Tree of Life Gets Little Respect

Wolf head canoe in Sooke River estuary approaching T'souke Nation
Tribal Journey, 2009 - photo by Trickster Art

In the coastal forest the Western red-cedar is known as the "tree of life". It is a good name for a tree that can maintain its own life for thousands of years. Although it is British Columbia's official tree, it currently gets little respect.

The cedar's downfall? Too useful, too profitable, and too vulnerable.

Unfinished cedar canoe on Haida Gwaii

Red-cedar has helped maintain human life on the coast for thousands of years. It has provided coastal First Nations with planks for homes, and large trunks for canoes and totem poles, the tall poles carved with family histories.

The tree of life also provides material for boxes, rope, clothes, and carvings. But for how long?

Cedar provides durable wood for canoes, long houses, totem poles, and more.

Increasingly, large red-cedar trees are becoming rare as logging companies vie for the last of the big ones. Finding large trees is becoming a global problem as native forests continue to disappear at an alarming rate.

In 1998, when Hawaiian canoe makers combed the islands for a native tree large enough to suit their purposes, they spent 9 months looking, and eventually gave up. They concluded that trees big enough for large canoe building were extinct.

Canoe makers on Haida Gwaii have also encountered difficulty in sourcing large Western red-cedar suitable for canoes and totem poles.

Haida totem pole made from cedar

The largest known Western red-cedar canoe in the world was carved in Sooke, BC by canoe makers from the T'Sou-ke First Nation in the early 1990's. The canoe, named KWA Q YUK, is 52 feet long.

Will there still be cedars big enough for a grand vessel of this size seven generations from now? Or even one generation?

The BC government must manage our public forests far better in order to ensure a sustainable yield of large Western red-cedar for cultural, and other uses. It is a job we have entrusted to them, and for decades they have failed.

Ending clearcut old growth logging as we know it today will help.

It is time to humble ourselves before the tree of life, not to mention before the peoples, and our hosts, that require this amazing tree to maintain their traditional ways of life.

You can do your part by refusing to purchase any old growth cedar for any reason. Even better, we can refuse to buy any products that originate in our disappearing primal forests.

Wisdom Of The Trees

Visiting an increasingly rare 1000+ year old Western Red Cedar along West Coast Road
between Sooke and Port Renfrew.

"Because they are primeval, because they outlive us, because they are fixed, trees seem to emanate a sense of permanence.  And though rooted in earth, they seem to touch the sky.  

For these reasons it is natural to feel we might learn wisdom from them, to haunt about them with the idea that if we could only read their silent riddle rightly we should learn some secret vital to our own lives." 

- Kim Taplin

Find out more about the tree shown above, and how to get to it, on my post about the Chin Beach trail cedar. Enjoy the big trees while they last.

And The Wind Said

"And the wind said,

May you be as strong as the Douglas fir,

yet as flexible as the cedar.

May you stand as tall as the Redwood,

live gracefully as the willow,

and may you always bear fruit

all your days on this Earth."

Sooke River Cedars

Cedar growing along (or in!) the Sooke River.

The Cheewhat Cedar in Pacific Rim National Park is the largest known tree in Canada. This building sized behemoth lives only about 100 km away, as the eagle flies, from my home. Thankfully I don't need to go that far to visit ancient cedars.

Cedars favour a moist, wet environment making the Sooke River riparian zone prime growing habitat. Only a few kilometres from my house I can access some of my favourite giant, ancient cedars growing where the land and the river meet.

Riparian zones provide rich habitat and have high biodiversity.

Wikipedia describes riparian zones as "important natural biofilters, protecting aquatic environments from excessive sedimentation, polluted surface runoff and erosion. They supply shelter and food for many aquatic animals and shade that is an important part of stream temperature regulation."

There are a trio of trees in this ancient cedar grove on the Sooke River bank.

Cedars are a major part of Vancouver Island riparian ecosystems. This community of plants ensures perfects conditions for spawning and growing salmon. Any damage to the cedars and the riparian zone will result in damage to salmon runs, as has been the case all along BC's coast.


An unhealthy salmon run reflects back on the rivers and damage to the riparian zone results. Every year millions of salmon return to their river birthplaces and provide riparian areas with tons of nutrients. No fish - no nutrients.

Broken top cedars on the river bank show their advanced age.

Some of the local cedars I visit on my bike rides could be up to 800 years old. Or more. I marvel that they still exist, and breathe a sigh of relief each time I go for a visit and see that they are still there.

Then I soak up the history and magic of the riverside groves and of these patient, wise tree beings that have so much to share. They don't call it the "Tree of Life" for nothing.

Soon the salmon will be running along the base of their land dwelling tree friends, continuing the cycle of life for both fish and trees.

Perhaps one day in the distant future one of the Sooke River cedars will be the largest tree in Canada.

Who is watching our public lands?

Illegal tree poaching by individuals - this 800 year old red cedar in Carmanah Walbran
Provincial Park was cut, sectioned, and hauled away for shakes or roof shingles.
Photo: Torrance Coste

Who is watching what is happening in our public lands? Well, if you can cut down and haul away a hugely valuable 800 year old red cedar IN a provincial park, I'd have to say no one is keeping tabs on our public resources.

"I'll tell you what irresponsible is - 10 years ago there were 194 park rangers in British Columbia, there's under 100 now." - NDP Scott Fraser in 2012

In the 2002 Raincoast report "Losing Ground: The decline in fish and wildlife law enforcement capability in B.C. and Alaska," author and wildlife scientist Dr. Brian Horejsi concluded the following:

"Wildlife populations and biological diversity are endangered by chronic underfunding and marginalization of wildlife conservation-oriented enforcement programs in British Columbia and, to a lesser degree, in Alaska. This period of measurable political disinterest and low and declining priority now approaches 20 years in duration. 

There is little evidence available to the British Columbia or Alaska public to indicate that current enforcement capabilities are sufficient to provide effective compliance with fish and wildlife regulations, a problem being aggravated by escalating and uncoordinated land use activities. 

In every capability measure examined, capability today is significantly lower than it has been previously. Enforcement and protection staff are presently unable to effect widespread and long-lasting changes in resource user behavior in either Alaska or B.C. 

While fish and wildlife protection capability in Alaska has slipped...the evidence indicates that B.C. has now crossed the threshold at which protection of fish and wildlife populations and their habitat by enforcement services has effectively and materially been abandoned."

Governments at all levels have abandoned their responsibilities as stewards of our shared public lands. Everything from oil to coal to gold to wildlife and old growth trees is being ruthlessly plundered and poached whether by "legal" or "illegal" means.

Legal tree poaching by corporations - this 800 year old red cedar on King Island, which is in the Great Bear Rainforest, was cut, sectioned and hauled away for building products.
Photo: Bedrohte Naturschätze

By all accounts no one in government is watching anything except their own bank balances.


Without oversight on our public lands we can expect that they will be destroyed for the benefit of short term personal gain and shareholder profit.

Salvaging The Last Of The Cedar

This fallen cedar makes a good bench along the Sooke River

You can tell how valuable cedar wood is by the lengths that people will go to harvest these quintessential rain forest trees. Such is the story up the Sooke River where a nice Western red cedar gave in to gravity and fell into the water.


It did not lay there for long before someone brought in a chainsaw to take the log, which could be used for a wide variety of purposes from beams to boxes.

There are still a few old growth cedars left along the Sooke River, one of
Vancouver Island's largest rivers.

The cut log would have had to be floated down the river to the harbour, a distance of a couple of kilometres, where it could be plucked from the water.

The cedar's roots were undercut by the river till it could no longer stand.

A spear of cedar remains upright, a monument to
the cedar's original destination.

Heartwood of cedar shows its beautiful grain and texture. 

The wood of cedar is sturdy, rot resistant, and smells nice. These qualities, coupled with greed, have doomed the big trees to extinction. The Americans have already lost theirs as the big cedars along the coast of California, Oregon and Washington were consumed long ago.

Now logging companies are targeting the last big cedars remaining, which can be found in British Columbia. More specifically, on Vancouver Island where the largest of these large trees grow. Many of the trees cut down are exported as whole logs to overseas markets. There goes the neighbourhood.

The cut log is a nice place to sit under the feathery cedars,
and watch small salmon in the river below.

Although the tree in the river was probably not more than a few hundred years old, and relatively small as cedars go, it was still worth the substantial effort that it must have taken to cut and remove this tree from the forest along the river.

It will take similar efforts to halt the logging of our remaining old growth Western red cedars and Yellow cedars on Vancouver Island and the rest of British Columbia. 

Consider boycotting products made from first growth trees that could be upwards of a thousand years old. These ancient trees are an important part of not only the forest ecosystem, but also First Nations culture and way of life.

Sooke Sitka Spruce

A Sitka spruce framed by Western red-cedars

Sitka spruce is the largest spruce variety in the world, growing up to 100 meters tall in places like Vancouver Island's Carmanah Valley where Canada's tallest spruce trees live.

However, it is not a dominant tree in the Sooke region and over most of Vancouver Island away from the wild west coast.

In fact, the easterly-most concentration of Sitka spruce trees in this area can be found in the Royal Roads old growth forest in Colwood, about 25 minutes from Sooke. Although the spruce trees get by in the Royal Roads forest, they are dominated by the more plentiful (and larger) Douglas firs.

Dark green = prime habitat, light green = marginal habitat.

Sooke lies in a transition zone between the dryer Douglas-fir ecozone to the east, and the wetter Western hemlock zone to the west (where the salt-tolerant Sitka are common along the coast). While Sitka spruce are not plentiful here, but some nice specimens can be found, often up river valleys or fringing beaches on the ocean.

Sitka spruce bark is reddish-brown and forms large, loose scales

Sitka spruce are the fastest growing trees in the coastal forest, and can live up to 800 years. Some nice specimens can be found up the Sooke River, as well as in the Muir Creek old growth forest.

Sitka spruce have a beautiful shape

Stanley Park's National Geographic Tree

Stanley Park's National Geographic Tree 30 years before it fell in a 2007 wind storm.
Photo credit: Jim Wright

Today we are having gale force winds and driving rain on the coast that are making the big trees dance and shake. Such winds can be perilous for large trees, especially if their root area is saturated with rain.

It was the deadly combination of rain-soaked roots and wind that toppled Stanley Park's largest tree back in 2007. Dubbed "The National Geographic Tree" since the magazine visited the city of Vancouver to photograph the monumental Western red-cedar, the death was a blow to park and tree enthusiasts.

The National Geo Tree had its top missing, probably from a lightening strike

This magnificent tree was known to be the largest in Stanley Park, and many believed it was the largest in Canada. The cedar may have been the largest, oldest tree in the park, but it was not the largest or oldest in the country.

Let's see how Stanley Park's Nat. Geo Tree matches up to Vancouver Island's Cheewhat Cedar.

The National Geographic Tree (pre-2007) while it was still standing

In 1978 the Nat. Geo Tree was measured at 13.5 metres in circumference (45 feet), and was 40 metres (133 feet) in height. The tree was estimated to be about 1000 years old.

The Cheewhat Cedar - largest tree in Canada, and estimated to be 3000 years old

The Cheewhat Cedar on the other hand, is estimated to be about 3000 years old. It is 18.5 meters (61 feet) in circumference, and 192 feet tall, making it the largest tree in Canada.

National Geographic Tree on the ground after 2007 storm

In the 1970s photographers from National Geographic Magazine visited the Stanley Park icon for an article. The tree gained its name, and thousands of visitors as a result of the publicity. The tree had been a pilgrimage destination for nature lovers since the 1890s.

Roots of National Geo Tree

After the National Geographic Tree fell, it could be seen that the roots and part of the trunk had been infected with rot, a common condition often responsible for weakening trees that eventually fall to the ground.

The fallen Stanley Park monument will be left to rot in place, and still makes for an interesting visit to witness this stage in the life and death of an old growth tree. It could lay on the forest floor for hundreds of years before being entirely incorporated into the soil.

Stanley Park is in Vancouver, BC

The now horizontal Nat. Geo Tree can be found near the Hollow Tree. To view it, go to the Hollow Tree parking lot and cross the road to the Third Beach Trail. It is located a short distance down the trail.

Salvaging Western Red Cedar In Clayoquot Sound

Tofino's Salvage Towing salvaging a red cedar in Clayoquot Sound

Marine salvage of big trees has always been a part of BC's forest industry, and continues to this day. In Clayoquot Sound by Tofino, Salvage Towing wrangles large trees that fall into water, and float them to their small sawmill.

This 'eco-lumber' is environmentally friendly since it replaces cutting trees in the forest.

Salvaged wood from the small mill is used for value-added enterprises such as furniture making. These photos were taken from the Tofino company website Adirondackchaironline.com. They use reclaimed wood to make beautiful eco-furniture.

Sustainably built furniture from reclaimed Western red cedar

Using reclaimed wood is another way to help relieve pressure on our remaining old growth forests.

Refugee Tree: Largest Red Cedar In The CRD

The multi-topped Refugee Tree, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Washington's Olympic Range can be
seen from the gravel pullout along Highway 14

A recent big tree quest saw us cruising West Coast Road/Highway 14 west of Sooke on a stunning fall day. Our mission? To seek out the largest red cedar in Victoria's Capital Region District.

For enthusiasts, a journey like this is a pilgrimage, but instead of searching out a temple, the goal is a living shrine.

Some of these shrines are older than those of the more visited religious variety. Several are older than the establishment of the religions themselves.

Call me a druid, but I think that these old growth shrines, like the CRD's Refugee Tree, have as much or more moral and spiritual significance than a lock of hair or scrap of hem from someones garment.

You can't live for an eon or more and not exude a certain aura of experience, wisdom, and patience.

The Refugee Tree is 13.72 meters in circumference (45 ft) 

Comparing these places to shrines is only one spiritual similarity. When surrounded by the giant column-like boles in an old growth forest, many people feel like they are in a cathedral. Indeed, that is exactly how Port Alberni's Cathedral Grove got its name.

The lofty heights take ones eye upwards to the canopy high overhead. Light filters through like beams through stained glass. The magnificence of the trees, plus the stillness and quiet, elicit a sense of humility in all gentle supplicants that enter here.

What we should be asking for is forgiveness, for the bulk of this cathedral has been desecrated and razed to the ground.

The Refugee Tree is surrounded by other older cedars and younger forest of Western Hemlock

The hike to the Refugee Tree is a short, but occasionally steep fifteen minutes from the Highway 14 pullout. The trail is marked with some flagging on some bush. Once you have found the trail, just follow the flagging right to the tree. The trail is overgrown in spots, and the trail is easy to miss if you are not paying attention. Always keep the next flag in sight before proceeding.

Away from the road the highway noise begins to fade and you can hear the distant roar of waves below. There are a few big hemlocks along the trail, but these are small compared to the Refugee and several other smaller, yet still impressive, red cedars in the area.

With the sound of the ocean below, and the fresh air surrounding you, it is soon apparent that a visit to the Refugee Tree is a worthwhile quest. Big trees and ancient forests have an amazing capacity to instill a sense of awe, as well as calm.

This is a special place, and if you are still and quiet, all questions are answered.

The adventurer returns, like after all successful pilgrimages, a renewed person with more respect and appreciation for the larger world.

There are other nice old growth trees around the Refugee Tree

Getting There

Directions from Victoria, BC – approx. 1 hour

1. Take West Coast Road/Hwy #14 through Sooke towards Port Renfrew.
2. Set your tripometer at Jordan River; you will drive approximately 17 km more before hitting the roadside turn out
3. The turn out is at a corner which you can recognize by its cement barrier that runs along the left hand side of the road and the steep cliff face that runs along the right. Loss Creek is about 2 km past the turn out, so if you make it to the creek you can turn around and go back.
4. Stop at the corner pull out on the ocean side, and park. From here y
   ou should be able to see out over the Juan de Fuca, and you can see the many spires on the top of the Refugee Tree.
5. Walk along the road barrier toward Victoria while keeping an eye out for a bit of flagging in the bush to your right.
6. Enter the forest by the flagging, and follow the faint trail. Before long you will come to a short steep section that requires caution. 
7. After descending the small shelf you can follow the flagging and the trail to the tree.
8. At the beginning of the trail notice the huge cedar stump on the left hand side. Many areas along this stretch of coast were clear cut logged 30 or 40 years ago. For reasons unknown, the odd huge cedar, including the CRD's largest, were left standing.
9. Loss Creek, two km past the Refugee Tree, has areas of protected old growth Sitka Spruce forest. There are no services or established trails, just a nice creek and some great trees.

Status

The Refugee Tree is currently unprotected as it grows on forestry land. The Juan de Fuca Trail, which passes by below, could be extended to include the tree and other bits of remnant old growth that are close by in the steep ravines.

Logging In Walbran Valley May Threaten Champion Red Cedar

The Castle Giant (5 meter diameter, and registered Champion), is a Western red-cedar in the unprotected
Upper Walbran Valley, that may be threatened by logging. photo: T.J. Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance

The wilderness of Vancouver Island is an unusual landscape where industrial clear cuts boarder shrinking areas of pristine old growth.

On one side, the sounds of chain saws, helicopters, and monster trucks carrying now-inert ancient trees; and on the other, mist floating through a 10,000 years old ecosystem, wetting the rain coast undergrowth. Pileated woodpeckers call from the fluted trunks of massive thousand year old cedars.

I have not visited the big trees of Vancouver Island's back country as much as I would like this past summer. Considering that, I appreciate the work of the people who are out 'in the bush', navigating dusty washboard gravel roads shared with loaded logging trucks, to visit the old growth and report back to the rest of us.

The adventurous forests defenders of Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance are examples of individuals that are acting as our eyes in endangered old growth rain forest areas. They drive to rough and rugged foggy places where few dare to tread (although more all the time), and often the information they bring back is vital and disturbing.

One of their most recent field trips was no different.

"Members of the Ancient Forest Alliance found the tape in the Upper Walbran Valley, near Castle Grove, which contains the Castle Giant, a western red cedar with a five-metre diameter. The tree is listed in the provincial big tree registry as one of the widest in Canada.

“Castle Grove is ground zero for the ancient forest movement on southern Vancouver Island, both historically and today,” said Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “To try and log it is insanity — it will only escalate the war in the woods to a whole new level,” he said.

The logging tape, marked “falling boundary,” is less than 50 metres from the Castle Giant, said Alliance campaigner TJ Watt who discovered the tape." - read more here

It seems that no one in government, or the company that operates in the area (Teal Jones Group of Surrey), knows anything about logging activity in the area in question. Or at least they aren't willing to speak to why the area has been flagged for falling.

The Teal Jones Group is a private logging company whose website states that the organization "recognizes that only through respect for all aspects of our environment can we consistently achieve our objectives and commitments in the long term productivity and conservation of natural resources."

However, cutting trees up to 1000 years plus does not show respect. And then planting a few seedlings doesn't cut it, unless they are planning on letting the seedlings grow for the next several hundred to 1000 years before they harvest again.

How about even 250 years? This is about the time required for the coastal forest to mellow into the next old growth phase, and attain a level of biomass not seen in any other ecosystem.

No, the next harvest here, in order for logging companies like Teal Jones to 'achieve their objectives' of increasing profits, will be in 60 to 80 years.

Once it is logged, the old growth forest and all the diversity that goes with it is gone forever. That is why it is so important to save what is left, including the Upper Walbran Valley's Castle Grove and champion trees like the Castle Giant.

Say NO to old growth logging.

Goldstream Park: Accessible Old Growth

Accessible old growth forest just 30 minutes from downtown Victoria, 
Goldstream Park (day use area)

There is nowhere else in the Victoria region that I know of that a person can as easily access as many big trees as in Goldstream Park. It is unfortunate that this amazing, small bit of remnant old growth is split by the busy Trans Canada Highway, but don't let the road noise stop you from enjoying this living museum.

In comments on past posts here, VIBT reader and big tree guy, Samuel Bednarski, has noted the champions among the 800 year old trees in Goldstream Park.

"Goldstream still holds the crown for Victoria area big trees at 80+ meters. There are cedars that reach 72 meters, and the tallest Douglas-fir is 82 meters. There are many 70+ meter tall trees, especially off the highway."

"A few hundred metres south of where the Trans-Canada Highway meets Finlayson Arm Road, there is a grove of trees on the east side of the road that I have not measured, and are about 80 metres tall." 

Those are some pretty impressive numbers. Are these the tallest trees in the CRD? Samuel thinks so, and he should know - he has a laser device for easy and accurate measurement of trees, and has used it here.

Looking up the trunk of a Goldstream Park old growth Douglas-fir

The day use part of Goldstream contains many huge trees that one can drive or walk right by, and there are several trails for hiking. The primeval forest still dominates here, and is populated by gigantic, ancient Western red-cedar, Douglas-fir, Bigleaf maple, Grand fir, and Black cottonwood.

Broken Western red-cedar surrounded by Bigleaf maple along Goldstream River

This is part of the 1% of the old growth Coastal Douglas-fir forest that remains after 150 years of depletion. 99% of the trees outside of parks have not been so lucky. Goldstream Park and places like it exist to remind us of what we have lost. Hopefully they also provide the inspiration and motivation to  stop the continued destruction of the tiny bit of old growth that remains.

Day use area parking lot - big tree drive through

There remains a lot to be discovered in this island of old growth. Check it out - spend a day in a temperate rain forest with trees that were already large when Europeans were living in walled cities, and errant knights in shining armour roamed the countryside.

For more information see here.

Log Booms Past And Present

Log boom off Clover Point in Victoria, July 04, 2012

Log booms were once a common sight on Canada's west coast. During Vancouver Island's logging heyday in the 1950s, giant log booms transported the big trees from the Douglas-fir forests of the east coast to mills up the Fraser River. The rafts, like long puzzles assembled in protected booming grounds, held millions of board feet of prime timber.

The Strait of Georgia was a salt water highway for the industry, and tugs towed rafts hundreds of meters long in an often perilous journey. Quickly changing weather, fog, strong tides, and rocks were constant threats, and many a log were lost on the trip.

Up until recently, the only log booms in transit I have witnessed were along the Sunshine Coast on Georgia Strait. Therefore, I was surprised to see a large boom off Clover Point during a recent visit to Victoria. Judging by the crowd that was gathered to see the tugboat maneuver the boom along the shore, it is indeed a rare sight these days.

Prior to the late 1980s, log booms entering Sooke Harbour destined for the old mill on Goodridge Island could be seen frequently.

Log booms at Sooke Forest Products mill, Goodridge Island, in the 1970's
Photo: Sooke News Mirror

The decades after WWII were boom years for logging on southern Vancouver Island as the industry creamed out on the best trees that will ever grow here. The Sooke Forest Products mill cut Douglas-fir into railway ties destined for the UK, and milled Douglas-fir and Hemlock into lumber for industrial and home construction. In the 1970s the mill began to process only Western red-cedar, the wonder wood of the west coast.

The Sooke Forest Products mill closed its doors for good at the end of the 1980s, which signaled the end of the logging era in the small coastal town.

As the most lucrative old growth becomes increasingly rare, logging is in decline. You are more likely to see a bulk whole log carrier shipping second and third growth trees overseas, than tugs towing booms along the salt water highway. 

Poaching British Columbia's Last Big Trees

Stump of stolen cedar in Carmanah/Walbran Park
Photo by: Torrance Coste, Times Colonist

A recent poaching incident in Vancouver Island's remote Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park highlights what is at stake in our forests as we continue to consume the last of British Columbia's big trees. In the most recent publicized incident, poachers cut and hauled out of the remote coastal park, a large (and valuable) 800 year old, 3 meter wide, Western red cedar.

Unfortunately it was not an uncommon incident. The poaching of BC's last big trees is big business, and a daily event, for both legal and illegal old growth tree liquidators.

No one can poach a tree like the government of BC. That is why they won't take the unofficial poaching seriously. If they did they would have to admit that they condone the cutting of trees exactly like this one as a matter of doing business.

Just outside the park boundaries of Carmanah/Walbran and Cathedral Grove, magnificent thousand year old trees like the ones in the parks, share the old growth forests. Yet these equally magnificent unprotected trees are being quietly converted by the logging industry into 'value-added' building materials.

When the last of the accessible big trees are gone, the government and their industry 'partners' will be coming for the trees in the parks (something already proposed for the interior of BC), just like the 'illegal' poachers.

End ALL poaching of our last old growth trees now, official and otherwise.

Sooke River Big Trees

Ancient Western red-cedar along the Sooke River

The Sooke River, famous for geological formations known as 'potholes', is one of the largest rivers on south Vancouver Island. Along its rocky banks live survivors of the  logging boom that started in the late 1800s. It decimated the original forest - most, but not all, is gone.

Single individuals along trails, like the centuries old cedar in the photo above, or small groves in hidden nooks and crannies, these are the remnants of the primal forest that once covered the area with thousand year old giants.

A post I wrote here describes how to visit the cedar featured above. It is found along the Sunriver Nature Trail off Phillips Road in Sooke, BC, an excellent place to see a few examples of ancient big trees.

Haida Cedar Plank Longhouses

Haida 6-Beam Longhouse, artwork by Gordon J. Miller

The cultures that have thrived on the west coast of North America have lived among some of the biggest trees in the world for thousands of years. In that time, they have used these wood resources in creative and monumental endeavors, including the Haida 6-beam longhouse.

Since time immemorial coastal people have been using the rain forest for an amazing variety of things. Haida Gwaii produced some of the largest Western red-cedar in the world, and they provided lodging, clothes, transportation, and tools - everything the Haida needed. 

Cedar is valuable because its wood and bark are water-resistant. The wood grain is unusually straight with few knots so it's excellent for splitting into the long, even, and smooth planks which the big houses required. Cedar is a solid wood yet is easy to carve and its natural oils resist rot.

Forest resources are just as important today as they ever were, although they have been logged unsustainably since the arrival of Europeans. The once rich resource is being depleted, especially the sacred (and expensive) cedar, the center pole of west coast life. However, the Haida approach logging differently, now and in the past.

When Haida lumberjacks of days gone by needed to harvest huge cedar for a new plank longhouse, they would canoe in a large group to the location of big cedars. While one group set up camp and cooked, another went to fell the giant trees needed for the beams and large planks used in building the massive long houses.

To fell the large cedar, wet mud was packed at breast height all around the base of the trunk. Wood was piled around the tree and set alight. The fire was maintained until the tree was weakened and fell to the ground. Then it would be de-limbed and prepared for the journey by canoe to the building site.

The posts and beams, which weighed several tons, were lifted into place using simple tools and the cooperation of the entire village. The longhouse, which could be up to 120 feet long and 20 feet high, had a number of fire pits for warmth and cooking with smoke holes directly overhead. The Haida raised totem poles in front of their houses while other groups painted the facade with pictures of real and mythical beasts.

The trees were harvested in a process of respect and reverence, then were used in efficient and artistic ways that also showed respect for the resource. When the longhouse was old and no longer used, it would slowly return to the forest, melding in to the greenery without a trace.

Contemporary longhouses at the Haida Heritage Centre

Beautiful longhouses are still being built on Haida Gwaii, although not as large as some of the historical structures. It has only been fairly recently that the Haida regained control of their access to the cedars of their territory, so we can expect to see more of these traditional dwellings as the Haida continue to reclaim their past.

"In the past cultural wood was used mainly for poles, boxes and masks but with the Supreme Court of Canada, Sapier and Gray decision (2006) this has changed. The court decision, in part says, that the use of cultural wood for domestic purposes is a constitutional right much like the right to harvest wood for poles and weaving. This means that Haida and other First Nations are now able to take wood to build houses or use wood for siding a house."

- from: Haida Laas, September 2009

The Haida Gwaii Land Plan, and the implementation of Ecological Based Management, will ensure that there are trees available in the future for canoe logs, longhouse beams, posts, and planks, totem poles, and other cultural uses.

The Haida Heritage Centre has new longhouses that contain exhibits for the public to enjoy. The totem poles and canoes shown here are incredible.

Check here for photos of some amazing contemporary cedar structures built by a local company.

Guest Tree: Quinault Lake Cedar

Quinault Lake Cedar, W. Siegmund, 2005

The champion tree highlighted in this post is not one of Vancouver Island's big trees, although it is close as the crow flies. The Quinault Lake Cedar can be found across the Straight of Juan de Fuca in the Quinalt Lake Rain Forest area of Olympic National Park, Washington, USA.

Like Canada's largest tree, the Cheewhat Lake Cedar, the Quinault tree is of massive, human-dwarfing proportions. For comparisons sake, the Cheewhat tree is 5.84m (19.2ft) in diameter, 55.5m (182ft) tall, and 449 cubic meters (15,870 cu. ft.) in volume.

The Quinault Lake Redcedar

• Description: Thuja plicata 
  The largest known Western Redcedar, in the world with a wood volume of 500 cubic meters (17650 cu. ft.). It is 53.0 m (174 ft) high with a diameter of 5.94 m (19.5 ft.) at 1.37 m (4.5 ft.) above the ground. (Van Pelt, Robert, 2001, Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast, University of Washington Press.)
• Viewpoint location: Near the northwest shore of Quinault Lake north of Aberdeen, Washington, about 34 km (21 miles) from the Pacific Ocean. It is near Higley Creek in the southwest corner of Olympic National Park.
• Viewpoint elevation: 400'
• View direction: North    - wikipedia

View Western Redcedar National Champions in a larger map

Loggers For Old Growth Protection

Sometimes we cut 'em, and sometimes we don't

I was reading an article in the Globe and Mail on saving old growth forests - Avatar Grove, I think. The most interesting part, though, was not the article, but the comments after the piece.

Comments came from a wide spectrum of readers, including many from loggers, retired and otherwise. It made me think about the wealth of knowledge these people have, and how that could be useful in our efforts to protect old growth forests.

Take, for instance, the following comment:

"The biggest red cedar I ever saw was 27 feet in diameter and about 200 feet tall (cedar don't get very tall ) with dozens of candelabras. The faller came and told us,"You better go have a look 'cause I'm cuttin' it down tomorrow." He seemed kind of sad about it. We took a photo of the crew sitting in the undercut. It was in the Nit Nat Lake area.



Maybe the trees in the article aren't actually the biggest of their kind. One story I heard was that when representatives of the Champion Tree Society went to verify the size of a candidate for biggest Sitka spruce (somewhere in Washington, I think), there was initial disappointment that the specimen was somewhat smaller than the biggest spruce known. Then they just happened to find a vine maple nearby: four feet in diameter! Lucky or what?

I worked in the woods in BC for many years and saw lots of places that probably should have been protected from logging. Once, up to Soatwoon Lake (near Fair Harbour), we were cruising a big bowl of pretty run-of-the-mill giant red cedars. The exceptional thing was that the stand included thousands of Pacific yew two to three feet, occasionally more, in diameter. Never saw anything like that before or since. They are all gone now.



Just to quell the idea that all loggers are rapacious, let me tell you about a stand we discovered near the White River. What looked at first like an ordinary stand of giant red cedars, on closer inspection turned out to be an almost pure stand of yellow cedar. They were so big that, at first glance, they looked like red cedar (yellow cedar don't normally get as big) and, except for this area, don't normally form pure stands at lower elevations.

A few years later there was an article in the local newspaper that the IWA fallers refused to fall this stand because of its uniqueness. The company (I think it was M&B) subsequently preserved the area.

" - BCahoutec

We can thank conservation-minded loggers over history that take a stand and refuse to destroy what they know are special trees.

The Red Creek Fir, found near Port Renfrew, is one such tree. Rumour has it that when the first loggers approached the tree through the wet, tangled, green forest, they thought they were at the base of a cliff. They had lunch, then continued on their way.

A second group of loggers found the giant tree and marveled at its size. It was the end of the day so they left for camp. In camp the second group asked the first about the huge tree they came across. As they talked about it, the lunch group realized they had eaten not at the base of a cliff, but at the base of a wall of wood, the 4.23 meter wide Red Creek Fir. 

The men did not cut the monumental tree. Today it stands as the largest Douglas-fir in the world, with a volume of 349 cubic meters (12, 318 cu ft).

Hollowed Cedars Often Still Living

This large, partially hollow cedar in Francis/King Park is still living

What do Pacific Rim National Park and Victoria area's Francis/King Regional Park have in common? Both are listed in Randy Stoltmann's Hiking Guide To The Big Trees of Southwest British Columbia. The Heritage Grove in Francis/King Park hosts some of the largest trees in the greater Victoria region. Mixed in among them, is a huge, hollowed out Western red-cedar.


Western red-cedar are long lived trees of the coastal forest that can grow to monumental proportions. Older cedars are prone to rotting in the center, a fact taken advantage of in the past by First Nation hunters looking for shelter in the forest. Sometimes fire was used to increase the hollow area.

Tree shows evidence of burning, possibly from a fire in the 1950s

Heartwood-dead, outer parts-living
(click image to enlarge)

The heartwood of a tree is composed of dead cells, and provides structural support. Although a hollow cedar may be more prone to falling, missing the center does not hinder the outer, living parts of the tree.

As long as the moss-covered living wood touches
the ground, this cedar can continue living

The hollow cedar here still has a coating of living bark and wood right down to the ground where roots spread out in all directions. This connection to the earth sustains the small still-growing crown at the top of the tree.





Sometimes old cedar trees with rotted heartwood can start on fire. One recent cedar fire near Sooke was deemed human caused, and probably smoldered for days before being noticed by a worker that heard crackling and smelled smoke.

Large hollow cedar fire near Sooke is extinguished by a firefighter.
Benjamin Yong photo

The hollow cedar has a living canopy high above

Western red-cedars are special trees in the coastal rain forest, and for me they most represent the watery environments they like to grow in. Their branches, bark, and roots all seem to reflect water in the wavy ways that they grow.





You can see the elements of the forest flowing through these amazing trees, considered sacred by many. Living up to thousands of years in exceptional cases, these trees are true survivors.