Let's create a 115,000 hectare interconnected wilderness system in the Central Okanagan
Terrace Mountain from the north rim of Shorta Creek Canyon. Rugged Chapperon - Shorts Creek needs protection! Photo credit: Ian Pooley
Only 2.5% of the Thompson-Okanagan Region of British Columbia is protected in parks. Everyone agrees that this is not enough. The B.C. government's goal is to increase parks and protected areas to 12%. This is still not enough to protect natural biodiversity—all the wild plants and animals that make the Okanagan their home.
Recently the NDP government has created many new parks, totaling more than 4 million hectares. However, none of them are in the Okanagan. Our special region, although it includes 58% of B.C.'s threatened and endangered species, is not getting the protection that it urgently needs.
In the Central Okanagan, the east and west sides of Okanagan Lake are bordered by steep plateau rims cut by large, deep, stunningly beautiful canyon valleys. These canyon valleys need protection from logging, mining, overgrazing, and the thoughtless incursion of expanding urbanization. These areas contain the last fragments of a complex ecosystem that will vanish if it is not protected properly with corridors for animals to move from lake level to the high plateau and for plant genes to migrate.
WCWC hiking trails are helping protect the Okanagan Canyon Wilderness System
The Central Okangan Canyon Wilderness System is a small but significant part of the Okanagan/Shuswap Land Resource Management Planning area. It comprises thirteen canyon and creek corridors that drain the Thompson Okanagan Uplands. Six of them are west of Okanagan Lake and ten are on the east side of the lake. In total they make up approximately 115,000 hectares of the saveable wilderness which in places comes right up against the backdoor of large urban developments.
All together, this interconnected system contains an amazing diversity of plant and animal life. Habitats range from lowland marshes to alpine meadows.
Ecosystems include low elevation ponderosa pine grasslands, through mid-level slopes of larch and fir, up to higher elevation old spruce and balsam forests.
Myra Canyon. The upper canyon forests reach all the way to Little White Mountain along Pooley Creek. Photo credit: Ian Pooley
The Okanagan Canyon Wilderness System contains remnant populations of wolves, grizzly bear, California Big Horn Sheep, mountain goats, and elk. At mid-elevations the red-listed Okanagan Fameflower (Talimum sediforme ), a species unique to the Okanagan Valley, can be found. Near the valley floor are scarce undisturbed grasslands, home of some of Canada's rarest wildlife species.
The Okanagan Chapter of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee invites everyone to join the movement to save the Central Okanagan Canyon Wilderness with a protected area system, including connecting corridors before it is too late.
WCWC is establishing a north south trail corridor, the Okanagan Highlands Trail, on both sides of Okanagan Lake. This trail corridor, if properly protected, will serve as a vital recreational feature that will help people understand, love and protect the fragile Okanagan ecosystems.
Over 50 km of this network, including the High Rim Section from Vernon to Kelowna and the Grouse Creek section south of Kelowna, is substantially complete and already being used by hikers and amateur naturalists. Many sections of this trail offer spectacular views of the major canyons, including Myra Canyon, Bellevue Canyon, Powers Creek Canyon, and Shorts Creek Canyon. With the help of local volunteers, trail development is currently underway on the Little White Mountain section and the McDougall Rim-Powers Creek section.
McDougall Rim:
a case study that shows continuing the status quo spells disasters.
Plans to save the vestiges of the Okaganan's biological heritage are being constantly thwarted. In 1994, the B.C. Ministry of Forests announced plans to build a road network in the middle of the McDougall Rim-Powers Creek area, effectively chopping in two and fragmenting a proposed protected area that had local government endorsement. To date, the road system has been completed and logging has begun. Requests that the Ministry of Forests consult with local environmental groups, local levels of government, and concerned citizens before going ahead with logging in this area have met with refusal.
Unless a concerned and caring public succeeds in getting provincial park protection for the remaining wilderness areas in the Okanagan, there will be lost battles like McDougall Rim in the years to come.
