50% of World's Forests Logged

With 50% of the world's forests already affected by logging, it is important that we take responsibility for caring for what is left. There are things that each of us can do to help save our forests.

Saving for all the other living things that depend on it, for future generations of humans to use and enjoy, and for the simple fact that forests as 'super-organisms' have the right to exist unimpeded by greed and mismanagement.

Each of us can do things to help save the world's forests:

• be conscious of how we are using paper and other wood products - don't waste, recycle
• buy wood products to last - a good wood cutting board could last generations if cared for properly
• only buy certified wood products
• refuse to use single use paper products
• go paperless - printers cost a lot to maintain. We got rid of ours, and if we really need to print something out we go to the public library.
• if you own a forest, practice good stewardship - you are only borrowing it from future generations
• lobby politicians for an end to old growth logging - some countries have already put a moratorium on old growth logging, such as Japan and New Zealand.
• consider alternatives to wood as a building material - steel, concrete, straw bale...
• get out and visit big trees and old growth areas - let people know you value these special places

Refugee Trees

Sooke Harbour Douglas-fir in middle of photo, with Sitka spruce lining the beach to the right 

Wherever I go my gaze is automatically drawn to the landscape, especially the trees. Big trees poke out like beacons from the past. They whisper to me of an ancient forest of which they were once a part. Today, many of these trees stand alone.

This old Douglas-fir may be the largest tree on Sooke's Whiffin Spit, and is one of the largest in town

One such tree lives at the west end of Sooke Harbour on Whiffin Spit in Sooke, BC. It is another one of those refugees that dot the land, standing alone surrounded by younger trees and in this case, residential development.

Standing at 30 meters (98 ft) plus, this ancient entity has been here longer than the Europeans who have exploited the original forest to near-extinction.

Sooke is an excellent place to fill your tree spotting life list as it sits in a transitional zone between Vancouver Island's two major ecosystems. To the east and up the inside coast is the dry Coastal Douglas-fir ecozone, and to the west and north is the wetter Western Hemlock ecozone. It is a big tree spotting paradise.

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.

Gulf View Picnic Ground

If you happen to be in North Saanich visiting the big trees of John Dean Park, you might consider adding a stop at the nearby Gulf View Picnic Ground. This accessible 2.5 acre park has been hosting the public since 1936 after a successful public campaign to preserve land and viewscapes for public use and recreation.

This space is also known as National Gravity Net Station #9041-1979, which is marked by a small benchmark disk on site (N 48° 37.042 W 123° 24.980). Gravity Net Stations "contain information pertaining to gravity standardization networks in Canada and abroad, gravity mapping in Canada, instrumental parameters, digital terrain and crustal motion." Wow - watch for gravity anomalies!

Little bench, big tree

The view is the best thing here as there are not any monster trees left in this location. However, by most people's standards, the Douglas-fir trees that are here are nothing to shake a stick at.

Spectacular Gulf view

As the name implies, this small picnic ground has great views to Bazan Bay, the southern Gulf Islands, the San Juan Islands and Mount Baker. Here you are looking at a unique ecozone that produced some of the biggest trees on the planet.

Along the east coast of Vancouver Island is prime coastal Douglas-fir territory. John Dean Park, a short drive up Mt. Newton from the picnic ground, is a good example of a mature Douglas-fir forest.

The climate in this small, narrow ecozone is the driest on the island, and creates perfect conditions for Douglas-fir, Grand fir, Arbutus, and Garry oak to thrive.

Nice trees and a nice view

Gulf View Picnic Ground is a great place for a stop before or after a John Dean Park hike through the giant trees. Take a load off, have bite to eat, or just sit or lay around and enjoy this beautiful public space.

Getting There

The picnic ground is east off of East Saanich Road in North Saanich. It is near the intersection of E. Saanich Road and Dean Park Road (the access to John Dean Prov. Park). Park is open during daylight hours.

John Dean Park: Saanich's Largest Old Growth Forest

The parking lot is in the heart of John Dean Park, and trees hundreds of years old tower overhead

John Dean Provincial Park, north of Victoria, is a special place. The area has been known as a sanctuary for the original peoples since time immemorial. Visiting this out of the way, quiet ancient forest will reveal why. Here you can stroll through the lands of the Pauquachin 1st Nation, and be surrounded by wrinkled, grey-barked trees in a forest that drips with ghostly antiquity.

Big trees everywhere!

In more recent times, a European settler also found sanctuary in the groves on Mount Newton. The park is named after the man whose land gift started the park, it was the first donation of its kind in British Columbia. John Dean was against the rapid development of the Victoria area during his day, and actively opposed what he saw as the destruction of the area's natural beauty. He saw his donation as a way to preserve a bit of what was left.

A Western hemlock growing on a previously logged Western red-cedar stump is a common association
- downed logs and stumps provide nutrients for the forest's next generation of trees

Recognizing a good idea when they saw it, four other neighbours (and the province), chipped in with land donations of their own, increasing the size of the park from Dean's original 32 hectares in 1921, to 173 hectares by 1960. It is the largest tract of mature Douglas-fir forest left on the Saanich Peninsula.

Culturally modified trees remind visitors that 1st Nations continue to use the forest as they have
for thousands of years

Along with Douglas-fir that are so huge that they are free of branches for the first 30 meters up their fat trunks, there are also large Western red-cedar, Grand fir, Hemlock, and Garry oak in exposed rocky outcrops. The largest trees are 70 meters (210 ft) tall and 3 meters (9 ft) wide, and in some places are densely packed throughout the shady forest.

Some of the big trees are very accessible, others have restricted access to protect them and their fragile surroundings

There are a variety of trails throughout the park's 400 plus acres. The largest trees can be found via the Valley Mist Trail, or Illahie Loop. A steeper trail descends to the right of the park map sign leading to a T-junction. Turn left for the Illahie Loop, and right to hike to a beautiful lily pond and beyond. Some of the park's biggest trees are scattered about the forest in this area.

This lily pond, a short hike from the parking lot, is a great place to sit and contemplate the dragonflies hunting over the water

John Dean Park provides a sanctuary from the hustle of modern life, as well as from the heat on a scorching August day. The park with its many well-marked trails, mature forest, and abundant wildlife, make it a worthy destination for a day of exploration and revitalization. Here you can visit some of the largest Douglas-fir trees on southern Vancouver Island.

Directions To John Dean Park

John Dean Provincial Park is located near Sidney on southern Vancouver Island. The park can be accessed off Hwy #17. Turn west onto McTavish Road, south onto East Saanich Road, then west onto Dean Park Road. Follow Dean Park Road until you reach the park.

Note: The access road into the park is closed between November and March.

A park Western red-cedar - tree of life

Why We Can't Save Our Last Old Growth

Logging? What logging?

It may be cynical, but I often wonder if anyone is actually paying attention to what is happening globally to our original forests, the likes of which we may never see again.

It is a fact that life is complicated, with many distractions. But let us look at the facts of what we are losing while being consumed by all our trivial things.

• Vancouver Island has lost over 75% of its productive old growth forests, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the biggest trees and richest biodiversity are found.
• continued old growth logging below 30% of intact forests creates a high probability of massive species loss 
• 99% of the old growth coastal Douglas-fir forest on Vancouver Island has been logged already 
• some of the biggest, tallest, and oldest trees on earth are still being logged in British Columbia

Governments and multinational logging companies are planning on taking 100% of our original forests. If we don't wake up and stop them, who will?

We Need To Harvest Trees

When a tree is milled every part of it is used except the smell

There is a saying that when a tree is milled that every part of it is used except the smell. That is good to know, because our trees are a necessary resource, and we should be making the most of every single one. But what good is the efficiency in the mills if our forests are being completely wasted at the same time?

Tree cutting is something that every tree-loving human must come to grips with. We need to harvest trees. Some scientists believe that civilization would have been impossible without the thousands of things produced with trees' wood, leaves, bark and roots. Trees are also a major source of energy around the world. Many homes on Vancouver Island are heated with wood stoves.

We need to harvest trees.

However, we do NOT need to harvest old growth trees, except in some circumstances where the unique properties of old wood are required, such as in instrument making. Careful selective old growth logging, that takes individual trees from forests in a sustainable way, would ensure this resource is around for future luthiers.

The wholesale clear cutting of original forests, wherever they are, is a very unwise practice. This is what is occurring in British Columbia, as has been the case for the past 150 years. It is not sustainable. When forests are cut on a 60 -80 year cycle, they never again reach the rich old age of old growth, which is at least 250 years old.

It is probable that industrial-scale logging of old growth, even that deemed sustainable, actually is not. Even the so-called 'sustainable forest management' practices can not sustain natural ecosystems. When you take the high value timber, you take the rest of the forest with it, and the ecosystem is damaged beyond repair.

BC's last remaining old growth should be made off-limits to logging immediately. Only 1% of the Coastal Douglas-fir forest on Vancouver Island remains in its original unlogged state. Even that small bit of forest is being hacked away at in a rush for the last of the big ones.

We need to harvest trees, but we do not need to harvest our last little bits of old growth. Unfortunately, our elected officials do not agree, and are in the process of selling off the last of the big trees until they are gone, and the ecological integrity of the primeval forest has been lost forever.

Then what?

Metchosin's Largest Tree

Is this Metchosin's largest tree? Photo: Utopia Photo-Blog

Some say that this magnificent specimen is "Metchosin's largest tree". The old-growth Douglas-fir measures 8.69 metres (28.5ft) in circumference, and 2.74 meters (9ft) in diameter. It grows on a hillside near Matheson Lake, east of Sooke.


Matheson Lake Park has several large, scattered, old growth trees that escaped the ecocide that took their contemporaries.

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.

St. Albans Sequoia Needs Divine Intervention

Image shows St. Albans property with the church, behind which lives a Giant sequoia (the tallest tree) currently on death row. Slated to be cut for development, it may be the oldest planted tree in the Oaklands neighbourhood.  View Larger Map of St. Albans, Oaklands, Victoria, BC

Canadians are generally tree-defending people that consider significant trees to be community assets to be shared and enjoyed by all. We don't talk so much about "your" trees or "my" trees as much as "the community's" trees, since we all benefit from their presence. However, not everyone sees it that way.

Where some see history and beauty to be protected, others see distracting impediments to their plans. This often leads to clashes over trees and green space with a preservation-oriented public, and pro-development governments and business people taking sides in adversarial standoffs.

Such is the case in the community of Oaklands, where what may be the oldest planted tree in the neighbourhood is under threat of the chain saw. The sale of St. Albans, a former Anglican church property, is threatening the magnificent, and much loved, Giant sequoia as well as valuable green space with several Garry oaks. It looks like divine intervention might be needed to save the trees.

A concerned tree-loving citizen of the community contacted me via email shortly before a public forum (Thursday, July 19, 2012) took place to discuss the developer's plans, and the community's wishes. The email states:

"I am a resident of the Oaklands community (adjacent to Fernwood).  At the site of the St.Albans property (former Anglican church property, recently sold to a developer) there is a Giant Sequoia that is currently under threat of being taken down to accommodate the developers plans.  There is a public forum on Thursday at our Community Centre to discuss the variance application being put forward and it is believed that it will be argued that the Sequoia must come down (I understand that the developer will be bringing her arborist to the meeting).   

There are many in the community that feel very strongly about that property in general (and in fact an attempt by the community to acquire it was made in the spring) and the Greenways/trees that run along the front of the property in particular.

One of my neighbours believes very strongly that the tree, 'has /had a Heritage Tree Certificate.  But I have not seen it in recent years; it was presumably kept with other parish records which are now either lost or at the diocesan archives.'

I have sent a message to someone to make inquiries with the Anglican Church and I have also had it confirmed by the City Parks dept. that there is no covenant on the tree, but I wonder if there is somewhere else I should be looking to confirm this? Do you have any ideas on how we might argue that the tree must stay?  How do we convince the City that the developers plans must preserve this tree?"

Of course, the best protection for trees is education, but when a tree is about to come down, urgent action is required. Victoria has a tree protection bylaw (see an overview here), so the city is the first place I would start. Other avenues of action could include checking to see:

• if removal defies your municipality's urban forest (or other) plan.
• whether removal contravenes your municipality's tree bylaw.
• checking to see if the permit for removal, if issued, considered all mitigating factors.
• checking if the tree is a 'heritage tree'.
• if all alternatives have been considered.
• if removal makes aboricultural (tree) sense.
• if anyone has talked directly with the developer/landowner to see if mitigation is possible.

If all negotiations fail, and the municipality will not intervene or rescind the permit to cut the tree, and you feel that there are still alternatives to be considered, further actions could include:

• contacting the local media about the story, and being available for an on-site interview.
• contacting a lawyer to ascertain your right to ask for a stop work order until the issue is resolved.

It is surprising that the sequoia is not already protected under Victoria's tree bylaw, since it has both heritage and landmark value. It could be over 100 years old, and may have been planted around the same time as many other sequoias that early settlers from California brought with them in the late 1800s. This one may have originally been planted on a farm as the Oaklands area was farmland from Victoria's inception right up until the 1920s when the last farmer's field was subdivided for residential development.

Also, any tree on private property over 80 cm in trunk diameter is protected by the bylaws. The community has expressed the importance of the trees on the property, both the giant sequoia and the Garry oak, a threatened species in the Coastal Douglas-fir eco-zone.

I see no reason why all these trees can not be incorporated into the new development. Indeed, they would make anything built there even more attractive to potential new neighbours.

Good luck to the community of Oaklands - you have taken on a difficult, but worthy struggle. It would be sad to see these trees taken down. The sequoia could live for 3000 more years!

Contact us at VIBT (see sidebar) if you have any ideas or skills that could be useful toward helping in this opportunity for citizen action, and tree preservation.