WCWC's research in the proposed cutblocks reveals the presence of several "species at risk"
In the summer of 2000, WCWC volunteer researchers and murrelet surveyors used this WCWC Research Tent as a base camp to investigate the biodiversity found in the Castle Grove of the Upper Walbran.
In the summer of 2000, WCWC researchers and volunteers conducted ecological surveys in six approved TimberWest and Weyerhaeuser cutblocks in the Upper Walbran. These volunteer "Forest Guardians" collected data that impart "ecological identities" for each cutblock - that is, a list of the animals and plants that will be eliminated or will suffer habitat loss as each specific cutblock gets logged...unless the BC government spares them and protects the Upper Walbran.
WCWC will be publishing a full report on the findings in the near future. Here are some of the highlights:
Species at Risk
The first nest in Canada of the oldgrowth-dependent marbled murrelet, similar to this nest with a maturing chick photo taken in Washington State, was discovered in the Walbran Valley by a WCWC volunteer in 1990. Photo credit: Tom Hamer.
Marbled Murrelets - This blue-listed (threatened) sea bird nests on the wide, mossy limbs found only on ancient trees. In 1990 WCWC volunteers located the very first nest of this species in Canada in the Upper Walbran. Last summer, in the early morning hours of July, biologists with WCWC documented at least 150 murrelets in the Upper Walbran flying to their nests. Many of these nests were undoubtedly in the proposed cutblocks.
Queen Charlotte Goshawk - This large, red-listed (endangered) predatory bird is known to nest in the protected Lower Walbran. They were observed and heard several times in their hunting grounds in the unprotected Upper Walbran.
Other Species at Risk found in the cutblocks include the Blue-listed Smith's Fairybell (plant), northern pygmy-owl, and red-legged frog.
The threatened Vaux's swift (bird) and Keen's long-eared myotis (bat) were not observed but are known from previous reports to reside in the Walbran.
Charismatic Megafauna (large mammals)
WCWC volunteers discovered several Roosevelt elk tracks in the Upper Walbran. This was the first time anyone has seen sign of these animals since they were wiped out from the area decades ago. Roosevelt elk are large, beautiful ungulates that appear to be re-populating their original range on southern Vancouver Island.
Black bears, black-tailed deer, pine marten, and cougar were also recorded, while howling wolves were heard by volunteers camping out earlier in the spring.
Fisheries
Numerous threatened coho salmon, Dolly Varden char, and steelhead trout fry were caught in minnow traps in Walbran Creek. To date neither the provincial nor federal governments have conducted any significant fisheries surveys here. During a time of heavy rain, plumes of silt from a new TimberWest clearcut were observed washing into important fish habitat. Giant steelhead, an estimated 5 to 6 kilograms in weight were observed jumping in the creek below a proposed TimberWest cutblock.
Big, old, and rare trees
Some of Canada's largest western red cedars, Douglas fir and Sitka spruce were found in proposed cutblocks. Several gigantic, healthy western white pines were also found in approved TimberWest cutblocks. Western white pine is an increasingly rare tree in BC, having been both logged out and killed off by an introduced fungal disease. Many very large specimens of the Pacific yew tree, which yielded the first discovery of the cancer-fighting compound "taxol" in its bark just a decade ago, were found throughout proposed cutblocks.
