• Age: 16
• Grade: 11

The people of the Nechako region are not unfamiliar with hardship, environmental devastation and protecting what they hold dear. June Wood chronicles the history of the Nechako River and its region, covering the construction of the Kenney Dam, which changed forever the flow of the river and its tributaries; the controversial Kemano Completion Project, which threatened to doom the river further still; and the subsequent battles to protect the river and the communities affected by its altered flow. She also delves into the aftermath of the devastating mountain pine beetle epidemic that severely harmed the economy of the region.

 

An active participant in many of the fights to protect the Nechako River, Wood is one of the most qualified people to speak on behalf of the land she calls home. She passionately introduces a river whose once forceful flow has been weakened to a mere trickle and sympathetically relays the harsh realities of environmental ruin—both to the river and the forest through unnatural and natural causes—while weaving in her personal narrative of the land that holds her heart.

June Wood was born in Winnipeg but moved with her family to Vanderhoof, BC in 1953, when she was eight years old. Her father, Bert Irvine, bought a trap line and guiding territory southwest of Vanderhoof on the Nechako River, and it was there that June developed her deep bond with the river and with nature in its entirety. June and her husband of over 40 years, Denis, lived in the northern BC communities of Smithers and Quesnel before moving back to the Upper Nechako Country where they have a small nature-based tourism operation. They have two grown sons, Neal and Russel, and three grandchildren.

June Wood's profile page

Craig Hooper arrived in Vanderhoof, BC, in 1973, having accepted a job as assistant forest ranger with the BC Forest Service. His passion for the outdoors and concern for the future of the Nechako River led him to become a very active member of the Nechako Neyenk’ut Society, one of the groups that sprang up in opposition to Alcan’s Kemano Completion Project. Craig is an avid historian and is particularly interested in First Nations history and culture.

Craig Hooper's profile page

"June Wood’s Home to the Nechako is a passionate and often thoughtful portrayal of the environmental history of the region straddling the Nechako River in north central British Columbia." —Jonathan Swainger, BCStudies

Every river is an artery of the Earth, a Ganges vein of the imagination. Those who choose to devote their lives to one river, wherever it flows and on whatever continent, are the avatars of the wild, the very people we should all listen to . . . This book has been written by such a devotee. Listen to what she says.” —Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence and The Sacred Headwaters

Home to the Nechako: The River and the Land

As long as pipelines and resource extraction remain issues in BC, this book will remain topical. The author looks back on some of the changes that have been made to the geography of the Nechako River and looks ahead to others that may yet be coming. A useful Appendix provides a timeline of events affecting the river — construction of the Kenney Dam, agreements with Alcan, the Kemano Completion Project (KCP), related court cases and hearings—events that are discussed over the course of the text. She also tracks the step-by-step construction of her family’s log home, built primarily of pine beetle-kill timber. The processes involved in milling and preparing the logs, as well as the actual building, including addition of solar panels, are explained in loving detail. Although the focus is on a specific area of BC, it is a region that affects everyone in our province.