Central British Columbia Coast Research Articles

Sisubiotus hakaiensis sp. nov. (Tardigrada, Macrobiotidae), a new tardigrade species from Calvert Island (British Columbia, Canada)

Tardigrades reports from British Columbia (Canada) trace back to 1908 and numerous species have been recorded from this region, despite the relatively few published sampling studies. We describe by integrative taxonomy (light microscopy morphology, morphometrics, and DNA sequencing) a new tardigrade species, Sisubiotus hakaiensis sp. nov. from the British Columbia central coast. The new species has been found in moss collected from a vertical rock outcrop near the Hakai Institute Calvert Island Field Station. Sisubiotus hakaiensis sp. nov. differs from all the other known species in the genus by the presence of a labyrinthine layer inside the egg process walls, whereas no consistent differences in the animals were found. This unique egg characteristic therefore required the amendment of the Sisubiotus generic diagnosis to account for the presence of the labyrinthine layer inside the egg process walls.

Ocean Indicators Predict Range Expansion of an Introduced Species: Invasion History of the European Green Crab Carcinus maenas on the North American Pacific Coast

An introduced population of European green crabs Carcinus maenas (Linneaus, 1758) was established in San Francisco Bay prior to 1991. Their subsequent northern range expansion is linked to larval transport in the Davidson Current to northern California (1993), southern Oregon (approximately 1996), the Oregon and Washington coastal estuaries and the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia (1998). Range expansions through larval transport to the central British Columbia coast occurred before 2010, to Haida Gwaii in 2020, and into the inland Salish Sea in 2015 and 2016. Both the range expansions of C. maenas and local abundance are strongly linked to oceanic factors during their larval development. These include (1) strong northward flow of coastal waters during winter; (2) warm surface water temperatures (>10°C for larval development); and (3) coastal circulation patterns that keep larvae close to shore, where they can be carried by wind and tidal currents into estuaries and embayments to settle. The strongest year classes and largest range expansions occurred during the last two major El Niño events. The 1997 to 1998 El Niño resulted in the colonization of embayments in Oregon, coastal Washington, and on the west coast of Vancouver Island, while the El Niño of 2015 to 2016 and the Pacific Warm Blob are linked to the range expansion into the Salish Sea. More local range expansions along the west coast of Vancouver Island, to the central British Columbia Coast, to Haida Gwaii, and inside the Salish Sea occurred during non-El Niño years.

Assessing lead sources in fishes of the northeast Pacific Ocean

Abstract Industrial lead (Pb) emissions have changed oceanic Pb concentrations and isotopic compositions significantly over the last century. Asian industrial emissions are currently the dominant Pb sources in the northwest and central Pacific Ocean. This study investigated major Pb sources in the northeast Pacific Ocean (inland, coastal, and open ocean), where no comprehensive data exist currently. We measured Pb concentrations and isotopic compositions of a variety of shellfish and fish collected in British Columbia (BC) and used them for Pb source apportionment applications in the marine environment. We identified a clear trend in Pb isotopic compositions, from higher 206Pb/207Pb in inland fish to lower 206Pb/207Pb in open ocean fish, with coastal fish possessing mid-range values. These results indicate that natural sources of Pb dominate freshwater ecosystems in the central BC coast, whereas anthropogenic Pb sources prevail in western North America and the northeast Pacific. Pacific herring that forage along BC coast exhibit Pb isotopic composition that deviates toward the Chinese Pb regression line. We estimate an Asian origin for about one third of their total Pb. This study shows that Pb isotopes in aquatic organisms are valuable tools for assessing Pb sources across coastal and offshore regions of the northeast Pacific, with great potential for identifying primary foraging areas of marine organisms.

The Ascidiacea collected during the 2017 British Columbia Hakai MarineGEO BioBlitz.

A three-week intensive marine biodiversity survey was carried out at a small remote region of the central British Columbia coast at and near the Calvert Island Marine Station (Hakai Institute) July 21-August 11, 2017. The survey included daily sampling by the staff and a number of visiting taxonomists with specialties covering all the major groups of invertebrates. Many marine habitats were sampled: rocky and sand/gravel intertidal and tidepools, eelgrass meadows, shallow and deeper subtidal by snorkel and Scuba, plus artificial surfaces including the sides and bottom of the large floating dock at the Institute and settlement plates set out up to a year previously at various subtidal sites. Many new species were recorded by all the taxonomists. In this very biodiverse remote area 36 ascidian species were identified: 18 Aplousobranchia, 7 Phlebobranchia, and 11 Stolidobranchia, comprising a total of 15 solitary and 21 colonial species including two undescribed colonial species. This represents almost one third of all the known North American species from Alaska to southern California in this limited very remote area. Remarkably, only two are possible non-natives. Diplosoma listerianum (Milne-Edwards, 1841), was collected mostly on natural substrates including deeper areas sampled by Scuba, and one colony occurred on a settlement plate. A few Ciona savignyi Herdman, 1882 were collected, two from natural substrates and four from artificial surfaces. There were no botryllids, Styela clava Herdman, 1881, Didemnum vexillum Kott, 2002, or Molgula manhattensis (De Kay, 1843), though these are all common and sometimes very abundant non-natives in other parts of BC and along much of the U.S. west coast. Most of the species encountered are known in northern California, Washington, and southern BC, but only a small number are represented among the few known Alaska species.

Warming From Recent Marine Heatwave Lingers in Deep British Columbia Fjord

AbstractWhile satellite data indicate that the surface expression of the North Pacific marine heatwave, nicknamed “The Blob,” disappeared in late 2016, Argo float and ship‐based conductivity‐temperature‐depth data show that warm conditions persisted below the surface mixed layer through at least March 2018. We trace this anomalously warm subsurface water from the open ocean through Queen Charlotte Sound to Rivers Inlet, on British Columbia's central coast. In Rivers Inlet, deep water below the sill depth continues to be 0.3° to 0.6 °C warmer than the monthly average, suggesting that impacts of this marine heatwave have persisted in coastal waters at least 4 years after its onset, with potentially substantial effects on coastal ecosystems.

An inventory of rock glaciers in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada, from high resolution Google Earth imagery

ABSTRACT Little is known about the presence, distribution, age, or activity of rock glaciers in the British Columbia Coast Mountains of western Canada. Reflecting debris accumulation and mass wasting under a periglacial climate, these rock glaciers describe a geomorphic response to permafrost regimes that may or may not presently exist. An inventory of rock glacier landforms in the eastern front ranges of the Coast Mountains, using high-resolution Google Earth imagery, documented 165 rock glaciers between lat. 50°10ʹ and 52°08ʹ N. The majority of these rock glaciers occur at sites positioned between 1,900 and 2,300 m above sea level, where rain shadow effects and continental air masses result in persistent dry, cold conditions. Morphology and field observation suggest that these features contain intact ice. The rock glaciers occupy predominately northwest- to northeast-facing slopes, with talus-derived rock glaciers largely restricted to north-facing slopes. Glacier-derived features outnumber talus-derived features by a ratio of 5:1. Several of the inventoried rock glaciers were located up valley from presumed Younger Dryas terminal moraines, indicating that they formed after 9390 BP. Dendrogeomorphological investigations at one rock glacier record contemporary activity that resulted in 1.3 cm/yr of frontal advance since AD 1674. This inventory is the first to document the presence of rock glaciers in the Coast Mountains and supports preliminary understandings of permafrost distribution in the southwestern Canadian Cordillera.

Late Quaternary landscape evolution in a region of stable postglacial relative sea levels, British Columbia central coast, Canada

After retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet (CIS) and subsequent glacio‐isostatic adjustment of the central coast of British Columbia (BC), Canada, a complex coastline emerged as relative sea level rapidly reached equilibrium and maintained stability over the end of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. This study provides a late Quaternary reconstruction of the landscape evolution of a geographically distinct location on the central BC coast, northwest Calvert Island, which experienced a re‐advance of the CIS near the end of the Late Pleistocene and minimal subsequent relative sea‐level change. Geomorphological observations from LiDAR imagery, sedimentological and palaeoecological evidence from exposures, cores and shovel pits, and a robust luminescence and 14C‐based chronology spanning the last 15 000 years are used to reconstruct the landscape of northwest Calvert Island following CIS retreat. A single‐aliquot regenerative dose protocol that was developed specifically for luminescence dating of the sediments on Calvert Island was utilized in this study. Localized proglacial sedimentation was linked to the glacial re‐advance experienced at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Extensive coastal reconfiguration (e.g. rapid shoreline progradation of >1 m a−1) occurred in the absence of extensive RSL change, which was the main driver of coastal change elsewhere along the BC coast. Changes in climate, small magnitude changes in RSL, and fire all probably played a role in isolated aeolian landform development and stabilization in the study area. An important contribution of this study is the documentation of the multi‐disciplinary approach for reconstructing palaeogeography, using multiple geochronological methods, micro‐ and macro‐sedimentology, the palaeoecology inferred from both macro and microfossils (e.g. diatoms and foraminifers), stratigraphy, field mapping and remote sensing. In addition, these findings inform our understanding of the drivers of coastal sedimentary processes, particularly in the temperate coastal rainforest region of BC, and the role that fire may play in those processes. Coastal palaeogeography studies in the region will become increasingly important as discoveries of Late Pleistocene human habitation along the coastal migration route continue to be documented.

A glacial readvance during retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, British Columbia central coast – ERRATUM

A glacial readvance during retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, British Columbia central coast – ERRATUM

Declining size and age of rockfishes (Sebastes spp.) inherent to Indigenous cultures of Pacific Canada

Yelloweye Rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) and Quillback Rockfish (S. maliger) are important foods in the traditional diets of Indigenous people in coastal British Columbia (BC), Canada. These species are vulnerable to overexploitation because fecundity increases with maternal size or age, yet large-scale fisheries truncate size and age structures. In BC's Central Coast, Indigenous fishers have observed declines in the size and abundance of rockfishes, particularly since the commercial over-exploitation that occurred in the late 1970s and 1980s. To address this conservation concern, we analyzed fishery-independent data collected annually since 2003 by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) and the Pacific Halibut Management Association (PHMA). These surveys are coast-wide, yet we focused on data for BC's Central Coast and vicinity. Linear mixed models tested for temporal trends in size and age while controlling for environmental variables. IPHC and PHMA surveys differed in field methodology and were analyzed separately. For Yelloweye Rockfish, fork length declined at average rates of −3.53 mm yr−1 (IPHC: 2003–2015) or −4.26 mm yr−1 (PHMA: 2006–2015), and age declined at average rates of −0.73 yrs yr−1 (IPHC: 2003–2012) or −0.86 yrs yr−1 (PHMA: 2006–2012). The fork length of Quillback Rockfish declined at an average rate of −4.57 mm yr−1 (PHMA: 2006–2015). Although rockfish management in BC has become more conservative since the early 2000s, the abundances of Yelloweye and Quillback Rockfish remain at historical low levels. Our results, along with the body of work that precedes them, suggest that loss of reproductive potential associated with size and age truncation could be hampering recovery. Current management criteria, however, are biomass-based and might fail to address this problem. Incorporating old age and large size structures into management objectives could enhance rockfish recovery and help maintain the cultural integrity of Indigenous people who rely on these species.

A glacial readvance during retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, British Columbia central coast

AbstractDescriptions of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreat after the last glacial maximum have included short-lived readvances occurring during the Older and Younger Dryas stadial periods and into the Holocene, but identification of these events has been largely limited to southwest and central British Columbia and northwest Washington State. We present evidence of a late Pleistocene readvance of Cordilleran ice occurring on the central coast of British Columbia on Calvert Island, between northern Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii. Evidence is provided by sedimentological and paleoecological information contained in a sedimentary sequence combined with geomorphic mapping of glacial features in the region. Results indicate that a cold climate existed between 15.1 and 14.3 cal ka BP and that ice advanced to, and then retreated from, the western edge of the island between 14.2 and 13.8 cal ka BP. These data provide the first evidence of a major fluctuation in the retreating ice sheet margin in this region and suggest that a cold climate was a major factor in ice readvance. These data contribute to the understanding of past temperature, ice loading and crustal response, the nature of ice margin retreat, and the paleoenvironment of an understudied area of the Pacific Northwest.

Latest Pleistocene and Holocene behaviour of Franklin Glacier, Mt. Waddington area, British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada

Franklin Glacier is an 18-km-long valley glacier that originates in a broad icefield below the west face of Mt. Waddington in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada. Radiocarbon-dated wood samples from the proximal faces of lateral moraines flanking Franklin Glacier show that the glacier expanded at least nine times since 13,000 cal. yr BP. A probable Younger Dryas advance of Franklin Glacier at 12,910–12,690 cal. yr BP followed the late glacial retreat and down wasting of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet from ca. 16,000 to 12,900 cal. yr BP. During the succeeding early Holocene warm period, Franklin Glacier appears to have retreated significantly, leaving no record of glacial expansion until the mid-Holocene when it repeatedly advanced at 6360–6280, 5470–5280 and 4770–4580 cal. yr BP. Down wasting of the glacier surface after ca. 4770–4580 cal. yr BP was followed by intervals of expansion at 4260–4080, 3210–3020 and 2620–2380 cal. yr BP. Following ice expansion at ca. 2620–2380 cal. yr BP into trees over 224 years in age, there is no record of the glacier activity until 1570–1480 cal. yr BP when Franklin Glacier thickened and advanced into young subalpine fir trees. During the ‘Little Ice Age’, advances at 800–680, 610–560 and 570–510 cal. yr BP preceded a mid-19th to early 20th century advance that saw Franklin Glacier attain its maximum Holocene extent. The dendroglaciological record at Franklin Glacier is among the most comprehensive recovered from the British Columbia Coast Mountains and showcases the complexity of mid- to late Holocene glacier expansion in the region.

Toward a luminescence chronology for coastal dune and beach deposits on Calvert Island, British Columbia central coast, Canada

The Quaternary geology of the central coast of British Columbia contains a rich and complex record of glacial activity, post-glacial sea level and landscape change, and early human occupation spanning the last ∼10,000 years. At present, however, this region remains a largely understudied portion of coastal North America. This study describes the luminescence characteristics of quartz and K-feldspar from coastal dune and beach sands on Calvert Island and develops a suitable optical dating protocol that will allow for a more rigorous chronology for post-glacial landscape evolution and human occupation on British Columbia's central coast. Luminescence signals from Calvert Island quartz are dim, and appear to lack the so-called “fast” component that is most desirable for optical dating. K-feldspar signals are sufficiently bright for optical dating. We test and refine a single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) protocol for K-feldspar specific to Calvert Island samples through a series of dose recovery and preheat plateau tests. Two approaches for correcting a sample age for anomalous fading are compared and a correction for phototransfer is introduced and applied. Measured fading rates vary from sample to sample implying that, in this region, it is not sufficient to rely on two or three representative fading rates as has sometimes been done elsewhere. Refined age estimates show consistency with independent radiocarbon dating control and help identify radiocarbon-dated organic-rich sediments that have been reworked.

Opposing forces: Evaluating multiple ecological roles of Pacific salmon in coastal stream ecosystems

Resource flows and disturbance from species migrations can alter the productivity, structure and function of an ecosystem. Annual mass migrations of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) to coastal watersheds import vast quantities of potentially limiting nutrients that have been shown to increase primary and secondary productivity in streams and lakes. Substrate disturbance during spawning can also export nutrients and reduce primary and secondary production. Here we study the impacts of these dual roles of salmon on stream invertebrates. We collected benthic macroinvertebrates in 15 streams prior to and following peak salmon spawning on British Columbia's central coast. Along with other habitat measurements including stream water chemistry, temperature, and watershed size, we investigated the effects of salmon on invertebrate δ15N, δ13C and biomass density (mg/m2) among 15 streams and within 5 streams, upstream and downstream of barriers to spawning salmon. We found that stream invertebrates assimilate salmon‐derived nutrients in proportion to availability but invertebrate biomass density declines in both seasons with increasing salmon density. Benthic disturbance appears to be the cause of this decline in the fall, but the decline in the spring may be due to the slow recovery of invertebrates from substrate disturbance the previous fall or salmon nutrients may be indirectly driving declines in spring invertebrate biomass by subsidizing other trophic levels and eliciting a trophic cascade.

Stock‐Specific Migration Pathways of Juvenile Sockeye Salmon in British Columbia Waters and in the Gulf of Alaska

AbstractWe outlined the route and relative timing of juvenile Sockeye Salmon Oncorhynchus nerka migration by analyzing stock composition and relative CPUE in marine sampling conducted in coastal British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska. Variation at 14 microsatellites was analyzed for 10,500 juvenile Sockeye Salmon obtained from surveys conducted during 1996–2011. Using a 404‐population baseline, we identified the sampled individuals to 47 populations or stocks of origin. Stock compositions of the mixtures increased in diversity in more northerly sampling locations, indicating a general northward movement of juveniles. The primary migration route of Columbia River and Washington stocks was northward along the west coast of Vancouver Island, with a majority of the juveniles subsequently migrating through Queen Charlotte Sound and Dixon Entrance. Fraser River stocks migrated principally through the Strait of Georgia and Johnstone Strait. Some Fraser River populations, such as the Cultus Lake population, appeared to spend little time rearing in the Strait of Georgia, as individuals from this population were primarily observed in July samples from Hecate Strait, Dixon Entrance, and Southeast Alaska. Other Fraser River populations, such as the Chilko Lake and Quesnel Lake populations, were widely distributed during July surveys, as they were observed from the Gulf of Alaska to the Strait of Georgia. For the British Columbia central coast and Owikeno Lake stocks, not all individuals migrated northward in the summer: some individuals were still present in local areas during the fall and winter after spring entry into the marine environment. Juvenile Fraser River Sockeye Salmon dominated the catch of juveniles at the Yakutat, Prince William Sound, Kodiak Island, and Alaska Peninsula sampling locations. There was a wide divergence among stocks in dispersion among sampling locations.Received September 26, 2013; accepted June 6, 2014

Lichenometric dating of little ice age glacier activity in the central british columbia coast mountains, canada

The ittle ce ge behaviour of glaciers in the central ritish olumbia oast ountains, anada, was described by conducting lichenometric surveys of hizocarpon spp. found on recently deposited moraines in the itimat and acific ranges. At attullo lacier in the southern itimat ange, surveys across four sets of nested lateral moraines describe advances prior to the late thirteenth century, 1550–1610, 1680–1710, and 1850 ad. In the onarch cefield area in the northern acific ange, ittle ce ge moraines stabilized prior to 1380–1430 ad, the mid‐seventeenth and mid‐eighteenth centuries, and in the mid‐nineteenth century. The timing of these moraine‐building episodes corresponds closely to the intervals of glacier expansion recorded in complementary studies in the region. These findings indicate that most glaciers in the region reached their maximum downvalley ittle ce ge extent prior to 1780 ad, and suggest that climate forcing likely contributed to regionally synchronous glacier fluctuations.

Environmental Bargaining and Boundary Organizations: Remapping British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest

In recent decades, the creation of conservation areas has been a significant and contested trend in resource peripheries around the globe, embracing the “remapping” of resource extents, tenures, and values and thereby land use patterns and regional development trajectories. Environmental nongovernmental organizations (ENGOs) have emerged as key actors in the conflicts underlying this remapping, as advocates of environmental values and opponents of vested economic and political interests engaged in large-scale resource commodification. Remapping is contentious because it is inescapably normative, rendering moral judgments and alterations of property rights and the meaning of sustainable development. The outcomes of remapping are highly contingent, driven by environmental bargaining processes that describe the formal and informal interactions among ENGOs, industrial interests, different levels of government, and other actors with conflicting interests, strategies, and alliances. This article explores how conflicts were resolved in the creation of the Great Bear Rainforest on British Columbia's central coast. Conceptually, the stakeholder model approach to resource conflict is elaborated by emphasizing the roles of ENGOs as advocates and representatives of environmental values within scientific boundary organizations created specifically to be key facilitators in the bargaining process. The study draws on forest policy documents, records of negotiation, surveys of the region's ecological and socioeconomic structures, and field visits. The analysis reveals the Coast Information Team as the multirepresentative scientific boundary organization that developed a shared, accepted multilayered geographic information system of the region. This map provided a “shared currency” and the basis for agreement regarding (1) land use zoning at multiple scales, (2) ecosystem-based management, and (3) conservation mapping.

Tree-ring derived Little Ice Age temperature trends from the central British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada

Most glaciers in the British Columbia Coast Mountains reached their maximum Holocene extent during the Little Ice Age. Early- and late-Little Ice Age intervals of expansion and retreat fluctuations describe a mass-balance response to changing climates. Although existing dendroclimatic records provide insights into these climatic fluctuations over the last 400yr, their short durations prohibit evaluation of early-Little Ice Age climate variability. To extend the duration of these records, submerged coarse woody debris salvaged from a high-elevation lake was cross-dated to living chronologies. The resulting chronology provides the opportunity to reconstruct a regional June–July air-temperature anomaly record extending from AD1225 to 2010. The reconstruction shows that the intervals AD1350–1420, 1475–1550, 1625–1700 and 1830–1940 characterized distinct periods of below-average June–July temperature followed by periods of above-average temperature. Our reconstruction provides the first annually resolved insights into high-elevation climates spanning the Little Ice Age in this region and indicates that Little Ice Age moraine stabilization corresponds to persistent intervals of warmer-than-average temperatures. We conclude that coarse woody debris submerged in high-elevation lakes has considerable potential for developing lengthy proxy climate records, and we recommend that researchers focus attention on this largely ignored paleoclimatic archive.

Dendroglaciological investigations of mid- to late-Holocene glacial activity in the Mt. Waddington area, British Columbia Coast Mountains, Canada

Dendroglaciological investigations near Mt. Waddington in the central British Columbia Coast Mountains provide an enhanced perspective of Holocene glacial activity. Field investigations at Confederation, Franklin, and Jambeau glaciers led to the discovery of subfossil wood mats encased in glacial deposits and glacially sheared stumps buried beneath till. Radiocarbon-dated wood collected from valley-bottom and lateral moraine sites at Confederation Glacier suggest that an early-Holocene advance occurred at c. 5665 cal. yr BP, followed by succeeding intervals of glacier expansion at c. 3700 and 3500 cal. yr BP. At Jambeau Glacier detrital wood mats buried close to the contemporary lateral moraine crests document glacier expansion at c. 3000 cal. yr BP. Detrital subfossil wood buried in lateral moraines at the confluence of Confederation and Franklin glaciers records distinct episodes of ‘Little Ice Age’ glacier expansion as early as c. 1212 cal. yr ad, and suggests the glacier surface continued to thicken until at least c. 1330–1410 cal. yr ad. An interval of downwasting and retreat followed, before late ‘Little Ice Age’ advances such as those at Jambeau Glacier were overwhelming valley-bottom forests by c. 1740 cal. yr ad. With the exception of the previously unrecognized advance of Confederation Glacier at c. 3700 cal. yr BP, our dendroglaciological findings corroborate the emerging record of Holocene glacier activity in the British Columbia Coast Mountains.

Indigenous State Planning as Inter-Institutional Capacity Development: The Evolution of “Government-to-Government” Relations in Coastal British Columbia, Canada

Known for a large concentration of unlogged watersheds and the presence of the white spirit bear, British Columbia's Central Coast was also a key site in a larger re-imagining of the possibilities for government-to-government (G2G) planning between Indigenous peoples (First Nations) and the state. This paper explores the evolution of G2G planning: how external forces within the broader institutional system were interpreted and embodied in the strategic actions of various collaborative actors. Significant legal changes coalesced with an unstable timber market to fundamentally alter the discursive and political terrain of British Columbian natural resource planning. New coalitions and alliances were formed, and previously held conventions regarding both the process and outcomes of planning were challenged. These changes are analysed through the Institutional Capacity Development Framework, which frames institutional change as a measure of actors' ability to mobilise existing and emergent institutional resources. As one of the few empirical studies to apply the framework, this paper proposes several modifications to improve its conceptual clarity and to underscore the importance of changing political identities.

Adversarial Science: Conflict Resolution and Scientific Review in British Columbia's Central Coast

Science plays paradoxical roles in environmental planning. As a process for generating and adapting knowledge of the biophysical environment to human use, it is essential to achieving sustainability. As the socially contested evaluation of competing claims to truth, however, adversarial science often becomes the focus of conflict in the planning process. British Columbia's Central Coast Land and Resource Management Plan (CCLRMP) planning process took place amid industrial restructuring, market campaigns, and scientific disputes over the conservation of the world's largest remaining temperate rainforest. This article shows how adversarial science set the terms of the policy debate, as well as the means for compromise. A multisector interdisciplinary information team played a key role in arriving at consensus by establishing a boundary organization that enabled bargaining and separated land use negotiations from disputes over the content, meaning, and implications of science.