Compelled by his lifelong love for the land, Carl Gitscheff leaves his trapline for the boardrooms of the elite where the future of Canada’s resources is being decided – there to fight for the habitat, his livelihood, and an inheritance to leave his young daughter.
The Trapper of Peace River: A provocative, eye-opening documentary about love, loss and a quest for co-existence in wild British Columbia’s Peace Country.
What would you do if everything you stood for was being undermined before your eyes?
For Carl Gitscheff, trapping and hunting are lifelines connecting him to the land. He wants to leave his Peace Country trapline to his children and grandchildren, continuing the time-honoured trust of living off the land passed on to him by his own grandfather. But as energy development accelerates in B.C.’s once-isolated northern wilderness, pushed by foreign investment and a government prioritizing revenue over sustainability, Carl’s vision of a generational legacy begins to crumble.
Facing a trapline pitted by coalmines, his back-forty populated by pipelines instead of elk, his home a victim to multiple break-ins from the transient workforce flooding the Peace region, and wrestling with his personal grief at the alarming increase in polluted groundwater and fleeing wildlife, Carl watches as the devastating footprint of industry threatens to strip everything of value from him.
In spite of all he is asked to sacrifice, Carl still holds out for a miracle, believing that a balance can be struck between the needs of industry and wildlife. His message to the titans of energy is not one of angry opposition, but that together, they must seek a balance in harvesting Canada's resources. Can a simple trapper convince anyone that nature and industry can co-exist – or is it too late for the Trapper of Peace River?
Directed and Produced by Tobi Elliott
Peace River Trapper Inc.