In 1997 people were finally working together to design and implement a solution to the long standing land use conflict in Clayoquot Sound. Read this paper to see how Clayoquot Sound was transforming from frontline in the tree wars to a new form of cooperative management.

Protect Clayoquot Sound

Wilderness Committee Educational Report Vol.16-No.05 - Summer 1997

Some amazing eco-facts about Earth's threatened temperate rainforest

Temperate rainforests thrive only in a few small areas on Earth--in temperate latitudes where moist ocean air moves up against high coastal mountains and where precipitation occurs year-round, exceeding two metres annually.

Originally these forests of huge ancient trees covered about 0.2 percent of the planet (30 million hectares). The original temperate rain-forests of Ireland, Scotland, France, Croatia and Turkey are all gone--cut down centuries ago.

Small tracts of ancient temperate rainforest still remain in New Zealand and Australia. Tiny fragments are left in Japan and Norway. Only two large contiguous tracts of this biodiversity-rich forest ecosystem survive today--along the Pacific coast of North America and Chile.

Less than eight percent remains of the ancient temperate rainforest which once grew in the "lower 48" United States. Most of it is in a highly fragmented state. Not a single "lower 48" watershed over 5,000 hectares is still pristine.

British Columbia has more large, ancient temperate rainforest watersheds left intact than any other country. But it is clearcutting its forests at a rate of over 200 hectares a day, about 30 times faster than Alaska. On Vancouver Island, over 70 percent of the ancient temperate rainforest has been destroyed.

Earth's ancient temperate rainforests:

  • house the world's biggest and oldest trees and contain more biomass per hectare than any other ecosystem on the planet.
  • play a crucial role in regulating climate, and help prevent desertification of continents.
  • are a source of valuable medicinal species, such as the Pacific Yew which produces taxol, used to treat cervical cancer.
  • are the most biologically diverse terrestrial ecosystems outside of tropical rainforests. Dr. Neville Winchester, who conducted research in the early 1990s in WCWC's upper canopy research station in the Carmanah Valley on Vancouver Island, estimates that over 15,000 different species of arthropods (mostly insects) inhabit the 6,000 hectare valley. He predicts that approximately 500 to 600 species new-to-science will be identified.

    • Clayoquot Sound - a natural paradise

    Clayoquot Sound, a 262,000 hectare area located on the west coast of Vancouver Island, is a name well known in many foreign countries. Clayoquot has been the rallying cry of environmentalists world-wide in their fight to preserve the unique natural heritage of Earth's ancient temperate rainforests

  • Clayoquot Sound is the largest connected expanse of low-elevation big-treed old-growth temperate rainforest left in North America. The fact that its forests are still connected gives Clayoquot the chance to sustain long-term most of its species.
  • Of the 170 big (over 5,000 hectare) primary and secondary watersheds on Vancouver Island, only 12 are still pristine. Six of these are in Clayoquot Sound. (Sydney, Ursus, Bulson, Clayoquot, Megin and Moyeha). Only two--the Megin and Moyeha--are fully protected against logging.
  • Habitats in Clayoquot Sound range from deep fjords and wide sandy beaches to rich estuaries, wild salmon-rich rivers, big-treed rainforests and alpine meadows.
  • Clayoquot's marine ecosystems support abundant shellfish, all five salmon species, basking sharks and two whale species.
  • Clayoquot's contiguous tracts of ancient forest support large predators including wolves, cougars and black bears, as well as Roosevelt elk, a species in decline on Vancouver Island. Its forests contain oldgrowth nesting trees for the marbled murrelet, a threatened seabird.
  • Over 100,000 migrating water-fowl and shorebirds use Clayoquot Sound. It is the only major stopover along the Pacific flyway on Vancouver Island's west coast.
  • Here are found redcedar trees up to 19 metres in circumference and Sitka spruce as tall as 92 metres--some of the largest trees on Earth! Healthy trees over 1,000 years old--some of the oldest trees on Earth--are common.

    • WCWC's Stand on Aboriginal Title

    The Wilderness Committee believes that social justice for First Nations is a prerequisite to lasting environmental protection. We support the efforts of all indigenous peoples to safeguard their traditional homelands and ensure the survival of their cultures. We believe that aboriginal rights and tittle to traditional land and sea territories are inalienable. We support the current treaty negotiations between the federal, provincial and Nuu-chah-nulth governments and look forward to the final outcome-a just and fair treaty settlement.

    Traditional stewardship practices provide examples of how we can live in sustainable harmony with our natural world. However, if First Nations adopt unsustainable industrially-based resource exploitation practices such as clearcut logging on their treaty or jointly-managed lands, we will oppose these practices as we oppose ecosystem-destroying activities wherever they may occur under whomever's authority.

    We believe that all protected areas established in Clayoquot Sound should have been and must be established in consultation with the First Nations whose traditional territories are affected. WCWC advocates that protected areas include cooperative management agreements with First Nations so that First Nations can be assured of the economic benefits that protected areas bring-including new jobs related to the recovery of fisheries and increased ecotourism activities.

    WCWC also advocates that protected areas be established in a form like "park reserve" that doesn't prejuce the outcome of the Treaty negotiation process that the Federal and Provincial governments are undertaking with First Nations.

    WCWC supports the Meares Island Tribal Park Declaration, originally of 1984 by the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations, and revised by the Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht First Nations in 1991 that declares "Total preservation of Meares Ahousaht First Nations in 1991 that declares "Total preservation of Meares Island based on our Ha-houlthee, and the survival of our native way of life."