Rivers
This river flows through Duncan and is famous for tubing in summer and salmon runs in fall.
What is the Cowichan River?
In 1778, this British explorer became the first European to set foot on Vancouver Island, marking the beginning of European contact.
Who is Captain James Cook?
This famous old-growth forest area in MacMillan Provincial Park near Parksville features trees such as Douglas fir and western red cedar up to 800 years old.
What is Cathedral Grove?
This small mammal is found nowhere else on Earth except Vancouver Island.
What is the Vancouver Island marmot?
This national park reserve includes Long Beach.
What is Pacific Rim National Park?
This river originates in Strathcona and flows east to the Salish Sea.
What is the Campbell River?
In 1849, this organization was granted control of Vancouver Island for ten years to encourage British settlement, paying a nominal annual fee.
What is the Hudson’s Bay Company?
This Vancouver Island watershed became the site of Canada’s largest act of civil disobedience in 2021, with arrests tied to protests over logging in unprotected old-growth forest.
What is Fairy Creek?
This threatened whale species uses the waters off southern Vancouver Island as critical habitat and feeds primarily on Chinook salmon.
What are Southern Resident killer whales?
This observant activity draws thousands of visitors each year to the waters off southern Vancouver Island.
What is whale watching?
Most Vancouver Island rivers peak in winter due to this dominant hydrologic regime.
What is a rain-dominated (pluvial) regime?
After the Oregon Treaty of 1846, Britain retained Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands by drawing the boundary at this latitude.
What is the 49th parallel?
These three tree species dominate Vancouver Island's native coastal temperate rainforests, and are among the tallest and longest-lived trees in Canada.
What are western red cedar, Douglas-fir, and western hemlock?
Vancouver Island supports one of the highest cougar densities in North America largely because this competing predator is absent.
What are wolves?
This free outdoor concert held in Victoria’s Inner Harbour features the Victoria Symphony performing from a floating barge each summer.
What is Symphony Splash?
This river was named during Vancouver Island’s early gold-rush period, despite producing far more timber and hydroelectric power than gold.
What is the Gold River?
These treaties, signed between 1850 and 1854, involved land purchases from Indigenous Nations on Vancouver Island by the colonial government.
What are the Douglas Treaties?
According to provincial statistics, the forestry sector contributes approximately this amount annually to British Columbia’s GDP, with Vancouver Island being one of the province’s most productive forest regions.
What is between $12-15 billion per year?
This coastal tree species, native to Vancouver Island, thrives in foggy, salt-spray environments and is often found near beaches, estuaries, and river mouths.
What is Sitka spruce?
This group of islands near Ucluelet is a premier destination for kayaking and camping.
What are the Broken Islands Group?
This river supplies drinking water to Greater Victoria and feeds Victoria's drinking reservoir.
What is the Sooke River?
After European contact, this disease repeatedly devastated Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest, including Vancouver Island communities.
What is small pox?
This massive Douglas fir near Port Renfrew is one of Canada’s largest trees and may be up to 1,000 years old.
What is Big Lonely Doug?
This ecosystem, once widespread on southeastern Vancouver Island, supports the highest number of species at risk in British Columbia.
What are Garry Oak Ecosystems?
This four-day music festival held at Laketown Ranch near Youbou and is Western Canada’s largest outdoor country music event.
What is Sunfest Country Music Festival?