Sea Kayaking
Bonny has been sea kayaking since 1989, commuting year-round to her island home. Since 1995 she has been a professional guide and instructor, leading trips in both Barkley Sound and Clayoquot Sound.
Bonny is a keen recreational paddler, and has completed many expeditions, including a 2-month exploration of Gwaii Haanas (Queen Charlotte Islands), a 3-week descent of Lower Stikine River in a sea kayak, a 1-month trip from Cape Scott Park to Tofino, and 3 months paddling from Prince Rupert to Bella Bella over the past 3 summers.
Bonny is a certified Guide Trainer and Examiner with the Sea Kayak Guides Alliance of BC, and sits on both the Certification Committee and the Examiners Committee of the SKGABC.
Writing
Bonny has been published in Sea Kayaker magazine and WaveLength Paddling Magazine. Her essay on commuting by kayak was published in 2008 in the anthology Writing the West Coast. She also co-authored the Clayoquot chapter of Kayak Routes of the Pacific Northwest.
Natural History
Bonny has a great love of the natural world. Her interest in plants has led to a personal study of wildcrafting and herbal lore. In her 20 years living in Clayoquot, she has become an accomplished birder, botanist, and naturalist.
Bonny has worked as a field technician on research crews, assessing salmon habitat. She spent one gnarly winter doing night searches for amphibians in the upper reaches of the pristine watersheds of Clayoquot Sound.
Rainforest Activism
Upon moving to Tofino in 1988, Bonny joined the fledgling rainforest movement of the day. She was arrested in Sulphur Pass for peacefully protesting clear-cut logging. She devoted the next 5 years of her life to building the movement to save Clayoquot Sound.
She was both a volunteer and director of the Friends of Clayoquot Sound. Her work with FOCS culminated with her job as Action Co-ordinator for Clayoquot Summer 1993, a summer of non-violent protest that ultimately led to the arrest of almost 1000 people. It was the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, and put Clayoquot Sound firmly in the international spotlight.
Through the 1990s Bonny joined Dan to deliver sea kayaking and conservation slide shows around British Columbia. Since 2001, Bonny has toured Japan twice, presenting slideshows at Patagonia stores, as well as meeting with corporate consumers of BC forest products, asking them to join the shift to Ancient Forest Friendly products. Bonny is active on the Friends of Clayoquot Sound Advisory Council.
