The Importance of Pristine Temperate Rainforest Valleys.

Pristine:- 'Original, belonging to the earliest time' (Chambers Concise Dictionary,1989).

Over 280 individual pristine rainforest valleys have been destroyed in British Columbia, in most cases by industrial clearcut logging. A mere 20 percent of the temperate rainforest valleys (over 5,000 hectares) in the Great Bear Rainforest remain pristine. Half of the remaining valleys are scheduled to be roaded or logged within the next 5 years, mostly by Interfor, Doman (Western Forest Products), and West Fraser. All unprotected valleys in British Columbia will be clearcut logged or roaded within the next 16 years.

It is both extremely difficult and extremely easy to describe the importance of the remaining pristine temperate rainforest valleys in British Columbia. Difficult because this is a complex subject involving many different opinions. Easy because the bottom line is that these valleys are the only ones left. In simple terms, “After the remaining valleys are gone, there will be no others. That is the defining fact - not only are these pristine valleys facing their last days, they are the last of their kind in all creation" (Ian McAllister, The Great Bear Rainforest, 1997).

The world’s largest areas of pristine, ancient, temperate rainforest are located on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. The Great Bear Rainforest, characterized by a labyrinth of deep fjords, steep narrow valleys and magnificent coastal mountains is the ancestral land of First Nations peoples and home to thousands of species of birds, plants and animals. These rich and fertile forests, (whose former range stretched from northern California to southeast Alaska) support some of the oldest and biggest trees on earth and provide critical habitat for a number of endangered and threatened species such as grizzly bears, salmon, wolves, and eagles.

The traditional life and culture of First Nation Peoples depend upon the survival of these ancient rainforests. Culture and rainforest have evolved together over thousands of years, each shaping the other. The diversity and abundance of fish and wildlife have supported affluent and sophisticated societies; in turn, these people have treated the land with the respect it deserves. Some of these societies still depend upon the harvesting of forest resources such as fish and medicinal plants. However, as logging fragments and destroys the forest, an irreplaceable legacy and cultural knowledge of the environment is in danger of being lost.

Proponents of the forest industry, such as Patrick Moore, claim that clearcut logging does not destroy rainforests because they replant, giving nature the opportunity to renew herself. Yet, how can clearcut logging do anything but destroy? Clearcutting, as its name suggests, removes all living organisms, tearing away the fabric of the forest; it alters nature’s building blocks and modifies her regime. Ancient temperate rainforests simply do not grow back!