New, 16-million acre park to protect Canada wildlife
February 8, 2006
(Vancouver, BC) – Canada announced a 16-million acre preserve Tuesday, including parkland covering an area twice the size of Yellowstone, teeming with grizzly bears, wolves and wild salmon in the ancestral home of many native tribes.
The Great Bear Rainforest is the result of an accord between governments, aboriginal First Nations, the logging industry and environmentalists. It will stretch 250 miles along British Columbia’s rugged Pacific coastline — the ancestral home of groups whose cultures date back thousands of years. The area also sustains a rare white bear found only in British Columbia.
Premier Gordon Campbell said 4.4 million acres would be protected outright and managed as parkland, with another 11.6 million run under an ecosystem management plan to ensure sustainable forestry with minimal impact on the environment.