Page 84 — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 5, 1992 An angler’s winter of d Highway 16 was bare but the sand trucks had dumped gravel on it anyway — out of habit, I guessed, it being January and all. Part of my mind was oc- cupied with navigation, the rest with thoughts of change. Nature is dynamic — in a cons- tant state of flux. Until now nature changed and we adapted. Now our collective actions may, for the first time, have effected a change in nature that our species will be unable to tolerate, I glanced away from the twists and turns of the pave- ment to the river. There was no ice anchored to the rocks near shore, no snow to capture the tracks of moose or record the hunt of a fox. I pondered our status as the largest and most abundant nuisance animals on the planet, and thought of an essay I’d recently read in the New Yorker wherein the author wrote of the slow and incremental decay of his surroundings as a result of environmental change. The writer spoke of no longer wan- ting to take walks in the woods near his home in rural New York State because visiting a sick friend is never pleasant. - The piece was called The End of Nature. It was mistitled. Nature will not end, Nature will change, so dramatically that, adaptable and technologically facile as we are, we may not be able to survive in the new altered state. Nature may shift into high gear and leave us behind. A logging truck roared by, spitting a chunk of rock from one of its tires. ] winced as it hit the windshield, stopped think- ing for a moment, then slipped back into the contemplative mode and began considering the The $keena Angler by Rob Brown irony of how we had taken so many steps back from the nuclear abyss only to once again be faced with the possibility of annihilating the present and the past simultaneously this time, because of an environmental cataclysm of our own making. Morbid thoughts brought on by a SAD, toothless winter. At Cedarvale a bank of diffuse sunlight broke through over the tops of the mountains, I barely recognized it. At Kitwanga I turned and crossed the bridge into the village. Here there was some snow, but not much. The trees were black and bare. os After attending to business, I drove down to the Kitwanga River. I’d only been on the river once before: late in the fall with Mike when we struggled through the snow and arrived, sweating, at the river to find it to low and clear to hide a fish, We kept our hooks in their keepers and watched the birds. The river was -running peacefully through the cotton- wood groves, It's a small stream even when the water is high. Still it's held some very large summer steelhead. 1 walked back to the truck and drove into town, stopping at the service iscontent station to fill up with en- vironmentally unfriendly diesel , fuel. “Mild winter,’ I said as struggled to open the hood so the attendant could check the oil. “T like it,”? he replied, wiping his hands with a rag. ‘‘Not.tao much to shovel. Suits me just fine.’” I handed him my charge card. ‘*River’s: open. Anybody fishing?” I asked. One guy.’’ “He been getting any?”? “Oh yeah, five to 15 every time he goes. Fishes with’a net, though. Indian fella.” “That's a hell of a lot of fish,’ I ventured. “He's feedin’ a couple of families in town. Mill’s down, Times are tough.” I put my card back in my wallet and drove off thinking of the summer run steelhead that were holding off the mouth of the Kitwanga. Fish that entered fresh water in July and will not spawn until May. Fish that were never. abundant and* are ex: tremely scarce this year, | -The -netter, for -all. his benevolent intentions, obvious- ly: knows nothing of the habits of.the animals he has been gill. ing. He is likely pushing that particular strain of steelhead to ‘the edge of- extinction: The Seven Sisters were wrap- ped in cloud when I passed by, The last of the weak’ sunlight was fading as I descended into the grey fog that hung in the valley along the route to Ter. race, My thoughts slipped back in- to low gear. I recalled the words of a biologist who said the death of birth was at the heart of the decline of ecosystems, and I wondered if this dull, grey winter would ever end. SPORTS NEWS _ | JEFF NAGEL 638-7183 Native teams clash TERRACE — Twenty-six teams hit the court next Mon- day for top honours in the 33rd annual All Native Men’s Basketball Tournament at the Prince Rupert Civic Centre. Fourteen teams are to com- TERRACE STANDARD Swim team wins meet TERRACE — Terrace Bluebacks swim- mers sparkled in the final day of relays to surge ahead and win the Kitimat Marlins’s invitational swim meet. « Down by nearly 20 points entering the final round of racing, they had to win virtually every relay race to put the Ter- race club on top in overall points. That’s when Terrace club coach Bill Nash called his swimmers aside and gave them one of his classic pep talks. Some parents think the grizzled rough-edged Bluebacks coach is too “[ really am a tough old snot 1 guess,’ Nash said. ‘‘But it pays off in spades when you get down and dirty,” The Bluebacks went back to the pool and won eight out of 10 of the remaining relays to push ahead and win the meet by 15 points. “Kitimat really thought they had that meet sewn up,’’ Nash said, crediting the | discipline of the Bluebacks. “I really think we've got the toughest group of kids you’ve ever seen.” He said 80 per cent of the Terrace 24-26 races, and also noted that only half of the Bluebacks team was there. Terrace won the club aggregate with 701 points, edging out second-place Kitimat with 686. Prince Rupert had 593, Masset had 59 and Smithers had 21. _ The Bluebacks’ individual aggregate winners were: Jason Kumpolt — third (age 8 and under boys), Marina Checkley — third (age 10 and under girls), Garth Coxford — first (age 11-12 boys), Tina Holland — second (age 11-12 girls), Cory Holland — second (age 13-14 boys), David Vanderlee — — first (age 13-14 girls), Aimee Peacock — second (age 13-14 girls), Denise Vanderlee — first (senior girls), Torl Mackenzie — second (senior girls). Nash said two more Terrace swim- mers qualified for ‘AAA’ provincials at the meet —-Marina Checkley and Chris Kerman, both age 10 and under. Their next meet is the senior provin- cials and Western Canadian Champion- ships in New Westminster this weekend. Competing there will be Jocelyn Cox- ford, Aimee Peacock, and David and demanding at times. swimmers swam best times at the Jan. Denise Vanderlee. j pete in intermediat division... and another dozen will I clash in” ‘senior division, Unlike last year, when the Kermode Friendship Centre sponsored an intermediate team, there will be no Terrace team this year, But several players from that team — including former Caledonia) Kermodes Jackie Brown and Frank Genaille — have moved up to senior divi- sion to suit up with the New Aiyansh squad: New Aiyansh ~ plays its. first game. against Hartley Bay at 1 p.m, Monday. Several other Nass Valley — teams will be out in force at the tournament. The Sons of Kincolith take the court al 8 p.m. Tuesday against the senior division vic- tors of an earlier match between the Siksika Nation, of Alberta, and the Haida Nation. In intermediate division, Greenville Athletic Club takes on the Prince Rupert Colts at 9:30 a.m. Monday. The Canyon City Lizards face Port Simpson at 4 p.m. Monday. And the Sons of Kincolith have a first round bye,. but face the winner of Metlakatla, B.C. versus Bella Coola. The Haisla Braves, from Kitamaat Village, will also com- pete in. both. intermediate and senior divisions, Masset is the intermediate all- native defending champion. In the senior division the defen- ding champs and acknowledged favourites this year are Mus- queam, competing this year under the banner of the Salish Nation. As many as 300 players, coaches and’ managers’ are ex- pected to be on hand. The tournament is regarded as being far superior to the pro- vincial All Native Champion- ship Tournaments that have evolved as the sport's populari- ty has grown. Part of the reason is the draw (the system can be compared somewhat to the one used by the B.C. High School Boys’ and Girls’ Basketball Associations, from single A to triple AAA). ; -Tournament. organizers in- dicate all 1,700 seats are almost sold out already for the final two days of the tournament. Northern Native Broad- casting will broadcast three games a day from Monday to Thursday. On Friday and Satur- day they will be broadcasting four games a day. Shit ira eysni i Hae hen a Wt hist Vs, a kier tops slalom TERRACE — Terrace skier George Schibli is Whistler- bound after qualifying for na- tional masters championships there in northern zone qualifiers at Hudson Bay Mountain. _ Schibli was racing there.in the Class IV (age 40-44) division with 64 other masters racers from across northern B.C, in the 1992 BMW Masters Alpine Race on Jan, 25-26 in Smithers. In Saturday’s: giant slalom, Schibli turned in times of 50.97 seconds and 49.45 seconds fora combined GS time of 1:39.62 and second place in his division. Sunday’s more challenging slalom event saw Schibli take first place in his division with times of 1:01.53 and 59.48 Thornhill takes TERRACE — Thornhill Jr. Secondary’s Junior girls basketball team cruised to victory in ac- tion in Houston two weekends ago. The Thornhill Timber Wolves beat Hazelton 60-19 and defeated Houston §0-10 to emerge at the top of the round robin and face Smithers in the final. They managed to beat Smithers by a convin- cing 45-25 margin in the final to emerge vic- seconds in his two runs, That gave him a combined weekend total of 45 race points — tied for first with Brian Hall. Hoth racers will compete in Whistler in April as. northern qualifiers for that division. Kitimat's Irja Juustila was the fastest woman in the slalom with her two-race combined time of 2:09.94, In the giant slalom she was second — six- tenths of a second behind Smithers’ Dawn. Remington — with ‘a combined time of 1:44.73, Juustila and Remington ‘tied in points in Class V (age 35-39) and both qualified for Whistler. The fastest overall times in the Saturday GS went to Smithers racers Peter Kuchar and Dawn Remington. The fastest man in the Sunday slalom was Smithers’ Daniel Kostadinov. All other qualifiers, except Prince George skier Paul Bek- ken, are from Smithers. They are: Rose Booth (Class Vi — Women), Joan Miller (Class IV), Marie Line Fortin (Class IID, Natalie Charlton (Class ID), Line Chevalier (Class I), John Lapadat (Class IX — Men), Theo Sikkes (Class VII), Paul Challen (Class VI), Bill Rem- ington (Class V), Tom Havard (Class 111), Peter Kuchar (Class 11), Lorne Buchanan (Class 1), Trent Collison (Class A). tournament torious in the mint-tournament. Russelle Howes was high scorer in the final for Thornhill. Coach Shannon Murdoch said three Thor- nhill players were named all stars — Tanis Trottier, Eria Peacock and Autumn Richard. Last weekend the team was off to Prince George to compete in a four-team tourney hosted by Duchess Park. third (age 13-14 boys), Jocelyn Coxford AM MATT KERBY and Greg Buck am Secondary school wrestlers who 1 Park Middle School.in Smithers. B.taking the silver in the 60-kilo heel pose : Wrestling showdown were among the Skeena Jr. picked up medals at a 10-school wrestling tourney at Chandler Buck went undefeated in four matches to take the gold in the - | 63-kilogram division. Kerby won three matches for the 74-kilo gold medal. And Skeena’s Lakhbir 7 Jaswal narrowly lost in the final, division. Several wrestlers. from ’ Skeena and Caledonia made the trip to Smithers. This weekend they're at home to host the zone playdowns. Action gets underway at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in the Skeena gym. —THE HAMMER STINGING DELIVERY: A Caledonia student belts back a return in badminton practice last week,