MacMillan Provincial Park
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MacMillan Provincial Park
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 800 year old Douglas fir in Cathedral Grove |
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| location | British Columbia (Canada) | |
| surface | 3.01 km² | |
| WDPA ID | 4188 | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 17 ′ N , 124 ° 40 ′ W | |
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| Setup date | 1947 | |
| administration | BC parks | |
Cathedral Grove is the name by which MacMillan Provincial Park on Vancouver Island is also known. The now 301-hectare park is particularly easy to reach because it is 16 km east of Port Alberni on Highway 4 . The park is located in the Regional District of Nanaimo .
The park is known for its up to 800 years old Douglas fir . The largest trees can be nine meters in circumference. Entering the park is extremely dangerous in strong winds, and the small area can only tolerate a limited number of visitors, who are urged not to leave the paths.
investment
The park is located in the center of Vancouver Island, at the end of Cameron Lake . The park borders the Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park to the northeast . The Cameron River forms the border between the two parks. In addition to the river, Highway 4 cuts the park in half in a long curve. In the half of the park to the south of the highway, you'll find the wooded area commonly known as Cathedral Grove .
The park is a category III protected area ( natural monument ).
history
The park was established in 1947. Until 2007 it covered an area of 157 hectares, but has since been enlarged by a further 144 hectares.
The name "Cathedral Grove" first appeared in correspondence from the 1920s. It probably comes from the Governor General Viscount Willingdon (April 1928). The site on Alberni Road was already of great tourist importance at the time, when it was still owned by the Victoria Lumbering and Manufacturing Company . The Associated Boards of Trade of Vancouver Island petitioned the government in 1929 to protect the area forever. HR MacMillan donated the area in 1944, and in 1947 it was promoted to a Class A provincial park . The fact that MacMillan operated a timber company may have contributed to the fact that this official name is rarely used.
In 1997, a devastating storm devastated the area, killing around ten percent of the trees. The damage was exacerbated by the fact that the surrounding "buffer forests" were increasingly cut down. Since the district government has wanted to set up an enlarged parking lot since December 2000, for which about two hectares of several decades-old forest are to be cut down, a dispute has developed since 2004, primarily before courts, but also to forest occupations.
The enlargement of the park was controversial insofar as it did not include the surrounding trees, which have the character of a primeval forest (old growth). Since October 3, 2008, this may have had serious consequences. The owner of the surrounding area, Iceland Timberlands , began cutting down the trees there - up to 7,500 cubic meters, which corresponds to around 200 truckloads. The company is owned by Bermuda- based Brookfield Infrastructure Partners , which apparently was in a hurry to sell. It was unclear whether the parent company that founded this company, Brookfield Asset Management , had payment difficulties. Protest demonstrations took place on October 5 and 6, 2008. Iceland Timberlands temporarily stopped logging, probably without cutting down the jungle trees, but justified this with the unfavorable market for wood. According to the company, a road to the target area is to be built with the help of the trees that have been felled so far.
The Western Canada Wilderness Committee proposed in November 2009 that the government set up a fund to buy up old forests in order to finally end the disputes that are taking place across the province.
Flora and fauna
The park is located in the temperate rainforest and within the British Columbia ecosystem, the park area is generally assigned to the Coastal Douglas-fir Zone . Occasionally the park's ecosystem is referred to simply as the old-growth Douglas-fir forest . This is characterized by the fact that the trees there must reach a height of at least 30 meters and must be at least 150 years old. The name also designates the main species of trees in this forest, the largest of which is about 70 m high; a Douglas fir reaches over 90 m. Larger stocks of these old-growth forests can also be found, for example, in Garibaldi Provincial Park (~ 19,000 ha), Strathcona Provincial Park (~ 48,000 ha) or Gwaii-Haanas National Park (~ 65,000 ha).
The majority of trees in the forest are Douglas fir , coastal fir , West American hemlock and giant arborvitae . Since the trees here are still relatively old, most of the trees are covered with epiphytic lichens and mosses. The Pacific flowering dogwood , the heraldic plant of British Columbia, which is widespread in large parts of the province , can also be found here.
activities
The park does not have parking spaces for RVs and tents, nor does it have picnic areas. The tourist infrastructure only has a very simple sanitary facility. Due to this infrastructure situation, the park is only frequented by day visitors.
The park is well developed with several short hiking trails. Due to the large number of visitors, the paths are largely fenced and in some cases also built as walkways on wooden planks above the forest floor.
Web links
- MacMillan Provincial Park . In: BC Geographical Names (English)
- MacMillan Provincial Park . In: English language website of the park at BC Parks
- Information park on britishcolumbia.com (Engl.)
- Cathedral Grove v. Dr. Karen Wonders
- Site of the Cathedral Grove
supporting documents
- ↑ World Database on Protected Areas - MacMillan Park (English)
- ^ Report in the Westcoaster of April 18, 2007: BC To Double Cathedral Grove's Size .
- ^ A ruling by the Supreme Court of British Columbia has been available since May 2004: [1] . Further judgments: Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Wilderness News, October 4, 2008.
- ↑ The Times Colonist reported in his article on October 12: Julia Caranci: Logging at Cathedral Grove stops - for now ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Governments urged to buy old-growth forests ( memento of the original from November 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Times-Colonist, November 7, 2009
- ↑ MacMillan Provincial Park - Master Plan. (PDF, 1.8 MB) British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks , June 1992, accessed December 14, 2012 .
- ^ Ecosystems of British Columbia. (PDF, 10.31 MB) British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations , February 1991, accessed December 14, 2012 .
- ↑ David Menary: Great Trees of Canada , Blue River Press 1997, 2014, p. 18.
