Expand Cathedral Grove
Ancient Douglas firs in Cathedral Grove. Photo credit: Mathew Bolten
By Annette Tanner, Wilderness Committee Mid-Island Chapter
Located alongside the only highway leading to Port Alberni and Clayoquot Sound, Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park is Canada’s most famous old-growth forest. Its main problem is that the park is too small. For years, people assumed that the park included the whole of Cathedral Grove, extending several kilometers west of Cameron Lake on both sides of the valley-bottom highway. In reality, it is less than 160 hectares in size, which is less than half as big as Vancouver’s Stanley Park and only twice as big as Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park. It has become evident that MacMillan Provincial Park is too small to handle the tourist visitor use today, let alone the 1,000,000 visitors per year projected to come to the park in the very near future.
Earlier this year, the BC Government, Weyerhaeuser and the Nature Trust of Canada announced the acquisition of 140 hectares to increase the size of the park. About 20 hectares of the newly protected lands are spectacular ancient Douglas firs and red cedars, while the rest consists of second-growth, clearcut lands, and blowdown forests.
Nahmint Valley
The Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni is one of the most biologically important ancient forests left. In the valley is Gracie’s Grove, an almost pure stand of ancient Douglas fir trees, hundreds of hectares in size, the most extensive stand left on Vancouver Island where such forests once carpeted the whole east side. Not only that, but it’s home to a herd of Roosevelt elk and to nesting pairs of the endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks. Deer, bears, wolves, and cougars also call it home, as do spawning steelhead and salmon. Until recently, the valley was in the tenure of Weyerhaeuser, but in the spring of 2005 was taken back by the BC government to reallocate for small business logging. However, due to its biological significance, the Nahmint deserves full protected status and should not be commercially logged by anyone, whether small or big business.
The newly protected lands’ critical location along the Cameron River Floodplain will protect important fish and elk habitat and play a major role in future connectivity as more areas of Cathedral Grove are acquired and protected.
The Wilderness Committee and the local communities including local municipalities and regional districts have requested that the Provincial Government preserve the remaining 500 hectares of the Grove. This will allow a parking lot to be built in an area that has already been logged and is not located in the fragile fish and elk habitat on the Cameron River floodplain. Expansion of the park would ensure that all of the Grove is protected within the expanded park boundaries and provide for a wider buffer zone to help protect the giant trees from blowdown.
For more info contact Annette Tanner at 250-752-6585
