Chronology
In the heart of Carmanah. MB plan calls for clear-cutting of hillsides in centre of photo.
Before white contact till the present day - Native Indians use the resources of the valley on a limited basis, their activities leaving no significant impact on the natural landscape.
1905-1907 - For a few hundred dollars, the trees growing on 30 percent of Carmanah are bought and held as timber licenses.
1955 - the B.C. government grants MacMillian Bloedel a tree farm licence (now TFL 44), which includes Carmanah Valley.
1956 - MB timber cruises inventory Carmanah Valley. One of them later recalls seeing world-record-sized Sitka spruce.
1984 - MB presents for public review its 1985 to 1989 management and working plan for TFL 44, showing no development in the Carmanah/Nitinat area during that period. Other MB documents available to the public show no logging in Carmanah until 2003.
1985 - Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) publishes its Canadian Landmarks newspaper-the first public presenation of a proposal to preserve Carmanah.
1985 - MB quietly shifts its clear-cut-quota from other areas into the Carmanah/Nitinat area and revises its logging plans to include Carmanah. This is done with government approval but without public knowledge or review.
April 1, 1988 - A WCWC member discovers logging roads newly constructed to the edge of Carmanah and roadways surveyed into the heart of the valley's spruce stands. MB's newly revised plans now show proposed logging for 1989 throughout the middle and lower Carmanah Valley, including the best spruce groves.
May 13 - Heritage Forests Society and the Sierra Club present a brief to government entitled "A Proposal to Add the Carmanah Creek Drainage with its Exceptional Sitka Spruce Forests to Pacific Rim National Park". It called for the preservation of the entire Carmanah watershed.
May 19 - Due to mounting pressure, MB halts all road construction in Carmanah for one month and begins a study of the valley.
May 30 - Four WCWC volunteers begin building a trail to provide public and video crew access to the tall spruce.
June 10 - MB engineers discover the Carmanah Giant, a 95 metre tall spruce as lofty as a 30 storey office tower, growing near Pacific Rim National Park. It is the tallest known tree in Canada and the world's tallest recorded Sitka spruce.
June 29 - MB proposes two reserves; a nine hectare area to protect the Carmanah Giant and 90 hectares encompassing some of the largest Sitka spruces in the mid- valley. The protected areas total 1.4 percent of the 6,730 hectare valley. The rest is scheduled to be clear-cut logged. Conservationists continue to call for preservation of the entire Carmanah Valley, noting the vulnerability of reserves to windthrow and erosion.
July 22 - MB seeks a B.C. Supreme Court injunction to halt WCWC trail building in the valley.
July 26 - The B.C. Supreme Court dismisses MB's injunction application and establishes for the first time the public's right of access to Crown lands under TFL tenure. WCWC continues to build trail to the Carmanah Giant.
July 26 - In the face of increasing public outcry, the B.C. Forest Service requests that MB prepare a revised logging plan for Carnanah Valley by the end of September 1988.
September 10 - MP Bob Wenman and Nitinat Indian Chief Peter Knighton officially open the WCWC built Carmanah Valley trail.
October 7 - MB releases another revised plan for Carmanah. It now plans to clearcut all but 2 percent of the valley. The areas MB proposes to preserve are increased to encompass 175 hectares. On the same day WCWC releases its video "Carmanah Forever" narrated by David Suzuki, explaining why the whole valley must be preserved so that the tall spruce habitat is protected in perpetuity.
November - MB takes its revised Carmanah plan to the people. Open houses and public meetings are held in several communities on Southern Vancouver Island and in Vancouver. Hundreds of people attend the meetings and the overwhelming majority stress the need to preserve the entire valley.
January - MB, reacting to public pressure, releases yet another revised plan for Carmanah which calls for clearcutting all but 8 percent of the valley. The area proposed for preservation is now a narrow 538 hectare strip along the lower part of Carmanah Creek.
February - MB hands over its new Carmanah logging plans to the B.C. Forest Service. This time, the Forest Service takes the plan to open houses in several communities on Southern Vancouver Island and in Vancouver. In Victoria, more than 200 people gather in front of the Ministry of Forests and Lands headquarters to demonstrate their desire to see a moratorium on Carmanah logging and a full independent study of the effects of logging on this steep sided valley. Forest Service personnel attempt to defend the company plan at the open houses instead of playing a neutral role.
March 9 - Frank Oberle, federal minister of forests, visits Carmanah as a guest of MB. Awed by the beauty of the spiring spruces, he admits it is hard not to get carried away and want to preserve the whole valley. He notes that the provincial government has not yet invited federal help to save the area.
