PSU Magazine Spring 1994

Steen hung by the ship's bowsprit to take this photo. Stuart Wasserman, author of this article, appears on the far left. board member fo r the S ierra C lub of We tern Canada. "These areas have no t been adeq uate ly surveyed by the gove rnment, few biological studies have been comp leted, yet huge valleys (10,000 acres to 100,000 acre in size) are being licensed away and are vulnerable to clear cutting by the logg ing companies even before the people of the province know what they look like." Friends of McAllister say he was among the first in Canada to propose "intern at ionalizing" the issue of cutting down one of the world's last great temperate rain fo rests before, in McAlli ter' word , "it is a ll gone and the world rea lize too late the gran<l theft of it all." 6 PSU Magaz ine McAllister as embled sc ienti t , natura list , and five photographer for the expedition. Says teen, "I was surprised with the eminence of the people on board, particularly the presence of Bri ·tol Foster, a former director of British Columbi a's Provincial Mu eum and past director of Briti h Co lumbia's ecologica l reserve program during the ' Os." McAlli ter charged exped ition member 12 a day for food, but the hefty tab fo r the boat charter, the fue l, and the ervice of the captain came from a French donor. The ba e of operations for the exped ition wa a 57-foot triple-masted arctic schooner built during the '30s and sk ippered under the able hand of Sven Johansson, a wede who at age 62 topped counting his birthday . With a ll members on board, Johan on' ship , North Star of Herschel Island, et ail from Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island . The plan was to sa il acros to the mainland, but a heavy nor'we ·ter fo rced the ship to rake refuge in a bay on Gi lfo rd l land in the Broughton Archipelago. G il ford i the large ti land in the chai n , which upports hundreds of protected coves filled with abundant wildlife including Orea whale . Fate led the scientists to begin their study there. O nce the exped iti on reached the mainland, the members were faced with a different kind of wildlife. "Early in the trip we hiked on a well– traveled gri::ly trail, ometh ing unavailable in most parts of the world," recall teen. The trail connected with bear day bed which Steen could easily identify by the ma hed and compacted gra - es and heavily eaten almonberry bu hes. Big bear tracks in the muddy part of the trail were also ev ident. The lush river valley, with its rich salmon runs, is prime gri zz ly bear hab itat. teen wa lked the trail with bear repel lent in hand, his forefinger near the trigger. And he poke aloud to the bears. Everyone in the expedition had been adv ised to do so as a afety precaution. "Hello Bear," called out the exped ition members. "Hello Bear. Hello Bear." Some chanted it like a mantra. "The danger," Steen recall from hi Boy cout day , "is that you will Steen studied fungi and other organisms while in British Columbia.