This is one of the oldest remaining tracts of natural low-elevation forest on this part of the B.C. coast. Low-elevation forest is seriously under-represented in the parks of southwestern B.C.
The proposed park straddles the ancient boundary between the traditional areas of the Sechelt and Squamish nations.
Mount Elphinstone is unusual among protected area proposals on the Lower Sunshine Coast in offering very easy walking access to stands of large, spectacular old growth Douglas-fir, as well as old growth red cedar and yew. There is an extensive network of trails. This is magnificent forest, with many intact stream ravines and striking rock bluffs.The forest contains some rare stands of Sitka spruce, one of them full of beautiful old growth. 130-year-old western white pine, a species threatened by an introduced disease, is abundantly scattered throughout the forest.
A fire burned through the area in 1865, but hundreds of massive old growth trees still survive today among the tall 130-year-old trees which seeded themselves naturally after the fire. The ancient trees now towering above the "young" trees around them have been growing here for 400 to 600 years.
The forest floor is close to old growth condition. Rare old growth dependent mushrooms, and parasitic plants like pinesap and gnome-plant, grow here in the shade of the dense forest canopy. Although much of the cedar killed in the fire of 1865 has been removed by shake and shingle logging, there is still the rich supply of fallen logs, standing snags, and wildlife trees that you would find in an old growth forest.
Wildlife trees, from ancient hollowed living cedar to small dead hemlock, provide nesting and denning for abundant wildlife like bobcat, cougar, black bear, and several old growth dependent bird species. If this area is logged, even by selective methods, most of these wildlife trees will be cut down. As trees are removed, the future supply of large logs for the forest floor dwindles, and with it the habitat for several species of salamanders and countless invertebrates and mushrooms.Among threatened animal species, the tailed frog lives in many creeks running through the area. This frog species is perhaps the world's most primitive, and it depends on cold, clear, unsilted streams.
Elphinstone Forest is blessed with the greatest diversity of mushrooms near the Lower Mainland, including many rare species.Tricholoma Apium, an extremely rare mushroom species previously unknown in North America, was first discovered in this forest in 1991. An area of such high diversity is likely to harbour other new species, and it must be protected as part of the world's biological heritage. Most European countries have established endangered species lists for their mushrooms, but B.C. has no such list, and no legislated protection for endangered species. We must protect our most diverse areas or run the real risk of wiping out endangered species before we know anything about them.
The Ministry of Forests has already logged a core area of the mushroom forest in 1996, as part of a research project. If the logging is completed, it will wipe out as much as half the Elphinstone population of the extremely rare Tricholoma apium mushroom. Two vulnerable forest plant communities are present in the approved cutblocks. One of the communities is named for flatmoss, an old growth indicator species. The newly-found Tricholoma apium may depend on this flatmoss community, but half of its population may be eliminated from Elphinstone before anyone knows.