Ancient Indigenous 'clam gardens' could be modern-day climate solution
CBC
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For close to four centuries, "clam gardens" on beaches on the west coast of B.C. have provided First Nations with a supply of not just clams but other types of seafood.
In the aftermath of the brutal 2021 heat dome on the West Coast, there's renewed interest in this ancient aquaculture technique.
Five days of stifling heat killed hundreds of people and billions of sea creatures. But scientific experimentation by researchers from Simon Fraser University, in collaboration with Coastal Salish First Nations, indicates clam gardens help sea life stay cooler.
The research aims to show how ancient Indigenous practices offer a modern-day solution to coping with climate change.
SFU master's student Emily Spencer wanted to know whether the clam gardens, with their steady supply of cool water, could help keep shellfish cooler and protect them from future episodes of extreme heat.
Ken Thomas was more than willing to demonstrate the age-old practices of maintaining clam gardens on a recent visit to Russell Island, which lies close to the better-known Saltspring Island, off the southeast coast of Vancouver Island.
He's intimately involved with the research being carried out here. A tall, broad-shouldered man in his 50s, Thomas is in charge of fisheries, wildlife and natural resources for the Penelakut First Nation.
He picked up a three-pronged rake and began "tilling" the sand. As he pulled the rake down, he explained that it helps keep the beach from becoming "hard and dormant." It also revealed small clams and crabs living close to the sand's surface.
When the idea of reconstructing a clam garden on this beach was broached a few years ago, Thomas wasn't convinced. Elders directed him and others to pick up large rocks from higher up the shore and arrange them to form a rough seawall close to the low tide line.
"At first it was, 'OK, yeah, I'll go move rocks, whatever,'" Thomas told What On Earth. But something shifted in him as he heard the elders tell stories from the past. He began to understand and appreciate how a technique so old could work so well for him and his children.
"It really touched me in a way that I can't explain," Thomas said. "Every time I moved a rock and placed it on the wall, I was like, wow, my ancestors touched these rocks, and here I am putting it back, restoring it back to what it was meant for."
