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Big Lonely Doug coverage in Epoch Times

Mar 29 2014/in News Coverage

“Big Lonely Doug” is covered in a Chinese-language newspaper, the Epoch Times.

See here:
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/14/3/30/n4118760.htm%E5%8A%A0%E5%9B%BD%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C%E5%A4%A7%E5%B7%A8%E6%9D%89-%E7%9F%97%E7%AB%8B%E6%B8%A9%E5%93%A5%E5%8D%8E%E5%B2%9B.html

Big Lonely Doug Could Be Canada’s 2nd Largest Douglas-Fir

Mar 27 2014/in News Coverage

In what is being called the most significant big tree discovery in decades, a group of conservationists believe they have found Canada's second largest Douglas-fir.

Preliminary measurements were taken of the tree, located in a clearcut in B.C.'s Gordon River Valley, on Thursday by conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA). Nicknamed Big Lonely Doug, the tree is about 39 ft. in circumference and 226 ft. tall, according to a press release issued on Friday.

Big Lonely Doug is estimated to be about 1,000 years old.

“This is a tree with a trunk as wide as a living room and stands taller than downtown skyscrapers,” TJ Watt, an AFA photographer and campaigner, said in the release.

“Big Lonely Doug’s total size comes in just behind the current champion Douglas-fir, the Red Creek Fir, the world’s largest, which grows just one valley over [in B.C.].”

Watt first noticed Big Lonely Doug several months ago but only returned to measure the tree on Thursday along with AFA co-founder Ken Wu.

The Gordon River Valley is located near Port Renfrew on the southern part of Vancouver Island, known as the “Tall Trees Capital” of Canada. As the release states, Big Lonely Doug “stands on Crown lands in Tree Farm Licence 46 held by the logging company Teal-Jones, in the unceded traditional territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation band.”

Big Lonely Doug is a rather fitting name for the large Douglas-fir that stands alone in an otherwise empty area.

“The fact that all of the surrounding old-growth trees have been clearcut around such a globally exceptional tree, putting it at risk of being damaged or blown down by wind storms, underscores the urgency for new provincial laws to protect B.C.’s largest trees, monumental groves, and endangered old-growth ecosystems,” said Wu in the news release.

The AFA also warned that the number of tall trees similar to Big Lonely Doug are growing scarce in the Pacific Northwest.

“The days of colossal trees like these are quickly coming to an end as the timber industry cherry-picks the last unprotected, valley-bottom, lower elevation ancient stands in southern B.C. where giants like this grow.”

Staff from the Ministry of Forests will take official measurements of Big Lonely Doug in early April.

Vancouver Island Douglas-fir may be Canada’s second biggest

Mar 25 2014/in News Coverage

On their continual treasure hunt for the region’s largest trees, two Victoria conservationists have found what could be one of the largest Douglas-firs measured in Canada.

“Basically, it’s one giant Douglas-fir in a sea of enormous stumps,” said the Ancient Forest Alliance’s Ken Wu of the tree dubbed Big Lonely Doug. “The largest branch, the size of a second-growth tree, was torn off in a recent wind storm. Its days might be numbered.”

Wu thinks the tree was likely left as a seed tree or so the area could not be deemed a complete clearcut. The Crown land was logged by Teal-Jones in 2012 under tree farm licence 46. The company could not be reached for comment.

Big Lonely Doug was spotted by Wu’s co-worker T.J. Watt a few months ago in a logged area outside of Port Renfrew. Watt and Wu drove 45 minutes down a rough road outside the west coast town on Thursday to measure it.

“You don’t get how big it is until you get close and see the scale,” Wu said. The Douglas-fir stands 69 metres tall and has a 12-metre circumference. Watt described it as big around as a living room and as tall as most skyscrapers.

Judging from the rings on nearby stumps, Wu said, the tree could be nearly 1,000 years old.

“These types of colossal growth trees historically built B.C.’s logging industry. Now they’re just about gone,” Wu said. The group is calling for legislation to protect old-growth ecosystems and the big trees they contain.

Douglas-firs grow along the west coast of North America from southern B.C. to California and in the Rocky Mountains toward Mexico. The Interior variety of the Douglas-fir tends to grow only to about 42 metres in height.

Wu noted the area where Big Lonely Doug was found now has even greater claim as the tall tree capital. The world’s largest recorded Douglas-fir stands in the nearby San Juan River Valley and is measured to be 73.8 metres tall and 13.28 metres in circumference.

“The biggest spruce is also there, there’s the biggest cedar in Cheewhat Lake, and then there’s Avatar Grove,” Wu said. “A hundred years ago, southwestern Vancouver Island was the land of the giants.”

Andy MacKinnon, a research ecologist for the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, said the discovery of the giant Douglas-fir is exciting.

He manages a Big Tree Registry through the University of British Columbia that tracks the 10 largest trees of each species in the province, and plans to measure Big Lonely Doug next month.

“There’s no legal protection for trees on the list, but it is a way to highlight and champion them,” said MacKinnon, citing the advocacy for a giant Sitka spruce that led to protection of the Carmanah Valley as an example.

Of the 1.9 million hectares of Crown forest on Vancouver Island, 840,125 hectares are considered old growth and 313,000 hectares are available for timber harvesting.