Project Phoenix
Tragedy struck the Upper Carmanah research station in October 1990 when vandals cut the foot bridge across the canyon at the start of the trail in half, smashed and ripped up almost all of the boardwalk and burnt the research frame tent with all the equipment to the ground. The heat was so great that it melted and burned a couple of aluminium ladders. Nothing survived the fire but a severely singed copy of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Rebuilding the bridge - Project Phoenix.
Over $30,000 worth of materials and an incredible 8,000 hours of volunteer time were lost. The attack on the station occurred at the same time as a pm-logging group blockaded the road preventing tourists and Wilderness Committee volunteers from entering the area. No one was ever charged for blockading the road or destroying the station. WCWC immediately responded with project Phoenix -- a campaign to build a bigger and better research facility than before. Over the next few months hundreds of volunteers flooded into the Upper Carmanah to do the work. Gogo mills of Nanaimo donated thousands of dollars worth of cedar and American Fabricators another larger tent covering. The station was up and running for the 1991 research season.
