A Bird’s-Eye-View of Traditional Tla’amin Intertidal Resource Management

Intertidal resource management features (clam gardens and fish traps) on the Northwest Coast represent profound indigenous traditional ecological knowledge about marine life and ecosystems. Using aerial photography, we have identified over 130 ancient intertidal features within Tla’amin traditional territory on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. We combine local Tla’amin ecological knowledge, feature form, and environmental setting to understand how the range of variation encompassed within these intertidal features. The features span the breadth of the intertidal zone and represent a continuum of both incidental and more intensive behaviours that enhance or expand the habitat of desirable species through the promotion of bivalve recruitment and the use of tidal action to increase intertidal resource harvesting.