Fine Vancouver Island Forests

Some people say Vancouver Island is just a big tree farm. This is at least 50 percent correct...it seems that half or more of the island is regularly logged. Trees grow everywhere, and with abundant rain and long growing seasons new crops can be harvested every 35-50 years. However, there are fairly large areas preserved in provincial and national parks, and in these areas majestic old growth forests can still be found. This is the biggest tree in McMillan Provincial Park, in the center of the island; the Douglas fir is over 800 years old and 76 metres tall...about 250 feet. This grove is named after its donor, HR Macmillan, who ironically was one of the biggest lumbermen on the island during the middle of the 20th century.

The exact date on which these trees fell is known. It was January 1, 1997, during a massive storm that affected a vast area. High winds downed dozens of trees in the grove...I first visited in September 1998 and the park was still being repaired after the storm. The tempest was a classic Pineapple Express. While devastating the forests on Vancouver Island, it brought torrential rain and major flooding to Northern California; there was a big flood on the Russian River. Monterey was in the warm sector of the storm; at the stroke of the new year of 1997 the temperature in Monterey was 70 degrees, which is uncommon on a summer afternoon!

Notice that the tree in the foreground, down only 13 1/2 years, is already well into its nurse log career, nurturing many young firs.

Not far from MacMillan grove, but a thousand metres higher, is a boreal forest. This is in Strathcona Provincial Park, in the center of the island. Here winter snows are heavy and the growing season is short. On July 25 there were still patches of snow only a little above 3000 feet elevation. The marshy ground of the Forbidden Plateau, as the area is called, further inhibits growth. Thus, the trees here, though abundant, are not very tall and are slender, with short branches. Go 300 miles north from here, in the interior of BC and Alberta, and the forests look like this.

Now we're in the rainforest at Pacific Rim National Park, between Tofino and Ucluelet on the Vancouver Island coast. Here, just a short distance from the ocean, the temperature is usually between 30 and 70 degrees year round and 120 inches of rain drench the land every year. The forest floor shows that Van Gogh's got nothing on Ma Nature...she does impressionism well!

In the park there are many neat boardwalk trails. This one goes right past a quintessential nurse log! Go down the line and you can see four good sized trees growing from the nutrients in the one old log. Yeah, I know...I take tons of nurse log pictures. But nurse logs are cool! This forest was better lit than many, and this was a particularly prolific nurse log.