By Mark Hume

Will Paulik, an environmental activist who played a key role in saving the upper Skagit River, one of the best trout streams in British Columbia, and an outspoken champion of the Fraser River, has died of cancer at the age of 76.

Mr. Paulik, who grew up near the mouth of the Fraser River, on Canada’s West Coast, used to spend his summers gillnetting salmon in a small wooden fishing boat. He recalled in those early years that the river was so clean he and his father would scoop out a pot of water to make tea without any concerns.

"As a kid, father took us down for Sunday walks to the river. We'd have a little fire on the beach and make tea, or we'd drink the water and nobody thought anything of it," he recalled once in an interview.

Photography by Wade Kalnicki

But over the decades, as industry and urban growth sprawled along the lower river, and agriculture intensified in the Fraser Valley, Mr. Paulik became alarmed about the deteriorating quality of the river.

He was among the first to raise concerns about the loss of Fraser delta wetlands, and to draw attention to increasing water pollution levels, first speaking out in the 1960's. At the same time he joined the fight to save the Skagit from a proposal, in Washington State, just south of the Canada/U.S. border, that would have drowned the upper river with a dam. The hydro project, which proposed raising the height of a dam in Washington, was defeated. The upper watershed, in British Columbia, remains pristine, and is now protected by a park. The Skagit, which is under catch and release regulations, has a remarkable wild trout fishery and is a stunning legacy to Mr. Paulik and the other activists who fought to save it.

When politicians ignored his pleas for action on the Fraser, Mr. Paulik, who studied chemical engineering at the University of British Columbia and the University of Washington, began collecting and testing water, fish and sediment.

Before retiring he’d worked as a researcher with Crown Zellerbach, where, among other things, he was responsible for sampling discharge water from the forest company's 14 mills. That training gave him a solid base when, as an environmental activist, he set out to gather evidence against those he felt were polluting the river.

For years he kept a collection of carp in his freezer; each carefully labeled as to date and location of collection. He'd captured the fish in ditches around the delta - and used tissue samples from those fish to prove that PCBs and other toxins were leaching into the waterway, and traveling through the food web.

To further demonstrate the toxicity of the water, he put live carp into tanks of ditch water and recorded the results. They were dead within 24 hours.

"If something can kill a carp you better believe it's not good to put on your cornflakes in the morning," he said to a newspaper reporter once, when he demonstrated the results of his tests.

He blew the whistle on the dumping of municipal sewage and industrial waste into the river by tracing the sources of the toxins in the carp.

He also dredged shellfish from the river mouth, providing more proof that the Fraser was being dangerously polluted.

So meticulous was his research, with toxins identified by independent lab analysis, which he paid for, that his findings stood up to judicial review.

In 1981 he independently initiated pollution charges against both Richmond Landfill Ltd. and the Fraser River Harbor Commission. He won a conviction under the Fisheries Act, and collected half of the $25,000 fine. He used the money to pay his legal bills, then gave the remainder to environmental groups.

Mr. Paulik knew he would have to convince politicians of the need for change, and in 1981 took John Fraser, then a Conservative Member of Parliament, and Bob Skelly, of the British Columbia New Democratic Party, on a personal tour of the lower Fraser. He showed them where pollutants were pouring into the river - and won two key allies.

Eventually, the governments of both Canada and British Columbia moved protection of the Fraser much higher on their environmental agendas. But Mr. Paulik wasn't satisfied.

"They're not going out to do a thorough protection job; they're all marking time, treading water. They're going through a bureaucratic exercise," he complained.

In 1992 Mr. Paulik was given the B.C. Environment Minister's Award, in recognition of the long struggle he waged to save the river he loved.

"Will Paulik was a tenacious environmentalist long before it was fashionable. His unfaltering perseverance has helped protect the Fraser River," John Cashore, the Environment Minister said at the time.

Mr. Paulik was a member of SPEC, the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation, for more than 30 years, joining in 1970. For many years was a leading spokesman for the organization in British Columbia. He was a trusted source of information on wetlands and environmental matters for journalists, and helped shape many media reports about the Fraser River.

"There is nobody who knows, appreciates and has fought for the wetlands and natural areas of the Lower Mainland more than Will Paulik," David Cadman, the British Columbia president of SPEC said recently.

Despite widespread declines of salmon on the Pacific Coast, the Fraser remains one of the most productive rivers in the world. A run of 13 million salmon is expected to return this year - in a way, paying tribute to Mr. Paulik’s work.