Lyell Island forsaken?
The intense debate over wilderness protection, especially South Moresby, prompted the B.C. government to appoint a special Wilderness Advisory Committee in November of 1985. This Committee released its report March 8, 1986.
After receiving hundreds of pro-preservation letters, and spurred on by the Federal Environment Ministry's offer to cover at least fifty percent of the cost of turning South Moresby, including all of Lyell Island, into a national park, the Committee recommended that the South Moresby area, excluding Lyell Island, be offered to the federal government to create a park, with negotiations to be finished before 1989. They also recognized that the governments involved must "consult the Haida Nation to identify their interests, and provide them with a voice and a share in the management of such a park."
The Advisory Committee recommendations fall short of conservationists' expectations. They compromise the integrity of a future national park by advocating that clear-cut logging continues for many years on Lyell Island. Their plan includes the logging of eighty percent of Lyell Island's Windy Bay watershed - the largest salmon stream in South Moresby.
It was on Lyell Island where the Haidas confronted the logging industry last Fall to protect the Islands which are vital to the survival of their culture. It was also on Lyell Island, in Windy Bay, where David Suzuki filmed much of his controversial CBC "The Nature of Things" special, "The Windy Bay Show." He compared South Moresby to the Galapagos Islands in South America because of its abundant life-forms and unique species, speculating that portions of South Moresby remained free of ice while the rest of North America lay deep under glaciers. Indians and scientists alike insist that all logging must cease on Lyell Island, and never touch Windy Bay.
The Wilderness Advisory Committee's report states that "British Columbians feel a strong sympathetic relationship between themselves and the wilderness. They see it as part of their heritage, and they value it highly." They define wilderness as a large area of land where the "imprint of modern man" must be "substantially unnoticable." If the high-profile Lyell Island were to be clear-cut logged down to a thin strip of trees along the shore, the barren slopes would be visible from all of Juan Perez Sound, the major waterway through South Moresby.
Yet, even though Federal Government has offered to pay half of the cost of protecting Lyell Island within its National Park Proposal, and the Wilderness Advisory Committee recommends substantial compensation to Western Forest Products for its loss of timber, it appears that the Committee was afraid to take the final step and create an untouched and complete wilderness park. Concerned Canadians must demand that the B.C. government heed the Committee's recommendations and take them one step further to include Lyell Island and Windy Bay in the new South Moresby National Park.
