Forests

Lens Creek Cedar Snag

On a recent bushwhack through some second-growth forest along Lens Creek in the San Juan Valley, I stumbled upon this giant cedar snag. Originally, the San Juan Valley would have been home to some of the most impressive stands of old-growth forest on Vancouver Island but sadly, very little remains. Within the last remaining fragments however, you still have the world's largest Douglas-fir as well as Canada's largest spruce tree. One can only imagine what other giants might have grown there in the past.

A determined hemlock tree pushes its way through the wall of cedar peppered with woodpecker holes.

Location of the tree: 48.59369, -124.23470

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A Visit to Goldstream Park

Yesterday I dropped by Goldstream Park to shoot some photos during a beautiful morning visit. With 500+ year old redcedar and Douglas-fir trees, towering waterfalls, and a salmon spawning river, Goldstream is a natural gem.

The delicate river is however still recovering from a fuel spill that leaked 40,000 litres of gasoline and diesel into the water after a tanker crashed on the nearby Malahat Highway.

A raven soars through the bigleaf maples with a chunk of meat in its beak.

Giant old-growth redcedars all in a row.