Annual Report WESTERN CANADA COMMITTEE WILDERNESS · for the year ended 30 april 2004 western canada wilderness committee annual report

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2004

WESTERN CANADA

WILDERNESSCOMMITTEE

AnnualAnnualReportReport

BOARD of DIRECTORSChairMike GildersleeveTreasurerAlice EatonDirectors at LargeKevin BellBob BroughtonJennifer CampagnoloIan MackenziePaul MorganAnnette TannerExecutive AppointeesJoe FoyMatt Jong, CMA

Volunteers are an essential part of the WildernessCommittee and this past year was no exception. Our of-fices continued to involve greater numbers of peoplethrough volunteer and intern programs. A few of the manytasks that were performed by our dedicated volunteers andinterns included: Victoria’s Stop the Working Forest cam-paign which relied heavily on volunteer efforts, as did Van-couver’s research program. Both our BC and Manitoba Saveour Parks campaigns were conducted with countless hoursof volunteer energy. Volunteers also play a vital role in ad-ministration, field work, public outreach and fundraising.To find out more about Wilderness Committee volunteeropportunities in your community please visitwww.wildernesscommittee.org. A big Thank You goesout to everyone who donated their valuable time.

Our Volunteers

Temperate Rainforests ..................... 4Boreal Forests ..................................... 6Canada’s Species at Risk ............... 8Pacific Marine ................................. 10Raising the Bar on Public Policy ... 11Public Education ............................ 12Research .......................................... 13Financial Statements ...................... 14

Long time members will know that the first few years of the new millenium have not been easy for thoseworking to protect the environment. Like many groups, we’ve been struggling with rising inflationary costs,stagnant funding and, worse, public policy agendas where the environment has slipped near the bottom. Butthis past year we hit a winning formula by going back to where we started 24 years ago — citizen engagementin defence of wild places and wild life.

Public outreach and media coverage peaked this year as our flagship campaigns captured nationalattention. Our door to door educational canvasses in Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto andmany smaller towns and cities were highly successful, increasing our membership by 8 per cent and providingfinancial stability not seen since the early 1990s. Our Grassroots Distribution Team hand-delivered a recordnumber of our educational newspapers to restaurants, doctor’s offices and other public spaces right acrossCanada. And, we were able to get our parks and wilderness preservation message out in new ways includingradio and TV ad campaigns focused on particular issues.

We were inspired by the many people who joined us on photo expeditions, trail surveying trips, marchesand information rallies in defence of Canada’s wild places. In addition to increasing the scope of our work withFirst Nations’ communities across Western Canada, we were also able to use our retail sales capacity to helpbring record amounts of non-timber forest products to market from First Nations. These items, ranging fromsmoked salmon to teas, jams and soaps, all provide jobs from the harvest and manufacture of materials fromintact wild forests, helping to build an economic case for preservation.

There has been simply too much good work to list in this short letter. To learn more you’ll need to read therest of the report. On behalf of all our board, staff and volunteers its been exciting to be at the crest of a much-needed movement to re-ignite citizen action on behalf of Canada’s wilderness heritage.

Joe Foy Gwen Barlee Andrea Reimer Matt Jong

Executive Team Message

OUR KEY WORK

Campaign Director Policy Director Executive Director Comptroller

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Every campaign year has its unique flavour — thisyear’s has certainly been the number and diversity

of allies we’ve worked with on key campaigns. Thesenew and strengthened relationships with both tradi-tional and non-traditional allies have made our effortsstronger. One such example is in the Elk Creek Rain-forest where we are working with community groupsand First Nations who are determined to protect one ofthe last remnants of old growth rainforest — and keyspotted owl habitat — in BC’s Fraser Valley. We contin-ued to support the efforts of local environmental groupsin nearby Maple Ridge who have worked tirelessly since2001 to have Blue Mountain protected from commer-cial logging and added to Golden Ears Provincial Park.

The Manning-Skagit park system is of critical im-portance to the survival of the northern spotted owl. Inthe heart of this park system is the Silverdaisy area alsoknown as the “doughnut hole”, which is not part of thepark complex in a legal sense but certainly in an eco-logical sense. This area was promised as future park-land by a previous government. However, when the BCLiberals were elected in 2001 they walked away fromthis agreement and they are now logging it under theirown BC Timber Sales program. We did several photoexpeditions into the area to document these habitat-

CAMPAIGNSBlue Mountain

Bugaboo RainforestCathedral GroveCedar is Sacred

Clayoquot SoundEast Creek

East Vancouver IslandElk Creek

Goat RiverInland Rainforest

Lost ValleyManning/Skagit Parks

South Chilcotin Mountains ParkStoltmann Wilderness

Upper Walbran Valley

destructive activities and then mounted a public edu-cation campaign that included a public campout, me-dia work and public outreach. Other parks continuedto need our attention too. In response to ongoing threatsfrom the BC government to roll back the boundaries ofthe South Chilcotin Mountains Park we continued avigourous public outreach campaign and met with keyelected officials on the issue. Thousands now caredeeply about this park and we remain determined toprevail in its protection.

Big wilderness areas on the mainland coast remaineda top priority. In the Stoltmann Wilderness we

supported the Squamish Nation’s land use plan by as-sisting with their efforts to develop sustainable eco-nomic activities, including the production of a recrea-tion access guide for their traditional territories andongoing support for the innovative work of the SimsGuardians Youth Program. We began work with theSt’at’imc Nation, surveying points of cultural signifi-cance in Lost Valley.

Our multi-year research project with the DavidSuzuki Foundation investigating the extent of loggingof ancient western redcedars on BC’s coast, found thatthis tree species is rapidly disappearing. Oldgrowth

Temperate Rainforests

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SPECIAL THANKSAnnette TannerPaul Morgan

2003-2004 STAFFGwen BarleeNik CuffJoe FoyAndy MillerLouise PedersenChris PlayerAndrea ReimerKen Wu

redcedar has both immense cultural and ecological im-pacts. The research showed that in some areas it ap-pears redcedar is being targeted for its high commer-cial value through a process known as high-grading.

Giant cedars don’t just live on BC’s coast. Canada ishome to the only inland temperate rainforest in

the world, an ecological marvel which stretches fromsouth of Prince George down to Idaho. We producedand widely distributed an educational report, whichhighlighted the importance of protecting this area, in-cluding the Upper Goat River and the Bugaboo Rain-forest, from industrial logging and development. Wealso produced a beautiful poster of one of the Bugabooregion’s ancient redcedars.

On Vancouver Island, our Victoria Office con-tinued its campaign to protect ancient forests on

Vancouver Island, in particular, the Upper Walbran Val-ley and the little-known East Creek rainforest onNorthern Vancouver Island. Our public outreach effortsincluded slideshows, garnering media attention regard-ing record-sized giant trees discovered in the UpperWalbran Valley, taking media and other interested par-ties into the valley, and co-producing a documentary

on our first expedition into the threatened East Creekrainforest. We also partnered with the FrancophoneSociety of Victoria, where francophone WildernessCommittee volunteers offered guided tours through theendangered Walbran Valley and gave slideshows to Vic-toria’s francophone community. The Victoria Officehelped raise public awareness on parks issues and theneed to complete the Sea-to-Sea Green-Blue Belt;a network of interconnected terrestrial and marineparks stretching from the Sooke Basin to the SaanichInlet and north to Saltspring Island.

The main focus for our Mid-Island Chapter hasbeen Cathedral Grove. Although tiny, the Grove is themost famous and well-visited ancient rainforest inBC. For the past four years, we’ve been working hardto challenge a decision by the BC government toplow a two-hectare parking lot into the Grove. Theproposed parking lot would remove trees that pro-vide a critical wind buffer for the area’s famous Doug-las-fir giants. It would also destroy the habitat of anendangered species, the Roosevelt elk. CathedralGrove is the front line of the Mid-Island Chapter’songoing campaign to protect the remaining pocketwilderness areas of public forest lands on the EastCoast of Vancouver Island.

Defending the Canadian boreal forest, one of thelargest intact ecosystems in the world, has led the

Wilderness Committee in the past years to expand eastof British Columbia to Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.The boreal forest covers roughly 35 percent of Canada’sland mass and is recognized as a globally importantcarbon sink, helping to regulate and moderate the plan-et’s climate. The boreal forest is subject to destructive,large scale commercial logging, mining, and hydro-elec-tric generation activities which compromise the eco-logical integrity of this extraordinary ecosystem, whereless than 10 percent is currently protected.

In Manitoba, we continued this past year to worktowards creating a large, interconnected protected ar-

eas network in Manitoba’s East ShoreWilderness Area on the east side ofLake Winnipeg. Part of the largest un-broken section of boreal forest on theplanet, the 150,000 square kilometreEast Shore Wilderness Area presentsan incredible opportunity for protect-ing the threatened woodland caribouand for supporting sustainable liveli-hoods through community-driveneconomic activities. We also contin-

CAMPAIGNSBow Valley Corridor

Clean Energy CoalitionEast Shore Wilderness Area

Kananaskis CountryManigotagan River

Poplar/Nanowin RiversSouth Atikaki

Stop Logging inManitoba’s Parks

Stop the Grizzly Hunt

Boreal Forestsued our active involvement in the East Side PlanningInitiative, where we advocated for a process that isbased on sound scientific principles, which takes anecology-first approach and which prohibits any newland allocations for industrial resource extraction be-fore the planning process, including scientific studiesand public consultations, is complete. We are workingto ensure that a majority of the East Shore WildernessArea is fully protected from industrial exploitation.

As part of our public education efforts, we pro-duced 50,000 educational reports with focus on thewoodland caribou and the East Shore Wilderness Area,as well as 20,000 postcard mailers to the Manitoba gov-ernment asking Manitobans to voice their support forconservation, sustainable development and meaning-ful community consultations in the land use planningprocess that is currently taking place for the region.From our office in Winnipeg we continue to push formore protected areas within the boreal forest as wellas urge the Manitoba government to put an end to re-source extraction within Manitoba’s provincial parks(see page 11). We also persevere in our fight to protectthe endangered woodland caribou by making surethat critical woodland caribou habitat is safeguardedfrom industrial development (see page 9).

2003-2004 STAFFNick ChamchukWilliam GrangerGray JonesAndrea ReimerRon Thiessen

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In Alberta, the year got off to a rocky start with a sur-prise announcement from the Alberta government

in relation to a court case brought forward by SierraLegal Defence Fund on behalf of the Clean Energy Coa-lition (member groups include the Wilderness Com-mittee, Environmental Resource Centre, Toxics WatchSociety and Pembina Institute). The government usedits power to pass new legislation to retroactively shieldtwo coal-fired power plant expansions, owned byEPCOR and TransAlta, from scrutiny by the AlbertaCourt of Appeal by taking away the need for power com-panies in Alberta to prove domestic demand before ap-

proval is given to new power projects by the Energy andUtilities Board. It was an extremely rare move for a gov-ernment anywhere in Canada and spells trouble forAlbertans and air quality in the province.

Our Edmonton door-to-door canvass continued itstireless efforts to talk to local residents about the manychallenges facing the province’s wilderness and wild-life. Issues people are concerned about this year in-cluded the grizzly hunt, the proposed CheviotMine in the Mountain Wilderness area and de-velopment in the Big Horn Wilderness, a cam-paign we helped launch in the mid-1990s.

We were on the ground in southern Al-berta too, helping the Kananaskis Trail UsersAssociation publish and distribute an educa-tional report about the impact of funding cutson Kananaskis Country, a recreation meccanear Calgary. In Canmore we continued tomonitor and provide input on proposed developmentsin the Bow Valley Corridor, a wildlife “highway” in theRocky Mountains.

This year we were pleased to re-launch our To-ronto office, which has been dormant since 1999. Door-to-door outreach allowed us to talk to people about wil-derness and wildlife issues across the country.

CAMPAIGNSGrizzly Bear

Mountain CaribouNorthern Spotted Owl

OrcaSpecies at Risk Act

Woodland Caribou

Canada’s Species at RiskD espite being more than ten years in the

works, the recently introduced federal Species atRisk Act (SARA) is a paper tiger, largely reliant on politi-cal will, discretionary wording and weak habitat provi-sions. Because of its inadequacies our work continuesto ensure that Canadian wildlife and their habitat areadequately protected.

There is no greater case for the need to strengthenthe Species at Risk Act (SARA) than the plight of the

northern spotted owl — Canada’s most endangeredspecies. As such it has been the primary focus of ourongoing species at risk campaigns. Highlights in 2003-2004 included:

• Launching the first test case of SARSARSARSARSARAAAAA inMarch with key allies (David Suzuki Founda-tion, Sierra Legal Defence Fund, Forest Eth-ics and Sierra Club of Canada). The Sierra Le-gal Defence Fund, who brought the legal peti-tion forward on our behalf, requested that thefederal Environment Minister make an emer-gency intervention to prevent the northernspotted owl from going extinct in Canada.

• Receiving extensive media coverage andpublic support from our SARA challenge,

brought much-needed attention to the precari-ous state of the owl and the weakness of Cana-da’s endangered species’ legislation. Thishelped familiarize the public not only with theimminent threat to the owl but also thebroader issue of Canada’s 441 species at risk.

• Producing a report, entitled An Alternate Re-covery Strategy for the Northern Spotted Owl inBritish Columbia written by wildlife biologistAndy Miller, a former representative on thegovernment’s Spotted Owl Recovery Team.

• Continuing to do on-the-ground work withincritical spotted owl habitat. We went on nu-merous expeditions, documenting and photo-graphing destructive logging practices.

• Making a submission to BC’s Chief Foresteradvocating that the level of logging withinspotted owl habitat range in BC be reduced.We also provided formal critiques on indi-vidual logging proposals that would, if ap-proved, have a negative impact on the survivalof this oldgrowth dependent bird.

• Publishing an educational report which fo-cused on the need to protect all of Canada’sspecies at risk. 90,000 copies were distributed.

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2003-2004 STAFFGwen BarleeNick ChamchukNick CuffJoe FoyWilliam GrangerGray JonesAndy MillerLouise PedersenAndrea ReimerRon Thiessen

Many other species are also not faring well inCanada due to our weak endangered species leg-

islation. Another species at risk that we fought for isthe southern orca resident population, which inhab-its the international waters between BC and Washing-ton State. The southern resident population is listed inCanada under SARA but is not protected under the USEndangered Species Act (see page 10).

Another transboundary species’ habitat we haveworked to protect is the southern population of themountain caribou, most recently through publishingand distributing educational reports on its inland rain-forest home in BC’s Columbia Mountains. These highlyendangered mountain caribou forage on lichens foundonly in the region’s shrinking oldgrowth forests.

From our Manitoba Office, the Wilderness Commit-tee has been at the forefront in launching efforts to

protect the East Shore Wilderness Area, which offersthe opportunity to preserve one of the largest unspoiledwilderness areas in the entire boreal forest region. TheEast Shore Wilderness Area, which is found on the eastside of Lake Winnipeg, provides critical habitat for theprovince’s threatened woodland caribou populations.Although the majority of herds in the East Shore Wil-derness Area are presently stable, because of habitat lossto logging and hydro development the caribou popula-tion is only half of what it was 50 years ago. The threatsare imminent as neither the federal Species at Risk Actnor Manitoba’s Endangered Species Act protects wood-land caribou or its habitats. Over the past year, the Wil-derness Committee has successfully worked with thelogging corporation Tembec to achieve cutting defer-rals and harvest block removals in core woodland cari-bou habitat. Based on our research and public outreach,our supporters have been vocal in encouraging theManitoba government to make woodland caribou pro-tection a key objective in all land use planning in theEast Shore Wilderness Area.

In BC and Alberta our efforts to stop the grizzlyhunt are ongoing.

SPECIAL THANKSSierra Legal Defence Fund

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Pacific Marine EcosystemCAMPAIGNSFish Farm MoratoriumOrcaOffshore Oil and GasWild Pacific Salmon

2003-2004 STAFFGwen BarleeJoe FoyAndrea ReimerTeresa RooneyKen Wu

Canada’s Pacific Coast is home to an extraordinarycoastline and a vast array of life — Pacific salmon,

peregrine falcons, orcas and horned puffins. A rich abo-riginal culture has been sustained by plentiful resourcesfrom land and sea in the North Pacific for thousands ofyears. However, the Pacific coastal ecosystems are frag-ile and under increasing pressure from industrial de-velopment and global warming.

Wild salmon have left an indelible mark on theculture and economy of the North Pacific. Unfortu-nately wild salmon are now threatened throughout BC.Some of the primary threats are impacts from fish farms,streamside habitat destruction, climate change andover-fishing. The Wilderness Committee continued itsefforts to educate the public on the adverse impacts offish farms, by participating in a series of informational

rallies and producingand distributing thou-sands of Born to be WildPacific salmon cards.

The WildernessCommittee also playedan important role inbuilding public aware-ness about the threats of

offshore oil and gas development in coastal BC. We gar-nered media attention, organized a public forum withthe Living Oceans Society, and participated in anotherforum with Dr. David Suzuki.

In Canada, the southern resident orca population,which lives in the international waters between BC

and Washington State, is listed as endangered underthe Canadian Species at Risk Act. However, the US Na-tional Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) denied thesesame whales protection under the powerful US Endan-gered Species Act claiming that although the southernresident orca population was endangered, it was not“significant” enough to receive legal protection. TheWilderness Committee and the Georgia StraitAlliance, represented by Sierra Legal DefenceFund, joined forces with a coalition of US en-vironmental groups to give the orcas their dayin court. In December 2003 the court ruled inthe orca’s favour and as a result the US govern-ment was forced to revisit its decision to denythis endangered orca population listing underthe US Endangered Species Act. This importantdecision gives the southern resident orca popu-lation a fighting chance of survival.

Raising the Bar on Public PolicyCAMPAIGNSBC FactsOffshore Oil and GasProvincial Parks DefenceProposed Working ForestInitiative

2003-2004 STAFFGwen BarleeJoe FoyGray JonesAndy MillerAndrea ReimerTeresa RooneyRon ThiessenKen Wuand countless volunteers

At the foundation of the Wilderness Committee is a belief that the public has the right, the ability and

the duty to seek positive public policy changes. We alsowork to stop regressive policy directions to ensure thatthe interests of wilderness and wildlife are protected.Most of our work this year fell into the latter category,with the exception of the publication of a ground-break-ing report on the plight of oldgrowth redcedar inCanada (see page 4) and our joint work on the BC Factsproject with other BC environmental organizations.

The Wilderness Committee’s Victoria Office spear-headed a major outreach effort through rallies,slideshows, media work and publications to educate thepublic about the BC government’s Working Forest Ini-

t i a -t i v e ,whichwouldp r e -v e n tn e wp a r k sf r o mb e i n gc r e -

ated and facilitate the privatization of public land inthe province. As a result of this intense public aware-ness campaign, nearly all of the 2,700 respondents whoprovided input to the government’s public consultationprocess opposed the Working Forest Initiative.

In response to a federal decision to review the cur-rent moratorium on offshore oil and gas development,we helped raise public awareness, particularly amongstour thousands of BC supporters (see page 9).

Defending BC’s world famous park systemagainst privatization and industrial development wassadly a major part of our work this year. We took thelead on fighting user fees, funding cut backs and pro-posed logging, commercial developments and miningin parks. We also had to respond to no less than threepark-attacking legislative intiatiatives by the BC gov-ernment. The public response was overwhelming andmedia interest in this issue remains high. In Manitoba,our campaign efforts also proved fruitful when in April2004 the extensive 8,000 square kilometre Poplar/Nanowin Rivers Park Reserve located in the EastShore Wilderness had interim protection extended un-til 2009. We also continued our hard-fought campaignto ensure that Manitoba’s provincial parks become offlimits to logging and mining.

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Public Education2003-2004 STAFF

Gwen BarleeNick Chamchuk

Kathryn ColbyBri Drouin

Lucy FloodSue FoxJoe Foy

William GrangerGray Jones

Emily MillardDennis McCrossan

Greg McIntyreLouise Pedersen

Chris PlayerAndrea ReimerTeresa Rooney

Ian RussellHeidi Sherwood

Ron ThiessenSteve Tindley

Alexandra WoodsworthAnton van WalravenDiana Vander Veen

Ken WuNathan Zahn

...and countless volunteers

EDUCATIONAL REPORTSBeautiful British Columbia —For Sale?

Caribou at the Crossroads

BC’s Inland Rainforest

Proposed Working Forest

Canada’s Endangered Species!

Mining in Parks: Can you dig it?

MAILERSEast Shore Wilderness Area

Poplar/Nanowin Rivers

Born to be Wild: Pacific Salmon

When the Wilderness Committee was founded in 1980 there was little information available to the public onCanadian wilderness and wildlife issues. We focused on our mission to research, publish, and distribute

information about threatened Canadian wilderness and wildlife in order to build broad public support for preser-vation. We dreamed we would become a leader in public education campaigns and, through mobilizing citizensupport, play a pivotal role in preserving our country’s remarkable wilderness and wildlife heritage.24 years later we have achieved that dream, reaching out to five million people every year through door-to-doorcanvass, printing and distributing educational materials such as newspapers, three-part mailers, calendars andvideos, holding rallies and events, conducting school talks, maintaining outreach centres in five Canadian cities,and through our web sites and local, national and international media coverage. Together, these actions havehelped to save millions of hectares of wilderness. Projects in 2003-04 included:

MULTI-MEDIARadio AdsSea to Sky Corridor (various)

VideosSave the East Creek Rainforest

Anderson Creek

Save Lost Valley

Save the Spotted Owl

INFORMATION KIOSKSSouth Chilcotin Mountains Park

Manning Provincial Park

Blue Mountain

EVENTS & RALLIESBritish Columbia (198)Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario (29)

DOOR TO DOORCANVASSYear RoundEdmonton, Toronto,Winnipeg, VictoriaVancouver/Lower Mainland,SeasonalBird’s Hill, Orillia,Jasper,Whistler, Bowen Island, SunshineCoast, Salt Spring Island,Southern Gulf Islands, Comox,Courtenay and Kelowna

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Research2003-2004 STAFFGwen BarleeNik CuffJoe FoyWilliam GrangerGray JonesAndy MillerLouise PedersenChris PlayerAndrea ReimerRon ThiessenAnton van WalravenJeremy WilliamsKen Wu

SPECIAL THANKSPaul MorganAnnette Tanner

MAPSArea ProjectsBlue MountainBugaboo Inland RainforestCaribou Range MappingEast Shore WildernessElk Creek RainforestGrizzly Bear Management AreaManigotagan River ParkNorth Coast Vision MappingPoplar/Nanowin Rivers ParkSquamish Nation RecreationGuideNorthern Spotted Owl HabitatVancouver Island —Conservation Vision

Research is the backbone of the Wilderness Committee’s work and we are proud of our ongoing achievements in this area. One highlight over the years was establishing the world’s first upper-canopy, temperate rainfor-

est research station. Research at our station led scientists to double the number of known insect species existingin Canada from approximately 33,000 to 66,000. We also use mapping extensively as part of our ConservationVision project aimed at mapping all of the remaining tracts of wilderness in Western Canada. Over the past fewyears we have intensified our research on the effects of logging activities in endangered species habitat, and havecontinued our on-the-ground presence in key areas. These efforts combined with our mapping projects providecritical support for our many successful campaigns. We also conduct scientific research in conjunction withother groups and institutions. Our research in the 2003-04 project year included:

EXPEDITIONSTemperate RainforestEast CreekElk Creek RainforestLost ValleyManning ParkMarbled Murrellet SurveyStoltmann Wilderness Expeditionwith Squamish Nation YouthVarious Spotted Owl SurveysWalbran Valley

Boreal ForestVarious Parks in ManitobaWanipigow River

RESEARCH REPORTSAlternate Recovery Strategy forthe Northern Spotted Owl

Manitoba Species at Risk

RESEARCH PROJECTSBugabooCoastal CedarElk CreekBoreal Non-timber ProductsWorking Forest - Tourism Industry

SPECIAL PROJECTSManitoba Parks DatabaseCanadian Parks Database

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foundationgrants15%

membership26%

donations fromindividuals

49%

sales10%

2003-04REVENUES

foundationgrants15%

membership28%

donations fromindividuals

47%

sales10%

Financial Statement for the year ending April 30, 2004

2003-2004 STAFFMona Lisa Amirsetia

Deb DrouinMatt Jong, CMA

REVENUES 2004 2003Membership dues 401,479 408,262Donations 714,181 635,132Grant Revenue 230,205 215,973Sales of ed. material 166,054 168,200Unreceipted donations 49,344 54,647

1,561,263 1,482,214

EXPENDITURESCampaign, member &grant project costs 834,612 727,221Sales costs 171,842 160,304Canvass costs 237,526 270,612Administration costs 144,675 143,479Amortization 18,266 14,709Interest to Finance Assets 6,369 6,295

1,581,197 1,493,104

Net Income (loss)for the year (19,934) (10,890)Members� equity,beginning of year 301,999 312,889

Members� equity,end of year 282,065 301,999

ASSETS 2004 2003CurrentCash and equivalent 166,270 137,138Accounts receivable 7,165 23,357Inventory 199,517 250,026Prepaid expenses 11,037 5,903

383,989 416,424

Capital assets 161,715 177,971

545,704 594,395

LIABILITIES AND MEMBERS� EQUITYCurrentBank Indebtedness 9,820 32,818Accounts payable &accrued liabilities 78,534 96,874Notes payableto related parties 65,919 81,008Current portion oflong-term loans payable 17,818 1,054Current portion ofmortgage payable 4,391 3,565

176,482 215,319

Mortgage payable 87,157 77,077Net Assets 282,065 301,999

545,704 594,395

2002-03REVENUES

In 2003-2004 our revenues stabilizedwith strong performance in all areas.Income was up by $100,000 andadditional revenue funded campaignsand public outreach �administrationcosts dropped from 10 per cent to 9 percent of total expenditures. Cost awardsagainst our 2002 spotted owl court casehurt our bottom line but as we are notrunning an operating deficit, we are ona strong financial footing for next year.

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Auditor’s Report for the year ending April 30, 2004To the Members ofWestern Canada Wilderness Committee

We have audited the statements of financial positionof Western Canada Wilderness Committee (the“Committee”) as at April 30, 2004 and 2003 and thestatements of operations and changes in net assetsand cash flows for the years that ended. Thesefinancial statements are the responsibility of theCommittee’s management. Our responsibility is toexpress an opinion on these financial statementsbased on our audits.

Except as explained in the following paragraph, weconducted our audits in accordance with Canadiangenerally accepted auditing standards. Thosestandards require that we plan and perform an auditto obtain reasonable assurance whether the financialstatements are free of material misstatement. Anaudit includes examining, on a test basis, evidencesupporting the amounts and disclosures in thefinancial statements. An audit also includes assessingthe accounting principles used and significantestimates made by management, as well as evaluatingthe overall financial statement presentation.

In common with many charitable organizations, theCommittee derives revenue from unreceipted

donations, the completeness of which is not suscepti-ble to satisfactory audit verification. Accordingly, ourverification of these revenues was limited to theamounts recorded in the records of the Committeeand we were not able to determine whether anyadjustments might be necessary to unreceipteddonation revenue, net revenue, assets and net assets.In our opinion, except for the effect of adjustments, ifany, which we might have determined to be necessaryhad we been able to verify the completeness of theunreceipted donations referred to in the precedingparagraph, these financial statements present fairly,in all material respects, the financial position of theCommittee as at April 30, 2004 and 2003 and theresults of its operations and its cash flows for theyears then ended in accordance with Canadiangenerally accepted accounting principles. As requiredby the Society Act (British Columbia), we report that,in our opinion, these principles have been applied ona basis consistent with that of the preceding year.

Davidson & CompanyChartered AccountantsVancouver, Canada August 5, 2004

2003-2004 AUDITORDavidson & CompanyChartered Accountants

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VICTORIA OFFICE, STORE & OUTREACH CENTRE651 Johnson Street, Victoria, BC V8W 1M7Phone: (250) 388-9292 Fax: (250) 388-9223

ALBERTA OFFICE310-10168 100A Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 0R6Phone: (780) 420-1001 Fax: (780) 420-1475

MANITOBA OFFICE2-70 Albert Street, Winnipeg, MB R3B 1E7Phone: (204) 942-9292 Fax: (204) 949-1527

ONTARIO OFFICE439 King Street W, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON M5V 1K4Phone: (416) 644-8443

The Western Canada Wilderness Committee is a charitable societyfounded in British Columbia in 1980. With over 27,000 members, and

30,000 additional donors and volunteers, we are Canada�s largestmembership-based wilderness protection group.

We are united in our mission to protect Canada�s biodiversity throughstrategic research projects and grassroots

public education. We value wilderness as absolutely vitalto the health of people and communities.

Join us. Your $30 membership fee makes a world of difference.

Front cover: Sydney Inlet, Clayoquot Sound, Adrian Dorst.Back cover: Caribou, Terry Parker.

Printed in Canada on recycled paper. © 2004 Wilderness Committee.

VANCOUVER STORE & OUTREACH CENTRE227 Abbott Street, Vancouver, BCPhone: (604) 683-2567

WILDERNESS COMMITTEE227 Abbott Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 2K7 CANADAToll free: 1-800-661-9453Phone: (604) 683-8220 Fax: (604) 683-8229

www.wildernesscommittee.org

W E S T E R N C A N A D A

NATIONAL OFFICE341 Water Street, Vancouver, BCPhone: (604) 683-8220 Fax: (604) 683-8229