Boho Wild: 800 year old Douglas Fir, BC–can you imagine, she was just a wee seedling in the year 1200–a time before Genghis Khan invaded China!
This spring break, my family hiked through some amazing West Coast forests in British Columbia. Cathedral Grove is a rare section of an old growth Douglas fir/redwood cedar ecosystem on Vancouver Island in British Columbia (BC). The biggest trees in the Grove are approximately 800 years old and measure 250 feet in height and approximately 30 feet in circumference.
It is wonderful to feel the grandness of Canada in the raw, not because she is Canada but because she’s something sublime that you were born into, some great rugged power that you are a part of.
-Emily Carr
Boho Wild: Cathedral Grove,BC Cedar Trees
The few 800 year old giants are the survivors of a forest fire over 350 years ago. The majority of the big trees in the grove were born shortly after the fire and are about 350 years old.
Boho Wild: Cathedral Grove,BC cedar forest–the downed trees leave fantastic root systems that become moss-covered sculptures on the forest floor.
BC’s Gentle Giants Are in Grave Danger & They Need Our Help
Such impressive giant trees used to be the norm on Vancouver Island but logging has dwindled old growth forests to very rare, endangered pockets of the these living skyscrapers. In fact, Vancouver Island giant trees are in a state of emergency.
It is desperately sad that Cathedral Grove is such a small section of forest; yet, it is divided in half by a highway?! Why are our Canadian old growth forests not protected and valued? We are mowing them down at an alarming rate to satisfy our endless human greed & material consumption
To stand in such a forest is humbling and I long for the time when old growth forests are protected and flourish all over the globe once again.
Boho Wild: Look WAY up! Douglas Fir giants, Cathedral Grove, BC
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