The Haisla, along with Portland, Oregon-based advocacy group Ecotrust, lobbied the company and the provincial government to place a moratorium on logging in the watershed.

[5] The push for a park in the Kitlope valley was part of a larger effort to protect more of the coastal temperate rainforest in B.C., an ecological zone that has been heavily logged in the south of the province.

The Kitlope region is considered part of the Great Bear Rainforest (GBR), a term coined by environmental groups.

"...in our language we call it ‘Huchsduwachsdu Nuyem Jees.’ That means the land of milky blue waters and the sacred stories contained in this place.

[3] It lies at the head of the Whidbey Reach of the Gardner Canal, and encompasses the drainages of the Kitlope, Kalitan, Gamsby, Tsaytis, Kapella, and Tezwa rivers.

Together the major parks and several smaller reserves represent over 2.3 million hectares of undeveloped land in a variety of ecological zones.