Clear-cuts in this winter view of Kwoiek Valley appear as white patches from an airplane.
Valley bottoms small but vital
Logging interests propose to clear-cut only nine percent of the Stein over the next 25 years. This doesn't sound like much until one realizes that the vital low elevation forests make up only 12 percent of the entire area of the Stein. In other words, the forest companies propose to log 75 percent of the low elevation forests, virtually all the commercial timber in the valley bottom, the very heart of the Stein.
The Stein lies in the transition zone between the west coast rain forest and semi-arid interior. Cactus at the Stein's mouth testify to the reason the area is known as the hot spot of Canada. A mere 42 cm. Of annual rainfall feeds the dry ponderosa pine forests at the junction of the Stein and Fraser rivers. The steep rock walls of Stein Canyon rise from 700 metres in elevation to more than 2800 metres on either side in a distance of three and a half kilometres.
At one point, in an area known as Devil's Staircase, the logging road is planned to be blasted right above the second largest native pictograph panel (native rock painting site) in B.C. Because of the steep sidewalls of the lower Stein Canyon there is no alternative route for the road. The only real alternative is not to build it!
There is simply no way that road construction and vehicle access can take place without harming the sacred nature of this place. Wherever roads have accessed valued archeological sites, without exception they have been permanently damaged or vandalized.
Further up the Stein Valley, annual rainfall increases to a high of 180 cm. This part of the Stein is a richer ecosystem. Big old trees, moss covered hollows and a lush green understorey form a complex web of interconnecting wildlife habitat that we are only just beginning to understand. The same scene, viewed through different eyes, is a mother lode of commercial timber just waiting to be exploited.
There is no mystery as to what the Stein will look like after it is logged. It is easy to visualize because the Stein is not the first watershed in the area to be logged. It is, in fact, the only remaining major unlogged valley for hundreds of kilometres around.
Adjacent to the Stein on the south lies the Kwoiek Valley. No one contends that any part of this valley is wilderness. Even though less than 5 percent of the total area of this watershed has been clear-cut over the last 15 years, it is nearly logged out.
One doesn't have to rely on government and industry information to assess what would happen to the Stein if logging proceeds there. It will look like Kwoiek Creek does today.
Besides ruining the view of the once beautiful chain of lakes and seriously impacting on the wildlife, logging in Kwoiek has also created serious reforestation problems. The removal of the forest canopy through clear-cutting drastically changes a watershed, especially in an area with such dry, hot summers. The effects of erosion and altered microclimate are not yet fully realized. Currently in Kwoiek, more than 20 percent of the logged area is "non-sufficiently restocked" according to B.C. Forest Service maps. Some clearcuts made 16 years ago have been replanted twice yet are still not growing a new crop of trees.
Another effect of logging is well-known. In 1955, prior to logging in Kwoiek, one person reported seeing 16 grizzly bears on a hiking trip up the Kwoiek to the Stein divide. Today, with hunter access along the logging roads, a single grizzly sighting is major event.
The Stein is a wilderness today because its valley lowlands have never been logged. Taking out the commercial timber in the valley bottom of the Stein drainage and calling the remaining 91 percent of the watershed a wilderness is not just naive. It is immoral.
