Tourism
"The forest compared to the large cathedrals
of Europe, hence the name Cathedral Grove," writes historian
and author Jan Petersen in The History of Cathedral Grove. "The
plea for preservation dates back to 1901", and in 1941
it was documented as " the grandest scenic tourist asset
in British Columbia." Today, MacMillan Park is one of the
most accessible old growth temperate rainforests in the world.
For more history or information on tours to Cathedral Grove
contact:
Pacific Rainforest Adventure Tours Inc. - www.rainforestnaturehikes.com
Carmanah Forest Society - www.carmanah.org
History
Cathedral Grove is located within a sea of
private land that occupies 23% of Vancouver Island. In 1885,
the province granted this land to a consortium of investors
led by Robert Dunsmuir, a coal baron for building a railway
from Esquimalt outside of Victoria to Nanaimo. It became known
as the E & N, and was a pre-condition of confederation,
which joined the provincial capital to the rest of Canada by
rail. The grant land is where more than 90% Vancouver Islanders'
live. The majority of it has been brought up and amalgamated
into huge land holding over the decades and is now owned by
huge logging companies. This has created a problem for the BC
public in terms of preservation and recreation. Only recently
the Vancouver Island marmot has been brought to the edge of
extinction due to over logging of habitat leading to predication.
One condition of the land grant was that the E & N Railway
was to be run into perpetuity. That condition is on the edge
of collapse at this time.
The history of the park, according to the BC government website,
is as follows:
"The name 'Cathedral Grove' appeared
in correspondence to the provincial government in the 1920's.
This colourful description of the stately trees is reputed
to have originated from the Governor General Viscount Willingdon
in April 1928. Earlier in 1907, Mrs Buxton, with tears down
running down her cheek is credited with naming it as she asked
her husband, "do you remember being in St. Pauls' Cathedral…I
feel their beauty and majesty as I did that of old St. Paul's
- God made them."
Cathedral Grove was a well-known tourist stop
on the Alberni Road in the 1920s and 1930s when the timber was
owned by the Victoria Lumbering and Manufacturing Company. For
15 years the public encouraged the provincial government to
acquire the lands within Block 35, Cameron Lake area. The citizens'
organizations, The Associated Boards of Trade of Vancouver Island,
petitioned the government in 1929 to preserve forever, for the
public benefit, the well-known stand of timber at Cameron Lake,
known as Cathedral Grove. In 1944 H.R. MacMillan, a well-known
forester donated the 136 hectares of land for the perpetual
enjoyment of the public in recognition of the unique stand of
trees. Three years later, the area was established as a Class
A."
Ecology
The E & N decision left only 110 hectares
of old growth Coastal Douglas-fir forest to be set aside for
recreation and preservation on all of Vancouver Island. The
rare ancient Douglas-firs in Cathedral Grove are found along
the narrow Cameron River valley bottom. This forest of giants
extends only a few metres beyond the existing highway before
the terrain rises steeply. This steep terrain creates a dangerous
funnel that compresses the prevailing winds from the west coast
to create "the Qualicum". This wind is responsible
for the blowing down areas of the park due to the adjacent logging
of strategically situated stands of extremely valuable forest.
These stands originally acted as a buffer to the park, but in
1997, an extreme hurricane force wind created havoc, blowing
over a substantial percentage of trees. The "Qualicum"
blows North Westerly from the Pacific out onto the Georgia Strait
and is rated as a hurricane force.
Community Watershed
MacMillan Park is part of the official community
watershed that supplies drinking water to down steam communities.
These lands, part of the E & N land grant, have come under
the ownership of Weyerhaeuser, a giant timber and development
company. Successive provincial governments have been unwilling
to assert environmental regulations on these private lands,
resulting in a less than desirable situation whereby lands supplying
drinking water are not subjected to public control. This community
watershed begins at Labour Day lake on Mt. Arrowsmith, and flows
through Cathedral Grove, into Cameron Lake and then finally
along the Qualicum River until it empties into the Strait of
Juan de Fuca at the Qualicum Beach Estuary.
Biosphere to Biosphere Conservation Vision
Community groups and conservationists have
been working to create a wildlife corridor along the Little
Qualicum River through to Cathedral Grove. This will connect
the Mt. Arrowsmith Biosphere to the Beaufort Mountains. This
huge watershed is the water source for over 75 salmon streams
on both the east and west coast of Vancouver Island. It will
then connect with Strathcona Park and link up with the Clayoquot
Sound Biosphere, adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park. The
human development around the Alberni Inlet on the West Coast
of Vancouver Island when combined with the increase in urban
and commercial sprawl in the Parksville-Qualicum area on the
East Coast of Vancouver Island if not stopped will cut Vancouver
Island in two. This will cut off large carnivore and elk migration
between north and south Vancouver Island. The major threat to
wildlife movement, necessary to ensure an active gene pool is
clear cut industrial logging. If these species are to survive,
changes will be required and the Biosphere to Biosphere Vision
needs to be implemented.
Local Community and International Support
The Western Canada Wilderness Committee successfully
approached local Island Municipal Councils, Regional Districts,
Chambers of Commerce and Tourism Associations who supported
the conservation and expansion of Cathedral Grove. They were
able to convince Weyerhaeuser to voluntarily suspend logging
activities for one year in order to give the new Provincial
Government an opportunity to protect the remaining 500 hectares
of Cathedral Grove through land trades or other exchanges. Over
2000 signatures from Canadians and citizens from all over the
world helped in this effort.
Efforts to gather community, provincial, national
and international support for the preservation of the entire
Grove continues.
