Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park

Coordinates: 54°49′34″N 127°01′19″W / 54.826°N 127.022°W / 54.826; -127.022
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park
Map showing the location of Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park
Map showing the location of Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park
Map of British Columbia
LocationRange 5 Coast Land District, British Columbia, Canada
Nearest citySmithers, BC
Coordinates54°49′34″N 127°01′19″W / 54.82611°N 127.02194°W / 54.82611; -127.02194
Area23 ha. (0.23 km²)
EstablishedJanuary 4, 1967
Governing bodyBC Parks

Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park is a

Wet'suwet'en First Nation.[1][2]

Access

A car park just off the road access, leads to an interpretive sign and a bridge across Driftwood Creek. A short interpretive trail leads visitors to a cliff-face exposure of Eocene shales that were deposited in an inter-montane lake. Interbedded within the shales are volcanic ash beds, the result of area volcanoes that were erupting throughout the life of the Eocene lake that produced the shales. Preserved within the shale formations are plant, animal and insect species that inhabited the area over 50 million years ago. Similar fossil beds in Eocene lake sediments are found at the McAbee Fossil Beds Heritage Site west of Kamloops in southern British Columbia. The Princeton Chert fossil beds in southern British Columbia are also Eocene, but primarily preserve an aquatic plant community.

The BC Parks management plan for Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park lists these conservation attributes:

  • internationally-significant Eocene fossil beds: most northerly site in North America with fossilised Eocene insects; fossils also include ancestral salmon, trout and suckers, including
    Eosalmo driftwoodensis
    ;
  • site of ongoing paleontological research;
  • remnant Bulkley Basin Ecosection (high priority, underrepresented ecosection) SBSdk (dry cool sub-boreal spruce subzone; underrepresented biogeoclimatic subzone).

Limited personal fossil collecting was originally permitted in Driftwood Canyon Park, and the site is listed in several tourism and rock collection guides as a place to visit for this activity. However, in the past 5 or so years following recommendations to cease unrestricted public and commercial collection of fossils, BC Parks has ended fossil collecting by members of the public due to:

  1. concerns over visitor safety as falling rocks from the shale cliff face may endanger visitors collecting fossils;
  2. the loss of the palaeontological resource (also, fossil removal contravenes the Park Act);
  3. as well as concerns that soil and rocks dislodged during fossil collecting will contribute to sediment in Driftwood Creek, potentially impacting downstream fish spawning habitat.

In 2010 the interpretive trail was redeveloped by

Wet'suwet'en First Nation fishing and other cultural practices in the area, both traditional and present day, as well as the sub-boreal spruce forest
of the area and the significance of the fossil resource. At the public fossil site at the trail terminus, signs describe some of the research findings of the site based on supplied testimony from palaeontologists active at the site, and feature photos of some of the important fossils discovered there.

  • Bridge over Driftwood Creek at the start of the interpretive trail.
    Bridge over Driftwood Creek at the start of the interpretive trail.
  • Interpretive sign on Driftwood Canyon trail.
    Interpretive sign on Driftwood Canyon trail.

Palaeontology

Paleontological and geological studies of similar deposits to Driftwood Canyon occurring to the east and further south in the

Bruchidae) were described from the beds, confirming the presence of palms (Arecaceae) in the local environment in the early Eocene.[18]

Fossils of plant remains are rare, but include up to 29

Acer. spp.) that today grows in eastern Asia.[20] A fossil fern described from Driftwood Canyon is likely a Beech fern (Phegopteris connectilis group), a fern found in temperate climates across the Northern Hemisphere.[21]

Initial attempts at

radiometrically dated at 51.77 ± 0.34 million years ago.[23]

Bird feathers are infrequently collected from the shales; however, 2 bird body fossils have been found. In 1968 a bird body fossil was collected by Pat Petley of

Songziidae respectively.[24]

In 2014 two fossil

Canadian Arctic or Colorado and Wyoming.[25]

Small collections of fossils are housed in the Bulkley Valley Museum in Smithers and by the

Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture in Seattle WA, and university collections. Significant collections of fossils from Driftwood Canyon are in private ownership.[1]

The cessation of fossil collecting at Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park is consistent with British Columbia's new Fossil Management Framework[26] which seeks to:

  • clarify the rules governing the management and use of fossils;
  • manage impacts on fossils from other activities;
  • provide for the stewardship of significant fossil sites;
  • raise internal and external awareness of the framework and the importance of fossils;
  • build knowledge of the nature and extent of the resource in BC; and
  • clarify the rights and obligations of the public, business, government and other stakeholders.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Ludvigsen, R. 2001. The fossils at Driftwood Canyon provincial park: A management plan for BC Parks. Denman Institute for Research on Trilobites, 339 Denman Road, Denman Island, BC V0R 1T0 http://www.bvcentre.ca/files/External/FossilMgmtPlan-Ludvigsen2001.pdf (accessed July 14, 2011)
  2. ^ Approved Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park Management Direction Statement http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/planning/mgmtplns/drift_canyon/driftwood.pdf (accessed July 14, 2011)
  3. ^ National Trails Coalition, news and events http://www.ntc-canada.ca/news.php (accessed July 15, 2011)
  4. ^ Dawson, J.W. (1883). "On the Cretaceous and Tertiary floras of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories". Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. v.I (Section IV): 15–34.
  5. ^ Penhallow, D.P. (1908). "A report on Tertiary plants of British Columbia, collected by Lawrence M. Lambe in 1906 together with a discussion of previously recorded Tertiary floras". Report 1013. Canada Department of Mines, Geological Survey Branch. pp. 1–167.
  6. hdl:1807/71961
    .
  7. ^ Wilson, M.V.H. 2009. McAbee Fossil Site Assessment Report. Online PDF. 60 pp. Accessed January 4, 2014.
  8. ^ a b Rice, H.M.A. (1959). "Fossil Bibionidae (Diptera) from British Columbia". Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin. 55: 1–47.
  9. ^
    doi:10.1139/b67-126
    .
  10. ^ Rouse, G.E.; Hopkins, W.S. Jr.; Piel, K.M. (1970). "Palynology of Some Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary Deposits in British Columbia and Adjacent Alberta". GSA Special Papers. 127: 213–246.
  11. doi:10.1139/e05-012
    .
  12. ^ Archibald, S.B.; Greenwood, D.R.; Smith, R.Y.; Mathewes, R.W.; Basinger, J.F. (2012). "Great Canadian Lagerstätten 1. Early Eocene Lagerstätten of the Okanagan Highlands (British Columbia and Washington State)". Geoscience Canada. 38 (4): 155–164.
  13. ^ Wilson, M.V. (1977). "Middle Eocene freshwater fishes from British Columbia". Life Sciences Contributions, Royal Ontario Museum. 113: 1–66.
  14. doi:10.1139/e77-104
    .
  15. doi:10.1093/ae/39.3.174
    .
  16. doi:10.1139/z96-126
    .
  17. S2CID 130797848
    .
  18. PMID 24821798
    .
  19. ^ Stockey, R.A. 1983. Pinus driftwoodensis sp. n. from the early Tertiary of British Columbia. Botanical Gazette' 144, p. 148-156.
  20. PMID 11454632
    .
  21. S2CID 257139984
    .
  22. ^ Hills, L.V.; Baadsgaard, H. (1967). "Potassium-argon dating of some Lower Tertiary strata in British Columbia". Canadian Petroleum Geologists Bulletin. 15: 138–149.
  23. doi:10.1139/E04-095
    .
  24. S2CID 135271937
    .
  25. S2CID 130316011
    .
  26. ^ Fossil Management Framework. "Land Tenures Branch - Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations". Archived from the original on 2012-06-10. Retrieved 2012-06-20. (accessed June 20, 2012)

54°49′34″N 127°01′19″W / 54.826°N 127.022°W / 54.826; -127.022

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Driftwood_Canyon_Provincial_Park&oldid=1193261163"