Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park

Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park

Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park covers a land area of 16,450 ha immediately adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve 's West Coast Trail 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 along the productive riverside flats. Canada's tallest tree, the Carmanah Giant, at 96 m, lives here along the lower reaches of Carmanah Creek.

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. As of summer 2007, most trails in the park are closed due to heavy wind damage from winter storms.

History

As with many lower elevation forested parks on Vancouver Island, Carmanah Walbran was created in the 1990's as a result of three-way disputes between conservationists, logging companies and the BC provincial government. During this time the last of Vancouver Island's unprotected contiguous tracts of low elevation old growth forest were being imminently threatened by clearcut logging. This sparked intense public debate over the future of these forests. The campaign to protect the Carmanah valley, spearheaded by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, garnered national attention until a decision was made in 1990 by the provincial government to protect the lower half of the approximately 6,000 ha Carmanah watershed. This disappointed conservationists who later succeeded in getting the entire Carmanah watershed protected, along with the majority of the remaining unlogged lower Walbran watershed, in 1995.

Ecology

This area lies within the coastal western hemlock (CWH) biogeoclimatic zone[1]. 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, pacific silver fir, western redcedar, and sitka spruce.

The combination of a year-round mild and humid climate produces ideal conditions for the development of extensive epiphyte communities in the forest canopy.

References

1. ^ British Columbia Integrated Land Management Bureau - Map of Ecological Classification of Vancouver Island