Research Details Devastating Toll of Colonization on Pacific Northwest Wildlife

E360 Digest
July 18, 2025

When Europeans arrived to the Pacific Northwest, they spread smallpox that devastated the Indigenous people, plundered stocks of salmon and herring, hunted down deer and other game, and built sprawling cities and ports. New research tallies the profound impact on wildlife.

The study, undertaken by researchers from the University of British Columbia and Tsleil-Waututh Nation, focuses on the Burrard Inlet in Canada, where Vancouver sits today. Drawing on Indigenous knowledge, archeological findings, and archival data, researchers modeled wildlife in the region from before Europeans arrived in 1792 until 1980.

The study showed that, under colonization, the total mass of pink salmon and chum salmon dropped by 40 percent. Forage fish — such as herring, eulachon, surf smelt, and anchovy — declined by 99 percent, and sturgeon were nearly wiped out.

New cities and ports encroached on shorelines that were home to clams, crabs, and birds, leading to a decline in these species as well. Mammals fared little better. One in four seals and three in four deer and elk were lost to hunting, according to the research, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

Compounding the impact of fishing, hunting, and development, was the loss of Indigenous people. The Tsleil-Waututh are specialists in managing wildlife, said lead author Meaghan Efford, writing in The Conversation. Before being decimated by smallpox, the Tsleil-Waututh had maintained a healthy chum salmon fishery for almost 3,000 years.

More:
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/pacific-northwest-colonization-people-wildlife