What is Vancouver Island?

Vancouver Island is the largest island on Canada's Pacific coast and the largest island in western North America. It is about 460 kilometres long and 50 to 80 kilometres wide, covering 31,285 square kilometres (the 11th-largest island in Canada). The island lies off the southwestern coast of mainland British Columbia, separated by the Strait of Georgia, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Queen Charlotte Strait. About 870,000 people live on the island, with most concentrated in the Greater Victoria area in the south.

The island runs north-northwest to south-southeast, with the Vancouver Island Ranges (rising to 2,200 metres at the Golden Hinde) running along the spine. The west coast is rugged and exposed to the open Pacific, with extensive fjords (Barkley Sound, Clayoquot Sound, Nootka Sound) and old-growth coastal temperate rainforest. The east coast facing the Strait of Georgia is more sheltered and contains most of the population. The southern tip of the island, including the Saanich Peninsula and Greater Victoria, is the warmest and driest part of Canada with a Mediterranean-influenced climate.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, designated in 1970, protects the long beach near Tofino, the Broken Group Islands of Barkley Sound, and the West Coast Trail (the rugged 75-kilometre coastal trail from Bamfield to Port Renfrew). The park covers 511 square kilometres and is the principal Canadian Pacific coastal protected area. The Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is co-managed under the 2010 Pacific Rim National Park Reserve Protocol with the Tla-o-qui-aht, Toquaht, Hesquiaht, Yuulu?il?ath (Ucluelet), Tseshaht, Hupacasath, Huu-ay-aht, Ka:'yu:'k't'h?, Cheklesahht, Mowachaht/Muchalaht, and Pacheedaht First Nations.

Vancouver Island's economy includes forestry (the island has significant remaining old-growth Douglas fir, western red cedar, western hemlock, and Sitka spruce, with ongoing controversy over old-growth logging at Fairy Creek and elsewhere), salmon and shellfish aquaculture (the island is the leading producer of Atlantic salmon in Canada), wild salmon and herring fisheries, tourism (Tofino, Ucluelet, Victoria, and Strathcona Provincial Park are major destinations), the Royal Canadian Navy at CFB Esquimalt, federal-provincial government, and post-secondary education at the University of Victoria, Vancouver Island University, North Island College, and Royal Roads University. The Lekwungen-speaking Coast Salish, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Kwakwaka'wakw nations of the island hold traditional territory and have signed multiple modern treaties (the Nuu-chah-nulth Maa-nulth Treaty of 2011 covers five Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations).