North America’s Forests: Page 16 Endangered Species Handbook

Forest

North America’s Forests: Page 16

Although Canada's forests are far more extensive, with greater amounts of old-growth, they are being logged at an extremely rapid pace. The 1980s and early 1990s witnessed the clearcutting of millions of acres of Canadian forests, from boreal coniferous woodlands to deciduous and mixed forests in the east to the ancient temperate rainforests of British Columbia's coast. The logging that has removed vast tracts of Canada's forests is a major factor in the decline of the continent's colorful and ecologically important wood warblers and other songbirds. British Columbia's mountainous terrain is not conducive to clearcutting because of erosion, but this has been the method used to raze hundreds of thousands of acres. Wilderness valleys with forested slopes have been denuded and the soil and debris washed into salmon streams and rivers, clogging and destroying them. The Bowron Valley in central British Columbia was turned into a moonscape in 1992 when 1,600 square kilometers were clearcut; efforts to replant this huge area have not been successful (Devall 1993). Habitat of the Grizzly Bear in British Columbia's high-altitude forests has been devastated along with its forest wilderness home elsewhere in Canada (Devall 1993).

Research on Sitka Spruce (Picea sutchensis) canopies on Vancouver Island, along the British Columbia coast, has produced 300 new species of insects, and scientists state that this environment will reveal hundreds more. According to one biologist, "We have a virtually unexplored biological frontier in our own backyard" (Moffett 1997). A highly unusual Sitka Spruce, called "Golden Spruce" (P.s. aurea), grows on Graham Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands to the north of Vancouver Island (DePalma 1997). This extremely rare color phase had only one known adult specimen in the wild, the result of a genetic quirk that causes chlorophyll to break down, giving the needles a golden yellow hue when exposed to sunlight (Comeau 1997). Standing 160 feet tall, and 300 years old, the Golden Spruce was known to the native Haida tribe, who revered it, as "kiidk'yaas," or ancient tree (DePalma 1997). (A color photograph of this dazzling tree was published in the Canadian Geographic magazine in May/June 1997.) The Haida believed that the tree would be admired until their last generation and that it held the spirit of a young Haida boy who survived, along with his grandfather, the demise of their village, which was destroyed by an angry Creator (Comeau 1997). As they walked away, the elder warned the boy not to look back, but the boy disobeyed and was turned into a tree that came to be venerated as the embodiment of the tribe's spirit (Comeau 1997).

In January 1997, a mentally unbalanced man swam across the sound to the island and cut the tree down. This caused shock and dismay among the Haida, who felt they had failed in protecting this most important part of their traditions and believed that its death predicted their own demise (Comeau 1997). Fortunately, a few cuttings had been taken from this tree in 1986 by a horticulturist, who brought them to the Botanical Garden at the University of British Columbia and propagated them. Two 5-feet-tall, scrawny trees were produced, and they are all that remain of the magnificent Golden Spruce (DePalma 1997). The Haida took about 100 cuttings from the top of the felled tree and asked the scientific community to help save it. They accepted one of the two propagated specimens from the university (Comeau 1997).

Vancouver Island, just north of Washington state, is one of the most magnificent scenic areas in the world. The struggle to stop clearcutting of its ancient forests has become pitched. One highly endangered species resident on this island is the endemic Vancouver Island Marmot (Marmota vancouverensis), one of 11 species of marmots in the world, all native to the Northern Hemisphere (Nowak 1999). Much of the Vancouver Island Marmot's habitat has been destroyed by development for ski slopes and logging, which apparently removed important migration corridors between colonies. This exposed the marmots to predation and prevented the establishment of new colonies (Thornback and Jenkins 1982). Colony sites became isolated, and vacant areas were not reoccupied, causing inbreeding (Thornback and Jenkins 1982). The Federation of British Columbian Naturalists formed a Vancouver Island Marmot Preservation Committee to conduct surveys and publicize the need to protect the Vancouver Island Marmot (Thornback and Jenkins 1982), yet in spite of long-term studies, logging continued. Surveys in 1979 and 1980 found only 11 colonies with 50 to 100 individuals (Thornback and Jenkins 1982). A 1984 survey found 231 animals, and some captive breeding has been successful (Nowak 1999).

The 2000 IUCN Red List Species lists the Vancouver Island Marmot as Endangered (Hilton-Taylor 2000). It is also listed as Endangered by the US Endangered Species Act, and as Critically Endangered by the British Columbia Conservation Data Center of the province's Ministry of Environment. The Vancouver Island Marmot has been ranked in the most endangered category by the Center, as having few remaining individuals, and since this remnant population is continuing to decline, its extinction has become likely. By 1995, 11 colonies had declined to only eight, and the 1984 population of 231 animals had declined to only 150 animals. Biologist Andrew Bryant, chief scientist of the Marmot Recovery Foundation, conducted his Master's Thesis on the species and has continued to monitor it, according to the British Columbia Conservation Data Center. The population declined to a critical level in the late 1990s, and there are plans to take more animals into captivity to attempt captive breeding for future releases into protected habitat. In 1999, researchers found only 62 marmots left in the wild (NGS 2000). They took 27 into captivity for breeding programs. Bryant stated that the major threat to these animals was clearcutting, which greatly reduced their food supply; they are also vulnerable to predators (NGS 2000). The long-term plan is to reestablish these marmots in three separate sites and build populations up to 400-600 animals (NGS 200).

Vancouver Island's panoramic beauty is displayed in the 1994 film, “Rainforest of the Pacific Northwest” (see Video, North America section). Aerial views of undisturbed forest and the majestic Clayoquot Sound contrast with large stretches of clearcut forest. Trees up to 270 feet tall and more than 1,000 years old grow on Vancouver Island, but less than one-third of the old-growth forest remains; at the making of the film only 4.5 percent of the forest was protected. The British Columbian government appointed a panel to recommend revisions to the logging plan for Clayoquot Sound and, to the delight of conservationists, issued recommendations in 1995 banning clearcutting and proposing strong streamside protections and so many safeguards that very little logging will be allowed (SCLDF 1995). In 1995, the British Columbian government announced that it would adopt all the recommendations made by the blue ribbon Science Panel. All commercial logging in pristine areas has been deferred until biological inventories are completed, according to the Rainforest Action Network (RAN). This does not mean a permanent end to logging in this beautiful Sound, and conservationists will need to continue the fight. The native-run Clayoquot Sound First Nations leaders are apprehensive that they may be pressured into joint logging ventures with timber companies, and they issued an unequivocal declaration calling for an end to commercial logging in all old-growth forests (Rosmarin 1995).

Forty miles north of Vancouver, old-growth coastal forests are being destroyed by commercial loggers to make way for urban and suburban growth. The Squamish River cuts through these forests and provides one of the great wildlife spectacles in North America. When salmon disappeared from almost every river of the Northwest and pollution killed off fish in many northern states, Bald Eagles migrated north to the Squamish River (Nickerson 1995). Almost 4,000 Bald Eagles from as far away as Wisconsin and the Rocky Mountains winter along the river, feeding on spawning salmon (Nickerson 1995). "Americans are strange," a Squamish Native American remarked, "They revere the eagle as the pride of their country, then ruin his home and make him so hungry he flees to Canada" (Nickerson 1995). Yet this sanctuary is now threatened. A 600-acre industrial park at the heart of the winter roosting grounds is planned by local officials, and logging has removed much of the forest already (Nickerson 1995). The Nature Conservancy began acquiring parcels of land for the establishment of Canada's first sanctuary for Bald Eagles (Nickerson 1995). The goal of conservationists is a preserve of 2,700 acres to protect this important feeding area (Nickerson 1995).