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.

Historical Logging Books Reveal The Ancient Forest

Western red cedar over 2000 years old at Comox Lake, Wilmer Gold Collection, 1935

"In the big woods the snow still lies two feet deep and it makes you a little melancholy to think that these cold green depths will shortly be reduced to ruin by monsters of machinery. The towering logger with the movie-star face, who stands beside us on the flat car admits a pang of remorse at the prospect of denuding this green valley, but what can you do about it? No logging, no work for loggers."

- Bruce Hutchison in the Comox Argus, 1933

I like flipping through the pages of historical logging books. These are not naturalist books celebrating the beauty of the forest, but the stories and photographs contain inevitable glimpses of the big trees and the primordial forest.




The beauty was undoubtedly evident to the people that witnessed the dismantling of 10 000 years of evolution in the coastal forest.

Wagon road through centuries-old Douglas fir in Comox Valley, 1910.
Walter Gage photo, Courtenay & District Museum and Archives

Island Timber by Richard Somerset Mackie is a richly illustrated book about the logging of the coastal plain forest between Comox and Campbell River on Vancouver Island. It covers the period between 1900 and 1938, and spans logging technology from oxen and skid roads to locomotives and giant steam-powered skidders.

The author talked to the people that worked in the forest and their stories reveal a deep respect for the landscape. These were hard working men that worked with double-headed axes, picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows in the beginning. They built greased skid roads along which oxen, and later horses, dragged the massive logs to water for transport to mills.

With the advent of new technology like cross-cut saws, spar trees and steam-powered skidders, the pace picked up and the forest fell faster than ever before. Locomotives hauled it all away with an equal efficiency. Where people settled dynamite ripped enormous stumps from the ground to clear the way for farming.

Native communities have used the forests resources for thousands of years. Local native cultural practices center around the Western red cedar, or "long life maker". For eons it has supplied the people with everything. Huge dugout canoes are made from whole cedar logs. Cedar also finds use in longhouses, medicine, hats, and clothing. Culturally modified trees in the forest yield evidence of the coastal cedar-based societies.



How different things were when European loggers and land grabbers descended upon Vancouver Island in the 1800s. Whereas native peoples' impact was limited to what they needed in their communities, the newcomers' profit-motive knew no limits.


Early logging operations around Comox left some trees standing as they were not marketable at the time. Sometimes old-growth cedar was cut and simply left on the ground. Logging operators were after the biggest, knot-free Douglas firs that blanketed the coastal plain. And for a while, there were lots of them. Trees with diameters of seven feet across at breast height.


Only the best trees were taken, including some of the biggest ever seen anywhere. De-limbing was time-consuming so the crowns of the trees were left on the forest floor. The crown portion of the tree could amount to 1/4 to 1/3 of the height of the tree.

Near the Oyster River, 1927 - Filberg Lodge & Park Association

The limb-free portion, or boles, were so large that some could be cut into 3, 4, or 5 forty foot logs. Rail flatbed cars often held a single tree in several bucked logs.

Ancient Douglas fir two miles from Comox, 1943. Mack Laing photo, B.C. Archives.


One has to marvel at the sheer scope of the job that lay before the men that first sought to exploit the forest for profit. Surveying, road and railroad building, falling, cutting, bucking, yarding and loading were all difficult, dangerous occupations. The forest did not yield easily. Many men were killed.




Vancouver Island lumber has been shipped all over the world for over one hundred years. It has built San Fransico piers more than once. British Columbia owes much of its early development to logging, but massive sacrifices were made. Such sacrifices continue today.

Ancient forest between Courtenay and Campbell River, 1918. By 1938 this forest was gone. - Courtenay & District Museum and Archives

Historical logging books provide us with evidence of a forest that few of us have ever seen. Such original forests still exist, but they are diminishing in size all the time. Will future logging books document that the last of Vancouver Island's entact wild forests were logged in the 2000s?

The big ones roll away north of Courtenay, 1912 - Vancouver Public Library

"Yes, more trees will grow, the valley will be green again some day, but it will never see giants like these. They are a thousand years old, these trees beside the little railway, five and six feet through at the butt, and over a hundred feet to their lowest branches. It will take ten centuries to replace them, and men will not wait that long again... The progress of the little locomotive up this narrow valley is the progress of man, most destructive of all animals, into the vanishing storehouse of nature." - Comox Argus, 1933

Big Tree Art

Drawing by Robert Van Pelt

Robert Van Pelt's book Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast is one of my favorite big tree books. The author has a unique passion for trees, and a talent for not only finding record-breakers, but also carefully measuring and accurately rendering them.

His painstaking depictions separate the champion trees from the forest, and each has its own unique and special character. I also like the depiction of the tiny humans at the base of Van Pelt's drawings to give the giants a scale we can relate to. You can see how massive these ancient trees are.

Van Pelt's work inspired us to take a look at some of our own tree-related art.

photo: Linda Hughes, Photons In The Forest

Linda has a knack for taking interesting abstract photos with our point and shoot digital camera. This one was taken in the Royal Roads forest in Colwood. She says it is an accurate depiction of the sense she feels while in the forest and around ancient trees.









This is a pen and ink drawing of a favourite local tree that has been leaning out over Sooke Harbour for a hundred years or more.


 The Leaning Tree, Gregg Koep

Leaning Tree and Hummingbird, Linda Hughes
This is the same tree, also in pen and ink.

Up The Sooke River, Gregg Koep

This pencil sketch depicts the Sooke Hills and the Highway 14 bridge crossing the Sooke River, as seen from the harbour.

Coastal Conifer, Gregg Koep

Yes, I am obsessed with trees - I can't even prepare a meal without being sidetracked by their allure and beauty. This piece almost made itself as I stood at the counter. The two dimensional sculpture is made from: Garbanzo beans for the tree, and dried kidney bean pods for the ground.

The Tallest Spruce Trees In The World: Carmanah/Walbran Provincial Park

My first visit to Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park was summer of 2006. It was a slow, rough drive into the heart of Vancouver Island's once-magnificent coastal forest. Our route took us from Sooke to Port Renfrew, past Cowichan Lake, and on to Nitinat Lake. The last services of the route are here, then the road climbs on toward the park. A sturdy vehicle, emergency supplies, and a good driver come in handy. A back roads map is essential.

While bumping along Rosander Main logging road past Nitinat, we were treated to vistas over the green mist-cloaked hills to the distant Pacific Ocean. Not far away is the West Coast Trail, but it is inaccessible from this side. We continued following the small provincial park signs sensing that we were getting close to Vancouver Islands tallest trees.

In addition to the coastal forest landscape you will witness "off-road" logging trucks carrying old-growth logs - only four or five huge columns of wood to each giant vehicle. This is a harsh and unforgiving forest environment and the road and industrial activity do not make it any safer. But without these roads most of this area would be largely inaccessible. Drive defensively - industrial traffic has the right of way and you must yield to them.

Knowing that in the mid-1980's the Carmanah valley was slated to be harvested makes it worth dodging logging trucks on roads riddled with potholes and stretches of washboard that will rattle your old fillings out. The park at the end of this road is unlike any other you have seen, or are likely to see anywhere else. It is a gargantuan green cathedral of mist-filtered light and stillness.

Carmanah valley was once considered too remote for profitable logging to take place. Then Randy Stoltman found the oldest, largest Sitka spruce trees in Canada, and the world. In the 1980's the B.C. government, without public consultation or notification, gave MacMillan Bloedel permission to clear cut the area.

Fearing a repeat of previous logging fiascos that ended in protest and protection, the logging company moved in quickly to harvest the valley. Randy Stoltman, tireless big tree defender, along with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, mounted a campaign to protect the area's natural assets from destruction. In 1990, after sustained protests, Carmanah Park was formed.

At the end of your jarring ride you will find a pristine valley full of some of the world's largest trees. Today you will only see trees like these in small patches along the west coast of North America, and the forest of Carmanah Walbran holds some prime examples in a relatively large area. If you are not humbled here, you are not paying attention.



After passing through large clear cuts, one which extends right to the park gate, we arrived at the parking lot at the end of the road. I gazed up the trail at two tiny hikers dwarfed by the surrounding giants. I thought that the destruction of these trees to make plywood would be similar to going to the Temple of Karnak in Egypt, "harvesting" its 5000 year old columns (21m tall, and over 3m diameter), and crushing them to make gravel. Large Sitka spruce can be only a few hundred years old, but Western red cedar can grow for thousands of years. There are many large cedars in the park.


Canada's tallest (known) Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), the Carmanah Giant, towers 95 metres (315 ft) over the lush valley of Carmanah Creek. Its 9.4 meter diameter makes Karnak's columns look like toothpicks. However, visitors are not encouraged to hike the deteriorating trail to visit this record tree for fear of compromising the areas ecological integrity. It is good enough for me just to know that the Giant exists.

The third largest Sitka spruce in the world with a wood volume of 298 cubic meters (10,540 cu. ft.). It is 58.2 m (191 ft) high with a diameter of 5.39 m (17.7 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.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:QuinaltSpruce_7246c.jpg

The park is in the Very Wet Hypermaritime subzone, an area that is intimately affected by the nearby ocean, and can be wet any time of the year. When we visited it was drizzly, but the real problem was the cloud of mosquitoes hunting us down. Our meals were eaten with one hand shoveling the food in, and the other hand waving the mosquitoes away. When even that became too much the only option was to run through the parking lot taking hasty stabs at our food.

Mosquitoes may be the most obvious wildlife here, but they are not the only wildlife. The old growth forest here maintains a rich web of life that can not exist in the second and third-growth forests that have replaced the original forest on much of Vancouver Island. This is a special place.

Spotted owls, marbled murrelets, wolves, trout and salmon, black bears, bats, pileated woodpeckers, red-backed voles, salamanders, banana slugs, flying squirrels. All of that and more is here to be discovered, enjoyed, and protected.

Carmanah Walbran Park is isolated and difficult to get to, and once there you will find no comforts of civilization. This park is about wilderness, and in that regard it delivers. However, encroachement continues. Without a buffer zone, clearcuts extend right up to park boundries. As we hiked and camped in this magical place we watched helicopters swinging giant columns out of the surrounding forests to staging grounds. Their thundering rotors resonated in our chests, or was that our hearts going out to the destruction of the 10 000 year old forest and the creatures that used to live there?

If not for Randy Stoltman, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, and thousands of regular big tree supporters, Carmanah valley and the largest Stika spruce on the planet would have been reduced to a ravaged landscape.


View Larger Map

For now it remains one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. If the government works for us, and we want big trees saved, then why is the government backing the logging companies and the temporary jobs that old growth harvesting represents? What will they do when all the old growth is gone?

Visit Carmanah Walbran and try not to become a big tree enthusiast. This is the kind of place that can change your life. It did mine.

When A Tree Falls In The Forest...It Becomes Large Diameter Woody Debris

When I taught grade six science my favorite unit to teach was Trees and Forests which was all about the importance of forest eco-systems. While discussing old growth forests I had to teach my students about major characteristics of these ancient places, such as Large Diameter Woody Debris. Even though this term never failed to elicit giggles and snickers from students, they soon came to see how it holds great importance for the forest environment.

I often scour the forested hills surrounding my home for large diameter woody debris. LDWD is a tell-tale sign of an older, undisturbed forest. These large trees can be standing dead trees (snags), or fallen dead trees, or healthy trees downed by windthrow. They provide irreplaceable habitat for a host of forest life. On one recent trip I followed the Galloping Goose trail into the Sooke Hills Wilderness.

Just before Sooke the western section of the Galloping Goose trail turns north and heads into the Sooke River watershed . The trail traverses a 1918-built CNR rail line that once saw wood-powered Shay locomotives hauling massive trees out of the pristine forest. Now it provides access for people recreating, including those seeking out big tree wilderness.



The trail's western terminus, about 12km from where it leaves the coastal plain below, is 14 hectare Kapoor Park Reserve. This undeveloped park contains the remains of Leechtown, a 20th century gold rush and lumber town. Anything that remains has been reclaimed by the ceaseless growth of the forest, not to mention the invasive Scotch Broom. The Galloping Goose trail ends here, but the old line pushed north through the forested hills to Cowichan Lake.


Along this section of the trail there is a high frequency of scattered Douglas fir veterans that soar over 45 m/150 ft and are hundreds of years old. The tops of these trees emerge from the smaller forest around them, and announce their presence. Douglas fir typically live about 750 years with documented cases of well over one thousand years old.


The old tree's trunks stand out from the background of toothpicks of 2nd or 3rd-growth trees. Often the trunks show evidence of fire across the deeply furrowed, fire-resistant bark. Before fire suppression started, wildfires occurred on a regular basis. Such fires kept down smaller trees and underbrush, leaving an open forest dominated by 122 m/400 ft ancients.


Every winter storms slam into this region, and their power and fury is recorded in old tree's twisted limbs and broken tops. Occasionally storms topple trees and the big ones come down with a crash... if there is someone in the forest to hear it, that is. Sometimes they are uprooted (windthrow or blowdown), and sometimes trees snap off up the trunk (windsnap).

Imagine standing next to one of these 10 story tall trees while it is oscillating back and forth during a gale-force wind. Soon you hear wood snapping and cracking, then during a strong gust, the dangerously leaning tree keeps on going until it crashes to the ground at your feet. You hear it. You feel it, too. This tree, perhaps 400 years old, has just become large diameter woody debris, a very important part of this ecosystem.



Standing veteran trees are ecosystems unto themselves over the hundreds of years they live and provide habitat for a variety of plants and animals. From the mosses and lichens growing on their bark to the marbled murrelet in its branches or the heartwood decaying fungus slowly hollowing out the inside of the trunk, such a tree harbours a complex self-sustaining system. When such trees die and/or fall to earth the micro-hoards of decomposing creatures begin the relentless process of recycling these giant columns of biomass back into the system.


Many species of birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles use LDWD for a variety of purposes. Birds such as the Pileated woodpecker (the largest type of woodpecker, used as a model for Woody Woodpecker), visit downed Douglas firs to hunt for carpenter ants or excavate cavities to live in. Unlike headbangers, Pileated woodpeckers have a cushion built into their brain to reduce the damage from all that beak slamming into solid wood. Ancient snags are hollowed out as nesting sites, and after primary cavity nesters move out owls, other birds and small mammals move in. The shedding wrinkly bark also gives shelter to bats.


Black bears, martens, fishers and bobcats all use suitable downed LDWD for denning sites. Sharp-tailed snakes, endangered in B.C., are residents of the vanishing coastal Douglas fir forest and live in and around downed trees. A salamander can live its whole moist life in a single log; everything it needs is there.

Over decades, as the log melts into the forest floor, new trees take advantage of the rich nutrients it provides. One day one of these small trees may fill the hole left by its fallen ancestor. The same ancestor that nursed the young tree to its youth.

The whistle of the logging locomotives is not heard any longer in these parts, but veteran trees continue to fall. From the old rail bed I can see where recent clear cut logging has taken out some of the remaining 1% of original low elevation Douglas fir forest on Vancouver Island.

Such clear cuts raze the forest right down to the ground. Extra woody debris (and there is often a lot of it) is burnt in large piles, or is salvaged by outfits further down the chain, much like the vultures that pick on the remains of dead animals. But as vultures prefer the carcasses of herbivores, the same with post-clear cut salvage outfits. They prefer the high value cedar more than anything else.

Large diameter woody debris may be funny, but it is of supreme importance to the things that live in and around it, including humans. You can educate your family and friends AND provide humour at the same time - just mention LDWD.

Trimming The Christmas Tree Coastal Style

Here in big tree country it takes big ladders and a small army of elves not afraid of heights to get ready for the holidays. Look up, way up, and witness the trimming of the Christmas tree in the coastal community of Sooke - the village with volunteers extraordinaire, and a huge brightly lit Douglas fir in the middle of town. This close to winter solstice the giant, festive tree is a welcome beacon - a living, growing lighthouse guiding us through the darkest days of the year.

On the left hand side of the photos you can see the Loggers Pole, a testament to the past when loggers tackled the largest trees on earth largely unaided by machines. How appropriate that the two towering Douglas fir trees have been left to grow amidst the development surrounding them. They stand as living examples of the trees that once covered this region, and that helped build this town and province.

Plus the property the trees are on is part of Evergreen Mall, so it's nice to have at least a couple of evergreens around. Just ask the people down the street at Cedar Grove Mall about mascot trees. Their goodwill ambassadors were removed to make way for progress prompting more than one person to suggest a name change. Cedar-less Grove Mall was proposed, but there is no grove either so Cedar Grove-less Mall was deemed more appropriate.



The little people stringing lights in Sooke's giant Holiday Tree give a human scale to the height of these green towers. The individual to the left of the trunk was swinging around on a rope rather freely, possibly having fun (must be a volunteer). Click on the photo for a larger version and see how many tree elves you can find - there are several up there. You can also see how large the trunk of the tree is 2/3 of the way up.

Evergreen Mall's mascot trees gracing the center of Sooke are 'only' around 30m/100ft and seem huge. The Red Creek Fir outside of Port Renfrew is about 74m/242ft tall. Historically, trees over 120m/394ft were reported. It's hard to wrap your grey matter around living columns of such proportions. Has anyone living today seen Douglas fir tree of this size? Will anyone ever see one again?

O.K. Somebody flick the switch and light this sucker up !

Sooke Potholes Parks: Remnant Old Growth Forest (and good swimming)

At the end of scenic Sooke River Road the intrepid big tree adventurer will find not one, but two parks that offer dendro-vistas galore. Even better, the parks can be accessed by cycling or hiking via the Galloping Goose Trail. Often touted as a hangout for swimmers on hot summer days, the Potholes region is also a haven for remnants of undisturbed forest and enormous trees. Only 1% of the original old-growth Coastal Douglas fir zone is protected, so that makes Sooke Potholes Parks a tree treat to treasure.

The patches of old growth forest here have a more varied profile compared to the even-aged tree plantations that have replaced them in "90% of the low elevation, flat ancient forests, such as the valley bottoms, where the largest trees grow and the greatest biodiversity resides." The original forests contain trees of all ages, ranging from new trees struggling to gain a root-hold in the forest floor shade, on up to skyscraping seniors many hundreds of years old towering above the surrounding canopy. It is wild and rugged along the Sooke River canyon, and the forest tenaciously clings to hillsides and cracks in the bedrock.

Older trees are covered in a variety of growth turning their deeply furrowed bark into a mosaic of life. Bracket fungus, Old man's beard and Coastal wood fern hang from twisted branches and grow in aerial gardens. Fallen columns of ancient trunks add nutrients to the soil and nurse new trees to life. A Red-backed vole can live its entire life slowly traversing the branches of a single old growth tree, while a salamander can live its life out in a single decomposing log on the forest floor. Some creatures such as Marbled murrelets, Fishers, and Spotted owls can only thrive in mature forests over 250-300 years old.

The rustic Potholes parks are 5 km up Sooke River Road after turning off from Highway 14. The 5 km drive is beautiful in its own right, with views of big trees along the road, and in the Sooke Hills in the distance. Just before the parks is a truly remarkable Douglas fir by the river on private property.

Maywell Wickheim, local outdoorsman and big tree guy, estimates that the Sooke River fir is 9 ft. in diameter at the base, and 240 ft. high, making it one the largest remaining old trees in the Sooke town area. Spectacular trees like this were common here only a few decades ago.

The first park you reach is Sooke Potholes Provincial Park, and at 7.28 acres, it is the smaller of the two. This day use only park protects old-growth Douglas fir forest, and several trees are of impressive proportions. Among them reside equally chunky Western red cedar and hemlock.

By the time you hit the first parking lot (complete with pit toilets) you are in Sooke Potholes Regional Park. This 156 acre park, which stretches for 5km along the east side of the Sooke River, was saved from development in 2005. It was formed as result of work done by land preservation group The Land Conservancy, the people of Sooke and region, local singing sensation Nelly Furtado, Shaw, and the CRD. The mortgage was recently retired in a ceremonial burning at the park.

The parks provide an excellent spot to view the annual run of Coho and Chinook salmon with a variety of trails down to the river. Other wildlife that use the area include black bear, cougar, and Roosevelt elk, the largest elk species in North America. There is abundant bird life, like the tiny, round, bobbing American dipper that dives for salmon eggs during the fall salmon run.The riverside road through the park ends at the third parking lot for day users, and the campground which is a little further up, for those staying overnight. However, the Galloping Goose Trail continues up the Sooke River valley for several kilometers if you wish to hike or cycle to further adventure. Along the well-maintained, wide trail you will enjoy views of the river rushing over polished bedrock, filling deep pools and tumbling over misty waterfalls. Sprinkled through the surrounding forest are ancient weather beaten trees, guardians that have stood sentinel over these parts for centuries.

With ingredients like these you can't go wrong. The 40 minute drive to Sooke from Victoria gets increasingly more beautiful as you get to your turn off Highway 14 just before the bridge. Once on Sooke River Road you are traveling at an even more leisurely pace. The road is curvy, and the views are great - perfect for ambling along and enjoying "getting there".

Even better would be taking the bus or driving to Sooke with a bike on board. Parking is available at the Park and Ride right at the turn off to Sooke River Road. This is also where the bus can drop you and your cycle.

Then bike up the Galloping Goose Trail which can be accessed off to the right about 1 km up Sooke River Road at the end of Kirby Rd. Cycling the "Goose" is definitely the best way to get to the two parks, and a ride all the way from Victoria could be supported by a stay in the Potholes campground for a night or two before your return trip.

Sooke Potholes Provincial and Regional Parks offer unlimited potential for recreational activities year round, although I wouldn't recommend swimming in the winter. Enjoy the trees, salmon, and other treasures this wild area protects. While there, also appreciate the hard work that has been done by so many to bring us these spectacular parks to enjoy and cherish. Now, how about some parks west of Sooke?

Royal Roads, Colwood, B.C. - An Urban Ancient Forest

I have passed by the fat, ancient, and soaring hulks of the Douglas fir trees on the Royal Roads lands at the top of Lagoon Road many times. I overlooked the area, even though I have been aware of it's ecological significance for some time. Perhaps this is because the Royal Roads old growth forest is located in Colwood, an urban area west of Victoria. On one side of the street are large houses, big screen TVs, and hot and cold running water. On the other side, a wild remnant of a forest landscape that has been 99% consumed in only 200 years time.


One rainy day I stopped by to explore this island of ancient wonders. I passed through the gate, swung it closed on creaking hinges, and left suburbia behind. It was a time machine. A few steps down a wide path and I was surrounded, immersed in a land little changed over thousands of years. The car exhaust lingering in my nostrils faded away as I walked under the massive canopies of Douglas fir, Spruce and Hemlock. Thick trunks shot up all around and the sun beamed shafts of light through the mist. It smelled richly of growth and decay. A slug slowly slid across the trail and left its own glistening path.

The 650 acre Royal Roads property (and adjoining DND lands) has one of the last remaining undisturbed old growth Garry Oak/Coastal Douglas-fir habitats on south Vancouver Island. The site has a history of human settlement dating back thousands of years. The Straits Salish people, the Songhees, had a settlement at Esquimalt Lagoon, and evidence such as shell midens by the lagoon, and culturally modified trees in the forest, are a testament to early occupation. They have outstanding land claims to the area to this day.



View Larger Map


Royal Roads University is the current occupant of the site. There are two manicured gardens and a historical building on site as well. But the old growth forest of Royal Roads is by far the most significant aspect of the entire area. Such forests are rare in this undisturbed state, and in this size, anywhere. Never mind driving out to Cathedral Grove. Here you will find trees that are among the top 10 largest in the province. Trees that are many hundreds of years old. The Sitka spruce growing here represent the farthest eastern limit of their habitat on Vancouver Island.


There is pressure to develop this land. Some though, recognizing this ecological jewel, propose protection. Royal Roads and the DND lands are already public meaning that we would not need to buy the land in order to protect it for future generations. What a legacy a park would make. Some are calling it a potential 'Stanley Park' for Victoria and region.

Often old growth forest is synomonous with wilderness, but not in the case of Royal Roads/DND lands. This is one ancient forest you can get to on a city bus. There is access off Sooke Road and at Lagoon Rd. and Heatherbell. There is a small spot to park on the side of Heatherbell. Across the street you will see a gate in the chain link fence. Pass through and leave the city behind.

Don't let the Royal Roads urban location fool you. It's wild in there. Can we make sure it stays that way?

Rally For Our Ancient Forests, Jobs, and Climate: Saturday, October 17, 2009

The Western Canada Wilderness Committee was formed in the 1980s, and has been working ever since toward preserving what little is left of Vancouver Island's big trees and ancient forests. They will be hosting a rally in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on Saturday, October 17, 2009. The Ancient Forest Rally is just their latest effort to educate and motivate government to adopt more enlightened forest policies.

WCWC cut their teeth on the Carmanah Valley campaign which ended in the protection of the tallest Sitka spruce forest in the world. One spruce, the Carmanah Giant, is 95 m/311 ft in height, Canada's tallest known tree. The B.C. government had already given the go-ahead for clear cutting of this precious resource when the Wilderness Committee launched into action.

WCWC was also instrumental in the protection of the Walbran valley, Clayoquot, Sooke Hills, and more recently the Sea-to-Sea Green Blue Belt that connects Sooke Basin to Saanich Inlet, and then extends north to Saltspring Island.

The following is from WCWC's website:

Ancient Forests Make BC Special

How many jurisdictions on Earth still have 1800 year old trees that grow to be as wide as living rooms and as tall as skyscrapers? Our endangered coastal old-growth forests are world wonders that deserve to be protected. Politicians must listen when enough people make them listen. With YOUR voice we can ensure that the BC Liberal government enacts a solution that works for the climate, biodiversity, First Nations, forestry workers, tourism industry, and the people of BC!
http://www.wcwcvictoria.org/news-item.php?ID=49

We need vast areas of untouched forest, as do the plants and animals that live there. Remaining old growth forests on Vancouver Island are global treasures that deserve to be protected in perpetuity. The wholesale cutting of trees a thousand years old is unbelievably short-sighted. The end of ancient forests is a certainty if things don't change. What will we do then?

If you are able, attend the march and rally. It begins at 11:30am at Centennial Square. Participants will then march to the Legislative Buildings. Show the government that you care about what they are doing in our disappearing forests. Jobs are gone, mills have closed at an alarming rate, and our government, in conjunction with multi-nationals, is exporting whole ancient logs to be processed elsewhere. Is this what we want? Who will speak for this treasured landscape if we do not?