NATIONAL PARK PROTECTION IS NEEDED FOR GLOBALLY UNIQUE TREASURE
The awe inspiring Howser Spires tower above East Creek Valley in the heart of the proposed Bugaboo Rainforest National Park. Photo credit: Joe Foy
Bugaboo Rainforest National Park Proposal is a 500,000 hectare wilderness link between several smaller "island parks" in southeastern British Columbia.The proposed national park, situated in the southern Columbia Mountain Range encompasses a significant portion of BC's unique inland temperate rainforest.
Exemplified by rugged river valleys lined with towering old growth cedar and hemlock trees, the proposed national park is home to one of BC's most significant and endangered, mountain caribou herds as well as grizzly bears, mountain goats, wolves and other animals.
Renowned among scientists for its unique biodiversity and famed for its backcountry recreation, the Bugaboo is nonetheless facing imminent danger from logging, road-building and excessive development plans.
Local advocacy groups including Save the Cedar League, the Fraser Headwaters Alliance and the Inland Rainforest Working Group have said that these threats, if not stopped will, trigger catastrophic species loss in the region.
Today, development pressures around Glacier and Mt. Revelstoke National Parks, including logging right up to park boundaries, have led to shrinking animal populations inside the parks and are reforming them as unfortunate wilderness "islands".
Threatened by Logging
The creation of Bugaboo Rainforest National Park - linking Glacier and Mt. Revelstoke National Parks, Purcell Wilderness Conservancy, and Goat Range and Bugaboo Provincial Parks would help protect this "Crown Jewel" of southeastern BC and stem a wave of local wildlife population decline.
Park designation would result in the largest inter-connected protected area network in southern BC, greatly relieving pressures currently impacting the region's existing parks and serving as a model to avoid extirpation (local extinction) of wildlife from protected areas in other jurisdictions. Linking the isolated parks of the region would also help efforts by scientists in an international conservation initiative known as Yellowstone to Yukon or 'Y2Y'. The goal of Y2Y - made up of 170 conservation organizations and individuals - is to establish an interconnected system of protected areas between parks, adequate to maintain genetic diversity of species that cannot otherwise survive in the present isolated park system.
Photo credit: Joe Foy
Uniquely Canadian
The proposed Bugaboo National Park is part of the world's only inland temperate rainforest where giant old growth cedar trees like these specimens, estimated to be over 800 years old can be found in a few remaining unlogged valleys. These renowned cedar and hemlock forests are also home to grizzly bears, mountain caribou, elk and many other animals. Unfortunately, the forests and the wildlife populations they support face an imminent threat from road-building, logging and excessive development. Without adequate habitat, endangered species will not survive.
Present logging practices in the Bugaboo Rainforest region also underscore a need to create a new protected area. Forestry companies prize the giant old growth cedar and hemlock trees of the river valleys and, as on the BC coast, clear-cut valley bottoms to "high-grade" the giants. Many of the best forests and watersheds adjoining the proposed park area have been decimated by road-building and logging with the result that only the Duncan and Incomappleux watersheds within the proposed park remain largely intact.
Because the river valleys of these remaining intact watersheds are extremely steep, road-building would be very expensive. As a result, government has only allocated timber rights in a few areas. But all of the watersheds are unprotected and all are threatened with future clearcut logging. We must act now while there is a window of opportunity to protect the only big treed, old growth forests in the remaining unroaded river valleys of the Bugaboo and help stem the tide of wildlife population decline.
The Bugaboo Rainforest is also blanketed by recreation tenures and faces threats from excessive back-country recreation. Though the area can surely withstand some incursions, megadevelopment plans like those of the Jumbo Pass four season resort and excessive low-level helicopter traffic will lead to wildlife withdrawal and additional net loss of species.
The Bugaboo Rainforest National Park proposal was inspired by Parks Canada staff, local conservationists and environmentalists, residents of the inland rainforest, and scientists. The national park proposal, and the rainforest, need your help to survive. Read more inside about how to safeguard this national treasure for future generations.
