Canada’s largest tree

Canada’s biggest tree

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Canada’s largest tree, a western redcedar named the “Cheewhat Giant” stands in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake west of Lake Cowichan. The tree is over six meters (20 feet) in trunk diameter, 56 meters (182 feet) in height and 450 cubic meters in timber volume (or 450 regular telephone poles’ worth of wood). Luckily, the tree, discovered in 1988, is just within the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, which was created in 1971.

Extensive logging of the last unprotected old-growth forests adjacent to the national park is taking place in the “West Coast Trail Wilderness” of the Klanawa, Rosander, Upper Nitinat, Upper Walbran, Gordon, Hadikin Lake and San Juan Valleys as the market for cedar rebounds.

“Pacific Rim is a very narrow, linear park just a couple kilometres wide along much of the West Coast Trail. Old-growth logging adjacent to the park is silting up salmon streams that flow into the park, diminishing the contiguous wildlife habitat and undermining the wilderness experience for hikers who hear the roar of chainsaws through the narrow buffer of trees,” states Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “However, more importantly, the last unprotected ancient forests adjacent to the West Coast Trail unit are literally the grandest forests left in Canada. They must be protected and we need a forward thinking government to do so.”

Former Member of Parliament for the riding of Juan de Fuca, Keith Martin, proposed to include these adjacent old-growth forests within an expanded Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.

“Keith Martin had a very visionary proposal and I hope other politicians will also rise to the moral imperative to protect our ancient forests,” states TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “Future generations will look back at the majority of BC’s politicians today who still sanction the elimination of our last endangered old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, despite the second-growth alternative for logging, and see them as lacking vision, compassion and a spine. We desperately need more politicians with courage and wisdom to step forward.”

Satellite photos show that about 75 percent of the original, productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged, including 90 percent of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow and most biodiversity is found.

The BC government regularly inflates the statistics on the amount of remaining coastal old-growth forests as part of its public relations spin by including vast tracts of stunted “bonsai” forests in bogs and high subalpine reaches with small trees of low or no commercial value.

“It’s like counting your fake Monopoly money with your real money and claiming to be a millionaire, so stop worrying about your runaway spending habits,” stated TJ Watt.

Despite new markets in China, BC’s coastal forest industry is still a shadow of what it once was. The coastal industry’s 20-year decline at its root has been driven by resource depletion as the largest ancient trees in the valley bottoms and lower slopes have been largely logged-off. This has resulted in diminishing returns as the remaining trees get smaller, lower in value and more expensive to reach high up mountainsides and far away in valley headwaters.

The resulting loss of tens of thousands of rural jobs has also been paralleled by the increasing collapse of BC’s old-growth ecosystems, with plummeting salmon, steelhead, black-tailed deer, cougar, mountain caribou, marbled murrelet and spotted owl populations (only five individuals left in BC’s wilds today).

“The depletion of BC’s biggest, best old-growth stands and the resulting collapse of ecosystems and rural communities has parallels throughout the history of resource extraction. We’ve seen it with countless fishing-down-the-food chain examples, such as the collapse of the Atlantic cod stocks. Why would we let this destructive history of blind greed repeat itself in BC’s forests?” asked Ken Wu. “It’s time for politicians to understand that the consequences of supporting callous resource depletion policies are not born out only in rural communities and the demise of millions of living creatures, but also in their own political careers.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance is working to raise funds for a fall campaign in provincial swing ridings calling on the BC government to protect our endangered old-growth forests, ensure sustainable second-growth forestry and end raw log exports to foreign mills.

Link to Common Ground article: https://www.commonground.ca/iss/241/cg241_biggesttree.shtml

A waterfall cascades through the old-growth redcedars in the endagered Avatar Grove.

Province takes step towards protecting ‘Avatar Grove’

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The Ancient Forest Alliance says the BC government has taken a step towards protecting Port Renfrew’s ‘Avatar Grove’

Speaking on CFAX 1070 with Adam Stirling Tuesday afternoon, the group’s spokesperson Ken Wu says the government made the commitment on Saturday

“they are planning to establish an Old Growth Management Area to encompass the entire Avatar Grove. That’s a significant step forward, especially for a government that, when we first found the area and launched a campaign, said that business as usual would continue and it’s part of a logging tenure, and the whole area had been flagged for logging at the time. So now they are saying there won’t be logging there”

Wu says the committment needs to go through further stakeholder consultation. He says the Old Growth Management Area could be made official within a couple of months.

Wu says this is an important step forward but Avatar Grove needs stronger, more permanent legislated protection as a provincial park or conservancy.

The Avatar Grove is home to some of the country’s largest and oldest trees, some over 14 feet wide.

[Original CFAX 1070 article no longer available]

 

Photographer TJ Watt is dwarfed by one of the huge alien shaped Red Cedar's in the threatened Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew

B.C.’s Avatar Grove needs park status, say environmentalists

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A B.C. environmental group is applauding a decision to save a stand of old growth trees on Vancouver Island nicknamed the Avatar Grove from logging, but says the trees need more permanent protection.

The 50 hectare area grove on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island contains some of the oldest Douglas fir and western red cedars found in any valley on the island, yet it is only a 15 minute drive from the logging town of Port Renfrew.

It was discovered two years ago by an environmentalist who named it after the popular movie by James Cameron in an attempt to draw a connection to the environmental destruction of a fictional ecotopia depicted in the movie.

“It’s hard to believe how far, how fast, the campaign to protect the Avatar Grove has come in just a year and a half ago when I stumbled across this incredible stand of ancient trees,” said photographer TJ Watt who found the Avatar Grove in December, 2009.

Port Renfrew, B.C.”In a short time it has become all the rage for thousands of nature-loving tourists coming from far and wide,” said Watts in a statement.

Ancient Forest Alliance spokesperson Ken Wu says its high profile is one reason the province has decided to designate the area as an Old Growth Management Area and save it from logging.

“I know there’s huge support for the simple reason being it’s a major economic driver for the town. This is not a place where protestors go. It’s a place where tourists of all types go,” said Wu.

Similar groves of old growth trees such as Cathedral Grove near Port Alberni and the Big Tree Trail on Meares Island near Tofino have become popular tourist attractions.

The move to protect the grove has the support of the local chamber of commerce and the logging company that has the cutting rights to the area, but Wu says without park status, there is no guarantee the grove will not be logged in the future.

“An OGM area is sort of like wearing a bear costume while foraging near grizzlies. You’re never totally confident the protection is going to last,” said Wu.

“In the larger picture, of course, we really need an end to all logging of B.C.’s endangered old-growth forests, including an immediate ban on old-growth logging on southern Vancouver Island where almost 90 per cent is gone,” said Wu. 

Link to CBC article, photo gallery, and interview audio: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/07/26/bc-avatar-grove-vancouver-island.html

AFA's photographer TJ Watt takes a shot of "Canada's Gnarliest Tree" in the Upper Avatar Grove

Hunt for trophy trees yields a treasure trove on Vancouver Island

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When TJ Watt went into the woods just outside the small West Coast town of Port Renfrew, he didn’t know what he’d find but he was hoping for a big score.

The photographer and member of an environmental non-profit called the Ancient Forest Alliance had been searching across southern Vancouver Island for mega flora – the last, untouched remnants of a 10,000-year-old forest.  Wedding Invitations blog

He had found big trees in remote locations before, but nothing that fit the bill for the marketing campaign the group wanted to launch. They needed huge, dramatic, mind-blowing trees that were easily accessible to the public. But that combination is increasingly elusive because logging has removed 90 per cent of the old growth on southern Vancouver Island, and less than 1 per cent of what remains is thought to have trees over 500 years of age.

Just as darkness fell, however, Mr. Watt glimpsed a few grey, weathered spires of wood jutting up through the ragged forest canopy.

“I didn’t think there could possibly be big trees that close to Port Renfrew,” he said. “But those candelabra tops are a sign of really old cedars. So I stopped.”

There, 10 minutes off the road, he stumbled into a grove of giant trees so stunning that it has inspired a town founded by logging to call for the area to be protected. Rose Betsworth, president of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, said her organization has joined forces with the Ancient Forest Alliance because of the tourism potential in keeping big, old trees standing. The unusual partnership is testament to how far the debate over old-growth forest has come since the bitter War of the Woods drew international attention to logging practices on Vancouver Island two decades ago.

“They are a non-radical environmental group. That’s why I sided with them. They have a nice way of educating people about the old growth. … They bring a lot to the table and are stirring things up,” Ms. Betsworth said. “For decades this was a logging town. … My dad was a logger. But it’s about tourism now.”

As she spoke, a steady stream of vehicles pulled up to the town’s new visitor information centre, which opened this summer after a joint fundraising event with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

The popularity of Avatar Grove, as it was named in a brilliant branding move, has convinced the British Columbia government to protect the area – and it may yet lead to a rethinking of how the province manages its oldest forests.

Mr. Watt, who says hunting for trophy trees is as addictive as searching for gold, knew immediately he’d found something special.

“When we went in there, right away we came across some big cedars and we were running around like kids in a candy story,” he recalled. “Not only were they giants, but they had crazy shapes as well.”

They were just the kind of iconic trees his group needed for a public-relations battle to halt old-growth logging on Vancouver Island. And it didn’t hurt that James Cameron’s blockbuster movie, Avatar, had just come out, sensitizing the masses with a message about the importance of protecting ancient ecosystems. (Mr. Cameron has been invited to visit, but hasn’t responded.) The Avatar Grove trees are estimated at 500 to 1,000 years old, or more. Some were big when Samuel de Champlain began mapping Eastern Canada in 1608, and some may have been growing when Leif Ericson discovered Greenland, in 1003.

Ken Wu, a co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, said he didn’t really believe Mr. Watt when he told him about the find, late in 2009.

“I was skeptical. … You just don’t expect to find big trees like that so close to a logging road,” said Mr. Wu. “But when I walked in there it was like, whoa, this is awesome. … It knocked my socks off.”

Since the discovery, thousands of visitors have arrived, giving weight to demands that the site be set aside as a park.

About 25 per cent of the grove is already protected by three overlapping Old Growth Management Areas, which call for special management practices.

But Calvin Ross, Vancouver Island resource manager for the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, said in an interview this week the existing OGMAs will soon be expanded to take in all of Avatar Grove. He said details are still being worked out – but the area will not be logged.

“There is agreement between all the parties,” he said. “It protects it fully.”

John Pichugin, of the Teal Jones Group, said his company supports the decision, which will see an equal amount of timber made available for logging in another location.

“It’s a win-win for everyone,” said Mr. Pichugin, whose company’s subsidiary, Teal Cedar Products Ltd., holds cutting rights to the area.

Mr. Wu said he’s thrilled by news of the agreement, but his group still wants park status. “That’s a big step in the right direction. But OGMA’s only give temporary protection,” he said. “We need permanent protection.”

In addition to park status for the Avatar Grove, the group is calling for a ban on all old-growth logging, saying forest regulations don’t adequately protect ancient trees, which are generally accepted as those 500 or more years old.

To underscore the vulnerability of old growth under current regulations, Mr. Wu and Mr. Watt point to a nearby block of forest logged shortly after Avatar Grove was discovered. There, 20 massive stumps are scattered around a jumble of fresh logging debris covering a five-hectare patch.

“This would have surpassed Avatar Grove in grandeur – had we found it in time,” said Mr. Wu as he climbed on a stump more than four metres across. He estimated the tree was 900 years old when it was cut last year.

An investigation by the BC Forest Practices Board found Teal Cedar had harvested “several ancient trees” on the cut block, but concluded the company had not violated any regulations.

Avatar Grove might well have ended that way too, because shortly after Mr. Watt made his discovery, timber cruisers went through, leaving bright orange logging-boundary tape fluttering from branches.

“We are logging to the end of the resource, and that’s crazy,” said Mr. Wu.

Near Avatar Grove, a dozen vehicles are parked at a path that has been worn through the woods by heavy foot traffic. After being ignored since the retreat of glaciers, the trees have become stars. In the forest shade, cameras flash as people pose with the silent, towering trees.

“I have a degree in forestry. I understand sustainable harvesting. But logging a wonder of nature like this is unthinkable,” said K.T. Pirquet, a retired science teacher from Victoria.

Doug Hennick, a fish and wildlife biologist from Seattle, leaned back to look up at the giant red cedar.

“It’s magnificent and so close to the road. … There are so few of them left and they are so inspiring,” he said, adding they are “too valuable” to log.

Mr. Wu said he and Mr. Watt have continued hunting for big trees, and he promised a new find will be unveiled soon.

Giant tree tourism’s big growth in BC

Big-tree tourism isn’t new in British Columbia.

By the late 1920s, a grove of huge Douglas firs on the road to Port Alberni had become so well known it had drawn the attention of the Governor-General of Canada, Viscount Willingdon, who described it as “Cathedral Grove.” The name stuck, but the area didn’t become a park until 1944, when forest industry giant H.R. MacMillan donated 136 hectares of land to the province.

Cathedral Grove now attracts about one million visitors a year.

Interest in giant trees was revived in the 1980s, when Randy Stoltmann set out to establish a list of the biggest in the province. Before he died in an avalanche in 1994, Mr. Stoltmann had compiled a long list which lives on today as the British Columbia Register of Big Trees, a website maintained by the BC Ministry of Forests. His book, Hiking Guide to the Big Trees of Southwestern British Columbia, is a key reference.

Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park, the Meares Island Big Tree Trail, near Tofino, and Avatar Grove, are among the top destinations for those wanting to see forest giants. Several BC eco-tourism companies also offer guided trips to big trees. The Ancient Forest Alliance has posted a helpful link to finding such trees.

Link to original article not available anymore.

Bidders can buy the rights to name these two new species of lichen.

Naming rights to new lichen species up for sale

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The naming rights to two lichen species discovered near Clearwater, B.C., are up for grabs — for a price.

Naturalist Trevor Goward made the discovery and according to scientific protocol it’s up to him to name them — but Goward has taken the unusual step of auctioning off the naming rights to the highest bidder.

“It seems to me that people enjoy putting names on things. We name one another, we name our dogs, we name our cats, I mean that’s what we do,” he said. “So it seemed to me that this might be a way of actually raising some money.”

Goward hopes to raise about $350,000 through the auction.

The money will go to two conservation projects — to help the Ancient Forest Alliance protect B.C.’s old growth forests, and help the Land Conservancy buy private lands in the Clearwater Valley to expand Wells Gray Provincial park.

“Anybody who looks at a map of British Columbia soon realizes that there are lots of large protected areas in the province, but very few are in the southern part of British Columbia, or of Canada for that matter. Most of it is in the north,” Goward said.

“But Wells Gray is just this enormous valley … and as a protected area, it’s internationally significant.”

Bids are being accepted through the Ancient Forest Alliance or the Land Conservancy until Oct. 2.

 

To make a bid on the AFA’s lichen visit this page: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=233 

Link to CBC News article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/26/bc-lichen-naming.html

The lichens being auctioned off for namining rights are a key part of the diet of BC's mountain caribou.

Likin’ a lichen? Why not put your name on it forever?

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Land conservationists hoping to preserve a critical wildlife corridor in central B.C. have come up with a unique fundraising method.

Barry Booth, a manager with The Land Conservancy of B.C., said naming rights for two newly discovered species of forest lichen will be auctioned off.

“It’s a wonderful way to raise millions of dollars for conservation as new species are discovered,” he said in a press release on Friday.

The lichens are small, stationary organisms often mistaken for plants, but are actually co-operative unions of fungi and algae.

Some lichens provide critical winter food for animals like B.C.’s mountain caribou.

Highest bidders will earn the right to name the lichens after loved ones, themselves or someone else.

The auction has already attracted bids from two prominent B.C. botanists.

National Geographic explorer Wade Davis, who lives in the Stikine Valley in northern B.C., has made a $3,000 bid.

And Andy MacKinnon, a noted author who works as a forest ecologist for the B.C. government, has offered $3,200.

“We’re lucky to have B.C.’s rock star botanists support this groundbreaking conservation fundraiser,” said Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Botanical researcher Trevor Goward, who discovered the lichens, said having your name linked to a living species is “a legacy that lasts.”

“With any luck, your name will endure as long as civilization lasts. Not even Shakespeare could hope for more than that,” Goward said.

The funds will be used to purchase private lands in the Clearwater Valley adjacent to Wells Gray Provincial Park.

Conservationists say the corridor is needed to connect two separate portions of southern Wells Gray.

The bidding is being held at an online auction running at www.conservancy.bc.ca and www.staging.ancientforestalliance.org until Oct. 2.

Read more: https://www.theprovince.com/technology/Likin+lichen+your+name+forever/5145079/story.html#ixzz1TAwSYtIW

 

Naming rights for this new species of Bryoria or “Horsehair Lichen”

Like lichen? Name of species up for grabs in fundraiser

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VANCOUVER— A British Columbia botanist is putting the naming rights for two newly discovered species of lichens on the auction block to raise funds for conservation.

The lichens were discovered by botanical researcher Trevor Goward.

Normally, the person who makes the discovery gets the right to name a newly discovered species but Goward decided to auction off that right to raise funds for the Ancient Forest Alliance and The Land Conservancy of British Columbia.

The lichens have already drawn bids of more than $12,000 and bidding will remain open until Oct. 2 on the Forest Alliance and Land Conservancy websites. College Nursing Grants

An online auction to name a new species of monkey in Bolivia in 2005 raised $650,000 for the protection of the monkey’s habitat.

Goward says there are new species discovered every day, and he challenged other scientists like himself to offer up the naming rights to these species to raise funds for conservation.

To bid on the AFA’s lichen please visit this page: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=233

Link to CTV article: https://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20110723/naming-lichen-fundraiser-110723/

A large group of hikers crowd around the massive redcedar dubbed "Canada's Gnarliest Tree" during an Ancient Forest Alliance led public hike to the Avatar Grove in summer 2010.

Eco-tourism in Port Renfrew

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Port Renfrew, long a logging town, has realized they can capitalize on the protection of their natural assets to keep the community alive.

The Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the Ancient Forest Alliance, the advocacy group that leads tours of the majestic ‘Avatar Grove’, to funnel more tourists into the area and feed the local economy.

The two organizations launched an info centre Thursday, July 14 that will hopefully be a hub for visitors looking for information about Avatar Grove and a boom for local businesses.

“What we used to rely on to sustain Port Renfrew was logging, but the tables have turned,” said Rosie Betsworth, chamber president.

She said while the partnership with an environmental group initially raised eyebrows among area residents, the forest alliance isn’t a “radical” group, instead one that aims to educate people gently about the importance of protecting old-growth forests.

“Their application is soft and it works.”

And it is working. The Ancient Forest Alliance holds tours once a month through the grove, and an average of 50 people show up each time, many from across Canada and Europe. TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer for the alliance, said thousands have come through the grove since he first discovered it in late 2009.

“There are five, six, seven cars there on an average day,” he said. The maps available in the info centre provide directions on how to reach the grove, a 20-minute drive from the village centre and then a 15-minute hike. It features the world’s biggest Douglas fir and Canada’s gnarliest tree, covered with a 10-foot wide burl at its base. Watt estimates the oldest tree in the grove is 500 years old.

Betsworth said the flow of visitors coming to see the grove is translating into real growth for the village, and she can understand why.

“The town is small, unique, green and clean,” she said. Everywhere you turn there’s something else to see.”

The community now has its first strip mall- a row of businesses with a restaurant, a market and the info centre, as well as a growing list of accommodations, eateries and eco-tourism opportunities.

She admits that the quality of the West Coast highway needs to be improved, and the switchbacks need to be gentler.

“The pressure is on” to keep the Pacific Rim Circle Route, a logging road which connects Port Renfrew to Lake Cowichan, maintained.

Watt thinks local businesses are on-board with this new tourism strategy.

“I find that most business owners have made the connection between protecting the earth and raising funds,” he said.

However, he’s not yet assured that the tourists will be able to visit Avatar Grove indefinitely.

On Watt’s second visit to the grove in February 2010, he noticed surveyor tape around some of the trees. Since then, it’s been “a long, drawn-out battle for the last year and a half” to get the grove protected. The government is currently consulting with Teal-Jones Group, which has logging rights. Watt thinks that with the frenzy of people coming in to see the trees, it would be in the government’s best interest to

“It’d be way too backwards to cut it down at this point.”

 

Link to Sooke News Mirror article: https://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/sookenewsmirror/lifestyles/125824828.html

Canada’s largest tree

The Week – We’ve Still Got Wood

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Exciting news for eco lovers and the Ancient Forest Alliance this week: Vancouver Island is still home to Canada’s largest tree — at least for now.

To celebrate Parks Day this past week, the AFA captured a YouTube video of Canada’s largest tree, a western red cedar named the Cheewhat Giant, growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake, north of Port Renfrew and west of Lake Cowichan. The tree remains the country’s biggest with a trunk diametre over six metres (20 feet), a height of 56 metres (182 feet) and listing 450 cubic metres in timber volume — or 450 regular telephone poles worth of wood. The tree remains preserved within the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, which was created in 1971. Not all of B.C.’s flora has as successful a story, however. The video clip features new clear cuts and giant stumps of red cedar trees, some adjacent to the reserve that were logged as recently as this year.

“Future generations will look back at the majority of B.C.’s politicians who still sanction the elimination of our last endangered old-growth forests … and see them as lacking vision, compassion and a spine,” says TJ Watt, AFA co-founder. “We desperately need more politicians with courage and wisdom to step forward.”

See the clip “Canada’s Largest Tree — the Cheewhat Cedar” at https://youtu.be/Xw2Im8nSOdg

 

[Original Monday Magazinearticle no longer available]

The Cheewhat Giant is over 6 meters (20 feet) in trunk diameter

Meet Cheewhat, Canada’s largest tree — and help the alliance keep giants like it safe

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Tucked deep in the Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island sits the Cheewhat cedar, Canada’s largest tree.

“It’s like arriving at a small planet. You wouldn’t know it was there driving along a logging road unless someone showed you the spot,” said Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, an organization focused on protecting old-growth forest and promoting sustainable forestry jobs.

“Luckily, it’s in the borders of a national park that was made 40 years ago.”

The giant western red cedar reaches 56 metres high and spans six metres around, containing enough wood to make 450 telephone poles. It’s accessible by a logging road and by hiking in.

“It must be close to 2,000 years old,” Wu said.

While Parks Canada celebrated 100 years protecting trees like the Cheewhat Saturday, Wu said large stumps littering the area around the park are a sign that more needs to be done to save others like it.

“A lot of people think logging of old growth has ended, when it’s actually the norm on public land on B.C.’s coast,” he said.

“We’re saying that the collapse of the ecosystem as a result of resource depletion also results in the collapse of rural employment in those industries. We’ve seen it in fisheries and we’ve seen it actually happen over a 20-year span now with the collapse of coastal forestry employment.”

Instead, the organization advocates for the logging of second-growth forest where trees have been re-planted, “like the rest of the country and the rest of the world is doing,” Wu said.

Hannah Carpendale, outreach co-ordinator with the alliance, said it’s jarring travelling from the protected park to the areas that have been clear-cut. “Sometimes it’s hard to take it all in, the amount that’s been lost,” she said. “It’s not just the trees, it’s the entire ecosystem and everything that comes with it.”

The group has launched a petition in support of their cause and “have thousands of supporters now,” Wu added.

So far, the provincial government has said they’re considering increasing protection for old-growth forest and some of the largest trees near Port Renfrew.

Wu grew up in the prairies of Saskatchewan, where “you could hug a tree with one hand,” but has lived on the island for the past decade.

He became fascinated with old-growth trees as a 10-year-old when he saw a photo of six people dancing on a large stump.

“It blew me away that we had trees like that. Then I found out we still do,” he said. “You’ve got some of the biggest trees in the world [around the Pacific Rim Park], and some of the biggest stumps.”

Link to original news article: https://www.theprovince.com/travel/Meet+Cheewhat+Canada+largest+tree+help+alliance+keep+giants+like+safe/5114186/story.html#ixzz1SVaaILU7