BC Floods and Clearcut Logging

The discussion following record-breaking rains and floods in British Columbia include speculation about the effects of fires.

We should also be wondering about the effects of unprecedented levels of damaging logging practices.

In the future, will logging companies be sued for their negligence?

Water Logged | new ending from Ramshackle Pictures on Vimeo.

The Man Who Saved Big Lonely Doug

Dennis Cronin standing in front of the giant tree he saved.
Photo credit: Lorraine Cronin

In 2014, just as I was moving from Vancouver Island, BC to Nova Scotia, the tree which has become to be known as Big Lonely Doug was discovered by big tree protectors in a former stand of old growth not far from Port Renfrew. 

The giant Douglas fir tree was not hard to find - it was the only tree left in a clear cut block that used to be an ancient grove, and it was hard to miss.

As it turns out, the tree still stands due to the efforts of Mr. Cronin, an industry engineer, that may have been the first person to ever see it. 

To read the fascinating story of how this amazing specimen, the second largest fir in Canada, was saved, click here.

The only Douglas fir tree larger is the Red Creek Fir. This is another significant tree that was also destined for destruction, but was preserved by a logging crew that could not bring themselves to cut such a gigantic tree down.

There goes the neighbourhood.
This is why Big Lonely Doug is so lonely. 
But, better lonely than dead.
Photo credit: TJ Watt

I have never seen the tree that Dennis Cronin, who after decades in the woods and marking untold numbers of giant Pacific Forest trees for removal, decided to save. But the next time I am in Canada's big tree country again, I will.

And when I do, I will think about the man who chose to save Big Lonely Doug, one of the tallest trees (70.2 metres, 230 ft - the height of an 21 story building) he had ever seen, and I will give thanks for his decision.

On a final note, Mr. Cronin died shortly after retiring from his forestry job. By that time he could see that the end of the big trees had come. 

Perhaps his signature tree was one small (or big, depending on how you look at it) way of making amends.



Click here to see the Ancient Forest Alliance Big Trees Map "created with driving directions to Avatar Grove (home to Canada’s “Gnarliest Tree”), Big Lonely Doug (Canada’s 2nd largest Douglas-fir), the Red Creek Fir (the world’s largest Douglas-fir tree), San Juan Spruce (one of Canada’s largest spruce trees), Harris Creek Spruce (another giant sitka spruce), and more!"

Moving On

This is my new forest - the Acadian Forest of Nova Scotia.

The Vancouver Island Big Trees blog began as a way to share my experiences visiting some of the biggest trees around Victoria, Sooke and up West Coast Road to Port Renfrew and beyond. I wanted it to be both a celebration of the west coast's primal forests and trees, and a warning that if we don't start fighting for what is left, it will be gone forever.

Even before moving to the Pacific temperate rain forest for a decade, I visited from the prairies annually from the time I was old enough to drive. It was then that I fell in love with walking the beaches and forest trails of Vancouver Island. I found the trees to be huge and magical.

When I started this blog I lived in the midst of big tree country in the former logging town of Sooke, BC. Even after 20 years of exploring the big trees, I was still mystified how a human that would be lucky to get 100 years, could destroy a tree 1000s of years old.

Over this time I have been rewarded by ancient tree encounters that were life changing, as well as encounters with the ugly side of industrial liquidation and government neglect, that were equally as moving.

I have since moved to my new forest, and one that is perhaps not as tall, but every bit as magical - the Acadian forest of Nova Scotia. They are smaller, but there are big trees here, too. And the diversity of trees in this forest is an amazing thing that will keep me busy learning for years to come.

Nova Scotian forests are also under relentless assault from industrial, profit-minded businesses that don't care if they are destroying an entity that has been living and thriving since the last ice age. It is too bad, because in Canada this forest is every bit as unique as the great Western Rainforest of Vancouver Island.

This is not boreal forest (the largest intact forest left on our planet... for now). It is not the great deciduous forest of the southern USA. This forest is a unique blend of both, and I intend on exploring it every bit as much as I did the forest out west.

Having said that, I do like to keep up on what is happening in the west coast forest, and plan on doing the occasional post on this blog as well. In the meantime, I hike and photograph the Acadian Forest looking for the biggest of the big trees out here.

You can visit my new blog, "Acadian Forest Big Trees" here. I hope to add to it and develop the same following this blog has had since 2009. Thank you to everyone that has made keeping this blog so satisfying. Your interest, and visits, are appreciated.

Long live the big trees, wherever they may be.

Canada #1 In Ancient Forest Destruction

Industrial liquidation clear cut on Vancouver Island.
Photo: Garth Lenz

Move over Brazil, Canada leads world in forest decline says a new report. The world’s virgin forests are being lost at an increasing rate and the largest portion of the degradation is in Canada, according to the report.

No longer is Brazil the main villain in the struggle to stop forest destruction. We are the global leaders when it comes to driving entire forest ecosystems to extinction, such as the Douglas fir ecozone. That primal forest, which once produced some of the largest trees on the planet, has been reduced to a fraction of 1% remaining. 

And the cutting of ancient trees continues unabated.

“Canada is the number one in the world for the total area of the loss of intact forest landscapes since 2000,” Peter Lee, of Forest Watch Canada, said in an interview.


“There is no political will at federal or provincial levels for conserving primary forests,” he said. “Most logging done in Canada is still to this day done in virgin forests.”

This is not news to those that have witnessed first hand the last grand old forests of Vancouver Island be liquidated for short term profit. But it is not just here that forests are being degraded and destroyed - it is everywhere in Canada where there are trees to be exploited by the greedy grabbers.

It is way past time to stop the destruction wreaked on our forests by callous and calculating pinheads in government and business that just don't know when to stop. The forest can not defend itself against the onslaught - that task is up to us.


“Business as usual will lead to the destruction of most remaining intact forests this century.” 

- Dr. Nigel Sizer, World Resources Institute

Jobs Or Trees

Bloody stumps in a clear cut of an ancient forest near Port Renfrew. This dismal scene was witnessed by
the good people from Ancient Forest Alliance who found the 2nd largest Douglas fir in Canada among
the stumps of its forest family. Photo: TJ Watt

"What kind of person can cut an ancient forest to bloody stumps, bulldoze the meadows to mud, spray poison over the mess that's left, and then set smudge fires in the slash? And when the wounded mountainside slumps into the river, floods tear apart the waterfalls and scour the spawning beds, and no salmon return, what kind of person can pronounce it an act of God -- and then direct the bulldozers through the stream and into the next forest, and the next?  

I hope there's a cave in hell for people like this, where an insane little demon hops around shouting, 'jobs or trees, jobs or trees,' and buries an ax blade in their knees every time they struggle to their feet."

 -Kathleen Dean Moore

Canada's 2nd Biggest Douglas-fir Tree Identified in Recent Clear Cut

Big Lonely Doug, the second largest known Douglas-fir tree in Canada.
Photo by TJ Watt

The second largest known Douglas-fir tree in Canada was recently discovered by big tree defenders on Vancouver Island. Named "Big Lonely Doug" by the Ancient Forest Alliance members that found it, this magnificent tree has been left stranded in the middle of a 2012 clear cut by forest liquidators Teal-Jones.

But don't be distressed by the sad scenes depicted in TJ Watt's amazing photos of this notable tree that had a close brush with death in 2012, or its surroundings. Teal-Jones, the logging company that share the responsibility for this tragic mess with negligent MLAs in the BC Liberal Party, assure us on their website that

"There is virtually no waste in manufacturing wood products".

Thank goodness people like those at Ancient Forest Alliance are out doing the work in the woods to try and stop the waste, not to mention the extinction of the primal forests that remain on Vancouver Island.

If you want to help them help us, please consider donating to this worthy organization of hard-working big tree campaigners.

12 meters (39 feet) in circumference or 4 meters (13 feet) in diameter, and 69 meters(226 feet) tall.
Photo by TJ Watt

The following information is from the AFA Facebook page:

Port Renfrew - Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance have found and measured what appears to be Canada’s second largest recorded Douglas-fir tree, nick-named “Big Lonely Doug”, standing by itself in an area clearcut in 2012. 

Preliminary measurements of the tree taken yesterday found it to be about 12 meters (39 feet) in circumference or 4 meters (13 feet) in diameter, and 69 meters(226 feet) tall. Big Lonely Doug is estimated to be about 1000 years old, judging by nearby 8 feet wide Douglas-fir stumps in the same clearcut with growth rings of 500-600 years. 

Big Lonely Doug’s total size comes in just behind the current champion Douglas-fir, the Red Creek Fir, the world’s largest, which grows just one valley over. 

Big Lonely Doug grows in the Gordon River Valley near the coastal town of Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island, known as the “Tall Trees Capital” of Canada. It stands on Crown lands in Tree Farm Licence 46 held by the logging company Teal-Jones, in the unceded traditional territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation band. 

The fact that all of the surrounding old-growth trees have been clearcut around such a globally exceptional tree, putting it at risk of being damaged or blown down by wind storms, underscores the urgency for new provincial laws to protect BC’s largest trees, monumental groves, and endangered old-growth ecosystems. 

The days of colossal trees like these are quickly coming to an end as the timber industry cherry-picks the last unprotected, valley-bottom, lower elevation ancient stands in southern BC where giants like this grow.

It will take a thousand years or more to replace this clear cut old growth forest.
Photo by TJ Watt

Vancouver Observer - Canada's 2nd Largest Douglas-fir Found: "The vast majority of BC's remaining old-growth forests are at higher elevations, on rocky sites, and in bogs where the trees are much smaller and in many cases have low to no commercial value. 

It's the valley-bottom, low elevation stands where trees like the Big Lonely Doug grow that are incredibly scarce now. 99 per cent of the old-growth Douglas-fir trees on BC's coast have already been logged. 

It's time for the BC government to stop being more enthusiastic about big stumps than big trees, and for them to enact forest policies that protect our last endangered ancient forest ecosystems." 

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/canadas-second-largest-douglas-fir-discovered

While trees are a renewable resource, with current logging practices and regulations,
 forests older than about 80 years are not. 
Photo by TJ Watt

"...while trees are harvested the effects are only short term as reforestation follows."

- from the Teal-Jones logging company website, that fails to realize that the destruction of thousand year old trees is not a "short term effect".

Witness to the on-going destruction of our ancient forests, with Canada's
 second largest known Douglas-fir in the background. What a magnificent, lonely tree…
Photo by TJ Watt

Rainbows and Clear Cuts

A recent open letter to the Vancouver Island community from the World Rainbow Family had something to say about the ongoing desecration and destruction of ancient forests on the north island.

In part, the letter stated:

"A main reason sounded for why we shouldn’t be able to gather on Raft Cove was the environmental impact on this place of significant natural beauty. What our family saw on our journeys around the North Island deeply shocked us, and we would like to share with the local community and the world the horrific level of deforestation of ancient and sacred trees occurring now on the North Island.  

 The Hopi prophecy that forms the ideology of our family is that a tribe, from all corners of the world, with multiple colours, will rise up from the midst of destruction and heal the earth. Given that we are a deeply environmentally conscious group, these environmental concerns were hard to comprehend. Historically, we have been involved in local environmental matters, such as the 1993 protection of the Clayoquot Sound forests."

Clear cuts are harmful to the forest, soil, water quality,
and animal life, but are profitable for corporations.

Old Growth Clear Cutting Continues

Example of spectacular temperate rain forest on Vancouver Island
contrasted with nearby logging of old-growth forest.

Photo by TJ Watt

Congratulations BC on voting for fewer old growth trees and forestry jobs in the province's forests during the recent election.

BC now has a new government, same as the old government. Get ready for business as usual in the province's old growth forests, especially since environmentalists in Canada are now seen as "radicals, adversaries, job-killers, foreign funded radicals and ideological extremists".

Definitely not a good time to be a defender of the trees, although during dark days such as these it is the most important time to be a voice in the wilderness.

Instead of bringing such individuals and organizations in from the wild fringes, environmentalists are instead put on the federal government's official "enemies" list. These so-called radical groups could be audited by the CRA in order to muzzle what is seen as a threat rather than evidence of a functioning democracy.

The BC Liberals are good pals with the current pro-business as usual regime in Ottawa, and use many of the same tactics.

Expect more old growth clear cuts, fewer jobs, and more ships laden with old growth whole log shipments to China and other overseas markets.

Clear Cuts

“In clear-cutting, he said, you clear away the natural forest, or what the industrial forester calls "weed trees," and plant all one species of tree in neat straight functional rows like corn, sorghum, sugar beets or any other practical farm crop. 

You then dump on chemical fertilizers to replace the washed-away humus, inject the seedlings with growth-forcing hormones, surround your plot with deer repellents and raise a uniform crop of trees, all identical. 

When the trees reach a certain prespecified height (not maturity; that takes too long) you send in a fleet of tree-harvesting machines and cut the fuckers down. All of them. 

Then burn the slash, and harrow, seed, fertilize all over again, round and round and round again, faster and faster, tighter and tighter until, like the fabled Malaysian Concentric Bird which flies in ever-smaller circles, you disappear up your own asshole.” 

― Edward Abbey

In 2010 Hannah Carpendale wrote "Losing Legacies In The Cut Block" in the Simon Fraser University student newspaper. The article chronicles the sad state of affairs in BC's forests at the time, and things have not improved since.

She states, "Logging of our ancient forests is a luxury that can’t be sustained. Companies are not committed to sustainable jobs or habitats — what they are committed to is short-term corporate profit, and our old-growth forests are the price we are involuntarily paying for that. 

The B.C. Liberal government is continuing to hand over logging rights to large-scale logging companies — basically, the right to convert our public land to tree farms, to devastate our ecosystems and deplete a crucial and unique resource. 

We have seen this happen so many times in history . . . the collapse of the Atlantic cod stocks to name just one instance. 

Will we stand around and watch it happen again?"

Pioneering Soil-Enhancer: Red Alder

Red alder grows in pure stands, as shown, or in mixed forest settings

Red alder (Alnus rubra) is the most common deciduous tree in the Pacific coast forest. It is not a long-lived tree (usually about 60 yrs, rarely over 100), and despite rapid growth while young, these trees never reach (40 m/131 ft) the sizable proportions of the conifer stands surrounding them. However, the Red alder possesses a capacity that no other tree on the coast has.

Red alder is the only tree west of the Rockies capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Red alder develops an extensive, fibrous root system, with root nodules that fix nitrogen from the air. The nodules are a symbiotic association between the tree and actinomycete, a large group of bacteria that are responsible for the characteristic "earthy" smell of freshly turned, healthy soil.

Male flowers are long, drooping, reddish catkins, and female flowers
are short, woody, brown cones.

In this 'everyone wins' relationship, nodules are formed where bacteria infect a growing root. Then the alder supplies carbon compounds to the bacteria, and the bacteria convert nitrogen from air into a form the tree can use.

When leaves or roots from the host plant decompose, available nitrogen increases resulting in richer soil and better growing conditions. There is evidence that this relationship is so beneficial to the alder that its roots produce a substance that encourages the bacteria to set up shop. Alder is also associated with mycorrhizal fungi which helps enhance nitrogen fixation.

Alder along Carmanah River, Carmanah Park

After the soil bacteria community is established, Red alder seeds germinate well on freshly disturbed, nitrogen deprived land such as slide areas, road cuts, river flood plains, or clear cut areas that have had the slash burned. It is an aggressive pioneer species, and grows quickly as a seedling in wet soils.

Height growth of the Red alder seedling can be as much as 1 m (3.3 ft) or more in the first year. Giving the Black cottonwood a run for its money, maximum annual height growth of more than 3 m (9.8 ft) a year can be achieved by 2- to 5-year-old alder seedlings. Indeed, after the Black cottonwood, the Red alder is the second fastest growing tree in the coastal forest.

Associated conifers have much slower juvenile growth, but they sustain height growth years longer than alder. On an average site, both Douglas-fir and red alder can attain the same height at 45 years. Beyond that, Douglas-fir far surpasses Red alder in height. Once overgrown by the conifers during forest succession, the sun-loving red alder will die back, leaving a legacy of rich soil.

Red alder on their way for another season of nitrogen-fixing, soil-enriching growth

Besides its usefulness to soil quality, and its visual appeal, Red alder is also a commercially harvested species along the coast. It is used in the production of solid wood products, such as furniture, cabinets, case goods, and pallets; composite products, including plywood; and fiber-based products, such as tissue and writing paper. It is also used for firewood, and is the wood of choice for smoking salmon.

Although for a while Red-alder, like Black cottonwood, was seen as a nuisance tree and cut out of mixed stands, we are now realizing the soil-healing properties this tree has. Because it can increase soil nitrogen and organic matter, it is being increasingly used to rehabilitate disturbed sites, or prepare areas for conifers such as Douglas-fir.

The Red alder is an important part of the Pacific coast forest ecosystem. Look for them along streams and rivers, as well as lake shores. Disturbed sites will also have stands of alder pioneering the new forest. Watch for a medium-sized, deciduous broad-leaved tree with a narrow rounded crown, straight, slightly tapered stem, and smooth, light gray bark.

Seasons Greetings

Dark Side of the Horse Comics, by Samson

Seasons Greetings from Vancouver Island Big Trees.

We look forward to a new year of working to increase public awareness of the amazing wealth of trees on Vancouver Island, as well as the numerous threats to their continued survival.

It is our hope that throughout 2011 this blog will engender a sense of appreciation in readers for the contributions trees make to our lives. Ecological services amount to trillions of dollars per year alone, and include things like water filtration and soil retention. Trees, especially in ancient forests, provide habitat for thousands of organisms. Look around your home - how many things are made of wood?

VIBT encourages everyone to go outdoors and to witness the trees in their actual setting, preferably at different times of the year. The big trees are a major feature of the land and add a beauty that is unique to this area. Being in the forest with mossy thousand year old giants rising up all around is an experience that many will tell you is akin to a visit to a cathedral.

It is nature's cathedral, and it needs our help to protect it from further desecration.

The Oldest Tree On Record In Canada

Image from: Friends of Caren

The longest-living tree on record in Canada is a Yellow-cedar that lived in Canada's oldest forest in the Caren Range on the Sunshine Coast. It was felled in a large clear cut operation in 1980. The tree was 1835 years old. The Friends of Caren discovered the huge stump in 1993. Seen above is a cross section of the ancient tree that the group used to educate Canadians about the importance of the Caren Range ancient forest.




Yellow-cedar is common on Vancouver Island, being right in the prime of its growing range (which extends in a narrow strip along the coast from Prince William Sound in Alaska to the California-Oregon border). It is a high elevation species in most of its range, only growing down to sea level in the north.



A scientific paper written on tree ring analysis of Yellow-cedar on Vancouver Island (Laroque and Smith, 1999) gives these trees the record for the longest living conifers in Canada.



The 'Old List' on this site is a database of ancient trees from around the world. On it the big tree hunter will find a Vancouver Island Yellow-cedar that was dated at 1636 years old. It also includes a Douglas-fir on Vancouver Island that dated at 1350 years old. I would love to know where these trees are, but location data is not given.


On Vancouver Island the Yellow-cedars are at elevation. One location in the south island area that I have enjoyed visiting big, old Yellow-cedar is along logging roads that go up into the hills behind the Jordan River/China Beach area. The forest up here is very different from the forests closer to sea level. They are not as packed with a profusion of life like down below. Up here conditions are harsher and growth takes place at a slower pace. Yellow-cedar shares the slopes and mountain tops with Mountain hemlock and the true firs.


Grab your tree identification guide and get up into the hills to see this amazing senior of the coastal forest. Surely Canada's oldest living Yellow-cedar still stands somewhere on these forest-covered hills. Will you be the person to discover it? Let me know if you do.

If you are on the mainland and wish to visit the Caren Range remnant old growth forest, the directions below will get you there. It is said to be the oldest forest in Canada, or at least what is left of it.

Take Highway 101 for 11 kilometres north of Sechelt. At the bottom of the long downhill stretch just before Halfmoon Bay, turn right onto Trout Lake Road. Proceed up this logging road and fork left at the main junction at kilometre 12. The ancient stand of trees begins at about kilometre 15, with the road running through the stand for about 2 kilometres. The best place to access the forest is to walk downslope 200 metres before the next clearcut. There is no trail, and little walking is required.
Information from: http://www.vancouverisland.com/trails/?id=46