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THIS&That Big Wig Punk Band teams


with Wilderness Systems East Coast-based band Big Wig has been alive and kicking for seven years, driving home fast, aggressive, political yet personal


punk music. What’s the connection to kayaking? Punk musicians who rip it up on the water. The members of Big Wig are sea kayakers pad- dling beaches such as Virginia Beach, the Florida Gulf and the odd dry grassy hill just for fun. During their summer tour Big Wig is opting for yakking and camping rather than stay- ing in hotels. “It’s cheaper, a lot more fun, and there’s no check out time,” said front man Tom Petta. Big Wig is sponsored by


Wilderness Systems and plan to bring their Wildy


kayaks along for their summer road trip. The cold, late Canadian winter stumped their camping plans and the day before leaving for Canada their tour van died. Unfortunately their rental had no racks and the trailer was jam packed and no kayaks would fit so the boats were left behind. Better luck next time guys!


As far as the music goes we spent the night bouncing around with the rest of the fans. Being a paddler I wore my sandals and ended up with a few painful toes. They did a kicking rendition of the Cheers theme song, with the fans


screaming along. The guys in Big Wig have influences like Weezer, NOFX and Social Distortion with Metallica considered as their roots. Tom says if you come to see their show expect to have a “great time filled with fun, loud music and maybe if you’re lucky you’ll get hurt”.


Overall I thought the show kicked ass! Being sponsored by Wildy I figured maybe we’d get some free paddles or gear tossed out to the audience. No such luck, just picts, puke and people.


—Matt Johns DOOMED DUNES golf course development pro-


posed for a Newfoundland provincial park Although Newfoundland, Canada’s most


eastern province, has over 17,000 kilometres of coastline, sand dunes are one of its rarest natu- ral features. Since 1966 one of these fragile ecosystems has been protected under the Provincial Park Act. Windmill Bight Provincial Park is located off Newfoundland’s northeast coast. In addition to sand dunes, Windmill Bight also hosts Newfoundland’s only protected Atlantic plateau bog, a salmon river, rare plants, and a freshwater lagoon that serves as a feed- ing area for nearly four dozen species of migra- tory birds. It’s a choice spot to view icebergs, both from the land and water and a favourite site of windsurfers. Now, Windmill Bight is under siege by a proposed golf course develop- ment.


This story is similar to one being played out


on the skirts of Prince Edward Island National Park where a scenic location has developers dreaming of swathes of grass and an 18-hole golf course resort adjacent to the fragile Greenwich sand dunes. That project has put the park on the Canadian Nature Federation’s Top 10 Most Endangered National Parks list for 2002. In Newfoundland, however, developers have recently been given the go ahead to actu- ally take an 80-hectare bite from protected provincial parkland.


Memorial University of Newfoundland’s geo- morphologist Norm Catto predicts that a golf course will destroy 80 to 85 percent of the sen- sitive sand-dune system. According to Peter Deering, Ecosystem Manager for Terra Nova National Park, there is also potential for pesti- cide and fertilizer contamination of wetland habitats. In addition, the proposed tapping of Windmill Bight Park’s scheduled salmon river for


6 FALL2002


the irrigation of fairways and greens could affect water quality and temperature. Yet, ignor- ing the recommendations of its own scientists, the provincial government has given the golf course development a green light and sheltered it from an environmental assessment process. Due to the amount of land required and the need for intense manipulation of natural regimes, Canada’s policy for national parks acknowledges that golf courses are inappropri- ate developments within parks. Conservation groups claim that, in contrast, the Newfoundland decision will weaken current leg- islation to protect provincial parks. At present, development projects within provincial parks are limited to five hectares. These groups say that Windmill Bight may have to be de-listed as a provincial park to allow the golf course develop- ment project. More significantly, they say, this action could lead the way to similar develop- ments in other provincial parks.


The Canadian Nature Federation and the Environmental Defense Fund have joined the Provincial Protected Areas Association to encourage public debate and lobby both levels of government for responsible decision-making. The groups say that the government’s request of its Parks Division to find alternate sites for a provincial park does not make sense given Windmill Bight’s unique habitats. Rather, they suggest that there must be alternate sites avail- able for a golf course given the area’s 150 kilo- metres of coastline. The groups say that having both a golf course and a protected park in the area would provide greater environmental and economic benefits for the region — while main- taining the ecological integrity of an important habitat.


Alison Dyer is a St. John’s, NF based freelance writer, kayaker, and hiker. squidink@avint.net.


Paddling in Paradise


by Alison Hughes In Paddling in


Paradise, Alison Hughes strays from the typical, techni- cal and often times bland guidebook style by blending adventure travel stories with some


guide book details to create an enticing and inspiring read with enough information to get you there and get you connected. Hughes’book creates a picture of the histo- ry, culture and lifestyle of Altantic Canada as seen from the seat of a kayak. Following an intro of each province with their differing characteristics and a fact file on getting there, information contacts and camping options, are tales of two extremely different coastal trips within that province.Paddling in Paradise does more than provide the reader with the who, what, when and how…it takes the reader to the Highlands of Cape Breton and the sandy beaches of Prince Edward Island making kayaking in Atlantic Canada a must on the list of life goals. Each trip has its own fact file with how to get there, other activities in the area, cli-


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