Western Canada Wilderness Committee

Micah Hermesmann's Day Off: Carmanah Valley and Cathedral Grove

In the in-between time, you know the ‘days offs’ I got on the Island, I had some funfilled adventures that I’m gonna share with you now…

I got back from China Beach and met up with my girlfriend, Meagan, at the ferries in Sidney. I had decided that it was definitely time to check out the Carmanah Valley, since I never have. So we drove and drove and then hit a logging road and then drove some more. In case you want to go there (and you should because it’s awesome), the last 80kms of the drive are on a dusty logging road with potholes the size of kiddy pools. Okay they’re not that big, but they gave my shocks a nasty workout.

The whole way there you get to see the kind of ‘sustainable’ logging that has been occurring on the Island for all these years. Clearcuts everywhere. And once you get close to the park, slash piles all along the road, some charred, some not.

Once we got to the park, I saw that there was a parks operator doing some weed whacking in the parking lot, so I thought I’d chat with him. It turns out that even the Carmanah and Walbran parks have been privatized. He also pointed out that about 100 - 150m before the entrance to the park, the logging company (Timberwest, I believe) has put up marking tape on some of the trees. It seems they plan to build a logging road right next to the park. Not that it’s not within their rights to do so. It’s just kinda sad.

So we did the short hike from the lot down to the Three Sisters. It’s really quite an amazing forest. Meagan had never been to a forest as old as this one. She grew up in Lynn Valley and her father had taken her camping a lot when she was younger, but there aren’t a lot of forests this old left in BC. And being right on the ocean, there was the fog and the mosses… It’s a hauntingly beautiful place to be.

We drove to Ladysmith that night to my friend of many years Tim’s place. And after what would be the first of many nights of unbelievable hospitality from Tim’s mom Christine and his dad Glen, Meagan and I set out to visit Clayquot Sound. We brought Tim’s dog Ocean with us. She had a pretty good time on the drive. We never did make it to Tofino however, because once we got to Cathedral Grove, we had to stop in and chat with the protestors camped out there.

If you’re unfamiliar with the issue, the government has plans to build a 150-car plus 20-bus/RV parking lot right in the middle of the pitifully small MacMillian Park. There’s a second growth stand just southeast of the park where everybody else thinks the lot should be. Currently, people park along the highway and the place is viewed as something of a deathtrap (which is the prime reason for not sending the BC Park Lovers Tour there – we seek to avoid any potential fatalities).

If you’ve ever met anyone involved in direct action protest, then you know they’re a fairly eccentric bunch. The ‘leader’ of this camp was Ingmar Lee. If you google his name, you’ll get many, many pages of matches. He’s clearly a loose cannon but very compelling. He had nothing but negative things to say about the WCWC and any other ‘mainstream’ environmental group you can think of. He’s convinced that direct action is the only way to get the government to listen. He had a fair deal of contempt for the notion of petitions and newsletters. “If it was up to the WCWC, this place would be a parking lot by now,” he said. One person he particularly didn’t care for was Ken Wu, WCWC’s executive director in Victoria.

In a recent interview in the Whistler Pique, Ken had this to say about direct action:

"People go through a step-by-step process. They start off generally using more moderate tactics, and as time goes on, the movement has to progress. The government doesn’t respond to the letters and the rallies. People get frustrated, and some will then step it up.

"The ones who are most involved, usually, become the most frustrated at not seeing success from their previous tactics, so they tend to step up to civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is not a substitute for the rest of the movement, but it is an important catalyst. It strengthens the campaign."

So the WCWC has a new newsletter and petition for Cathedral Grove. Hopefully, between us and the protestors in the woods, we can get the government to see the light.

Despite the differing perspectives, Ingmar gave me lesson on how to climb the trees, with the ropes and whatnot. After an hour of making me climb up and down 15 feet, he gave me the green light to try to climb to the 120-foot platform near the top of the tree. I only made it 90 feet up before I was exhausted and had to come down. In my defense, I was already sweating from the training before I started to climb. That being said, these folks do it in the middle of the night with very little sleep and have to deal with local thugs coming to attack them with knives and bats. So my hat goes off to them.

Finally, I’d just like to say that I hope Ingmar has a full recovery. I visited the camp a second time just before I left the Island and was told that he had an ear infection, which exploded and began to infect his spine. The term ‘meningitis’ was mentioned. He was apparently in a coma and on seriously high doses of antibiotics. I’m not a praying man, but you’ll get the idea: my prayers go out to him, his family, and his friends.