Karl Sturmanis

IMG_7898

A “dream childhood” and Typhoon Freda

Karl was born in 1952 and grew up in New Westminster, two houses away from Queen’s Park. His parents were refugees from Latvia in Eastern Europe having escaped from the war front to Sweden and then six years later moving to Canada. His father was a fisherman in his home country and after his arrival in New Westminster, started working at Pacific Veneer (now the Canadian Forest product) near Braid and Burnette Ave.

Karl had what he describes as a “dream childhood” in which his daily life was spent close to nature. In the 1950s to early 60s, a large part of Queen’s Park was still an undeveloped natural forest – nothing like the recreational destination it is today, with its playground, picnic benches, and petting zoo.

Karl vividly recalls Typhoon Freda to be one of the most significant events of his earlier life. The wind storm toppled about one-third of the trees in Queen’s Park in 1962. His house was nearly crushed when a twin trunk tree fell down parallel to his home. He describes what was left of the park, with uprooted trees and craters, as a “war zone.” This was the most destructive natural disaster Karl ever witnessed first-hand as a child.

Transformation of New Westminster

Growing up in New Westminster, Karl has witnessed the geographic and cultural transformation of the city. He remembers landmarks like the Centennial Lodge, the penitentiary ground, and Glen Creek in their natural state of swamps, streams, and untouched wilderness that was a haven for adventurous young boys like him.

During the 60s, New Westminster and other suburbs like Coquitlam, previously a “forest with few scattered houses” went through incredible growth. According to Karl, the waterfront was a significant shipping port during the 1950s and 60s and Vancouver was seen as a big mill town. In the 1950s and even early 60s New Westminster was the commercial centre and heart of the Fraser Valley community, with a bustling farmers market, retail stores, many sawmills, commercial fishing dock, and the Woodward Department store in the uptown part of town. It was at Woodward’s that Karl landed his first job at the gas station and the automotive parts department.

The Woodstock era and social movements

As a youth growing up in the 60s, Karl fondly recalls the Woodstock era and his first outdoor rock n’ roll concert at Strawberry Mountain Festival in May, 1970. He ended up at the concert in Mission for only an hour since he promised his mom to go to church afterwards, but still remembers how he hoped to see big names like Rod Stewart or Big Brother and the Holding Company.

The 70s was also an era of social movements such as civil rights, women’s liberation, anti-Vietnam war, gay rights, native right’s, and environmental causes. Having spent his childhood living with nature and growing up in a time of mass social change led Karl to pursue environmental and biology studies at UBC. He also became an active member of Greenpeace Canada around the same time.

From “dream job” to connecting with the First Nations

During his time at UBC, Karl landed his “dream job” with the Fish and Wildlife Branch when in 1974 he was helicoptered into unlogged watersheds on Vancouver Island. His task was to observe and record any signs of wildlife there along with 11 other students. Since then, he has moved onto a career in environmental assessment, travelling throughout BC and the Northwest Territories to work with the First Nations.

Karl’s encounter with the native community began from his childhood. He remembers his neighbour, Beth Wood who was the city Mayor at the time, had a small totem in her backyard. In elementary and high school, Karl learned very little about the local First Nations. According to him, the natives were for the most part ignored and forced to live in small reserves. Karl views their isolation from the rest of the community as a “cultural genocide.” Being a child of East European refugees who escaped from Soviet Russia’s crackdown on non-Russian ethnic minorities, Karl shared a personal connection with the natives whose language, culture, and way of living were also being suppressed.

For 25 years, Karl has been working with the First Nations people in developing land use plans and negotiating resource development agreements with companies and government. He has been involved in projects in Port Hardy, Prince George, and other regions of Northern BC to protect wildlife and their natural habitat. It was also during his time in Port Hardy working with the Kwakiutl District Council that he met his wife-to-be, Holly Nathan, a newspaper reporter who shared an interest and passion for issues surrounding First Nations rights.

While living and working closely with the Sekanni of Tsay Keh Dene, Karl was struck by how their culture that aspired to a balanced life to coexist with their natural environment. He witnessed native groups working to prevent projects like mining that threatened to fill up an important lake that would destroy their connection with the land.

A balanced life between the community and nature

This idea of leading a balanced life with nature and our increasingly urbanized community has stayed with Karl throughout his life, and underlines much of what he does today, including his interest in the ongoing project to bring back salmon to Brunette River.

“Why can’t we have more of a balance in the city? If we have it in our mind and heart to do it, we can bring things back,” he claims, referring to the Brunette project. He emphasizes that protecting and caring for the environment is an important thing to consider but should also reflect a positive feeling and spirit of fun. Karl says it is something that can be integrated into daily life, like walking or biking to work. Karl has always lived relatively close to his work place so that he could walk to work. When he lived in Prince George, he took 45 minutes to walk to work. It was viewed by some of his work colleagues as strange or unusual given the winter weather and some people even thought his license had been taken away.

Karl has just returned to New Westminster to live and in the future he hopes to write a book about the pioneer settlers and their first interaction with First Nations. He also hopes to continue with his environmental interests, which his daughter who currently studies at UVic, has also shown an interest in. Karl acknowledges that while BC is still rich in natural resources, they are quickly disappearing and we have a responsibility to protect and sustain them for our continued well-being.

One thought on “Karl Sturmanis

  1. Beautifully written! Kudos to Momoko. There is a lot of information here and you have have written up a whole lifetime of experience in a lovely piece…Thank you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *