Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park

Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Map of British Columbia
Location	Range 5 Coast Land District, British Columbia, Canada
Nearest city	Smithers, BC
Coordinates	54°49′34″N 127°01′19″W / 54.82611°N 127.02194°W / 54.82611; -127.02194
Area	23 ha. (0.23 km²)
Established	January 4, 1967
Governing body	BC Parks

Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park covers 23 hectares (57 acres) of the Bulkley River Valley, on the east side of Driftwood Creek, a tributary of the Bulkley River, 10 km northeast of the town of Smithers. The park is accessible from Driftwood Road from Provincial Highway 16. It was created in 1967 by the donation of the land by the late Gordon Harvey (1913–1976) to protect fossil beds on the east side of Driftwood Creek. The beds were discovered around the beginning of the 20th century. The park lands are part of the asserted traditional territory of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation.^[1][2]

Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park protects internationally significant Eocene fossil beds. It is the northernmost site in North America with fossilized Eocene insects, and also contains fossils of ancestral salmon, trout, and suckers, including Eosalmo driftwoodensis.^[3] Ongoing paleontological research continues at the site, but fossil collection by the public is prohibited.

The Provincial Park also contains a high priority and under-represented ecosection in British Columbia (a remnant Bulkley Basin Ecosection), and an under-represented biogeoclimatic sub-zone consisting of dry, cool sub-boreal spruce.