Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site

Natural Heritage

Lyell Island Restoration

With Our Help, The Environment Can Heal

Protection is key

Clear-cut logging on Lyell Island (Tllga kun Gwaayaay) in the 1970's and 80's led to protests to protect the area, and seeing the resulting scars often surprises and disturbs visitors to Gwaii Haanas. The Archipelago Management Board is committed to the long term restoration of these damaged areas.

Intact ecosystems

Lyell Island is one of the bigger islands in the archipelago, with well-developed and intact forest ecosystems in the unlogged watersheds. Forest species need large spaces to flourish; therefore, endangered species like the Northern Goshawk thrive in the old growth on Lyell Island. Salmon need the clean shaded streams with gravel bottoms, typical of unlogged watersheds, to lay their eggs.

Return of the salmon

Imagine standing in an old growth forest listening to salmon splash and fight their way up a stream, back to the spawning grounds where they were born. All of a sudden you hear the flutter of their tail as they frantically dig a shallow hole in the gravel and lay their eggs. Their journey is finally complete. Black bears haul salmon out of creeks onto the forest floor, where other species eat their carcasses, and nutrients are transferred throughout the valley bottom ecosystem.

Salmon is an important food source and a staple in the diet of the Haida, who count on the annual return of the salmon.

Unfortunately, the logging damaged spawning creeks on Lyell Island through erosion, siltation, and lack of cover. Through careful rehabilitation, stream habitat is being restored and salmon populations should increase.

Partners: together we can make a difference

Coho fry
© Parks Canada / Barb Johnson

Gwaii Haanas combined efforts with our partners to help improve the damaged ecosystems on Lyell Island. Hecate Strait Steamkeepers and the Haida Fisheries Program worked with us to implement a plan.

George Farrell, Project Manager, Hecate Strait Streamkeepers says: “Our restoration efforts are aimed at encouraging a return to the ‘dynamic equilibrium' (balanced input and output) of watersheds, which had been disturbed. “ Our island groups collectively ask not what our streams could do for us but what we could do to help our streams,” says Peter Katinic, Haida Fisheries Program Biologist. “The Lyell Island Restoration Project was a great example of how island groups can join forces to help our fisheries resource.”

Site lacking large woody debris
© Parks Canada / Barb Johnson

Woody debris placement provides cover for salmon
© Parks Canada / Barb Johnson

The long-term goal for Gwaii Haanas and our partners is restoration of all logged systems on Lyell Island.