The Carmanah Valley on the pacific coast of western Vancouver Island has some of the largest stika spruces in Canada. WCWC proposes that the Carmanah Valley be added to Pacific Rim National Park for preservation purposes.

CARMANAH

Wilderness Committee Education Report Vol.08 - No.01 - Winter 88/89

Facts About Jobs Vs. Park

- Carmanah Valley is crown land. It does not belong to MacMillan Bloedel Limited, B.C.s largest logging company. MB only holds a forest harvesting tenure (Tree Farm License 44) there.

- Carmanah is 0.000007 percent of B.C.'s land base; 0.0003 percent of B.C.'s productive forest land base; 1.8 percent of TFL 44. It is 17 times the size of Vancouver's world famous Stanley Park. MB proposes to preserve two areas totalling less than one half the size of Stanley park, only two percent of the valley.

- In British Columbia, every 10 days, an area of old-growth forest the size of the entire 6,730 hectare Carmanah Valley is clearcut logged. Waste levels of merchantable wood in the clearcuts is often higher than 15 percent.

- In the last 10 years B.C. has exported more than two times the amount of wood found in the entire Carmanah Valley as raw logs. The jobs lost in milling greatly exceed those jobs that would be lost in preserving all of Carmanah.

- According to MB's own figures, if it reinvested more money in intensive silviculture in TFL 44 instead of taking record cash profits, the increase harvest of second-growth wood there would equal 11 times as much timber as is found in all of Carmanah.

- Expert opinions in MB's studies (Folio II) warn that MB plans to log near the big trees and on the steep slopes of the watershed and that this may cause blowdown and erosion - in other words, its small reserves to protect Carmanah's giant Sitka spruce may fail.

Preservation of Entire Carmanah is Reasonable

These graphs show:

  • 1. The percentage of B.C.'s forest land protected in existing parks and ecological reserves:
    -B.C.'s forest land base - 47 million hectares.
  • 2. The conservationists' goal to double the protected forest land base:
    -Additional land conservationaists want preserved and protected - 1,141,000 hectares.
  • 3. How the preservation of Carmanah Valley relates to conservationists' goal:
    -Conservationists Carmanah proposal. Each tree represents 76 hectares.
  • 4. The difference between the conservationists' proposal and MB's proposal for natural forest:
    -MB's Carmanah proposal. Each tree represents 76 hectares. preservation in Carmanah.

    • Explenation of symbols used:

  • Unprotected forest - Open for exploration

  • Protected forest - preserved in all kinds of parks and ecological reserves.

  • Proposed additional forests to be protected - a summation of all the forest lans found in current wilderness and park proposals including Meares Island, Stein valley, Khutzeymateen, Stikine national park reserve, Chilcotin wilderness area etc.

  • Areas proposed to be logged or already logged - stumps in conservationists' proposal represent areas that have already been logged.

    Graphs

    Click on illustration to enlarge.