Red Creek Fir

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As Red Creek Fir in is Canada the largest measured at the volume of Douglas fir in the world known. It stands on Vancouver Island , east of Port Renfrew . The almost 74 m high tree, 4.2 m in diameter and 13.28 m in circumference, is estimated to be well over 1000 years old. In MacMillan Provincial Park there is supposed to be a Douglas fir that is almost 85 m high, but much slimmer. Historical documents indicate that Douglas firs were up to 120 m high.

A wooden sign in front of the giant tree gives the dimensions

Since the 1990s there have been campaigns against the large-scale felling of trees (logging) in western Canada, so-called anti-logging campaigns , in the course of which protesters chained themselves to the trees. This also happened in the nearby Carmanah Valley north of Port Renfrew. In 1990, the province compensated British Columbia the timber company MacMillan Bloedel with 83.75 million dollars for the end of logging in an area from the same year the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park emerged. Similar protests took place at Tofino , which was about to be felled in Clayoquot Sound , an argument known in Canada as War in the Woods . In the course of this, 800 arrests were made. In 1995 the sound was placed under protection. It has been a biosphere reserve since 2000 . The local Pacific Rim National Park , so the proposal, should include the Red Creek Fir in the future, so that the surrounding trees would also be protected from the loggers. One of the driving forces behind the protection of the giant trees was Dr. Al Carder (* 1910), who received an award from the Ancient Forest Alliance at the age of 104 .

Port Renfrew, which has been dependent on logging for decades, has been calling itself Canada's Tall Tree Capital since the late 1990s. The place brought out a map of the largest trees in the area, because there are other giants, such as the San Juan Spruce , Canada's tallest Sitka spruce , The Carmanah Giant , Canada's tallest tree, which is also only 2 km off the West Coast Trail stands, or Big Lonely Doug , a 66 m high Douglas fir. Tourism enabled a quick economic recovery of the place. The Pacheedaht First Nation was able to build a gas station again after twenty years, just as the overall infrastructure recovered from the severe setbacks since 1990.

In May 2012, the BC Chamber of Commerce , which represents 36,000 companies in the province, called for the remaining old trees to be protected (old growth) in order to make greater use of the tourist resource. By 2016, the number of visitors to Port Renfrew had doubled. The Ancient Forest Alliance began in February the protection of a 40  ha large Old Growth Management Area through, known as Avatar Grove . Since then, wooden path constructions have been built to reduce the impact of thousands of tourists visiting. The logging in the neighboring regions continued, however.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Red Creek Fir , portrenfrew.com.
  2. ^ Judith Lavoie: Largest Douglas fir in the world at risk say environmentalists , Times-Colonist , February 25, 2010.
  3. ↑ Pedro Arrais: Our Community: A love of big trees rewarded , in: Times Colonist, December 6, 2014.
  4. ↑ Jack Knox: Port Renfrew community reborn, and it's a gas , Times Colonist, November 10, 2017.

Coordinates: 48 ° 34 '47.7 "  N , 124 ° 13' 35"  W.