Cover Picture and Issue Information

Cover image: People have lived on the Central Coast of British Columbia since time immemorial. Evidence shows over 14,000 years of close tending of the land, including intertidal structures built to increase the productivity of marine resources like fish and clams, fire that cleared parts of very wet forests, and as the study on page 103 demonstrates, changes to forest understory plant community that reflect the enhancement of the species used by the people who lived there. Despite major cultural changes (wrought by disease and regressive government policy) from the 19th century on that led to the most intensive use of the land coming to an end, these human uses and changes to the land remain throughout. So do the people. Photo by Brian Starzomski, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria and Hakai Institute