Maple Leaf Adventures's focus on eco-tourism was avant-garde when they started 40 years ago.Simon Ager/Maple leaf adventures/Supplied
Within a couple of hours of boarding Maple Leaf Adventures’s Cascadia and leaving the dock in Kitimat, B.C., we spotted a group of humpback whales swimming nearby. First, it was just their sprays, followed by soft ripples as they dipped in and out of the calm water. Then there was the sound of the air from their blow holes. “They’re so loud,” I thought, but, in truth, it was everything else that was silent. We were the only vessel in this part of the Douglas Channel in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest. It was just them and us.
Maple Leaf Adventures shows travellers the beauty of B.C.’s coast on water and land via intimate sailings around Vancouver Island, the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii. Sailings are capped at 24 passengers, and crew include expert guides and naturalists. Itineraries typically involve time with Indigenous community members to learn about their historical and contemporary means of caring for their environment, as well as wildlife spotting and exploration on land. Appreciation is the goal just as much as education.
That’s been a focus since the company launched in 1986 with one small ship and just five staff. Maureen Gordon, who bought the company with her husband Kevin Smith in 2001, says it was founded in the middle of a longstanding debate about resource extraction and environmental conservation. The concept of eco-adventure – designing travel experiences around existing natural habitats versus inserting tourism infrastructure into these spaces – was pioneering at the time. “We wanted to find a better way to use this resource that we call home without necessarily destroying it in the process,” she says.
Forty years later, with a staff that has grown to 60, the company has set the standard for travel on this coastline. It co-founded a tour operators’ association and developed a code of conduct for tourism in the region, created protocols and economic agreements with the Indigenous communities in the Great Bear Rainforest, and self-imposed a tax on commercial bear viewing to compensate the communities they visit. “Sometimes, you have to look at the longer picture,” Gordon says. “It’s money you don’t have to spend, but it’s only right to do it, and in the long term, it’s a better outcome.”
For more, visit mapleleafadventures.com.
The Globe and Mail Style Magazine travelled to B.C. as a guest of Maple Leaf Adventures. The company did not review or approve the story before publication. The Globe does not make a guarantee of coverage.