Two of Canadas Top 10-Widest Trees Discovered in Endangered Upper Walbran Valley : WC Mediawire

On Sunday, two of Canadas Top 10 widest trees were measured by Wilderness Committee members exploring the Upper Walbran Valley on southwestern Vancouver Island. The two trees are almost 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter. The "Castle Giant" measures 4.84 meters (15 feet, 9 inches) and the "Tolkien Giant" is 4.76 m in (15 feet, 7 inches) in diameter. This makes the two trees the 6th and 7th widest known trees in Canada, according to comparisons with trees listed in the BC governments Big Tree Registry (http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bigtree/). The 5 other wider trees, all western redcedars, are found in Clayoquot Sound by Tofino and near Cheewhat Lake by the West Coast Trail. A Registered Professional Forester is now needed to officially measure the two Walbran trees for the entries to be listed in the Big Tree Registry.

"We have known about these two enormous trees for almost 15 years, but we never measured them using BC government methodology or compared them to the BC Big Tree Registry. Well, it turns out that in terms of their sheer widths, they outmatch virtually all known trees in the country!" notes Ken Wu, Campaign Director of the Wilderness Committee in Victoria. "It is also worthy to note that all of Canadas widest trees listed in the BC Big Tree Registry are on Vancouver Island. We are so incredibly fortunate here in BC to have these gargantuan-sized old-growth trees still growing in wilderness ecosystems - other jurisdictions drool at the thought of having the mind-blowing wild forests that we have here on the BC coast. You could count on your fingers the number of countries on Earth that still have trees as wide as your living room. So why the hell should we squander the last remnants by cutting them down? Ancient forests are not only vital for sustaining endangered species and our climate, but also for our multi-billion dollar coastal tourism industry."

The two, newly-measured western redcedars grow in the spectacular "Castle Grove" of ancient redcedars in the 7500 hectare Upper Walbran Valley, an unprotected old-growth forest adjacent to the West Coast Trail and the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park (which protects the Lower Walbran Valley). The Castle Grove is Canadas most geographically extensive stand of cathedral-like giant western redcedars, yet the entire Upper Walbran Valley remains unprotected in Tree Farm License 44 and 46. Distrubingly, the Wilderness Committee team discovered two giant new clearcuts logged this spring by Surrey-based Teal-Jones, only a kilometer away from the Castle Grove.

In anticipation of the Campbell government announcing the details of a new coastal forest industry plan soon, the Wilderness Committee is ramping up its public education and mobilization campaign. Minister of Forests and Range Rich Coleman has recently stated that the BC government intends to shift the coastal timber industry away from logging old-growth forests and into second-growth forests. However, no details, timelines, or specific reductions (ie. targets in hectares or cubic meters) have been released yet.

"Just as governments around the world have announced timelines of targets to reduce and phase-out greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, the BC government needs to announce a timeline of targets to quickly reduce and phase-out old-growth logging in places like Vancouver Island and the Southwest Mainland where old-growth forests are scarce," states Ken Wu. "Already, most of the logging on Vancouver Island is taking place in second-growth forests, and industry analysts say this trend must continue for the timber industry to be viable on the coast. The question is, how soon will the full transition into second-growth occur? Before or after we have finished off the unprotected giant trees?"

Old-growth forests are important for sustaining species at risk like spotted owls and marbled murrelets which cannot live in younger forests; for the BC economy, as millions of tourists from around the world come to visit the old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound, the West Coast Trail, the Carmanah Valley, Manning Provincial Park, and Cathedral Grove; for sustaining much of the BC wild salmon populations, which spawn in forested streams; and for sequestering carbon dioxide to counteract global climate change far more effectively than second-growth forests.

Almost 75% of Vancouver Islands productive, old-growth forests have already been logged, according to satellite photos taken in 2004. This includes 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow; 96-99% of the East Side forests, which include the ancient Douglas firs along the Koksilah River and in Cathedral Grove; and 87% of the South Island, which includes the Walbran Valley. Only 6% of Vancouver Islands productive forests (old-growth and second-growth forests) are protected in its parks system. See maps and figures at: http://www.viforest.org

On the Southwest Mainland, over 70% of the productive old-growth forests have been logged, decimating the spotted owl population from over 500 pairs at one time down to 16 individuals in 2007.

Therefore, on Vancouver Island the Wilderness Committee is calling on the BC government to immediately ban old-growth logging on the South Island, East Side, and in the valley bottoms, and to phase-out old-growth logging across the rest of the Island by 2015.

On the Southwest Mainland, the Wilderness Committee is calling for an immediate end to logging in all old-growth and mature forests needed for the survival and recovery of spotted owls, as recommended by the governments scientific advisors in 2004, and to phase-out old-growth logging across the rest of the Southwest Mainland by 2015.

Farther north, where most of the forests are still old-growth, the BC government should expand the protected areas system and increase the harvest rotation age from 80 years to several centuries.

Unfortunately, the government is looking at vastly increasing the rate of cut in second-growth forests on public lands by lowering the rotation age from 80 years to under 50 years, as on private lands. This would be very destructive, as our second-growth forests tend to be the richest lowland forests that had the highest species diversity, greatest salmon populations, and largest trees, and thus were the first to be logged long ago. If they are cut more slowly and sustainably, they could become old-growth again one day.

In addition, the BC government is proposing an inadequate tax on raw log exports coming from public lands and to relax the already weak restriction on private lands.

"At the least, the old-growth part of the governments plan could potentially be excellent news - it depends on the details and timelines. If you think about the history of environmental conflicts in BC, most of the major battles have been fought over the logging of coastal old-growth forests. We would commend any genuinely environmental plan by the government that sets real timelines and targets to quickly phase-out old-growth logging, particularly on Vancouver Island and the Southwest Mainland where old-growth is scarce," states Wu. "We have our fingers crossed that the BC government is moving towards such a vision. It would be an enormous leap towards ending the coastal war in the woods in this province, and leave a wonderful legacy for future generations."

Western Canada Wilderness Committee

Western Canada Wilderness Committee