| Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park | |
|---|---|
  Map of British Columbia | |
 Interactive map of Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park | |
| Location | Range 5 Coast Land District, British Columbia, Canada |
| Nearest city | Smithers, BC |
| Coordinates | 54°49′34″N127°01′19″W / 54.82611°N 127.02194°W /54.82611; -127.02194 |
| Area | 23 ha. (0.23 km²) |
| Established | January 4, 1967 |
| Governing body | BC Parks |
Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park is aprovincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park covers 23 hectares (57 acres) of theBulkley River Valley, on the east side of Driftwood Creek, a tributary of theBulkley River, 10 km northeast of the town ofSmithers. The park is accessible from Driftwood Road fromProvincial 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 theWet'suwet'en First Nation.[1][2]
Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park protects internationally significantEocene fossil beds. It is the northernmost site in North America with fossilizedEocene insects, and also contains fossils of ancestral salmon, trout, and suckers, includingEosalmo driftwoodensis.[3] Ongoing paleontological research continues at the site, but fossil collection by the public is prohibited.
The Provincial Park also contains a high priority and under-representedecosection in British Columbia (a remnant Bulkley Basin Ecosection), and an under-representedbiogeoclimatic sub-zone consisting of dry, cool sub-boreal spruce.
Paleontological and geological studies of similar deposits to Driftwood Canyon occurring to the east and further south in theinterior of British Columbia go back to work carried out byGeorge Mercer Dawson andJohn William Dawson in the 1870s to 1890s as part of the survey of British Columbia for theGeological Survey of Canada,[4] and D.P. Penhallow's work onCenozoic Era plants.[5][6] Fossil fish from Driftwood Canyon in theCanadian Museum of Nature include specimens collected in the 1930s;[7] however, the Driftwood Canyon (also known as Driftwood Creek beds) fossils have only been studied since the 1950s.[8][9][10][11][12]
In 2010 theinterpretive trail was redeveloped byBC Parks, in partnership with the Bulkley Valley Naturalists, and the SmithersRotary Club and funded by the Canadian Federal Government,BC Parks, the Wetzin’kwa Community Forest, and the National Trails Coalition.[13] A new bridge over Driftwood Creek was built, a new wheel-chair accessible trail constructed, and new signage put in place. The newinterpretive signs explain both the cultural heritage of the area, includingWet'suwet'en First Nation fishing and other cultural practices in the area, both traditional and present day, as well as thesub-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 paleontologists active at the site, and feature photos of some of the important fossils discovered there.
A short interpretive trail leads visitors to a cliff-face exposure ofEocene 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 theMcAbee Fossil Beds Heritage Site west ofKamloops in southernBritish Columbia. ThePrinceton Chert fossil beds in southernBritish Columbia are alsoEocene, but primarily preserve an aquatic plant community.
The Driftwood Canyon fossil beds are best known for the abundant and well-preserved insect and fish fossils (Amia,Amyzon, andEosalmo).[14] The insects are particularly diverse and well preserved, and includewater striders (Gerridae),aphids (Aphididae),leaf hoppers (Cicadellidae), green lacewings (Neuroptera),spittle bugs (Cercopidae),march flies (Bibionidae), scorpionflies (Mecoptera),fungus gnats (Mycetophilidae), snoutbeetles (Curculionidae), andichneumon wasps.[8][15][16][17] A fossil species of green lacewing (Neuroptera,Chrysopidae) was in 2013 namedPseudochrysopa harveyi to honour the founder of the park, Gordon Harvey.[18] Fossil feathers are sometimes found and rare rodent bones are sometimes found in fishcoprolites. Most recently, fossil palm beetles (Bruchidae) were described from the beds, confirming the presence of palms (Arecaceae) in the local environment in the early Eocene.[19]
Fossils of plant remains are rare, but include up to 29genera of plants.[1] The most common plant fossils found are leafy shoots of the dawn redwood,Metasequoia, and the floating fernAzolla primaeva as mats of plants or as isolated fossils.[9] Leaves of alder (Alnus sp.) are also found, as well as the leaves or needles and seeds of pines (Pinus sp.), the golden larch (Pseudolarix sp.), cedars (Chamaecyparis and/orThuja spp.), redwood (Sequoia sp.), and rareGinkgo andsassafras (Sassafras hesperia) leaves. Apermineralized pine cone (Pinus driftwoodensis) and associated 2-needle foliage was described from the site in the 1980s.[20] Rare flowers and the seeds of flowering plants have been collected, includingUlmus,Florissantia, andDipteronia, a genus of trees related to maples (Acer. spp.) that today grows in eastern Asia.[21] 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.[22]
Initial attempts atradiometric dating of the Driftwood Creek beds were unsuccessful,[23] however a volcanic ash exposed in the lake shale beds wasradiometrically dated at 51.77 ± 0.34 million years ago.[24]
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 ofKamloops and donated in 2000 to theThompson Rivers University (TRU) paleontology collections and is on display atThompson Rivers University.[citation needed] A fossil bird complete with feathers collected from Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park in 1970 by German visitors Margret and Albrecht Klöckner, was repatriated to British Columbia and donated to the Royal British Columbia Museum/Victoria some 38 years later. Both bird fossils were described and identified in 2019 as acoliiform bird and a member of theSongziidae respectively.[25]
In 2014 two fossilmammal jaws were reported from the Park, identifying an earlytapir relative (cf.Heptodon) andhedgehog relative namedSivacola acares (which means small forest dweller), the first Eocene North American records of these animals outside ofEllesmere Island in theCanadian Arctic orColorado andWyoming.[26]
Small collections of fossils are housed in the Bulkley Valley Museum in Smithers and by theBC Parks office in Smithers, theRoyal BC Museum in Victoria BC, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN), theBurke Museum of Natural History & Culture inSeattle WA, and university collections. Significant collections of fossils from Driftwood Canyon are in private ownership.[1]
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:
The cessation of fossil collecting at Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park is consistent with British Columbia's new Fossil Management Framework[27] which seeks to:
A car park just off the road access leads to an interpretive sign and a bridge across Driftwood Creek.
54°49′34″N127°01′19″W / 54.826°N 127.022°W /54.826; -127.022
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