MAKE CLAYOQUOT SOUND AN
U.N. BIOSPHERE RESERVE CORE AREA
Left: looking northeastward at pristine ancient forest along Shelter Inlet, Clayoquot Sound. Right: Looking in a northeasterly direction at old clearcult logging scars on Herbert Inlet, Clayoquot Sound.
NEW VISION FOR CLAYOQUOT - BIO RESERE CORE PRESERVATION
The Clayoquot Sound region, centrally located on the west coast of Vancouver Island, is one of the most scenically beautiful and awe-inspiring areas in the world. It's 200,000 ha of forested mountain slopes, valleys and islands comprises the largest remaining expanse of temperate ancient rainforest on Vancouver Island and one of the largest tracts in the world. Because much of Vancouver Island has already been heavily logged, the pressure to clearcut the rest of Clayoquot Sound's wilderness is strong. Government processes such as the Clayoquot Sound Sustainable Development Strategy (CSSDS) have failed to resolve the conflicts between the multinational logging companies and the environmentalists in the area.
The logging companies and the BC Forest Service see the forest primarily as timber to be converted into profit. Clearcutting, as the most cost-efficient method of logging, is the only harvesting system used in Clayoquot Sound, despite increased erosion, the loss of aesthetic value and the loss of biodiversity. The companies are willing to give up only a tiny percentage of what they term the "working forest" for non-timber values such as wildlife, fish habitat, recreational, and spiritual needs. They are also unwilling to recognize the lands as unceded lands of the Nuu-Cha-Nulth tribe.
Environmentalists see the ancient forest as a complex ecological blueprint which very little is known about and which is impossible to reproduce once lost to clearcut logging. Scientists have discovered that an intact ecosystem must be extremely large - possibly as large as 500,000 ha - in order to sustain the species it supports and to regenerate itself over time.
Grapple yarder loading old growth logs on truck
In the face of growing concern for ecological viability, short-sighted government policy continues to support the industrial plantation vision for Clayoquot Sound. The policy of the provincial government is to liquidate the old growth. And now the federal government is attempting to get involved in timber extraction in Clayoquot Sound as well, through the new "Model Forest" initiative.
"Big Mother" western red cedar on Meares Island. Photos credit: Mark Hobson
Processes such as the Clayoquot Sound Sustainable Development Strategy (CSSDS), aimed at resolving the land use conflicts in the region have only exacerbated them. Clearcut logging and road-building continues to push into the last remaining intact watersheds, compromising the CSSDS process by reducing conservation options. Further fragmentation of the forests is rationalized for the sake of forest industry jobs. But further fragmentation of the old growth forest reduces the chance of long-term forest sustainability.
This conflict of jobs versus the environment is not unique to Clayoquot Sound. Several decades ago the UN recognized that people must use resources as well as conserve ecosystems, and a new type of protected area was established: the "Biosphere Reserve". A Biosphere Reserve is a large area, in some cases as large as Vancouver Island, with three zones of activity: a core preservation area managed for conservation of biological diversity; a buffer zone where human impacts are modified to have a low impact on the environment; and an industrial zone where the land is intensively used by humans. Clayoquot Sound alone is not big enough to comprise a Biosphere Reserve, but it could be one important core area, buffered from continuing industrial activity in existing fragmented watersheds.
If Clayoquot Sound's wilderness is fragmented by clearcut logging the opportunity to protect a large self-sustaining portion of the temperate rainforest in southern BC will be lost forever, and Vancouver Island's biological diversity will steadily deteriorate. Individual action is needed. Remaining silent about the destruction of nature is an endorsement of that destruction.
