| Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | |
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IUCN category VI (protected area with sustainable use of natural resources)
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Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on Vancouver Island
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Location of Pacific Rim National Park in British Columbia
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| Location | British Columbia, Canada |
| Nearest city | Tofino, Ucluelet, Prince Rupert |
| Coordinates | 48°38′10″N 124°46′09″WCoordinates: 48°38′10″N 124°46′09″W |
| Area | 511 km2 (197 sq mi) marine: 221 km2 (85 sq mi) terrestrial: 290 km2 (110 sq mi) |
| Established | 1970 |
| Governing body | Parks Canada |
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is a 511 km2 (197 sq mi) park located in British Columbia, Canada, which comprises three separate regions: Long Beach, the Broken Group Islands, and the West Coast Trail. It represents the Pacific Coast Mountains landscape which is characterized by rugged coasts and temperate rainforests. Widespread vegetation found in the park includes western hemlock, Sitka spruce, western red-cedar, deer fern and sword fern. Animal species vary from marine and intertidal species, such as humpback whales and ochre sea star, to terrestrial mammals, such as Vancouver Island wolves. For recreational purposes, Long Beach is used for surfing and windsurfing, the Broken Group for sea kayaking, and the West Coast Trail for hiking, as well as camping in all areas and scuba diving in the winter months in the Long Beach and Broken Group areas.
The Wickaninnish Beach Provincial Park formed the nucleus upon which the national park was assembled. After years of negotiation between the federal government and the provincial government of W.A.C. Bennett, a breakthrough was reached after Jean Chrétien took over for Arthur Laing as the federal minister responsible for parks. British Columbia adopted the West Coast National Park Act in 1969 and the two governments signed an agreement in 1970 to create the park through land assembly and extinguishing forestry rights. Following protracted negotiations, the park was finally added to the National Parks Act in 2000, classified as a "park reserve" based on an accepted claim of certain rights to the area by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council.
History
The early popularity of national parks, like Banff and Yoho,
created speculation about other potential parks, like one on Vancouver
Island with access to the Pacific Ocean. The recreational potential of
Long Beach was known and the nonprofit group Canadian National Parks
Association put forward the idea, in 1929, of it becoming a park. In
1930, at the request of the federal government, the provincial
government placed a reserve on land in the Nitinat Lake
area and, in 1948, the provincial government reserved land that would
later become the Wickaninnish Beach Provincial Park. Reconnaissance
trips by government representatives, one of them being Hugh Llewellyn Keenleyside,
found insufficient rationale to establishing a park there at that time
due to its remote and inaccessible location, outstanding forestry
encumbrances and with respect to its development as a health resort type
park, its cold waters and fog, among other reasons.
Regardless, in 1947 the Victoria Chamber of Commerce added their voice
to advocating park here, in the form of an addition to the Strathcona Provincial Park with land along the Clayoquot Arm to Long Beach.
In 1959 the provincial government opened both the Wickaninnish Beach Provincial Park (which was expanded in 1961 and 1968) and Highway 4,
from Tofino to Port Alberni. The highway resulted in thousands of new
visitors descending on the beaches each year throughout the 1960s,
including for international surfing competitions from 1966 to 1968.
Though new tourist accommodations did open, some along the beach, the
number of visitors far exceeded Tofino and Ucluelet's capacity resulting
in many camping on the beach. This led to a plundering of the foreshore
for food and souvenirs, building temporary shacks from driftwood,
improvised latrines, and leaving behind garbage and vehicles sunk in the
sand. The deteriorating conditions of the beach and the inability of
the local community and the province to cope fueled a more urgent call
for a national park, particularly by the Vancouver Island Chambers of
Commerce and local MLA Howard McDiarmid. However, communication and negotiations with federal Minister of Resources Arthur Laing with the provincial Minister of Recreation and Conservation Ken Kiernan and the cabinet of W.A.C. Bennett
were strained as they disagreed on the appropriate size of the park and
cost-sharing, in addition to their political animosity. The project
would only advance after 1968 when Jean Chrétien replaced Laing, as Pierre Trudeau succeeded Lester B. Pearson
as prime-minister. The BC government was hesitant to relinquish rights
to the Effingham Islands portion of the Broken Group and to lose
forestry activities in the West Coast Trail area but proceeded to adopt the West Coast National Park Act
in early 1969 which authorized the Minister of Recreation and
Conservation to enter into an agreement with the federal government to
establish the national park along the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The final agreement was shortly reached and endorsed by the province in
Order-in-Council 1466/1970 with the province responsible for acquiring
lands and the federal government paying for half the costs.
Following the agreement, lands were assembled by the province within
the areas delineated by the agreement and transferred them the federal
government with both paying the acquisition costs equally. The
Wickaninnish Beach Provincial Park was transferred to federal government
in 1971 to form the core of the Long Beach Unit and the province
purchased or expropriated the private lands around the beach, along with
the crown lands of the Broken Group Islands.
The park's opening ceremony occurred in 1971 and was attended by
Princess Anne of England who was presented with a driftwood abstract
sculpture by Jean Chrétien, the minister responsible for Parks Canada. The sculpture was the work of local artist Godfrey Stephens.
However, the acquisition deadline of 1975 was missed as the two
governments and the companies with the timber rights on the provincial
crown land, B.C. Forest Products Limited and MacMillan Bloedel, could
not reach a compensation settlement. By 1982, the Broken Group Unit and
most of the Long Beach Unit had been secured but all of the West Coast
Trail Unit was tied up in the disagreement on the value of the timber;
an appraisal by the provincial forestry ministry of the value of the
timber rights that would secure the remaining lands was deemed
unacceptably high by the federal counterparts.
An agreement was finally reached in 1988 to transfer the remaining
lands, free of encumbrances, and the park was formally included into the
National Parks Act in 2000 with Bill C-27 of the second session of the 36th Canadian Parliament.
Aboriginal presence
The Canada National Parks Act
classifies national parks where the geographic area is subject to a
claim in respect of aboriginal rights that has been accepted for
negotiation by the Government of Canada as a "park reserve" which allows
for the continuing of traditional renewable resource harvesting
activities by aboriginal persons. Related to the Pacific Rim National
Park Reserve, the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council
had submitted a claim in 1980 which the government accepted for
negotiation in June 1983. In the early park formation little
consultation had occurred with the First Nation groups whose interests
in the land they intended to purchase or trade for other similar lands.
While seven First Nations claim area within the park as part of their
traditional territory, Parks Canada incorporated a working relationship
with those interested in its management. Beginning in 1995 the First
Nations Program resulted in the creation of the Nuu-chah-nulth
interpretative trail, cultural information included in educational
literature and displays, increased employment in park services, and
shared management responsibilities.
The park boundaries exclude 21 Indian reserves
belonging to seven different First Nations, though most of the park is
claimed as part of their traditional territories which were never ceded, including the Huu-ay-aht, Ditidaht, Pacheedaht, and the Hupacasath. In the Long Beach area where the Tla-o-qui-aht claim traditional territory, they have declared the entire Kennedy Lake watershed, as well as Meares Island, as a tribal park.
In the Broken Group area, an archaeological site on Benson Island found
evidence of human presence dating back more than 5000 years, though the
Tseshaht
are the only remaining group whose people had lived on the islands.
While Benson Island had hosted a summer village (and wintered in the
area now known as Port Alberni), it had been abandoned; a subsequent
village on Effingham burnt down in 1914.
Long Beach
Surfers approaching waves on Long Beach, February 2016.
The 212 km2 (82 sq mi) Long Beach Unit, located along Highway 4 between Tofino to Ucluelet,
features several beaches, short trails, and a campground. Wickaninnish
Bay is bordered by the eponymous Long Beach, as well as Combers Beach,
and Wickaninnish Beach, while Florencia Bay to the south includes a more
sheltered beach. The two bays are connected by a 3 km (1.9 mi)
Nuu-chah-nulth Trail and the Kᵂisitis Visitor Centre (formerly
Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre). The Pacific Rim Visitor Centre,
located at the park entrance along Highway 4, is the park's primary
information centre and meeting area. A separate park administrative and
maintenance building is located further down the highway, closer to the
campground and airport. The Tofino/Long Beach Airport, owned and operated by the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District, is an enclave within the park.
On the north side of the Long Beach Unit is Grice Bay. Its boat launch can be used for paddling around the bay or to access the Clayoquot Sound or the Browning Passage around the Esowista Peninsula to the ocean. The exclave portion at Kennedy Lake is a day use area for picnics and swimming but the area is flanked on both sides by the Kennedy Lake Provincial Park which has a campground and boat launch.
Broken Group Islands
Map of the Broken Group Islands
The Broken Group Islands unit is a 106 km2 (41 sq mi) area in the Barkley Sound
with over one hundred small islands. The area is predominantly marine
with high-relief rock reefs and kelp beds anchored by a rocky substrate.
The island beaches vary from shallow sand terrain to exposed weathered
rock. The south side of the outer islands, such as Wouwer, Howell, Cree
and Benson Islands, are subject to strong winds and swells,
as are the Crossing Imperial Eagle and Loudon Channels between the
group and Vancouver Island. The islands are uninhabited though
archaeological sites show there are several abandoned village sites.
For recreational purposes, the area is predominantly used for sea kayaking, as well as related camping and wildlife viewing. Other marine vessels pass through the area but Parks Canada prohibits motorboats
from landing on islands with campsites. Kayaks are most often launched
from Toquart Bay to the north, but sometimes from Ucluelet which is
13 km from the first campsite at Clarke Island or from Bamfield which is
15 km from Gibraltar Island. Other boats can dock at Port Alberni. For
multi-day trips, Parks Canada
maintains campgrounds on seven of the islands: Hand, Turret, Gibraltar,
Willis, Dodd, Clarke and Gilbert islands. The names of the islands are
derived from an 1861 survey map of the area by George Henry Richards. There was formerly a campground on Benson Island but ended in 2009 at the request of the Tseshaht First Nation, though day-trips area are still permitted.
West Coast Trail
The West Coast Trail Unit covers 193 km2 (75 sq mi) and features the 75 km (47 mi) hiking trail between Port Renfrew and Bamfield. The corridor was created in 1889 as an extension of a telegraph line from Victoria to lighthouses along the coast, and eventually to Bamfield, the Canadian terminus of the All Red Line. After the disaster of the American steamship SS Valencia,
in 1906 with 37 survivors reaching shore along the telegraph line, the
federal government upgraded the corridor to act as a trail with several
shelters along the way. By 1911, it was classified as a public highway
with a 20 m (66 ft) right-of-way known as the Life Saving Trail or the
Shipwrecked Mariners Trail. The federal government ended its maintenance
program for the trail between Port Renfrew and Carmanah Point in 1954,
and the remainder of the trail by 1967. Meanwhile, there were several
failed attempts at development, including coal mining, fish canning, resort development in Clo-oose, and small-scale logging—the result of which are several abandoned donkey engines along the trail used to transfer logs down to the foreshore. Eventually the provincial government sold the timber rights but following advocacy by Sierra Club Canada and locals, the BC Parks branch placed a reserve, in 1964, around the trail which outdoor enthusiasts had continued using.
With a national park being proposed at Long Beach, to which the federal
government felt was too small by itself to be a national park, they
were amenable to adding this trail. Sympathetic with the logging
interests, the provincial government resisted but it was included in the
1970 agreement with its specific boundaries to be determined. Over the
next several years, the provincial government, forestry companies, and
park advocates negotiated and finalized the boundaries, with
conservationists advocating for boundaries to include the entire
watersheds
and federal government advocating for a visual buffer between the trail
and logging areas. While the Nitinat Triangle, northwest of Nitinat Lake,
was added in 1973, the final boundaries were not agreed upon until
1988. In the meantime, there was a lack of trail maintenance since BC
Parks viewed it as a national park though the land had yet to be
transferred to the federal government, though Parks Canada did invest in
repairs and improvements in 1973 and the early 1980s, including bridges
and cable cars over creeks and various campsite facilities.
The southern trailhead is located across Gordon River from Port Renfrew
with first two campsites 5 and 13 km in. The northern trailhead is
located across the Pachena River from Bamfield. From there, the Pachena Point Light
is 10 km (6.2 mi) in and the first two campsites are at the 12 km and
14 km markers along the trail. The northern end of the trail, outside of
Bamfield, also features a separate 7 km (4.3 mi) trail to Cape Beale with a campsite at Keeha Beach. Overall, the trail is typically done in 6 or 7 days with stretches along rocky beaches, rainforest, and rough, muddy terrain.
Tsusiat Falls, a campground on the West Coast Trail.
Geography
In the Parks Canada system of natural region representation, the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, along with the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, represents Pacific Coast Mountains. Geographically, this natural region includes Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii and the Coast Mountains. Based on its landscape and habitat diversity, Parks Canada characterizes this region as Canada's rocky west coast created by crustal material
moving eastward creating coastal mountains, deep fiords and channels
carved by the release of water from retreating glaciers, and
experiencing heavy rainfall and mild temperatures resulting in
temperate rain forests.
The Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, along with the Gwaii Haanas and Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, are the three national parks with direct access to the Pacific Ocean. Located on the west side of the Vancouver Island,
the park is situated on the Estevan Lowlands, a thin strip of coastal
land located between the ocean and the West Vancouver Island Fiordlands
and Vancouver Island Ranges of the Insular Mountains. While the almost all of Vancouver Island is part of the Wrangellia Terrane, most of the Long Beach Unit is part of the Pacific Rim Terrane, separated from Wrangellia Terrane by the West Coast Fault.
Climate
Like
the climates of nearby Tofino and Ucluelet, the park's climate is the
result of its unobstructed southwestern exposure to the ocean and its
inland mountains to the northeast. The prevailing jet stream brings low pressure systems off the ocean from the Gulf of Alaska in the winter. Its cool, moist air mass experience orographic lift as it immediately rises through the mountains and deposits large quantities of precipitation. Henderson Lake, inland from Broken Group in Barclay Sound, is the one of the wettest places on Earth. The park area averages over 3,500 to 4,000 millimetres (140 to 160 in) of precipitation per year. Affected by the Kuroshio Current,
the sea water temperatures range from 8 °C (46 °F) in January to 14 °C
(57 °F) in August. In the summer the jet stream bring high pressure
systems, with warmer air masses that retains moisture, in from the
mid-Pacific resulting in dry, sunny summers. The air temperatures
generally range from 5 to 18 °C (41 to 64 °F).
Ecology
The terrestrial portion of the park lies within what the province terms the Coastal Western Hemlock Biogeoclimatic Zone (very wet hypermaritime subzone), based on the climax vegetation. The wet, temperate and cool climate results in temperate rainforest conditions. The area's exposure to strong winds in the winter, sunny summers and low elevations make the large and sturdy western hemlock, Sitka spruce and western red-cedar the dominant tree species. There understory is dominated by moss (like Sphagnum), lichen and ferns (like deer fern and sword ferns). The forest is home to black bears, Vancouver Island cougar, Roosevelt elk, and marten, as well as numerous invertebrates like the banana slug and warty jumping-slug and birds like the marbled murrelet and the olive-sided flycatcher. Vancouver Island wolves
are even present on the islands of the Broken Group. Six species of
salmon are present in the park's watercourses, but are predominantly coho and sockeye. Cutthroat trout, red-legged frog, western toad, mink and river otter live in the lakes and wetland areas. The shoreline's sand dune habitat consists of pink and yellow sand-verbena, dune grass, seaside centipede lichen, black oystercatchers, and glaucous-winged gulls. The intertidal zone provides habitat for eelgrass, Aggregating anemone, echinoderms (like the western sand dollar and ochre sea star), sea snails (like the northern abalone), and crabs. Native bivalvia like butter clam, littleneck clam, California mussel and Olympia oyster compete with the invasive Manila clam, varnish clam, and Pacific oyster. The park also includes a subtidal area where there exists several kelp forests, habitat for Steller sea lions, seals and porpoises, and parts of migratory routes for killer whales, humpback whales, grey whales, basking sharks, and pacific herring.
