Western Red Cedar

Audio Narration

Transcript

Welcome to the coastal Douglas fir and western red cedar biogeoclimatic zone. The ecosystem is unique to a narrow strip of low-lying land along the southeastern coast of Vancouver Island.

This ecosystem is on the provincial list of rare and endangered ecosystems due to the impacts of forestry, agriculture and development. The tallest tree ever recorded on earth was a coastal Douglas fir called the Nooksack Giant, which was 142 metres tall. Climate change and global warming have been hard on species like the western red cedar.

There is a tree cookie cutout on the top right corner of this sign. Can you guess how old this tree was? Growing conditions such as soil volume, soil type, soil compaction, tree density, fire, sun/shade and water are just some of the factors influencing the growth rate of a tree.