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Vancouver Island

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Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada, off Canada's Pacific coast. It is 460 km (285 miles) long and up to 80 km (50 miles) wide. The largest island on the western side of North America at , it is the world's 43rd largest island, Canada's 11th largest island and Canada's second most populous island after the Island of Montreal, which has 1.3 million more people. The island is named in honour of George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific coast of North America between 1791 and 1794.

The 2001 census population was 656,312. British Columbia statistics in 2004 estimated the population at 734,860. Slightly fewer than half of these (331,491) live in Greater Victoria. Other major cities on Vancouver Island include Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Parksville, Comox, Courtenay, and Campbell River.

Geography and climate

Vancouver Island is located in the southwestern corner of the province of British Columbia. It is separated from mainland Canada by the Strait of Georgia, Johnstone Strait, and Queen Charlotte Strait, and from the U.S. by the Strait of Juan de Fuca. To the west of the island is the Pacific Ocean.

The Vancouver Island Ranges run most of the length of the island, dividing it into a wet and rugged west coast and a drier, more rolling east coast. The highest point in these ranges and on the island is the Golden Hinde, at 2195 m or 7200'. Located near the centre of Vancouver Island in the 2,500 km² (620,000 acre) Strathcona Provincial Park, it is part of a group of peaks that include the only glaciers on the island, the largest of which is the Comox Glacier. The Golden Hinde is also part of the Karmutsen Formation, which is a sequence of tholeiitic pillow basalts and breccias. The west coast shoreline is rugged, and in many places mountainous, characterised by its many fjords, bays, and inlets. The interior of the island has many lakes (Kennedy Lake, northeast of Ucluelet, is the largest) and rivers. Vancouver Island formed when volcanic and sedimentary rock scraped off the ancient Kula Plate and plastered against the continental margin when it was subducting under North America 55 million years ago.

The climate is the mildest in Canada, with temperatures on the coast even in January being usually above 0 °C (32 °F). In summer, maximum temperatures average 21-24 °C (70-75 °F). However, the rain shadow effect of the island's mountains, as well as the mountains of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, creates wide variation in precipitation. The west coast is considerably wetter than the east coast. Average annual precipitation ranges from 6,650 millimetres (260 in) at Henderson Lake on the west coast (making it the wettest place in North America) to only 635 millimetres (25 in) at the driest recording station in the provincial capital of Victoria on the southeast coast's Saanich Peninsula. Precipitation is heaviest in the autumn and winter. Snow is rare at low altitudes but is common on the island's mountaintops in winter.

A notable feature of Vancouver Island is the extension of Mediterranean-type summer dryness to latitudes as high as 50°N. Only in the extreme north of the island near Port Hardy is the rainfall of the driest summer month as much as one fifth that of the wettest months from November to March. West coasts of other continents at similar latitudes have a practically even distribution of rainfall through the year.

Vancouver Island lies in the temperate rainforest biome. On the southern and eastern portions of the island, this is characterized by Douglas-fir, western red cedar, arbutus, Garry oak, salal, Oregon-grape, and manzanita. This is the heavily populated region of Vancouver Island, and a major area for recreation. The northern, western, and most of the central portions of the island are home to the coniferous "big trees" associated with British Columbia's coast — hemlock, western red cedar, amabilis fir, yellow cedar, Douglas-fir, grand fir, Sitka spruce, and western white pine. It is also characterised by broadleaf maple, red alder, sword fern, and red huckleberry.

The fauna of Vancouver Island is similar to that found on the mainland coast, with some notable exceptions and additions. For example, grizzly bears, mountain goats, porcupines, moose, skunks, coyotes, and numerous species of small mammals, while plentiful on the mainland, are absent from Vancouver Island. The island does support most of Canada's Roosevelt elk, however, and one species — the Vancouver Island Marmot — is unique to the island. The island's rivers, lakes, and coastal regions are renowned for their fisheries of trout, salmon, and steelhead. It has the most concentrated population of cougars in North America.

Vancouver Island was the location of the observation of the episodic tremor and slip seismic phenomenon.

History

Indigenous people

Main article: Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
The island is believed to have been inhabited by humans since the withdrawal of Ice Age glaciation some eight thousand years ago. By the late 1700s, the primary First Nations there were the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) on the west coast, various nations of the Salish language group on the south and east coasts, and the Kwakiutl on the center and north of the island. The National Maps show a nation of Vancouver consisting of the island and the mainland coastal regions from Queen Charlotte Sound to Cape Flattery.

European exploration

Europeans began to encroach on the island in 1774, when rumours of Russian fur traders caused the Spanish to send a ship, the Santiago north under the command of Juan José Pérez Hernández. In 1775 a second Spanish expedition, under Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, was sent. Neither actually landed.

Vancouver Island came to the attention of the wider world after the third voyage of Captain James Cook, who landed at Nootka Sound of the Island's western shore on March 31, 1778 and claimed it for the United Kingdom. The island's rich fur trading potential led the British East India Company to set up a single-building trading post in the native village of Yuquot on Nootka Island, a small island in the Sound.

The island was further explored by Spain in 1789 by Esteban José Martínez, who built Fort San Miguel on one of Vancouver Island's small offshore islets in the sound near Yuquot. This was to be the only Spanish settlement in what would later be Canada. The Spanish began seizing British ships and the two nations came close to war, but the issues were resolved peacefully with the Nootka Convention in 1792, in which both countries recognized the other's rights to the area. Supervising the British activities was Captain George Vancouver from King's Lynn in England, who had sailed as a midshipman with Cook, and from whom the island gained its name. While we know this Island today as Vancouver Island--after George Vancouver--the English explorer had not intentionally meant to name such a large body of land solely after himself. In his September 1792 dispatch log report for the British Admiralty, Captain Vancouver reveals that his decision here was rather meant to honour a request by the Spanish seafarer Juan Francisco Quadra that Vancouver

"would name some port or island after us both in commemoration of our meeting and friendly intercourse that on that occasion had taken place (Vancouver had previously feted Quadra on his ship);....and conceiving no place more eligible than the place of our meeting, I have therefore named this land...The Island of Quadra and Vancouver.

If Vancouver had been vain as some writers had charged, he could have chosen to name the entire Island exclusively after himself instead of sharing its name with Quadra and placing the latter's name before his. The newly discovered 'Quadra-Vancouver' island "was the most prominent name on maps of the coast, and appeared on most [contemporary] British, French and Spanish maps of the period. But as Spanish interests in the region dwindled, so did Quadra's name. The Hudson's Bay Company played a major part in the transition; by 1824 'Vancouver's Island' had become the usual designation in its correspondence" for the island. A quarter of a century later, Vancouver Island had become such a well known geographical feature, that the founding of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1849 gave this name full official status.

British settlement

Shortly thereafter, in 1846, the Oregon Treaty was signed by the British and the US to settle the question of the US Oregon Territory borders. It awarded all of Vancouver Island to what would be Canada, despite a portion of the island lying south of the 49th parallel. In 1849, the Colony of Vancouver Island was established. Following the brief governorship of Richard Blanshard, James Douglas, Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay post, assumed the role in 1851 — a position he would maintain for the next thirteen years.

The first British settlement on the island was a Hudson's Bay Company post, Fort Camosack, founded in 1843, and later renamed Fort Victoria. Fort Victoria became an important base during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858, and the burgeoning town was incorporated as Victoria in 1862. Victoria became the capital of the colony of Vancouver Island, then retained that status when the island was amalgamated with the mainland in 1866. A British naval base, including a large shipyard and a naval hospital, was established at Esquimalt, British Columbia in 1865, and eventually taken over by the Canadian military.

The economic situation of the colony declined following the Cariboo Gold Rush of 1861-62, and pressure grew for amalgamation of the colony with the mainland colony of British Columbia (which had been established in 1858). The colony's third and last governor, Sir Arthur Kennedy oversaw the union of the two colonies in 1866.

Economy

Vancouver Island's economy outside Victoria is largely dominated by the forestry industry, with tourism and fishing also playing a large role. Many of the logging operations are for paper pulp, in "2nd growth" tree farms that are harvested approximately every 30 years. In recent years the government of British Columbia has engaged in an advertising program to draw more tourists to beach resorts such as Tofino.

Logging operations involving old-growth forests such as those found on Clayoquot Sound are controversial, and have gained international attention through the efforts of activists and environmental organizations.

There are rapidly expanding vineyards and the island produces wines that outscored some French wines at the St. Catharines Wine Tasting of 2005 in blind evaluations.

Between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland there are several high voltage power cables (HVDC Vancouver-Island).

There is also a fast building IT field on Vancouver Island. High Speed Internet is delivered to the island from Shaw, Telus, CRTV and CRCN There are also many information sites such as and Vancouver Island Travel Wireless Internet connections can be found all over the island, many free for public use. Many coffee shops provide free wireless Internet access and charge an average of five cents a minute for using their computers.

Higher education plays an economic role in the Greater Victoria area being as both students and staff of the many post secondary schools number well over 50,000. The University of Victoria is the largest school on the island enrolling 19,475 students in 2006/2007 and employing 4,124 staff. Royal Roads University is much smaller with 2,268 students and 680 staff. Camosun College is also located on a few campuses across the Greater Victoria region and has 17,000 students and almost 1,000 staff (though close to half of the students are under the distance education umbrella). Malaspina University-College is Vancouver Island's other main university with its main campus in Nanaimo, as well as other campuses in Duncan, Parksville and Powell River. Malaspina represents a unique combination of a degree-granting university and a practical college. University Canada West, located in central Victoria, rounds out the list of degree granting institutions. There are also numerous community colleges and international education centres. Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific is an international school dedicated to the promotion of world peace, cooperation, and coexistence. It is named after former Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.

Transport

Sea

Marine transport is very important to Vancouver Island for access to the mainland of British Columbia and Washington. There are no bridges connecting the island to the mainland, although the idea of building one has been brought up many times. The only vehicle access to Vancouver Island is via ferries operated by BC Ferries, Washington State Ferry and Black Ball Transport Inc. There are six vehicle ferry routes:

BC Ferries

Crossing time: 1 hour 35 minutes; 8 sailings per day in the fall, winter, and spring and more in summer

  • Tsawwassen BC - Duke Point BC (13 km or south of Nanaimo)

Crossing time: 2 hours; 8 round trips daily

Crossing time: 1 hour 35 minutes; Sailings every 2 hours with extra sailings during the summer and holidays

Crossing time: 1 hour 20 minutes; 4 round trips daily

Washington State Ferries

Crossing time: 3 hours (not counting stops in the San Juan Islands)

Black Ball Transport

Crossing time: 1 hour 30 minutes; 1 or 2 round trips daily

Passenger-only service

In addition, there are three passenger-only ferry services from the mainland to Vancouver Island:

Victoria Clipper

  • Seattle WA - Victoria BC

Crossing time: 2 hour 45 minutes; 1 to 3 round trips daily

Victoria Express

  • Port Angeles WA - Victoria BC (operates May through September)

Crossing time: 1 hour

Victoria San Juan Cruises

  • Bellingham WA - Victoria BC (operates one trip per day May through October)

Crossing time: 3 hours

Rail

There are two remaining major railways on Vancouver Island.

The Southern Railway of Vancouver Island, which assumed control of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway from RailAmerica in July of 2006 offers general freight service on the Victoria-Courtenay main line (called the Victoria Subdivision by the railroad). The Port Alberni branch line (called the Port Alberni Subdivision by the railroad) has been out of service since late 2001. SVI also runs passenger service under contract with VIA Rail Canada. Western Forest Products operates Canada's last logging railway out of Woss, BC to Beaver Cove on the northern end of the island. The Former Canadian National railway out of Victoria to the Cowichan Valley was abandoned in the late 1980s/early 1990s and the former grade between Victoria and Sooke, and Shawnigan lake and Lake Cowichan is now a multi-use trail. The BC Forest Museum has a narrow gauge railway winding around the park, and the Alberni Pacific Railway operates during the summer from the restored E&N Railway station in Port Alberni to the McLean's Mill on former E&N Railway trackage.

Road

Victoria on Vancouver Island is one of the few places in North America where double-deck buses are used in the regular public transit system. They are part of the Greater Victoria bus service.

Proposals have been made for a "fixed link" to the mainland for over a century. Due to the extreme depth of the Georgia Strait and potential seismic activity, a bridge or tunnel would face monumental engineering, safety, and environmental challenges at a colossal cost (see link below).

Air

Victoria International Airport is the major airport on Vancouver Island. In 2005, it was the 9th busiest airport in Canada in terms of passenger movements (1,280,420). Five major carriers (Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz, Horizon Air, Pacific Coastal, and West-jet) offer a variety of flights of short and medium distance including to and from Seattle, Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Floatplane and helicopter traffic to and from Victoria's inner harbour accounts for approximately 300,000 additional passengers per year, making it the second busiest airport on Vancouver Island. Other smaller airports on Vancouver Island include Comox, Nanaimo harbour, and Campbell River.

See also

References

Notes

External links



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Last updated on Sunday March 09, 2008 at 16:15:58 PDT (GMT -0700)
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