November 2, 2016

I’ve been thinking more about the duality of the beach as both a natural occurrence and a tourist attraction. The changing tides and blowing winds and slow-shifting tectonic plates gave Willow’s Beach its shape, but people dotted its rocky hills with picnic benches and bordered its sand with cement sidewalk. So can a tourist attraction be wilderness?

Now I’m thinking of Roderick Haig-Brown and his calculating, systematic mind. During his fishing trips through the woods, Haig-Brown still thought in percentages and measurements. What was the likelihood he would catch fish here? How big would his prizes be? Not that Haig-Brown was a purely cold and unsentimental man. When he talks about fishing at the mouth of the river at sunset, his voice contains poetry and awe as he describes the beauty of nature. However, Haig-Brown also considers beauty another number in his calculation of a natural space’s worth. He fishes a river where the physical rewards are small, but the beauty of the place makes up for this shortcoming. Everything is weighed and compared, and Haig-Brown shows special consideration for the “wildness” factor of a place.

He talks about the lakes as if they are live creatures. Some of them are bold and accustomed to human contact, while others “hide” like rabbits and deer, a prize to be claimed only by those who dare to leave the common path and delve into the woods. Haig-Brown is concerned with the number of people he has shared his waters with; the harder a place is for humans to reach, the wilder and more “pure” he considers it.  In this aspect, I am reminded of the old way of thinking, that a woman become less pure with each person she sleeps with. Does a place become less wild with each person that visits it? (12)

I wonder what Haig-Brown would think of Willow’s Beach. From his essay I know he was anti-industry and anti-capitalism, so I wonder if he would have also been anti-tourism?  Either way, I think Willow’s Beach’s easy access would have influenced Haig-Brown’s calculations the most. Anyone with a car, boat, plane, or bike can visit her. I can see Haig-Brown on the sidewalk now, shaking his head at the food stand and busy marina before hiking northwest for the hidden beaches up-island. Too many people have “slept” with this beach to make it worth his time.

But when I stand at the edge of the rocks and look out at the water, my toes just peeking into a tide pool, I swear it has all the magic of the most sequestered secret beach of Tofino. Perhaps Haig-Brown would disagree, but I do not punish the beach or decrease her wild worth due to what we have done to her. No matter how many boats we float over her, her waters remain wild.