Clam Garden Exploring 2024
Clam Gardens, which can be found all over the west coast of British Columbia, are protected by historic handmade rock walls. These gardens and rock walls some of which are more than 3,500 years old, older than some Egyptian pyramids. Generations and generations of the local Indigenous communities protected their local ecosystems and environments through similar practices: the oceans, forests and lands. A profound example of positive nature and human interconnected relationships, coastal clam gardens and garden walls are measurements for the protection of sustainable food sources along with all the west coast islanders.
When the tide goes out
Along the shore is where life began,
Fed by sea and formed by land,
Under the sun and the moon’s command,
Down through the ages feeding man,
Oh when the tide goes out, the table is set,
And the sea serves up her bounty bless’d;
Oh come with me while the sand’s still wet,
Oh when the tide goes out, the table is set.
- When the Tide Goes Out by Three Strong Winds
Looking for a historical clam garden
Looking for a historical clam garden
Acknowledging their schools club of ecological environmental awareness and climate change actions, club members paid close attention to news related to environmental ecology. One day they came across an article under the BBC Travel column titled, “An underwater mystery in Canada’s Coast.”
That article piqued the group's interest, with many questions; Where are the 3,500-year-old clam gardens? What do they look like? What implications do these clam gardens have for improving climate change of today's coastline? How do Indigenous communities understand the fishery wisdom left by their ancestors?
With many questions in mind the student group set out to discover a vast amount of materials. Many resources provided inspiration and knowledge to the group, including a large number of professional reports and pictures within the clam garden network.
With peaked interest they set out to contact whomever they could. Erich, the Parks Canada beach manager sent an email back to the student group saying that he can support them to learn more about the historical clam gardens. Daniel, Peter, Ted and the crew started their field exploration journey.
Chapter One
Lets Dig in!
This spring break, the group of students took the BC ferry from Vancouver to a community beach north of Victoria. Erich from Parks Canada had already prepared shell digging tools and were waiting for them on the beach.
The beach in which Erich talked to and taught them is a closed community beach, they were not allowed to take away clams, including the littleneck and butter clams they learned about this day.
Under Erich’s guidance, they put the calms head up and back into the sand. They didn't know whether the trip to find the clam garden would go smoothly for the days up ahead.
Chapter Two
At The Seafood Market
Peter had proposed to visit the seafood market in the city, hoping to have the opportunity to taste delicious clams and other seafoods.
All the shellfish at the market had indicated the exact production address, fishing methods, places of origin, and consumption method.
Harvesting clams has been very important to Indigenous people for thousands of years, the tradition passed down through generations. This is one of the most unique attractions on the Salish coastline. All year round, people can easily get this very valuable source of protein, imagine just in your front yard - a clam garden.
With the store manager, Jennifer, the students bought and cooked the clams under her guidance. And with unanimous agreement the garlic butter clam dish that they cooked in the market's food truck, was decidedly the most delicious clams they have ever tasted, cast and crew. In addition to the wonderful dish they tried, Ted was especially grateful to learn to cook the amazing clam dish from Jennifer.
Chapter Three
We Are One Spirit.
Erich told them this morning, if they were still in Victoria, he could introduce a storyteller of the WSANEC tribe today.
They could get the opportunity to learn more culture stories from the storyteller Toby and visit a real historical and ecological reconstruction reserve - Clam Gardens by the Gulf Islands.
The speedboat took to Russell Island - stepping by an 800-year-old clam garden, a restorative nature reserve. This place is not open to the public. Only after the invitation from the Indigenous community and the approval from Parks Canada.
Chapter Four
it is just start
Welcome to Russell Island. We were led on to the island by our guide- Captain G. Taken through the forest to, a secret white beach covered with fine particles and fragments of white shells appeared behind the floating logs. And there right in front of them is a real historic clam garden!
Finally they had the moment to feel, see, and touch every aspect of what they spent so long looking for. The shells beneath their boots and the ocean in their eyes. However it’s just the start of a long expedition.
These marine gardens are protected by historic handmade Rock wall, all over the coast of British Columbia, some of which are more than 3,500 years old, older than some Egyptian pyramids. Generations and generations of the local Indigenous communities protected their living environments : Ocean, forests and lands . Each coastal clam garden and garden walls stacked upon each other is another measurement for the protection of their sustainable food sources along with the future of all the west coast islanders.
Before the ancient Egyptians built the last of the pyramids, Indigenous peoples along the coast of B.C. were also engineering and building stone structures that would last for thousands of years. A new study shows Clam gardens are undersea walls built to create terraces on the beach at just the right water level to create the ideal habitat for shellfish such as clams. The technology allows far more shellfish to be produced and harvested along a given stretch of coastline, especially when combined with other traditional management techniques, such as removal of larger clams. Now, Canadian researchers have confirmed that the technology, which is still used along the B.C. coast today, is extremely ancient.
clam garden exploring
Grow Your Vision
Present practices
The W̱ SÁNEĆ currently have many obstacles in properly caring for and harvesting their beaches. Present issues such as regulatory and jurisdictional restrictions, travel and boat access, dangerous levels of pollution, and department of fisheries management/treatment have contributed to a decrease in W̱ SÁNEĆ clam harvesting. Many harvesters do not have boats making Parks their main source of transportation.
Because of these issues the W̱ SÁNEĆ communities now have what is referred to as “super harvesters”. These people have dedicated their lives to harvesting food resources and distributing them throughout the community. Often these people are not the most well off, but work for trade, reciprocity, territory, relationship building, respect, and sometimes meager amounts of money. Super harvesters are important to the health of our beaches, the health of our people, and the health of our future.
Super harvesters witness the activity currently taking place in W̱ SÁNEĆ territory. Stories of commercial, sometimes illegal harvesters taking 2500 lbs of clams as they travel through the islands and up the Saanich inlet in the early hours of the morning. Everything is getting over fished. Beaches are exposed to the ferry wake and are degrading faster than they have before, they can’t even get in two or three days what they use to be able to harvest in half a day. To prevent confrontation with the Department of Fisheries and other fishermen, it has become a practice to keep live tanks hidden so that upon an emergency there are clams, crabs and urchins to give to families in need, a live tank also filters sand and toxins out of the clam.
A few super harvesters work very hard for the W̱ SÁNEĆ people. It is their lifelong work, but due to the decline of harvesters and care takers, and an increase of challenges, present management practices are not adequately keeping W̱ SÁNEĆ clam gardens healthy.
Taking care of our elders and assuring that they have what they need first is always a priority.
Lessons to Share
At the beginning of this project it was difficult to find more than twenty clams in the clam gardens but today the beaches and quality of harvest has greatly improved. This change has been due to the active care of the beach. When activity ends and the W̱ SÁNEĆ have no access to the clam gardens, they die. It is difficult to keep up with a project that requires multigenerational and life-long commitment.
Having this as a teaching place for the youth aligns them with the principles and values of the
W̱ SÁNEĆ and keeps them culturally engaged, out of trouble, and gives them something positive to focus on. The health of clam gardens is undeniably linked to the practices that the WSANEC people carry out presently and historically in their territory. Lack of access and the other obstacles referenced in this report need to be addressed in order for the symbiosis of the WSANEC and their clam beds to continue in a productive, healthy, and meaningful way.
Beach Care
Proper beach care is essential to the health of a clam garden, there are a few activities that should be done to help increase the health and abundance of the species in these areas. Rocks that exceed the size of a large dinner plate should either be left where they lay or used as part of the wall; all other smaller rocks should be removed; these smaller rocks can smother baby clams. Turning and fluffing the sand could be done every tide. The holes that are created with turning should be filled in and levelled off after digging. Fluffing is a method used that includes scraping the surface with a stick, this helps the eggs settle, adds air to the sand and also exposes food for the clams to eat.
It is important to encourage other plant and animal species to live in the garden, these inter- dependant relationships support the health and abundance of all species in the inter-tidal zone. Seaweed needs to be left on the beach, it acts as a filter for diesel and other fuels and contaminants; seaweed also helps by turning black sand into healthy sand sediments. Shells should also be left and spread out on the beach, this practice creates habitat for the baby clams. Otters and seals harvest the beaches which helps turn over and add air to the sand, this also makes new room in the garden for growth. Purple sea urchins’ milt is a fertilizer that provides nourishment to clams
Building the Wall
W̱ SÁNEĆ families built clam garden retaining walls in inlets and bays in order to increase optimal habitat for clam production and increased habitat for other sea creatures. In order to build the walls, W̱ SÁNEĆ people moved large, head sized boulders into a line at low tide. It is important to make sure that the wall is not placed too far up into the inter-tidal zone where clam species live, to avoid suffocating them and limiting their space. As the tide comes in, sediments collect in the inter-tidal zone. Within a few years this deepens and widens the habitat providing more space for clams and other shellfish for harvest. As the rock wall continues to be built up, so too will the clam garden. The wall is the foundation of a clam garden. The creation of the wall is an example of how W̱ SÁNEĆ people’s management was actually a symbiotic relationship with the landscape, increasing biodiversity and increasing food sources not only for themselves but for other animal species.
Seeding the beaches
During this project the beaches were not intentionally seeded, but after years of caring for the gardens the W̱ SÁNEĆ participants noticed that the clams were self-seeding and growing.
W̱ SÁNEĆ knowledge holders thought the beaches should have been seeded so that it would speed up the process and assist in re-establishment. It was made clear in these discussions that if there was intentional seeding of a clam garden there would need to be assurance that the beaches then would be tended to on a regular basis. After decades of restricted access, W̱ SÁNEĆ clam garden health and production has greatly decreased, so before transplanting or seeding clams it is important to make sure that the rock wall is built and the beach area and clams are properly cleaned. This step will help ensure that there is adequate habitat and that they are not spreading disease or other contaminants from one beach to another.
When the clam garden area has been adequately cleaned, use a pitchfork to poke holes in the sand about a foot deep, then add one seedling per hole. After they have been placed in the hole fill in the hole in order to protect them from predators. It is a good practice to transplant baby clams in areas near running water where the beach naturally filters. It is also good practice to.
Cultural Protocols
The rights to harvesting clam garden sites were held by family units, or ȾEX̱ TÁN. These family units belong to certain places, animals, plants, masks, rituals, song and dances. Family names, NEHIYMET get passed down through generations and provide a connection between a family and a place.
While each W̱ SÁNEĆ family belongs to certain harvesting sites, some sites were shared with other families that had permission to use them through family ties or other arrangements. Families had the right to do this. Families harvest clam garden sites and the yield of the harvest is preserved, stored, shared and traded.
Belonging to a harvesting site creates a responsibility to the family for the care of the site. It is important to show up and care for the clam gardens on time and prepared, it is also important for workers and harvesters to practice good work habits and to always work safely. Be respectful to each other while working, all work that takes place should be done in a respectful way.
Cooking/ Preserving:
Clams were and are baked in pits in the ground, this is called pit cooking. To do this, dig a wide shallow pit in the sand on the beach, usually 5’ long by 3’ wide; these pits can be much larger for bigger feasts. Establish a fire in the pit and add a layer of medium sized rocks. Once the rocks are hot take the clams and put them directly on top, cover the clams with mats, kelp blades or white fir boughs in order to hold in the steam cooking the clam. The clams are done after about 15 minutes and once the shell has opened up. The clam is then either “scaled” or scooped out of the shell and threaded onto long slender bendable sticks, that are bent into hoops and hung by the fire to brown, or skewered onto a sharp stick or iron wood, individually tied to the stick and leaned diagonally over the fire to roast. After they were done roasting/smoking they are threaded onto a line of cedar bark and traded or saved for winter use. Horse clams can be shelled, skewered onto a sharp stick and laid on dry cedar planks raw, then put in the sun to be dried. Open weave baskets are used for holding and cleaning clams, this keeps them off of the beach and away from pollutants such as goose droppings but they also allow water to drain in and out cleaning the clams. It is a good practice to prepare and cook everything outside. Rock clams, oysters, mussels and cockles can be broken open and eaten raw but were mostly steamed.
Economy/ Trade
“Clams were one of the most important economic items, they were traded with people from the interior.” -John Elliott
Clams were used during big gatherings, feasts and giveaways. ṮÁṮE,NEḴ- to give a potlatch, was a social and material investment for W̱ SÁNEĆ people. During these gatherings the host would invite general community but they would also strategically choose guests for the reason that they could then provide a resource or service back to the host. This was a trade economy, this was an avenue for W̱ SÁNEĆ people to build social and material capital within and outside of the region. The longer one could feed and provide for their guests the more respect, territory and material goods were made available to them. This system was built on values of relationship building, respect, trust and security.
BY CLAM GARDEN NETWORK