Clayoquot Sound
Clayoquot Sound ( / klækwɑt / pronounced) is the name of a rugged coastal region in the west of Iceland Vancouver, Canada from about 2700 km ². It ranges from the Esowista Peninsula on Barkley Sound in the south to Hesquiaht Peninsula at Nootka Sound in the north and includes the actual bay and the adjacent slopes to the summit chain.
The bay is surrounded by virgin forests of the temperate rain forest ecosystem, rivers, lakes and beaches. Part of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserves, Strathcona Provincial Park and some other protected areas are located in this area. The only larger towns of Tofino and Ucluelet are ( each about 1500 inhabitants ), both on the largest peninsula in the south of the area. In the 1990s, the area was a focus of international conservation movement as a symbol of the conflict between nature conservation and forestry.
The word Clayoquot is the English transliteration of the self-designation of the local Native American people of the Tla -o- qui -aht. Until 1861, the Sund Sound Wickaninnish Wickaninnish was called after their chief and was named in 1787 by the English captain Charles Barkley so. Under this name it was initially also mapped, even on the maps created during the voyages of George Vancouver in 1792.
Geography and climate
The character of the area is characterized by deeply incised rivers and bays in which 210 islands of various sizes lie. At a distance of approximately 80 km between the endpoints of the area so created a coastline of 922 km in length. In the coastal areas and hills are five complete river basins, including the Clayoquot and Kennedy River and 194 lakes, including Lake Kennedy Lake, the largest in the South.
The sheltered bays are characterized by a particularly mild climate. In the north of the area lies with Estevan Point weather station with the least frost days across Canada. Saturated moisture sea winds from west directions are forced to the mountains to rise, resulting in a frequent orographic rainfall triggers. The rainfall in Clayoquot Sound are in the long-term average at 3295 mm.
Nature
The rainfall qualifies the forests of the slopes as a rain forest in the temperate latitudes. They largely consist of the red cedar and hemlock Canadian.
In the hills of Clayoquot Sound, among others, wolves, black bears, cougars, sea and river otters, and elk live. Pacific gray whales live, orcas, porpoises, both Ordinary and Dall's porpoises, dolphins and several species of seals and Steller sea lions. Among the bird species of the area bald eagles and golden eagles, osprey, and Marmelalk spotted owl are remarkable. The rivers are the habitat of salmon and trout.
History
A first colonization can be detected in the Neolithic period. The oldest finds date back to the 6th millennium BC Today, three nations are located here: the Hesquiaht in the north, the Ahousaht in the middle and the Tla -o- qui -aht in the south. Traditionally, the Indians live mainly from fishing, since the 1990s, tourism is important as a source of income.
1774 Spanish explorers were the first Europeans reached the waters around Vancouver Iceland, four years later, James Cook made the first systematic record of the region and its inhabitants. From about 1785 to 1805, the region was at the center of the triangular trade between the Pacific Northwest America, China and Europe, with particular Seeotterpelze and beaver pelts were the focus. After 1825 Russian and British fur trappers came only sporadically past the Clayoquot Sound.
1955 awarded by the provincial government rights to harvest timber for slightly more than half of Clayoquot Sound to the forest company MacMillan Bloedel (1999 taken over by the competitors Weyerhaeuser ). The following year, the rights for almost the entire rest of the territory to British Columbia Forest Products were - the license was later sold and is since 1992 in International Forest Products - Interfor - forgiven. The then Minister of Forestry was later convicted of corruption related to the granting of logging licenses to a prison sentence.
In the 1960's the company began with the use of forests by clear-cutting, some three times faster than allowed by the license. The affected areas were initially a small scale, but because it has been cut down to the river banks, flooding rains soil into watercourses; by the silting broke local fish stocks together. In 1979 residents of the Tofino to gather Friends of Clayoquot Sound, the damage caused by forestry and documented.
1981 joined the Indian First Nations of the region together ( to the Nuu -chah- nulth are ) to protest against the destruction of their home by the timber industry. The following year, a court recognized the side effects of deforestation on the fishing rights of the Indians, but spoke to them because of the seemingly low damage no injunctive relief to. A commission was also used in 1982 by decision of the provincial government, which was to examine the methods of forestry in the area and make recommendations.
1984 called upon the peoples directly affected by deforestation threatened island Meares unilaterally as Tribal Park and demanded the protection in recognition of their cultural autonomy. Later in the year, the provincial government ignored the guidelines for sustainable forestry and the Commission confirmed the timber rights for 95 % of the disputed area, whereupon the Indians for the first time vorgingen with road blockades and other acts of civil disobedience against the industry. 1985 stopped the supreme provincial court with an injunction arrangement, the deforestation of the island Meares, up on the complaint is held ( the methods are not yet formally ended in 2007 ). 1988 built McMillian Bloedel an illegal forest road in a not to use shared area and triggered massive protests. The following year a new Task Force was convened in the even nature conservation associations and representatives of the tourism board are represented for the first time. Because deforestation in the study area continued unabated, critics broke the participation in the Working Group in 1991 again.
Meanwhile, around 75 % of the forests are cut down on Vancouver Iceland. In Clayoquot Sound are due to the remoteness of the largest contiguous areas in a natural state.
Since the 1990s, tourism in Ucluelet and Tofino takes significantly, especially eco-tourism such as whale watching and hiking in the rain forests of the population opens a source of income beyond fishing and forestry. At the same time the attention of conservationists throughout North America and to Europe is drawn to the area.
In the course of 1992, global environmental organizations Greenpeace planned with the participation of a boycott campaign against wood and wood products from Canada. In early 1993, said the provincial government of British Columbia that the Clayoquot Sound will not be included in a new program for scientific review of land use rights and methods, instead they decided themselves that the smallest and most remote part of the area around the Megin valley under protection provided, and the rest should be cleared by clear-cutting. The conflict escalated and Clayoquot Sound became the main focus of the conservation movement in North America with a global reach. Conservationists from across Canada, the U.S. and representatives from Europe traveled and gathered in a protest camp. Up to 4000 participants simultaneously attended, they provided information on the natural environment and the culture of the First Nations and participated in blockades of logging roads around the Kennedy Lake which were subsequently taken into custody over the summer about 900 people, including Thilo Bode, chairman of Greenpeace International. Artists such as Midnight Oil participated in the protests. At the same time negotiations began with First Nations on a preliminary agreement for the Indian formal involvement.
In 1994, the provincial government agreed with the Indian nations on a temporary veto. In further negotiations pads were developed, such as the use of wood can be made more environmentally friendly. This includes protection zones along waterways and roads and the absence of clear-cutting on a size that depends on the slope. Since 1995 is discussed in Canada on a statute of autonomy of First Nations, the impact on existing land use and ownership among the points of contention.
In 2000, UNESCO proclaimed the Clayoquot Sound, a protected area of 349 947 ha, a Biosphere Reserve.
2001, the Pacific Rim National Park was the Long Beach Unit in the Clayoquot Sound between Ucluelet and Tofino, as well as the Broken Iceland Group, a group of islands south of the sound enhanced. Since then, several small reserves in the form of provincial parks have been established and a joint working group of the provincial government and the Nuu- chah- nulth until 2005, submit to all parts of Clayoquot Sound land use plans, in which a target of 40 % protected primary forests is specified. The felling licenses are formally still in force, on the implementation of land use plans are ongoing negotiations.
Current Situation
In 2007, the participating groups began to reposition. So now, a part of the unions representing the workers in the sawmills and pulp mills, for the preservation of the ancient forests. This is due to that Rohausfuhren of wood now pass to the Canadian mills, and thus jeopardize jobs on Vancouver Iceland.
In 2008, local groups against a copper mine began to fight back. 13 km from Tofino, is located on the place in direct view and towering over the harbor Catface Mountain create a mining project in the traditional territory of the Ahousaht, the Catface coppermine. The deposit comprises copper, molybdenum and small amounts of silver and gold, it is since the first explorations in the 1960s known, but ihe development was profitable only by rising commodity prices after 2000. Upon completion, the mine would take up an area of 4000 ha, to an appropriate infrastructure. As threats to the region from the project, the filling of rivers and bays with tailings and the pollution of soil and surface waters shall apply with acidic wastewater from the extraction of the metals from the ore, the mining company Imperial Metals took over in November 2009 the lead when they initial the prospectors and owner of the claims Selkirk Metals bought up. With the mine about one third of the mountain would disappear.
Mainstream Canada, one of the largest operators of aquaculture plans since 2011 to breed in an area of 56 hectares salmon. Provided the area around Plover Point on the east side of Meares Iceland. Experience with Atlantic salmon at other locations that this is at the expense of the natural Pacific salmon stocks and other populations, such as the herring. The existing Cormorant farm will be sold to the Ahousaht Indians, who are under the pressure of high unemployment.
The protection status of the biosphere reserve is reduced by means of governmental approvals in Victoria train to train, whereas fight environmental organizations.
The Swarm by Frank Schätzing
In the thriller "The Swarm " by Frank Schätzing is the Clayoquot Sound a main setting for the novel and home to the Indian Walforschers Leon Anawak. The book deals with, among others, the conflict between the timber industry and conservationists.