Stein River shrouded in mist
Logging alternatives in tune with changing times
When the provincial government made its decision decades ago to include the Stein Valley's trees in the local mills' wood supply, times were different. Over the past fifteen years lumber prices have declined in real terms by 20%. Most experts agree that the markets for B.C.'s traditional wood exports are now static.
Increasingly British Columbians are looking toward recreational tourism and the benefits which it provides as a way of meeting the need to provide for jobs and revenues while preserving the quality of our environment.
The Stein River Valley is a significant tourist resource. The Valley is only 100 miles from Vancouver and just fifty miles from the burgeoning resort town of Whistler. Its close proximity to the Lower Mainland plus the physical majesty and diversity of the valley makes the Stein ideally suited for Class A provincial park status.
Deep sculpted valley of the Stein
Preservation of the Stein is not a case of wilderness versus logging.
The removal of the-Stein Valley from timber production does not mean the abandonment of the local forest forest industry. However the solution to the problem of increasing timber scarcity is not the subsidized development of an inaccessable wilderness valley. Government funds set aside to aid an uneconomic logging scheme, could be spent instead to help the local forest industry adapt to a future which demands resource efficiency and specialized products.
Increasingly visitors to B.C. are looking for something special: a horse trip up a wild river valley, a stay in a remote mountain lodge, an archeological tour of heritage sites, rock paintings, and stone carvings. The Stein has all of these and more.
A true wilderness experience like that available in the Stein is becoming increasingly rare in British Columbia. Once destroyed by man, such wilderness areas can never be recreated.
In B.C. we have come full circle. We are faced with a future that will be far different from the past. It is now not only good ecology to preserve areas such as the Stein, but also good economics. The Stein could be designated as B.C.'s first "wild river" in time for Expo '86.
