New BC National Park 2X The Size Of Yellowstone

[hatrack]

OTTAWA, Feb. 6 -- Ending a decade-long environmental battle once dubbed the "War of the Woods," British Columbia is set to announce Tuesday the creation of a park twice the size of Yellowstone along a vast coastal swath where grizzly bears and wolves now prowl under thousand-year-old cedar trees.

The park will cover 4.4 million acres, and strict new controls will protect against exploitation on an additional 10 million acres. The entire territory, being called the Great Bear Rainforest, is the result of an unusual alliance of loggers, environmentalists, native groups and the provincial government.

This is aimed at trying to find a balance, where people can understand and really enjoy our wilderness and we protect our wildlife, while recognizing that people are part of the ecosystem," Gordon Campbell, the premier of British Columbia, said in a phone interview Monday. "We all win. I think this model will be emulated in different parts of the world."

The agreement ends a bitter dispute over the lush coastland and islands that stretch across more than 250 miles and include most of British Columbia's central and north coast, from the northern coast of Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border. Warmed by the ocean and fed by rain, this area of evergreen forest is the ancestral home of nearly a dozen native tribes, called First Nations in Canada, and most of it is accessible only by boat or seaplane. Salmon return to spawn in rivers and streams, providing food for eagles and bears that include grizzlies, black bears and a rare white bear called the Kermode. About 30,000 people are scattered in small towns or reserves in the area, more than half of them natives.

EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/06/AR2006020601834.html

[glitch]

1. This gives me hope. Thanks for posting some good news! nt

[hatrack]

4. Hasn't been much of late, I have to concede

But this, along with the Papua New Guinea story, struck me as very cool indeed.

[phantom power]

2. Applying the Hatrack Principle...

This excellent new park will last, until somebody wants the timber on it badly enough.

[Oerdin]

3. We need more

parks like this.