Bonanza Creek connects Summit and Slocan Lakes in the Slocan Valley and has been recognized as the most important fish-spawning creek on the Slocan Lake system. The Bonanza marsh, where the creek enters the north end of Slocan Lake, is one of the few remaining natural wetlands in the Kootenays and is home to nearly 150 species of birds and several rare plants.

Slocan Forest Products has developed a 20-year plan for Bonanza Creek that includes a road network and 23 cutblocks covering 1,500 acres. In total, 3,174 truckloads will be logged from the Bonanza Creek area. Most of the logging will be clearcuts. The area has been selectively logged by Hills residents over the years, and they argue that selective logging with small machines and horses is most appropriate in such a sensitive area.

Wayne McCrory, well-known bear biologist and local resident, says the old-time selection logging left a biologically intact area that is the only place where grizzlies come to the valley bottom to feed. "The logging will impact them in two ways," states McCrory. "In early spring when there is still snow in the mountains, they need to come to the valley- bottom to find lush plant growth. They can be shot on the clearcuts or from the logging roads when they do that, or they can have a confrontation with people. In fall they feed on the land-locked salmon along with the black bears, eagles, ospreys and larger fish such as the endangered bull trout. Slocan is planning to log every stick of timber they can get at in the next 20 years. This could wreck the sensitive fish spawning gravels of the creek that support the salmon, which is a key-stone species of the ecosystem. We've paid for a preliminary hydrology report, but there wasn't enough information available at the time to provide conclusive results, and the study remains incomplete. The public shouldn't have to pay for these studies."