Environmental, Social, and Economic Challenge: An Inspection of the Rennie’s River System
Andrew King
Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Author Note** This paper was prepared for Environmental Studies 1000, taught by Professor Decker. The author wishes to thank Ian Gall and Chris Warford of the Salmonid Association of Eastern Newfoundland for their help in providing information on the work being done on the Rennie’s River system.
The Challenge
Environmental challenges come in many forms. Whether habitats are being depleted due to development, the air is being polluted due to the burning of fossil fuels, or a species is on the verge of extinction, there seems to be no shortage of these issues in present day. As complex as these issues are, they all share one thing in common: they are never simply environmental in nature.
Humankind’s connection to nature runs deep. We have built our societies, economies, and policies around the environment. This means that when an environmental challenge presents itself, it is inherently more than simply an environmental challenge. If we were to, in some terrible outcome, run out of clean water to consume, this would not simply be a problem concerning the environment. Entire social systems and economies would be affected by this change. Environment and industry are interconnected in this fashion.
To put things simply, rivers are important. We could not survive without them. Not only do they support aquatic life and biodiversity, but, as Arthington, Bunn, Poff, and Naiman (2006) put it: they “maintain essential ecosystem goods and services” (p. 1311). These goods and services in turn help fuel economies, societies, and civilization. An example most of us have seen in some way or another is a dam. Hydropower already provides, according to Smith, roughly 16% of the world’s power (p. 71). This power, in part, allows us to live modern life as we know it, with access to light, heat, electronics, and other modern technologies.
Not only do rivers generate power, they are an important part of many cultures. In the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, which has a rich history of fishing, rivers are an important part of the culture. For years the Atlantic salmon, or Salmo Salar, found abundantly in the province’s rivers have been a source of food, amusement, and challenge to those seeking to catch one. These “silver bullets”, as they are commonly referred to, are one of the most challenging fish to catch, and to retain a salmon is an admirable task requiring skill and grace. Ultimately, for the Newfoundland people, rivers are more than just a source of water or electricity; they are a sacred place where one can put oneself to the test against a jewel of nature.
Unfortunately, not all Newfoundlanders share the same regard for salmon and rivers. Some are ignorant of them and their importance to culture and society. This ignorance has led to the destruction of river systems, and decline in various salmon populations throughout the island. Ignorance of activities such as pollution has helped degrade the natural habitat in certain rivers, and littering in and around rivers has become a serious problem. Rivers such as the Terra Nova have had their salmon populations diminish to the point that it is forbidden to retain fish from them, turning to catch-and-release practices to hopefully relieve some of the stress on the salmon population. This scenario applies to many of the rivers on the island’s densely populated Avalon Peninsula.
The pinnacle example of this ignorance and destruction is found right in the middle of Newfoundland’s capital, St. John’s. St. John’s is a vibrant city full of artistic talent, oil-generated wealth from the recent boom of offshore drilling operations, and heritage. Yet, somehow the Rennie’s River system seems to have been forgotten, ignored by the local population. Rennie’s River was once pristine and clean, hosting a healthy diversity of species and populations (I. Gall, personal communication, November 26, 2015). Throughout recent years during the city’s development, the river system’s health has been degraded. According to the Northeast Avalon Atlantic Coastal Action Program, or NAACAP (2015), pollution and litter along the river has led to the destruction of its waters and habitat. NAACAP (2015), also found that erosion of the
river banks were destroying habitat. The habitat that has been destroyed in Rennie’s River is unfortunately also the area where the salmon choose to spawn most frequently.
The river, in its natural form, is not helpful to the migration of salmon through its waters. At the mouth of the river, as it flows into the ocean waters at Quidi Vidi, there is a particularly tough waterfall for salmon to navigate. A summary by the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation says that salmon are only able to pass through these falls at extremely high flow rates, as they require a certain water depth to jump up and over this obstacle (A). A study on river flow levels and sustainability by Leonardsson, Lundqvist, McKinnell, and Rivinoja (2008) found that “these [flow] disturbances caused most […] salmon to abandon their upstream spawning migration” (p. 125). Basically, disturbances such as the ones found in Rennie’s River cause salmon to abandon reproduction, which in turns causes massive reductions in salmon population. Pollution, along with this geographical hardship, have combined their effects on the salmon’s mortality, and hurt the overall health of the river system.
Simply put, the salmon are an essential part of the river ecosystem. The river, in turn, plays an essential part in supporting local ecosystems and biodiversity. A report by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (2010) indicates that abundance levels of salmon in Newfoundland Rivers are low due to low poor salmon survival rates. Salmon stocks in Rennie’s River have been diminished to virtually nothing, with the run being merely a remnant of what it was years ago (I. Gall, personal communication, November 26, 2015). It is fair to assume, based on the research by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and information from Mr. Gall, that the salmon stock depletion in the river is more than likely caused by the degradation of their spawning habitat due to litter and pollution, as well as the geographical barrier created by the waterfall that was previously mentioned.
It is in our best interest to restore the salmon population in Rennie’s River, and save the ecosystem as a whole. The mere fact that the salmon population has been depleted is an environmental challenge. Social implications come with this environmental challenge. No one can fish in the river if there are no salmon to be caught. As salmon fishing is a historically cultural practice in Newfoundland, this decline clearly has cultural ramifications. Finally, no one wants an unhealthy river in the middle of their city. This means social interests are also at stake with this environmental challenge.
This environmental challenge also has economic implications. Businesses plow snow and debris near the river, and are affected when they are no longer able to continue with this practice (I. Gall, personal communication, November 26, 2015). Having to seek out alternate areas to push this snow places a financial burden on these businesses, which in turn affects local economy. Secondly, if the river is unhealthy, and no salmon can be found in it, this affects local tourism in a negative way. According to information from the Department of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development (2015), the tourism industry generated $288 million dollars in Gross Domestic Product for the Newfoundland economy in 2010, and accounted for “1.1% of the economy”. Salmon are one of the major attractions to tourists in Newfoundland. The Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation (2011), lists that only 5% of overnight visitors to the St. John’s region participated in non-guided fishing. Without salmon in the river, and with the river’s habitat destroyed, this hurts tourism generated by salmon fishing. This then diminishes revenue to the local economy that is, in part, generated by this potential tourism.
What we have seen here is that environmental challenges never have solely environmental implications. They stem into the realm of social and economic challenges as well. The waterfall at the mouth of Rennie’s River makes it difficult for salmon to re-enter the river system. This fact, along with river pollution and habitat destruction, has depleted the river’s salmon population by a large amount. The depletion of the salmon population and the condition of the river are an environmental challenge. This challenge has social and economic implications linked directly to it. A river should be a thriving hub for all organisms to enjoy. Unfortunately, for Rennie’s River, this is not the case.
The Solution
How might Rennie’s River be saved? In order for a solution to be feasible, the concerns of all parties must be considered, as well as the specific details pertaining to the challenge. This is called context. As Dearden and Mitchell explain, context is “the specific characteristics of a specific time and place” (p. 157). This means that solutions will be custom-designed and pertain to the specific attributes of the challenge at hand. To go about achieving such a solution, Brierley, Gregory, and Le Heron state that catchment-scale planning, ecosystem-based approaches, participatory approaches, and adaptive management are all elements of sustainable river management, and must be considered (2011). This incorporates all aspects of context nicely. Physical and ecosystem-specific properties are considered under ecosystem-based management and catchment-scale planning; while participatory approaches imply the need for human dimensions within managing rivers. Adaptive management speaks to the need for constant monitoring, and readiness to adapt. Any solution suggested for Rennie’s River is not guaranteed to work in the long run, and managers need to be able to adapt to changes as context changes.
It has been established that the solution to the environmental challenges Rennie’s River provides must be multi-faceted. Catchment-scale is not an immediate challenge for the river. The ecosystem-based perspective of managing Rennie’s River provides plenty of dimensions to consider. For example, the geological issue of the waterfall near the mouth of the river must be considered. The degradation of the rivers ecosystem due to pollution and litter must also be addressed. The solution must also address the social and economic implications surrounding the environmental challenges of the river.
Considering the participatory approach, any stakeholders of the river should be included in the proposed solution. They include: the businesses located along the bank of the river, local government, tourists, managers of the local tourism industry, fishermen, salmon conservationists, construction contractors who might perform some of the work involved, civilians seeking use of river, and finally, nearby home/land owners. By considering the interests of all parties involved, any solution should be well-rounded and in everyone’s best interest. Stakeholders also come to bear the financial burden of the rivers restoration. Whether it is the government, and subsequent tax payers, businesses, the tourism industry, conservationists, or some combination thereof, someone must pay for the services involved with restoring the ecosystem. Dong, Ni, and Wang (2012) suggest that all stakeholders should share the cost, not just one or the other:
Suppose that a number of agents (e.g., firms, villages, municipalities, or countries) are connected in a river network. Some agents are located upstream and some downstream. In using the river network, agents may generate pollutants such as industrial chemicals, pesticides from agricultural runoff, or sewage. Consequently, a cost is incurred to each link of the network. These costs can be the costs that the agents must spend in order to clean up the polluted water to meet certain environmental standards. Or they can be the costs needed to maintain the water quality of the river network. Whatever these costs might be, they must be shared among the agents. (p. 368)
This is similar to what is happening in Rennie’s River. Except that instead of chemicals and pesticides from runoff, litter and debris is found in the river. This litter and debris comes from a multitude of sources (I. Gall, personal communication, November 26, 2015).
The proposed solution is delivered in three parts. First, the river system and its habitat must be upgraded. This involves cleaning litter, clearing debris, and cleaning runoff areas. In order to ensure longevity of the ecosystem, this phase must be monitored and maintained into the future. This is called active management; Dearden and Mitchell (1998) define active management as the “purposeful interference by resource and environmental managers in ecosystems […] includes habitat restoration” (p. 572). Active management plays an essential role in the success of the solution for Rennie’s River. The second part is the reintroduction of salmon to the river, in order to bring back biodiversity and create a once-again thriving ecosystem. This part involves remediating the waterfall at the mouth of the river, and planting eggs in the river at key spawning areas. Finally, one of the most important parts of this solution is education. As ignorance of local people is most likely the reason why the river ended up with so much litter in it in the first place, a serious challenge is to educate the local population about the importance of the river and its health.
Fortunately for Rennie’s River, the Salmonid Association of Eastern Newfoundland (SAEN) has already started implementing this solution. According to Ian Gall, members from SAEN, as well as various other organizations have, for the most part, cleaned the litter and debris from the river. They are also actively managing the ecosystem by engaging in river clean-up activities on a regular basis, or as the need presents itself (personal communication, November 26, 2015). This is good; by using volunteer help, SAEN not only addresses the environmental challenge, but also addresses social implications by educating anyone who is helping to clean the stream. Education and awareness will reduce some of the ignorance for what has happened in Rennie’s River, and allow citizens who normally could not use the river be part of its restoration. Since volunteer work is cost free, this is an economically-viable option. This reduces the amount of costs to be shared, as identified by Dong, Ni, and Wang, and gives some stakeholders an opportunity for direct contribution and input with the solution. It is also a great participatory approach; which Brierley et al. believe is a key part of sustainable river management.
The clearing of litter and small debris from the river does not, however, remedy the larger debris found in the river as a result of snow clearing by local businesses. This is where cost sharing and responsibility can be used to determine the best course of action. Since the businesses are responsible for the debris in a stream that is shared by many, they should be responsible for its removal. For example, one such business that is guilty of this is Hickman Motors. After being approached by SAEN, the company agreed to remove the debris from the section of river along their property (Ian Gall, personal communication, November 26, 2015). I believe that, for communal resources such as a river, this model of responsibility-determining-liability works best. Basically, if you are definitively responsible for an issue, you bear the liability of remedying it. This encourages all stakeholders to treat the river ethically, and not degrade it for others. Under this model, many people are responsible for helping Rennie’s River, as well as bigger businesses that caused much of the larger debris in the river.
The second part of the proposed solution for Rennie’s River, salmon reintroduction, has also already begun. The Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation (B) summarizes the work completed as of 2014:
In 2012 SAEN commenced a project to reintroduce salmon to the Rennie’s River, St. John’s. Hatch rates from in-stream scotty incubators have been good and young of the year have already been found. In order to make this reintroduction successful we need to ensure that returning adults have optimal spawning habitat. We have identified an area adjacent to the Avalon Mall with deep holding pools immediately downstream from a straight riffled area where we anticipate salmon would spawn. The current project would restore this area by installing 5 low head barriers. Each chamber will be filled with coarse spawning stone. We will also add topsoil and plant natural grasses and shrubs to stabilize the banks and stop sediment influx. Preparation of this site will ensure future generations of wild salmon.
To go along with the introduction of salmon eggs, in the spring and summer of 2015 SAEN completed the remediation of the waterfall. Small pools were drilled into the existing rock features, creating areas for the salmon to rest as they jump up and over the waterfall (I. Gall, personal communication, November 26, 2015). This is called a salmon ladder, and will allow future generations of salmon to return to the river more successfully, decreasing the mortality rate at the waterfall.
The members of SAEN have shown good examples of ecosystem-based approaches, catchment-scale management, and adaptive management here. The need to adapt to, and in this case interfere with, the physical geography in order to support biodiversity is a prime example of adaptive management. They recognized the need for this through their ecosystem-based approach and catchment-scale planning. Their emphasis on returning biodiversity to the river and creating a healthy ecosystem demonstrates their use of an ecosystem approach. They also recognized that the waterfall was reducing their ability to achieve their goal, based on catchment-scale planning. According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, catchment is “something that catches water” or “the amount of water caught”. Catchment-scale is then the scale, or extent of water the river can catch and hold. This directly affects flow rates in the river, as bigger catchment scale leads to more water in the river. With more water in the river system, flow rates will be higher. SAEN recognized the smaller catchment-scale of Rennie’s River; it is not high enough to sustain the necessary flow rates to allow salmon to navigate the water fall without assistance (I. Gall, personal communication, November 26, 2015). In this sense, they have used catchment-scale planning and an ecosystem-based approach to adapt their management to the specific context of the issues in Rennie’s River. This is a glowing example of sustainable river management.
Going forward, part three of the solution is continued monitoring of the river’s condition, and education. Education is a major aspect of many environmental challenges. In the case of Rennie’s River, some of the issues could have been prevented by educating and informing local people about the river. Many do not realize just how important resources such as this are, and the role they play in their greater ecosystems. Educating the local population can help prevent problems like this from happening in the future, and create awareness for other environmental challenges. Rennie’s River must be monitored regularly to make sure its condition is maintained, and salmon, as well as other species, are thriving as part of its ecosystem.
As outlined in the first half of this paper, Rennie’s River’s situation also has multiple social and economic implications. Socially, the river can not be used for recreation or fishing. It is not pure and does not allow citizens to feel a connection with nature, as some might desire. The solution being implemented directly resolves this by purifying the river, and returning salmon to the river so that it might be once again used for fishing. This will, in turn, promote the local economy, dealing with the economic implications as well. SAEN has also done their part in minimizing the cost of restoring the river, which was a direct economic implication of the challenge with the river. By dealing with all aspects, environmental, social, and economic, the solution creates not only environmental sustainability, but cultural and economic sustainability as well.
Rennie’s River is an example of an environmental challenge that is being resolved in the right way. The river system has been degraded, but thanks to sustainable management practices, its future is looking bright. Rennie’s River is on its way to becoming a vibrant social area that people can use for recreation, enjoyment, and appreciation. If salmon take to the river successfully, there is potential for the river to generate revenue for the local economy by way of tourism. As beneficial as Rennie’s River is, it is nearly impossible to appreciate, or place a definitive value, on all of the services and benefits provided by the river ecosystem. The natural environment as a whole gives humankind life as we know it. Our societies, economies, and lifestyles would not be possible without it. It is important to recognize this interconnectedness for all environmental challenges, and resolve them in a sustainable way that promotes resilience.
References
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