Old Growth Trees Provide Valuable Habitat

 Pileated woodpeckers have excavated the thick bark of this old growth Douglas fir

Intact large tracts of old growth trees and forests provide irreplaceable habitat for a wide variety of living things. Many can not thrive in any other habitat, so when the trees go, so does a large part of the forest community.

The Pileated woodpecker is one of the largest
woodpeckers, and can be found in
the coastal temperate rainforest

Old Douglas fir like the one shown above can have bark up to 30 or 40 cm thick. This bark is deeply furrowed and provides habitat for feeding, nesting, and roosting animals.


Woodpeckers, like the largest species in the world, the Pileated, access insects in this cork-like bark.

Some bats roost under slabs of bark

Large slabs of bark can also harbour sleeping bats.


Bats have few predators, and human activity causes them the most harm. Some “tree bats”, such as Keen’s Long-eared Myotis, are dependant on old growth forest for roosting.


These bats, like so many other old growth residents, are endangered due to habitat loss.

Baby Spotted Owl at the nest in an old growth tree

Spotted owls also depend on large old trees for their habitat. It is estimated that there only 12 Spotted owls left in the wild in all of British Columbia.


The province has started the world's first captive breeding program for the owls, but with no habitat to return the birds to, the Spotted owl's continued survival outside of zoos is unlikely.





We don't know what is at risk when we destroy the primal forest for these forests have never been extensively studied. 

If we did a serious survey of old growth logging we would see that we are losing much more than we are gaining when we cut primal forests. When the big old trees go, so does the entire forest community, in what can only be called ecocide. 

A ransacked community means reduced biodiversity which means a less robust, less productive environment. 

We need an immediate end to industrial clear cut logging in our primal forests not just in BC, but globally. The slugs, and birds, and bats, and insects are depending on us, as are the trees.

Our own survival may depend on the outcome of the fight for maintaining ecological integrity.

Forest Creatures: Pileated Woodpecker

photo: allaboutbirds.org

Yesterday I was cycling through a nice stretch of trees on the Galloping Goose trail up the Sooke River when I noticed a couple of striking creatures. 

Clinging to the bark of a large diameter tree were two pileated woodpeckers, the largest woodpeckers in North America.

A little larger than a crow, these flame-capped birds are year round residents in mature forests. I watched the two as they flew from tree trunk to tree trunk, poking into the furrowed bark. I could hear the wind through their ample wings as they flapped from tree to tree.

What a thrill to see these birds here, poking around the spectacular linear park that is the Galloping Goose Trail. This narrow corridor preserves some nice larger, older trees of the type that the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) requires for nesting. In younger forests, it will use any large trees remaining from before the forest was cut.

Pileated woodpecker range

The largest woodpecker in the world was the Imperial Woodpecker of Mexico. The largest woodpecker in North America was  the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (although since 2004 there have been potential and encouraging sightings).

Both were driven toward extinction due mostly to habitat destruction - the loss of the old growth forests they relied on.

Pileated Woodpeckers require the complexities of a multi-storied canopy, large stumps and rotting fallen trees. Their nests have been found in a variety of trees including ponderosa pine, larch, hemlock, western red cedar, alder, and maple trees, amongst others.

Crucial to their survival is the structure of the forest that develops as it 'becomes' old growth (>250 years old). It makes these areas ideal nesting and foraging sites, with plenty of food found in the dense, damp understory. Clear cuts and newer forests do not provide the habitat these amazing birds require.

Old Pileated nests are used by many other creatures

I ended my bird sighting with one of the woodpeckers peeking out at me as I sat on my bicycle, stopped on the trail. The large, inquisitive bird was peering out from behind yet another tree trunk.

All of a sudden its red crested head would appear, then bob up and down in what looked like a display directed toward the bright red coat I was wearing.

Maybe I looked like a giant woodpecker, an interloper that would only be tolerated in this bird's territory during winter. Now that it is spring, I would be considered a threat to be actively driven off.

Smiling at the Woody Woodpecker routine, I rode on allowing the bird to forget about potential competition, and resume its hunt for juicy ants and beetle larvae living under the bark of the big trees.