Looking to Improve Public Speaking? | ExpressYourselfToSuccess.com

Looking to Improve Public Speaking?

You?re making a good career move if you?re looking to improve public speaking. One of the best skills you can have is to be able to get in front of a group of people and speak.

So what should you do first in your quest to improve your public speaking skills?

First, you should know that this will take some work. Consistent, thoughtful, work. It?s not hard, but it does require dicipline since there?s no big exam at the end nor will you see a salary increase that?s directly related to your newly developed speaking skills. Improving your skills because you know it will pay off over your career lifetime is a wise decision.

First thing?s first: what?s your plan to improve your public speaking? Are you going to hire a speaking coach? Sign up for a public speaking class? Find a speaking course online? Join Toastmasters?

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Learn to persuade, influence, and inspire others

by learning the essentials of effective speaking.

Good communication skills are the master keys to your success!

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All of these ways to improve public speaking are based on a process to make you an effective speaker and presenter. They?ll give you all the information, exercises, suggestions and techniques available but there?s one thing you have to dicipline yourself to do.

Improve Public Speaking: The Key

practice public speaking Looking to Improve Public Speaking?Just like the old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall, the same holds true for public speaking: practice, practice, practice.

Now there?s the thing: many people want to improve public speaking, but few want to practice. They take the speaking courses, spend hours writing a speech, days on a PowerPoint presentation but when it comes to practicing, they don?t do it! And then they wonder why they?re nervous, anxious, and many times, don?t do as good a job as they know they can.

Improve Public Speaking: Getting Better With Practice

How, exactly, should you practice? Here are some ideas:

  1. Prepare your presentation or talk well in advance so you have a few days to practice before you deliver it. Don?t wait until the last minute to put the contents together and leave yourself no time to run it through even once (but once won?t make that much difference anyway?)
  2. When you know what you?ll be talking about and have it in the order you want to present it, run through it completely a couple of times making notes (mental notes is fine) of the places that you?re having difficulty delivering.
  3. Go over several times, out loud, the areas that you?re finding difficult until they become easier to get through.
  4. Put the whole presentation together and run it through again, noting the difficult places.
  5. Repeat

The above practice suggestion is quite basic and pretty straight forward. Another tip to keep in mind is to practice one day, then put it aside and pick it up the next day and then the next. You?ll be surprised how you can improve by practicing public speaking over a period of days instead of all on one afternoon. It?s as if your brain needs time to process what you were working on during the first practice day and it recalls it much more effectively on the second day, and then the third and so on.

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Learn to persuade, influence, and inspire others

by learning the essentials of effective speaking.

Good communication skills are the master keys to your success!

?

For more tips, techniques and suggestions, check out Dale Mercer?s Step Up and Speak program. It?s highly recommended by Express Yourself to Success as one of the best online speaking courses for those wanting to improve public speaking.

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Source: http://www.expressyourselftosuccess.com/looking-to-improve-public-speaking/

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Obama???s approval rating reaches lowest point of his presidency (Daily Caller)

President Obama?s approval rating dropped to the lowest level of his entire presidency on Sunday, according to Gallup?s presidential approval rating tracker.

Just 39 percent of the public say they approve of the job Obama is doing as president, a new low for the president. Fifty-four percent of the public say they disapprove of his performance.

By comparison, former President Bill Clinton?s lowest approval rating of his entire presidency was 37 percent, which he reached in June of 1993.

The number is based off of Gallup?s three-day rolling average. Previously, Obama?s lowest approval rating was 40 percent, reached just two weeks ago as the clock was winding down to raise the debt ceiling and negotiations were becoming increasingly chaotic.

Since then, the debt ceiling was raised, but it did not stave off an economic rollercoaster. Standard & Poor?s downgraded the United States? triple-A credit rating for the first time in the country?s history. In the aftermath of the downgrade, the stock market plummeted, then rose, then plummeted again before ending the day up on Friday.

That has certainly taken a toll on the public?s certainty about the economy. Gallup?s polling found economic confidence to have tanked from July to August, measuring the economic confidence index to have fallen to -53, down from -34 in July.

The approval rating is based on Gallup?s telephone interviews with approximately 1,500 Americans over a three-day period. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.

Read more stories from The Daily Caller

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Kim Kardashian makes a fool of herself in dance class

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20110814/pl_dailycaller/obamasapprovalratingreacheslowestpointofhispresidency

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Prudent Home Improvement: now is the right time to renovate ...

Article

by SA HOME

Spring is here and the markets to improve the equipment and the house full of new products ? the farm is for grilling. In the world of retail renovations, might as well spring for Christmas.

and usually it is difficult to keep the back, went to the gel before you buy plants for the garden through the garden ?attractive advertising sign baby tomato plants, herbs and flowers, you can not s? keep dreaming of a new bridge in the backyard and the purchase of new furniture great for her, and when it?s time, the house should be removed, you want to get started on the project soon. that possible

are, but this year, big box stores bracing worse: spending owner of the house on reconstruction is expected to increase by 12 percent to 0.2 billion, down following a drop of 9, 7 percent in 2008, according to Harvard University leading indicator of business restructuring

Renovations, which divides the difference.

So what is home to fans of renovation? If you also ?wait and see? before jumping head first in the list of spring projects for fear that the economy could even worsen, or if you totally extensive use of low prices and greater availability of labor Lumber

If you follow national trends, you can split the difference and a bit of both. Eight of 10 homeowners and apartment home improvement giant Lowe they interviewed paint is considering upgrading their furniture or lawn and garden in the coming year. At the same time, said 35 percent of respondents home-service contractor matchmaker ServiceMagic.com to deter a renovation project last year only half of people said they planned to move to tackle the project this year

What does this mean for you

Well, if you have the money, time and? -. Lust and are willing to throw caution to the wind ? now may be a good time to renovate

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Source: http://www.dtmdiscos.com/prudent-home-improvement-now-is-the-right-time-to-renovate.html

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How to Pay Off your Payday Loan ? Mortgage Payment Calculator ...

Are you trapped in payday loan cycle? You get new payday loan to cover your existing loan and it keep repeating until you are overwhelming. If you are, you are not alone. Many people take out their first one hoping to pay off in full in the next payday, but end up with taking out more loans and scrambling to cover one after another until their debt reach to the overwhelming level and don?t know what to do. How to break this payday loan cycle and pay it off? Here are 5 practical ways to help you break the payday loan cycle:

1. Understand What You Are Up Against

Each state and each country have certain law against payday loan borrowers. For example, Oklahoma?s laws allow payday loan?s repeat borrowers who have taken out three consecutive loans to repay their loan balance in four equal installments. This is a good opportunity for you to break the cycle and pay off the loan.

You should also be able to find your local or state government representative that can provide help and advices on how to handle your overwhelming debt issue. You may discover more options to pay off your payday loan.

2. Pay the Loan(s) off ASAP

The fact is whatever you have borrowed, you need to pay it back; Let face it. Thinking of paying off your payday loan without any action won?t get your debt problem resolve. What you must do is finding a way to repay the loan in the next payday without getting a new payday loan and find some way to get through what will be a very difficult several weeks without the money.

Some ideas to cash out money to pay loans:

* Have a yard sale or garage sale. Put anything that can be sold such as furniture, clothes, gifts, watches, jewelry and etc.

* Sell a few things in your local newspaper?s free ads or sell them online at eBay.

* If you are under employment, you may discuss with your employer to get an advance salary and repay it over several pay periods.

* Borrow from your family or relatives to pay off your payday loan and repay them over several pay periods.

* Get a second job or part-time job to earn extra money to clear your debt.

* Cut down your monthly expenses and optional spending such as entertainment, clothing and vacation to save more money to pay into your debt.

3. Get Help From Credit Counseling Service

If your debt is too overwhelming and something in such a desperate situation, you can be out of mind in thinking a solution. Then, the best option should be getting help from finance professional such as credit counseling service.

Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS) are non-profit counseling centers that can offer you with individual financial advices based on your financial situation. A consultant will be assigned to you to understand in details your current financial situation before proposing options and solutions to your financial issue. These options can be especially helpful to help you understand your options and what are the best solutions to your debt issue. In many case, you will be advised to enroll into their debt management plan so that you can follow their plan to work your way out of debt. However, it is optional but if you decide to enroll into any debt management plan, you must aware that there will be a small monthly fee involve.

Summary

Keeping yourself circular inside the payday loan cycle will drag you into overwhelming and stressful debt issue. The only solution is finding a way out of it by breaking the payday loan cycle. Beside, working out your own ways to pay off the loan as soon as possible, you can get help and guidance from professional such as consumer credit counseling service.


Cornie Herring -
About the Author:

Cornie Herring is an finance author of debt management & bankruptcy alternatives. You can find useful information and resources to reduce and eliminate your debt issues at her website.

Source: http://superclause.com/2011/08/12/how-to-pay-off-your-payday-loan/

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Reasons unknown why black women have poorer survival for breast cancer

It is still a mystery why black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than whites, according to a new study that shows the racial disparity can?t be chalked up to obesity differences.

As a group, black women in the U.S. tend to be heavier than whites and researchers had thought that might explain why only 78 percent survive five years after diagnosis, compared to 90 percent of white women.

?This has been an important question,? said Susan M. Gapstur of the American Cancer Society, who wasn?t involved in the new work. Several studies have tied obesity to poorer survival after breast cancer, but only a few small ones have tested whether that relationship varies by race.? The new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is the most detailed and well-designed so far, Gapstur, formerly of Northwestern U., told Reuters Health.

Yani Lu of City of Hope in Duarte, California, and colleagues used data collected for an earlier breast cancer study on more than 4,500 women living in major American cities.? About a third of the women were black and the rest were white, and all were between 35 and 64 years old when they were diagnosed with breast cancer. After more than eight years, 14 percent of the white women and 25 percent of the black women had died of breast cancer.

The women had been interviewed about their weight five years before their cancer diagnosis and more than twice as many black women as white were obese (27 percent versus 12 percent).
Obese white women had a 46-percent higher chance of dying of breast cancer than their normal-weight white peers and the increased risk remained after taking other diseases and education into account.? But there was no such link for blacks.

The researchers did find a hint that extra poundage might be related to cancer death in black women with advanced disease, but Gapstur said those results would need to be replicated by additional studies in other groups.?It was surprising that this study shows a positive relationship between obesity and breast cancer mortality in white women and not in black women,? she said. ?It raises important questions about other possible reasons.?

While there aren?t any bulletproof answers yet, researchers believe differences in tumor biology as well as health care access could be at play.? Last year, for instance, one study found that black and Hispanic women wait longer to get drug treatment after breast cancer surgery than whites.??? Previous research has also found that black women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancers at later stages than white women.

?We don?t yet have a clear picture,? Gapstur said.? Still, she added, the message to black breast cancer survivors is not that they shouldn?t worry about their weight.
?It is always important to maintain a healthy weight, for a variety of reasons,? she told Reuters Health.

SOURCE: Reuters Health and? Journal of Clinical Oncology, online July 25, 2011.

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Source: http://health.abhayamedia.com/reasons-unknown-why-black-women-have-poorer-survival-for-breast-cancer.html

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Lonyae Miller ? Lonyae Miller impresses Jason Witten - Fantasy Sports

Dallas Cowboys RB Lonyae Miller, who is in competition for the No. 3 running back spot, has impressed TE Jason Witten by his blocking abilities. Witten said Miller has yet to miss a blitz pickup during camp.
Huddle Up: The Boys need someone to protect QB Tony Romo and their OL still has some problems, according to some. Miller has been a star in camp and could supplant Tashard Choice as the "choice" for the #3 RB. And we all know that they'll use three backs, especially since the "number one" won't be able to handle a full workload and the "number two" is a rookie with a history of injury.

Click to continue reading this fantasy sports article at The Huddle's Fantasy Player News Feed.

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Source: http://www.fantasysportsdish.com/lonyae-miller-lonyae-miller-impresses-jason-witten/

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Cameron vows `fightback' as Birmingham seethes (AP)

LONDON ? Britain's prime minister hammered out a tough line against rioters Wednesday, determined to restore order and confidence on Britain's streets as extra police officers flooded the capital for a second day.

Even as Prime Minister David Cameron promised not to let a "culture of fear" take hold, tensions flared in Birmingham, where a murder probe was opened after three men were killed in a hit-and-run reportedly as they took to the streets to deter potential rioters.

"We needed a fightback and a fightback is under way," Cameron said in a somber televised statement outside his Downing Street office after a meeting of the nation's crisis committee. As if to underline his resolve, he underlined "nothing is off the table" ? including water cannon, commonly used in Northern Ireland but never deployed in mainland Britain.

The number of arrests in London alone climbed to 805, with courts staffing around the clock to process alleged looters, vandals and thieves ? including one as young as 11. Cameron has recalled Parliament from its summer recess for an emergency debate on the riots Thursday.

Outside the capital, in England's second largest city of Birmingham, police launched a murder investigation into the deaths of three men hit by a car. Residents said the dead men, aged 20 to 31, were members of Birmingham's South Asian communities who had been patrolling their neighborhood to keep it safe from looters.

"They lost their lives for other people, doing the job of the police," said witness Mohammed Shakiel, 34. "They weren't standing outside a mosque, a temple, a synagogue or a church ? they were standing outside shops where everybody goes. They were protecting the community."

Tariq Jahan, whose 21-year-old son Haroon was killed, stood in a Birmingham street and pleaded with the South Asian community not to seek revenge against the car's occupants, reported to be black.

"Today we stand here to plead with all the youth to remain calm, for our community to stand united," he said.

"This is not a race issue. The family has received messages of sympathy and support from all parts of the community ? all races, all faiths and backgrounds."

He remonstrated with angry young men, urging them to "grow up" and go home.

Chris Sims, chief constable of West Midlands Police, said a man had been arrested on suspicion of murder.

"The information we have at the moment would support the idea that the car was deliberately driven," he said, appealing for calm. "My concern would be that that single incident doesn't lead to a much wider level of distress and even violence between different communities."

The violence has revived debate about the Conservative-led government's austerity measures, which will slash 80 billion pounds ($130 billion) from public spending by 2015 to reduce the country's swollen budget deficit.

Cameron's government has slashed police budgets as part of the cuts. A report last month said the cuts will mean 16,000 fewer police officers by 2015.

London mayor Boris Johnson ? like Cameron, a Conservative ? broke with the government to say such cuts are wrong.

"That case was always pretty frail and it has been substantially weakened," he told BBC radio. "This is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers."

But in London, an eerie calm prevailed. Scenes of ransacked stores, torched cars and blackened buildings have frightened and outraged Britons just a year before their country is to host next summer's Olympic Games, bringing demands for a tougher response from law enforcement. Police across the country have made almost 1,200 arrests ? including 800 in London ? since the violence broke out in the capital on Saturday.

Armored vehicles and convoys of police vans backed up some 16,000 officers on duty ? almost triple the number who were out Monday night. The show of force seems to have worked ? there were no reports of major trouble in London on Tuesday night, although there were scores of arrests.

"What happened in London last night was, when community leaders and the police came together, there were significant arrests," said police deputy assistant chief constable Stephen Kavanagh. "Some looters were taken away before they got into doing anything, but it was that joint action that made the difference."

Britain's soccer authorities were talking with police to see whether this weekend's season-opening matches of the Premier League could still go ahead in London. A Wednesday match between England and the Netherlands at London's Wembley stadium was canceled.

Britain's riots began Saturday when an initially peaceful protest over a police shooting in London's Tottenham neighborhood turned violent. That clash has morphed into a general lawlessness in London and several other cities that police have struggled to halt.

While the rioters have run off with goods every teen wants ? new sneakers, bikes, electronics and leather goods ? they also have torched stores apparently just to see something burn. They were left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods, and when police did arrive they often were able to flee quickly and regroup.

Some residents stood guard to protect their neighborhoods ? Sikhs protected their temple in Southall, west London, and some 1,000 far-right members reportedly took to the streets to deter rioters.

___

Paisley Dodds, Meera Selva, David Stringer and Raphael Satter contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110810/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_riots

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S. Korea stock broker leaps to death amid losses

South Korean police say a stock broker has jumped off a high-rise residential building to his death after he apparently suffered heavy losses in the global markets turmoil.

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Chief investigator Lee Kang-ho said Wednesday that a 48-year-old man surnamed Seo sent his colleagues text messages expressing remorse over the losses just minutes before he jumped from the building.

The suspected suicide took place in the southeastern city of Daegu. Lee said Seo's text messages included an apology to his clients. No separate suicide note was found.

South Korean stocks have fallen sharply amid global financial turmoil fanned by worries over the future of the U.S. economy.

South Korea has the highest suicide rate in the developed world.

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44088170/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/

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After nearly 200 years, House page program ending (AP)

WASHINGTON ? After nearly 200 years, the House is killing the messengers.

Leaders are ending the page program that began in the 1820s, allowing high school students to serve as messengers while getting a behind-the-scenes look at Congress that few Americans ever get.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote House members Monday that the Internet and email have left the pages with little to do. Their message ? delivered via mail ? said the House could no longer justify the $5 million annual expense.

Pages, usually high school juniors, live in their own dorm, have their own school and at times party like ? well, like teenagers whose parents are away. The program, which has adult supervision, has nonetheless been touched by a few sex scandals.

But most of the time, the pages could be seen around the Capitol complex with their dark blazers and neatly trimmed hair, running at warp speed when summoned by a member of Congress. They all were smart, needing a minimum 3.0 grade average in core school subjects to get into the program.

The problem, Boehner and Pelosi said, is they now have little to do. The stacks of bills and the packages they carried, the messages transmitted from one lawmaker to another, can all be delivered electronically.

The House program will end by Aug. 31, although the Senate page program will continue.

In 1983, the House censured Republican Rep. Dan Crane of Illinois and Democratic Rep. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts for sexual relationships with pages ? Crane with a young woman and Studds with a young man.

More recently, in 2006, Republican Rep. Mark Foley of Florida resigned in disgrace after it was learned he had sent sexually suggestive electronic messages to former male pages. That scandal, and the failure of Republican leaders to act after they learned what Foley was doing, helped the Democrats regain the House that year.

After the Foley case, the House overhauled the board that supervised pages, including giving both parties an equal say in overseeing the program. The Republican chairman of the board during the Foley scandal had failed to notify other board members of Foley's questionable emails. The board also was expanded to include a former page and the parent of a page.

One former page, Rep. John Dingell, said "It's very sad" that the program is ending.

Dingell, 85, went on to win election to Congress in 1955, and the Michigan Democrat is now the longest serving member of the House.

His father was in Congress when Dingell became a page at age 12 in 1936, and he was able to stay five years. Four of his best friends as pages were killed in World War II.

"There have been some scandals, but you'd be amazed how they've blossomed," Dingell said. "Most kids get a great deal of good out of it. It taught me about government and gave me a real knowledge of what happens in the House. It gave me an appreciation of public service."

Before the Internet and personal electronic devices, pages "crisscrossed the congressional complex each day delivering countless messages and documents to members, committees and leadership offices," Boehner and Pelosi wrote.

They said that starting in 2008, the first of two studies found that while the young aides were once "stretched to the limit delivering large numbers of urgently needed documents and other packages," they now are "rarely called upon for such deliveries, as most documents are now transmitted electronically."

Today, the pages "are severely underutilized," the leaders said.

Boehner and Pelosi wrote that while they are "mindful of the special place their unique experience holds in the memories of the young Americans privileged to serve as pages over the years, our decision to close the program reflects two current realities: Changes in technology have obviated the need for most page services, and the program's high costs are difficult to justify, especially in light of diminished benefits to the House."

The study calculated the per-page cost for a two-semester school year at $69,000-$80,000 annually, depending on the size of each semester's class.

Jerry Papazian, president of the Capitol Page Alumni Association, said he was "stunned and saddened" when he received an email Monday from Boehner's office announcing the end of the program. Papazian was a House page in 1971 and 1972, working on the House floor.

"Nixon was president. It was just before Watergate. We were observing history firsthand," said Papazian, who is now managing director of a management consulting firm in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. "It was one of the most profound experiences of my life."

He said the alumni association is preparing for a reunion of pages from the House, Senate and Supreme Court next spring. The Supreme Court ended its page program in the 1970s, Papazian said.

___

Associated Press writer Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110809/ap_on_go_co/us_goodbye_house_pages

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First Nations Tribe Combines Science with Legacy of Conservation

FIRST NATIONS SCIENCE: William Housty (foreground), director of Coastwatch, collects grizzly hair from barbed wire at a hair-snagging station set up in the Koeye River watershed in Heiltsuk Traditional Territory in British Columbia. Image: Ian Jasma

Editor's note: This story is the final entry in a four-part series that Anne Casselman, a freelance writer and regular contributor to Scientific American, reported in early June during a rare opportunity to conduct field reporting on grizzly bears in Heiltsuk First Nation traditional territory in British Columbia. For more on her experience there, see this slide show, story and blog post.

HEILTSUK TRADITIONAL TERRITORY, British Columbia?"Two sub-legal Manilas, 25 grams," says Ed Carpenter as he watches the electric scale's reading settle under the weight of the two clams. It's midday at the Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department (HIRMD) on the north end of the community of Bella Bella. Field researchers from Coastwatch, a science and environment nonprofit serving this coastal tribe of First Nation people, are sorting through the bounty of this morning's clam surveys of Bachelor Bay and Odin Bay. The size and numbers of the clams they collect are submitted to the Fisheries and Oceans Canada, who will use these figures to determine the sustainable oyster catch for the year based on estimates of the clam population's demographics.

For the Heiltsuk First Nation, science is proving to be one of the most powerful tools at their disposal as far as asserting their tradition of safeguarding natural resources for, as their elders put it, their "children yet to come." "Our people have been stewarding these lands for 10,000 years and our people already know what it takes to manage our resources...but nowadays you need to have that science side of things," explains William Housty, Coastwatch director.

In a traditional territory that spans 16,770 square kilometers of the Great Bear Rainforest, resource management decisions often boil down to data, baselines and environmental monitoring. Up until recently, much of that data was collected and owned by federal government agencies or visiting university researchers. In the case of fisheries, aspects of central coast marine resources were often neglected by government surveys, says Julie Carpenter, clam survey biologist and marine use planning coordinator for HIRMD, leaving local fishermen who warned of vanishing stocks impotent against the data-based management of government agencies. She cites the example of rockfish. "We've been seeing a serious decline for years now but [Fisheries and Oceans Canada] have never done any kind of survey work in our area to support that," she says. So instead, Housty and Coastwatch (the science arm of the Qqs Projects Society, founded in 1999 by social worker and Qqs executive director, Larry Jorgensen) conducted surveys of rock cod to "ground-truth" the observations of Heiltsuk fishermen.

"It really gives us more of a voice and more leverage in using the data we've collected for things like management and decisions," Housty says. As his sister Jess Housty, director of traditional ecological knowledge at Qqs (pronounced "kuks," it means eyes in Heiltsuk), says: "We're mostly interested in science for the sake of preserving our way of life, for informing the decisions that we're making on a management level and for continuing this unbroken model of traditional stewardship."

The merits of supporting Heiltsuk-driven science is readily apparent to those outside of the immediate Heiltsuk community. Eric Peterson and his wife Christina Munck founded the Hakai Beach Institute, a nonprofit research and teaching and conference center located on nearby Calvert Island, just over a year ago. In its second summer running, the institute is a hive of activity best described as a science-infused community center for the central coast. "We think the best way we can serve the community is by developing its scientific element," Peterson says. "The thing that makes this place unique is the combination of science and culture.... We have no choice but to look at the science we do here in the context of our setting which is a First Nations setting."

"You know, I always remind everyone that comes in for a commercial opening that they come and they take and they leave, and we're here for the rest of our lives," says Gary Housty, Heiltsuk hereditary chief. "And that's one of the things I really stress: that this is our area and we're going to continue to be stewards of our lands and waters." The Heiltsuk have drafted a 1,000-year management plan for their territory and have designated 51 percent of their territory conservancy, whereas the remaining 49 percent is to be managed using ecosystem-based management practices, a holistic way of managing a landscape that recognizes ecological interactions, rather than considering just one resource or species in isolation. And last but not least, HIRMD, the keystone of Heiltsuk resource management and culmination of years of discussions, was founded just over a year ago.

"I think the long-term vision [of HIRMD] is to test the effectiveness of ecosystem-based management (EBM) and to better integrate human and local economies into resource management," says Morgan Hocking, science director of Qqs. "And rather than keeping ecology and economy separate, trying to integrate them to have a more sustainable society in the long term." One of the broad goals of the project is not only to implement EBM but to monitor it as well, Hocking says, for example, "so to compare a number of indicators including sockeye [salmon] in conservancy sites versus EBM sites where they have current logging."

Another primary concern voiced by the community is the threat posed by Calgary-based energy company Enbridge, Inc.'s proposed Northern Gateway tar sands oil pipeline, which would introduce crude oil tanker traffic to British Columbia's northern and central coasts. So the Coastwatch crew are busy getting, as William Housty puts it "an inventory of the kitchen so if anything did happen we'd know what was there and what was lost."

Many Heiltsuk would point out that their own land-management practices long predate any concept of sustainability as Westerners know it. The region included at least 56 "pre-contact" village sites in Heiltsuk territory and as many as 30,000 people. The First Nations of coastal British Columbia boasted one of the densest populations of any nonagricultural community, so rich were the region's natural resources. "We're taught by our elders and their ancestors you'll always be stewards of your lands. Just take what you need. Don't overtake. You always leave something behind so it can redo itself again," hereditary Chief Housty says. "And it worked for many, many, many years."

"What I find really cool is this principle of conservation biology, the precautionary approach, in most cases, is absolutely consistent with the philosophy the Heiltsuk evolved with culturally to manage their own resources," says Chris Darimont, chief scientist with Raincoast Conservation Foundation. "It's the same thing."

And Jess Housty points out: "What I'm starting to see is indigenous people on the coast realizing that they do have a really powerful voice and starting to think really hard about how they can leverage sound science to protect traditional values, which are often not that different from conservation values."

That connection to history and land might explain the Heiltsuk to approach land stewardship with, as Darimont put it, "one foot firmly anchored in the past and one charging into the future." Then again, it might be more simple than that. As 28-year old Coastwatch field crew member Collin Reid stated so clearly in the Qqs office where he stopped on his way to clean clams from the morning's survey: "What we're raised to do is protect our lands."


Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=5982e883530b535aa1bfb13105cf565c

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