Qualla: Clayoquot Sound

Clayoquot Sound: Introduction

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ademoor, CC BY 2.5. In the summer of 1993, more than 800 people were arrested on the logging roads leading into Clayoquot Sound. It was the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history at the time, and it saved one of the last great temperate rainforests on Earth. Three decades later, the 350,000-hectare region on Vancouver Island's west coast holds UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status, and the old-growth valleys that MacMillan Bloedel's chainsaws never reached still stand -- vast, moss-draped, and deeply quiet.

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Image: Ademoor | CC BY 2.5

Clayoquot Sound: Nine Thousand Years of Shoreline

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ademoor, CC BY 2.5. First Nations have inhabited the waters and forests of Clayoquot Sound for thousands of years. The oldest dated archaeological site in Nuu-chah-nulth territory, at Yuquot on Nootka Island, reaches back 4,200 years, though rising post-glacial sea levels have likely submerged far e...

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Image: Ademoor | CC BY 2.5

Clayoquot Sound: The War in the Woods

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ademoor, CC BY 2.5. The region's wealth of timber attracted logging companies throughout the 20th century, but tension reached a breaking point in the late 1980s when the British Columbia government approved MacMillan Bloedel Corporation's permit to log Meares Island. The Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht ...

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Image: Ademoor | CC BY 2.5

Clayoquot Sound: Rainforest and Reef

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Adam Jones, Ph.D., CC BY-SA 3.0. Clayoquot Sound is a labyrinth of inlets and islands. Major waterways include Sydney, Shelter, Herbert, Bedwell, Lemmens, and Tofino inlets. Flores Island, Vargas Island, and Meares Island anchor the geography. The surrounding land holds the largest area of intact, unlogged tempe...

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Image: Adam Jones, Ph.D. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Clayoquot Sound: From Chainsaws to Canoes

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paul Hermans, CC BY-SA 3.0. With logging drastically curtailed, the communities surrounding Clayoquot Sound have reinvented their economies. Tofino, Ucluelet, and Ahousaht now emphasize ecotourism, surfing, whale watching, and selective logging managed under co-governance agreements between First Nations an...

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Image: Paul Hermans | CC BY-SA 3.0