Meares Island has a amazing groves of very big, very old trees. Make sure the next time you are in Tofino, BC you inquire about taking a short water taxi ride over to the hiking trail, or going on a guided tour. In 1984 the Tla-o-qui-aht and their neighbours, the Ahousat, declared Meares Island a tribal park and off-limits to commercial logging.
Huge Sitka spruce tree along the Clayoquot Valley Witness Trail. This ancient forest is truly a world wonder!
This is the biggest redcedar tree seen along the hiking trail route. However, there may be even larger redcedar trees in this rainforest, just out of sight of the trail, waiting to be discovered by you...
In August of 1994 the Wildenress Committee and the Ahousat First Nation undertook an expedition to the Ursus Valley in Clayoquot Sound to document the forests, fish and wildlife there. The Ursus is in Ahousat First Nation territory and was being targetted by MacMillan Bloedel for logging. The valley is one of the pristine valleys of Clayoquot Sound, and remains unlogged to this day.
Wilderness Committee/Ahousat photo expedition team in the upper Ursus Valley.
In the spring of 1995 the a team from the Wilderness Committee and the Ahousat First Nations conducted a photo expedition to Cecilia Lake, Easter Lake and Young Bay in Ahousat First Nations territory, Clayoquot Sound. This massive redcedar was found near Cecilia Lake.
2003 - Logged spotted owl habitat in the Manning Park "donuthole" - an area bounded on all sides by Manning and Skagit Provincial Parks, but not afforded protection from logging. This clearcut is within a designated British Columbia Spotted Owl Management Area, and a short distance from a pair of spotted owls.
June, 2003 - We got word that an area of spotted owl habitat had been recently logged, near Lillooet BC. This area is in St at imc Territory.
Victoria Day Weekend, 2004 - The Wilderness Committee held a camp-out in the Manning Park "donut hole" to show people an area of spotted owl habitat recently logged in an area completly surrounded by park land.
July, 2008. This oldgrowth redcedar towers up near the bank of the Kennedy River, in Clayoquot Sound. It is a short hike from Highway 4 to see it. The redcedar is inside the recently designated Ha'uukmin Tibal Park - a 500 square km tribal park in Tla-o-qui-aht Territory, that encompasses the entire Kennedy Lake watershed, including the pristine upper Kennedy and Clayoquot Valleys.
Coming from Germany on a Biology Internship, I spent three months in the Wilderness Committee office mapping critical habitat for the endangered seabird, the Marbled Murrelet. My work involved data and statistical analysis, quantifying habitat variables, assessing habitat quality and conducting road density calculations. I also spent some great time in the wilderness doing research.
