Archive for month: September, 2014

Here in B.C. we have an abundance of large, gorgeous trees.

But some are so big and beautiful that we can't get them out of our heads (who could forget Big Lonely Doug?). For those, the University of British Columbia has relaunched the BC Big Tree Registry.

Newly acquired by the university's Faculty of Forestry, the database keeps track of our province's biggest and brightest trees. The registry is now online so that people can use interactive maps to search for big trees in their areas. Users can also nominate big trees for verification by an expert.

B.C. is home to 50 different tree species, according to Sally Aitken, a UBC professor of forest and conservation sciences.

Big trees “are the largest organisms that we can see, touch and feel,” she said in a UBC interview. “We have trees that were around before our parents or great-grandparents or great-great-grandparents were born. These massive and beautiful organisms represent a biological legacy.”

So if you ever needed an excuse to explore more of this great province of ours, here it is. Give the trees a hug for us!

Read more and VIEW PHOTOS and VIDEO at: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/26/bc-big-trees-photos_n_5891200.html?utm_hp_ref=canada-british-columbia
 

The University of B.C. recently took on the task of turning “several bankers’ boxes of paper and physical photos” on the province’s largest trees into a usable online database — and they want the public to add to it.

The idea is that if we know where British Columbia’s largest trees are, they can be protected and studied, according to UBC forests and conservation prof. Sally Aitken.

“Those big trees really represents a biological legacy from the past. We want to maintain that legacy,” she said.

“We don’t know how these trees are going to react to climate change, to the new environment they find themselves in — if we know where they are now, it gives us a basis to monitor them.”

B.C., Aitken said, is home to some of the largest trees in the world. And despite how the existing paper-based records go back to 1986 and already contain 300 of the province’s most enormous trees, new discoveries are still regularly found.

“In the last month, we have found the third-biggest Sitka spruce in the province. In the spring, the tree that got quite a bit of press — called Big Lonely Doug — was found. It’s near Port Renfrew, it’s the second largest Douglas fir.”

Even for the existing trees in the registry, much of the data is incomplete. Many of the old records didn’t come with exact GPS co-ordinates or even directions to how to find the trees.

Technology now, however, means anyone with a smart phone can track their GPS co-ordinates and also measure the height of trees using a simple “clinometer” app that uses distance and angles to complete the measurements.

The tree registry can be found online at bigtrees.forestry.ubc.ca.

Read more:[Original article no longer available]

We go searching for them, we hug them, we’re often speechless in their presence, but what makes big trees so special? Sally Aitken, a professor of forest and conservation sciences, explains the connection we feel to these majestic giants of the forest. The Faculty of Forestry now runs the BC Big Tree Registry, a database of the biggest specimens in the province.

Why do we love big trees?

They are the largest organisms that we can see, touch and feel. They’re often very old and the idea of something that lives much longer than our human lifespan is interesting. We have trees that were around before our parents or great-grandparents or great-great-grandparents were born. These massive and beautiful organisms represent a biological legacy. We’ve harvested a lot of our old forests and those big trees that remain become more precious because there are fewer of them around.

What makes B.C.’s big trees unique?

The zone that extends from California to B.C. is one of two places where we find the biggest and tallest trees in the world. Our coastal rainforests harbour some absolutely enormous tress and it has to do with the conditions we find here–mild year-round temperatures and lots of rainfall. We have enormous Douglas-fir, Western redcedar, and Sitka spruce. The province is home to 50 different tree species and for some of those species we have the world’s largest specimens. We have the largest trees in Canada by far and ours are almost as big as the biggest trees in the world, the redwoods of California.

People are able to nominate trees into the BC Big Tree Registry. Are new big ones still being found?

It’s very exciting that trees are still getting nominated that are champion trees. Recently a group on the Sunshine Coast found some of the largest mountain hemlocks that have ever been observed. The sadder tales are the ones of trees like the ‘Big Lonely Doug,’ the second largest Douglas-fir in the province.

A lot of nominations come in from people who work in forestry and in logging. These people find trees in areas that people don’t normally walk through. Of course, there are also a number of people, including those on the Big Tree Committee, whose hobby is finding big trees. Big tree hunters love to go out to areas that haven’t been explored and look for big trees.

One member of our committee said there are big ones that are still out there to find. We want to make anyone a big tree hunter or nominator and we’ve made changes to the BC Big Tree Registry so that anyone can nominate a big tree.

What can we learn from older trees?

We know that the mortality rates of old trees are increasing with climate change. The registry helps us and citizens monitor the health of these giants over time. People will tell us if a big tree blows over, loses its top, or dies. The registry also produces data on the type of ecosystems that these trees are found in, and this information can guide certain research. We need to know where these big trees are so we can conserve them, as a biological legacy of the past, as important members of forest ecosystems today, and for future generations.

As part of National Forest Week the Faculty of Forestry is holding an event on Thursday, Sep. 25 to celebrate the BC Big Tree Registry that will include a tree climbing demonstration.

See article and view video of Climbing Big Lonely Doug at: https://news.ubc.ca/2014/09/24/big-trees-bring-out-our-inner-tree-hugger/

A B.C. First Nation is set to declare a vast chunk of the Chilcotin as a tribal park, including the site of the controversial proposed New Prosperity mine at Fish Lake.

A formal ceremony unveiling Dasiqox Tribal Park is set for Oct. 4, less than four months after a landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling found that the Tsilhqot’in people have title to 1,750 square kilometres of land west of Williams Lake.

Taseko Mines Ltd.’s Fish Lake property lies outside the title area recognized by the courts, but the natives — who have long opposed the mine and claim hunting, fishing, and trapping rights in the area — have now folded the mine site into the tribal park boundary.

Questions immediately arise as to the validity of the tribal park declaration and what it means for the future of the $1.1-billion New Prosperity copper-gold project.

Brian Battison, vice-president of corporate affairs for Taseko, said Wednesday he is aware of the forthcoming ceremony but could not comment until he knows more details. “I don’t really know what it means. I don’t know what a tribal park is, how it’s constituted, and what may or may not be allowed.”

The tribal park would cover about 3,120 square kilometres and protect cultural, heritage and ecological values, according to the Tsilhqot’in, while connecting to five surrounding provincial parks.

Dave Williams, president of Friends of the Nemiah Valley, which works closely with the Tsilhqot’in people on conservation projects, explained in an interview that large-scale industrial mining and clear-cut logging would not be allowed in the tribal park, but that smaller-scale resource activities such as sustainable logging with portable mills may be suitable to provide employment for natives.

“Their view is this is their sovereign territory,” Williams said. “People going into the territory and applying for licences of occupation or permits … will have to go through the First Nations government.”

He said the tribal park declaration is unilateral for now, but his long-term hope is that the province could come on board under a joint management system similar to the Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park, established near Lytton in 1995.

Premier Christy Clark and John Rustad, Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, were in the Nemiah Valley on Wednesday, signing a letter of understanding that commits to building a more positive relationship with the Tsilhqot’in nation.

Communications officer Leanne Ritchie released a ministry statement saying the province had not received details of the tribal park, but hoped that the letter of understanding would provide the basis for future talks.

An August 2014 inventory report by consultant Wayne McCrory for the Xeni Gwet’in and Yunesit’in First Nations, with about 850 band members, noted that the area features a unique “rain shadow” forest ecosystem and some of the best habitat for large carnivores in North America.

Due to logging and mining threats, McCrory concluded: “The only option to protect this rich cultural/heritage landscape is through a designation of full protection status, such as a combined Tribal Park/provincial Class A Park or Conservancy.”

Taseko’s gold-copper mine project was approved by the provincial government, but twice rejected by federal panels and the federal government. Both federal panels cited damage to fish and fish habitat.

Even though Taseko changed its plans to preserve Fish Lake, which would have been destroyed in its first plan, the second panel review found the mine would result in the loss of Little Fish Lake to a 12-square-kilometre tailings pond and contaminate nearby Fish Lake and the upper Fish Creek system.

Taseko maintains the environmental review was badly flawed, saying it incorrectly assessed the project and its ability to prevent seepage from a tailings pond. Its legal challenge is before the Federal Court of Appeal, with a ruling possible before the end of the year.

First Nations are set to officially announce Dasiqox (“there for us”) Tribal Park in a ceremony at Fish Lake, also known as Teztan Biny, about 100 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake. Nuu-chah-nulth carver Tim Paul has donated a totem pole for the event.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada could not immediately comment on the tribal park designation.

On Monday, Taseko — which runs the Gibraltar copper-molybdenum mine 65 kilometres north of Williams Lake — announced a friendly $79-million takeover of Curis Resources, which is developing a copper project in Arizona.

lpynn@vancouversun.com

What a Dasiqox Tribal Park would help to protect:

(1) Would connect five surrounding parks: Ts’yl?os, Big Creek, Nunsti, Big Creek, and Southern Chilcotin Mountains.

(2) More than 10,000 hectares of threatened white bark pine forest, perhaps the largest and healthiest such stands remaining in Western Canada, not decimated by white pine blister rust, the mountain pine beetle, and wildfires driven by climate change.

(3) The last viable refuge for the dryland grizzly bear, which historically occurred down the western mountains of North America in the lee of the coast ranges. The diet of these grizzlies ranges from white bark pine nuts to salmon.

(4) Important spawning habitat for chinook, sockeye, and coho salmon, having made lengthy journeys via the Fraser and Chilcotin rivers; the low sockeye run in Yohetta Creek is considered a unique genetic stock that is endangered.

(5) Migratory routes for mule deer as well as ancient Tsilhqot’in trails, both local and long-distance, some of them thought to date back thousands of years.

Source: Inventory report by consultant Wayne McCrory.

Read more: https://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Unilateral+park+declared+Tsilhqot+includes+Prosperity+mine/10192766/story.html#ixzz3D4RT0pgo