Gulf Islands

Gulf Islands National Park Reserve was created in 2003, as the fortieth park in the Canadian network, and protects a land area spread across some fifteen islands and numerous islets and reefs in the southern Strait of Georgia, in the Salish Sea, between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Some 26 km² of submerged land are also administered for national park purposes. Its creation was the culmination of decades of conservation effort in an archipelago under heavy development pressure: more than 75% of the land in the area has passed into private hands.

The archipelago lies in the lee of two mountain ranges, and that rain shadow generates the only Mediterranean-type climate in Canada. The result is a plant mixture unusual in the country, with many species at the northern limit of their range: forests of coastal Douglas fir, the characteristic red-barked arbutus and, above all, the meadows and rock outcrops of the ecosystem of the Garry oak, the only native oak in British Columbia. It is one of the most threatened ecosystems in Canada — only around 5% survives in a natural state — and it holds more plant species than any other terrestrial ecosystem in the province. Brackman Island is classified as a special preservation area for its ecological sensitivity.

At sea, the upwelling of nutrients supports a highly productive environment with orcas, porpoises, seals and sea lions, and large populations of shorebirds and waterbirds that breed in or pass through the archipelago. The Central Coast Salish peoples have maintained a relationship with these islands for millennia, documented in shell middens such as those on Portland Island and in the clam garden on Russell Island, a traditional technique for managing marine resources. The park also preserves an 1885 lighthouse at Active Pass and the remains of a former leprosarium on D'Arcy Island.