As the political, economic and cultural fabric of all regions of the British Columbia landscape grows more sophisticated, legislative remedies to environmental issues will become more difficult to execute. If our society's values towards resources are to change, the resource protection field may need to evolve from legislated protection to cultural protection based on appreciation and peer pressure. In this regard, natural park sites have the potential to influence the values which will be carried beyond that particular site. Protective attitudes towards the environment often grow out of a feeling of connection to, and an understanding of, particular places. The act of conferring park status on a natural place acknowledges that we consider it to be special and hence worthy of protection. The way in which this environment is planned, designed and managed has the potential to demonstrate environmental protection values while educating people about the natural world and our impact upon it. Retaining the true "spirit of place" in a natural area park is a worthy goal but often difficult to achieve. In British Columbia's Provincial Park System, a dual mandate to provide for recreational pursuits while protecting the environment creates problems for staff who must fulfill what is often a conflicting prescription. A detailed policy framework for facilities, based on explicitly examined values, would provide direction for decision making about park facilities. This thesis looks at the topic of retaining a "sense of place" in natural area parks, examines the issue of values and tradeoffs in park management, and offers a planning framework to operationalize the B.C. Parks mandate to protect and present provincial parks.

Large, infrequent "episodic" sediment transfers are commonly considered differently from "normal-regime" sediment-transfer activity. For example, in the important hillslope-gully-stream sediment cascade pathway in coastal British Columbia, debris slides and debris torrents are considered as "episodic events". On the other hand, lower-magnitude hillslope to gully-channel sediment transfers and fluvial sediment tranSport within gully and stream channels are usually considered as "normal-regime" activity, represented by annual yields. However, the results of this study illustrate the highly episodic nature of normal-regime fine-sediment transfers, which are closely linked to hydrometeorological and sediment-supply conditions. The results indicate that qualitative modelling of fine-sediment transfer activity, at the synoptic or event scale, should be possible based upon hydrometeorological and sediment-supply information. From such a model ~ the elements of which are presented in the concluding chapter ~ fine-sediment transfer activity could be forecast based upon regional weather forecasts. The study was conducted in Russell Creek Basin, on northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Fine-sediment transfer activity was monitored at a nested hierarchy of sites representing fine-sediment transfers from unstable hillslopes to a gully channel, suspended sediment transport out of the unstable gully and a nearby stable gully, and suspended sediment transport in Russell Creek near the mouth. Russell Creek Basin is located within Tsitika Watershed, which is the site of a British Columbia Ministry of Forests study dedicated to determining relative fine-sediment contributions from natural and logging-related sediment sources. The results of the Russell Creek study indicate that an event-based sediment sampling program is desirable and that at least some automated sampling is required. Furthermore, development of a qualitative sediment-transfer activity forecast model would be useful in interpretation of sample data and would allow efforts to be concentrated during the periods of greatest sediment-transfer activity.

The start-up of the Community Development Workers' Initiative (CDWI) aims at formally beginning the process of re-establishing community development practice within British Columbia's Ministry of Social Services (MSS). This report's goals are to document the MSS Community Development Workers1 (CDWs) perceptions of their practice, challenges, and successes both outside of and within the MSS. These goals are carried out within the context of organizational change theories and models. This research was conducted approximately one year after the start-up of the CDWI. This is an explorative/descriptive study which garners CDW input from questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. These two measures were utilized in order to yield qualitative data. Qualitative methods and Rothman's framework (three modes of community organization) are employed to extrapolate major themes. The findings reveal that most CDW respondents report their practice to reflect one or more of the three models described in Rothman's framework. Underlining this trend, the selection of community organizational strategies usually appears to be driven by a process involving the community and their identified needs and interests. Documentation and discussion also include CDWI community work constructs, the obstacles faced by the respondents, CDW's perceptions of MSS' s needs and interests, and the sampled CDW's recommendations surrounding organizational change through the use of a community development approach.

The intention of this thesis project will be primarily focused on issues of the cemetery that involve its utilization as a vehicle to cultivate an awareness of heritage and its role in establishing a framework on which to promote the sense of communal identity in an authentic manner. For as many divergent societies that co-exist on earth there are equally as many diverse ritualistic patterns involving death and dying particular to each society. Although the study of these ritualistic patterns is an intriguing one, with regard to utilization of the cemetery as a vehicle to strengthen the identity of place, I believe, it is essential to accommodate and enrich already accepted notions of death and dying particular to Vancouver and Canada. As a consequence of the country's age, it seems that there is always the pressure to import character and values from other places. To begin to define an identity and therefore cultivate community there has to be acknowledgment and acceptance of heritage as an initial point of growth. For these reasons, rather than replace an already existing set of rituals with foreign ideologies surrounding death and dying, it is crucial that existing rituals not be discarded. The proposed site for this project is the Grandview Cut rail corridor that extends between the False Creek Flats and Grandview Woodlands in East Vancouver. Specifically, the site is situated between Clark Drive on the west and Slocan Drive on the east.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of British Columbia principals with regard to the formal evaluation of teaching. Four major concepts were addressed a) the purpose of evaluation; b) the process of evaluation; c) the need for further principal training in evaluation; and, d) obstacles to carrying out evaluation. The sex of principals and years of experience as a principal were identified for further analysis because these variables are absent in the literature on formal evaluation. The data consisted of relevant clauses from all 75 British Columbia school district collective agreements and responses to a survey sent to the members of the British Columbia Principals' and Vice-Principals' Association. The achieved sample is 188 principals. The findings of this study show the conduct of formal evaluation is a responsibility willingly accepted by principals and that it is a function they consider they carry out well. Collective agreements say little about the purpose of evaluation. The majority of principals believe the most important purpose of evaluation is teacher growth and development. Female principals indicate a stronger orientation towards teacher growth and development than males but this difference may also be related to principals' different experience levels. Relatively few evaluations are carried out and only a very small proportion result in "less than satisfactory" reports. Evaluations leading to "satisfactory" and "less than satisfactory" reports are characterised in very different terms by principals. Anecdotal responses support the assertion made in the literature that principals believe they already know who their 'weak' teachers are before conducting an evaluation. British Columbia principals consider time as the primary obstacle to carrying out formal evaluation. Evaluation cycles and site management responsibilities are perceived as the major time consumers. Neither size of staff nor percentage of teaching time were identified as significant time barriers by the respondents. Principals do not label themselves as under-trained for the responsibility of formal evaluator of teaching. Moreover, master's specialty and previous training are not linked to further training needs nor to how well principals believe they do evaluation. Three policy recommendations emerge from this study: (1) to re-assess the role of principal as evaluator in the light of their wider responsibilities; (2) to consider extending the role of formal evaluator to educators other than school-based administrators; and (3) to re-assess the value of formal evaluation as currently practised.

This study provides detailed accounts of the perspectives on teaching and learning experienced by the instructors and participants in three career exploration programs for women. One of the programs was located at a community college, one at a private college, and one was offered through a non-profit agency. The perspectives of the women are represented by each individual's expressed attitudes, feelings, and ideas about how they experienced teaching and learning. I also examine and relate the accounts of the women to the ways in which teaching processes and learning objectives were created, influenced, and/or constrained by the broader social and administrative context in which the programs take place. Therefore, the study addressed the following broad questions: (1) What values and attitudes toward teaching and learning are expressed by instructors and how do they shape the pedagogical interactions that take place in these career education programs? (2) What has been the participants' experience of learning in these programs? And, (3) In what ways does the social, institutional, and political context in which the programs take place affect the teaching/ learning environment? This study originates from my interest as a feminist educator to gain a greater understanding of how critical and feminist pedagogical approaches are manifested in actual practice, in this case, three particular career exploration programs. Information for the study was gathered from program instructors through semi-structured interviews; through an informal focus group in each program with volunteer students; and by reviewing relevant program related materials. After providing detailed accounts of the perspectives of the instructors, participants, and descriptions of each program, the external factors which create, influence, and constrain the nature of the programs, and the voices of the instructors and participants are explored in relation to the literature reviewed for the study. This analysis revealed that the instructors employed teaching approaches which are consistent with the values and aims of critical feminist pedagogy. However, teaching approaches were also applied which appear to reside within traditional educational approaches. Thus, in these particular contexts, the instructors created and acted within a teaching-learning environment which both reproduced and challenged the status quo. The methodological approach utilized in this study illustrated how adult educators concerned with the liberatory possibilities of adult education must invariably operationalize these ideas in complex, constrained, and often contradictory social sites which act to shape the possibilities of instruction. It did so by directing attention to both the social actors and the social and political processes that act to create and organize specific adult education activities.

Both the use of and jurisdiction over fisheries resources is an important issue for many First Nations in British Columbia. Historically, fish played an important spiritual, social and economic role in numerous Aboriginal societies. These societies had various methods of managing the resource and, although they had the technological capacity to over-exploit the fisheries, they were able to maintain sustainable levels of fish. Following contact with European settlers, Aboriginal fishers were initially able to continue their traditional methods of fishing as well as expand their use of the fisheries through trade with non- Aboriginals. However, with the opening of the canneries on the coast the fisheries grew in economic importance to non-Aboriginal fishers and management of the resource was gradually but systematically taken over by the state, with various ideologies being used to justify the take-over. Aboriginal fishers lost not only their control over management of the resource, but also their ability to use it as extensively as they once had. Over the years, Aboriginal participation in both the food and commercial fisheries has declined although various government-sponsored programs have been initiated to attempt, with only partial success, to remedy this problem. In the meantime, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been battling other problems in the commercial fisheries, including over-capitalization of the fleet and depletion of fish stocks. Management of salmon in particular, because it is an anadromous species which travels through several different jurisdictions, has become extremely complex. It is in this context that much litigation over Aboriginal fishing has been launched. Only a few of the issues have been clarified by the judgments which have resulted and certain myths and ideologies have surfaced repeatedly in many of the decisions. It is likely that the recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada on Aboriginal commercial and management rights will result in increased complexity and political controversy. However, problems of fisheries management, including the accommodation of Aboriginal interests, is not unique to British Columbia or even Canada. Similar problems have been experienced elsewhere in the world and various types of co-management regimes have been established in various jurisdictions in an attempt to deal with some of these issues and to recognize a greater role for Aboriginal fishers and communities in fisheries management. It is not clear whether, and to what extent, comanagement will be adopted in British Columbia, or what the role of Aboriginal fishers might be in such a regime. Even if co-management is established, it is highly probable that the state's underlying regulatory regime will remain intact. However, co-management may result in increased Aboriginal participation in both the use and management of the resource.

Salmon aquaculture is the rearing of salmonids for commercial purposes. These practices are typically carried out in saltwater farms located in coastal waters. The process of siting these facilities requires identifying and selecting areas that are economically, socially and environmentally suitable to locate them. Siting salmon aquaculture facilities has become a controversial resource management issue in British Columbia (B.C.), where distance-based criteria ultimately determine the location of these facilities. This thesis focuses on providing insights and concepts to inform and examine the salmon aquaculture facility siting process in B.C. It is argued that regulatory processes and outcomes in the context of a new industry could respond to mechanisms and factors that shape governmental agendas, illustrating how policy can behave reactively rather than in a precautionary manner. In this case, the outcomes of such reactive policies are reflected in siting criteria that yield implicit environmental and socio-economic disadvantages and tradeoffs. This way, siting criteria derive from expert judgements based on best available information while their associated uncertainties may lead to consider less-desirable sites while underestimating or overestimating risks, and overlooking important regional objectives, cumulative impacts and stakeholder values. The thesis further suggests that the future evolution of the salmon aquaculture facility siting process in B.C. could benefit from siting processes that have already been developed and implemented by other sectors. Different lines of reasoning that deal with processes of public negotiation, analytical decision-making and a systems' approach are explored as ways by which the salmon aquaculture facility siting process could evolve in the future toward creating more comprehensive policy.

This essay attempts to determine how university archives in British Columbia have developed from their origins as collections of historical documents within university libraries, and whether they exemplify the larger trend of archival development evident in Canada. An examination of the history of the National Archives of Canada provides a model of developmental stages and key elements necessary for a modern archival programme. In addition it exemplifies the Canadian tradition of “total archives”. Individual case studies explore the evolution of British Columbia’s three university archives, in the light of this Canadian tradition. Archival programmes located within the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University are examined, in order to determine how they were conceived, advanced and sustained. An examination of the administrative records of the three university archives including annual reports, correspondence, policies and committee minutes presents a historical overview of their growth and development. Following decades of progress, the emerging picture is one of an incomplete process with each institution having attained a different level of development. The conclusion compares and contrasts the three institutions and assesses their progress in the broader national context of Canadian university archives generally. The state of university archives in British Columbia mirrors that of their national counterparts and the emerging picture is one of an evolution still incomplete.

This thesis explores the dynamics and complexities of the press-politician relationship in the context of the British Columbia Legislature and Press Gallery. The relationship is examined from theoretical, historical/institutional, practical, and political perspectives. The evidence presented suggests that although the press-politician relationship is necessarily symbiotic, it is also characterized by conflict and attempts by both press and politicians to achieve independence of each other. As such, the relationship is most accurately described as one of "adversarial symbiosis." The sources of strain and the constructive elements of the relationship work in tandem to move the province closer to the ideals of legislative democracy as the relationship evolves over time. Provincial press galleries are notoriously under-documented, both through independent research and through their own administration. To date, there has not been a comprehensive study of the British Columbia Press Gallery as an institution of the Legislature. As a result, this thesis relies heavily on oral history, provided through semi-structured interviews with current and former members of the Press Gallery, and published biographies of B.C. journalists and politicians. This thesis was also informed by a review of the existing literature on the Canadian, Australian and British Parliamentary Press Galleries, archival research at the B.C. Legislative Library and Press Gallery offices and personal observation and analysis afforded by the author's six-month Legislative Internship in the B.C. Legislature.