Our History: A Timeline

Paul George, pictured here on Lyell Island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago, Richard Krieger, and three other British Columbians form the Wilderness Committee, a BC society focused on conserving nature and species in Canada.

The first Western Canada Endangered Wilderness Calendar, featuring Gwaii Haanas (South Moresby) on the cover is published with a print run of 10,000 copies.

Our first poster is published, titled Canada's Tallest Trees... must not be logged, featuring a towering Douglas-fir on Nimkish Island, an area proposed as an ecological reserve.

After reports that the largest remaining roadless valley in southwest BC was being targeted by a logging company, Joe Foy and his friend embarked on a 10-day hike of the entire Stein Valley and its bordering watersheds.

One of our earliest posters, Visit the Valhallas - Canada's Shangri-La, published with the Valhalla Wilderness Society, features beautiful alpine flowers in the foreground with Slocan Lake and the proposed Valhalla Mountain Park in the background.

Big tree hunter Randy Stoltmann accompanied Dr. Bristol Foster of the BC Ecological Reserve Unit on a tour of the Carmanah Valley. While they don't find a rumoured record-breaking spruce, they find, in Stoltmann's words, "a forest too magnificent to cut down."

Wilderness Committee founders Paul George and Adriane Carr paddled the waters off South Moresby Island on 27 day kayak trip. They fall in love with the wilderness and each other.

Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council published a series of posters calling for Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound to be saved from logging. This photo features kids from the Nations and the Wilderness Committee.

Hard work with our allies leads to the B.C. government's establishement of the 49,600-hectare Valhalla Class A Provincial Park. Valhalla director Colleen McCrory, BC Minister of Environment and Parks Tony Brummet, Valhalla director Wayne McCrory and Valhalla director Craig Pettit are pictured here at the Valhalla Park ceremony.

In our work to protect the beautiful Chilco Lake, we produced this poster featuring the Coast Mountains and a herd of wild horses.

We were honoured to witness the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation as they declared Meares Island in the legendary Clayoquot Sound a Tribal Park and raised their new sign at Mosquito Harbour.

We published our first educational newspaper calling on the B.C. government to preserve Gwaii Haanas (South Moresby Island) as a national park reserve.

Over 1200 people gathered on the B.C. Legislature lawn to show support for the Meares Island Tribal Park and raised a large cedar carving by Nuu-cha-nulth carver Joe David.

The government plans to allow logging in the Stein Valley, sparking protests to alert the public in Vancouver.

With the help of the Friends of Clayoquot Sound, we published a 64-page book, Meares Island: Protecting a Natural Paradise.

The Haida Nation informs B.C. Environment Minister that any further logging on Gwaii Haanas (South Moresby) would be seen as an act of aggression. Despite this, logging continues, prompting a blockade by Haida elders.

The Lillooet Tribal Council sponsors the Voices for the Wilderness Festival, dedicated to protecting the Stein Valley from proposed logging. Over 500 participants hike to the alpine meadows beside Brimful Lake, and enjoy songs of artistis like Mabel Joe.

Joe Foy took a break during his research expedition to enjoy the view from an alpine ridge high above Brimfull Lake, in the Stein Valley watershed.

Lytton First Nation Chief Ruby Dunstan, elected the first woman chief of the Lytton Nation, at a rally opposing logging in the Stein Valley.

Tree-ring expert Marion Parker documented trees over 1,000 yars old for us on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) — with the oldest tree documented a 1294-year-old yellow cedar. Wilderness Committee director Paul George presents wedge from an ancient yellow cedar to the MP from Skeena Jim Fulton.

Randy Stoltmann hikes to the Cheewat Cedar located just inside Pacific Rim National Park, near Cheewat Lake on southwest Vancouver Island. The Cheewat Cedar is the largest redcedar in Canada.

We published Randy Stoltmann's hiking guidebook to the big old trees of southwest B.C.

After operating out of the founders' basement for 7 years, we finally moved into our first office, conveniently located across from the Vancouver Press Club. Volunteer Maria McCartney arrives with a newspaper delivery.

We publish our longest newspaper to date, six pagtes, written by volunteer Joe Foy (soon to be the first Wilderness Committee staff member), calling for the protection of Lower Mainland Pocket Wilderness areas, small wild areas for local recreation. Cover features Clinton Web and Greg Stotlmann in the big cedar grove at Cougar Mountain Pocket Wilderness, near Whistler BC.

Wilderness Committee volunteer team, Ken Lay, Leo DeGroot, Nona Rowat, Gerry Bloomer (in the back) and unknown, recleared ancient trade trails in the Stein Valley, under the guidance of the Lytton and Mt. Currie First Nations, to increase public support for protecting the Stein in the face of industrial logging.

The governments of B.C. and Canada signed a memorandum of agreement to establish the 147,000-hectare South Moresby Island National Park Reserve, now known as Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve. President of the Haida Miles Richardson and federal Environment Minister Tom McMillan pictured here with Sierra Club B.C.'s Vicky Husband.

Lytton and Mount Currie First Nations issue their Stein Declaration proclaiming their commitment to maintain the Stein Valley as a wilderness in perpetuity.

Campaign Director Joe Foy on a fresh cut old-growth stump while investigating reports of new road building near Carmanah Valley.

Madam Justice Hubbard of the BC Supreme Court granted the Wilderness Committee standing in court case concerning provincial wolf kill, stating the permit for the wolf kill using helicopters in the Muskwa Valley was issued illegally and must be quashed.

Wilderness Committee volunteers Randy Stoltmann and Clinton Webb followed the new logging road right-of-way heading for the Carmanah Valley. They found some of the big Sitka spruce trees have been numbered for logging.

Wilderness Committee hired a float plane to take several renowned B.C. artists to Stein Lake, where they drew and painted the beautiful mountain scenery of the Stein Valley, to raise awareness and funds for the Save the Stein campaign.

Forester Mark Waring and campaigner Clinton Webb head to Haida Gwaii to document the old-growth forest around Yakoun Lake, a wilderness area that local people want protected.

Campaign Director led three volunteers to establish a trail-building camp at the end of the logging road leading to the edge of the Carmanah Valley. They named it Hell Camp and started building a hiking trail into the valley's big tree groves from there. Although logging company MacMillan Bloedel ordered them to stop, they refused.

After a day of exploring the Carmanah Valley, where we found an amazing green world of towering Sitka spruce trees, with a forest floor covered with ferns, moss and flowers, we come together to relax.

Our volunteer trail crew, led by Ken Lay and Leo DeGroot, worked to improve and expand the hiking trails on Meares Island. Allowing people to experience the massive ancient redcedar trees helps build public support for the preservation of the forests.

Logging giant MacMillan Bloedel took us to the BC Supreme Court in a bid to stop our trail building in the Carmanah Valley. The judge ruled in our favour stating, for the first time in B.C. history, that the public has a right to access the valley's ancient rainforest and tree-farm-licensed lands. Volunteer pictured during our trail work in the valley.

Randy Stoltmann (centre front) led a crew down into the valley to continue building the Carmanah Valley Trail after our court win.

Susan Underwood (on the camera) filmed in the Carmanah Valley to produce a video about our work to preserve it.

Campaign Director Joe Foy, Randy Stoltmann and volunteer packed up chainsaws, gas cans, mattocks, axes, bush saws and other equipment at the end of the summer and left Carmanah Valley until next year.

The Nestucca oil spill off Washington State hit Clayoquot Sound, prompting local communities rally for beach clean-up efforts. We sent two directors and a team of volunteers to help and produced a newspaper calling for the Canadian and B.C. governments to maintain the moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration and development.

Director Adriane Carr and three other women established WILD (Wilderness Is the Last Dream) as a campaign focused on international wilderness preservation.

Throughout spring and summer, we organized groups of artists to hike the new trail into the Carmanah Valley, where they camped and created art to raise money for our campaign to save the valley from logging. Canadian artist Robert Bateman in the Carmanah Valley is interviewed by Vancouver Sun reporter Glenn Bohn.

The Raging Grannies joined us in celebrating the move to our new office in Gastown in downtown Vancouver. Our rapidly growing group of staff and volunteers required more space, along with our growing inventory of posters, books, calendars and cards.

We were honoured when the Tsilhqot'in community of Nemiah, whose area includes beautiful Chilco Lake, asked us to produce and print copies of their wilderness preserve declaration, a declaration to the world about what the Tsilhqot'in community wishes for their lands and waters.

Derek Young established our new Victoria Chapter. We opened a storefront office in premises donated by former Victoria Mayor Peter Pollen.

We co-published a newspaper and a poster with Tatshenshini Wild calling for the preservation of one million hectares of the Tatshenshini watershed, a large river lined with glaciers and some of the best river-rafting in the world, located in the extreme northwest of B.C. A mining company proposed a massive open-pit mine there we were working to stop.

BC's Forest Minister Claude Richmond announced the creation of the 3,600-hectare Carmanah Pacific Provincial Park, covering only the lower half of the valley. We set up a research camp in the upper Carmanah Valley to gather information for our case for total protection of the entire Carmanah Valley.

Carmanah - Artistic Visions of an Ancient Rainforest, our coffee table book featuring the work of 70 artists who hiked into the valley, wins both the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Book Prize and the Bill Duthie Booksellers Choice Award.

A team of skilled mountain climber volunteers led by John Kelson build a series of platforms linked together by aluminimum ladders and steel cable bridges high in a grove of old-growth Sitka spruce trees in the Upper Carmanah Valley. The lowest platform is 20 stories above the forest floor. This allowed researchers to study the old-growth canopy for new species.

Surveying the damage after people burn down our research tent, smash the cedar plank boardwalk and chainsaw the wooden footbridge in the Upper Carmanah Walbran. They spared old-growth spruce trees with the research platforms. Loss estimated at $30,000 and 8000 volunteer hours. We name our rebuilding efforts the Phoenix Project.

The Wilderness Committee Mid-Island Chapter is established. An office, store and recycling centre is open in Nanaimo, BC.

Joe Foy, Derek Young and Clinton Webb discuss Tsitka Valley strategy in the Victoria office. We published our latest newspaper,Tsitika - Your voice needed now! The lower Tsitika Valley is an important area of old-growth forest on northeastern Vancouver Island, where orcas gather in front of the river's estuary beaches. Logging activities have recently sparked heated protests and blockades in the valley.

In the spring, volunteers flock to the Upper Carmanah, determined to build a bigger and better research camp, Camp Phoenix, to replace the one that was smashed and burned.

Gogo's Cedar Mill in Nanaimo offers us free wood from their waste pile to help rebuild our Carmanah Research Station boardwalk. We gratefully take them up on their offer and send a team, which call themselves the Wood Rats.

Victoria office manager Dennis Kangasnimi, National Campaign Director Joe foy and Forest Researcher Clinton Webb, who completed a report detailing how many valleys on Vancouver Island remain unlogged, which are planned for logging, and when.

Joe Foy, standing next to one of the old-growth redcedar trees in the Boise Valley, led a group of volunteers to an area North of Pitt Lake to investigate reports of a grove of giant old cedars. The expedition was successful and we planned out a campaign to preserve the Boise from impending logging.

By summer, volunteers built Camp Phoenix in the Upper Carmanah Valley, and researchers, hikers, school groups, politicians and media began to visit.

After construccting wire bridges for access to several old-growth Sitka spruce trees, 20 storeys above the forest floor, National Campaign Director Joe Foy made the crossing at the Carmanah Canopy Research Station.

We came together to brainstorm our mission statement and plan the upcoming year's campaign work.

Throughout the spring and summer, we scouted a hiking route from the Fraser Valley to the Boise Valley, which we called the Fool's Gold Trail. Trail builders cleared 12 km of hiking trail in the Boise through 38,000-hectares of wildlands, known as the Pinecone Burke Wilderness Area.

We opened an Alberta branch office in Edmonton and published a newspaper about the urgent need to protect the boreal forest in Canada from logging.

After camping on the BC Legislature lawn and demaning a meeting with Premier Harcourt regarding the future of the forests in Clayoquot Sound, which we eventually got, he decided to allow old-growth forests there to be logged. This led to a historic Save Clayoquot rally on the opening day of the legislature, and some people broke through the ceremonial doors chanting "Save Clayoquot Sound".

With the permission of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, Wilderness Committee volunteers start building the 20-kilometre-long Clayoquot Witness Trail through the Clayoquot River Valley. Wilderness Committee forester Mark Wareing discovered a huge redcedar tree while scouting the trail route.

With permission from the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, we set up an information kiosk at Sutton Pass, the only road access to Clayoquot Sound. During the summer, over 5,000 people stopped to buy posters and cards, and learn about the campaign to protect the area from logging.

Clayoquot blockades begin when 15 protesters refuse to leave the Kennedy Lake logging road. Over the summer, the protest grows to the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, with nearly 1,000 people arrested for peacefully standing on the logging road.

Armed with an official waste wood harvesting permit from the Ministry of Forests, we located and extracted a stump from a 400-year-old redcedar in a clearcut in the upper Kennedy Valley. Using cables and jacks, we dragged it onto a trailer to serve as our publicity stump in the fight to save Clayoquot Sound, naming it "Stumpy".

We haul Stumpy on its trailer to the Legislative Buildings in Victoria, where Wilderness Committee founder Paul George makes the call for logging to cease in Clayoquot Sound. Then Stumpy heads off across Canada arriving in Ottawa in time for the federal election. Stumpy goes on to travel to Europe courtesy of Greenpeace as well as to the USA, spreading the message of Clayoquot Sound preservation along the way.

Wilderness Committee founders Paul George and Adriane Carr rafting on the Tatshenshini River rapids in the newly established 947,026-hectare Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park. When combined with adjacent protected areas in the Yukon and Alaska, it becomes the largest protected area on Earth.

The Ts'ylos Provincial Park was established by the B.C. Government, to be co-managed with the Tsilhqot'in community of Nemiah. Its 233,000-hectare area encompasses most of Chilco Lake as well as swathes of the Chilcotin Plateau and the Coast Mountains.

Randy Stoltmann, former Wilderness Committee director and employee, is killed in a ski mountaineering accident while travelling through the Coast Mountains of the Kitlope watershed. He is well known and respected in the conservation movement as the author of several books on B.C.'s remaining wilderness and ancient forests.

The B.C. government established new park areas including Upper Carmanah (3,343 ha), Lower Walbran (9,500 ha), Tashish-Kwois (10,829 ha), Brooks-Nasparti-Power River (22,851 ha), Lower Tsitika (3,744 ha) and Nahwitti-Shushartie (6,750 ha). Staff member Sue Fox, Paul George and Joe Foy are in front of the entrance sign to Carmanah Valley.

The 317,000-hectare Kitlope Protected Area on the mid-coast of BC is established by the BC Government. It becomes the world's largest protected watershed in the temperate rainforest zone, though only about three percent of the steep, mountainous and glacier-rich area contains loggable forest.

The Ursus Valley in Clayoquot Sound was in danger of being logged by MacMillan Bloedel. The Ahousaht Nation and the Wilderness Committee launched an expedition up the Ursus River to document evidence of dugout canoe building in the valley, Rosealee Thomas and Kurt John line a boat filled with supplies for the trip. The expedition is successful, finding sites that date back to the 1860s.

The Ahousaht Nation in Clayoquot Sound asks us to conduct a joint expedition to the old-growth forests of Easter Lake and Young Bay. Alison Spriggs, head of our Victoria office, examines a redcedar log that was roughed out long ago in preparation for canoe building. Together, we publish a report about the area's rich history of Aboriginal use.

B.C Premier Mike Harcourt and several cabinet ministers announced the establishment of the 38,000-hectare Pinecone Lake - Burke Mountain Provincial Park, co-managed with the Katzie First Nation. This park includes the Boise Valley and its spectacular redcedar grove.

We named a cluster of valleys north of Squamish in honour of Randy Stoltmann, the conservationist who first proposed the preservation of the Upper Elaho and Upper Lillooet watersheds, just one month before he lost his life in a coast mountain ski mountaineering accident. With the permission of the Squamish Nation, Joe Foy leads an expedition up the Elaho Valley to locate a possible trail route through the heart of the Stoltmann wilderness.

Lytton First Nation Chief Byron Spinks and B.C. Premier Michael Harcourt announced the designation of the 107,000-hectare Stein Valley Nlaka'pamux Heritage Park, co-managed by the province and Lytton First Nation.

We camped out on the lawn of the B.C. legislature, demanding government deliberations on the future of the Stoltmann Wilderness area and other local wilderness regions be made public. When told tents are not allowed on the lawn, we make the tent fly. The protest lasted two months, the longest continuous legislature protest in B.C. history, although the government never opens the meetings to the public.

A joint Ahousaht Nation/Wilderness Committee expedition set off in the heart of Clayoquot Sound to locate the old route between the beaches on the west side of Flores Island. The plan was to build a trail to support an Ahousaht ecotourism venture. Theresa Rosenbush, Art Joseph, Joe Foy and Jason Clifford reach the top of Mount Flores.

Adriane Carr, Joe Foy and Sue Fox put together an early-stage mock-up of our 1996 newspaper about publicly-owned forests in B.C.

Mark Wareing, pictured here on Haida Gwaii, was the forester who led the Wilderness Committee's work in the Carmanah Valley and Vancouver watersheds. He passed away at age 49.

National Campaign Director Joe Foy led a volunteer trail crew up the Elaho Valley. By late June, the team of trail builders cleared a hiking path up the Elaho Valley to the snowline in the Stoltmann Wilderness.

Artist Jack Campbell is one of over one hundred artists that hiked into Stoltmann Wilderness on our new trail system, creating works of art to raise funds and awareness for our fight to protect the old-growth forests from logging.

The 90-day signature-gathering period began to ban bear hunting in B.C., led by founder Paul Georg who traveled with a team around the province in a donated motorhome, using a donated bear skin as a prop. At the end of three months, we gatherecd 88,357 signatures, short of the required 222,272 signatures. We failed but the issue became part of the public debate.

Premier Clark announced the Upper Lillooet and Clendenning watersheds were protected, but they represent only 20% of the Stoltmann Wilderness land area. Wilderness Committee staff and volunteers crashed Premier Clark's announcement party with signs and banners demanding full protection for the Stoltmann Wilderness. Most of the forests are to be given to the logging companies, primarily International Forest Products, to be clearcut.

Wilderness Committee team members gather in front of our store and office on Water Street in Gastown, the heart of Vancovuer.

We hosted a two-month art show and silent auction featuring works produced during our artists' campout in the Stoltmann Wilderness. We raise over $20,000 for our campaign to end logging in the area.

With permission from the Squamish Nation, we helicoptered a research tent-cabin deep into the Upper Elaho Valley to house volunteers mapping large old Douglas-fir trees in the area. The tent-cabin was located next to our Elaho-to-Meager Creek hiking trail that traverses the Stoltmann Wilderness.

Interfor loggers set up a blockade on the road leading to the Stoltmann Wilderness. In response, we established an information camp across the road from the "Interfort". The RCMP arrive but take no action against the loggers and the blockade remained for six weeks. When it was finally taken down, we discovered our research camp dismantled and dumped in the RCMP parking lot.

Areas featured in our 1987 Pocket Wilderness newspaper are finally added by the B.C. government to Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park, expanding it to 9,122 hectares.

Campaigner Ken Wu stood on an Douglas-fir old-growth tree stump in the Upper Elaho Valley with a ring count revealing it was 1,158 years old. To showcase the age of the trees Interfor cut down in the Stoltmann Wilderness, we cut the top off of the stump, sanded it smooth and took it on tour. We named it "Slabby".

We retrieved our research tent-cabin from the RCMP parking lot, and our volunteers hike it piece by piece back into the Upper Elaho Valley. The RCMP never "solved" who took our camp and dumped it at their station in Squamish.

We helped organize several hundred people to gather at the B.C. Legislature opening in Victoria, demanding protection for the Great Bear Rainforest on the mid-coast of B.C.

National campaign director Joe Foy met with Premier Glen Clark about the Stoltmann Wilderness, the Walbran Valley and various forestry issues. Joe presented the Premier with a Jurassic Clark t-shirt, criticizing his rollback of forest regulation and decisions to allow clearcutting, which has taken B.C. back to the bad old days of the timber barons.

Volunteers replaced the ladder bridge over Lava Creek with a new cable car.

Working with David Garrick, an expert on culturally modified cedar trees, and a team of people from the Heiltsuk Nation, we documented trees in the Great Bear Rainforest that show ancient signs of use.

We purchase a condo-store in Gastown and we move our office nearby.

Iisaak Logging Company, with majority First Nations ownership, controlled the forests previously managed by MacMillan Bloedel. Joseph Campbell of Ahousaht, Chairman of Iisaak's Board, signed an agreement with environmental groups to not log intact watersheds in Clayoquot Sound.

We supported People's Action for Threatened Habitat (PATH), a group of environmentalists that set up a camp in the Upper Elaho Valley, launching a campaign of blockades and logging interruptions. Interfor is granted an injunction in the B.C. Supreme Court, establishing a 500-metre-wide exclusion zone around its worksites.

Angry Interfor loggers stormed the PATH camp on the Upper Elaho logging road, stealing cameras to prevent documentation. One person managed to take photos and hide his camera as the the loggers beat the environmentalists and burned down their camp. Several men are tried and convicted for this crime. None serve jail time.

Betty Krawczyk, 71-year-old grandmother and veteran of the Clayoquot protests, set up a blockade on the logging road at mile 21 on the Squamish Valley Road, leading to the Stoltmann Wilderness, to oppose the beating of peaceful environmentalists and successfully held off Interfor for three days. Eventually, the logging company gets a court order and Betty is removed by the RCMP, and receives a one-year prison sentence, serving 7 months before release.

Ron Thiessen led our brand new office in Winnipeg. Ron focused his energy on getting logging banned in Manitoba's provincial parks.

We moved our office to Johnston Street in Victoria with a storefront office that gave us better visibility and increased sales for our posters, cards, books and calendars. Heidi Sherwood is our new store manager

Prime Minister Chretien attended a ceremony at Long Beach to designate Clayoquot Sound a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. He announced a $12 million grant to endow the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust and founder Adriane Carr thanked him for his support.

The Squamish Nation and International Forest Products (Interfor) sign a letter of intent, in front of a large group of Squamish chief, elders, members, along with conservationists and Interfor representatives, to work together toward better forest management. Interfor agrees to limit logging in the Upper Elaho Valley to existing approved cutblocks and not seek approval for any new ones.

We located two large wedges of wood in a recently clearcut area of old-growth Douglas-fir forest by Interfor in the Upper Elaho Valley. Loading the pieces into wheelbarrows, we pushed them down the logging road towards Victoria, several hundred kilometres away. We called this action "Wedge to the Ledge" to build public support for preserving the Stoltmann Wilderness.

We finally reached the BC Legislature, pushing our wheelbarrows with wood wedges and held a rally calling for the protection of the Stoltmann Wilderness area, where National Campaign Director Joe Foy Joe Foy spoke to a crowd out front.

Squamish Nation artist Aaron Nelson-Moody (left), joined Chief Bill Williams (right), by his carved seven-foot-tall statue out of a redcedar log, called the Cedar Woman. The Squamish Nation invited people to help carry the statue to the top of Bear Bluffs, including RCMP members, eco-activists, Interfor loggers, and Squamish Nation members. Cedar Woman marks the boundary between logging and wilderness in the Upper Elaho Valley.

Our new species campaigner, Gwen Barlee, protested in front of federal Environment Minister David Anderson's Victoria office. Disappointingly, the federal government's proposed Species at Risk Act applies only to federal lands, such as post offices and prison sites. Along with other conservation organizations, we contended this long-awaited act was too narrow and weak, urging the federal government to strengthen it.

We celebrated BC Premier Ujjal Dosanjh's announcement of a moratorium on hunting grizzly bears, prompted by a call from 68 biologists for a halt until comprehensive population studies are completed. Over 100 tourism operators also urged an end to the hunt, and the most recent public opinion poll showed 77% of British Columbians wanted a ban. We had been seeking a ban since 1996.

The Squamish Nation's land use plan, titled Xay Temixw (Sacred Lands), called for protecting the Upper Elaho and Sims Creek, along with other areas, and managing them as Wild Spirit Places, where industrial activity is prohibited.

After calling for its protecdtion since the 1930's, the day before calling a provincial election in 2001, B.C. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh establishes the 71,000-hectare South Chilcotins - Spruce Lake Protected Area, in the Lillooet Region near Gold Bridge.

The Squamish Nation requests that we conduct a photographic survey of the Upper Sims Creek Valley and Tony Briggs, a member of the Sims Creek expedition, does just that.

Shortly after becoming the B.C. premier, Gordon Campbell reinstates the hunt for grizzly bears. The kill rate for the so-called sport hunt is set between 400 and 300 grizzlies per year. In response, we mount a protest on the legislature lawn in Victoria and collect signatures for our Stop the Grizzly Hunt petition.

Bull caribou takes a break in the Caribou Mountains Wildlife Provincial Park, encompassing 591,008 hectares of the last stronghold of woodland caribou in Alberta. Alberta office director Gray Jones dedicated years to advocating for the protection of this vital area and we joyful celebrated its designation as a park.

We team up with West Kootenay environmental activists to mount an expedition into the never-logged East Creek Valley, part of the Bugaboo Rainforest. We are helicoptered into the headwaters and spend the next several days hiking out through this spectacular wilderness filled with enormous red cedars.

Premier Gordon Campbell declares that the designation of the South Chilcotins - Spruce Lake protected area will be reconsidered. The B.C. mining industry seeks to severely "downsize" the protected region, allowing continued access for mining exploration. Gwen Barlee leads a protest in front of the mining association office in Vancouver.

Annette Tanner presides over the annual meeting of the Wilderness Committee supporters who live on mid-Vancouver Island, including the Parksville, Qualicum and Nanaimo areas.

Gwen Barlee heads to The Hague, Netherlands, to participate in the Convention on Biological Diversity conference. She aims to pressure the Canadian government, on the world stage, to enact a strong species-at-risk law. Gwen awards Canada the Stump of the Day award for its failure to protect enough habitat to secure species survival.

Logging company Interfor proposed to carve a road just beyond the Manning Park boundaries to log spotted owl habitat. We set up camp at the park entrance to collect signatures for our petition. After three weeks, the B.C. government announced the road will not be allowed.

Responding to reports of old-growth trees endangered by logging plans, we send an expedition to Elk Creek Valley, located near Chilliwack BC. Expedition members Andy Miller, Nick Cuff and Chris Player discover huge old-growth hemlock and Douglas fir trees, as well as evidence of species at risk such as marbled murrelet and spotted owl.

Some of our staff, along with their kids and dog, gather at our Gastown office.

Acting on our behalf, the Sierra Legal Defence Fund seeks a judicial review of a BC government decision to allow logging in a spotted owl activity site. The court grants an interim injunction to halt logging, allowing our lawyers time to gather their evidence. This marks the first time in BC history that an injunction has been granted to aid the survival of an endangered species. Lawyer Devon Page is shown here with our spotted owl expert Andy Miller near Siwash Creek in the Fraser Canyon.

Hosted by members of the Fraser Headwaters Alliance, Gwen Barlee hikes the 91-kilometre Goat River Trail from the Robson Valley to Bowron Lakes Provincial Park. The Wilderness Committee is helping ramp up pressure on logging companies seeking to enter this area of intact wild forest.

When logging plans appear in the middle of a Wildlife Habitat Area meant to protect spotted owl habitat, we track down the evidence and take photos of ribbon boundaries for the planned logging. Joe Foy is shown here on the Ford Mountain Ridgeline in the Chilliwack Valley.

The Wilderness Committee, Sierra Legal Defence Fund and Forest Watch release "Logging to Extinction - The Last Stand of the Spotted Owl in Canada". The report is the result of thousands of hours of research and links the rapid decline of spotted owl numbers in southwestern British Columbia to the logging of their old-growth forest habitat.

Ken Wu organizes a protest against logging in the Walbran Valley, raising banners and signs outside Timber West's Vancouver offices.

Joe Foy examines a section of Spotted Owl habitat marked for logging in the Utzlius Valley in the Fraser Canyon region.

We organize a rally to advocate for keeping the boundaries of the South Chilcotin Mountains Protected Area intact. Dressed in Santa hats, we gather in front of a fundraiser for B.C.'s environment minister, calling our rally "The Grinch that Stole the South Chilcotin Mountains".

We organize a gathering in the picnic grounds of Golden Ears Provincial Park to sound the alarm about plans to clearcut on Blue Mountain, located directly across Alouette Lake. We offer free hot chocolate and an opportunity to sign the petition. Our efforts ultimately succeed in stopping the logging plans.

As pressure to log Elk Creek increases, we launch an expedition to document the giant Douglas fir trees scattered across the lower slopes.

The B.C. government, without public consultation, quietly starts installing pay parking stations in popular provincial parks. Park visits drop by one million in the first year. We launch a public campaign to eliminate pay parking in BC parks.

We celebrate the second birthday of the South Chilcotin Mountains Protected Area with a rally in front of mining giant Teck Cominco's Vancouver offices. We call for the protected area boundaries to remain intact to prevent logging and mining.

Although it will be another year before the new law comes into full effect, Canada's first-ever law to protect endangered species is announced with great fanfare. Conservation groups, including the Wilderness Committee, immediately begin planning how best to use this new legislation to save species on the brink of disappearing from Canada and the world. Pictured is a spotted owl, one of the most endangered species in Canada.

We are in and out of B.C. Supreme Court and the B.C. Court of Appeals with the support of Sierra Legal Defence Fund lawyers, fighting for every scrap of remaining spotted owl habitat in the Anderson and Siwash Creek Valleys. Although we win most of our court fights, we lose one in the B.C. Appeals Court, which requires us to pay costs to the logging company responsible for cutting down spotted owl habitat.

Reacting to reports that East Creek, an unlogged ancient forest valley on Vancouver Island's Northwest coast, is about to be logged, we send an expedition to document the area's big tree rainforest. Ken Wu is pictured next to a massive old-growth red cedar in the Klaskish Valley.

Each year, we take some time out to plan our campaign work. Here are some of the Wilderness Committee staff at Tyax Resort near Gold Bridge and the South Chilcotins Mountain Protected Area.

At the request of the St'at'imc Nation, we travel to Seton Portage, west of Lillooet, B.C. From there, we team up with St'at'imc members to document evidence of Indigenous use in the Lost Creek Valley forests. We find a number of red cedar trees with bark-harvesting scars, all in support of the St'at'imc's efforts to fend off logging plans for the valley.

Joe Foy biked past the locked gate on the Siwash Creek logging road in the Fraser Canyon to document logging activities in spotted owl habitat.

The staff team gathered at Tyax Lodge near Gold Bridge, B.C. to plan campaign activities for the coming year.

We discover that a forest designated as spotted owl habitat has been logged, with more logging is planned in an unprotected area of Manning Provincial Park. During the May 24th long weekend, we host a gathering to draw attention to the logging, calling it the Manning Park Clearcut Campout. The event features a footrace through a clearcut, dubbed the Race to Extinction.

We work with the St'at'imc Nation to relocate the old trail route into the Lost Creek Valley. The watershed is 20 kilometres long and is the largest remaining roadless valley in the Cayoosh Mountain Range, located East of Lillooet, B.C.

On the day the BC government finally announces its decision to downsize the South Chilcotin Mountains Protected Area, we show up and rally in front of the Vancouver provincial government offices at Canada Place. Even though the protected area was reduced, the mining industry did not get the greatly reduced boundaries it had asked for. We vow to keep fighting until the protected area boundaries are restored.

Ken Wu, our Victoria campaigner, works to bring the giant trees of the unprotected portion of the Walbran Valley into the public spotlight. These ancient trees are among the largest and oldest living things remaining on Earth.

In response to the sharp decline of several pink salmon runs on the B.C. coast, believed to be caused by salmon farms and the sea lice they bring, we start anti-salmon farm protests at farmed salmon retail outlets.

When the B.C. Government proposes a highway shortcut through the popular nature spot of Eagle Ridge Bluffs in North Vancouver, local people revolt. We join the protest, arguing that the natural area could be preserved by tunnelling under it. The government claims that the shortcut is necessary for the coming 2010 Winter Olympics and insists that a tunnel would be too expensive and time-consuming.

Trail crew made up of St'at'imc community members and Wilderness Committee staff and volunteers, enjoy dinner after a day re-clearing the old trail up the Lost Creek Valley.

To celebrate our 25-year anniversary, we hold a campout in the Upper Elaho Valley. Thanks to the hard-fought campaign that had raged from 1995 to 2000, all is quiet, with no active logging in the Upper Elaho near our campout.

Photographer Jeremy Williams looks down on Lost Creek Valley from a pass in the Cayoosh Range. In the valley, our trail crew has almost completed the trail from one end of the 20 kilometre-long valley to the other.

The Lost Creek Valley trail crew navigates fresh snow as they traverse the pass.

We hold a gala in Vancouver to celebrate our 25-year anniversary and auction photo prints from past calendar editions to raise funds for our nature work.

When the B.C. government embarks on a massive freeway expansion program called Gateway, we campaign against it, arguing that supersized roadways equal supersized climate impacts.

We scout the bushed-in Ghost Pass Lake Trail, which goes up 18 Mile Creek Valley, just outside Manning Provincial Park. This is prime spotted owl habitat, and it's being targeted for logging. Our plan is to reclear the trail to make it a popular hiking destination, increasing the chance of its protection from logging.

After a section of spotted owl forest is logged in the Anderson Creek Valley, just beyond Hope, B.C., we send an expedition team to document the damage. We count growth rings on the logs to determine the age of some of the felled trees. The hemlock shown in this photo was 170 years old.

On the Day of Action for Endangered Species, we hold a rally in front of Premier Gordon Campbell's constituency office, calling for a strong B.C. species at risk law to help save the increasing list of endangered species in the province.

A joint Wilderness Committee and St’at’imc team scout a way through the mountains and ridges of the Melvin Creek watershed and into the Lost Creek Valley.

Two young girls and their parents come to our office with a bag full of money and an inspiring story. The girls had set up a street-side stand and collected donations to help out B.C.'s endangered spotted owl. They had chosen the Wilderness Committee to receive their donation.

Wilderness Committee founder Paul George completes his book on the Wilderness Committee's 25-year history, titled Big Trees, not Big Stumps. Here he is signing a copy for Manitoba Campaign Director Eric Reder.

We participate in a rally against open-net cage salmon farming in front of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans offices in downtown Vancouver. Here is our mapper Geoff Senichenko in his homemade salmon farm outfit.

As freeway expansion, coal port expansions and tanker and pipeline projects threaten Metro Vancouver, we up our game on fighting climate-changing projects.

We hold a banner outside a B.C. Parks meeting that is considering allowing private hotels in Mount Robson Provincial Park. We take the stand that private businesses should be outside the park boundaries.

The Ashlu River, near Squamish, B.C., is being targeted under the B.C. government's private hydro power program. A tunnel is being constructed to divert kilometres of the river to a power generation station. BC Hydro is being forced to buy this power in long-term contracts at rates far above market value. We oppose these projects because they cause damage to wild rivers and impose a financial burden on BC Hydro.

Geoff Senichenko collects evidence of spotted owl habitat being logged on Fire Mountain in the Lillooet River area.

We gathered on BC's Sunshine Coast to plan out our campaigns for the year.

Colleen McCrory, former director of the Wilderness Committee during the organization's formative years, passes away at age 57. The lead campaigner for the Valhalla Wilderness Society, Colleen was a determined and well-respected leader in the B.C. wilderness preservation movement.

We send a chainsaw crew to the Ghost Pass Lake Trail near Manning Park. They camp and hike along the trail clearing away fallen logs.

When logging begins near S&M Creek in a forest that is designated by the BC government as spotted owl habitat, we set up a protest camp near Lillooet Lake, B.C.

We head on down to Canada Place in Vancouver with a list of carols we have written, calling for open-net cage salmon farms to be shut down for good.

We stage a Valentine's Day protest against open-net cage salmon farms at Canada Place in Vancouver, BC.

We celebrate wildly when we win our campaign to stop a cluster of private hydropower projects from damming and diverting tributary rivers in the Upper Pitt River watershed. This area is a crucial salmon river north of Pitt Meadows, BC.

We attempt to drive up a logging road in the Lillooet River Valley to document a private hydro power plant under construction, but we are initially blocked by the work crew. After some negotiation, we are allowed to continue up the road and capture our film footage.

We gather at Echo Lake, near Mission, B.C., to plan our campaign work for the year.

Upon learning that old-growth trees have been felled near Hesquiaht Point Creek, one of Clayoquot Sound's remote intact valleys, we immediately launch an expedition to collect photos and information. We mount a quick campaign and prevent further damage.

We mount an year-end protest against the Gateway freeway expansion project at Canada Place in Vancouver.

We collect hundreds of signed petitions, with 33,000 signatures in total, calling for an end to open-net cage salmon farming. Tum Tum, our salmon mascot, wheels the petitions to Canada Place for a rally before delivering them to the B.C. Government Cabinet offices.

In partnership with Alberta Wilderness Association, Federation of Alberta Naturalists, Grasslands Naturalists and Nature Saskatchewan, represented by lawyers from Ecojustice, we won our lawsuit against the federal government. We argued Environment Canada's recovery strategy for the sage grouse did not adequately protect critical breeding grounds, as required by the Species at Risk Act and the judge agreed, forcing more habitat to be protected.

We gather in East Vancouver to plan for the upcoming year.

Working with Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks, we helped re-clear the hiking trail to the top of Lone Cone Mountain, on Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound. We wanted B.C. to support the Tla-o-qhi-aht's efforts to protect the intact old-growth forests in their territory. Our first trail-building project on Meares Island took place over 20 years ago in 1988.

Wilderness Committee executive team members Gwen Barlee, Andrea Reimer, Joe Foy, and Matt Jong posed for a year-end photo near our Gastown offices.

Joe Foy and Gwen Barlee stand outside the annual conference of the Independent Power Producers Association of BC, holding a huge blank cheque to highlight how much money the BC government is giving private power producers for energy that can't be used and can only be sold at a loss.

When Tim Hortons proposes a campground in Manitoba's Whiteshell Provincial Park, we launch our research team to gather information on the remote area. Our efforts successfully keep the private camp out of the park.

In response to a new coal mine being proposed for an area near the world-famous Fanny Bay oyster farmers on eastern Vancouver Island, we protest against Raven Coal. Here is Tria Donaldson, our Healthy Communities campaigner, in front of Raven Coal's AGM in Vancouver.

Chief Marilyn Baptiste and other members of the Tŝilhqot'in Nation come to Vancouver to protest Taseko's proposal to drain Fish Lake for a massive open-pit mine. Following the rally, we head up to Fish Lake in Tŝilhqot'in Nation territory to show our support and join the fight to save it. Here Chief Marilyn Baptiste speaks to the crowd.

Under the guidance of Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks, our volunteers work to clear and repair sections of the Meares Island Big Tree Trail in Clayoquot Sound.

When we learn that Canada's largest Douglas-fir tree is at risk due to nearby logging in its buffer forest, we head out on a photoshoot to bring attention to the giant tree.

Climate Campaigner Ben West joined Wilderness Committee volunteers at a die-in English Bay in Vancouver beach to highlight risks of Kinder Morgan's proposed tar sands pipeline expansion, using molasses to simulate a spill of diluted bitumen.

Executive Team members Joe Foy, Beth Clarke and Gwen Barlee joined Field Coordinator Andy Miller and Manitoba Campaign Director Eric Reder to strategize plans for the coming year.

We support Treaty 8 First Nations in their rally opposing the Site C dam project proposed for the Peace River. They title Paddle to the Premier, the rally kicks off with a paddle through Victoria's inner harbour to the Legislative Buildings.

We get together on Bowen Island to plan our campaigns.

After an eight-year campaign opposing excessive park user fees, we finally succeed when the B.C. government removes pay parking stations from B.C. parks. This poorly thought-out program actually cost more than it generated and significantly decreased park visitation.

We set up in front of Raven Coal's AGM in Vancouver to highlight the growing opposition to the mine proposal.

Working with the traditional owners of the territory, the Manitoba government designates the 800,000-hectare Asatiwisipe Aki Protected Area. This area is a part of the Heart of the Boreal region, which we have been working to protect for over a decade. This is the biggest move forward we have seen to date, thanks to the foresight of the Poplar River First Nation and the Manitoba government.

Our volunteer trail crew enjoys supper after a hard day's work improving the network of trails on Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound.

Our long-running Manitoba campaign, active since 2004, meets great success as the Fisher Bay Park Reserve is finally upgraded to a fully and permanently protected 84,000-hectare provincial park.

We prepared our opposition to Kinder Morgan's pipeline expansion proposal with a No Tanks banner art-build at our Gastown office. Kinder Morgan proposed to expand their Westridge Marine Terminal and their Trans Mountain pipeline, aiming to ship more diluted bitumen to tankers headed for export markets in the USA and Asia.

The Tŝilhqot'in Nation goes to court seeking an injunction to prevent any mining exploration activity at Fish Lake. We are there to support them during their courthouse steps rally.

Federal Court of Appeal upholds precedent-setting ruling that confirmed the government is legally bound to protect killer whale habitat. In its judgment, the Court unanimously dismissed nearly all aspects of the government’s appeal and ordered it to pay associated costs. This upheld the original ruling, which found the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) had failed to legally protect killer whale critical habitat. Ecojustice represented the coalition of nine environmental groups including the Wilderness Committee the previous year and successfully argued DFO had not met its legal obligation to protect killer whales. This decision means the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans must legally protect all aspects of killer whale critical habitat — including food supply and marine environment quality.

The Nanoose forest, a rare coastal Douglas-fir forest on southeastern Vancouver Island, has long been defended by local residents. With only about one per cent of this type of forest remaining, the B.C. government still issues logging permits for the Nanoose Forest. After a hard-fought campaign to preserve the area, much of it is logged.

Our Vancouver Island campaigner, Torrance Coste, investigates reports of an old-growth red cedar being cut down in the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park. He discovers the fresh-cut stump of a centuries-old giant. We attribute this loss to the B.C. government's budget cuts, which have removed rangers from most parks.

Joe Foy is invited to Nelson, B.C., to speak against the proposed Jumbo Pass ski resort city, which threatens the grizzly bears in the Purcell Range.

After Taseko Mines sues us for defamation on our website, we prepare to defend ourselves in court. In the meantime, we continue to attend rallies like this one with Chief Joe Alphonse to bring attention to the Tŝilhqot'in Nation's strong opposition to the proposed open-pit copper mine in their territory.

Torrance Coste hikes into the fabulous Koksilah Grove on southeast Vancouver Island to collect photos of this unprotected old-growth forest of Douglas fir trees.

Joe Foy heads up to the Peace River Valley to be master of ceremonies at the annual Paddle for the Peace event. It is a way for local First Nations and farmers to build support for ending the Site C dam project.

With the opening of the new ten-lane Port Mann Bridge, our campaign against the Gateway freeway expansion projects suffers a defeat. We argue that freeway expansion projects super-charge urban sprawl and greenhouse gas emissions.

Old-growth forests in the Squamish/Pemberton region of southwest B.C. were finally put off-limits to logging as Wildlife Habitat Areas by the B.C. government, to protect the critical habitat of the Northern spotted owl — one of the most endangered species in Canada. Since the late 1980s, we worked to protect Upper Douglas Valley and Glacier Lake forests, and since the mid-2000s we fought anti-logging campaigns in the forests on Fire Mountain, S&M Creek and Blackwater Valley, pictured here.

Manitoba Campaign Director Eric Reder sat alongside representatives of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (MCCN) at a press conference, before a private dinner hosted by mining corporation Hudbay. We voiced our opposition to the company’s proposed Reed Mine in Grass River Provincial Park.

Eoin Madden, our Climate campaigner, speaks at the Salish Sea Gathering at Whey-a-wichen or Cates Park, North Vancouver, raising concerns about the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. This project threatens to pump diluted bitumen for export by hundreds of tankers filling up at Kinder Morgan's Westridge Marine Terminal, visible in the background.

Concerned about encroaching logging nearby Torrance Coste heads up to the Walbran Valley to make sure that no logging had started up in Castle Grove.

Staff of Wilderness Committee preparing a mailout to our supporters of our recently published four-page newspaper on how neonic pesticides are impacting bees.

We hold a town hall meeting at the University of Winnipeg to talk about community opposition to a scheme to ship crude oil by rail to Churchill, Man.

Represented by Ecojustice we go to court over water quality impacts from fracking in northeast B.C.

We move our office out of Gastown and set up shop near Vancouver's Broadway and Main area. Nathaniel Hurvitz built the interior of our new space.

Canada's environment minister turns down Taseko Mines' New Prosperity Mine proposal. We celebrate with our allies in the Tŝilhqot'in Nation.

Gwen Barlee heads out to the Fraser Valley to check out Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park which is being targeted as a possible route for Kinder Morgan's planned tar sands pipeline to the coast.

Our Manitoba office publishes a newspaper listing top wilderness candidates for protection in the province. One of the key areas listed is the Red Deer Lake area.

Climate Campaigner Eoin Madden speaks against the Enbridge tar sands pipeline project at a rally at Sunset Beach in Vancouver.

With our allies we deliver a petition with 166,000 signatures to the B.C. Legislature calling for the repeal of regulations allowing heavy industry like pipeline construction, logging and mining.

We join with our allies the Council of Canadians to put on a panel discussion in downtown Vancouver about the impacts of liquified natural gas (LNG) exports and fracking for natural gas.

We go on a multi-day expedition to check out areas of spotted owl habitat that are being targeted for logging on the east side of Harrison Lake.

Wilderness Committee Graphic Designer Perry Jack put's together our latest publication on wild salmon.

Joe Foy heads up to the Peace River Valley to paddle down the river at the annual Paddle for the Peace event. As master of ceremonies he introduces the many speakers who participate along with hundreds of paddlers. The event is all about increasing public support for cancelling the Site C dam project which would flood 100 kilometres of the Peace River Valley.

When local environmental leaders learn of a plan to log Gambier Island in Howe Sound, they invite us to hike the mossy forests there. We go and fall in love with the beautiful forests of Gambier. We help to organize a packed public meeting and succeed in having the logging plans cancelled — for now.

The Manitoba office celebrates when the Omnitrax train shipping company announces they will no longer be pursuing their plan to move crude oil by rail through the northern Manitoba port of Churchill and then by tanker ship through Hudson Bay. Our Manitoba Campaign Director Eric Reder has lead the charge to keep the oily cargo from moving into Canada’s fragile north country, speaking at numerous town hall events in communities along the rail line.

We organize a group paddle down Manitoba's Bird River to draw attention to our campaign to have this area protected as a provincial park.

The Wilderness Committee executive team poses for the end of year photo at our new office space.

Staff gather at Camp Fircom on Gambier Island in Howe Sound near Vancouver to plan the coming year's campaign work.

Staff and volunteers hold banners and signs in front of the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver, while we defend our right to speak and write our opinions in the Taseko mining court case.

Campaigner Eric Reder leads volunteers on portage trails on the Lower Bird River, part of our campaign to see the area protected.

The B.C. government announces that the environmental assessment certificate for the proposed Jumbo Glacier Ski Resort has expired and will not be renewed, halting all development activities. The resort was proposed right in the middle of a critical grizzly travel corridor, which provoked the ire of people in nearby Kootenay communities and First Nations who fought the project in the courts.

Our Victoria office leads a crew of volunteers to spruce up the Koksilah grove trail system on southeast Vancouver Island.

Campaigner Torrance Coste speaks to the crowd at the Walbran logging protest in front of the Victoria Forest Service office.

We hold a party and BBQ at our offices in Vancouver to celebrate our 35-year anniversary of preserving wild places in Canada and the plants and animals that live there.

Geoff Senichenko, our mapper, surveys an area near Sasquatch Provincial Park near Harrison Lake for signs of logging in designated spotted owl habitat.

Staff Wendy Fisher and Eric Reder deliver several thousand signed opinion cards calling for the Bird River to be granted provincial park status to the provincial government at the Manitoba Legislature Building.

Jeremy Williams prepares to launch a drone near Bralorne, B.C. to photograph various tailings ponds at mine sites. This is an ongoing documentation project after the Mount Polley tailing ponds failure created an environmental disaster. The Wilderness Committe calls for a ban on mine tailings ponds.

All staff from offices in B.C., Manitoba and Ontario meet at B.C.'s Sunshine Coast to plan our work for the coming year.

Eric Reder delivered a backpack full of opinion cards, calling for the Manitoba government to ban mining in provincial parks, to the Manitoba Legislative Building.

Logging company Teal Jones filed a civil suit against us, seeking an injunction to prohibit blockades impacting its logging operations in the central Walbran Valley. They name our campaigner Torrance Coste in the suit, even though Torrance (and other staff) have nothing to do with the blockades. We engage lawyers from Ecojustice to fight the charges.

Parts of the Red Deer Lake region was granted protection as a new Wildlife Management Area, helping preserve the beautiful Overflowing River and an important woodland caribou range. We had previously featured the Red Deer Lake region in our newspaper about prime candidates for protection in Manitoba.

Joe Foy and a group of Tsilhqot'in chiefs and former chiefs pictured on the steps of the BC Supreme Court, after a ruling confirmed the Wilderness Committee did not defame Taseko Mines when we criticized a proposed mine project located west of Williams Lake, BC. Not only did the judge dismiss Taseko claims, they awarded us court costs, as well as special costs incurred as a result of the lawsuit.

The BC Environmental Assessment Office terminates the proposed Raven Coal mine in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. We stood in opposition for six years (as seen by staff protesting at the Raven Coal AGM) with our local allies, including CoalWatch, because of the risks to local water quality, ecosystems, public safety, sustainable local businesses and our shared climate.

The Wilderness Committee, represented by Ecojustice, successfully had the 2015 Teal Jones lawsuit dismissed. The company had earlier charged us with being involved in blockades of their logging in the Walbran Valley. We continue to battle old-growth logging with all legal means.

Acting on a tip Gwen Barlee, heads out to the Lillooet Valley near the head of Harrison Lake to document logging in spotted owl habitat.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, attends the Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation hearings on the proposed Ajax mine and gives a thumbs down to the project. The Wilderness Committee opposed this project in support of local residents and members of the Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation.

Gwen Barlee, part of the leadership team, checks out South Okanagan grasslands, part of her work with allies to help secure National Park Reserve designation for the area because of it's rare and endangered species and landscapes.

The Winnipeg office, led by Eric Reder, organizes a cycling event called Bike for the Bou where people ride along little-used gravel and sand backroads into caribou habitat east of Lake Winnipeg, raising awareness about the need to protect caribou habitat in the boreal forest.

Matt Jong, on the Wilderness Committee Executive Team for 18 years, celebrates his retirement at a get-together in our Vancouver office. Matt had been in-charge of maintaining financial well-being.

Volunteers replace old rotten boardwalk with new planks on the Big Tree Trail, on Meares Island, Clayoquot Sound.

Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney, and Senior Organizer and Field Program Lead Em Hoffpauir, participate in a march against Kinder Morgan's scheme to expand their tar sands bitumen pipeline.

Campaigners from the Victoria office head into the Walbran Valley to document fresh cut old-growth trees, hoping to influence legislation that finally ends logging of B.C. old-growth forests.

Staff Em Hoffpauir checks out the stump from a recently felled old-growth redcedar tree in the central Walbran Valley, stark evidence of why the Union of BC Municipalities voted to call for an end to logging old-growth forests on Vancouver Island.

Communications Specialist Rumnique Nannar, Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney and Donor Relations Manager Michelle Johnson hold our Kinder Morgan protest signs, distributed at rallies and protests, in front of our 46 East 6th Ave office.

The Ahousaht Nation in Clayoquot Sound releases its landuse plan, seeking to protect most of the remaining old-growth forests in their territory, some seen on pictured Flores Island.

Members of Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation drum and sing at Pipsel (Jacko Lake) near Kamloops B.C. as the decision was announced at a ceremony with about 200 people in attendance. The land where the mine was proposed is considered a sacred site, holding great spiritual and cultural value for the First Nation. The Wilderness Committee opposed this mine project in support of local residents and members of the Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation who had reached out for assistance.

Members of the Victoria office are gathered on the lawn of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia on Valentines Day to hold a Stand Up For What You Love Rally, calling for better protection for B.C.'s coast, endangered species, old-growth forests, fresh water and climate.

We hung banners off buildings, bridges and over passes during high travel hours calling for people to resist Kinder Morgan and stop their plan to expand their tar sands pipeline and marine terminal.

Volunteer crew pictured clearing Walk the Wild Side Trail located on the west coast of Flores Island in Clayoquot Sound, in Ahousaht Nation territory, 20 years after first working with the Ahousaht Nation.

Gwen Barlee, a highly respected member of the leadership team passed away at age 54. She was a well-known advocate for B.C. endgangered species legislation as well as a keen supporter of the South Okanagan Similkameen National Park Reserve proposal. The Wilderness Committee established a memorial fund in her name to carry on some of her favourite projects.

Our volunteer trail building crew pause for a break while working on improving the Big Tree Trail on Meares Island, under the guidance of Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks in their territory in Clayoquot Sound.

Staff gathered in the community of Green timbers, Surrey BC to plan our nature-saving work for the year.

We joined people from all over Metro Vancouver to march against Kinder Morgan's pipeline expansion project.

Conservation and Policy Campaigner Charlotte Dawe took photos of a clearcut in designated spotted owl habitat in Karon Creek, located just beyond Hope, B.C.

Wilderness Committee and Sierra Club BC presented the need to end old-growth logging and stop raw log exports in forest-dependant communities on Vancouver Island during a townhall tour.

We documented logging in Clearwater BC, after learning the B.C. government approved logging in federally designated critical habitat for southern mountain caribou.

Premier John Horgan announced the Site C dam will go ahead, despite the Wilderness Committee and many allies hoping he would cancel it. Construction on the mega project continues while we argue against it and First Nations battle it in the courts.

Co-Executive Director Beth Clarke celebrated our win against Taseko Mines defamation case from 2016 with Vancouver Canvass Director Emil Haddad, and supported by Tsilhqot'in Chief Joe Alphonse. This marks end of our successfull defence of our right to freely speak our views on environmental matters.

The B.C. and Canadian governments turned down an open-pit copper and gold mine proposed next to Kamloops on the traditional lands of the Stk’emlupsemc Te Secwepemc Nation. We participated in the Nation’s environmental assessment that recommended rejecting the mining proposal.

Big win! The B.C. government ended grizzly bear hunting for sport. The Wilderness Committee had been working since the 1990s to end this cruel so-called sport which killed about 300 grizzlies a year.

We organized a protest march against Kinder Morgan's pipeline and marine terminal in Burnaby, and Peter McCartney and two volunteers display a banner.

Our volunteer trail builders get an early start swinging hammers to extend the boardwalk at Castle Grove, in the central Walbran Valley.

When Prime Minister Trudeau visited Victoria to peddle his pipeline scheme, the Victoria team joined hundreds of others in the city to say no way to the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

Vancouver Island Campaign Organizer Em Hoffpauir headed up to Schmidt Creek on northeastern Vancouver Island to check out reports of planned logging in an old-growth forest near the world famous rubbing beaches of Robson Bight and discovers fresh flagging tape marking out cutblocks.

The Government of Canada announced intention to purchase Texas-owned Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline and we helped organize a series of anti-bailout protests across the country. Wilderness and Water Campaigner Eric Reder leads staff and volunteers from our Winnipeg office in action.

Co-Executive Director Joe Foy and Conservation and Policy Campaigner Charlotte Dawe filmed recently logged southern mountain caribou habitat forest near Clearwater Valley in B.C. This forest was deemed southern mountain caribou critical habitat by the Canadian government, yet B.C. granted a permit to log it.

Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney leads a bike tour through Vancouver to visit climate solutions projects.

Wilderness Committee film Toad Peole, produced by environmental writer-photographer Isabelle Groc and cinematographer Mike McKinley, about species at risk in B.C and the people who seek to protect them, wins the Panda Impact Award at the prestigious Wildscreen film festival in Bristol, England.

This is the view from Silverdaisy Peak which is in the middle of the so-called Donut Hole located adjacent to Manning and Skagit provincial parks. We battle a BC timber Sales logging operation that starts up in the Donut Hole. We are calling for the area to be put offlimits to logging and mining.

Conservation and Policy campaigner Charlotte Dawe filming in the proposed South Okanagan Similkameen National Park Reserve.

Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney and Conservation and Policy Campaigner Charlotte Dawe join hundreds of people in downtown Vancouver in the protest against the National Energy Board's approval of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Project.

Vancouver Island Campaign Organizer Em Hoffpauir worked with volunteers to clear the Meares Island Big Tree Trail, in the Meares Island Tribal Park on Clayoquot Sound, B.C.

Since 2003 we’ve worked hard to realize the dream of a South Okanagan-Similkameen National Park Reserve. We saw a big step forward, when the sməlqmix/suknaʔkinx (Syilx/Okanagan Nation Alliance), together with the federal and provincial governments, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a national park reserve in the South Okanagan-Similkameen. Conservation and Policy Campaigner Charlotte Dawe presents details about the park reserve proposal.

We hire our first full-time campaigner in Ontario, Katie Krelove, and she heads to Algonquin Provincial Park with National Campaign Director Torrance Coste and Wilderness and Water Campaigner Eric Reder to document spectacular autumn colours and on-going logging impacts in the park.

Co-Executive Director Joe Foy speaking at the Anza Club in Vancouver as he starts his semi-retirement, stepping down from the position into a part-time role as Protected Areas Campaigner. Joe first started volunteering for the Wilderness Committee in 1985 and took his first campaigner job with the organization in 1988.

We celebrated a big win when BC's Forest Minister and Environment Minister announce BC Timber Sales would no longer be allowed to log in the Donut Hole between Manning and Skagit provincial parks — putting an end to the immediate logging threat in two intact valleys, Silverdaisy and 26 Mile. Since 2018, we worked to see logging and mining banned in this region and will continue to fight until the Donut Hole is designated as a protected area.

National Campaign Director Torrance Coste in Koksilah Grove in southeast Vancouver Island. This amazing old-growth forest lacks formal protection. The Wilderness Committee is part of the growing movement to ban logging in the remaining old-growth forests such as this.

We celebrated a big win with the Tsilhqot'in Nation in our efforts to protect Teẑtan Biny (Fish Lake). Since 2010, we fought Taseko Mine Ltd's New Prosperity open pit mine proposal at Fish Lake. On May 14 2020, this ill-conceived project was finally stopped dead at the Supreme Court of Canada who refused to hear the company’s appeal.

Protected Areas Campaigner Joe Foy hunts for remaining spotted owl old-growth forest habitat near Stave Lake in the Lower Mainland with a drone. The BC government approved 312 cutblocks over the past 18 months in the owls' old-growth forest habitat.

The Silverdaisy Creek Trail in the Donut Hole goes by numerous wateralls and whitewater sections. Though logging was banned here last year, this endangered wilderness area is not yet protected from mining.

Protected Areas Campaigner Joe Foy and Ecojustice Executive Director Devon Page camped on the edge of 26 Mile Creek during a six-day backpack photo expedition in 26 Mile Valley, which is in the Donut Hole between Manning and Skagit provincial parks.

In summer 2020, Conservation and Policy Campaigner Charlotte Dawe and Communications Specialist Alex Tsui join our friends at Wildsight and Echo Conservation Society, in an investigation that unveiled the BC government was spending tax dollars to restore southern mountain caribou habitat while at the same time, less than two kilometres away, clearcutting old-growth caribou need for survival. Together we dpublicized this betrayal to at-risk southern mountain caribou.

Eric Reder, Wilderness and Water campaigner protests park pass fees now required to enter Manitoba's provincial parks, arguing that simple park day use should be free and open to all.

Wilderness Committee partners up with Dogwood and Stand.earth to host multiple tours of the Brunette River conservation area where Trans Mountain is set to lay pipe through. The tours take place instead of a rally due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney speaks to participants on the shoreline of Brunette Creek in Burnaby BC.

Wilderness Committee trail crew masked up during COVID 19 pandemic, work to clear hiking trails at Kaxiks / Walbran Valley.

After a four-day backpack trail clearing expedition on the old Silverdaisy Trail in the Skagit Headwaters Donut Hole, the trail crew hiked back down the Silverdaisy Trail. The trail project aims to boost recreation use in the Donut Hole and increase the pressure to push out mining and gain protected area status.

Protected Areas Campaigner Joe Foy stands beside several logs from old-growth Douglas-fir and redcedar trees recently logged in spotted owl habitat in Spuzzum Valley as he gathered photos and video of the old-growth forest there. This valley is home to the last known breeding pair of spotted owls in Canada.

National Campaign Director Torrance Coste and Vancouver Island Campaign Organizer Em Hoffpauir on a fact finding expedition to Caycuse Valley on Vancouver Island to confirm reports of active logging in old-growth forests.

We gathered for a small protest about a big problem outside FortisBC’s Tilbury LNG in Delta, to show the B.C. government it is deeply irresponsible to build new fossil fuel projects as hundreds of residents lose their homes and their lives to climate change. Tilbury LNG would create as much carbon pollution as the entire city of Vancouver. From left to right: Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney, Production Director Sue Fox, Distribution Coordinator Chad Carney-Leahy and Conservation and Policy Campaigner Charlotte Dawe.

Protected Areas Campaigner Joe Foy camped out in the endangered Argenta Face Forest in the West Kootenay. He launched a drone to take photos to aid in the fight for protection.

Pacheedaht First Nation Elder Bill Jones receives the 2021 Eugene Rogers Environmental Award, presented by Vancouver Island Campaign Organizer Emily Hoffpauir and National Campaign Director Torrance Coste, for his leadership role in the fight to protect at-risk old-growth forests and his guidance, support and friendship to everyone who works to protect them. His dedication is surpassed only by his kindness.

We celebrated a big win when the B.C. government announced a deal to buy out Imperial Metals mineral tenure in the Donut Hole. Protected Areas Campaigner Joe Foy films an old mine tunnel. The government says it will enter into discussions with First Nations about how best to protect the Skagit Headwaters region. We'll keep working until the Donut Hole is granted protected area status.

Staff and volunteers work side by side to spruce up the Big Tree Trail on Meares Island, in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island.

We suffered a major setback when logging started on Argenta Face. We continue to make the case for preservation of the forest even as several cutblocks are felled under a BCTS logging permit.

We moved our Manitoba office to our new and much improved store-front office at 553 St Mary's Road, Winnipeg. Water and Wilderness Campaigner Eric Reder and Campaign Assistant Alex Deneka were on hand to welcome supporters to our grand opening.

Ontario Campaigner Katie Krelove documents big trees in Algonquin Provincial Park as part of our ongoing work to get logging banned in this iconic protected area.

Protected Areas Campaigner Joe Foy is joined by Ecojustice Executive Director Devon Page on a six-day backpack from Teapot Lake down to the forks of Teapot Creek and back to document spotted owl habitat, big trees, wildlife and signs of logging plans, collecting photos, video and GPS coordinates. Teapot is an intact, unprotected wilderness valley located between the communities of Harrison Hotsprings and Boston Bar within Nlaka'pamux territory.

In the wee hours of the morning,Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney gathered with some allies outside the Vancouver Convention Centre to send a message to the attendees of a liquified natural gas (LNG) conference opening that day with a speech from BC’s minister of energy, mines and “low-carbon innovation.” The team used an industrial projector to shine the words “Clean LNG is a dirty lie” next to the iconic sails on the waterfront.

We attended COP15 in Montreal along side world leaders, Canadian federal and provincial decision makers, corporate lobbyists and environmental organizations to debate the growing global biodiversity crisis. Conservation and Policy Campaigner Charlotte Dawe (left) hosted an event with a powerhouse roster of Indigenous panelists who spoke about their reality fighting to protect biodiversity in BC. The theme was consistent — BC’s framework for biodiversity protection is failing and must change while ensuring an Indigenous rights-based approach.

Protected Areas Campaigner Joe Foy and Research and Mapping Coordinator Geoff Senichenko visiting spotted owl critical habitat being logged in the Nahatlatch Valley and other valleys in the Lower Mainland. The spotted owl is one of the most endangered species in Canada and the Government of Canada must step in to prevent BC from issuing logging permits in its critical habitat.

Conservation and Policy Director Charlotte Dawe speaks to the media at a news conference with Indigenous, labour and environmental allies united in opposition to proposed Delta Port exansion in the Fraser River estuary.