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in the past there has been an effort to marginalize paddlesports in Temagami. This is our way of responding and say- ing that paddlesports tourism is nothing to sneeze at.” Friends of Temagami took Johnston’s
conservative number and coupled it with survey research undertaken by Nipissing University and figures produced by the association of summer camps in the area to reach the $12.9 million figure. The surveys that were handed out to Tema- gami travelers simply asked: how many days are you staying and how much do you anticipate spending per day? Bob confessed that their final figure
WHAT’S THE VALUE
IN RECENT MONTHS, Temagami, a large wilderness area northwest of Al- gonquin Park, has been center stage for a battle between canoeists and conser- vationists against the provincial govern- ment and mining interests. Although the Temagami area is home to ancient red pine stands and several provincial parks, much of it is Crown land and not well protected. Friends of Temagami, outfitters,
conservationists, canoeists and out- doors folk are resisting efforts to strip the land for the mineral wealth. If you haven’t seen the numerous “Save Wolf Lake” videos being circulated online, I suggest you search for them on YouTube or Vimeo. It is a stunning place. The exploding commodity prices in
the last decade have caused a fury of natural resource extraction. Often the resource companies target the same areas that we paddle and portage; and for many of us, where we run trips and courses. As avid paddlers, conserving our
wilderness is in our blood and in our in- terest. Our students take our courses to learn how to paddle into pristine wilder- ness areas. If these areas are destroyed, our paddling businesses will suffer. In places like Temagami, resource
companies aren’t being challenged only by environmental concerns. Increas-
60 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SUMMER/FALL 2013
OF YOUR LOCAL ADVENTURE TRAVEL ECONOMY?
ingly, the value of local outdoor and adventure travel economies are being used to resist resource extraction. In May, I had the opportunity to talk
to Bob Olajos, Vice-President of Friends of Temagami, about his group’s efforts to resist mining developments in Wolf Lake and elsewhere in Temagami. A key development in their advocacy efforts was working with Nipissing University to produce research on the economic value of canoeing and outdoor travel in the Temagami area. The research found that canoeing and
other outdoor travel pursuits contrib- uted $12.9 million to the local economy annually. Bob told me that finding research
and data on the value of local outdoor travel economies is nearly impossible. In Temagami, the last formal research was produced by Lorne Johnston for a Mas- ters thesis at the University of Toronto in 1996 on the number of canoeists. Johnston calculated that 60,000 canoe-
ists per year represented roughly half of the total canoeing usage in Temagami; this didn’t account for the large youth camps in the area. Bob admits that Friends of Temagami
isn’t “trying to say that tourism is worth more than forestry or other industries. We aren’t disputing that other indus- tries have more economic value. But
“wouldn’t stand up to rigorous criti- cism”. But he refuses to apologize for that. He describes their research as “regular people trying to come up with a reasonable number where there are no numbers.” Bob encourages paddlers and out- door enthusiasts to organize and begin advocating for their areas: “If there was a group like ours in every region of the province, things would be dramatically different.”
His advice is simple. “Start at the beginning. Everyone starts at the same place; without the expertise required.” Don’t let your lack of expertise turn you away from advocating for your areas: “When we started, we didn’t have any expertise. But one thing led to another and eventually we had some expertise.” Talking to him, I could hear his frus-
tration with the lack of existing econom- ic research on outdoor travel in Canada. In the U.S., the Outdoor Industry As- sociation produces research and lobbies for the outdoor travel industry. Canada has a long way to go to catch
up to the U.S. in this regard. The good news is that what has to be done isn’t complicated. Get some like-minded peo- ple and organizations on board, draw up a quick survey, make it available, collect the data and come up with a number that reasonably represents the value of your area’s outdoor travel economy. Once you have that number, follow
the advice of Eric Williams in this edi- tion of Kanawa: take your research and get it published wherever you can and use it to advocate for the protection of your wilderness areas. ADRIAN CAMARA Kanawa Editor and Lake Canoe Instructor Bob Olajos welcomes any questions. Please email him at: rolajos@
friendsoftemagami.org.
PHOTO:
PORTAGEUR.CA
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