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UF tomas

Watersheds threatened

From page &

to match text with images in telling the story of the past seven vears.

Studies show destructive practices such as large-scale clearcutting, yarding logs across
streams and cutting to the water's elge were still being routinely approved by the B.C, gov-
ernment in 1997, and if the const’s remaining intact watersheds are subjected to this kind
of treatment, it may be facing its last days as one of the world’s richest nature refigges.” —
The Great Bear Rainforest.

Since the McAllisters began their study of the area in 1991, 15 watersheds have
been opened up to logging with another 40 scheduled to fall. Part of che purpose of
producing the book was to alert the world about the destructive practices which con-
tinue in this part of the Canada.

“There are probably more than 1,000 salmon stocks connected with the Great Bear
Rainforest,” noi~’ Tan, “and thousands more in B.C. and the Yukon.” Since the begin-
ning of this centusy 142 stocks have disappeared due to clearcut logging and urbaniza-
tion. According <2 the American Fisheries Society 766 stocks in B.C. are either extinct
or are at risk of extinction.

The conservationists have included The Great Bear Rainforest Proposal at the con-
clusion of their book to address the problem s
threatening the area.

“Tt is inevitable and important that the coastal
communities diversify their economies — a little
tourism, a litde logging. Current government poli-
cies defy logic and have an impact on so many other
areas,” says lan.

Official estimates place the grizzly bear popula-
tion in the rainforest watersheds at 1,500 to 3,000
but the figures vary considerably. There are more
thar 230 bird species, 68 mammals and thousands of
insects and micro-organisms. It is also home to the
world’s largest population of orca whales, who return
every spring. The biodiveristy of th.: area is stagger-
ing in its complexity.

Sitka spruce and red cedar trees tower 100 metres
high over the forest with some specimens 1,500
years old. Dozens of mammals and birds use dead
trees as their homies. The interdependent relation-
ships of life fornys in the Great Bear Rainforest have
taken 10,000 to 15,000 years to develop.

‘Listening to the McAllisters one realizes their
work has just begun. “It hasn’t been presented to the
public before,” says Ian. “The other side of the issue
needs to be heard.” The couple have scheduled a
cfoss-country tour for this winter. .

Several enviromental groups have decided to dis-
tribute the book through their networks and the
Sierra Club will publish the study in the United States
with world rights to follow.

Next spring Jan and Karen will sail back into the
rainforest to continue their research at Rivers and
Smith Inlets. “Our main focus remains the study of.
the relationship between the grizaly bear, wild salmon
‘and the temperate rainforest,” says lan. Ironically, the
University of Utah will provide American funding to
help with the efforts to save Canada’s fi: gotten coast.

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THE Quail River Valley and Ecstail vailey

Photo lan McAllister
form one con-

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—_—
WHEN food is plentiful a mother gri
birth to three -— or even four —- cubs int

Photo ian McAllister
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