Autobiography of a River

August-September 2000

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Bill Proctor

Bill took us on a river our last summer.   Photo: Laurie MacBride

Hello. I am the Ahta River. I am not a big river, only nine miles long, but I am a very healthy river. My headwaters originate in British Columbia's Coast Range.

My main flow comes from a beautiful little alpine lake which is nestled in the middle of a large alpine meadow. This little lake is fed by many small streams that run off the surrounding mountains. These streams and lakes all have crystal clear water which stays cool in summer because of all the small glaciers on the surrounding mountains.

Mountain goats, deer, black bear, grizzly bear, and wolves all live in my valley year round. Many species of fur-bearing animals live along my banks. Beavers live here and build dams in some of my small feeder streams. I love beavers as they help me in my flood control and also make little ponds for some of my baby fish to live and grow in.

I also love the bears and wolves because they pack the salmon they feed on back into the trees and in the process they leave a lot of scraps which in turn help to fertilize all the trees and plants that grow along my banks.

As I flow towards the sea, I gain more water along the way, creating deep pools and long ripples which makes for good salmon spawning habitat.

I love the summer and fall when the great chinook, the silver coho, the chum and sockeye and flashing thousands of pinks flow into me to lay their eggs and die and begin a new cycle. With the salmon come all the creatures that feed on the salmon.

Seals, sea lions and river otters all come to my estuary and like the bears that feed on the land and leave the scraps to nourish it, they also leave a lot of scraps for all the creatures, such as crabs, prawns and shrimp, that live on the bottom of my estuary.

My estuary is located at the head of Bond Sound. Bond Sound is a little known inlet and a very beautiful place into which I have been flowing unchanged for over 10,000 years. I have watched trees grow and mature and die and fall down and rot to help feed the new growth. I love all the trees and plants that grow in my valley as they also help to keep me from flooding when it rains really hard. The alders grow close to me, lean over me and help keep me cool in the hot summer days. And it is cool water that the salmon need. The roots of the alders hold the soil firmly and keep my banks from eroding.

I really miss the days gone by when the First people had a big village on my banks. It made me feel important as I helped feed them with my salmon and clothe them with pelts from animals that lived on my banks. I also helped to house them with shakes made from the big cedars that grow along my banks and those cedars also gave them canoes to travel the seas.

For eons I have just flowed along taking care of all the creatures, large and small, that live in me and my valley.

But lately there have been a lot of people coming to my valley and doing strange things such as hanging ribbons on the trees and spraying paint on them. I don't know what these people are doing. I sure hope they are not going to cut down any of my trees like they have done to my close neighbor, the Ahta Valley Creek. They have clear cut her banks and now when it rains she floods and there are slides all along her.

I guess for now, I will just have to wait and see what my fate will be. I feel very optimistic as there are a few people who come to walk along my banks and I can feel that they love me and my beauty. I know they want me to remain just as I am. So for now, I will just keep flowing.

Bill Proctor has lived all his life in and around the waters of the Broughton Archipelago. For tours to Bond Sound and the Ahta River call Bill on his cellphone at 250-949-1199. The book, Heart of the Raincoast by Alexandra Morton - See the review in the December January 1999 issue (Horsdal and Schubart, 1998), is Bill's life story.