Multi-Century Cedars: Canada's Largest, Oldest Trees

Bark of an ancient Avatar Grove Cedar

Less than 100 km, as the eagle flies, from Sooke lives Canada's largest known tree, the Cheewhat Lake Cedar.

This Western red cedar (Thuja plicata - thoo-yuh ply-kay-tuh) is 18.34 m/60.2 ft in circumference and 55.5 m/182 ft in height.

It is the second largest known tree of its type on the planet.

The largest cedar is the Quinault Lake Cedar on the Olympic Peninsula, over the Juan de Fuca Strait from Sooke.

After a hike to the Cheewhat Lake Cedar, tree pilgrims are often left feeling speechless. It is difficult to achieve a sense of proportion around such a massive living thing. The Cheewhat Cedar is often described as "a wall of wood." This wall is old, with estimates ranging upwards of 2500 years, and still growing.

Vancouver Island is in the middle of Western red cedar range. The island is prime territory for these slow growing, long lived, droopy, fragrant trees. Fittingly, the Western red cedar is British Columbia's official tree.

Cheewhat Cedar, Pacific Rim Park

In practice, however, the liquidation of this sacred tree continues. British Columbia's business-friendly government is aiding in the demise of its own provincial trees.

In 2007 the B.C. Liberals adopted a new Coastal Forest Action Plan.

The plan reported that "since 1995, the proportion of old-growth harvested on the Coast has declined from 95 per cent of the harvest to 71 per cent."

The plan attributed the decline to the increase in the amount of old growth protection, but is more likely due to the dwindling supply of old growth trees. With only about 25% of original old growth forests left on Vancouver Island, it will not be long before the cathedral-like ancient groves are gone.


Sooke River Ancient Cedars

The Sooke River watershed contains several cedars that are prime specimens. The river valley also contains huge Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, Hemlock, and Fir, but the largest diameter trees in the area are Western red cedars.

They are the oldest, too. In ideal conditions a cedar can live for thousands of years, making it the oldest living tree in the British Columbia rain forest. The oldest trees in the Sooke River valley are easily many hundreds of years old, perhaps close to one thousand.

Sooke River valley Western red cedar

One of the indicators of old growth forests (over 250 years) is an abundance of large diameter woody debris. It includes large fallen logs as well as standing dead trees (snags), and provides habitat and nutrients for the forest ecosystem. Fallen logs also act as "nurse logs", providing nutrients for new trees. Small patches of this type, such as in small ravines, remain along the Sooke River.



A cedar snag can continue to stand for a century after it dies. Once it falls it can lay on the forest floor for centuries more before it fully decays. Because of this rot resistance, cedar is the most valuable, sought after wood of the Pacific forest.

Big tree hunters like Robert Van Pelt think that record breaking cedars still exist on Vancouver Island, although opportunities to identify them are "dwindling." Some may be in unexplored protected areas, and some certainly exist in privately held lands.

All along the river one can also see evidence of logging. Early hand loggers used springboards to raise themselves up the trunk of trees so that they were above the thickest part of the bole (the main stem of the tree). This left tall stumps.







"Cedar Rats", or shake bolt cutters, work in old cut blocks harvesting the large cedar stumps left behind from previous logging. On a good show the cedar stumps can be more valuable than the second growth forest around them.





The massive fluted trunks of ancient cedars are so spectacular that it is easy to forget to look up to admire the equally impressive crowns of these trees. Over hundreds of years they take on a droopy, gnarled, weathered look. The reddish-grey bark is stressed wood at its best, and the crown is a dense confusion of droopy light-seeking branches and scaly leaves.



A 250 year old cedar can be anywhere from .61-2.44 m/2-8 ft in diameter. Much larger trees exist here. The biggest trees, though, aren't until you get to the valley bottom. There you will find very large, very old Western red cedars, accompanied by luxurious mounds of moss and towering ferns.



The atmosphere and towering columns give one the sense of being in a natural cathedral. It is hard, even for professional foresters, to age a tree, but these are Brobdingnagian boles.



Currently, Sooke does not have a tree protection bylaw, even though many tourists come to the area specifically to see big trees.

Who would travel here to see someones siding, roofing, or deck?

Outside of Sooke and up the coast there are very few protected areas and/or parks. Muir Creek represents one choice old growth location for protection and park status. There are nice Western red cedars in the Muir Creek watershed.

That Vancouver Island has any old growth left is something to celebrate. We have protected only 6% of Vancouver Island's productive forest lands in our parks system.

If we are not careful British Columbia will soon have to change its provincial tree from the Western red cedar to the Red alder. Red alder is the "healer tree" of the forest as it fixes nitrogen in the soil and speeds forest regeneration. It is the first tree to grow in clear cuts, and B.C. has plenty of those.

What Happened To The Really Big Trees?

Not so long ago, the Pacific coast was the Land of Humongous Ancient Trees, from the Queen Charlotte Islands to California. They were among the largest trees to ever grace the planet, and they covered all of Vancouver Island. The elders of this forest community were thousands of years old. As a whole, the forest had existed since the retreat of the most recent glaciers, about 10 000 years ago. For many thousands of these years indigenous peoples utilized the trees and other plants of the forest. Even now culturally modified trees can be seen standing in forested areas. Such trees are protected in British Columbia.

When Manuel Quimper sailed into Sooke Bay in 1790 and claimed the area for Spain, he found the Coast Salish T'Sou-ke people living between the ancient forest and the sea. Spain was not in the practice of establishing settlements in North America, but simply viewing the new land entitled them to it. The dripping, impenetrable forest must have been an awe-inspiring, yet threatening, sight to sailors viewing the wall of towering green from the safety of their ships. At the time the forest appeared endless and therefore inexhaustable.

Juan Perez navigated the Spanish Navy ship Santiago into Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1774. The indigenous Nuu-chah-nulth people came out to greet the Santiago in large dugout canoes made from giant Western red cedar trees. This early contact started the marine fur trade for otter pelts. 235 years later the otters are only now starting to return.

Captain James Cook sailed into Nootka Sound in 1778 representing Britain. He and his crew landed to cut replacement masts from the primeval forest, and thus became the first known Europeans to set foot in what is now British Columbia. Then came Quimper in his little boat to claim the area for Spain. However, before long the entire north Pacific coast would fall into British hands, which would open the door to the Hudson Bay Company, now one of the oldest corporate enterprises in the world (1670-present).

The Hudson Bay Company was granted the colony of Vancouver Island in 1849 and was charged with populating it with settlers from the U.K. At the time a trip around Cape Horn could take up to 6 grueling months. It was the end of First Nations' isolation, and the beginning of the end for the area's ancient forests of giant trees.




In 1848 the HBC built its first saw mill at Mill Falls in what is now Langford. The area was logged to feed the mill. The hill and creek at this location are named after this early mill. This mill was closed in 1855 when a more powerful stream powered mill at Craigflower Farm replaced it. Mill Hill Park now covers the area of the original logging operation and mill.

In the Sooke region, Scottish settler John Muir built the first steam-powered sawmill on Vancouver Island. By 1860 Muir's Victoria lumberyard was shipping more wood world-wide than any other in the Pacific Northwest. Muir and Co. shipped Vancouver Island wood to help rebuild San Francisco after its devastating fires.

Muir and Co. owned the largest private fleet of ships in the north pacific. John Muir is considered by many to be the father of the B.C. forest industry. Today at the Sooke Region Museum a visitor can see Moss Cottage which was built out of trees milled at Muir's sawmill. Moss cottage is one of the oldest standing buildings on Vancouver Island, built in 1869 (by now it must be 80% moss and 20% wood).

Victoria is western Canada's oldest city, and in the 1850's became the centre of the logging industry on Vancouver Island. At this time logging was mostly restricted to exploiting the huge trees close to the tidewater, for ease of transportation. Preferred trees were tall Douglas fir, Western red cedar, and Sitka spruce.

Although the milling and delivery of these giant trees was big business, the actual logging operations were small. One did not need a large amount of capital to get at trees that could be felled directly into waterways using springboards, double-headed axes, and cross-cut saws. The oldest trees were huge and the tools were hand powered so the forest yielded slowly to the hand logger. On some of the larger trees that were taken, dynamite was required to topple the Karnakian giants to the forest floor. Some trees were simply too large to cut, transport, or mill so were left behind.

Up until 1905 British-controlled areas around the Pacific, and as far away as South Africa, were the largest markets. After 1905 the United States became the largest customer for Canadian forest products. Since the White pine forests of eastern Canada were largely decimated by this time, the west coast became the focus of logging operations.

In the 1900's mechanization started to revolutionize the industry. The trees easiest to get at along waterways were largely depleted. These were some of the largest trees growing in rich valley bottom soils. Going deeper into the forest in such rugged terrain required more power and therefore more capital. Teams of oxen were replaced with horses which were then put out to pasture for more efficient steam rail logging operations, several of which penetrated into south Vancouver Island valleys, including the Sooke region. Larger corporations began to take over, and the high balling era began.




Buck saws, spring boards, and double headed axes began to be replaced by chainsaws, harvesting machines, and huge trucks. Selective logging gave way to clearcuts. Now the forests were threatened by a no-holds-barred attitude that continues to this very day. No trees are safe anymore with the advent of helicopter logging which can access areas previously too remote or harsh to log safely.

The south island has been largely logged off, although remnant small ancient groves remain in isolated pockets. Often it is only the occasional large ancient that survives to this day, but very few have any protection. The undisturbed 10 000 year old forest is gone, and the biological secrets have gone with it. We have little idea what we have lost, or what long term impacts this may have.

The logging industry in British Columbia, aided by sympathetic pro-business governments, continues to pillage what little is remaining of the ancient forest. They will carry on with business as usual until the last big tree falls, or until we make them stop.

The B&B Tree

In December 2004 Linda and I came to Sooke to experience life in the rainforest. We had been to Sooke several times over the years, always on our way to hike the West Coast Trail. We knew that there were big trees to be seen on Vancouver Island.

On previous visits to the coast we found it to be a special thing to stand next to an enormous tree a thousand or more years old. An entire forest of such unbelievable huge-ness forces an uncomfortable perspective on the mind. The eyes have problems taking in such immense verticality. Most of us experience such vertical splendor only in the business district of large cities, craning our necks looking up at towers. Imagine a tree, or an entire forest, towering above you at the height of a 30 story building. Trees with trunks larger than

The first month in Sooke we stayed at a bed and breakfast on Hutchison Cove with a fine view over Sooke Basin, East Sooke, and the snow peaked mountains of Washington. The tops of big trees could be seen growing down by the water where The Galloping Goose Trail runs.

One warm winter day I walked down to the Goose. At the bottom of the slope I came to the trail, and a fine example of an old Douglas fir. It is on the land side of the trail, and in its low location is protected from westerly gales by a hill. It has little competition from other big trees. Therefore, it has a beautiful crown and a classic overall shape.

It has not been as beaten by storms like many of the waters-edge trees. Many in this area have had their tops, or leaders, broken off, but not this beauty. It is intact and the whole tree is growing vigorously.

A new access road was built about a year ago that runs right past the base of this tree. While out for a bike ride, I talked to the present owner (the land, and tree, are for sale). She spoke of how her family has loved this tree over the years, and how they took special care to protect it during the construction of the road. Ah, fellow tree lovers.

If you ride or walk the Galloping Goose between the Coopers Cove access on Highway 14 and Roche Cove Park you will see many gnarly old trees, including this one. Some of them are in the range of 100 to 300 years old. Along this stretch of trail you will also see trees in that age range that have been sheared off or blown down, root disk upended and all. These fallen giants are a testament to the strength of the winds that lash this coastline every winter.

Could the B&B Tree live through another 800 years of winter storms? Who will be around to be awed by it if it does?

Goldstream Park: Salmon-fed Big Trees

Few major urban centres anywhere enjoy the easy access Victoria, BC has to an old growth forest area, let alone a protected one. The city is only 16 km away from Goldstream Park, a place where you will find an active spawning river as well as ancient trees. Many of the trees in the park are older than 10 human lifespans. This area represents a tiny, tiny fraction of what was once one of the mightiest forests on the planet, and even this protected bit is under attack.

Human "progress" threatens forested areas everywhere, including land within the Goldstream watershed. Crown land adjacent to Goldstream was sold by the BC Liberal government to Western Forest Products in 2001. WFP then sold the land for Bear Mountain resort, and it is being rapidly developed with high rise condo towers (ranging from 27 to 45 stories), five thousand square foot houses, and a golf course. An interchange being built solely to service this "mountain top removal" neighbourhood required an endangered Garry Oak grove to be destroyed. The Garry Oak ecosystem is one of the most threatened on the south island. Now "Bare Mountain II" is rearing its ugly head. The fish, trees, animals and insects of Goldstream Park are threatened by this encroaching cancerous mass.

You might think that salmon have nothing to do with trees, but for thousands of years the mighty salmon has fed the giants of the Pacific coastal forest. Spawned out salmon carcasses feed trees beside waterways. Floods and feeding bears transport carcasses deeper into the forest. Blue ocean is converted into green forest in an endlessly repeating cycle. Our poor choices threaten this system.

Scientists estimate that up to 75% of the nitrogen in trees beside salmon bearing waterways is from the ocean, delivered by the salmon returning to their home forest. This is a significant contribution to trees such as the ones you will find at Goldstream. The trees help the salmon as well in a mutually beneficial relationship. The big trees purify water, moderate drought and flood, and create an environment in which streams can build deep pools and clean gravels where salmon can successfully spawn and rear.

The state of the salmon on the coast is pretty grim, much like the state of the remaining old growth forests. The ultimately sustainable, healthy food of the ocean has been mismanaged and is now in danger of immanent collapse. Open pen salmon farming with Atlantic salmon is not the answer either, and it seems to be taking an active role in the loss of native species. Urban development and the continued liquidation of easily accessed valley-bottom old growth forests add to the salmon's demise.

A short 20 minute drive will take you from downtown Victoria office towers to the towering trees and quiet of Goldstream Park. In the valley bottom of the day-use area grow enormous 600 year old Western red-cedars. Huge Black cottonwoods stake out moist territory closer to the estuary. The estuary supports up to 60 000 returning chum salmon in a season. This concentration of available protein attracts huge numbers of eagles, some years numbering in the hundreds. Eagles congregate in the park area from December to February.

Among the biggest trees in Goldstream are Grand fir, Black cottonwood, Douglas fir (one of which has a 2.07m diameter trunk at breast height), and Western red-cedar (one with a 5.63m diameter trunk at ground level). The trails around the campground areas hold even larger Douglas fir specimens. The Upper Goldstream Trail takes a hiker through some of the largest and oldest trees in the park.

Salmon and forest depend on each other. And we depend on them. Can they depend on us?

Tree Meditation

The big trees of Vancouver Island (and the world) need friends now like never before. On southern Vancouver Island the majority of original Douglas fir forest is gone. The Victoria Chapter of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee estimated that only 13% of the original old-growth forests on the South Island remained after a 2004 survey. Now logging companies like Timber West are selling forest land for real estate development. Once that happens, the forest is gone forever.

Like trusted pets, trees are good listeners. And if you listen closely, you will also find that trees, especially the ancients, will gladly impart life lessons to you. Friends, as Shakti Gawain tells us, come in many forms. The following is her prescription for regular visits to your own special tree:

Tree Meditation

"Find a special tree. Sit under it, or climb up and sit in it, or stand close to it and put your arms around it, finding whatever way feels right to relate to it physically.

Close your eyes and relax into a meditative state of mind. Imagine that this tree is a mother, father, brother, or sister to you. Talk to it in your mind and tell it how you feel about it. Then let your mind be quiet, and let yourself receive the energy from this tree. You may find it to be nurturing, or strong, or wise, or perhaps humorous. Trust whatever relationship you feel with this tree.

If you live nearby, come to see your tree often. You may find it to be a very comforting and loving friend."

The Pacific Coast forests, spared catastrophic forest fires due to the wet climate, are ancient and special. Old growth trees, any where from 250 to 1000 years old exude an energy field similar to an eighty year old sea turtle or a hundred year old human elder. Slow, patient, strong, with lessons learned by successfully navigating the storms of life. It is at our peril that we ignore what our elders have to teach us.

Tree meditations are a two way street. You will feel better, and the tree will be strengthened by your presence.

Ground yourself. Visit your favourite tree today. Visit your tree often. It is a mutually healing encounter. Do you have a favourite tree? Or forest?

Another Grand Beach Stump

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

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

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

Big Beach Logs

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you, tree.

Look, A Tree!

I am not a tree expert. I am a tree lover. This could be a result of being born on the prairies. I grew up in a knee-high ecosystem of endless shortgrass. In a landscape such as this every tree is precious.

The only natural trees on the S. Albertan prairies are near water sources. Cotton wood trees (Populus trichocarpa) can get quite large (height of 30-50 m and a trunk diameter of over 2 m), and rare ones grow to be up to 400 years old. In the spring their sticky buds emit a fragrance that a winter-weary nose can detect from 100 m away.

Most of the prairie, though, is grass. Further east, beyond the Great Plains was the tall grass ecosystem, but even that topped out at just over a meter.

Therefore, when I see a 73.8 m (242') tall Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) that is 12.55m (41' 2") in circumference, and is almost 1000 years old I tend to be blown away.

Stay tuned for more trees and forests to blow you away.

Urban Big Trees

A bike ride from home into Sooke along highway 14 is not a wilderness experience like biking through the Sooke Hills, but big trees are to be found here, too.

On a recent ride to the library I photographed one of my favorite urban trees. It grows along Anna Maria Road in front of Eagle Eye Outfitters. It is a Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), and not in the "huge" category, but for an urban tree it is sizable. Click on the photo to enlarge. The small car parked to the left of the tree provides scale.

A couple more large Douglas fir grow a block away in front of the Evergreen shopping mall, and next to the Loggers Pole. The pole commemorates generations of locals that wrestled similar giants down so that San Fransico could have piers, ships could have masts, and we could have houses and thousands of other products.

"87% of the original productive old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island, south of Barkley Sound/Alberni Canal, have been logged. ie.13% remains"

(http://www.wcwcvictoria.org/vipetition/)

The 13% that remains is breathing a little easier lately due to economic stagnation, trade disputes, and mismanagement.

"The BC Liberal government says that protecting our ancient forests will cost forestry jobs. Well, all I know is not a single park has been created on Vancouver Island by the BC Liberal government over the past 8 years, yet in that time theyve overseen and facilitated the largest loss of forestry jobs in BCs history – 20,000 BC forestry jobs lost over 2 years," states Ken Wu, Wilderness Committee campaign director in Victoria.

Will this be a short respite from inevitable doom ala Easter Island? Or will we take this opportunity to end the destruction of trees up to 2500 years old that still exist in forests that have existed since the last ice age?

And don't forget the urban trees. Nothing improves our living spaces like trees.


"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver."

~Martin Luther

Where Are The Big Trees?

Living on the west coast of Vancouver Island we are frequently asked about where to find the big trees this sodden land is famous for.

The short answer is, "Everywhere!" We may not have much on the south island for old growth forests (older than 250 years), but what most people would consider to be giant trees still exist all over. Many are older than 250 years.

The header photo is a nice example of one such behemoth. This Western Red Cedar is a short cycle away from home just off the Galloping Goose trail, at the side of the Sooke River.

This blog will highlight similar notable large woody entities. Posts will include photos, directions, and tree and forest related information. Visitors are encouraged to share information about big trees in their area.


"Every craggy and gnarled tree has its own strange and graceful legend attached to it."
Douglas Hyde