The Cascade Region encompasses the southern BC Coast Mountains as well as the Lower Mainland. The influence of the Pacific Ocean here means that the western side of these ranges receive high levels of precipitation, with deep snowpacks accumulating in the high country. Surprisingly, given that this is the most densely populated area of the province (almost half of BC's residents live in this region) there is still significant wilderness close at hand. Places like Manning, Garibaldi, and the Stein Valley provide wilderness escapes to city dwellers. While many appreciate the privilege of having wilderness so close to urbanization, such proximity to an urban setting is not especially gentle on nature. Already the region's parks are beginning to feel the pressures of a growing population, which is expected to double by 2021. Thus these remaining wilderness areas need to be especially well safeguarded in order to maintain them for future generations.
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The Cascade region's parks each have their own special features. Garibaldi and Manning Parks are British Columbia's most popular wilderness areas, offering excellent camping, extensive hiking to alpine meadows and glacier fed lakes, as well as fine crosscountry skiing in the winter. The Stein is also a living museum of cultural and natural history.
Those areas of the Cascade Region which have not been protected have been very heavily altered by clearcut logging, urbanization, and agriculture. This has resulted in the fragmentation or elimination of wilderness. For example, the Cascade Region was once covered by forests of low elevation trees, including Interior and Coastal Douglas fir, Coastal Western Hemlock, and Western red cedar, but now there are almost no remaining low elevation old growth forests. Because old growth forests are now increasingly rare, at least 16 old growth dependent species, such as the spotted owl and Pacific giant salamander, are currently threatened here. With this loss of habitat and biodiversity happening rapidly, the parks already protected in the Cascade region become even more important.
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