Canada dedicates millions of dollars to protecting Great Bear Rainforest

(AP) Canada announced Sunday it will spend $25 million to protect one of the largest intact temperate rainforests left in the world.

The Great Bear Rainforest, a 16-million-acre preserve that stretches 250 miles along British Columbia's rugged Pacific coastline, is teeming with grizzly bears, wolves and wild salmon and is the ancestral home of many native tribes.

Last February, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell said the province would protect close to one-third of the region from all logging and would require sustainable logging practices in the rest.

The latest funds, announced by Environment Minister John Baird, are in addition to the $51 million that private organizations and philanthropic groups committed to the rainforest.

Temperate rain forests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the mid-latitudes in areas of high rainfall.