Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, and is distinguished by its many picturesque sheltered coves and anchorages, frequented by yachts and pleasure craft. The scenery consists of waterfalls, rugged glaciated peaks, and their steep forested slopes that fall into the ocean.
Its many inlets, islets, coves, and bays attract many pleasure craft each summer, when it is not uncommon for a hundred boats to share a small anchorage. The sound is home to a wide variety of wildlife and still relatively free from development, although some areas, such as Theodesia Inlet, show signs of clear-cut logging.
The area has a long history of use by First Nations and supports tremendous ecological diversity. From the time when Captain George Vancouver first visited the area to modern time Indigenous people have been pressured off their land and have lost access to most of their hunting and gathering spots due to environmental protection, tourists and pollution. Health authorities that are operated by First Nations groups are currently investigating the effects of environmental pollution in the area.
Land use in the marine area is now strictly controlled by the BC provincial government and any operations in this marine area that do not conform to the laws are eradicated.
Location and size
The park is located approximately 32 km north of Powell River and 150 km north of Vancouver. This provincial marine park, which is about 84 km2 in size is only accessible by boat.
Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park created by the Government of British Columbia in 1973, under the advocacy of MLA Don Lockstead and the New Democratic Party government, out of an area comprising and over of shoreline. The park is located at the confluence of Malaspina Inlet and Homfray Channel.
History
Desolation Sound was first named this way by Captain George Vancouver. When he first sailed there, he encountered what he described as mostly abandoned Native settlements, gloomy weather and barren land. It was, however, only temporarily empty due to a few factors. The first is that his visit likely came after a smallpox outbreak; second, it was the time of the year when most people would be inland hunting and gathering. Third, First Nations people were likely avoiding the Lekwiltok raiders. Another significant factor was that Vancouver’s view was influenced by “European cultural aesthetics,” as he didn't recognize most indigenous-altered landscapes as occupied by people. While Vancouver saw Desolation Sound as an unattractive and empty land, people later came to value it as full of untouched nature.
The history of Desolation Sound Marine Park is intimately connected with the erasure of First Peoples’ presence from their ancestral lands. What non-Indigenous people see as conservation efforts comes in direct conflict with the lives of the Sliammon First Nations (Tla'amin Nation), who used to live, hunt, gather and practice their culture on these lands. Many also see Indigenous People's presence as ruining nature's pristine emptiness. The Sliammon First Nations, however, provide an opposing narrative of unequal power relations and a homeland turned into a landscape for non-Native visitors, taken over and destroyed by outsiders. Starting from 1875, they were, over time, pushed out of their communities into small reserves, and in 1920, legislation was enacted allowing the government to unilaterally reduce allocated reserve land.
First Nations
As First Nations were pressured off their land, Desolation Sound once again became a wild and uninhabited paradise in the eyes of yachters and other people looking for a retreat from industrial modernity. And while the Sliammon tried to continue hunting, gathering and participating in cultural activities, parts of the area were leased to non-Indigenous residents with tourists and summer residents, increasing clashes of interest between them.