History and Achievements

History and achievements

When the Wilderness Committee was founded in BC in 1980 there was little information available to the public on Canadian wilderness and wildlife issues. We focused on our mission to research, publish, and distribute information about threatened Canadian wilderness and wildlife in order to build broad public support for their preservation.

More than twenty-five years later, we are very proud of what we have accomplished. We measure success in five areas: wilderness areas protected from industrial development, public education, research, legal precedents and innovative tactics.

Giant Sitka Spruce in the protected Carmanah Valley.

Giant Sitka Spruce in Carmanah Pacific Provincial Park

Our successes: protected areas
The Wilderness Committee has played a role in helping achieve protection for the following areas:
  • Valhalla Provincial Park - 1983
  • South Moresby National Park Reserve - 1987
  • Carmanah Pacific Provincial Park (lower valley) - 1990
  • Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Provincial Park - 1992
  • Maplewood Mud Flats Conservation Area - 1992
  • Megin River Watershed - 1993
  • Manitoba's South Atikaki Provincial Park (1993)
  • Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park - 1994
  • Chilko Lake (Ts'yl-os Park) - 1994
  • Carmanah Pacific Provincial Park (upper valley) - 1994
  • Nasparti Valley -1994
  • Lower Tsitika Valley - 1994
  • Lower Walbran Valley - 1994
  • Tashish-Kwois Watersheds - 1994
  • Kitlope Valley Protected Area - 1994
  • Niagara Valley (part of Cariboo Mountains Wilderness) - 1994
  • Power River Valley - 1995
  • Lasca Creek; Akamina-Kishinena Provincial Park - 1995
  • Eagle Mountain/Indian Arm Provincial Park - 1995
  • Pinecone/Boise/Burke Provincial Park - 1995
  • Surrey Bend Regional Park - 1995
  • Stein Valley Nlaka'pamux Heritage Park - 1995
  • Tetrahedron Plateau Provincial Park - 1995
  • Jedidiah Island Provincial Park - 1995
  • Boundary Bay Provincial Park - 1995
  • Clendenning Valley - 1996
  • Upper Lillooet Valley - 1996
  • Spipiyus (Caren Range)Provincial Park - 1996
  • Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park (expanded) - 1997
  • Skagit Valley Provincial Park - 1997
  • Cummins River Valley Park - 1997
  • Sooke Hills Wilderness Park - 1997
  • Muskwa-Kechika Protected Area - Northern Rockies - 1997
  • Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve - 2000
  • Stikine - Grand Canyon Provincial Park - 2000
  • Greystokes and Snowy Mountain - 2001
  • Spirit Bear, Koeye River, and other areas of the Great Bear Rainforest - 2001
  • Southern Chilcotin Mountains - 2001
  • Caribou Mountains Plateau, AB - 2001
  • Sturgeon Bay Park Reserve (protection extended), MB - 2001
  • Manigotagan River Park Reserve (protection extended), MB - 2002
  • Addition to Manigotagan River Provincial Park Reserve, MB - 2003
  • South Atikaki Provincial Park, MB - 2003
  • Poplar/Nanowin Rivers Park Reserve (protection extended), MB - 2004
  • Burns Bog Protected Area, BC - 2004
  • Manigotagan River Provincial Park, MB - 2004
  • Cathedral Grove/MacMillan Provincial Park, BC - 2005 (protected area expanded)
  • Manitoba Park Reserve Protection Extended and Expanded, MB - 2006)
  • Elaho valley and Sims Creek Valley: Wild Spirit Places, BC - 2007
Our public education
  • The Wilderness Committee has published and distributed over 179 editions of free educational newspapers (over 9 million copies in total), 31 calendars, 12 books, over 50 colour posters, 10 videos and numerous technical briefs, research documents and maps.
  • We have developed hundreds of lectures, slide shows, briefs and presentations for public hearings, government meetings, schools and public events reaching over 100,000 people each year in different speaking engagements.
  • Supported the international, cross-cultural Rediscovery Program, based on traditional native values, by publishing the book Rediscovery: Ancient Pathways--New Directions. This book is used by outdoor educators and in Rediscovery camps around the world.
Our research achievements
  • Established world's first upper-canopy, temperate rainforest research station. Research at our station has led scientists to revise the number of insect species existing in Canada from approximately 33,000 to 66,000.
  • Mapped remaining tracts of wilderness and the logging plans for them on Vancouver Island. Used this map and the science of conservation biology to develop a Conservation Vision that calls for protecting 40% of B.C.'s land base in order to save biodiversity. This is equivalent to Alaska's protected area system. Our Vision has been endorsed by 6 other major B.C. environment groups.
  • In the past six years our mapping has expanded. The mapping department includes data research on grizzly bear habitat, 1,000 year old tree data and hiking routes in the Stoltmann, spotted owl range mapping and much more. Our mapping work has been instrumental in saving large tracts of wilderness in the Great Bear Rainforest. Our Endangered Wilderness and Wildlife Calendars include detailed maps on areas threatened by logging and the routes and habitats of species at risk.
Our legal precedents
  • Prevented predator control (wolf kill) in northeast British Columbia. This case established the right of environment groups to have hearing on environmental issues in court.
  • Halted falcon chick capture on the Queen Charlotte Islands.
  • Guaranteed public access to crown lands under tree farm licences (Carmanah trail-building case).
  • With the support of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, WCWC established legal precedent that no logging roads should be built without approved logging permits (Tsitika case).

    • Clayoquot Sound

    Clayoquot Sound Photo: Adrian Dorst

  • Stopped logging in Greater Victoria's drinking watershed.
  • Stopped a back room deal by the Alberta government cabinet to guarantee compensation to a large forest company should the company's application for a Forest Management Agreement over a huge tract of boreal forest wilderness be turned down by the legislature (thus prejudicing the legislature's ability to freely decide on the application).
  • With the support of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, WCWC established a legal precedent by overturning a "bubble zone" injunction commonly used by logging companies to prevent public access to large swaths of crown lands (Elaho Valley case).
  • With the support of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, WCWC established a legal precedent by successfully seeking an injunction to prevent imminent logging in Spotted Owl habitat (Siwash Creek case).
Our innovative tactics
  • The Wilderness Committee has surveyed, cleared and built wilderness trails (a unique campaign strategy) in imminently threatened wilderness areas, including Meares Island, the Stein Valley, Carmanah Valley, the Boise Valley, Clayoquot Valley, Flores Island and the Stoltmann Wilderness. These trails have kept logging at bay while providing access for scientists, photographers and wilderness activists. In a unique effort to help train and educate youth in trail building and eco-tourism, WCWC partnered with Ahousaht First Nations in a Youth Services Canada-funded project to survey and build an 11-km long hiking route, the Ahousaht Wild Side Heritage Trail.
  • Through the initiative of its founder, Paul George, the Wilderness Committee was the first group to pursue a citizen referendum under B.C.'s new Recall and Initiative legislation. The initiative sought to ban the hunting and greatly increase the penalties for poaching of bears in B.C. In the 2001 the government announced a 3-year moratorium on the sport/trophy hunting of Grizzly Bears which was subsequently overturned by the new Liberal government.
  • Our international WILD campaign helped produce, in support of local conservation groups, a set of maps of remaining wilderness areas which were instrumental in prompting government action to protect natural ecosystems and indigenous homelands in several Latin American countries. The Wilderness Committee also helped organize and manage the fall/90 world tour of Sarawak natives, Voices for the Borneo Rainforest, publishing a book and an educational newspaper to accompany the world tour. In the period 1998 - 2001 we worked actively with Tiger Trust India to educate people in India and Canada of the plight of the Asian Tiger...more
Awards
  • Manitoba Eco-Network Award: Achievement in Protection and Awareness of Manitoba’s Environment 2005
    • Environment Canada: 1991 Environmental Achievement Award (most effective environmental group)
    • Government of British Columbia: 1990 Environmental Achievement Award (most effective B.C. environmental group)
    • Book Awards: Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award - 1990 and Roderick Haig-Brown Award (1990) for Carmanah - Artistic Visions of an Ancient Rainforest
    • Video Awards: Two gold medals at the 1992 New York International Film Festival for the Faceless Ones