Remaining Ancient Rainforest on B.C.'s Southern Coast: Yellow areas have been logged, most of the
old-growth rainforest has been destroyed.
Click on image for detail.
History of the Stoltmann Wilderness
10,000 BP until today - The Squamish Nation and other First Nations sustainably use the lands and waters of the area we now call the Stoltmann Wilderness.
1961 - B.C. government grants Tree Farm Licence (TFL) #38, which includes most of the Squamish River System, to Empire Mills Ltd., without public consultation and without the permission of the Squamish First Nation.
April 1994 - Randy Stoltmann, noted B.C. writer, conservationist, and mountaineer, completes a report (and briefs WCWC on it), advocating the preservation of a 260,000 hectare wilderness area that encompasses the Upper Elaho, Sims, Clendenning (all within the Squamish Watershed and TFL #38) and Upper Lillooet Valleys.
May - Randy loses his life in a tragic mountaineering accident on a ski expedition in B.C.'s Coast Mountains.
January 1995 - WCWC re-names this wilderness the Stoltmann Wilderness Area in honour of Randy -- and vows to protect it.
May - WCWC discovers that International Forest Products (Interfor), which recently purchased TFL #38, is constructing a new logging road up Sims Creek Valley in the Stoltmann Wilderness.
July - WCWC begins surveying a trail to access the Stoltmann's wild reaches. WCWC surveyors discover a huge Douglas fir -ten metres in circumference- in the Elaho Valley which they name the "Elaho Giant". It is B.C.'s third largest known Douglas fir tree.
August - The B.C. government calls the first meeting of a 12-member Regional Protected Areas Public Advisory Committee, (RPAC) whose task is to decide which Lower Mainland areas are to be preserved and which are to be logged. WCWC refuses to participate because it is a "closed door" (not public) process and must abide by government's arbitrary 12% cap on wilderness protection.
October - WCWC trail surveyors cease work for the year, having surveyed a 10 kilometre hiking route into the Elaho Valley.
January 1996 - WCWC sets up a protest camp on the lawn of the B.C. Legislature in Victoria, demanding open public hearings on the fate of the Lower Mainland's remaining wild areas, including the Stoltmann Wilderness. It becomes the longest running Legislature protest camp in B.C. history. The government refuses to open up the RPAC process to the public.
May - WCWC trail surveyors push deeper into the Elaho Valley, discovering new groves of big trees. Cascade along Elaho Hiking Trail.
June - Interfor changes plans and begins to build a logging road into the upper Elaho Valley, without giving public notice. WCWC demands a halt to the road building, charging that Interfor is breaking the Forest Practices Code because no public notice was given.
July - WCWC petitions the B.C. Supreme Court asking for a court injunction against the road building. The court refuses to halt Interfor but agrees to hear the case at a later date. One hundred B.C. artists hike into the Stoltmann Wilderness along the surveyed hiking route to paint, draw and sculpt works of art which they then donate to WCWC to raise awareness and funds for its fight to preserve the Stoltmann.
October - B.C. government announces that only 20 percent of the Stoltmann Wilderness is to be protected. The largest forested valley, the Elaho Valley, is given to Interfor to clearcut. Sims, Salal, Boulder and North Creek Valleys are also slated to be logged. WCWC vows to fight on to preserve the entire Stoltmann Wilderness.
November - WCWC trail crew successfully completes surveying a 30 km hiking route up the Elaho Valley, over the Hundred Lakes Plateau and into the Meager Creek Valley. The B.C. Supreme Court finally hears the case of Interfor's illegal road building. In the meantime, the B.C. government weakened the Forest Practices Code no longer requiring public notice and review of changed plans. The Court rules the case moot and dismisses it.
Spectacular view of the Pemberton Ice Cap in the Southern part of the Stoltmann Wilderness.
March 1997 - WCWC hosts a two month long art show and silent auction, raising over $20,000 with the donated works of the hundred Stoltmann Wilderness artists.
May - WCWC transports materials via a helicopter and builds a large scientific research centre tent-cabin in the Upper Elaho Valley to house rainforest researchers.
June - Hikers begin using WCWC's surveyed Stoltmann Wilderness trail, proclaiming it to be the Lower Mainland's best multi-day backpacking experience.
July - Interfor loggers blockade the public road leading into the Stoltmann Wilderness for six weeks preventing WCWC researchers and trail surveyors from entering these public lands. RCMP refuse to ask the loggers to remove the blockade. WCWC takes the RCMP to court.
August - Loggers blockade is finally taken down just as the judge is to rule on WCWC's court action. During the blockade, persons unknown removed WCWC's research tent-cabin and dumped the pieces at the Squamish RCMP station. No culprits were apprehended.
September - WCWC volunteers pack in the research tent-cabin piece by piece and set it up again. More and more people come to hike in the Stoltmann. WCWC applies for and receives permission from the B.C. Forest Service to upgrade the hiking route to a full trail system.
October - Interfor loggers cut down "Magic Grove", a stand of 800-year-old redcedar trees in Sims Valley. B.C. Forest Service rules that WCWC's research tent-cabin is a "permanent structure" and orders it removed.
November - Interfor cuts a logging road through "Grizzly Grove", a stand of redcedar trees in the Elaho Valley that is an important grizzly bear denning site.
January 1998 - WCWC increases the size of its Stoltmann Wilderness proposed protected area from 260,000 ha to 500,000 ha by including the Pemberton Ice Cap, Soo Creek Valley and the upper Bridge Valley, and linking the proposed park to nearby parks and the townsite of world-famous Whistler. WCWC calls on the federal government to make the area a national park - the first in B.C.'s Coast Mountains.
February - Interfor begins accelerating the export of logs to U.S.A. lumber mills.
April - WCWC's campaign coordinator, Joe Foy, meets with Premier Clark about the Stoltmann Wilderness. Foy presents Clark with a "Jurassic Clark" T-Shirt, explaining to the Premier that his poor record on environmental protection has taken B.C. back to the dark ages. Clark responds by saying he would be willing to revisit his Stoltmann decision if new information comes forward.
June - WCWC volunteers re-establish the research tent-cabin using aluminium poles instead of a wooden frame and leaving out the plywood floor, thus making it a legal "temporary structure". WCWC also begins upgrading the Elaho surveyed hiking route into a trail. WCWC replaces the suspension bridge over Lava Creek with a cable car.
July - Interfor cuts down most of Grizzly Grove. Interfor closes its sawmill in Squamish, laying off 165 workers. Interfor has now exported 1,000 logging truck loads of logs to U.S.A. mills since the beginning of 1998. During the summer months several hundred people a month use the Elaho Valley hiking trail.
August - WCWC prints 80,000 Stoltmann Wilderness National Park opinion poll postcards and begins distributing them to WCWC members throughout Canada and to every household in Whistler, Pemberton, Mt. Currie and Squamish.
September - Dr. Neville Winchester from the University of Victoria investigates the upper canopy in the Douglas fir grove near WCWC's research station. Dr. Winchester and his team climb 15 stories up into the tree-tops in a quest to find insect species new to science. Dr. Winchester calls for an immediate halt to logging to preserve the area's unique ecology.
October - A team of bear biologists, using WCWC's research station as a base camp, begin a survey of the grizzly bear habitat in the upper Elaho Valley.
December - WCWC publishes 130,000 copies of this paper.
