We are proud to support a donation to help save ancient forests and sensitive caribou habitat in one of the last fully intact interior temperate rainforests of British Columbia, Canada.
- The Argenta Face is part of the traditional, ancestral, unceded, and unsurrendered təmxʷulaʔxʷ (homeland) of the Sinixt People
- The Sinixt People have been illegally declared extinct “for the purposes of the Indian Act”, and have been denied sovereignty over their ancestral territory in an act of genocidal erasure by the colonial state
- The Autonomous Sinixt recently released Land Declaration calls for a “FULL STOP” to all proposed resource extraction until they can review it and uphold it follows their traditional laws of Whuplakn and Smum-Iem
- Endangered Mountain Caribou Migration and Feeding Territory
- This area is known to be used by the rare and endangered Mountain Caribou
- It contains an old growth interior rainforest ecosystem with dense loading of Alectoria and Bryoria lichen species that are critical winter foods for the caribou
- local biologist has also reported on the presence of at least 2-3 different sets of caribou tracks in the proposed logging area
- ONLY 27 Caribou left in this area south of trans canada – 10% use this area
- Habitat for other at risk species – grizzly, goshawk, heron, and wolverine
- Old Growth – 23% of the Argenta Face
- Old Growth known to be on 3 of the 5 cutblocks approved for cutting by Cooper Creek Cedar
- potential Priority One Old Growth (on a scale from 1-5 with one as highest priority)
- RARE Western Larch Old Growth (some 300+ yrs old)
- Old Growth Forests know to help mitigate forest fires
- Watershed Threat
- Logging causes erosion that adds sediment to water, which in turn affects fish and wildlife habitats along with water quality for residents
- Over 52 water licenses (the community’s drinking water!) in the area that could be affected
- Face Stability / Landslide Risk
- Communities and homes at risk below cut-blocks
- Though the area is different from Gar Creek (nearby Johnson’s Landing Slide Area), this area’s terrain, which is on top of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, is inherently weak and prone to landslides unlike granite base.
- VWS Grow BC Park’s campaign