British Columbia's Last Ancient Landscapes Need More Defenders
Cascade Falls and lush rainforest in Lava Canyon, Upper Elaho Valley. Photo credit: Joe Foy
Located just a two-hour drive north of Squamish, B.C. is a fabulous 260,000 hectare wilderness area, a microcosm of the wild natural world that once dominated coastal B.C. It is called the Stoltmann Wilderness by its defenders, in memory of the young conservationist, Randy Stoltmann, who proposed that the area be protected shortly before his death in a tragic mountaineering accident.
The Stoltmann Wilderness encompasses the pristine headwaters of the Squamish and Lillooet River systems: the Sims, Upper Elaho and Upper Lilloet valleys. Together, these four contiguous valleys make up half of all the large unlogged valleys over 5,000 hectares left in the entire 4.2 million hectare Lower Mainland region.
The Stoltmann is a keystone link in a proposed system of new and existing Coast Mountain parks that equals the world-famous Rocky Mountain parks in size, beauty and ecological integrity.
"Triple Crown" ancient redcedars, upper Elaho Valley. Photo: Kerry Dawson
During the summer of 1995, dozens of Wilderness Committee volunteers snipped and flagged a route into the old growth forest of the Stoltmann Wilderness. Hike this route up the wild Elaho River Valley and you'll be stepping back in time 10,000 years, entering a timeless landscape of towering Douglas fir and ancient redcedar forests, flower-filled meadows, pristine rivers, abundant fish, eagles, moose, grizzly bear, mountain goat and wolves. It's easy to forget that just 200 kilometres away live over 2 million people in one of North America's major urban centers-Vancouver.
Despite its inestimable ecological and recreational values, the Stoltmann Wilderness is increasingly threatened by logging. The Wilderness Committee's Stoltmann trail starts in a 100 hectare clearcut in the Upper Elaho Valley. Logging roads, bridges and clearcuts are already approved in the Stoltmann for the summer of 1996.
The Stoltmann is at the centre of a wilderness preservation versus logging jobs debate. With trees fast running out in southwest B.C., the Stoltmann's oldgrowth forests are coveted by powerful forces-multinational timber corporation International Forest Products (InterFor), timber-union giant International Wood Workers of America (IWA) and a provincial government that seeks social appeasement rather than ecological sustainability.
Complicating matters is a split in the environment movement. Several environment groups, including B.C. Wild and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, have agreed to help government slash down Lower Mainland wilderness area proposals in order to order to squeeze into government's arbitrary limit that parks comprise only 13 percent of the Lower Mainland land base. The Wilderness Committee remains a lone voice calling for a much larger Lower Mainland park system-between 35 and 40 percent of the land base. Based on the principles of conservation biology, it's the amount of wilderness needed to protect key wildlife habitat and provide adequate recreation opportunities for the area's huge, growing population.
The future of the Stoltmann Wilderness looks scary except for one thing...YOU and the thousands of people who care for this wild place like they care for South Moresby, the Carmanah, the Stein Valley and Clayoqout Sound.
The self-named "moderate groups" involved in the government's Lower Mainland park planning process have tentatively agreed to the logging of most of the oldgrowth forests of the Stoltmann Wilderness. On the eve of the recent provincial election these groups were poised to sign off on an agreement with timber industry representatives that would allow Sims Creek Valley, Upper Elaho Valley, and half of the Upper Lilloet Valley to be clearcut logged.
