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Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park covers 23 ha of the Bulkley River Valley, on the east side of Driftwood Creek, a tributary of the Bulkley River, 10 km northeast of the town of Smithers. The park is accessible from Driftwood Road from Provincial Highway 16. It was created in 1967 by the donation of the land by the late Gordon Harvey (1913–1976) to protect fossil beds on the east side of Driftwood Creek. The beds were discovered around the beginning of the 20th century. The park lands are part of the asserted traditional territory of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation.〔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)〕〔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)〕 ==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: # concerns over visitor safety as falling rocks from the shale cliff face may endanger visitors collecting fossils; # the loss of the palaeontological resource (also, fossil removal contravenes the (Park Act )); # 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 BC Parks, in partnership with the (Bulkley Valley Naturalists ), and the Smithers Rotary Club and funded by the Canadian Federal Government, BC Parks, the (Wetzin’kwa Community Forest ), and the (National Trails Coalition ).〔National Trails Coalition, news and events http://www.ntc-canada.ca/news.php (accessed July 15, 2011)〕 A new bridge over Driftwood Creek was built, a new wheel-chair accessible trail constructed, and new signage put in place. The new interpretive signs explain both the cultural heritage of the area, including 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. File:Driftwood Canyon bridge.jpg|Bridge over Driftwood Creek at the start of the interpretive trail. File:Driftwood Canyon interpretive sign June 2010.JPG|Interpretive sign on Driftwood Canyon trail. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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