Canadian couple champions Great Bear Rainforest

The Great Bear Rainforest is one of the most intact ecosystems on Earth

June 16, 2000
Web posted at: 3:28 PM EDT (1928 GMT)

From Correspondent David George

(CNN) -- The word "rainforest" conjures images of steamy jungles packed with monkeys, parrots and other tropical animals. But one couple is committed to saving a different kind of rainforest in Canada.

The Great Bear Rainforest is on of the most intact healthiest ecosystems on Earth. But the wilderness may not remain that way because of industrial, clear-cut logging.

"Few people even realize that Canada has a rainforest," said Ian McAllister, an activist with the Raincoast Conservation Society, hiking through a section of the Great Bear.

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"You think that these forests have been standing for thousands of years. And a couple weeks from now, all these trees will be gone," he said.

McAllister and his wife Karen have spent the last ten years fighting to save this forest. In 1990, they formed the Raincoast Conservation Society, a watchdog group that collects photographic and scientific evidence of what's happening in the Great Bear. They are trying to change logging laws and protect the wildlife in the rainforest.

"These ancient temperate rainforests are more endangered than the Amazon because they covered historically such a small part of the globe. We've already lost half of that and most of what remains is found on the coast of British Columbia in the Great Bear Rainforest," McAllister said.

The coastal region is home to many mammals on land and in the water, like grizzlies, deer, dolphins and whales. It is also the only place you will see the Spirit Bear, a rare white subspecies of black bears.

Clearcutting and logging in the forest is affecting wildlife habitats and threatening rivers

But the McAllisters said they watch the forest trees float down the river by the boatload.

"I can't imagine having to look out my window and not see this view. It would be terrible," Ms. McAllister said. "But when you watch a barge full of logs go down everyday in front of your place, you know that it's happening."

More than half the trees that are cut down go the United States, in large part to built houses, McAllister said.

"So they are destroying homes for grizzly bears and spirit bears, to build homes for Americans," he said.

The McAllisters said logging affects habitat for salmon, and the animals that feed on the fish.

"All the forests being clear cut, the rivers silted. We've watched the grizzly bears and the salmon disappear in those valleys," McAllister said.

Working from a remote headquarters in the forest, the McAllisters have gained international notice. They have written a book, been featured in numerous news articles and caught the attention of some powerful supporters, like Robert Kennedy Jr., an environmental attorney in the United States.

"There's a way to log many of these rainforests without destroying them, to do it sustainably. And we've seen the beginnings of that. The work of Ian and Karen McAllister has been invaluable," Kennedy said.

The McAllisters new project: assessing the status of wolves in the Great Bear rainforest. They hope their work will help the forest and its inhabitants survive for centuries to come.

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Great Bear Rainforest Campaign Overview
   •The Great Bear Rainforest Ecology
Raincoast Conservation Society

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