Stein serving as wildlife refuge
The roadless Stein Valley has long provided a superb and stable home for a wide variety of wildlife.
Sharing the Stein are grizzly and black bears, cougar, wolves, coyotes, mountain goats and sheep, mule deer, moose, wolverines, beaver, raccoons, picas, marmots and numerous smaller animals and birds. Being able to view these species together in an intact habitat has become almost impossible in southwestern B.C.
Rugged coastal mountains influence the topography providing good habitat for the goats, sheep and mule deer. Grizzly and black bears forage in the valley bottoms and on avalanche slopes. Pileated woodpecker activity is common in the mature Douglas fir and yellow pine forests. Golden eagles with 2 metre wingspans soar above the ridges. High in the alpine meadows and on adjacent slopes, horned larks, water pipits and hoary marmots are common summer residents.
According to the 1984 Ministry of Forests' Stein River Resource Folio report, if logging comes to the valley, wildlife managers will be "taxed to the limits of existing knowledge to maintain suitable habitat for many wildlife populations." Such an admission from the Forest Ministry suggests a possibly even worse scenario, particularly since biological studies haven't even yet been done in the Stein to give baseline data on current wildlife populations.
The Stein has been shared by its residents for 10,000 years and done very well without the heavy hand of modern man. It is one of the last refuges in southern B.C. for large carnivores such as the grizzly. Only a materialistic society focused on fulfilling its own selfish goals would state that it is wasteful for the Stein to remain as undeveloped wilderness. The wise choice is to allow the sharing of the past to continue by keeping the Stein roadless forever.
