The Valhalla Wilderness Society was founded in 1975, in the small village of New Denver, British Columbia, Canada. It started as a group of local residents who wanted to save the forested slopes of the Valhalla Range in southeastern B.C. from logging. After an intensive eight-year campaign, Valhalla Provincial Park was won.

The Registered Charity became involved in other provincial, national, and international environmental projects. It spearheaded protection of the Khutzeymateen Valley (Canada's first sanctuary for grizzly bears) and Goat Range Provincial Park. Eighteen years ago the Society initiated the campaign to preserve a sanctuary for the white Spirit Bears of Princess Royal Island. This work has made the Spirit Bear and its need for a sanctuary renowned all over the world. In February 2006, the B.C. government and First Nations agreed to protect a large spirit bear sanctuary. Valhalla has spearheaded campaigns that now protect over 1.25 million acres. The Society also played a key role in the creation of South Moresby National Park Reserve.

Over the years its Board of Directors and Staff have included a diverse mixture of scientific expertise, political strategists, public spokespersons and literary/artistic talent. Supported by intense team effort, Colleen McCrory, VWS's chief activist and longtime Chairperson, received the following awards:

• Goldman Environmental Prize (top international award)
• Governor General of Canada’s Conservation Award
• United Nations Global 500 Roll of Honour
• Equinox Citation for Environmental Achievement
• IUCN Fred M. Packard International Parks Merit Award
• Vancouver Island Human Rights Coalition Citation for Outstanding
  Contributions to Protection of the Environment

VWS continues to be one of the province's leading voices for wilderness and wildlife preservation. We invite you to find out more about the Valhalla Wilderness Society’s work, and how you can make a difference.

Recent Issues:

THE VALHALLA MILE

TLC The Land Conservancy of BC and The Valhalla Foundation for Ecology & Social Justice have teamed up in a campaign to purchase "The Valhalla Mile", a privately owned 155 acre section of forested land including just over a mile of shoreline, all within the boundaries of the Valhalla Park. We have secured an option to purchase the Valhalla Mile by December 2008 and we urgently need your support. Click below for more information.

Help Valhalla Mile

VALHALLA COMMITTEE
For Environmental Health

Committee Chair: Richard Caniell

Cellular Phones: Radio Frequency Radiation (RFR)

Reports - Letters - Fact Sheets

Electro-Magnetic Radiation - a Toxin?
Medical Practitioner's Information Package - Scientific reports and resolutions compiled by Penelope Bonnett, New Denver.

Children and wireless technology
Scientific reports, official resolutions, and media articles about the especially hazardous effectsof EMR on children. Compiled by Penelope Bonnett, New Denver.

VALHALLA WILDERNESS SOCIETY OPPOSES ROCKY MTN. ADVENTURES APPLICATION FOR HUNTING CABINS IN CARIBOU HABITAT

The Valhalla Wilderness Society, composed of hundreds of members throughout the province, is strongly opposed to the application of Rocky Mountain Adventures for three hunting camps along the Morkill River. There should be NO cabins along the river. Our concerns include:

See letter to Integrated Land Management Bureau

CENTRAL SELKIRK MOUNTAIN CARIBOU ASSIGNED CLEARCUTS WHILE INDUSTRY LOGS THE OLD-GROWTH

Very little is left of the old-growth forest habitat of the Central Selkirk Mountain Caribou. If logging of it continues, this important herd will disappear forever.

See Backgrounder.

UPDATE ON IMPLEMENTATION
OF BC MOUNTAIN CARIBOU RECOVERY PLAN

On October 16, 2007 the BC Government announced its new plan to save the mountain caribou. The Valhalla Wilderness Society was not part of this agreement, had nothing to do with setting its terms, and is strongly opposed to it. An implementation process was set up to determine how the new habitat protection will be distributed. It is now being carried out by five Habitat Teams in eight planning units. VWS has been added to the consultation list. Our aim is to monitor and provide input on location of the new protected habitat. By participating in this way, VWS in no way means to lend our support to the overall plan.

Full Update (6 pages .pdf)

Planning Participants Must Sign Confidentiality Agreement to Obtain Copy of Final Implementation Plan for Saving Mountain Caribou

The public process on a recovery plan for the endangered mountain caribou isn’t public anymore. The BC government is forcing people to sign a confidentiality agreement in order to obtain a copy of the final draft implementation plan.

Press Release

Valhalla Wilderness Society’s submission to SARCO

FORTY-TWO SCIENTISTS URGE FULL PROTECTION OF
OLD-GROWTH FOREST TO SAVE MOUNTAIN CARIBOU

Forty-two biologists and botanists have signed a petition urging British Columbia and Canada to fully protect old-growth forest across the range of the endangered mountain caribou.

Press Release
Petition

Valhalla Wilderness Society Proposes a New Park
to Protect Old-Growth Forest in the
Central Selkirk Mountains.

The last remaining habitat for a herd of 100 endangered mountain caribou in the Central Selkirk Mountains is open for continued logging in the coming year. Although the provincial and federal governments are conducting a recovery process for the mountain caribou, they have done nothing to prevent another year of destruction that will take the animals’ life support out from under them. Finally, the Valhalla Wilderness Society has proposed the Selkirk Mountain Caribou Park, as well as Recovery Areas for the rehabilitation of habitat that has already been clearcut.

Download the press release
Download the Fact Sheet
See photographs and maps

Scientists discover numerous species new to science in BC’s endangered Inland Temperate Rainforest

Researchers have recently discovered thirteen tree-dwelling lichen species previously unknown to science in British Columbia’s inland rainforest. They are currently studying about 40 more species that are potentially new to science. Most of them come from endangered, ancient cedar-hemlock forests. These discoveries mean that BC’s inland rainforest has one of the richest tree-dwelling lichen floras in the world. “Such rates of discovery of new species are basically unparalleled in northern conifer forests,” says botanist Toby Spribille. “We are definitely looking at a major center of lichen diversity at a global level that we haven’t even begun to fathom or explain.”

View full presentation with photos

Download Press Release

Nineteen Environmental Groups Declare State of Emergency for B.C.’s Mountain Caribou

Nineteen environmental groups signed a joint submission (Nov/06) to the Species at Risk Coordination Office and have now declared a state of emergency. Mountain caribou populations are declining rapidly, the recovery process has almost run out of time, and the current draft Strategy is very far from what is needed to save the mountain caribou.

See Joint Caribou Submission (Download .pdf 28k)

Crisis for Wildlife of Southeastern BC

The BC government released a report by its Mountain Caribou Science Team containing recommendations that could lead to shocking consequences. Options are presented that are based primarily upon increased killing of the predators and competitor species of the mountain caribou, with little or no new protection of habitat.

VWS bulletin on Mountain Caribou Science Team report (696k .pdf)

Large Carnivore Conservation by the Valhalla Wilderness Society (712k .pdf)

ONGOING ISSUES

Jumbo Wild Update

Submitted by Rowena Eloise, Argenta, for the West Kootenay Coalition for Jumbo Wild.

Jumbo Update Autumn (PDF)
Jumbo Wild Forever (PDF)

Jumbo Regional Recreation Area being considered
by the Regional District of Central Kootenay

The West Kootenay Coalition for Jumbo Wild presented a proposal to the RDCK to create a Jumbo Regional Recreation Area, which would protect important wildlife values while assuring continued local use for that portion of the Jumbo wilderness that falls within RDCK  (area D) boundaries.

See full press release

See VWS proposal to RDCK

Great  News - Spirit Bear Conservancy Protected!!

In a Feb. 7, 2006 announcement, the Province and First Nations agreed to significantly increase protection on the B.C. north and central coast. This is very good news. This includes tripling the size of the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary and creating a new Spirit Bear Conservancy Complex. These are two of the protection initiatives that the Valhalla Wilderness Society (VWS) has spearheaded for nearly 20 years.

Full Press release by

Valhalla Wilderness Society

Park Planning Processes:

Valhalla Provincial Park

The public input phase of the Valhalla Park Master Plan Process ended in the winter of 2005. Only after the process ended did the public learn that three areas in the park had been identified as potential candidates for luxury lodges in the BC Parks Lodge Strategy. (See BC Parks Lodge Strategy documents (PDFs) under Provincial Parks in Peril, below.) BC Parks just released the “Summary of Public Input.” The government committed to strengthen the draft plan to protect against adverse effects due to lodges.

VWS submission on the Draft Plan Feb 22, 2005 (100k)

VWS submission on the Summary of Public Input (To be posted soon)

Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park

Mt. Assiniboine currently has a lodge within the park. It has been identified for a new lodge in the PARKS LODGE STRATEGY. (See BC Parks Lodge Strategy documents (PDFs) under Provincial Parks in Peril, below.) A new Master Plan process is starting now and ending March 31, 2006. Suggestions for issues for discussion due by November 30, 2005. Key stakeholders workshop on January 7th, 2006 in Radium (location to be determined).   Public Open House in Radium on February 15th.

Declaration on the Principles of Parks

Signed by 85 Canadian and US Environmental Groups – Sign your organization or business up now.

At the turn of the previous century, amidst the rapid development of land, trapping and shooting of wildlife and cutting down of forests, there emerged a vision of preserving large areas of wildlands in their natural condition, with little or no modification by humans. This declaration concerns all such wildland protected areas, which are referred to herein as "parks" or "protected areas."

Download Press release pdf (60k)

See the Declaration

Inland Rainforest/Mountain Caribou Information Bulletin

The world’s only Inland Temperate Rainforest and the world’s only mountain caribou are found in southeastern BC. This rare ancient rainforest is disappearing because of clearcut logging, and the old-growth dependent mountain caribou are on the brink of extinction…

Information Bulletin #46

The Incomparable Incomappleux

A botanical perspective on the antique inland rainforest of the Incomappleux River Valley. Reprinted from Menziesia magazine by permission of the BC Native Plants Society. Page design by Rene McKnight.

The Incomparable Incomappleux (1.1 MB)

Reports on botanical surveys by botanist Toby Spribille:
All you ever wanted to know about Lichens (148k)
Oceanic Macrolichens in the Incomappleux River Valley 2002 (180k)
Botanical surveys in the Incomappleux River 2004 (148)
Lichen Survey of the Upper Duncan River Area 2004 (120k)
List of Plants of the Incomappleux Rain Forest (52k)

Analysis of forest development plans for the Incomappleux (To be posted soon)

Inland Rainforest Fact Sheet
While B.C.s coastal rainforest is world-renowned for its splendour and diversity, its interior counterpart, the rare Inland Temperate Rainforest, remains relatively unknown, and is quickly disappearing.
    ITR Fact Sheet PDF (732k)

Inland Rainforest Conservation Design
Dr. Lance Craighead, of the Craighead Environmental Research Institute, has undertaken a massive analysis of wildlife habitat in the Inland Rainforest Region.
    ITR Conservation Design High Res PDF (33 MB)
    ITR Conservation Design Low Res PDF (5 MB)

VWS Inland Rainforest Report
The Need to Rescue the Rare Biological Legacies of Canada's Only Inland Rainforest, 18-pages of photos, map samples and text.
    Inland Rainforest Report High Res PDF (39 MB)
    Inland Rainforest Report Low Res PDF (6 MB)

Other Campaigns:

Jumbo Disaster for the Kootenays
The Proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort Would Put A Town Two Thirds The Size Of Nelson. Download the PDF

Provincial Parks in Peril:
User fees. Commercialization. Private Control. Major changes are in the works to ensure that profit-making, not ecological integrity, is top priority in the management of our provincial parks.

BC Parks Lodge Strategy pages 1-38    (PDF 1.9 MB)

BC Parks Lodge Strategy pages 39-68  (PDF 3 MB)

BC Parks Lodge Strategy pages 69-93  (PDF 2.7 MB)

BC Parks Lodge Strategy pages 94-95  (PDF 1.4 MB)

Download A Park Defender’s Guide to Wildland and Interface Fire Issues.

Watersheds:
B.C.’s domestic-use watersheds continue to be targeted for logging and road-building, despite dangers to ecosystems, personal property, water supplies, and even human life.

The Spirit Bear Sanctuary Campaign:
On British Columbia’s mid-coast lives one of the most rare and beautiful bears in the world — the Kermode, or spirit bear. Found nowhere else on earth, these white-coloured black bears are at risk from logging and habitat fragmentation. A spirit bear sanctuary was announced in February 2006.

Boreal Forest:
Stretching in a continuous belt across northern Canada, the boreal forest plays a critical role in the global ecosystem. Threatened on all sides from logging, mining, oil and gas development and hydro-electric projects, the boreal forest is under siege.

Wildlife Conservation:
British Columbia’s wildlife heritage is rich and diverse, and increasingly under threat from habitat loss due to industrial development, and from poaching and inappropriate hunting. VWS is involved in cougar, grizzly, black bear, mountain caribou, and wild horse conservation initiatives.

Bear Viewing Programs:

British Columbia has a rich and diverse landscape that offers a diversity of bear and other wildlife viewing opportunities that are world-class. The Valhalla Wilderness Society supports responsible wildlife viewing, commercial and public.

Forest Watch:
The Forest Watch program uses on-the-ground research and data to document the damage and danger caused by poor logging practices around the province, and to push for industry accountability. Director Craig Pettitt is the coordinator of the VWS Forest Watch program.

Science and Reports:
Over the years, the Valhalla Wilderness Society has worked with professional biologists, hydrologists, geographers and other scientists to conduct specialized research and mapping projects across the province. Click here for a list of available reports.

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