Hug a tree for science!
Don’t be shy, wrap your arms around it.
Have you ever seen a big tree and wondered what you could do to ensure it can be protected for future generations? Well, let us introduce you to the BC BigTree Registry!
The BC BigTree Registry is a citizen science-powered initiative that works to document, monitor, and protect British Columbia’s ancient trees and associated old-growth forests. Citizen science projects engage the public in data collection and can be useful in scientific research and conservation initiatives. Many local communities around BC have also been inspired to champion their own Big Tree Registries, such as on S,DÁYES (Pender Islands).
Big tree registries increase public awareness about the importance of big, healthy trees and high-productivity old-growth forests. Documenting and registering big trees helps to identify areas of high conservation priority and influence land-use policies by providing valuable information to protect iconic trees. The BC BigTree Registry works to increase public awareness of forest conservation challenges throughout BC while creating actionable opportunities to contribute to tangible solutions. It also encourages folks to get outdoors to search for and identify big trees!
The importance of old-growth forests and big trees
Individual big trees are symbols of landscapes past and represent the value of protecting and stewarding old-growth forest ecosystems. On its own, a standing big tree can support a raptor nest, and the deep furrowed bark of an old tree can provide habitat for roosting bats, among many other ecological services. Individual big trees drop seeds in their surrounding landscapes – seeds that contain centuries of genetic diversity and climate adaptation – and regenerate forest ecosystems. Even once dead, these trees, known as snags, continue to provide crucial habitat for cavity-nesting birds, invertebrates, and decay fungi.
Old-growth forests are structurally complex, biodiverse, and ecologically layered landscapes. Establishing big trees reach for the canopy and spread their crowns, while old trees at the ends of their lives fall to the forest floor, leaving a canopy gap. In these canopy gaps, sunlight breaks through and feeds the lush understory. Fallen trees are broken down by decay fungi to cycle nutrients back into the soil and provide habitat for invertebrates. Standing big trees support epiphytic plant communities, sequester atmospheric carbon, and provide habitat for nesting bird species and small mammals alike.1
In BC, only about 3% of productive old-growth forests remain.
Being a Big Tree Champion
Registries assess trees as being especially large based on three measurements: the diameter, taken at the breast height or 1.3 m from the stem base, also known as DBH; the height; and the crown spread, i.e., how far wide its branches extend. For a big tree to be registered, these three key measurements, in addition to the tree’s location and species, are needed. However, if you want to nominate a tree but don’t have all of the tools, the only measurement required to nominate a tree is the main stem circumference and location information. With that data as a starting point, a BC BigTree Registered Verifier will visit the nominated tree to review and complete additional measurements, and then add the tree to the registry.
As a citizen science project, anyone from the public can be a big tree champion and identify a potential big tree, note basic information, and submit it to the registry. Many registered trees have not been measured in decades, and the registry also seeks updated measurements and information about existing trees on the registry, such as whether a tree is now a standing dead tree.
Tree registries are not just about gathering data; they can also play an important role in conservation. By engaging the public, big tree registries educate local people about current threats to BC’s old-growth forests and ecosystems and show how people can be a part of conservation action. Being a big tree champion also means you can be a local advocate for old-growth protection.
When an especially large Douglas-fir near Port Renfrew was spared from the clearcut around it, the tree was nicknamed Big Lonely Doug, and was measured at 66 m in height, 3.79 m in diameter, 18.33 m of crown spread (2014 measurements). Assessed as one of the largest Douglas-firs in BC, it was added to the BC BigTree registry and became a symbol of the fight to protect old-growth forests. It even lent its name to the book Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees, by Harley Rustad.
Documenting and protecting individual big trees can have significant impacts on adjacent forest ecosystems. For example, in 2019, the BC government protected 54 of the largest trees on the registry from logging and established 1-hectare buffer zones around them.
It is the efforts of conservation scientists, activists, and everyday citizens alike that work to protect some of the most globally rare, ecologically and culturally valuable, and uniformly beloved trees and forests in BC.
“This you inherit; guard it well, for it is far more precious than money, and once destroyed, nature’s beauty cannot be repurchased at any price.” –Ansel Adams
Notes and references
- Ancient Forest Alliance. Old-Growth 101. https://ancientforestalliance.org/ancient-forests/old-growth-101-the-facts-on-ancient-forests-in-bc/
