies on the health of the environment. There is no doubt that the best way forward in solving today’s environmental challenges, including those facing the boreal forest, is by developing an approach that includes TEK as a key priority.
Ron‘s optimism is inspiring, “I believe that in the future traditional ecological knowledge will be applied more consistently than it is currently in assisting management decisions. Traditional ecological knowledge in relation to Mother Earth will eventually have an influence in preserving our natural environment.”
