An After Shot
Once the blocks were located online, we went out searching by foot hoping to find big trees still standing. Trip and after trip, we would set off with a promising lead but return defeated and crestfallen. Our maps were almost always outdated and we would arrive to find the forest reduced to a muddy slope littered with slash piles waiting to be burnt.
The fall of 2018 was a time of great excitement for the Coastal Trail Collective. After four years of trail building in the “bite” of the Walbran Valley, we wanted to find new places to focus our attention and energy.
Our search for unprotected old growth forest began with iMapsBC, a massive trove of provincial government data containing thousands of map layers for industry. This included layouts of past and future cut blocks, active logging and mining plans, and geographical information for every square inch of British Columbia. We felt like treasure hunters prospecting for ancient forest in each small delta or riparian plain.
Then one day in October 2018 we entered into a forest we will never forget. Block 683207 on the upper reaches of the Bugaboo river. It grew on a hillside full of deer ferns and huckleberries just north of Port Renfrew. We walked along the healthy undergrowth with ease and introduced ourselves to the massive Red Cedars surrounding us. This wonderful, undisturbed grove of standing trees inspired a feeling of awe in all of us but also filled us with dread. The entire grove was already glowing with flagging tape and marked trees tagged with spray paint. Dozens of colossal trees were strapped with orange bands to prevent them from shattering after being cut. Staring at these suffocating trees, it was hard to not get a lump in our throats. We had found what we had been searching for and it was something worth saving but were we too late?
The day we returned still haunts me with profound regret. When we came back a year later during the fall of 2019 the forest was gone. Walking among the carnage filled me with a sense of having lost a loved one. We had witnessed the forest alive, breathed in its beauty, and felt its primeval age. To now see it destroyed filled my mind with thoughts of responsibility, failure, and helplessness.
The follow sets of pictures were taken a year apart in the block 683207.
The legacy of BC’s coastal rainforests is a tale of lost land and nearly forgotten eminence. Born out of an ice age thousands of years ago, these forests grew into one of the most productive habitats found in the known universe. Its towering ancient Cedars, Hemlocks, and Spruces built and sustained every part of our province’s human history yet are now nearly extinct.
The responsibility for the extinction of the Pacific Coast Old Growth Forest rests on the shoulders of the British Columbian Government and the citizens that give it its mandate. We allow this mismanagement to continue unabated and our forests to be denigrated to a raw commodity export.
We know from the statistics and satellite images that the ancient forests are almost all gone, but it was different standing in the Bugaboo cutblock. It was a physical feeling of loss and we all felt it. I implore you to explore these prehistoric areas, to visit an ancient forest and decide for yourself whether their remaining kin should turn into kindling. If you demand bold action, we may still see the changes needed.