by
Larry Pynn, Canwest News Service
B.C.'s biggest and oldest trees have pretty much seen it all over the centuries -- except the respect of formal protection.
Conservationists are hoping to change that by demanding the provincial government protect B.C.'s 100 most important heritage trees of each species and to phase out old-growth logging on the South Coast.
"How many jurisdictions on Earth have trees as tall as skyscrapers and trunks as wide as your living room?" said Ken Wu, campaign director for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee in Victoria.
"This is a globally rare heritage that we have here, and there is no official designation for the biggest and oldest trees."
Wu said in an interview yesterday the "vast majority" of the top 100 trees of each species are located outside parks and protected areas, including the San Juan sitka spruce near Port Renfrew, biggest in Canada at 62.5 metres tall and 11.6 metres in circumference.
"It's just at a recreation site, which can disappear, come and go as the province wants."
The Red Creek Douglas fir -- largest in the world at 73.8 metres tall and 13.2 metres in circumference -- stands not far from the San Juan spruce in part of the industrial forest landbase, he said.
"There are active cutblocks all around that area," he said, noting the forest industry has left a buffer around the tree.
The government maintains an online register that seeks to document the biggest 10 trees of each species in the province, a calculation based on height, circumference, and crown spread.
Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell said the Register of Big Trees in B.C. amounts to de facto protection because the biggest trees are all documented and known to forest managers throughout the province.
"We're confident these trees won't be harvested. They're tagged, they're named, we know exactly where they are and we're keeping track of them.
"It's a practical approach. No district manager would dare approve a cutting plan or permit that would allow for the harvesting of any of these trees."
Rick Jeffery, president of the Coast Forest Products Association, said more than enough big trees are already protected in parks and phasing out of old-growth logging would represent the ruination of the industry.
"If they want to continue politics of exclusion, the economic consequences will unnecessarily put the industry out of work," he said.The Province
