The Pocket Wilderness Campaign
On the trail to Clear Creek Hotsprings. Photo credit: Ken Lay
Early in 1987, a number of outdoor an environmental organizations banded together with local people to form the Pocket Wilderness Coalition of British Columbia (PWC). The PWC's aim was to ensure that some pockets of old growth forest were preserved in each an every one of the watersheds that surround the Lower Mainland. This was an idea whose time had come. Organizations like SPEC, Western Canada Wilderness Committee and Valley Outdoor Association backed the coalition immediately. Within weeks of forming, Pocket Wilderness support grew to number several thousand-and with good reason. The people of Lower Mainland communities were sick and tired of seeing favorite weekend-accessible wilderness areas in the Chilliwack, Chehalis, Mamquam, Squamish and other local watersheds, succumb to clear-cut logging, one by one.
The coalition adopted a "Pocket Wilderness Concept" to show the B.C. Forest Service(BCFS), who controls logging in the local watersheds, how it's possible to preserve forested wilderness, while maintaining an acceptable level of the timber supply to the forest companies. The Pocket Wilderness Concept is based on the use of natural land forms, associated with mountainous areas, to preserved and "insulate" small areas of highly valued wilderness, while allowing logging to proceed in adjacent areas.
Forested bowls containing small lakes or valley-ends make excellent pocket wilderness candidates, providing the opportunity to preserve a self contained wilderness retreat. Small side valleys and forested ridges may also have wilderness insulating qualities, and may be used to link several pocket wildernesses together. Such a network of pocket wildernesses differs from true wilderness found in major areas like Garibaldi Provincial Park, in being much smaller and more numerous.
Not parks
Pocket Wildernesses, though permanently preserved, should not be considered parks, and are not meant to take their place. Rather, they are a means to preserve forested wilderness ecosystems outside of parks much in the same manner as fish or wildlife resources are preserved outside of parks. 1200 year old yellow cedars, 500 year old firs or 8,000 year old wilderness forest ecosystems should not be completely eliminated from any local watershed, any more than should mountain goats, deer or trout.
For people
Pocket Wildernesses are meant to be enjoyed by people. While many forms of worthwhile outdoor recreation take place on previously logged land in second growth forests, wilderness recreation and enjoyment require a natural environment, relatively unaltered by man and his machines. Pocket Wildernesses provide a means to preserve the wilderness destinations people rely on for this special form of outdoor recreation.
Because of logging road access, Pocket Wildernesses can be done in day or weekend trips and are often suitable of family outings. Hiking towards a Pocket Wilderness through second growth can be a pleasant build up to the moment when a hiker steps into the ancient world of the old growth forest.
