Central Walbran Valley

About Central Walbran Valley

The Central Walbran Valley on southwestern Vancouver Island is one of the grandest old-growth rainforests in Canada. The area is jam-packed with hundreds of monumental redcedars, especially in the spectacular “Castle Grove,” which is perhaps the most extensive stand of near record-sized cedars on Earth. Marbled murrelets, screech owls, Queen Charlotte goshawks, red-legged frogs, cougars, black bears, and elk all live here, while steelhead and coho spawn in the rivers. Because of the mild climate and high rainfall, the Walbran, Carmanah, Gordon, and San Juan Valleys on southern Vancouver Island have the best tree-growing conditions in Canada, resulting in nearly all of BC’s record-sized trees being found here. Unfortunately, this also makes the area a prime target for logging.

The 500-hectare Central Walbran Valley is part of the 13,000-hectare Walbran Valley, of which about 5500 hectares is protected in the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park while 7500 hectares of the watershed lie outside the park. The Central Walbran is the last, largely intact portion of the unprotected part of the Walbran watershed as the rest has been highly fragmented and tattered by clearcuts.

The Walbran Valley has been a major focal point of conservation efforts since the early 1990s when blockades first appeared in an effort to prevent logging at the heart of the valley. In 2014, logging company Teal-Jones had 8 cutblocks planned for the Central Walbran Valley, of which one, Cutblock 4424, was granted a cutting permit by the Ministry of Forests. Strong pushback kept the company from logging that area and today the Central Walbran Valley has been deferred from logging while First Nations and the BC government determine long-term land use plans for the area. Permanent protection for this incredible valley can’t come soon enough.