Right next to the world-renowned resort municipality of Whistler is a 500,000 hectare stretch of wild country that rivals any of the Rocky Mountain parks in scenery, grandeur and wildlife, yet it remains largely unprotected and subject to on-going heavy damage by industrial activities - primarily clearcut logging. In 1998 Western Canada Wilderness Committee, Canada's largest membership-based conservation organization, proposed that this wild area, called the Stoltmann Wilderness, become a National Park. This paper lays out our proposal in detail including maps and photos.

The Stoltmann National Park

Wilderness Committee Educational Report Vol.17-No.06 - Winter 1998/1999

Logging Stoltmann's ancient forests makes little cents for local people

Ship loading raw logs in Vancouver Harbour. B.C. raw log exports tripled in 1998. Interfor has exported 1,000 truck loads (60 full-time milling jobs) to the U.S. this year.

In 1998, Interfor, the main logging company clearcutting the Stoltmann Wilderness, closed their lumber mill in Squamish -- but they didn't stop logging the Stoltmann. A recent B.C. government report on log exports records that, as of July of this year, Interfor has exported 30,000 cubic metres of logs to mills in the USA. This is enough timber to fill 1,000 logging trucks and represents the loss of at least 60 permanent milling jobs!

Interfor is currently logging the Stoltmann Wilderness and exporting the mill jobs out of the country while losing money in the process. The best way to protect and expand B.C. jobs is in the fast-growing tourism sector and, locally, is to fully protect the Stoltmann Wilderness and designate it a National Park. Let's stop the economically and ecologically short-sighted give-away of our valuable wilderness resource. The Stoltmann's spectacular ancient forest is an irreplaceable tourism asset. A wise government would protect it to sustain a strong new vibrant local economy for a new millennium.