Click on image for detail.
Help Rebuild the Fools Gold Heritage Trail
BOISE VALLEY - VANCOUVER'S CARMANAH
Many believe that they have to travel to the west coast of Vancouver Island to the Carmanah Valley, the Walbran or some more remote area to experience big trees of the temperate rainforest in their natural wilderness setting. Not true. Within 50 kilometres of "the largest clearcut in British Columbia"-the Greater Vancouver area-a never logged area of gigantic moss draped giants carpet a valley bottom and extend up the slopes to the cloud shrouded mountain peaks. Winding throughout this wilderness, an almost impenetrable understorey of blueberry and devil's club, are the well travelled trails of black bear and deer. Hawks silently cruise the canyon in search of prey. Here also are overgrown trails made by prospectors of another era, who were looking for gold but found only the fool's variety.
What is the name of this place? Where is it? The Boise Valley, a tributary of the Pitt River which flows into North America's largest tidal lake, the Pitt, which empties into the Fraser River estuary near Coquitlam. The Boise is the heart of the recently announced B.C government Pinecone Lake/Burke Mountain park proposal. This "fools gold region" has long been reknown in legends and stories for its lush wilderness terrain and fabled fabulously rich lost gold mines.
Unfortunately, the transnational logging company, Fletcher Challenge, is planning to clearcut the biggest trees in the Boise before the end of 1993, the year the government says it will decide on the fate of the Pinecone Lake/Burke Mountain park proposal. People must see Boise and voice their concerns to help the government make a wise decision-before it is too late.
Ancient western red cedar in Boise Valley
SPECTACULAR WILDERNESS IN LOWER MAINLAND'S BACKYARD
Old growth forests and ancient temperate rainforests are two names used to describe the kind of forests growing in Boise Valley. But whatever name you use, the huge old trees that grace the Boise have become very rare in the valleys of Vancouver's Lower Mainland Region which just a short 150 years ago was almost entirely carpeted in them. Even in places like Golden Ears Provincial Park, only a few remote valleys of ancient forest remain. Park visitors have to be content with viewing huge stumps, the legacy of 1930s and 40s logging, and imagining what the forest once was like.
Share in a Wilderness Adventure of a Lifetime
Many cedar trees in the never-logged upper Boise are over 1,000 years old. Ancient hemlock, fir and cedar intertwine with all manner of plant and animal life, a rare surviving example of the land as it had been for thousands of years in all the surrounding region. Western Canada Wilderness Committee, a charitable society dedicated to protecting natural ecosystems through research and education, is building a trail through this land of the big trees so the people of the Lower Mainland can see and experience for themselves our spectacular backyard wilderness.
This project is your opportunity to personally get involved in wilderness preservation. You can volunteer to work on the trail, help financially, write letters and donate equipment. The Boise is not as far away as such famous wilderness areas as South Moresby, Carmanah or even the Stein, but it is every bit as precious and irreplaceable. This time we are fighting for wilderness preservation in our very own backyard! Join with us.
