Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park, originally Carmanah Pacific Provincial Park, covers a land area of 16,450 ha immediately adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is a Canadian national park reserve in British Columbia made up of three separate regions: Long Beach, the Broken Group Islands, and the West Coast Trail. The entire park encompasses 511 km² of land and ocean. The park is characterized by rugged coasts and...

's West Coast Trail

West Coast Trail

The West Coast Trail is a long backpacking trail following the southwestern edge of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It was built in 1907 to facilitate the rescue of survivors of shipwrecks along the coast, part of the treacherous Graveyard of the Pacific...

 on south-west Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It comprises the entire drainage of Carmanah Creek and a good portion of the lower Walbran River drainage, both of which independently empty into the Pacific Ocean.

This park protects extensive tracts of luxuriant coastal rain forest and is famous for its towering groves of sitka spruce

Sitka Spruce

Picea sitchensis, the Sitka Spruce, is a large coniferous evergreen tree growing to 50–70 m tall, exceptionally to 95 m tall, and with a trunk diameter of up to 5 m, exceptionally to 6–7 m diameter...

 along the productive riverside flats. Canada's tallest tree, the Carmanah Giant, at 95.836 m (314 ft), live here along the lower reaches of Carmanah Creek. Some of the trees in the area are 1,000 years old.

Hiking trails have been developed in the Carmanah valley, but visitors are discouraged from entering the Walbran section until ecological assessments are performed to determine possible negative impacts on sensitive habitat. Access is by gravel logging road from Port Alberni, Lake Cowichan, or Port Renfrew.

History

After controversy in 1988 amongst conservationists (led by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee

Western Canada Wilderness Committee

The Western Canada Wilderness Committee is a non-profit environmental education organization that aims to protect Canada's wild spaces and species. Paul George, the founding director, formed the Wilderness Committee in the province of British Columbia in 1980...

), logging companies and the BC provincial government over clearcut logging of old growth forest

Old growth forest

An old-growth forest is a forest that has attained great age , and thereby exhibits unique ecological features. An old growth forest has also usually reached a climax community...

, the province created Carmanah Pacific Provincial Park in 1990. The remainder of the Carmanah Valley and the lower part of the area drained by Walbran River were added in 1995 and forming the current park.

Ecology

This area lies within the coastal western hemlock (CWH) biogeoclimatic zone. Biogeoclimatic zones can be further divided into subzones, of which this park contains three. Immediately adjacent to the ocean lies the CWH Southern Very Wet Hypermaritime subzone, which is intimately shaped by the forces of the sea. This subzone is often referred to as the "spruce fringe forest" and is characterized by the dominance of sitka spruce, which is specially adapted to withstand the magnesium salts of sea spray. Other characteristic species include leatherleaf polypody fern and evergreen huckleberry.

Just inland is the CWH Submontane Very Wet Maritime subzone, which comprises the majority of the area of Carmanah Walbran park. The dominant coniferous trees here are western hemlock

Western Hemlock

Tsuga heterophylla. the Western Hemlock, is a species of hemlock native to the west coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern Sonoma County, California.-Habitat:...

, pacific silver fir

Pacific Silver Fir

Abies amabilis, commonly known as the Pacific silver fir, is a fir native to the Pacific Northwest of North America, occurring in the Pacific Coast Ranges and the Cascade Range from the extreme southeast of Alaska, through western British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, to the extreme northwest of...

, western redcedar, and sitka spruce. The combination of a year-round mild and humid climate produces ideal conditions for the development of extensive epiphyte

Epiphyte

An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object , derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it, and is found in the temperate zone and in the...

 communities in the forest canopy.

The forest contains twice the biomass of tropical rainforest. Marbled murrelet

Marbled Murrelet

The Marbled Murrelet is a small seabird from the North Pacific. It is a member of the auk family. It nests in old-growth forests or on the ground at higher latitudes where trees cannot grow...

nests have been found in the area.

External links

• Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park (Official BC Ministry of Environment page)
• How Carmanah valley was protected (Western Canada Wilderness Committee Historic Campaign)