Ahousaht, Wild Side Heritage Trail
Map of Flores Island showing hiking route
Click on map to enlarge.
Ahousaht Welcome songs starts trail celebration.
A project of vision and hope
by Susan Jones, Project Coordinator
The dream of a world-class hiking trail on beautiful Flores Island began three years ago. Several of the Ahousaht women and I formed Walk the Wild Side, a First Nations women's eco-tourism initiative, to secure steady jobs and income for our community.
One cold morning in March of 1993 we put the call out over the VHF for help in clearing the Ahousaht's traditional route from their village to the wild side beaches of Flores Island. Fifteen men, women and children came to help clear the brush and fallen trees from the path. That first summer, our sweat equity and $158 investment in a brochure and posters for all the tourist spots in Tofino resulted in $19,000 worth of art sales, seabus rides and trail guide wages.
Within just one year tourist use had started to degrade the newly cleared trail. Our Walk the Wild Side guides estimated that over 8,000 people per year were walking, kayaking and boating to the beaches on Flores. Ahousaht elders were prepared to shut down the muddy trail unless measures were taken to protect the environment.
"Choosing the route was not an easy process. The Elders, Herdeditary Chiefs and Band Council gave this matter a great deal of thought and attention. It was extremely important
to the people of Ahousaht to choose a route that would show off the natural wonders of Ahousaht First Nations territory while safeguarding the environment and historical
reocrds from damage by well-meaning hikers."
-Chief Sid Sam Sr., Chief Councillor, Ahousaht First Nations.
From an article Trail Route Chosen on Flores Island in the Nuuchah-nulth's Ha-Shilth newspaper Vol.23-No.6. June 3, 1996.
That summer (1994) I met for the first time Adriane Carr and Paul George, Directors of Western Canada Wilderness Committee. They agreed to help. Adriane and I worked closely with the elected Ahousaht chief at that time, Louie Frank, to develop a joint Ahousaht Band Council-Wilderness Committee proposal, the Ahousaht Wild Side Heritage Trail and Eco-Tourism Project, to submit to Youth Services Canada (YSC) for funding. It took nine months to get YSC approval--with some pretty tense times thinking it wouldn't come through. When it did, it was the middle of winter.
In January, 1996, at the tail end of the biggest storms I've ever seen (the ones that generated over 100 landslides in Clayoquot Sound), Louie, Adriane and I journeyed to every community in the Clayoquot-Alberni district to tell people about the project and encourage youth to apply. By March we had received over 70 applications and hired five staff and twenty youth--ten native and ten non-native--who began to salvage wood from an old mill site and construct a boardwalk over the mucky Wild Side trail.
It was a profound moment on June 25, when I stood on the beautifully crafted boardwalk and joined the Ahousaht community celebration marking completion of the first 4 km. of the trail. "A powerful shared vision, hard work and hope," I thought, "that's what it takes to make things happen."
We haven't for a moment been able to stop fundraising for this project (trailbuilding is expensive!) But we found lots of great donors (see article far right). Most importantly, we found a source of strength in the people and especially the elders of Ahousaht, who offered advice and help every time it was needed.
For me, all the tough times are worth it to see the positive energy, dedication and inspiration in the faces of the youth working on the project, and to know that the community of Ahousaht will be able to use this trail to secure steady employment and protect their Island.
Susan Jones, Wild Side Project Coordinator
