As a hiker and photographer, Randy Stoltmann wrote Hiking Guide to the Big Trees of Southwestern British Columbia (Western Canada Wilderness Committee, 1987) to help stimulate the preservation of forests. He claimed 81.2 per cent of B.C.'s land was covered by provincial forests and Tree Farm Licences; parks comprised 5.4 per cent and ecological reserves comprised 0.1 per cent. The following year Stoltmann was greatly impressed by the Sitka spruce forest he found while hiking in the Carmanah Valley. He set about to organize efforts to preserve the watershed area from logging. Stoltmann's name was permanently attached to a grove of Sitka spruce after a provincial park became a reality in 1990. He published Written by the Wind: British Columbia Wildneress Adventures (Orca, 1993) to recount his explorations in five wilderness areas of southwestern B.C.

Born on September 28, 1962, Randy Stoltmann was killed by an avalanche while hiking west of the Kitlope Valley on May 22, 1994. The Stoltmann Wilderness area has since been preserved in his memory in the Elaho Valley north of Pemberton. Stoltmann's first book was republished in 1991, then expanded and revised as Hiking the Ancient Trees of British Columbia and Washington in 1996. The Western Canada Wilderness Committee, under Paul George, has released numerous other forest ecology titles such as Joan E. Vance's Tree Planning: A Guide to Public Involvement in Forest Stewardship from the B.C. Public Interest Advocacy Centre.

[BCBW 2004] "Environment" "Forestry"