Great Bear Rainforest
Encyclopedia
The Great Bear Rainforest is the name coined by environmental groups in the mid-1990s to refer to a region of temperate rain forest
Temperate rain forest
Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive high rainfall.-Definition:For temperate rain forests of North America, Alaback's definition is widely recognized:-Global distribution:...

 in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, on the British Columbia Coast
British Columbia Coast
The British Columbia Coast or BC Coast is Canada's western continental coastline on the Pacific Ocean. The usage is synonymous with the term West Coast of Canada....

 between Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...

 and Southeast Alaska. Part of the larger Pacific temperate rain forest ecoregion, the Great Bear Rainforest is also known as the Central and North Coast forest, or simply the Central and North Coast.

Geography

The size of the Great Bear Rainforest, also called the North and Central Coast land use planning area or the Central and North Coast LRMP area, is roughly 64000 km² (24,710.5 sq mi). As part of the 2006 North and Central Coast Land Use Decision three new land use zones were created: Protected Areas, Biodiversity, Mining and Tourism Areas (BMTAs), and Ecosystem-based Management Operating Areas (EBMs). As of 2009, approximately 20000 km² (7,722 sq mi) of the region has been designated as protected areas (in a form called conservancies), and 3000 km² (1,158.3 sq mi) as BMTAs. Commercial timber harvesting and commercial hydro-electric power projects are prohibited within BMTAs.

The Great Bear Rainforest extends from the Discovery Islands
Discovery Islands
The Discovery Islands are the islands in the Discovery Passage between Vancouver Island and the mainland in British Columbia. These islands are sometimes considered to be part of the Northern Gulf Islands....

 in the south to the BC-Alaska boundary in the north. It includes all offshore islands within this range except Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...

 and the archipelago of Haida Gwaii. Its northern end reaches up Portland Canal
Portland Canal
The Portland Canal is an arm of Portland Inlet, one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is approximately long. The Portland Canal forms part of the border between southeastern Alaska and British Columbia. The name of the entire inlet in the Nisga'a language is K'alii...

 to the vicinity of Stewart
Stewart, British Columbia
Stewart is a small town, incorporated as a district municipality at the head of the Portland Canal in northwestern British Columbia, Canada. In 2006, its population was about 496.-History:...

. To the south it includes Prince Rupert
Prince Rupert, British Columbia
Prince Rupert is a port city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is the land, air, and water transportation hub of British Columbia's North Coast, and home to some 12,815 people .-History:...

, most of Douglas Channel
Douglas Channel
Douglas Channel is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. Its official length from the head of Kitimat Arm, where the aluminum smelter town of Kitimat to Wright Sound, on the Inside Passage ferry route, is 90 km...

, half of Hawkesbury Island
Hawkesbury Island
Hawkesbury Island is an island in British Columbia, Canada. It is located in Douglas Channel, one of the major fjords of the British Columbia Coast. Hawkesbury is long and ranges in width from to . It is in area....

, and part of Gardner Canal
Gardner Canal
The Gardner Canal is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. Technically a side-inlet of the larger Douglas Channel, the Gardner is still 90 km in length in its own right; total length of the waterways converging on the Douglas Channel is 320 km making it one of the...

. Kitimat
Kitimat, British Columbia
Kitimat is a coastal city in northwestern British Columbia, in the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine. The Kitimat Valley, which includes the adjacent community of Terrace, is the most populous urban district in Northwest British Columbia...

 is outside the region, to the east. Farther south, the region includes all of the coast west and south of the Fiordland Conservancy, Kitlope Heritage Conservancy Protected Area, Tweedsmuir North
Tweedsmuir North Provincial Park and Protected Area
Tweedsmuir North Provincial Park and Protected Area is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Formerly part of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, one of the earliest large parks established in the provincial parks system, it was redesignated a park and protected area as the latter classification...

 and Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park
Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park
Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Formerly part of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park it was formed from the southern portion of that park, the northern portion being redesignated Tweedsmuir North Provincial Park and Protected Area in order to allow...

s—which includes Dean Channel
Dean Channel
Dean Channel is the upper end of one of the longest inlets of the British Columbia Coast, from its head at the mouth of the Kimsquit River. The Dean River, one of the main rivers of the Coast Mountains, enters Dean Channel about below the head of the inlet, at the community of...

, Burke Channel
Burke Channel
Burke Channel is a channel in the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, separating the south and east coasts of King Island from the mainland. It was first charted in 1792 by James Johnstone, one of George Vancouver’s officers during his 1791-95 expedition. Vancouver...

, Rivers Inlet
Rivers Inlet
Rivers Inlet is a fjord in the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, its entrance from the Dean Channel near that fjord's mouth, about southwest of the community of Bella Coola and about north of the northern tip of Vancouver Island and the western entrance of the...

, and the communities of Bella Bella
Bella Bella, British Columbia
Bella Bella, also known as Waglisla, is an unincorporated community and Indian Reserve community located within Bella Bella Indian Reserve No. 1 on the east coast of Campbell Island in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. Bella Bella is located north of Port Hardy, on Vancouver...

, Bella Coola
Bella Coola, British Columbia
Bella Coola is a community of approximately 600 at the western extremity of the Bella Coola Valley. Bella Coola usually refers to the entire valley, encompassing the settlements of Bella Coola proper , Lower Bella Coola, Hagensborg, Saloompt, Nusatsum, Firvale and Stuie...

, and Hagensborg
Hagensborg, British Columbia
Hagensborg is a small community in the Bella Coola Valley in British Columbia, Canada. Its census population in 2006 was 248. The valley was already the ancient home to the Nuxálk people when European explorers arrived. Norwegian settlers from Minnesota and Wisconsin arrived in 1894, and the town...

. The southern end of the region includes Knight Inlet
Knight Inlet
Knight Inlet is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast, and the largest of the major inlets in the southern part of the Coast...

 but not Bute Inlet
Bute Inlet
Bute Inlet is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is 80 km long from its head at the mouths of the Homathko and Southgate Rivers to the continental headlands at its mouth, where it is nearly blocked by Stuart Island, and it averages about 4 km in width...

.

Ecology

The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rainforest left in the world. The area is home to species such as cougars, wolves
Gray Wolf
The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...

, salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

, grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...

s, and the Kermode ("spirit") bear
Kermode bear
The Kermode bear , also known as a "spirit bear" , is a subspecies of the American Black Bear living in the central and north coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is noted for about 1/10 of their population having white or cream-coloured coats...

, a unique subspecies of the black bear
American black bear
The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...

, in which one in ten cubs display a recessive white coloured coat.

The forest features 1,000 year old Western Red Cedar
Thuja plicata
Thuja plicata, commonly called Western or pacific red cedar, giant or western arborvitae, giant cedar, or shinglewood, is a species of Thuja, an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae native to western North America...

 and 90 metre Sitka Spruce.

Coastal rainforests are characterized by having proximity to both ocean and mountains. The onshore ocean flow into the mountain ranges causes abundant precipitation to fall on the land in between the mountains and the ocean. Most of the Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Washington and Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 coastal areas share this same pattern.

History

In the early 1990s environmentalists launched a large scale campaign to protect the Clayoquot Sound
Clayoquot Sound
Clayoquot Sound is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is bordered by the Esowista Peninsula to the south, and the Hesquiaht Peninsula to the North. It is a body of water with many inlets and islands. Major inlets include Sydney Inlet,...

 region of Vancouver Island. After years of conflict the British Columbia (BC) government announced a ban on clear-cutting in the Clayoquot rainforests and began a local planning process that incorporated First Nations of the area and independent scientists. The Clayoquot Sound campaign became the model for the Great Bear Rainforest campaign. Techniques used at Clayoquot Sound were further developed and new approaches adopted, such as international marketing campaigns, improved mapping technologies, and the use of large scale holistic ecosystem-based management models. In 1997 the central and northern BC coastal region was renamed "Great Bear Rainforest" by a network of ENGO
ENGO
An ENGO is an Environmental Non-governmental organization, such as WWF, Greenpeace, Conservation International or the Environmental Investigation Agency.-Goals:...

s (environmental nongovernmental organizations), for the purpose of galvanizing an international campaign for its protection. The name, which was chosen without consulting local residents, was by 2005 being used by many organizations, including news media outlets. As Meureen Gail Reed writes, "the emotive significance of such a name cannot be underestimated".

In May 2004, after years of conflict and negotiation, the various stakeholders agreed to recommend the BC government that about 3500000 acre, about 33% of the Great Bear Rainforest, be put under some form of protection, and that new forms of ecosystem-based forestry be required throughout the rainforest. This fell short of the scientific recommendations, which had concluded that 44%–70% should be protected. The recommendation given to the BC government was a compromise solution agreed to by the many stakeholders after years of difficult negotiations. The stakeholders include provincial and local governments, many BC First Nations
First Nations in British Columbia
First Nations in British Columbia constitute a large number of First Nations governments and peoples in the province of British Columbia. Many of these Canadian aboriginal peoples are affiliated in tribal councils...

 such as the Heiltsuk
Heiltsuk Nation
The Heiltsuk Nation is a First Nations government in the Central Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, centred on the island community of Bella Bella, British Columbia...

 and Homalco
Homalco First Nation
The Homalco First Nation is a First Nations government located in Bute Inlet near the upper Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada. The Homalco are also known, with their neighbours the Sliammon and Klahoose and the K'omoks of nearby parts of Vancouver Island, as the Mainland Comox...

, Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

, ForestEthics, Sierra Club of Canada
Sierra Club of Canada
Sierra Club Canada is a Canadian, volunteer-based environmental organization. It is part of the environmental movement.The roots of Sierra Club Canada go back to 1963, when environmentalists in British Columbia affiliated themselves with the Sierra Club of the United States...

, BC Chapter, Canadian Forest Products, Catalyst Paper Corporation, International Forest Products
International Forest Products
International Forest Products Limited is one of the Pacific Northwest's largest producers of wood products. The company's sawmilling operations have a combined manufacturing capacity of 1.6 billion board feet of lumber with sales to North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Interfor is based in...

, Western Forest Products
Western Forest Products
Western Forest Products Inc. is a Canadian lumber company based in Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.-History:Doman Singh bought a sawmill near Duncan in 1905...

, and many others.

On 7 February 2006 a comprehensive protection package was announced for the Great Bear Rainforest, which was defined to include the central and north coasts of BC and Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands). The Great Bear Rainforest Agreement included four key elements: rainforest protection, improved logging practices, the involvement of First Nations in decision making, and conservation financing to enable economic diversification. The final agreement banned logging in 33% of the Great Bear Rainforest and made a commitment to implement ecosystem-based foresty management for the entire Great Bear Rainforest by 2009.

The 2006 agreement between the BC government and a wide coalition of conservationist
Conservationist
Conservationists are proponents or advocates of conservation. They advocate for the protection of all the species in an ecosystem with a strong focus on the natural environment...

s, loggers
Lumberjack
A lumberjack is a worker in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest...

, hunters, and First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...

 established a series of conservancies stretching 400 kilometres (248.5 mi) along the coast. The proposed protected areas will contain 18000 square kilometres (6,949.8 sq mi), and another 46900 square kilometres (18,108.2 sq mi) that is to be run under a management plan that is expected to ensure sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management
Sustainable forest management is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management uses very broad social, economic and environmental goals...

.

The Canadian government
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...

 announced on 21 January 2007 that it will spend CAD
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...

$30m for protection of this rainforest. This matches a pledge made previously by the British Columbia provincial government, as well as private donations of $60 million, making the total funding for the new reserve $120 million.

In the autumn of 2008, Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

, Sierra Club of Canada
Sierra Club of Canada
Sierra Club Canada is a Canadian, volunteer-based environmental organization. It is part of the environmental movement.The roots of Sierra Club Canada go back to 1963, when environmentalists in British Columbia affiliated themselves with the Sierra Club of the United States...

 (BC Chapter), and ForestEthics launched an online campaign titled, "Keep the Promise," to put public pressure on Gordon Campbell, then Premier of British Columbia
Premier of British Columbia
The Premier of British Columbia is the first minister, head of government, and de facto chief executive for the Canadian province of British Columbia. Until the early 1970s the title Prime Minister of British Columbia was often used...

, to honour the Great Bear Rainforest agreement in its entirety. The groups were concerned that certain aspects of the agreement, including implementation of ecosystem-based management
Ecosystem-based management
Ecosystem-based management is an environmental management approach that recognizes the full array of interactions within an ecosystem, including humans, rather than considering single issues, species, or ecosystem services in isolation Ecosystem-based management is an environmental management...

, will not materialize in time for the government's own final implementation deadline of March 31, 2009.

The area is currently under threat from the Northern Gateway Pipelines
Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines
The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines Project is a proposal to construct two pipelines running from Bruderheim, Alberta, to Kitimat, British Columbia. The eastbound pipeline would import natural gas condensate and the westbound pipeline would export crude oil...

project, which if approved would bring crude oil tanker traffic regularly passing through the channels of the area.
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