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A British Columbia Primer
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POCKET DESERT
Scientists prefer to call it a "desertlike habitat." Whatever you call it, this small stretch of sand and cactus north of Osoyoos is one of Canada's geographical curiosities, containing plant and animal species found nowhere else in the country.
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BALLARD POWER SYSTEMS
Founded in 1979, this Burnaby company is creating the future of transportation. A world leader in the development of fuel-cell technology and a symbol of BC's burgeoning high-tech sector.
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MARIJUANA
Sure it's illegal, but we should be proud of producing the very best. Besides, it's our number one cash crop, providing jobs for hard-pressed rural communities. Just think what the government's missing in tax revenues.
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ROBSON BIGHT
The killer whale's playground. A stone beach near the north end of Johnstone Strait that is now an orca refuge named for pioneering whale researcher Michael Bigg. The south coast is one of the world's best places for viewing these fascinating mammals.
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BC RAIL
When it was the Pacific Great Eastern it was called "the railway from nowhere to nowhere." Then the province took over and transformed it into an engine for economic development. Connecting the coast to the Peace River, it hauls freight and offers passengers spectacular scenery. Not only that, it's a railway that turns a profit.
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WHALER'S SHRINE
This collection of wooden effigies and human skulls is actually not in BC at all--it sits in the basement of a New York museum, where it's been since it was smuggled out of the province in 1904. But negotiations have begun to repatriate the shrine to where it belongs, the Nuu-chah-nulth village of Yuquot on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
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ECOLOGICAL RESERVES
Since 1971 the province has created dozens of these protected areas, designed to save unique pieces of the natural world from the usual human misuse and neglect. We were the first place in Canada to implement such a program, and we still protect more endangered places than any other jurisdiction in North America.
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THE ST. ROCH
Built for the RCMP in 1928, it was the first vessel to navigate the famous Northwest Passage in a single season. It's housed at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, where fundraisers are trying to save it from the ravages of time.
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BURNS BOG
At 40 sq km, this ancient wetland is the largest domed peat bog in North America, not to mention the largest garbage dump west of Toronto. Despite repeated attempts to develop the site, located south of Richmond, it remains one of the province's unique ecosystems.
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CAPILANO SUSPENSION BRIDGE
Anyone afraid of heights should avoid this swaying footbridge 70 metres above the Capilano River in North Vancouver. For everyone else, it's a chance to cross the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world.
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