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Towering Vancouver Island tree officially second-largest in the country

Apr 26 2014/in News Coverage

As trees go, it is one colossal conifer.

Tape measures confirm that a Douglas fir tree on Vancouver Island is officially the second-largest in Canada.

According to the B.C. Big Tree Registry run by the University of British Columbia, the tree stands 70.2 metres high, about as tall as an 18-storey building. It has a diameter of 3.91 metres — almost as long as a mid-sized car.

Dubbed “Big Lonely Doug” by those who found it, it takes 11.91 metres of tape to wrap round the base of the enormous evergreen and at the top, the tree’s canopy spreads 18.33 metres across.

Conservationists believe the tree near Port Renfrew, on southern Vancouver Island, could be as much as 1,000 years old.

The country’s largest Douglas fir, located in the San Juan River Valley 20 kilometres east of Big Lonely Doug, stands 73.8 metres tall and has a circumference of 13.28 metres.

Environmentalists opposed to clear-cut logging are calling on the government to stop logging in old-growth forests like the ones where these towering trees are found.

Check out Canada’s second largest Douglas-fir tree (photos)

Apr 26 2014/in News Coverage

That's one big tree.

Dubbed “Big Lonely Doug”, this Douglas-fir is the second largest tree of its species (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in Canada.

Forest ecologist Andy MacKinnon, who runs the B.C. Big Tree Registry, made it official last week, when he measured the thing.

Here's the stats:

Height: 70.2 metres or 230 feet
Circumference: 11.91 metres or 39 feet
Diameter: 3.91 metres or 12.4 feet
Canopy spread: 18.33 metres or 60.1 feet
Big Lonely Doug, found in the Gordon River valley on southern Vancouver Island, is estimated to be 1,000 years old.

The Ancient Forest Alliance, which sent out the photos, is calling for provincial legislation to protect big trees like this.

B.C.’s ‘Big Lonely Doug’ is the second-largest tree in Canada

Apr 24 2014/in News Coverage

PORT RENFREW — As trees go, it is one colossal conifer.

Tape measures confirm that a Douglas fir tree on Vancouver Island is officially the second-largest in Canada.

According to the B.C. Big Tree Registry run by the University of B.C., the tree — dubbed “Big Lonely Doug” by those who found it — stands 70.2 metres high, about as tall as an 18-storey building, and has a diameter almost that of a mid-sized car.

It takes 11.91 metres of tape to wrap round the base of the enormous evergreen and at the top, the tree’s canopy spreads across 18.33 metres.

Conservationists believe the tree near Port Renfrew, on southern Vancouver Island, could be as much as 1,000 years old.

The country’s largest Douglas fir, located in the San Juan River Valley 20 kilometres east of Big Lonely Doug, stands 73.8 metres tall and has a circumference of 13.28 metres.

Environmentalists opposed to clear-cut logging are calling on the government to stop logging in old-growth forests such as the ones where these towering trees are found.