The Great Bear Rainforest Needs Your Help
byBritish Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest (the largest tract of intact coastal temperate rainforest left on Earth) is in danger and there is a public call out for support to raise awareness and put pressure on the current government to keep their promise about conserving the area.
Two years ago, after a ten year struggle, a promise was made by the BC government to protect Canada’s rainforest – the Great Bear Rainforest – the world’s largest temperate rainforest, and home to the Spirit Bear.
Today, that promise is in jeopardy. With a March 31st, 2009 deadline fast approaching, a citizen-driven campaign has sprung-up to secure the fate of this vast and unspoiled wilderness, a place that has captured the imagination of people around the world with its towering red cedars (some as high as 30 storeys), and its rich salmon streams. The fate of the Great Bear Rainforest and its promise to future generations is a story that can only be written by us. [Save The Great Bear]
The campaign is reaching out through all means of social media. You can show your support by writing a blog post, sending an e-message, joining the Facebook Group, following the Twitter feed, or entering the Flickr photo contest.
Growing up on the West Coast you can’t help but appreciate the natural beauty that’s all around us, and even though Stanley Park is the closest thing I currently have to a vast expanse of forest in this city (proper), every day I can’t wait to head out on another journey, trek, camping trip, or getaway to the less populated, and more moss-covered areas of our province.
But an area like the Great Bear Rainforest is in a class of its own, being an invaluable asset to the province, the country, and the planet. This region is roughly 77,000 square kilometers and home to three species of bear (grizzly, black, and kermode – or spirit bear), thousands of unique plants and millions of migratory birds. It is also the home of several First Nations who have inhabited the region for thousands of years.
Hopefully by getting involved in the campaign, which is as simple as clicking the mouse a few times and informing yourself – especially with another Provincial election in the spring, we can remind the government to keep its promise come March 2009.
7 Comments — Comments Are Closed
Thanks so much for the write-up!
[…] to Emily, Raul, Monique, Rebecca and everybody else who has written about the campaign thus far. We’re making good progress, […]
This is so important!
Where is the integrity, where are the ethics. The Great Bear Rain Forest, and the sprit bear are only figments of someone’s overworked imagination. For over fifty years I have traveled the Central Coast. From Bella Coola, Bella Bella, Shearwater, Ocean Falls, Klemtu, Whalen Lake, Okeino Lake, Sandspit, Tasu, Queen Charlotte City, Prince Rupert, you name it this old timer was there. Employment, Recreational boating and flying this whole country, never once did I ever hear a native refer to the Central Coast as the Great Bear Rain Forest, or the Commode Bear called a sprit bear.
Certainly there is nothing wrong with promoting the tourist interest in this great area, why I ask create artificial names, it just sounds like something dreamed up by Hollywood marketing executives.
Pacific Mills Ltd. of Ocean Falls, was a very hungry Pulp and paper mill, established originally in 1910 under the name of Bella Coola Pulp and Paper. This company logged this greater area. The great forest that we today see in this Central Coast is for the most part second growth, anybody can find the stumps of this original coastal logging among today’s second growth giants. That is the real beauty of this coastal rain forest is that it never stops regenerating itself.
It is my opinion that economic development is not just protecting a vast part of the world for the few, but recognizing that there has to be a balance in all things. Management has to be the key word, and good management can provide the economic opportunities for the people who strive to make a living in this very large part of BC’s West Coast.
D. Wilson
although i have never had the pleasure of seeing a Kermode bear [i had never heard it called a spirit bear until i moved to the lower mainland] i sure as heck remember when one got shot and killed in Terrace, BC, it was around 93-95 i could always search it, it was a doctor’s son who shot the bear it was INSANITY in The North, i doubt there is anyone who lived there when it happened who doesn’t remember it, it was a travesty, i distinctly remember crying, im annoyed i can’t place the year. the Kermode bear is very real and endangered. they are not a myth. there is little in Terrace that doesn’t if it can get away with it, play with the Kermode bear’s name. there is a huge one drawn on the wall at my old high school. Terrace considers itself a home of sorts to the bear.
it is sad to think the government may not keep its word on an near extinct animal found in, last i heard, only two places on earth.
ps. he was charged for shooting the bear.
I leave in the in Texas so.I will never get out that far but a promise is a promise
KEEP THE PROMISE
Thanks
Elpi