nature.org — The Nature Conservancy and partners have just secured $120 million to help conserve Canada's Great Bear Rainforest, a 21 million acre ecological treasure and home to the rare, white "Spirit Bear". Great Flash photo essay with lots of pictures after the jump.
Jan 21, 2007 View in Crawl 4
hoodwinkerJan 22, 2007
Good to know that my monthly donation helped them accomplish this.
Closed AccountJan 22, 2007
just don't lookjust don't look
nogamiJan 22, 2007
There is, BTW, no such thing as the "Great Bear Rainforest". It's just a marketing slogan that the treehuggers came up with, and it annoys me every time I hear them go on about it.Even the local media always refers to it as the "The so-called Great Bear Rainforest".
ishiguroJan 22, 2007
@threemagicuh, actually money did win out. They had to buy the land.
visabilityJan 22, 2007
<a class="user" href="http://www.googolmaps.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=1173&title=Amazonian%20Deforestation">http://www.googolmaps.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=1173&title=Amazonian%20Deforestation</a>
scruffydanJan 22, 2007
@ Hobanoyou don't seem to know much about logging in BC. BC was once famous for it's enormous trees that were thousands of years old, and relatively easily accessible on valley bottoms. Those Trees have subsequently been mostly logged and now forest companies have to make due with much smaller harder to access tress. As for the organisms that depended on this ancient forest, they are now forced to live in new growth forest where they are poorly adapted, and many populations have become threatened.There is much more to forest management that simply replanting trees.As for the spirit Bears (which are just a black bear sub-species) mentioned in the description, the main threat to them is deforestation that displaces black bears into spirit bear habitat. The Black bears then breed with the spirit bears, resulting in a reduction of the spirit bear phenotype. While the black bear may not be extinct their genetic diversity would (and there for biodiversity) be reduced. Why is that a bad thing? I suggest you read up on the plight of the banana<a class="user" href="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn9152.html">http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn9152.html</a>
kadbarmaJan 22, 2007
Damned those treehuggers for trying to save "one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rainforest left in the world" (from WIkipedia). Who the hell do they think they are? So, exactly what is the name of this rainforest? I can't find an alternative to Great Bear.
timdegreatJan 22, 2007
@ ProcureThere seems to be tons of credit here going to the "conservancy" where so many others need to be thanked first. I the early 20th century those old growth forests formed the backbone of the British Columbian economy. Communities on and around Vancouver Island sprung up on the back of the forest industry only to see there towns slowly dwindle with the forests industries migration to the far more environmentally sustainable region of central BC (now there is tourism). This coupled with the grassroots effort of those towns, the forest companies, aboriginal groups and the government of BC is the reason why the Great Bear rain forest has been preserved, not the constant harassment from the Sierra Club or Greenpeace from their plush office tower in downtown Vancouver. I am always dismayed to hear the arrogant attitudes of the environmental groups claiming that they are the reason for "victory" and ignoring the real players. The forest is an amazing renewable resource, that when managed sustainably with proper harvesting and silvaculture techniques can benefit the economy and society as a whole.