CONSERVATION
Woodwardia Biosphere Reserve
At the junction of marine and terrestrial margins life is rich. It is here where plant and animal species, rarely found elsewhere, can be nurtured. Biodiversity is abundant in this coastal ecosystem.
For Canada’s west coast, the old-growth coastal Douglas-fir forest is a prime example.
As if drawn by the area’s bounty, it is these unique zones that humans wish to inhabit. To do so en mass displaces generations of smaller species—age-old lichens clinging to bluffs, giant ferns dwelling within coastal wetlands, Douglas and red squirrels, sharp-tailed and garter snakes, bats, woodpeckers and bald eagles, hundreds of canopy-dwelling insects—with little thought beyond the quest for a beautiful, awe-inspiring view.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has coined the phrase “biosphere reserve."
Three interrelated zones—an inner core protected from human involvement, a middle margin for scientific research, and an outer zone where ecologically-sensitive human habitation can occur—create a picture of sustainability, education and respect for all life. This same picture could be represented on the north west coast of Texada Island, the largest Gulf Island located in the Salish Sea on Canada’s west coast.
Back in 1999, a report was sponsored by British Columbia Forest Renewal and is hosted on British Columbia provincial government’s Ministry of Environment website.
Has anything changed so much to deflect attention from these old-growth forests?
In the years that have passed fewer areas remain untouched.
Woodwardia is an opportunity to preserve some of the coast’s rarest ecosystems. Over 1,000 acres with four kilometres of coastline could be protected.
Will you help?