Woss Lake Provincial Park

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Woss Lake Provincial Park

IUCN Category II - National Park

Rugged Mountain in the north of the park

Rugged Mountain in the north of the park

location British Columbia (Canada)
surface 66.34 km²
WDPA ID 101677
Geographical location 50 ° 6 ′  N , 126 ° 37 ′  W Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 5 "  N , 126 ° 37 ′ 14"  W
Woss Lake Provincial Park, British Columbia
Woss Lake Provincial Park
Setup date 1995
administration BC parks

The Woss Lake Provincial Park is a 66.34 km² large nature park on Vancouver Iceland in the province of British Columbia in Canada . Places near the lake are Woss in the south and Zeballos in the north . A special attraction is a waterfall at the southern end of Lake Woss , which alone has an area of ​​13.66 km². It is around 150 m above sea level. The park was established in 1995.

The park is a category II protected area ( national park ).

The name Woss comes from the Kwakwala and means "river on the ground" and was also the name of a village at the confluence of the Woss and Nimpkish rivers. The Woss is around 20 km long.

The park is located in the traditional area of ​​the 'Namgis First Nation (Nimpkish-Cheslakees), who belong to the Kwakwaka'wakw . In addition, a traditional trade trail runs through it, the Grease trail over the Tahsis Divide. The fat of the candle fish (Thaleichthys pacificus), which was used in a similar way to butter and was a sought-after commodity, was transported over this “fat path” . Its advantage was that, unlike other fish oil, it was solid.

The path is now used as a motorcycle path. So-called Culturally Modified Trees , i.e. trees that have been modified due to the cultural activities of the indigenous people, have been identified there. Only two of these trees are still standing on the Oolichan Trail , as the Grease trail is also called. The candle fish was called Oolichan. The two trees bear faces and look north and south. They may mark the border between two tribal areas, but it is more likely that ritual gatherings took place there. Although the path is not easy to drive on and is quickly overgrown due to the heavy rainfall, its pass is comparatively low at 500 m.

history

The first recorded European visitor was Captain Hamilton Moffat, an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company in Fort Rupert, not far from Port Hardy . Moffat left the fort on July 1, 1852 in the direction of Nimpkish , accompanied by six Indians . He called Woss Lake "Kanus Lake" when he reached it on July 4th. The next day he tried to climb the Rugged Mountains with one of his companions - he called the mountain in the west Ben Lomond - but they failed. So the group continued on the Oolichan Trail towards Tahsis Inlet .

The next white man did not visit the area until 1865. On September 10th of that year the Vancouver Island Expedition, led by John Buttle, crossed the island from Tahsis Inlet. The Woss Lake was now called "Conuma Lake". He was accompanied by an Indian from the Clayoquot Sound and Tomo Antoine, an Iroquois who accompanied several expeditions on Vancouver Island. The main task of the expedition was the search for gold.

She also followed the Oolichan Trail, although it had been out of use for several years - presumably because of the catastrophic smallpox epidemic of 1862 . Heavy rains and the overgrowth of the path affected the expedition, which found nothing but copper. Eventually the two Indians refused to look any further. They feared the steep descent into the Nimpkish Valley. The two wanted to return to Nootka Sound , but Buttle waited six days for the rain to subside and then rowed and sailed across the lake. Under difficult conditions, we continued to Kleetsic or White River, a river that draws its water from the glacier above. But here, too, Buttle found no gold.

In 1868 an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, Pym Nevin Compton, came to the White River, or more precisely Woss Lake, and he found a tree with Buttle's name carved into it. He himself had come up the Nimpkish from the east coast.

After him, no Europeans came to the south bank of Woss Lake for another 26 years, but the first loggers came to the north side. Some paintings called pictographs have been preserved near today's campsite just above the waterline.

Reverend William Bolton tried to cross Vancouver Island from north to south in 1894. On August 2nd, the expedition started the Oolichan Trail from Tahsis to Bolton Camp on Woss Lake. There the men had to wait until August 10 for the Bolton who had stayed behind and who had struggled to get through. When they finally drove across the lake in the sunshine, he noted: “There is so much beauty in this place that we were happy to be able to spend the whole day here. The Kowse Glacier alone on the summit of the Rugged Mountains is worth walking many miles to see, plus the waterfalls that seem to come from all over the place, pouring down at the bottom into the milk-white stream that runs itself into the In the boiling sun at noon it was too cold to even drink from it. ”Then, with great difficulty, they moved on towards Tahsis.

In 2001, the 'Namgis First Nation began to renew the trade path. Camping spots were marked and archaeological investigations were carried out. A business plan was formulated together with Ecotrust Canada , with support from the province and the Canadian government. The Community Economic Adjustment Fund , the North Vancouver Island Aboriginal Training Society, and the tribe themselves raised the lack of funds and manpower. In addition to the 3 km long paths, an infrastructure for visitors had to be created. Donald Svanvik carved a thunderbird in a tree at the beginning of the Grease Trail to the east, a wolf at the west end, symbolizing the connection with the Mowachaht at the end of the trail.

Flora and fauna

British Columbia's ecosystem is divided into different biogeoclimatic zones using the Biogeoclimatic Ecological Classification (BEC) Zoning System . Biogeoclimatic zones are characterized by a fundamentally identical or very similar climate and the same or very similar biological and geological conditions. This results in a very similar population of plants and animals in the respective zones. Within this system, the park area within the Coastal Western Hemlock Zone is assigned to the Very Wet Maritime Subzone and the Very Dry Maritime Subzone . The area still has primary forest (old growth forest), but has not been well explored.

Chinook and steelhead live in a habitat of 1,600 hectares further above the lake , and elephants ( Cervus elaphus roosevelti , Roosevelt elk) are also common.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ World Database on Protected Areas - Woss Lake Provincial Park (English)
  2. ↑ Biogeoclimatic Zones of British Columbia. British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations , accessed May 19, 2016 .
  3. ^ Woss Lake Provincial Park - Management Direction Statement. (PDF, 1.09 MB) British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks , September 2003, accessed March 12, 2013 .
  4. ^ Ecosystems of British Columbia. (PDF, 10.31 MB) British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, February 1991, accessed on March 12, 2013 .