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Moresby Island is all but free from human contact except for deserted Haida villages, one of which contains the world's largest stand of totems, forestry roads and the small logging community of Sandspit (pop. 202). The last lies 15km from the Alliford Bay terminal for the inter-island ferry link with Skidegate on Graham Island (12 daily; 20min crossing; $4.50, cars $8.50). Local airlines fly from Prince Rupert to a small airstrip near the village. Budget (tel 637-5688 or 1-800/557-3228) and Thrifty (tel 637-2299) have car rental offices at the airport: for a taxi for connections to the ferry, call Bruce's Taxi (tel 637-5655). Most locals here and on Graham Island work in Moresby's forests, and the forestry issue has divided the community for years between the Haida and environmentalists - "hippies" in the local parlance - and the lumber workers (the "rednecks" as the environmentalists call them). At stake are the islands' temperate rainforests and the traditional sites of the Haida, themselves politically shrewd media manipulators who've sent representatives to Brazil to advise local aboriginal peoples there on their own rainforest programmes. They've also occasionally provided the muscle to halt logging on the islands, and to prove a point in the past they've blocked access to Hot Spring Island , whose thermal pools are a favourite tourist target. On the other hand the forests provide jobs and some of the world's most lucrative timber - a single good sitka trunk can be worth up to $60,000. Currently a compromise has been reached and most of Moresby has National Park Reserve status (established in 1987), though stiff lobbying from the logging companies leaves its position perilous. If you're intending to drive any of the logging roads, however - and most of the handful of roads here are logging roads - note that generally they're open to the public at weekends and after 6pm on weekdays: otherwise check for latest details with the local infocentres. Sandspit's only listed accommodation , apart from a couple of intermittently open B&Bs, is the Moresby Island Guest House , 385 Alliford Bay Rd overlooking the ocean at Shingle Bay, 1km south of the airport (tel 637-5300, www.bbcanada.com/1651.html ; $60-80); an airport pick-up is included. Many people choose to sleep on the spit's beaches: Gray Bay, 21km southeast of Sandspit, has primitive and peaceful campsites near gravel and sand beaches (for more details, contact the TimberWest forestry offices on Beach Rd; tel 637-5436). For car rental , Budget have offices at the airport and in Sandspit at Beach and Blaine Shaw roads (tel 637-5688). If you fancy going into the interior by plane , contact South Moresby Air Charters (tel 559-4222 or 1-888/551-4222) for details of charter flights.
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