All we want for Christmas is an olive-sided flycatcher in a Douglas-fir tree
With the end of 2020 approaching, we need your help in providing BC’s Coastal Douglas-fir forests with a holiday gift that we can all celebrate…
Explore S’DÁYES Flycatcher Forest: Webinar, video and fundraising update
On December 1st, Raincoast and Pender Islands Conservancy announced a match funding campaign in support of protecting S’DÁYES Flycatcher Forest on North Pender Island: we will be gifted $50,000 if we can raise the same amount with individual donations. We are now only $12,000 away from unlocking this $50,000! Can you help bring us to…
Help permanently protect the S,DÁYES Flycatcher Forest this December
One week into the fundraising campaign for the S,DÁYES Flycatcher Forest initiative, the Pender Islands Conservancy and Raincoast Conservation Foundation have collectively raised over $62,000 in donations…
Report: Legal Measures to Protect the Gulf Islands Coastal Douglas-fir Zone
A review from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Environmental Law Centre (ELC) at the University of Victoria shows that much more needs to be done to protect this important zone, particularly in the Gulf Islands.
Measuring tree heights with lasers
Measuring the heights of trees in the Coastal Douglas-fir (CDF) zone is quite a feat. In mature CDF forests (which, unfortunately, are increasingly hard to find), individual trees can grow up to 90 metres tall! But in the Gulf Islands, where most forests have been cut at some point in the not-so-distant past, second growth…
Big tree hunting on Salt Spring Island
Earlier this month I spent two beautiful days on the coast of the Salish Sea, hunting for big trees. I was fortunate to join a research group of passionate “tree people” including Dr. Tara Martin, head of the Conservation Decisions Lab in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC; her Research Assistant, Cassandra Holt; Tony MacLeod from the Salt Spring Conservancy, and Jeff Shatford from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development to measure some of the tallest trees on Salt Spring Island…
A winter on S,DÁYES in a future ancient forest
The term “management” is often preceded by “resource” and thus implies a process resulting in economically beneficial outcomes. Governance suggests a more comprehensive, more collaborative approach to making land-use decisions…
Protecting the evergreen giants at the edge of the sea
The rainshadow region, extending across the southeastern coast of Vancouver Island from Metchosin to Deep Bay; covering the Gulf Islands, and reaching the Sunshine Coast, has been subject to rampant land conversion—by some estimates up to 50%…