How to best balance people and nature isn’t clear, but what is? The importance of getting the process right when trying to advocate for a better balance.

But as former prime minister Kim Campbell says, “I think process is something that’s very hard to get people excited about.”

Very true. Yet even if process doesn’t excite us, it matters, explains Kim Campbell.

“The substance – the outcome – is very much a reflection of the process.”

Our former prime minister is right. So, what does good process look like and how can it create a better outcome – a lasting answer – to the question we’ve been debating? Let’s start here, with this from Marie-Eve Marchand:

“It’s about amplification. It’s about accepting that it’s not about your ideas. It’s about empowering people. It’s really about creating that safe space – giving people the chance to be part of something, instead of being told what to do.”

Marie-Eve, as you’ll recall, is the founder of Bison Belong – the coalescing voice that helped bring bison back to Banff National Park.

“It wasn’t a campaign; it was an idea.”

What makes Marie-Eve unique is that she didn’t just propose an idea, she brought it to life and created lasting change. And her key to success?

“I’m not against things; I’m for creating things.”

It’s an approach that makes Marie-Eve an outlier in the environmental debate, but it’s a philosophy that she comes by naturally.

Growing up in rural, conservative Quebec, Marie-Eve learned at an early age that real change doesn’t begin with opposition – or with traditional decision makers.  

“You need to talk to the people who are on the land. The people who are the closest to the land.”

Which is contrary to what we usually assume. As Marie-Eve says, “you kind of think sometimes: ‘If you want to build something, (you think first about) who’s the decision maker?’ But really, it always comes back to this: Spend time with the people, listen to them. They’re probably not that much further apart from what you think, but they just might have not heard that way of thinking.’

And listening – building bridges – is exactly what Marie-Eve did in order to return wild bison to the Canadian Rockies.

“We cannot act alone. We need help. For every environmental issue, no one alone can do it. So, how do you create that strong relationship, for years to come, that can allow you to work with others?”

For Marie-Eve, it started by recognizing a simple truth.

“What happened to the buffalo, to the bison? It’s what happened with the residential schools. That species got pushed out, put behind a fence. To this day, in Alberta, plains bison are not really allowed to be wild outside of a fence. They have to be owned; we have to know where they are. And all of this, when you’re working through those layers and listening, seeing who it effected, (you realize) it affects cultures.”

And that’s why one person or one organization couldn’t bring back the bison alone, entire cultures had to rally together, explains Dr. Leroy Little Bear.

“It used to be that the buffalo took care of us. Well, maybe for the next little while, until its numbers grow again, we’ll have to take care of the buffalo.”

As you know, Leroy is a globally recognized leader – including within the Blackfoot Confederacy. To right an historic wrong, Leroy says Blackfoot elders “were also realistic. And they said: ‘We can’t do this by ourselves’. It’s going to be an uphill fight to bring the buffalo back, so that they can freely roam like it used to.”

But help had to be more than a partnership with Bison Belong, it required working to find common ground – a common voice – between Indigenous Nations.

“That relational network was the Buffalo Treaty. Let’s go talk to our relatives. It was a relational building exercise. We invited anybody and everybody to those dialogues. And they did (participate). We had a large number of people come and join the dialogues, both young and old.”

You might assume that was an easy process, but it wasn’t. Why? Because no two Indigenous Nations are the same, as entrepreneur and Okanagan Nation member Libby Garg explains.

“There is no such thing in Canada as an Indigenous people. When we are talking about Indigenous people in a pan-Indigenous setting, it is convenient and a very easy way to talk about it. So, I understand why the conversation ends up going there. But Indigenous communities themselves are very unique and they come with their own unique history.”

And as such, like any agreement forged between nations, the process wasn’t easy, explains Marie-Eve Marchand.

“It took time (to create) the Buffalo Treaty. It took years of discussion. It’s long-term thinking. But when we came together, (the bison) did come back.”

Leroy Little Bear adds “there came a time when the elders said: ‘I think now we are all of one mind. We want the buffalo to come back.’”

And, thus, the Buffalo Treaty was so. But even then, more work remained.

The Government of Alberta opposed the reintroduction of bison – championing the rights of select constituencies concerned about ranching and hunting impacts, but Albertans as a whole? They supported the idea in a big way. And that’s why, Marie-Eve says, “the role and responsibility of the government…they didn’t have to force it, it came naturally.”

That’s what happens when an idea becomes a movement – when different cultures and different communities bridge political differences and work together, adds biodiversity champion Harvey Locke.

“(We had) this really cool synergy of the profound cultural, economic, social, spiritual and environmental motivations of the plains Indigenous peoples, for whom buffalo was disproportionately significant. And also (there was) a movement going on in science to restore bison as an ecological process on the landscape, not just a display thing.”

All of that coming together made it clear to the federal government that this issue was worthy of the resources. As a result, the then-Stephen Harper-led Conservative government in Ottawa agreed that bison should return to Banff.

And, as Marie-Eve Marchand tells us, “we do have buffalo now back in Banff and it’s the third biggest, wildest population that interacts with all the predators in North America.”

Marie-Eve believes the biggest takeaway from this success story is that “it’s not about the bison and us, or me and the new Canadian, or the French Canadian and the English Canadian, or the First Nation. It’s really about walking together and finding those little paths. And sometimes it’s hard. And sometimes you have to agree to disagree, and sometimes you have to agree that you might not know exactly what (the other person is) saying, but that’s fine. People have a lot of respect for people trying. It’s a lot of patience, but it’s a lot of beautiful curiosity.”

Indeed, being patient and curious about finding new collaborations that can help address a serious problem is also the hallmark of a very different process that’s led to positive outcomes.

Nikita Lattery tells us, “I just have a passion for the environment and wildlife. It just kind of hits home to me, and hearing about this program (Caribou Patrol), I wanted to take initiative and do my part.”

Nikita is an emerging leader, helping the Indigenous-led and community-driven Caribou Patrol take action to save the caribou herd that migrates through her backyard – the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, northeast of Mount Robson.

“I believe that education – informing people – is really key because if people don’t know, they’re not aware of it.”

It’s true and educating the public about how their actions impact the future of this endangered herd is how Caribou Patrol got its start, explains Stephanie Leonard.

“The Redrock-Prairie Creek herd is one of the only herds in western Canada that migrates across a major highway. And with the increase of traffic on this highway, there is an increase in interactions between the caribou and the traffic. So, Caribou Patrol started focusing on the highways, and it kind of evolved from there.”

Bison Belong focused its efforts on convincing the nation that it was worth the resources to bring bison back to the Rocky Mountain landscape.

Caribou Patrol, on the other hand, believes in the power of individual action adding up to big – if local – change.

And both processes have made a difference.

“The people who don’t take heed of the signs and watch for caribou and take care are almost vilified now because the message has gotten out that the caribou are important,” Stephanie Leonard explains.

That’s important because, for most people, the issues facing the caribou are overwhelming and when problems feel too big, people often become apathetic. But by linking the fate of the caribou to the speed people drive through migration corridors, Stephanie believes Caribou Patrol has helped simplify the problem and that’s created hope.

“It’s knowing that these species are still holding on, that people still care. It’s hope for the future. It’s hope that things will change, that things can be done better. That there is a future (for the caribou).”

Hope gives people purpose, and, thanks to the efforts of Caribou Patrol, nearby communities now have skin in the game.

As a result, Caribou Patrol has been able to overcome traditional Indigenous/non-Indigenous, pro-development/pro-caribou divides to find solutions that go beyond highway speed.

Stephanie tells us, “From the top level down, companies are taking responsibility.” And that’s, in part, thanks to Caribou Patrol’s efforts.

“That’s the only way that we’re ever going to make a difference, is working together,” Stephanie adds. “It’s not us-versus-them, it’s working together to come up with a solution that maybe everybody doesn’t get everything that they want, but it’s making sure there are still caribou around 20, 30, 40 years from now.”

But Stephanie knows that local action can only go so far.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re going to save all the caribou, but I believe if we work together – from the high school student to the highest government official – then we will save some caribou.”

As Nikita Lattery reminds us, having diverse voices working together matters.

“Everyone is different, everyone is unique and everyone thinks differently and has something different to bring to the table – something I didn’t think about, or something she didn’t think about. Maybe somebody has a better solution out there.”

And that’s why Stephanie passionately argues:

“You matter. Your opinion matters. Your voice matters. Don’t ever think that: ‘I’m not going to get involved in this because I’m just a nobody.’ Everybody is somebody and the more people who go out and have that voice and say ‘this is important to me’? You might be one person, but you’re going to be one of a thousand – one of a hundred thousand. You matter!”

Never have truer words been spoken: You do matter.

Helping different people from different walks of life see that? It’s why both Caribou Patrol and Bison Belong have had success. It’s what allowed one initiative to overcome opposition and the other to overcome apathy. It’s why one changed an ecosystem and the other changed the culture.

But in both cases? Conveying that message – ensuring people believed they mattered in the outcome – was only possible because of relationships. And that, says Ken Wu, is the key to any issue.

Before launching the Endangered Ecosystem Alliance, Ken was focused on protecting primary forests. But when his boots hit the ground on southern Vancouver Island, he found local opposition to his proposals to protect the trees.

Rather than allow a confrontational relationship to grow, Ken listened to what the local communities wanted: Business opportunities.

“We basically drove a huge number of people into the businesses in that area as they came out to see the old-growth forest. As the money poured into their businesses, they started taking stances in favour of protecting old-growth forests. Now, not everybody was an environmentalist among those businesses, but over time – because they supported it due to business – they learned more, they listened more.”

Ken also listened and learned, as you now know, that not every rural resource community is looking for business opportunities – they’re also looking to protect their way of life, their culture.

Ken worked with communities to understand their concerns and then worked to find issues of commonality: Like raw log exports.

Some argue that when we export logs, we’re also exporting valuable milling jobs. Ken’s solution?

“We said that if you’re going cut the trees, you gotta process them here. That solidarity (with loggers) slowly opened the door for them to eventually take a stance to save old-growth forests. So, now we’ve got thousands of forest workers saying: ‘end old-growth logging, save the old-growth.’ And that was largely out of an alliance that we made with them. And, again, over time people start listening and learning and exploring new things, just like we learned a lot more about the industry and about their situation.”

Ken answers your inevitable question:

“What’s the point of doing all that? It’s because with the greater social breadth, you also have greater political strength to change the outcome, to change the laws. Because it just takes people power and a lot of different kinds of people.”

Ken’s right. No matter where you stand, no matter your vision, good ideas become reality when diverse people rally together.

Well, rally together and communicate across divides, adds business leader Hal Kvisle.

“It’s got to involve better communication, better dialogue between both the environmental activists and the corporations.”

As financial executive Mohnish Kamat says, “if you don’t bring those people on board with your thinking, then your engagement model, if you are engaging, will not be as perfect as it should be.”

Which is why, even when we think we have the answer to this question that we’ve been debating – can we save every species – Mohnish urges us to stop and ask: “How would an external audience see that proposition?”

And be honest, Mohnish says.

“Have a bit of skepticism and a bit of reality. It’s really important if you want things to get done.”

That’s especially important if the goal is to convince someone to make a change – a community, the government and especially corporations. Mohnish says “corporations are happy to listen. But I think the more important thing is that the other person on the other side must be clear about what change they want to see made. (Also) are they open to options? If that doesn’t happen, there can’t be a discourse.”

After all, Monish tells us, “if you aren’t clear on what you want changed, or you are asking for too much, it’s not easy to change – not for the corporation, not for the individual.”

Mohnish recaps that “the engagement is important, the focus is important, and the dialogue is important. So, if you add all those three, then eventually you will make an impact.”

But true impact – for our species-at-risk or any issue that we face – can’t always be measured in the here and now. It’s why entrepreneur Libby Garg urges that “we need to be thinking critically about how we want to interact with the earth. What values are important to us? What do we need to protect? Where do we need to give? And what kind of a world are we comfortable leaving for the next generation? Because those are very much part of not just Indigenous conversations, but conversations that everybody needs to be having right now.”

No matter where those conversations take us, economist Sean Mullin says don’t forget this:

“Make sure that your approach to conservation has an economic lens to it. What are the tradeoffs? I think it’s both practical and the best way for success in the long run.”

In other words, Sean believes it’s critical to be aware of demands on resources; to be aware of what different communities and different regions need and want. Then work within that reality to create the best possible outcome for nature.

And whether you agree or not, the more important point is this, argues Mount Robson’s Area Supervisor Elliott Ingles: “We need youth to be creative and to support us with new ideas.”

Why?

“We’ve got a long way to go”, Elliott tells us. “We can’t do it all, we need everybody to work together and just one person can make a huge difference.”

That’s why Nature Conservancy Vice President Nancy Newhouse says to be creative – to make a difference – do what you love.

“It’s about following your heart. So, if you’re passionate about writing or you’re passionate about art? Follow that and link it to broader objectives in nature. I think that’s where you’ll find the most success.”

Just don’t forget, regardless of what you love or what you do, every good process – every successful outcome – begins with relationships.

“Ultimately, I think it’s about figuring out what values there are for people. We know there’s common values. People love their family. They need food sources. They need to be able to drink fresh water. And when you can recognize that everyone holds that in common and that people are not evil inherently because they’re working with an oil company or doing some timber harvesting? That they’re trying to make a living? (Then we see) that they can be deeply concerned about the future for their own children and about the wildlife that they love.”

Which is why Nancy says the most important skills needed to solve this question and others like it aren’t always the ones we might assume.

“I think some of the most useful learning is Philosophy and Religious Studies because that’s what drives decision making.”

BC Wildlife Federation’s Neil Fletcher agrees, adding “being a good writer and a good communicator – doesn’t matter what you do in your life – those two things by themselves are so important in any position you do.”

It’s a skill that Neil believes we must have in order to find better ways to work together with those we disagree with.

“We need to be finding solutions where we can work together and put those little issues aside. Focus on the big issue and take your position out of it.”

Humane Canada’s Barbara Cartwright concurs we need to work together – including with animals; inclusive of considering the welfare of animals.

“What can we do to ensure that the animal is having a good experience of its own life? It’s simple. And we should be having that in our food policies. We should be having that in our criminal law policies. We should be having it in our environmental policies. But it’s not a question we ask very often. In fact, we rarely ask it at all.”

And remember, Barbara says, don’t assume you know who will and won’t support an issue you care about.

“And this idea that somehow conservatives don’t care about animals has not been my experience at all. In fact, we’ve seen most of our major leaps forward in animal welfare policy coming from conservative regimes.”   

Former Alberta cabinet minister Donna Kennedy-Glans agrees we can’t assume what someone – anyone – thinks about any given issue.

“I am small ‘c’ conservative. I was raised in a traditional setting, so I have these values, but I also have lots of other values that aren’t conservative. So, let me decide about me.”

Don’t put hunting advocate Neil Fletcher in a box either.

“Full disclosure, I’m actually a vegetarian.”

Maybe that surprises you. Maybe this from compassionate conservation advocate Dr. Shelley Alexander might surprise you.

“There are ethical principles around hunting. A vegetarian based diet? If anybody spent any time in a prairie system? Animals die. Animals are displaced. There is no clean way through any of these decisions.”

That’s why Anthony – an engineer and Twitter’s Thankful Outdoorsman – says good process, good ideas, good solutions always move beyond assumptions.

“When you hear something – if you hear somebody say they’re a hunter – don’t think trophy hunting. Don’t make the judgment. Ask questions. Be open-minded. And I think if people are, then people will learn. But if people are one-sided and very blinded, they shut down and it’s ‘my way or no way’, and that’s a problem.”

Which might be the most important point of all.

Every human is different. Every community is different. Every group of peoples are different.

When we speak for or assume that subtle differences don’t exist, we do a disservice to our democracy and the ideals we stand for. We lose our ability to think critically. We can’t act creatively. We get locked into paradigms stale and failed.

And maybe turning the kaleidoscope will help. Maybe changing the dynamics of a decision-making axis from economy versus environment to culture or development will help us gain a new appreciation for those we disagree with – help us better separate what we need from what we want.

Or not.

But if we fail to be truly honest about our problems and the diversity of opinions, we render every debate stupid – and simplicity is where good ideas – good process – goes to die.

Which is why we need to be reminded of this point, made by BC’s former Lieutenant Governor, Janet Austin:

“So often have the expectation that there are simple answers to really complex problems. For every complex problem there is a simple, wrong solution.”

And that’s why it’s too late in the game to simply stand against something.

What matters now is standing for something.

Right, journalist Dawna Friesen?

“What I’m looking for now are those people who are not just saying, ‘we need change and we should listen to young people’, but are coming up with ideas and theories about how to bridge that divide between all the adults talking and the children who are saying ‘enough talk.’”

In other words, don’t simply oppose a problem or a solution because you don’t like it. As biodiversity champion Harvey Locke argues, “it’s time for us to become wise and think together about how we can make the world work, given what we’ve done to it, given our capacity and given what we know. We can’t to stick our heads in the sand and say it can’t be done for this reason, can’t be done for that reason. Move ahead, not behind. Don’t be looking for a hundred critiques; look for solutions to the challenges that we all face.”

In other words, disagree by unleashing your creativity and the next, better idea.

Because, remember, we need your creativity. We need you to contribute your ideas and perspectives – your passions and your skills – to the problems at hand so we can find the better answers.

As Harvey argues: “None of us knows exactly how change is made – at any scale, by anyone, anywhere – but we do know that nothing changes if no one tries.”

True. Nothing changes when we don’t make our voice heard and everything can change when we do.

So heed these words from our former prime minister Kim Campbell:

“Go for it.” 

Indeed.

After all, this story doesn’t have an end because we haven’t written the final chapter; we haven’t settled on our chosen course or the proper solution to this question we’ve been debating.

That will be up to you.

And, sure, not every species can be saved. Not every species can be returned to land they once called home. But by the same token, we don’t have to lose every species either. We can save what we fear losing. We can bring back some of what we’ve already lost.

The path – the process – to making that choice – the right choice, the better choice – won’t be easy.

And who knows what your better choices will mean for Mount Robson’s future, for Canada’s future, for our collective future. But we’ll never know if you don’t choose hope over despair, if you don’t choose acting over wishing.

Think about it.

Mount Robson Provincial Park isn’t perfect. It’s still missing species that once called it home. It’s still struggling to balance people and nature even within a space designated for nature. It’s still working to build its relationship with its neighbours and repair its relationship with its former stewards.

As Mount Robson’s Elliott Ingles says, “We’ll strengthen that relationship and we’ll just keep moving forward.”

Which is important. After all, as Elliott adds, it’s a place that matters.

“Mount Robson is such a special place to focus on.”

And trying for better, here or anywhere, is not only possible but important. After all, Elliott tells us, “We’re at the beginning. We’re at the beginning of the trail to a long road.”

Yet no matter how long or hard the road ahead might be, Elliott and his team have never quit – never stopped working for that better tomorrow.

And, ultimately, that’s all we can ask: To demand better of ourselves, of each other, of our communities and of our world.

Demand better and try hard to do better: Make better decisions, be more thoughtful citizens and work together – in hard times and good, with those we love and with those we hate – to create better.

For people. For nature. For all. Today, tomorrow and for generations to come.

It might seem impossible. But it’s not.

After all, this story is the real-world application of everything you’ve learned in this class. You now have the tools – and we already know you have the creativity.

The answer to this problem is where politics and socials meet biodiversity and science. It’s where economics and careers meet research and experience. It’s the basis for our art, the springboard for our stories.

This question? Can we save every species? It’s not going to be answered by Caribou Patrol or Marie-Eve Marchand. Nor Hal Kvisle or Kerry Bowman or Joel McKay or Victoria Lukasik.

Answering this question? It’s your opportunity to do your part, in ways big and small, now and in the future, to author your story – and ours – in ways no one has previously imagined.

In other words, the answers? The right answers? The better answers? They’re in you.

Time to find yours and share them with the world.

Your time is now.