Drift Logs Important For Beaches

Beaches on the Pacific coast are littered with bleached drift wood

Drift logs are important parts of beaches all along the Pacific coast.

The banner at the top of this blog is a photo that was taken on a beach in nearby Washington state. When the photo was taken the mammoth drift log was newly arrived on the beach and was still dark and hydrated.

After a while on beaches on the coast, drift logs age to a beautiful sun-bleached white-ish grey colour. The picture at the top of this post is of the very same drift log used for my banner, except the log has been desiccated by summertime sunny days.

But drift logs are good for more than having fun looking at them and climbing upon their prone trunks.

Drift logs closer to home on French Beach near Sooke

Often drift logs have sawn ends, an indication they are escapees from log booms or other logging operations. Regardless of their origin, drift wood acts as an important stabilizer of beaches.

In the winter these logs are tossed like tiny toothpicks by high tides and pounding waves. In the summer they settle into place and trap sand and organic material. This maintains the beach structure and provides habitat for all manner of living things.

In this way, the trees continue to do work even as they slowly decompose back into the environment.

Drift log near my home shows evidence of logging

Driftwood On The Move

This 30 meter long cedar washed up on a local beach after a winter storm

Winter on the west coast means lot of rain, high water flows in rivers, and the highest tides of the year. That means storm tossed driftwood is on the move. Winter beachcombers are pleasantly surprised by the appearance of new woody debris on local beaches.

Often these drift logs, given up by the fury of the ocean goddesses, become the target of salvage operations. While recovered Douglas-fir is may be used for lumber or firewood, more valuable Western red-cedar, or Yellow-cedar, is valued for shakes, shingles, furniture, and structural wood.

30 meters of usable, if somewhat inaccessible, cedar 

Drift logs on beaches may be accessible to water, or land-based wood recovery efforts. I am amazed by the lengths the professionals will go to salvage beautiful chunks of wood from wherever they come to rest.

Shortly after the cedar washed up, the bole was cut and removed from the beach

I have seen some small scale log salvaging operations near my home on Billings Spit. Drift logs often show up in the Sooke River estuary after being washed down the Sooke River during high water flow events that scour the river and wash out fallen debris. Occasionally really big debris washes down to the sea.

Large drift log in the Sooke River estuary

I have watched small boats carrying salvagers with large chain saws approach drift logs in the Sooke River estuary in order to lay claim to prize woody resources. At high tide they move in, and the chain saw is used to cut the root section off so the log cab be slowly hauled away for processing.

Detail - cedar is very rot-resistant, and is highly sought after. Large cedars are becoming rarer.

Some of the drift logs on beaches are large enough to withstand not only the salvagers, but also the onslaught of years of winter weather. These semi permanent drift logs become lasting features on the otherwise ever-changing beach landscape. Until a really BIG storm comes along.

The storms give it up, the storms take it away, unless the beachcombers get to it first.

The biggest log in the background will only be
moved by the mother of all storms

I recently saw the results of a log salvage operation about 3 km up the Sooke River where a large cedar fell partially into the water. The middle section of the log had been sawed out, leaving the root section on the bank, and the top stranded alone in the middle of the river.

The saw operator had to work suspended over the water for both cuts - I would have liked to witness the skill this must have demanded.

Salvaging a red cedar from the Sooke River

The only way to get the log out is to float it down the river during high water, or high tide (preferably both) then wrangle it, tether it to a boat, and haul it somewhere it could be hoisted from the water.

Big trees and big storms mean big drift logs on the move. It is all part of the beauty of a west coast winter.

Winter Storms Pound Local Beaches

On Florencia Bay, Tofino, driftwood is strewn across the upper beach

Recent strong winds across the region canceled 75 ferry sailings, knocked power out, and gave spectacular displays of tree-tossing turmoil on local beaches.

Florencia Bay, Tofino

Often giant pieces and whole trees were high on the beach, seemingly beyond the water's reach. When I first started visiting the west coast of Vancouver Island, I marveled at the tumble of drift logs on most beaches.

Having visited only in the summer time, I wondered how the logs could get so far from the placid water. When I moved here I witnessed coastal winter storms for myself, and discovered the awesome power of wind, water, and waves. Any drift wood caught in such a storm doesn't stand a chance.

Huge white-foamy waves cover wilderness beaches and toss old growth drift trees like rubber ducks in a turbulent tub. Logs bob in the surf and are driven up against the beach, eventually coming to rest along the edge of the rain forest.

Big waves toss big logs over the beach on Ross Bay in Victoria, BC during a recent storm

In the city, waves drive logs over concrete embattlements and into the street. After strong south-easterly storms, heavy equipment must be brought it to clear large chunks of drift wood debris.

Summers on the coast are nice with calm weather and stretches of drought, but to witness the full fury and power of the Pacific, you have to do some winter storm watching.

Watch out for rogue waves. 

Drift Logs And Beaches

Large drift log being buried by cobble beach near Sooke, BC

The forest is not the only place to see trees. Beaches often are the final resting place for whole big trees and giant drift logs.

When big trees of the coastal rain forest tumble and make their way to the Pacific Ocean, they begin their new life as a drift log. This woody debris, and serious navigational hazard, can drift for months far out at sea. A friend, a fisheries inspector, saw a whole tree floating perfectly upright in the waves 100 km off Vancouver Island.

Logging activity adds a lot of drift logs to local waters and beaches

 Many drift logs end up on beaches. Some stay for a while before being washed out to sea again, and others become permanent features.

The form and shape of beaches in the Pacific Northwest are greatly affected by the thousands and thousands of drift logs constantly spewing from coastal forest waterways from both human-related, and natural activities.

Drift logs pile up at the back of beaches, but large storms can still move them,
French Beach, Sooke, BC

Drift logs make their own horizontal, jumbled forest along thousands of kilometers of sand and cobble beaches. Over the years, great piles of grey sun-bleached logs can pile up at the back of beaches, under the boughs of their still-living comrades at the ocean/forest interface.

Many drift logs become completely buried, turning 1500 year old trees into fossils over tens of thousands of years.

Driftwood buried by beach gravel

There are ancient Pacific coast beaches that have been lifted high by tectonic activity onto the slopes of coastal mountains. Digging on these terraces at elevation in Oregon, USA revealed 100,000 year old drift logs buried in the sand.

Drift logs are influenced by high tides, gales, and winter storms. Recent peregian spring tides, which are the highest of the year, have moved beach drift logs around. During winter storms the Sooke river disgorges, at irregular intervals, all kinds of woody debris, including some very large logs and trees.

If you haven't been to your local beach for a while, now is a good time to visit to see if the drift log collection has changed.

Surfing The Drift Wood

Bufflehead riding the driftwood during recent high spring tide

Nice platform for preening and relaxing

Even after trees fall and enter local waterways they continue to provide habitat for local wildlife.

I caught this Bufflehead (Bucephala albeolata) taking advantage of a piece of driftwood in the Sooke Harbor recently.

Wintering Buffleheads prefer the shallow water shelter of the coves, estuaries, beaches and harbors along the coast of southern Vancouver Island.

These tiny birds are the smallest diving ducks in North America, and also one of the fastest in flight.

Drift wood in the estuary and harbour is a magnet for Buffleheads and other creatures such as: eagles, vultures, ducks, river otters, kingfishers, cormorants, and gulls.

Multiple seagull captains surfed this big log away

High Tides And River Levels Moving Drift Logs

This large drift log was flushed out of the Sooke River two years ago

Fall and winter are the seasons that put the rain in coastal rainforest. The calm summer is a distant memory that dropped with the leaves of the maples and oaks. Now is the time for gales, tropical punch drenching rains, and the highest tides of the year.

The drift log was lifted by recent high tides and swept away like a big canoe

With the summer drought over, the life-giving rains that define the forest begin to fall. Conifers that have been growing so slow that they are near dormant now have the rainfall that they have been missing for the past several months.

Rain-swollen rivers rise to heights that enable thousands of pacific salmon to return to their birthplace and continue a cycle that has been taking place for millions of years. The forest, and almost 200 species of animals, will benefit from the salmon's nutrient bounty. This includes Bald eagles which gather in large numbers to feast on the dead salmon which dot the low tide sand bars.

This huge stump has been on Billings Spit beach for many years -
it is unmoved by even the highest of tides.

After several big storms the ground nears saturation, and water begins to flow in low lying areas. Previously dry rock faces now sport gushing waterfalls, and the moss is puffed with moisture and at its brightest green.

The water rushes over the land and down to the ocean. River water levels reach several times the meager summer flow, washing accumulated woody debris, including whole, large trees, into the estuary in the harbour.

This cedar drift log lasted a few weeks on the beach before
being cut, floated, and hauled away

When high river flows combine with perigean spring tides (20% higher than normal), flooding is possible in coastal regions, especially if there are strong winds. On south Vancouver Island the highest tides of the year take place right now, then the end of December 2011, and mid-January 2012.

Another large cedar stump washed out of the Sooke River into the estuary.
It was only a few days before a boat tied up, cut the roots off, and hauled the log away.

The highest water levels of the year flush drift wood from beaches to float on the currents until they find a new resting place. The tide flats of the Sooke River estuary are often cleaned of old drift wood, before new trees and wood are washed out of the hills and end up taking their place.

Some drift logs stay for years, others will be gone by spring. Valuable large drift logs are hauled away by enterprising coastal residents to become shingles and shakes, posts, beams, and firewood. Their winter work is rarely witnessed by fair weather visitors.

Although not traditionally a part of the tourism season, late fall and winter offer exciting opportunities to see the coastal forest during its most tumultuous, powerful, and ever-changing moments as it interacts with the wind, water, and waves.  

Billings Spit: Trees and Beaches

An unusual bent Douglas-fir on west Billings Beach

Billings Spit, in the coastal town of Sooke, BC, is good place to see nice urban trees in a residential neighbourhood, as well as a good place to take a walk along a scenic stretch of rocky beach. The beaches here often have large drift logs that come and go with the storms, tides, and winds.

Mallards and Widgeons in Seabroom Park, off Kaltasin Road, Billings Spit

Seabroom Park, found at the end of Seabroom Road, is a salt marsh that is often flooded at high tides. This tiny undeveloped park is great for ducks, and to access a nice stretch of beach. If you are wearing your gumboots you could pass through. If not, best to return when it is drier. This beach is on the Sooke Basin side of the spit.

Cedar stump on the tip of Billings Spit

All winter long storms wash great pieces of wood onto Billings Spit beaches. Some are large enough to stay for months, or sometimes years, before moving on. The stump shown above had a complete 30 meter long silvery trunk before log salvagers came for its valuable wood. Eventually the remains moved off the beach, possibly to head out to sea for a while.

There is a view and access to the beach from this small Billings Spit park

There is another small undeveloped park not far from Seabroom. It is at the end of Kaltasin Road. It provides access to the beach on the Sooke Harbour side of the spit, and contains a couple of impressive large diameter Douglas-fir. If you visit, please do the trees a favour and park on the street instead of in the park on their roots.

Near the north end of the beach on the harbour side are several Douglas-fir veterans, including a couple that hang precariously over the beach

The west beach on Billings Spit (harbour side) doubles as a riverbank as this is where the Sooke River enters the ocean. This makes for a dynamic system rich in plant and animal life, and makes excellent habitat for many species of birds, black bear, river otters, a nesting pair of eagles, and impressive salmon runs in the fall. There are also some old trees to be seen on the banks, as well as chunky bits of drift wood littering the beach.

Glenidle Road feels like a tunnel through the trees - the old cedars are great

Even the streets of the Billings Spit area have big trees to be seen. Along Glenidle Road are several old growth Western red-cedars that have grown large fluted trunks. Rumour has it than when the sewer system is extended to Billings Spit these magnificent trees may have to be cut down to make way for the construction. I hope that is wrong. These centuries old trees look like healthy, robust specimens.

Glenidle Road big cedars

Getting There

Billings Spit is about a 10 minute drive from Sooke's town center, and about 35 minutes from Victoria. It is on bus route #61. Often people park on Highway 14, and do a walking loop down through the neighbourhood, incorporating a bit of beachcombing along the way. The best time to visit is at lower tides (consult tide table here).


View Billings Spit - Trees and Beaches in a larger map

Ella Beach: Big Trees On The Edge

Big trees on the edge along the coast near Sooke

Vancouver Island has 3,500 kilometers of coastline, and along much of that you will find trees. These trees are at the edge living a very precarious existence. This is where the sea meets the land, and the water meets the wood. It is a wild and ever changing battlefield, and ultimately the land and trees give way to the persistence of the wind and waves. Sooke's west-facing Ella beach is a great place to see the interaction of land and sea, and witness how big trees cope in this dangerous zone.

Looking up at a downed Sitka spruce waiting to slide into the ocean

Wind, rain, and waves all slam into land here, constantly shaping the trees while eroding the land around them. On the night of December 15, 2006 a mega-storm hit the south coast. Hurricane force winds of 158 km/hour were recorded at Race Rocks, not far from here. The storm knocked down thousands of trees along the coast that night, and many ended up in the ocean becoming drift logs.

Eventually the tree in the distance will join others on the beach

Many of the biggest trees along Ella beach are Sitka spruce. These trees are not found further than about 80 km from the ocean, and have adapted to the salt spray near the surf. It is believed that not only do these trees tolerate salty or brackish conditions, but actually benefit from the various minerals found in ocean spray and salty soil.

Sitka spruce often have shallow root systems as many begin life on top of downed trees or 'nurse logs'. This makes them susceptible to blow down later in life. Sitka spruce can live for up to 800 years, but it is unlikely that those growing in exposed, easily eroded areas will make it that far. The oldest trees I saw along Ella beach are probably half that age.

Big Sitka spruce along Ella beach in a low bank, sheltered setting

There are also big Douglas-fir along the coast here. Many of them are also being swept into the ocean. Some will end up on the beach somewhere in the area. Others may make a major crossing on ocean currents and wash up on beaches on the Hawaiian Islands. Historically such logs making the crossing from North America were sought after by the Hawaiians for building canoes.

This Douglas-fir holds on against all odds

The terrain along this stretch of coastline varies from walk-on beach at the Ella Road access, to towering sheer cliffs closer to town. Hiking here you can see the graphic results of the ocean/land interface as everything is eventually eroded away.

This Douglas-fir, anchored by roots growing into the cliff, hangs suspended in the air

This ever changing, dynamic zone where the ocean meets the land constantly provides interesting surprises. Ella beach in Sooke is an excellent place to view big trees on the edge - a perilous spot where the ocean always wins.

Getting There


View Ella Beach in a larger map

Beachcombers Struggle To Maintain Coastal Way Of Life

Professional log salvaging began along the B.C. coast in the late 1880's, and beachcombers have been wrangling stray logs ever since. It has always been a tough way to make a living.

Marine log salvaging increases the efficiency of logging operations by eliminating a source of waste. It also makes maritime travel safer by removing dangerous logs from waterways and shipping lanes.

A downturn in the logging industry means a downturn in the amount of logs available for salvage. These are tough times for log wranglers that retrieve logs that come loose from booms during transportation to the mills.

Marine log salvage is closely controlled by the government, salvage log purchasers, and logging companies. The Vancouver log salvage district, extends from Otter Point on southern Vancouver Island, up the Fraser River into Harrison and Stave lakes on the Lower Mainland, and includes the entire Strait of Georgia and Queen Charlotte Strait.

According to civil law, any log that a salver finds belongs to them, unless someone else can show better title. Logging companies show their ownership of logs by stamping or branding them with their registered timber mark, marine log brand, or ownership tag.

When Comox Logging boomed its logs from Vancouver Island across the Strait of Georgia to Fraser Mills up the Fraser River, its logs bore the circle F log stamp. While the logs were still in the forest the chaser (a member of the skidder crew) would wack each end of every log with a heavy branding hammer, denoting ownership.

These log stamps compressed the grain of the tree for a metre or more up the log. This means that if a beachcomber illegally tried to cut the ends off the logs, the brand would still be visible.

Marine log salvaging was immortalized in CBC's TV program The Beachcombers, which ran from 1972 to 1990 and is still the longest-running dramatic series ever made for Canadian television. Nick Adonidus and friends 'lived' in Gibsons Landing on the Sunshine Coast, a place that has seen thousands of log booms pass by.


On my local 1 km stretch of west-facing beach what usually washes up are whole trees that have fallen into the Sooke River and then are washed down into the harbour with winter storms and high water. It wasn't always that way though.

While talking to a neighbour on the beach I heard that decades ago a person could walk this entire length of beach and never touch the ground. That is how log-strewn the beach was back then. Stray logs everywhere.

It just so happened that the day we had this conversation was the day that a large Western red cedar log washed up on shore. Another beach walker joined the conversation and commented that in his opinion the log was worth many thousands of dollars, and that the owners would be scouring the area looking for it.

My neighbours told me that someone up the river is logging old Western red cedars for shakes and shingles. Somehow a few logs and some logging debris (roots and stumps) were swept into the river by high water levels. Not long after the log washed up I noticed a huge stump of equal proportions in the river upstream of the bridge into town.

A couple more heavy rains combined with high tides and the stump was washed out into the harbour where it lodged on a sandbar. Shortly after that I saw a salvor standing on top of the stump with a gigantic chain saw trying to cut off the bottom part of the tree. He eventually gave up, but next high tide he was out there with his boat hauling the valuable stump away.

This incident made me think of the approximately 100 remaining salvors in the Vancouver log salvage district. With the logging industry changing rapidly these independent workers are having a tough time making ends meet. It's not just our forests that are changing on the coast. Out here entire ways of life that were dependent on resource extraction are becoming endangered themselves.

San Juan Beach Video - Feb. 05/10

While I was on the beach at the Pacheedaht campground looking at big drift wood I took a short video. It is not sharp, but you can see the beauty of the area, and listen to the slap of the waves on the sand. You can also see why the Pacheedaht people are known as the "People of the Sea Foam".

The video starts by looking off toward the town of Port Renfrew, a place that was first established as a logging camp in the early 20th century. As I turn to look up the beach you can see the Red alder fringe bordering the sand with the hemlock/spruce forest rising up behind. Strewn over the beach are the winter's accumulation of drift logs.

The video continues panning to look along the beach toward Harris Cove where the Gordon and San Juan rivers come together before emptying into San Juan Bay. As the camera passes the mouth of Gordon Bay it continues past the trailhead for the West Coast Trail, originally built in 1907 as a life-saving trail for shipwrecked sailors. The video shows where the trail goes up along the coast, and
then continues 77km to Bamfield.



This video was taken at low tide on a calm day. Imagine high tide during a storm in the winter. People who live on the wild west coast of Vancouver Island know the sounds of giant drift logs being smashed over rocky outcrops.



The first commercial logging took place in the San Juan Valley in 1889, and rampant exploitation has continued to this very day. Vast expanses of Western hemlock/Sitka spruce forest have been liquidated and turned into wood products for the world, leaving behind an industrial wasteland. Some notable big trees and small patches of original forest have survived the onslaught and are worth visiting.

I will be visiting some of these places and posting photos and information in the future.

Winter Drift Logs Park On Port Renfrew Beach

I love a good drive even more now since I am doing it less, keeping most of my adventures local and self-propelled. A drive well worth making is the 107km (66mi) trip from Victoria to Port Renfrew. There is enough to keep the tree enthusiast occupied for a day trip, weekend, or lifetime.

The twisty, dangerous, and fun-packed West Coast Road takes you past some of the most beautiful coastline anywhere, and through some impressive second and third growth tree plantations. Small remnant patches of old growth and nice beaches, can be accessed from the highway all along this rugged route. One of my favourite forest/beach areas is at the Pacheedaht campground in Port Renfrew. Bordering San Juan Beach, San Juan River, and Harris Cove, it is also one of the most accessible.

When we pulled up to the beach we were surprised at the changes since our last visit. Winter storms had tossed debris over the entire 2 km stretch of beach, creating a labyrinth of wood sure to swallow the unaware beachcomber.

From end to end the beach is strewn with wood, from large trees with complete root systems, to tiny wood chips ground and polished by the pulsing waves. For 2 km these large trees stretch, all pulled tips-in to the beach at the same angle, looking like cars parked at a drive-in.

A few huge logs, escaped from the log booms of days gone by, lay partially buried further up the beach, thrown by tempests of the past. These columns are being reclaimed by the relentless sands of time.

The Sitka spruce forest behind the beach is a green, misty, mythical place. In the Coastal Western hemlock zone, and right next to the ocean, this rugged spot is all about water. Sitka spruce, the third tallest conifer species (after coastal Redwood and Douglas fir), is tolerant of the constant salt spray in their ocean environment.

On this beach, more exposed to the open Pacific than those further up the Juan de Fuca Strait, the thundering surf can get big. Big enough to throw huge trees and logs around like toys.


The hemlock climatic zone is the wettest zone, on average, in British Columbia. This wonderland of wetness receives major moisture, about 1000 to 4400 mm of rain annually. That explains the dripping fluorescent green mosses hanging from everything creating a magical Tolkienesque landscape. You expect the ancient trees to move, or talk, or scream and shout.



Compare this to the beginning of the drive from Victoria. It sits in Vancouver Island's Coastal Douglas fir zone, in the rain shadow of Washington's Olympic Range. This zone stretches from just past Sooke, around the bottom of the island, and up to Campbell River. 

Because of the influence of the Olympic Range, the Coastal Douglas-fir zone is much dryer with about 647mm of moisture every year. Compare that to Port Renfrew, only 80 km from Sooke. Here a year will bring around 3671mm of precipitation. This is giant Sitka spruce country, and the second largest Sitka, the San Juan Spruce, is only a few kilometers away at the San Juan campground.

Another reason I like the Port Renfrew area is that it marks access to the West Coast and Juan de Fuca Trails. Both pass through areas of old forest and provide glimpses of trees and forests largely pillaged elsewhere on the island. Indeed, hikers are often treated to the chainsaw sounds of similar forests disappearing outside the narrow park boundaries.


Big trees growing next to the ocean or on rivers naturally erode out and fall into water. Wind storms can take out thousands of trees in a single weather event, as in December 2006. It looks like many of those trees end up on San Juan beach. This wild west coast phenomenon shows the enormity and power of this special place. It is the rugged west coast and I love it. Big surf, big trees, big drift logs, big rain.

Well worth taking a leisurely big tree adventure in this awesome location.

Another Grand Beach Stump

Another semi-permanent feature of Billing Spit is this large chunk of tree left over after logging sometime in the distant past. More than likely it was logged from somewhere in the Sooke river watershed, and eventually tumbled down into a winter raging river only to flow out into the harbour and land here. This giant is toward the end of Billings Spit just on the west facing beach.

As far as I know this log does not move with storms or tides. It has been here for at least as long as I have been here, but surely its tenancy is much longer than just 5 years. No doubt it will continue to live here for many years in the future.

Check out the DBH (diameter at breast height) of this tree. I am just shy of six feet. The log tapers quite quickly, though, but I still figure this douglas fir was between 3 and 400 years old when cut. Often old growth trees that are cut or fall in storms, or die of old age continue to lie around for many decades, perhaps a century, or more. They keep giving after getting horizontal, providing habitat and nutrients for hundreds of different species.

Big Beach Logs

The Billings Spit area of Sooke is a good place to see big old trees, as well as large drift logs on the beach. The log above is up the beach from the park access at the end of Kaltasin Road.

Since this west facing beach is on the Sooke River estuary it collects debris from both the river and Sooke Harbour. Many a winter storm I have watched large whole trees washing down from up river, not to mention picnic tables, floats, and other debris.

Most of the material deposited on the beach will move on with the high tides. If the logs or trees are large enough they may endure for years. You can tell the severity of the storm by what it moves or carries away on this beach.

The log featured above is one of two on this west facing beach that have survived multiple years of river flooding, high tides, and strong winds. I finally took the time to count the rings on this log. I estimate that this Douglas Fir was about 330 years old when cut. The stick up against the tree is 5 ft long.

I wonder if it came from up the Sooke River, or if the tides brought this log in from elsewhere in the Harbour or Basin. It is possible that it came in from the Straight of Juan de Fuca. Stranger things have been brought in on the tides, such as a large, dead elephant seal. I wonder where the rest of the tree ended up. Perhaps it was used to build the building I live in.

Thank you, tree.