None have captured the unique beauty and wildlife of British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest like acclaimed photographer Ian McAllister.

A resident and long-time conservationist of the unique coastal wilderness, McAllister has intimately documented the region and its iconic species, like the spirit bear, for over 25 years. Much of the landscape — renowned for its biodiversity, including intricate networks of salmon, bears and wolves — is now endangered as energy projects threaten to transform the very existence of the ecosystem, McAllister explains.

“Canada supports the longest coastline in the world and yet we have only protected one per cent of its marine waters,” McAllister said. “And now we have oil and gas projects being proposed that have the ability to destroy everything here in a single event.”

“There is no question that the battle to protect our oceans remains among the last conservation frontiers on planet earth. And our very survival depends on how successful we are in the coming years.”

Great Bear Wild – Dispatches from a Northern Rainforest from Pacific Wild on Vimeo.

That battle is precisely what McAllister is now on the road to highlight through his new book, Great Bear Wild.

A mixture of photographs and personal narrative, Great Bear Wild celebrates the legendary beauty of the region at a time when political tensions around the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline are at an all-time high.

Image from Great Bear Wild – Dispatches from a Northern Rainforest from Pacific Wild on Vimeo.

Image from Great Bear Wild – Dispatches from a Northern Rainforest from Pacific Wild on Vimeo.

Image from Great Bear Wild – Dispatches from a Northern Rainforest from Pacific Wild on Vimeo.

“Everything is at stake here: our climate, our coastline, our communities,” McAllister said. “And it is our hope that these images and these stories continue to remind us of its fragile beauty while also ensuring it remains as wild and fully functioning as it has for so many thousands of years.”

Image from Great Bear Wild – Dispatches from a Northern Rainforest from Pacific Wild on Vimeo.

McAllister will be speaking in Victoria on Wednesday, November 12 at the Alix Goolden Hall.

Upcoming Great Bear Wild Book Tour Dates:

Wednesday, November 12 at 7:30pm

Alix Goolden Hall, Victoria – $12

Thursday, November 13 at 7pm

Quw’utsun Centre, Duncan – By Donation

Friday, November 14 at 7pm

Charlie White Theatre, Sidney – $12

Tuesday, November 18 at 7pm

South End Hall, Galiano – By Donation

Wednesday, November 19 at 7:30pm

Tidemark Theatre, Campbell River – $12

Thursday, November 20 at 7:30pm

Sid Williams Theatre, Courtenay – $12

Friday, November 21

Powell River – Details TBD

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

Journalist Dan Grossman and photographer Alex MacLean are in the middle of their week long tour of the Alberta oilsands. Their on-the-scene reporting is meant to bring greater public attention to the scale – and the stakes – of developing oil from the world’s largest deposit of carbon-intensive bitumen.

As Grossman puts it on the Pulitzer Center website, “We know the ground beneath Alberta’s boreal forest—saturated with an estimated 150 billion barrels of oil—rivals all other troves of oil apart from those of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. We know Alberta’s rich deposits underlie a territory of 54,000 square miles, as large as Iowa. But we can barely comprehend numbers this big. Alex will help us. He’ll show us waste ponds nearly the size of Manhattan and dump trucks that could swallow a McMansion whole.”  

Grossman has been tweeting about his experience in the oilsands region prolifically since April 4th. Below you can see some of the duo’s photojournalist coverage of their trip so far.

Why fly over #oilsands? From ground, it's mostly hidden. Here was our route over Cold Lake today. #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/ZG8jCH57ki

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014

Geometric beauty of #oilsands from air. Alex thinks rectilinear grid is extraction network. Pipeline on right. pic.twitter.com/xnmYu65yze

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014

#oilsands waste in tailings pond. Abstract beauty w stark questions. Will it leak? Can it be cleaned. #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/0f9Rp7L23D

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014

Recent remediated #oilsands site raises questions. Can mono culture make up for the forest cut? #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/H4j14Mg1PK

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014

Cold Lake AB. next we go military escort to controversial spill site. Few outside industry has seen #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/rgvzzgcoJp

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014

How does a journalist get the oilsands story? Here's what my multimedia kit http://t.co/2lUFSYVlSu @sejorg @AIRmedia pic.twitter.com/PqzZx73zcT

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014

Cesna we're renting to see primrose site #oilsands spill. http://t.co/oNsHZt3MmD #pulitzercenter #keystone #tarsands pic.twitter.com/4zmiUyKBZW

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 5, 2014

Journalists not permitted to visit. We appealed. Here's photo Alex shot of gooey #tarsands ooze up. At 1 of 4 sites. pic.twitter.com/Esmrq2jJEG *

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 6, 2014

We took Sheila Pratt, local reporter who's covered mysterious leaks. http://t.co/oNsHZt3MmD Our route from GPS here. pic.twitter.com/foMjlQw9Do

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 6, 2014

@AlexMacLean shot photos, by opening window of cesna. #tarsands actives extend 100s of miles. He's one tiny piece. pic.twitter.com/UZ5uB4wf4f

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014

Firms prospect before extracting. They cut corridors–seismic lines–and set off explosions. Detrimental to wildlife. pic.twitter.com/YUbi2jrFLt

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014

From air, @AlexMacLean sees 100's of pads: past, present, future sites fr extracting heated #tarsands @pultizercenter pic.twitter.com/06urBrSsve

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014

Photos of industrial transformation of Canada boreal forest can transfix. Tomorrow we shoot more. #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/EYWbYp9CFE

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014

Jessica Moir, our pilot, leaving for tour of F. McMurray from air. Going photographer @AlexMaclean #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/42rAb62DbJ

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014

Above McMurray with @AlexMacLean Town classic mining boom town. Over prefab worker homes in cul de sac swirls. pic.twitter.com/OKOrvmPdub

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014

Shooting video with GoPro. Tried yesterday but battery problems! Multimedia journos have too much equipment to track! pic.twitter.com/znMem8c0li

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014

How to describe Frt McMurray from air? So big, black and fiery. Biblical imagery perhaps? Like Hell? #pulitzercenter pic.twitter.com/rb4OmMBqsH

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014

At same latitude as Hudson's Bay, middle of boreal forest. But this one Syncrude site, is industrialized as anywhere. pic.twitter.com/Chfsww4IzA

— Daniel Grossman (@grossmanmedia) April 7, 2014

Follow Dan Grossman on twitter: @GrossmanMedia  

* Updated April 16, 2014: Journalist Dan Grossman and photographer Alex MacLean have removed one photo that was initially thought to show unrecovered oil from seepage on a CNRL site. CNRL officials insist the black substance in the photo is water mixed with soil, not oil. Since the photo was posted, the company has expressed greater willingness to allow journalists to inspect the site.

Grossman told DeSmog Canada that he's pleased CNRL is showing greater openness about the site, which local journalists had been asking, unsuccessfully, to visit. "By excluding journalists from the site, CNRL was making it hard to know what was going on and whether company pronouncements were correct," he said.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.