It is well worth the hike! Mr King is right though; something should be done and soon or it will be the old story.....We came - we saw - we destroyed! Next.

I agree, I did that last year. It is quite the little hike, but well worth it. the waterfall at the end is real nice place. Why not tryout tourism BC.

why not sell the boardwalks. Sell them for $150 for a 8 ft section. Thus set up a promotional deal where your name is on the deck.

As for a rest area and a place to rest. Offer it as a liscence to have concession stand. Have the operator provide gazebo, the operator is responsible for cleaning the parking lot. Your not going to stop the people from coming, so might as well try to make it self supporting.

Ancient Forest In Need of Long Term Care

The so-called ancient forest has looked after itself for quite a while. What makes man think he can improve on that? Another two or three government jobs created amd that's the bottom line.

This forest is probably as far away from Prince George as Quesnel and Vanderhoof are.

Do we call Quesnel and Vanderhoof **local treasures**

More likely a Northern Interior Treasure, but certainly not a **local treasure**

There should not be any improvements to the rest area. The problem with that area a mere 80 km from Prince George is that it has been discovered and people are now using it. I do agree with the protective measures proposed due to the people traffic going through there. By not improving the rest area and not investing anything into the trail head, this area would continue with the current use level. If the rest area were to be improved, more people would visit. It is people that are causing harm.

There's thousands of these sites in BC and nothing special about them. Nice to see for sure so put in some cameras and punish harshly those who would destroy it. Just a sign stating that you're on camera would deter most vandals.

"There's thousands of these sites in BC and nothing special about them."

Did you not even read the story???? Here, let me repost the section you quite obviously missed.

"It was only a few years ago that researchers at UNBC documented what hikers had suspected, the forest is one of only a few in the world. The others which boast the age and bio diversity are in Chile and Japan."

IT IS SPECIAL! Much more so then alot of people seem to realise. Hopefully there is a way to raise the money to make sure this is preserved for years. I first discovered the ancient forest about 10 years ago when a friend brought me out there. In those days it was extremely rare to see anyone on the trail. Now any given weekend there are 50 people hiking the trail. A $225,000 boardwalk is a small price to pay for the preservation of an awesome local treasure. Now hopefully there is a way to fund it without being a massive burden on the taxpayer.

Actually the truth is somewhere in the middle there matt and foxtrapper. The site is definately NOT unique, as the interior cedar hemlock zone extends from around slim crrek down to around nelson and beyond. That being said, there are likely not thousands of sites within the ICH of similar age structure and, well beauty. If people want to spend the time and effort there are anumber of good drainages between Slim crrek and the alberta border which might be suitable for preservation. I remember coming across some massive doug fir and a few cedar that were well over 2 meters across when i was working there years ago...
Perhaps a number of such forests, forming a chain of hiking trails of varying length and difficulty might actually be the answer for those folks trying to find some reason for tourists to stop in PG on the way to alaska.

I'm surprised nobody has said that we should just log it and get our people back to work, LOL.

I say petition the Province to make it a Provincial Park, get some funding to install the boardwalk and also look into the idea that caranmacil suggested. We could use more parkland and stuff like this should be preserved. We don't need to turn it into a big flashy attraction to make the undertaking worthwhile. This forest may not be rare, but it's unique enough that we could celebrate it. If we can put a Provincial Park on a small man made lake 45 minutes north of PG, surely we can try and preserve something that has been forming since the year 1009.

Sorry, I was asleep at the wheel.

We should just log it & get people back to work. :-)>

Why should we petition the Province. Cant Pat Bell and his collegues make this a Provincial Park without being petitioned.

I suspect they can, the question is. Will they?????