ROD SILVER:
I think Ray Demarchi’s real strength lies in the fact that he can take the technical information and marry it with the social information and tell people about the land needs of wildlife.

KEN SUMANIK:
We worked together, hunted together, fished together, and schemed and connived together, and had many fantastic times together. And I can’t speak… I can’t speak too highly of him. He’s a special kind of person.

HENK CAMPSALL:
I’m a guide and outfitter here for all my life, born and raised, third generation in the Kootenays, and I’ve seen the wildlife come and go, and the rises and the falls, and the terrible crashes we had before Ray, and I’m certainly proud to have been a friend of Ray’s, an associate, over the years, and see what we have now in wildlife management. It’s been a great pleasure for me. And besides I’ve had the pleasure of many hunts, in the north, throughout the south and every place with Ray, and I’ve always considered it a privilege just to spend time with the man.

MIKE HALLERAN:
I’m Mike Halleran. In half a lifetime of doing stories on wildlife and conservation, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t like wild animals. That includes a large number of people who hunt and trap as well. People relate to wildlife animals for different reasons though. For some, they are appreciated for having qualities we may not find in ourselves. We collect them in zoos, a process not without its detractors. 

We also put their images on our coins. We name football teams after them, even cars, which I suppose must be the ultimate urban compliment. Nor does the exploitation stop there. The entertainment industry has cashed in on wildlife as well. Television and the cartoon industry has given several generations of us a veritable menagerie of wildlife cartoon characters, some of whom walk upright, converse between species, and even pick up things with their hands. The whole process is rife with anthropomorphism and leaves some sadly distorted impressions with the viewers, especially with the young.

BC has more wildlife diversity than any other place in the nation. The numbers are vast as well, with populations of some large animal species like deer numbering in the hundreds of thousands. But the responsibility for the care, usually called the management, of our wildlife is vested in only a handful of people. They are the wildlife biologists in the employ of the provincial wildlife branch. Our story tonight profiles one of them.

The BC Wildlife Federation, in cooperation with the communications branch of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, presents Westland, a series of programs discussing natural resources conservation and land use in British Columbia.

SPEAKER (OFF-CAMERA):
Now that he’s busy being on movies right now… Yeah. They’re making films in the office. Yeah.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Hey Suze, by the way, did Tom Wood phone yet?

SUZE:
No, I’m sorry, he hasn’t.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Is he gonna call us or leave a message?

SUZE:
He’s due in here at noon hour.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Okay thanks… Hi guys.

MEN:
Hi Ray! How ya doin’?

RAY DEMARCHI:
You guys up for this lab today?

SPEAKER 1:
Yup. Helen did a pretty upstate job today.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Yeah?

SPEAKER 1:
Really good.

RAY DEMARCHI:
You gotta… (INAUDIBLE)

SPEAKER 1:
It’s about time we had someone with…

RAY DEMARCHI:
You got a white-tailed doe, I hear, Pat.

PAT:
Yes, we found one on the road this morning. Brought it in. We’ll have a full autopsy on that deer this afternoon, I guess.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Good deal. We’re looking at the H-class distribution thing on the… from the two, three turns, and the computer printout. Bill’s working the program up, we were looking at some of the… preliminary results. You know, we’ve got the computer now, we can put… plug the information is… as we analyze it, and we have to look at time of kill. So we can… the computer will give us that too. We just print it into the program. We want to know the average age of the bucks by week. By management. I mean this is something we couldn’t do until we had that little machine in there. 

Two or three or four guys get together. They’re hunting cronies, they’ve been hunting together for years, maybe there’s a new member in their group. A son, or a new friend, or something. And one of them will have a (INAUDIBLE) permit or a (INAUDIBLE)…

MEN:
Yup.

RAY DEMARCHI:
… permit. And he’ll say, you know, I got this tag, guys, why don’t we go up to the Kootenays, you know, maybe we can… maybe you can shoot a white-tailed buck or a mule deer. Help me get a calf elk, or something like this. So the whole group of them will come, probably because they’ve got that limited entry permit.

You guys got good records on your… animals that have been shot and lost this year, you’ve been keeping records of that?

SPEAKER 2:
Trying to, yeah.

SPEAKER 3:
Doing compulsories on them.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Yeah.

SPEAKER 3:
And grades.

RAY DEMARCHI:
A lot of it’s sort of wasted effort, these… and wasted animals when guys go out and they shoot and they don’t follow up, or you know, shoot the wrong animal or whatever, but it seems when you get this kind of concentration, if we get more reports of it, but is it more individual… is it more incidents, or is it just actually more reporting of the same incidents. You know, this is the question that we have to answer. Because I know we had one calf elk that was hit by a truck on the highway, down near Frenchman’s Slough, and we… well, I got a report on it, Ken McLennan got two reports on it, Bill Workington got a report on it, so there’s four on that one calf elk.

SPEAKER 4:
You can cut it now ‘cause it’s gonna just go all right through it right now. Okay so it’s gonna just start going’ (INAUDIBLE). Okay. It won’t take very long ‘cause we didn’t kill very many.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Excellent, excellent.

Well, we should be able to dispel a lot of myths about the rut around here with this project, once we find out the frequency of the pregnancy rate and the timing of the rut. We’ll be able to find out exactly the way it occurs.

ANNA WOLTERSON:
I’ll just hold it up at the horns and let it all slide out. It’ll be attached at the caruncles. It’s a good… come on, there you go. It’s a good size fetus. Now we’re taking five measurements. And one of them is the amniotic fluid which surrounds the fetus and protects it. And the other ones are… It’s a bit messy here so it’ll take a while for me to cut all the junk off it first. This is the allantois and that’s the bi-product… and inside is allantoic fluid, and that’s the bi-products of the fetus as it matures.

(INAUDIBLE) I need to measure… (INAUDIBLE) See it’s a boy for… or a girl for sure. See the angle of the reproductive organ? Before they were facing that way…

SPEAKER 5:
Right.

ANNA WOLTERSON:
Now they’re facing backwards.

SPEAKER 5:
Well as they develop, it’s…

ANNA WOLTERSON:
As they get more mature, yeah.

SPEAKER 5:
Gets easier and easier to tell and be able to sex them too. Get a sex ratio out of it.

ANNA WOLTERSON:
This one’s about two and a half months now I guess. I would imagine.

RAY DEMARCHI:
That’s a lot earlier than a lot of people think.

ANNA WOLTERSON:
Oh yeah, for sure.

RAY DEMARCHI:
When I came to the Kootenay region in late 1964, there were seven regional wildlife biologists in British Columbia, and none of whom had a wildlife technician working for them or any wildlife assistants. And there were two people in Victoria, so essentially the entire province’s wildlife resources were being managed by nine people at that time. 

One of the ways that we can aid in the recovery of wildlife populations is through wildlife transplants. And moving animals from overstocked areas into understocked areas. And it’s quite a simple procedure to trap animals and then to hold them until they get enough for an economical truck load, and then move them to the range. You have to assess the range to make sure that it’ll carry the animals and the best indicator, of course, is the presence of that species itself on that area. And we’ve done quite a bit of that. We try not to play like Jonny Appleseed and move animals everywhere without any sort of foresight or without looking into what the consequences and the repercussions might be on other species and other land interests. But where the habitats are vacant then we will move animals into them.

The first ten years that I was here, much of it was spent trying to demonstrate how important wildlife was and a lot of it was spent defending wildlife. There were a lot of conflicts between resource agencies and with fish and wildlife and various users. Then we discovered it was far more productive if we could get together. And we adopted a program called Coordinated Resource Management Planning, which put us together around the table with foresters, with loggers, with ranchers, with the ranger (INAUDIBLE), with other interests in parks and lands and so on. And we started working cooperatively. And it’s a far more productive way about going managing… going about managing the public’s resources than we had been previously doing in this province.

In my opinion, the poaching problem is overstated. I’m more concerned about habitat matters than I am about overhunting through poaching. There’s some of it going on, there’s no doubt about it and it’s very disturbing to learn of animals that are being shot by poachers and killed illegally and so on. But I don’t think it’s nearly the problem as a lot of people make it out to be.

INTERVIEWER:
You mean…

RAY DEMARCHI:
I believe that the efficiency of the conservation officers has increased. I don’t think that’s a measure of an increase in poaching. And I know that the efficient manner in which their operating and the way they’re working with local volunteer groups to try and curb poaching is having a deterrent effect, which is probably the most important role that they play. And I’m particularly proud to work with the conservation officers in this region. They’re very professional, and they’re highly motivated, and very dedicated to their work. 

The old yardstick for measuring success in wildlife management was measuring how many animals you killed, and if you killed more animals this year than you did last year, then you considered that it was a successful year. But more recently the better yardstick that’s being used is to try and maintain quality wildlife populations that’s healthy, viable wildlife populations with proper sex ratios and age class structures and to provide recreational… recreational user days to measure the success in the number of recreational days that are being provided from the wildlife resource.

British Columbia has a lot of mountains and very few valley bottoms, and we have to look after the land that we have, because we’re not gonna make any more land. The resource base is finite. What we have to do is find better ways of using the land. By far the biggest factor affecting wildlife anywhere in the province of British Columbia is land use and the health of their habitats. Hunting may in some instances cause local declines, but their more or less temporary. All you have to do is close the hunting season and if the habitats are intact, the animals will recover, but if the habitat’s gone, than the wildlife population is gone as well.

Remember what I said about numbers? Don’t forget that if you get into the management business and you’re working with somebody, get him to show ya his numbers. Or her numbers. Put them down. Make them accountable. What are you doing out there? You say you’re managing your population for two thirds of caring capacity. What numbers are you working with? That’s one thing.

The other thing is develop a good rapport with your users. Develop a good rapport with the other agencies. And above all, take care of the land. And that’s a lesson that I learned from my former boss, Glen Smith, who put all of his effort and all of his energy and all of his attention into fighting for the land base in the Rocky Mountain trench, and preventing the alienation of the land. Because even though I might disagree with the forest service, I might disagree with the range division, I might disagree with BC Hydro, or any other agency, at least we’ve got a sandbox to play in. And if the Rocky Mountain trench had been all chopped up, and subdivided, and sold, and put into housing and condominiums and whatever, there wouldn’t be any Rocky Mountain trench winter ranges, there wouldn’t be any resource problems to try and solve because they would’ve been solved for us. Would’ve been all for gone. 

So the essential ingredient in the equation is the land, the land base. And with that, we’ll call it quits. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

CARMEN PURDY:
I give you Ray Demarchi. Stand up brother.

(APPLAUSE)

CARMEN PURDY:
Alan Martin and Dave Phelps went to the K-Mart party, and were buying drink tickets before they realized they were in the wrong party. And somebody had some come up to them and tell ‘em that.

(LAUGHTER)

RAY DEMARCHI:
Phelps never bought a drink ticket in his life!

(LAUGHTER)

JOHN MURRAY:
And I’m proud to say that I think Crestbrook’s team of some 65 people are now more conscious of their obligation to everybody, to do a better job, and to look after the elk resources better, and I think the testimonial is here in the fact that I think the game populations are improving in the East Kootenays. And I hope we’re doing our part. We’ve worked with Ray and his group on his elk-logging studies, so we could do a better job of logging, understand the game management. We’ve participated in grizzly bear studies as well in the flathead and learned a great deal of when to log, where to log, and how to log. I guess, I know they say is that our obligation is to log, to try and keep the profitability of our company, but also we do have to try and cons… recognize the other values and protect them. And I hope Ray we’ve achieved that objective, so with that, I’ll shake your hand.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Thanks John.

JOHN MURRAY:
Good luck.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

RAY DEMARCHI:
Thank you, John. Thank you.

CARMEN PURDY:
I must say this program tonight is going to be televised on the Knowledge Network through the Westland program on el number uno, individual. It’s a Demarchi program, and that’s why it’s being televised. Parts of it will be used. It’s a BC Wildlife Federation, in conjunction with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Mike Halleran, and Jeanne Halleran, and their family put the Westland program together. Mike can’t be here, but he says, “Congratulations on the anniversary. I’ve sent the article you requested. Hope it arrives in good form. I hereby loan you one M14 and two taped banana clips as requested. Never before have I heard of someone going to his own testimonial dinner armed with an assault rifle. But naturally, when you give me an order, I did not hesitate. I did not debate or question. I carried it out instantly, as always. Incidentally, the filming for the Demarchi Westland special has gone well. Again, as per your request, we are changing the program title. It is now known as the Ray Redford Special. We’ll discuss the matter of world television rights as soon as you’re agent contacts me. It was a pleasure to work with you on the alpine ride portion of the filming. It was a new experience for me. Never before have Jeannie and Terry and I had to give up all our blankets to the star in order to keep him from leaving the set. I thank you for that opportunity to broaden my production experience. Just one thing: now that the shooting is over, remember that you are completely in my hands. At last. I love you partner. Mike Halleran.”

(APPLAUSE)

DAVE MELANKA:
It took us eleven years for us to understand that we’re goin’ the same way and why not walk on the same path. Instead of confrontation we can come to a point where we had some communication. Ray, that took eleven years to get that far, the last nine years have been a honeymoon, and if you’re to survive another 20 years, as it says here for better or worse, Crestbrook is gonna help you out.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:
Make you an offer you can’t refuse.

DAVE MELANKA:
First of all, what we want to give you Ray, and… this is serious! We wanna give you a survivor’s jacket. If you’re lost in the woods, put this on and walk around, and the average helicopter pilot will spot you.

(LAUGHTER)

GAIL SUMANIK:
Ray Demarchi, 20 years as a wildlife biologist in the East Kootenays, and it’s been almost the same amount of time since he arrived in the hearts and the lives of the Sumanik family. How could we not fall in love with such an exaggerated character. Nothing is commonplace about Ray, as you’ve noticed. He acts and talks in hyperboles. The greatest, the funniest, the stupidest, the wisest, the biggest, the best, the best dressed. And as Mike Halleran said in his telegram that he sent, his life reads like the life of a movie star. Police investigations. Beautiful women. Tumultuous love life. Trips to exotic places like Karakas and Harrow Gate and Spillimacheen. Real National Enquirer material.

RAY DEMARCHI:
There’s no wildlife program in North America that is as rich as this one. None. We’re lucky here. We don’t have many wildlife managers. We don’t have many biologists, and you wonder how the hell can we have a program that could compete with an area where there’s ten times as many biologists and ten times as many technicians. And the reason is that we’ve had political freedom. You might criticize the hell out of the government and knock ‘em for some of the projects that they’ve done, and knock ‘em for not recognizing wildlife and so on, but I can honestly say that in twenty years I have never had one bit of political interference in wildlife management in this region. Never once has an MLA, never once has a minister said, “You’re not going to do that kind of thing. You’re not gonna do this, you’re gonna do this.” They haven’t even suggested, and we’ve been lucky to be able to do that.

BOBBY FONTANA:
I read a book quite a while ago and I remember a few words from it and it was written by William T. Hornaday. It was “Camp-Fires in the Canadian Rockies.” And he hunted in the elk valley region of the East Kootenays in the… around the turn of the century, and shortly after he left here after taking the specimens he required for the New York museum, he suggested to the governments of British Columbia that with their liberal bag limits, etc. etc., that the big game season, the way it was, there probably wouldn’t be any wildlife left in this part of the world for very many more years, so he set about getting a large, vast area of the elk valley shut down and made into a game reserve. I was thinking about that tonight hearing some of the comments that I happened to be able to hear having arrived late, and I realize that because of people like Ray, William Hornaday was out to lunch, and we can still go out there and do our thing, and I like to thank Ray Demarchi for that. Thank you. 

That was totally adlibbed and I’d like to get on with our presentation. Representing the East Kootenay Wildlife Association we have a number of people here. Barry Scott from Southern Guides, Glen Johnson from the Kootenay Hunters Association, Bill Dubois from the Invermere Rod and Gun Club, Dale Webber from the Elkford Rod and Gun Club, and Susan from the Kimberley Wildlife Association and the BC Wildlife Federation. We’ve got a little gift for you Ray and I’d like you to open the box.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Thanks very much. Thank you.

CARMEN PURDY:
It’s a new development in conibear traps. 

RAY DEMARCHI:
Oh holy smoke. 

SPEAKER:
Get your head in there Ray.

RAY DEMARCHI:
Oh holy smokes. Ho, look at this. Woohoo! Woohoo!

(APPLAUSE)

CARMEN PURDY:
Ray Demarchi has had the chance to see his efforts produce truly positive results. Few conservationists get to see that. Ray Demarchi has been an inspiration to me and for many others. For him, the conservation ethic is not just some fad or passing fantasy, but a part of life itself. It gives me a great deal of preasure… pleasure today to salute publicly this friend of the wildlife resource and to recognize ya Ray as a true friend. Dammit, I wasn’t gonna do this.

(APPLAUSE)

(TRUMPET MUSIC)

RAY DEMARCHI:
Probably the alpine is, at the right time of the year, the most comfortable place to be for me. It… it’s quiet and it’s beautiful. It’s diverse. There’s always lots of wildlife in the alpine, and there are very few people. Very little development in the alpine, in the Purcells or in the Rockies. And it’s just a very pleasant place to be and it’s a pleasant place to think about.

(CALM SYNTH MUSIC)

Guest Lecture: B.C. Institute of Technology; Ray Demarchi "Roast" (20 Years Service)<br>Westland; produced by: B.C. Wildlife Federation; funded by: Department of Fisheries & Oceans (Canada); series producer: Mike Halleran; photographed by: Terry Halleran, John Dowell; Production Assistant: Jeanne Halleran; Produced through the facilities of The Knowledge Network - 10-March - 1985