Over the course of 40 years Paul George has helped to steward a contemporary view of British Columbia beyond a province of just resource extraction with the creation of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.
George, a Vietnam war objector, immigrated to Canada from the U.S. in 1968 to teach senior high school sciences, drawn to B.C. by the magnificent images of its wilderness. Work, research and friendship in Haida Gwaii led Paul to collaborate with Haida leader Guujaaw and others in order to protect Gwaii Haanas (South Moresby), today a Haida Heritage Site and National Park Reserve.
In 1980, George founded Western Canada Wilderness Committee (Wilderness Committee) with a group of friends. Under his leadership the organization grew to over 100,000 members with donors across Canada.
In 1983, George helped to found North America’s first Green Party, the Green Party of B.C.
From 1980 to 2005, George led dozens of campaigns building public support for wilderness protection. He left WCWC after writing his seminal book about the organization, its campaigns and tactics: “Big Trees not Big Stumps.”
Through education and facts, with beautiful images of endangered wild places alongside graphic images of large-scale clear-cut logging, George helped shape an era of public focus on wilderness protection, laying the bedrock for political decisions to protect more of British Columbia’s magnificent natural heritage.
An inspirational leader, George came up with ideas for unique campaigns, tactics and strategies that no other environmental group had used including widely distributed educational newspapers, and building the world’s first upper canopy temperate rainforest research station.
George co-authored over 120 newspapers, each with a call to action on a specific wilderness area or wildlife cause and often in collaboration with local conservation groups. The largest run, “Conservation Vision for Vancouver Island,” saw over 300,000 distributed to households in every community on Vancouver Island. Featuring a scientific analysis recommending half the Island’s remaining wilderness be protected in order to save biodiversity, the paper prompted loggers to chant “12 percent and no more” in a protest on the lawns of the legislature.
George also launched the trail-building that became a renowned WCWC activity, involving hundreds of volunteers. He believed that enabling people to see beautiful places under threat was essential to building support for their protection.
Working with First Nations, George campaigned collaboratively with the Haida, Nemiah, Nuu-chah- nulth, and Squamish Nations to declare several Tribal Parks founded in Indigenous rights and title. He also pushed the boundaries of law, winning cases that established the right of an environmental group to represent wildlife in B.C. court (re: the B.C. wolf kill) and the right of public access to Crown land under tree farm license (Carmanah Valley). Some of the successful campaigns George worked on included South Moresby (Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve), Stein Valley, Carmanah Valley, Meares Island, Clayoquot Sound, and Stoltmann Wilderness (Elaho Valley).
Over 25 years, his tireless work resulted in the park protection of millions of hectares of wilderness areas and a lasting legacy for all British Columbians.
