Great Bear Rainforest

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The Great Bear Rainforest is the name given by environmental groups^[1][2][3] in the 1990s to a region of the temperate rain forest ecoregion specifically Pacific temperate rain forest ecoregion, located on the coast of British Columbia, Canada, from Vancouver Island north to the border with the US state of Alaska. It is 64,000 km² (25,000 sq mile) in size.^[4] It features 1,000 year old Western Red Cedar and 90 metre Sitka Spruce.^[5]

The area dubbed the Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rainforest left in the world.^{[citation needed]} A February 2006 agreement between the provincial government and a wide coalition of conservationists, loggers, hunters, and First Nations established a series of conservancies stretching 400 kilometres (250 miles) along the coast. The proposed protected areas will contain 18,000 km² (4.4 million acres), and another 46,900 km² (11.6 million acres) that is to be run under a management plan that is expected to ensure sustainable forest management.^{[citation needed]}

The area is home to hundreds of species, including cougars, wolves, salmon, grizzly bears, and the Kermode ("spirit") bear, a unique subspecies of the black bear, in which one in ten cubs display a recessive white colored coat.

Coastal rainforests are characterized by having proximity to both ocean and mountains. The offshore ocean flow into the mountain ranges causes abundant precipitation to fall on the land in between the mountains and the ocean. Most of the Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon coastal areas share this same pattern.

The Canadian government announced on 21 January 2007 that it will spend CAD$ 30m protect this rainforest. This matches a pledge made previously by the British Columbia provincial government, as well as private donations of $60 million, making the total funding for the new reserve $120 million.^[4]

In the autumn of 2008, Greenpeace, Sierra Club of Canada (BC Chapter), and ForestEthics launched an online campaign titled, "Keep the Promise," to put public pressure on the Premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell, to honour the Great Bear Rainforest agreement in its entirety. The groups are concerned that certain aspects of the agreement, including implementation of ecosystem-based management, will not materialize in time for the government's own final implementation deadline of March 31, 2009 ^[6].

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