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Media Page
"Welcome to the West Chilcotin
- An isolated region steeped in a history of Ranching, Guiding,
Outfitting and Trapping.
Origins
The West Chilcotin Tourism Association (WCTA) is a volunteer
organization of approximately 30 members and growing.
In the early 1980's a lumber company came into the area causing
great concern to resource users in the West Chilcotin. This
was already an established wilderness destination with several
operators that offered fishing, hunting and trail riding to
visitors from all over the world. The advent of extensive lumber
extraction worried local resource users of the area which included
First Nations, trappers, outfitters, ranchers and tourism operators.
A group called the West Chilcotin Survival Coalition was formed.
Shortly after this, the BC Government initiated land use plans
under the C.O.R.E. process throughout BC to minimize conflict
of land use.
Out of this evolved the Anahim Lake Round Table, a strict land
use plan within the Cariboo Chilcotin Land Use Plan (CCLUP)
intended to represent and protect the resource users of the
area. The Anahim Lake Round Table was extremely successful and
was accepted by Cabinet as a higher level plan. It has since
been used as a model throughout North America.
Since 90% of tourism operators in the area at the time listed
fishing as the main visitor activity, they formed a group called
the West Chilcotin Sport Fishing Association to represent the
tourism operators on the Round Table. As the demographic of
visitors changed and recreational activities offered, so did
the name of the Association. In 1989 it officially became the
West Chilcotin Tourism Association.
Organization
Structure
The West Chilcotin Tourism Association is a registered non-profit
society and is governed by a board of directors. Membership
is made up of tourism operators. The community associations
of Tatla Lake, Nimpo Lake and Anahim Lake support the WCTA as
the lead organization for this tourism initiative.
The WCTA is a member of the Council of Tourism Association (COTA),
the Wilderness Tourism Association (WTA), and the Cariboo Chilcotin
Coast Tourism Association (CCCTA).
Vision
Statement
The Vision Statement of the WCTA is “To support the vision
of a vibrant, healthy, sustainable quality wilderness destination
that retains the values and atmosphere that makes our region
uniquely CHILCOTIN.”
The boundaries for the association include Blackwater Ootsa
region in the north, Tweedsmuir Park to the west, Tatla Lake
Junction to the east and Chilko Lakes area to the south encompassing
the Mt. Waddington area.
The present board of Directors is made up of President, Vice
President in charge of Marketing/Signage, Past President - Land
Portfolio, Project Manager, and five Directors. Contact information
is available below.
Target
Market
It is the WCTA's express purpose to draw visitor attention
to the West Chilcotin to showcase what we have to offer in
the way of recreational activities and accommodations. We
hope that our expansive website will answer the questions
and fulfill the needs of prospective visitors to the area.
We believe that we are a tourist destination that can provide
a variety of activities to draw visitors from all walks of
life and of all age groups to the area.
The
Country
The West Chilcotin is a magnificent region comprising high
alpine, unlimited pristine lakes, rugged mountains, ice fields
and glaciers. The numerous meadows and sloughs provide important
habitat for bird and wildlife while our forests of pine and
spruce provide shelter.
Activities
& Accommodation
Activities in the West Chilcotin in summer include working
ranch vacations, hiking, horse assisted trekking, mountaineering,
trail riding, pack trips, fly fishing, trolling, canoeing,
kayaking, rafting, heli-kayaking, heli-hiking, mountain biking,
flightseeing, mountain climbing, wildlife viewing and bird
watching, or just plain relaxing in our serene wilderness.
Winter activities include heli-skiing, cross-country skiing,
snowshoeing, ice fishing, and snowmobiling.
Accommodations in the region include cabin rental, bed and
breakfast, lodge plans, motel and inns, camping, and RV'ing.
They range from the rustic to luxurious, highway accessible
to fly in only.
Perusing this website will give a detailed outlook on just
how extensive and varied our offerings are.
The
Stories
The West Chilcotin has a long and interesting history, some
of it even written in books... Rich Hobson's series about
his and Pan Phillips' attempts to build the largest, remotest,
ranch in North America being the best known.
Our old timers have some great tales to tell. If you are doing
a piece on the West Chilcotin, please let us know. We may
be able to provide you with the information you need, or can
put you in contact with the person who can help you. Should
you need to have arrangements made for accommodation, transportation,
fixed wing or helicopter flightseeing for filming, or meeting
with local contacts, we can help you with that. We would also
be delighted to help find any additional information that
you might need on the region.
Images
As you will note, there are a tremendous number of images
on this site. While we realize an image bank would be more
convenient for you to access, we are committed to protecting
the rights of those individuals that contributed images to
this website. We would ask that you not download
images from the site. Instead, please contact members@visitthewestchilcotin.com
and our webmaster will be happy to send you a high resolution
copy of the image or images you would like as quickly as possible.
We just have to check for permission to do so from the rightful
owner of the image. We would ask that if you reprint an image,
credit be given to the owner of the image.
If you need an image that is not shown on the website, whether
of wildlife, scenery, or activities, please contact us. We
probably have just what you're looking for!
Download WCTA Logo
Contact
information for the WCTA
Phone: 1-866-TheWest (1-866-990-9378)
Main Contact: Heidy Lenz (April-November only)
Program Coordinator - (250) 742-3742
P.O. Box 30, Nimpo Lake
British Columbia
Canada V0L IM0
info@visitthewestchilcotin.com
Bill VanEs - President - (250) 742-3233
P.O. Box 3375, Anahim Lake,
British Columbia
Canada, V0L 1C0
escottb@xplornet.com
Donn Irwin - Vice President - (250) 742-3332
1145 Hwy 20 West
PO Box 80, Nimpo Lake,
British Columbia
Canada V0L 1R0
thedean@telus.net
If you wish to contact one of our members, you will find a
listing of all of them at Members
List
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