posted on January 11, 2011 08:59
1937 - Vancouver Natural History Society advocates designation of a Provincial Park in the Southern Chilcotin Mountains (called the "Charlie Cunningham Wilderness").
1975 - Government initiated Chilcotin Park study.
1976 - Result of government study is a recommendation to "...establish a Class A Park or Wilderness area for the headwaters of Tyaughton. Relay and Big Creek" encompassing Spruce Lake and Eldorado Basin to the east."
1979 - Logging activities and mineral exploration increase. Fourteen outdoor groups form a coalition, The Southern Chilcotin Mountains Wilderness Society.
1980 - Coalition requests that government preserve the core of the Charlie Cunnigham Area.
1980 - Ministry of Forests forms Spruce Lake Integrated Resource Planning Committee to develop criteria for compatible extractive resource use and recreation in the area.
1982 - Spruce Lake Integrated Resource Management Plan (IRMP) completed. Designates 3 zones of resource extraction based on potential conflicts with wilderness values. In reality the plan condones the eventual elimination of wilderness in the area, as all merchantable timber continues to be included in the annual allowable cut. Coalition did not endorse the plan.
1982-90 - Logging starts in Relay, Paradise, Slim, lower Tyaughton and lower Gun and lower Taylor creek valleys.
1990 - Spruce Lake IRMP disbands, Government imposes moratorium on logging, pending park status decision.
1992 - Southern Chilcotins made a Protected Area Strategy (PAS) study area by government. Commission on Resource and Environment (CORE) studies the Caribou Forest Region, including northern portions of the proposed Southern Chilcotin Park, Bridge River Valley Round Table formed by local Goldbridge residents calling for the area's preservation.
1994 - CORE recommends area for protection around Lorna Lake and Big Creek in the northwestern sector.
1995 - Big Creek South Chilcotin Provincial Park created (about one-third of the original Charlie Cunnigham Wilderness proposal.) Later in the year, when announcing its creation of a nearby park (the Stein Valley), government lifts moratorium over development in key areas of the proposed Southern Chilcotin Basins, and Slim, Lower Gun and Nichols Creeks. WCWC and other environment groups protest. Minister of Environment and Parks, Moe Sihota, after viewing The Southern Chilcotin Mountains "a gift to man from nature - to be respected video by Terry Jacks about a trip into this wilderness with artist Robert Bateman and photographers Pat and Rosemarie Keough promised that the entire Spruce Lake Wilderness Area will be made a park before the next provincial election.
April 30, 1994 - Election called without park protection declared for the Southern Chilcotin Mountain
From volcanic cones to fossil beds:
The geology of the Southern Chiclotin-Spruce Lake Wilderness is complex. Colourful mineral-stained peaks contrast with verdant meadows presenting a Yukonesque landscape. Past volcanic eruptions have left their mark. Frozen lava flows and glacially-corded cones, like the spectacular Castle Peak featured on the cover of WCWC's 1995 Endangered Wilderness Calendar, are among the area's outstanding features.
While there has been lots of prospecting and staking in the Southern Chilcotins, luckily no minable mineral deposits have been discovered. Limestone outcrops at lower elevations are rich in fossils, particularly in ammonites and buchias, while alpine volcanics possess fossiliferous sandstones and shales.
From: Rainshadow Wilderness