CLAYOQUOT UN SOUND 

  

     Welcome to Clayoquot Sound, site of one of Canada’s foremost UNESCO Biosphere Reserves where thousands of people protested and were arrested to stop the logging of Canada’s last remaining old growth coastal rainforest in the 80’s and 90s. The industrial invasion and destruction of Clayoquot Sound is hard to describe and harder to comprehend in the face of global climate change and carbon buildup. Destabilization of the natural forces of the planet is happening around the world and is the fastest rate of loss of forests ever known on the face of the Earth, faster and more thoroughly than glaciation, due to human greed and corruption.

 

    The UNESCO Biosphere Reserve has proved to be a disaster to the area as committees were inundated by fish farming, logging and other industrial interests, and the Board is run by many people from outside Clayoquot Sound, many in the forestry sector.  Attempts to protect the wild salmon and ancient forests have been ignored for economic strategies where industrial influences are socialized into the regional communities framework. 

 

   

     High-grade logging of ancient coastal cedar is still going on in the Sound.  Coulson Forest Products out of Pt. Alberni,B.C., is logging in Tranquil, Fortune Channel in the southern area, (see pictures), with 4 more log dumps in Bedwell, Stewardson, Gunner Inlet and Sydney Inlet. Giant log barges of old growth trees, mostly cedar, leave regularly from these dumps throughout the area.

     Triumph Logging, which has logged out of Rankin Cove in the South of Clayoquot is owned by Tom Olsen from Campbell River who has offices in Calgary (Source Rock Energy for Coal Bed Methane production as well).   Ecotrust Canada and Triumph Logging were in partnership to log under Iisaak, somehow getting FSC approval to take out these ancient old growth trees, leaving behind a receipe for blowdown, erosion, siltation, drought and washouts.  

     Ecotrust Canada and Triumph Logging took out 90,000 cubic metres from Clayoquot Sound during spring (2008). Pictures were taken each month since March of the booms and log barges loading. Around 2 giant log barges per month were leaving this site.  There are quite a few new landslides as a result of logging and road building, both past and present.  Road building is going ahead and there are stacks of new metal culverts ready to be installed that were seen piled up at this site.  Clayoquot is under pressure with logging, mining, fish farming, power dams, pollution, trophy hunting and more.

(Insert Pictures of current logging)

 

    Once the old growth canopy is opened up or gone, what remains is a prescription for blowdown, washouts and drought as well as Coastal winds increase the drying trends on the land and in the forest, leaving it vulnerable to drought and fire in summer and washouts in winter in heavy rains. 

 

Slides into salmon rivers from both past and present logging, road building and reconstruction are common. 

Current Logging is a prescription for blowdown on the weather-beaten coastal slopes. 

 

Ecotrust and the Clayoquot Biosphere Reserve Board have teamed up to jointly share in millions of dollars of Federal Government money and are currently planning further forestry programs in the area.  The most recent logging by Coulson is pictured below at the popular Hot Springs in Clayoquot Sound, visited by thousands of tourists annually.

 

 

Fish Farming in Clayoquot Sound

November, 2009....headlines in local newspapers state that sockeye and chinook salmon stocks are at a record low and heading for extinction, while Norway owns over 24 fish farms in the area (mostly for Atlantic Salmon) causing disease, predation and pollution in this once pristine area and profiting from the loss of integrity, wildlife and wild salmon in this area. 

 

     Clayoquot Sound (as one of the few sites on the outside coast of Canada where mining and pulp mills haven’t polluted the waters) is also the site of the largest concentration of fish farms on the outer coast of North America.  These are mostly for foreign Atlantic Salmon where thousands have escaped and where pollution, parasites, pesticides, antibiotics, garbage, sewage, disease and killing of marine and wildlife are prevalent.

Loss of the wild salmon:

     The wild salmon counts are plummetting in Clayoquot Sound in most major rivers.  Clayoquot supports some of the last remaining wild rivers untouched by logging or other development.  Even these rivers are in trouble due in part to the presence of fish farms en route for the wild salmon migration. 

     Sea lice attach themselves to outgoing juvenile salmon which can kill young fish. Sea Lice infestations have been found recently on herring, ling cod, cutthroat trout and sand lance (needlefish).  Disease and pollution create more hazards to these vulnerable fish. 

    Lights at night, throughout the net pens, are used to stimulate the penned fish to grow quickly, attracting predators and smaller fish to the pens.  The penned fish not only feed on smaller fish attracted to the pens but this allows sea lice to attach to fish migrating nearer to the pens. 

     The inlets are crucial habitat for emerging juvenile salmon as well as herring, cod, rockfish and others as they adapt to the ocean environment, yet approximately 90% of salmon smolts are disappearing once they enter these inlets (NuuChah Nulth Fisheries Report). 

     These waterways are now harboring over 5 million caged salmon while local people can no longer feed their families with the wild salmon that was a staple.  No one wants to eat farmed salmon. 

     The loss of our wild salmon on the coast is the single most damaging result of human intervention to all.  Bears, eagles, killer whales, seals and more are starving due to the proliferation of fish farms.  Local Native hunters are finding seals with no fat on them and eagles are fishing for gulls while black bears, weak from hunger, lay down at the mouths of rivers and die, waiting for the salmon to return.   

Ongoing Industrial Destruction:     

-Mining: An open pit copper mine on Catface Mountain in the heart of Clayoquot Sound is doing exploratory drilling for minerals with plans to mine copper, gold and other minerals in an open pit mine in the middle of the Biosphere.  

-Hydro Electric dams are being built in pristine watersheds leading into Kennedy Lake (which is the largest lake on Vancouver Island and in the Clayoquot Watershed) at Canoe Creek and other tributaries and plans are in place for a "run of the river" hydro electric project in the Bulson River behind Meares Island. These power plans are predominantly for exporting energy to the USA.  There is nothing "green" about hydro electric building of these "run of the river" projects.  It is a privatization scheme much like the leasing of land to timber companies and the waterways to fish farms.  The destruction of forest, soil, plants and animals of the watercouse is unimaginable. 

-American Military operations endorsed by Canada can often be heard doing “pyrotechnic exercises” off the coast, blasting and practicing war games in the paths of whale migrations and marine life. 

      Many of these operations are for private profit at the expense of the local environment and life.  With the permission of a few people, these industries are extracting and destroying the beauty and natural resources of this area that once made it incredibly special.  

TOURISM 

    Surfing competitions and surfing companies draw many young people to Long Beach and the area.  The Surfrider Organization helps to clean up the beaches and works to keep the waters of the area healthy enough to swim in, something that areas such as the coast of California are having trouble with as ear and other diseases are becoming dangerous due to pollution from metropolitan centres there.

   At present, Wilderness Tourism (fishing, wildlife tours, camping, kayaking, etc.) and social services like resorts, restaurants, accommodation, travel (air and sea), galleries, crafts, etc. are one of the mainstays of this area.  The area draws thousands of visitors annually to the area to enjoy the National and Provincial Parks, the beaches and ancient forests, wildlife and beauty and more. This not only attracts others to the area but provides employment and sustenance for both local residents and seasonal workers. 

Wild salmon, wildlife, strong biodiverse forests and clean waters... these and more will contribute to long term health and prosperity for all.

     Creative energies in tune with the natural environment provide a good life for all that live and come here.   If the destruction can be turned around, then we might have a blueprint to learn from, to grow and to bring about positive change…this area, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, is supposed to be a good example of what humans can accomplish but is rapidly being destroyed industrialized.