Editorial Assignment
Canada’s Forgotten Rainforest
2018 The Narwhal
A grove of ancient cedar trees in B.C.’s rare inland temperate rainforest. Some cedars in this globally unique forest are estimated to be more than 1,500 years old. What little remains of the unprotected rainforest is now slated to be clear-cut.
Forest ecologist Michelle Connolly sits in front of a slash pile in B.C.’s inland rainforest, one of the rarest ecosystems on the planet. Logging contractors attempted to burn this pile and others but were stymied by wet weather. Trees grow to be many hundreds of years old in this rainforest because fire can’t gain a foothold.
The Goat River valley (left) is one of only a few inland temperate rainforest watersheds that haven’t been logged. Next to a clear cut near Hwy 16 West of Prince George BC
The Inland Temperate Rainforest holds one of the highest diversity of Lichen on the planet. Including oceanic species so far from the coast their presence is “almost inconceivable.” Says Scientist Trevor Goward.
Michelle Connolly’s forest survey notes and GPS
Michelle Connelly surrounded by human sized devil's club and old growth cedars.
A new road being carved into the old-growth inland temperate rainforest east of Prince George, B.C., in preparation for logging.
Clear cut logging in the Anzac River Valley. The valley bottom, where caribou migrate to find lichen during deep-snow winters, is also slated to be logged.
The inside of a tree burnt from the inside that eventually burnt itself out. Trees can grow quite old here because the landscape is so wet fire can't get a hold.
Piled Logs, and slash piles of waste in the Anzac River Valley near Prince George British Columbia
A bear print left on the edge of a fresh logging road.
Rusted piping and metal debris left behind when Canfor’s Upper Fraser mill closed.
Thousands of spruce and balsam fir logs are piled at Canfor’s Polar Mill near Prince George, B.C.
A black bear rests beside a logging road cut through the inland temperate rainforest.
Thousands of spruce and balsam fir logs are piled at Canfor’s Polar Mill near Prince George, B.C.
Dominick DellaSala, president and chief scientist at the Geos Institute, in front of a slash pile waiting to be burned in the Anzac River Valley of British Columbia.
The new boundaries of an old-growth management area are marked with orange spray paint along the Fraser Flats forest service road in B.C.’s inland temperate rainforest. In B.C., old-growth management area boundaries can be moved to accommodate logging, with no requirement that the amount of forest lost be replaced elsewhere.
Canfor sawmill in Prince George. Prince George is still home to three pulp mills, a paper mill, seven lumber mills, a chip mill, a pole and post mill and two pellet mills. But with few forests left to fill the shrinking fibre basket, forestry giant Canfor — which since 2006 has purchased a dozen plants in southern U.S. states — recently announced it will reduce operations at two Prince George pulp mills and at sawmills in Prince George and Mackenzie. The company also plans to close its sawmill in Vavenby, putting more than 170 people out of work.
Impending storm arrives in Anzac Valley clear cuts.
