Category Archives: Parks

Parks

‘A huge achievement’: Vision for vast network of West Coast marine protected areas unveiled at last

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The blueprint for a vast network of marine protected areas across the northern third of Canada’s West Coast is being unveiled after more than a decade of work.  

A group of 17 coastal First Nations and the Canadian and B.C. governments have crafted a draft action plan for the BC Northern Shelf MPA Network — covering 100,000-square-kilometres of ocean — and released it for public input Thursday. 

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Forests, Parks

Learning about Old Growth on the Rainforest Trail

The Rainforest Trail, near Tofino, is much more than a simple path through the woods. Massive western red cedars and western hemlocks tower over visitors as they follow the twisting boardwalks through an enchanted landscape full of the ferns, lichen and fungi typical of an old growth ecosystem. The oldest inhabitant of this stand is a red cedar that was reputedly a sapling when Marco Polo set off for the Orient in 1271. This means it is about 950 years old today. A series of information plaques transform the +2 kilometre hike into an educational experience.

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Forests, Parks

The only significant old growth Douglas Fir stand north of Cathedral Grove

According to BC Parks, Campbell River is home to “the only significant stand of old-growth Douglas Fir north of Macmillan Provincial Park [Cathedral Grove].” Yet the city seems to be virtually oblivious of the “towering old growth Douglas Fir and Cedar trees” in the  3.5 kilometre Riverside and Old Growth Loop trails.

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Forests, Parks

New land trust creates a rare climate zone ‘backbone’ that stretches Saturna Island

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A new land conservancy on Saturna Island has created a significant green corridor that includes B.C.’s rarest climatic zone.

The Nature Trust of B.C. has purchased 143.5 acres for the Money Creek conservation area on the southwest corner of Saturna, which falls in the moist maritime Coastal Douglas Fir (CDF) bioclimatic subzone, part of the smallest and rarest of the province’s 16 ecological zones

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Indigenous Nations, Parks

ʔapsčiik t̓ašii officially opens to visitors on Vancouver Island’s west coast

By Melissa Renwick, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tofino, BC – After much anticipation, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Government and Parks Canada joined together in welcoming visitors to use the new multi-use pathway at the Combers Beach trailhead in the Pacific Rim National Parks Reserve on June 28.

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