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A man in neon scales a record-sized Sitka spruce as the sun peaks out from behind the branches as they sprawl every which way.

Global News: Get a bird’s-eye view from one of Vancouver Island’s tallest trees

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May 10, 2024
Global News
By Simon Little & Paul Johnson

Watch the Global News video and read the original article here.

It’s being described as one of the most significant big tree finds in BC in years.

A group of conservationists recently had the opportunity to scale a massive 71-metre (223-foot) tall Sitka Spruce discovered in the Carmanah Valley on southwestern Vancouver Island. The massive tree is nearly four metres (13 feet) wide at its base.

“We just knew the only way to convey the true grandeur of this tree was to climb it and get right up there in the top,” TJ Watt, a campaigner and photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance told Global News.

“Only when you see a human beside a tree for scale can you truly grasp just how monumental these trees are; they are some of the largest living organisms on planet Earth.”

Watt has spent the last 15 years bushwhacking through BC forests to find and document the province’s giants.

His mission is to use photography and social media to inspire people and try to share just how special the rare, old-growth trees are.

Using a giant slingshot to hurl a rope into the tree’s upper limbs, Watt and a team of professional climbers made their way into the canopy in the fall of 2022.

Watt said the unique ecosystems that exist in giant tree canopies are still not well understood.

“The giant limbs of these trees which can be as big as a regular-sized tree are adorned with ferns, and lichens and mosses,” he said.

“These are truly hidden realms that deserve more research, more investigation and more appreciation to ensure they are preserved in perpetuity.”

The giant Sitka is among what Watt says represents a fraction of remaining ancient coastal forests, 90 per cent of which have been harvested since industrial logging began.

While this tree is in the protected Carmanah Valley, much of the population of big trees remaining on Vancouver Island is not.

“The old-growth temperate rainforests of British Columbia are almost second to none on earth in terms of their beauty and grandeur,” he said.

“But unfortunately many of them are still at risk today.”

Taken from the ground looking upward, a man in a neon yellow shirt, helmet, and blue pants climbs a rope that lines one of the tallest trees —a massive Sitka spruce — in the Carmanah Valley. The tree's immense canopy is splayed out above him.

 

 

 

 

San Jo’s Smiley, Canada’s Largest Sitka Spruce Tree

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Canada’s largest Sitka spruce tree stretches toward the night sky as a full moon rises over northern Vancouver Island. Located near the San Josef River outside of Holberg in Quatsino territory, the San Josef Spruce, aka “San Jo’s Smiley,” measures 255 ft (77.8 m) tall and 14.3 ft (4.36 m) in diameter. Standing at the base of the tree is akin to being a bug beside the foot of a giant elephant (Ian pictured here is 6’4 for scale). Apart from the region’s high annual rainfall and relatively mild year-round climate, the tree in part owes its monumental size to the limestone or ‘karst’ substrate it grows on. Karst ecosystems are commonly more productive than similar forest sites growing on different kinds of bedrock (such as granite), due to the well-drained soils and nutrient cycling associated with limestone.

Sadly, the forests that would have once supported the growth of the very biggest trees in the country have now been reduced to single-digit percentage points after more than a century of overcutting, with the fragile karst forests being especially hard-hit. This particular tree grows on private lands managed by Western Forest Products and currently has no legal protection (though the company has a voluntary big tree policy that should leave it standing). A significant portion of the surrounding old-growth forest was cut in 2012 though, fragmenting what would have been one of the most impressive remaining stands of monumental Sitka spruce in BC. And given that these trees and forests can take upwards of a millennium or more to grow, we get one chance and one chance only to keep them standing. The small town of Port Renfrew on the coast of southern Vancouver Island is a great example of how big tree tourism can majorly bolster the local economy, providing a path for other coastal communities to follow.

So, take a moment to reflect on the significance of our forest friends and send an instant message calling for their protection.

Photo of Canada’s largest spruce tree by AFA’s TJ Watt, using a Canon 5D MKIV, with a 15mm fisheye, 30-second exposure, headlamp + moonlight, and a little bit of magic.

A man in a blue jacket who is 6'4" stands beside a towering Sitka spruce. The spruce is lit up by a torch at its base and stands against a background of other dark green trees and a magnificent starry sky.

AFA’s Ian Thomas (who is 6’4″!) stands beside Canada’s largest Sitka spruce — the San Josef Spruce.