Mapping BC's Big Tree Registry

View Original Map by Craig Williams

Red Creek Fir, Port Renfrew

As big tree tourism gains momentum in British Columbia's forests, people increasingly want to know "where are the biggest, tallest, oldest trees?"

The map above, compiled by Craig Williams, shows the locations of many trees on British Columbia's Big Tree Registry, as well as other notable trees.

One of the trees on the map is the Red Creek Fir near Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island. This monument to the primal forest of old is the largest Douglas-fir in the world. It has an estimated wood volume of 349 cubic meters.

BC's registry of big trees has the ambitious task of recording the top 10 largest and tallest known trees of each of the province's 50 plus native species.

But listed trees are only the known champions. It is probable that larger trees exist in nooks and crannies of little visited, remote locations in the BC wilderness, or possibly even in your own urban neighbourhood or park area.

BC's tree registry depends on the public to find and nominate trees for inclusion in the list of notable specimens.  Although you will see the names of professional tree hunters like Robert Van Pelt on BC's registry, most trees have been nominated by interested amateurs.

Sooke's old school tree hunter, Maywell Whickheim, had the distinction of adding Canada's largest tree, the Cheewhat Cedar, to the registry. He has hinted that an even larger Western red-cedar exists somewhere in the green, dripping, rain forest of southern Vancouver Island.

He is not saying where the tree is, leaving that to present and future big tree hunters looking for a record-breaker.

It is hard to imagine a cedar larger than the mighty Cheewhat tree (which can be found in a remote part of Pacific Rim National Park, east of Cheewhat Lake).

Cheewhat Cedar, Pacific Rim Nat. Park, largest Western red cedar in BC
Largest tree in Canada

This champion is a girthy 18.34 m (60 ft) in circumference, 55.5 m (182 ft) in height, with a crown spread of 15.60 m (51 ft), 917 American Forestry Association points, and a wood volume of 449 sq m.

You can zoom in on the Cheewhat Cedar, and other champions from the BC Big Tree Registry, on the map above. Click on the tree icons for more information on type of tree, its location, and more.

You can also click on the link under the map to visit the original that has additional handy features. Our 'Visit Them' page also has more information on the locations of some of Vancouver Island's champion trees.

The Carmanah Giant is BC's tallest Sitka spruce, 95 m (313 ft) tall
Carmanah/Walbran Provincial Park

You may even develop an interest in becoming a big tree hunter yourself, and adding some champions to the provincial registry. That is what Randy Stoltmann did, and he ended up saving a bunch of them, too, like the amazing Sitka spruce of Carmanah/Walbran Provincial Park. Many of BC's champion trees, like Port Renfrew's Red Creek Fir, still have no official protected status.

Randy's name appears in the Big Tree Registry more times than any other, the result of a short (he died in a wilderness accident in 1994), but serious period of exploration in BC's exceptional forests.

Nominations to the registry are always welcome, and can be submitted on the UBC Forestry website.

BC Government Considering Logging Parks/Protected Areas

Big trees, not big stumps!
Sitka spruce on Haida Gwaii,
caro-on-the-islands.blogspot.com

Just as the public is discovering the beauty and importance of old growth trees and forests, the provincial Liberal government is proposing we cut them down for short term gain.

A leaked plan has emerged which advises the province look at logging old growth forests in parks, protected areas, old growth management areas, and wildlife corridors in the pine beetle-ravaged interior of the province. Due to the infestation, current wood sources are running out.

The hope is to save approximately 12,000 jobs by keeping mills open with trees from previously protected areas.

Timber panel eyes logging protected areas

WENDY STUECK

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

"A committee looking for ways to boost B.C.’s dwindling store of timber is looking at logging protected areas such as old-growth forests as one way out of a supply crunch. 

The options, included in a June 11 discussion paper of the government-appointed Special Committee on Timber Supply, come in advance of community open houses scheduled for June and July and provide more detail on plans that came to light in April, when leaked documents revealed the government was looking for ways to bolster timber supply."

Read more here.

Advice From A Tree

I would add:

• be flexible
• don't take more than your fair share
• cooperate with your neighbours
• enjoy the sunny days AND the rainy ones
• do what you can, with what you've got, where you're at

AFA Big Tree Tours

AFA guided hike, Avatar Grove, TJ Watt photo

 

I started VIBT in 2009 in order to celebrate the big trees I have come to love since my first visit to the island 33 years ago. A major goal for me is to have people experience these trees for themselves, in the hopes that they will become advocates for preservation of British Columbia's remaining old growth.

But not everyone is comfortable with grabbing a map and a set of directions and heading out onto logging roads that are sometimes far from civilization, and trying to hunt down the elusive 'Big One'.

There is another way to get to, and enjoy, the big trees, and that is as part of a guided tour.

Thankfully, there are organizations dedicated to educating the public about the beauty and importance of old growth trees and forests in the hopes of creating much needed forest defenders.

On Vancouver Island, Ancient Forest Alliance is working to "protect the endangered old-growth forests of British Columbia and ensure sustainable forestry jobs in the province". 

The group gives guided tours to various big tree destinations, the most recent being a fund-raising tour of Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew. 

Check their website for more information on upcoming hikes.

See them - save them.

There Goes The Neighbourhood

Truck in Germany

There goes the neighbourhood.

When we clear cut old growth forests we are not just taking trees - we are clearing an entire ecosystem.

Everything that depends on the forest, that has covered the Pacific Northwest for the past 10,000 years, is out of a home.

The race is on globally. Will we retain any of our original forests, and all the creatures that live there, or will we log our forest ecosystems to death?

French Beach Park: Future Old Growth Forest

Old cedar stump along French Beach trail

Early History

Adventurer James French knew the country of Canada better than most. In the late 1800s he took two years to walk across the vast land mass between the Atlantic Ocean at New Brunswick, and the Pacific Ocean surrounding Vancouver Island.

After all the beauty he had seen of the country, and Vancouver Island, in 1885 he decided to settle among the big trees of the primeval forest on a 59 hectare waterfront property 25 kilometers west of Sooke.

French's pre-empted property was enjoyed by his family after his death in 1952. The family was active in local logging up to 1974 when the land was donated to make a park.

Protected Second Growth Forest 
Ensures Old Growth For The Future

Today the property is a protected  and healthy second growth forest of Western hemlock, Western red cedar, Douglas-fir, and Sitka spruce.

The forest at French Beach is no longer populated by the giant first growth trees (although a few survive) that grew here when James French first arrived, although the odd stump attests to the fact that they were once here.

However, this is a great place to see how the forest regenerates over time. Although French's land has been logged, there are some nice medium-sized second growth trees that will one day attain the lofty status of their predecessors.

In another 200 years the forest will have regained its old growth status.

Sitka Spruce Dominate The Park

Stunted, weather-beaten spruce fringe trees are genetically identical
 to the taller Sitka spruce in the park

Fronting the beach are pure stands of the salt-tolerant Sitka spruce, one of the only conifers that can survive the harsh conditions along the beach. The Sitka spruce in the park vary from lofty, soaring tall trees to the krummholz (literally 'crooked wood') of the wind and sand scoured spruce fringe.

Big stumps are not the only evidence of the big trees of old. Because the property was logged before heavy-duty industrial logging, much of the original forest profile was preserved, including nurse logs.

In many areas along the park trails through the forest one can make out the remnants of downed giants that are now becoming the forest floor. In many cases the ancient downed trees, that may have been decomposing on the forest floor for hundreds of years, have new trees growing from them. The old nursing and nurturing the new.

Big Beach Trees

Large Sitka spruce along the beach in picnic area

The beach and forest trails are available for both day trips and camping. The picnic areas just behind the beach are good spots to see the twisted trees of the spruce fringe, and the taller spruce behind them.

The campground, and some of the other trails, are good places to see some of the larger trees. Away from the effects of the wind and waves, the tree enthusiast will find nice hemlock, cedar and Douglas-fir.

Today you don't have to walk across the continent to get to French Beach, although it would be worth it if you did. This beautiful day use and campground site is conveniently located on Highway 14, and is a leisurely and enjoyable one hour drive west of Victoria.

Park Map

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.

Garry Oak Saved On Sooke Waterfront

This Garry Oak at Mariner's Village will be saved
 to form a centerpiece of the development

Since the two magnificent Douglas-fir trees in central Sooke were unceremoniously laid low hundreds of years before their time, I have been looking at a different tree-scape from my home across Sooke Harbour.

One of the trees that has been making its presence known is equal in stature to the firs cut only two blocks away. The tree is a magnificent Garry Oak (Quercus garryana) in the Mariner's Village waterfront development.

The grandparent oak is a dominant feature on the property, easily competing with the the new 4 and 6-story structures next to it. It is multi-trunked so it could be that a small, tightly packed grove of trees has cooperated to form one large canopy.

Not only is the tree at least 60 feet in height, but its massive canopy is wider than the tree is tall. From my vantage point at home the oak, when fully leafed out, hides a good part of the phase 1 buildings behind its crinkly-lobed, dark green canopy.

Garry Oak ecosystems are a threatened habitat on Vancouver Island, and these beautiful trees are not common as far west as Sooke. Garry oaks can live up to 500 years, and the one in question is decades old.

Mariner's Village has only just completed the first phase of the development, so I wondered if Sooke was going to lose another of its significant heritage trees as the project progressed.

The large Garry oak from across Sooke Harbour

I contacted Jason van der Valk of Mariner's Village to see if there was a chance that the oak would be saved. His response was more than I could hope for, and quite a surprise. Good news stories concerning development and heritage trees in Sooke are rare.

"From the very beginning with the creation of the rendering, blueprints and concepts, the large Garry Oak Tree has always been forefront, and was the hub of the starting point for the development. Everything will be centered around that."

Jason also explained that the development team has contacted professionals for advice on how to proceed in a way that will not impact the health of the tree as the next phases are built. Garry oaks are notoriously sensitive to surrounding development, and often do not live.

The developers of Mariner's Village are uncharacteristically planning for this tree's survival, and would like to see it thrive for years to come for the enjoyment of of all.

VIBT salutes the tree-friendly approach being taken in this project, and we hope that this heritage Garry oak survives to become a central feature of the new development.

Forest Creatures: Pileated Woodpecker

photo: allaboutbirds.org

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

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

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

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

Pileated woodpecker range

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

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

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

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

Old Pileated nests are used by many other creatures

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

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

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

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

Our Forests Our Future

No trees No future

Two community forums will be held this week to discuss the future of forest lands on southern Vancouver Island. The Juan de Fuca forest lands make up 2/3 of the capital region district, and were the first affected by European exploitation. Although most of the forest is now second and third growth, development threatens the area.

Forum organizers wish to bring a diversity of voices to the forum and facilitate a sense of the community coming together to envision a future that includes care for Earth as well as sustainable livelihoods for people who live here.

Sooke Community Forum:

Tuesday, May 1, 7:00 PM Edward Milne Community School Sooke, British Columbia, Canada 

The forum will focus on ways to care for the forest lands in the Capital Regional District while providing sustainable livelihoods and community-based economic development to the region’s people. Forum participants will be welcomed by T’Sou-ke Chief Gordon Planes, who will give a short introduction on the importance of forests in traditional culture. A short film by award-winning film-maker Maeva Gauthier will show the beauty of the land and address the importance of forests for mitigating climate change. The speakers will have short slots after which the floor will be turned over to a moderated community discussion.

Victoria Community Forum:

Thursday, May 3, 7:00 PM Ambrosia Event Centre, 638 Fisgard St. Victoria

Short film by award-winning film-maker Maeva Gauthier will be followed by speakers and community discussion.

Panelists:

• David Anderson, former federal Minister of Environment, and Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
• Ken Wu, advocate for protection of old growth forests and sustainable forest management
• Ben Parfitt, investigative journalist, author and long-time forest policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Organised by the Jordan River Steering Committee, an alliance of environmental and citizens' groups including Sierra Club BC and Wilderness Committee.