Stock photo: Virgin Falls Tofino Creek Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve British Columbia Canada

Stock photo of the Virgin Falls plunging 53 metres/174 feet in a fan formation down a rock escarpment along the Tofino Creek, a transition area of the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

This stock photo shows the Virgin Falls plunging 53 metres/174 feet in a fan formation down a rock escarpment into a deep pool along the Tofino Creek, a transition area of the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve, totaling approximately 349,947 hectares, is situated on Vancouver Island on the west coast of British Columbia. A diverse range of ecosystems exists within the biosphere reserve boundaries, including temperate coastal rainforest, ocean, rocky coastal shores. Nine of the large forested valleys remain untouched by logging or other industrial development. The area’s temperate rainforest, lakes, rivers, alpine peaks, provide habitat for a vast array of species, a significant number of which is endangered or rare. Given that development is increasingly resulting in fragmentation of forest and alpine ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity in coastal rainforests, this biosphere reserve provides a refuge and center for natural dispersion and re-establishment of species.