Карманah Уалбран провинциялық паркі: Ежелгі орманның күйреуі

Provincial park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada
Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park, originally Carmanah Pacific Provincial Park, is a remote wilderness park located inside traditional Ditidaht First Nation (also spelled diiɁdiitidq) ancestral territory. The park covers a land area of immediately adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve's West Coast Trail on the south western, coastal terrain of Vancouver Island. The provincial park comprises the entire drainage of Carmanah Creek (northwest of the mouth of the creek hosted the kwaabaaduw7aa7tx village, a "local group" whose alliance makes up one branch of the Ditidaht Nation and Canada's tallest tree, a Sitka spruce named the Carmanah Giant, measured at , estimated to be around 400 years old, lives along the lower reaches of Carmanah Creek. However, trails to the Carmanah Giant and many other portions of the park are currently inaccessible due to the neglect and disrepair of the park's boardwalk trail system—trail access via the boardwalk is essential in preserving the area's delicate ecosystem. Although BC Parks received a funding increase in 2012 for the first time in over ten years, BC's provincial government has repeatedly cut funding to the BC Parks' budget, the result of which is BC Parks' inability to staff a sufficient number of Park Rangers to maintain the network of trails and keep the park safe from cedar poachers and illegal logging. Hiking trails were initially developed in the area by Randy Stoltmann and members of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee (what the Wilderness Committee was referred to at the time) in the late 1980s. The trails were built before the Carmanah Valley was protected in an effort to draw attention to the spectacular old growth forest and the precariousness of its existence in the face of Vancouver based logging company, MacMillan Bloedel (now subsumed by Washington based logging company Weyerhauser).

As of 2014, the extensive trail network woven throughout both the Carmanah and Walbran portions of the park has fallen into disrepair, which makes hiking through neglected areas dangerous for visitors and for the delicate natural balance of the park's ecological systems. When ecological integrity is compromised, symptomatic indicators of ecological instability, such as soil erosion, tree blow downs and flash floods, occur. While the provincial park website warns of the lack of trail maintenance, and states that trail maintenance is "ongoing", Access to the Upper Walbran is perhaps even more dangerous due to active logging in the unprotected portions of the Walbran, near places like the Walbran's Castle Grove, however, the park may still be reached on back roads from Port Alberni, Lake Cowichan, or Port Renfrew.

According to Western Canada Wilderness Committee records, the spectacular old growth Sitka grove was spotted by Randy Stoltmann and a friend in the early 1980s. In 1985, Stoltmann wrote an article titled "Canadian Landmarks: Protection for our largest, tallest and oldest trees", that coincided with the centennial celebration of the establishment of Banff National Park, the first Canadian national park, located in Banff, Alberta. The protests worked to garner public support and fought to gain provincial funding that would enable the area to become a park and thus be protected against the long lasting and detrimental effects of deforestation. Protesters chained themselves to some of the great Sitka spruce while camped out in portaledges at heights of over 50 metres. In response to the success of the land defender's and activist's civil disobedience and the public support of the ongoing protests of the early 1990s, the province conceded, bought the tree farm licences off of MacMillan Bloedel (note: the provincial government paid MacMillan Bloedel $83.75 million for their lost tree farm licences in the Carmanah Walbran, including the interest "that has accumulated since the parks were created in 1991 and 1995. That amount was fixed as of January 1, 1999 and interest will accumulate on the principal until such time as it is paid in full.") and created Carmanah Pacific Provincial Park in 1990. The remainder of the Carmanah Valley and the lower part of the area drained by Walbran River were added in 1995 to form the current park. Biogeoclimatic zones can be further divided into subzones, of which this park contains three. Immediately adjacent to the ocean lies the CWH Southern Very Wet Hypermaritime subzone, which is intimately shaped by the forces of the sea. This subzone is often referred to as the "spruce fringe forest" and is characterized by the dominance of sitka spruce, which is specially adapted to withstand the magnesium salts of sea spray. Other characteristic species include leatherleaf polypody fern and evergreen huckleberry. Just inland is the CWH Submontane Very Wet Maritime subzone, which comprises the majority of the area of Carmanah Walbran park. The dominant coniferous trees here are western hemlock, coast Douglas fir, western redcedar, and Sitka spruce. The year round mild and humid climate produces ideal conditions for the development of extensive epiphyte communities in the forest canopy. The forest contains twice the biomass of tropical rainforests. Marbled murrelet nests have been found in the area.