Great Bear Rainforest Rare Karst Landscapes Elude Specific Protections

Summary: Karst expert Paul Griffiths finds Great Bear Rainforest rare karst landscapes elude specific protections under the 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order.

scuba divers at entrance of karst cave on central coast of the Great Bear Rainforest: Pacific Wild @pacificwild via Twitter Feb. 10, 2016

In the aftermath of the ceremonial announcement of the 2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order on Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, karst expert Paul Griffiths expresses concern that the Great Bear Rainforest rare karst landscapes elude specific protections under the landmark agreement.

“If you have a cave in the Great Bear Rainforest it is not automatically protected. They need to address karst directly with a specific objective,” Griffiths tells Larry Pynn for the environment reporter’s article, “Agreement Fails to Protect Rare Karst Landscapes, Expert Warns,” in the Feb. 9, 2016, issue of The Vancouver Sun.

Described by Griffiths as “among the most sensitive on Earth,” karst ecosystems include distinctive surface and subsurface features that form over thousands of years from the carbon dioxide (CO2) cascade. Rain droplets dissolve atmospheric carbon dioxide and, on the ground, combine with carbon dioxide stored in soil to form carbonic acid (H2CO3).

The mildly acidic water gouges and pockmarks soluble bedrocks, such as limestone and marble. The distinctive karst landscape created by the carbon dioxide cascade features caves, cracks, sinkholes, springs, sinking streams, fluted and pitted terrains, and underground drainage systems.

A non-renewable resource, karst ecosystems hold special value in the Great Bear Rainforest. The deeply cracked and pitted landscapes improve rainforest productivity by draining excess rainfall and by securing tree roots against strong winds. Karst’s pristine waters provide healthy habitats for aquatic life, including migratory and resident fish.

“British Columbia is Canada’s most ecologically diverse province and home to some of the nation’s finest karst resources,” Griffiths and five co-authors note in “Karst Management in British Columbia,” a paper presented at the 2005 National Cave and Karst Management Symposium, held in Albany, New York, from Oct. 30 to Nov. 4, 2005.

In summer 2014, Griffiths, owner/principal of Cave Management Services/KarstCare™ since 1977, and Ian McAllister, nature photographer and co-founder of non-profit wildlife conservation organization Pacific Wild, join colleagues to follow coho salmon in a slow-moving stream that sinks into the Coast Range Mountains near Bella Bella, a central coast gateway to the Great Bear Rainforest. The divers realize that the salmon swim through the mountain to reach their spawning habitat in surface water outflows on the mountain’s other side. The team follows the sinking stream through intricate passageways of the Great Bear Rainforest rare karst landscapes for almost 330 feet (100 meters) without reaching an exit.

“I thought we’d go through water then into a dry cave, but it’s all underwater, a labyrinth of marble tunnels and caverns,” McAllister recalls in an interview for Pynn’s Dec. 1, 2014, article in The Vancouver Sun. “What’s really amazing is we found all these coho salmon hiding away in the back of this cave in the side of this mountain. Remarkable.”

The Great Bear Rainforest rare karst landscapes are sensitive to such manmade activities as logging, mining and road construction. Manmade activities pose a domino threat of disturbing surface features that, in turn, impact subsurface features through cave-ins.

“The international significance of the karst in coastal B.C. is its association with the pristine temperate old-growth forest -- already rare globally, rarer still because it continues to be clearcut,” Griffiths observes in an interview for Larry Pynn’s article, “B.C. Researchers Dive Underwater Caves to Solve Salmon Mystery,” published in The Vancouver Sun’s Dec. 1, 2014's issue.

Carbon dioxide cascade is responsible for distinctive drama of karst ecosystems, including the Great Bear Rainforest rare karst landscapes: Karst Management Handbook for British Columbia, CC BY 2.0, British Columbia Ministry of Forests

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

scuba divers at entrance of karst cave on the central coast of the Great Bear Rainforest: Pacific Wild‏ @pacificwild via Twitter Feb. 10, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/pacificwild/status/697448312119681024

carbon dioxide cascade: Karst Management Handbook for British Columbia, CC BY 2.0, via British Columbia Ministry of Forests @ https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/publications/00189/Karst-Mgmt-Handbook-web.pdf

For further information:

British Columbia Ministry of Forests. Karst Management Handbook for British Columbia. Victoria, BC: May 2003.
Available @ https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/publications/00189/Karst-Mgmt-Handbook-web.pdf

Griffiths, Paul, et al. "Karst Management in British Columbia: The Transition to a Results-Based Forest Practices Framework and the Legally Supported Practice Requirements for Karst Resource Features. 2005 National Cave and Karst Management Symposium.
Available @ http://www.nckms.org/2005/pdf/Papers/Griffiths.pdf

Marriner, Derdriu. "2016 Great Bear Rainforest Order Saves 85 Percent of Old Growth Forest." Earth and Space News. Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/02/2016-great-bear-rainforest-order-saves.html

Pacific Wild‏ @pacificwild. "Expert warns #GreatBearRainforest Agreement fails to protect rare #karst landscapes." Twitter. Feb. 10, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/pacificwild/status/697448312119681024

Pynn, Larry. "Agreement fails to protect rare karst landscape, expert warns." Vancouver Sun. Feb. 28, 2016.
Available @ http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Agreement+fails+protect+rare+karst+landscapes+expert+warns/11708474/story.html?__lsa=3d18-3119

Pynn, Larry. "B.C. researchers dive underwater caves to solve salmon mystery (with video)." Vancouver Sun. Nov. 29, 2014.
Available @ http://www.vancouversun.com/news/researchers+dive+underwater+caves+solve+salmon+mystery+with+video/10428288/story.html