(2019) 269-year-old Douglas fir felled on Quadra Island

A brief history of ecosystem disturbance by humans on Quadra Island.

IN EARLY 2019, someone poaching old-growth from TFL 47 felled a 269-year-old Douglas fir just off the Granite Bay Road. A Discovery Islands Forest Conservation Project field team came across the butt end and photographed it before it was removed by the surreptitious faller. The life of this middle-aged tree, which was 8.4-feet in circumference (2.8 feet in diameter), spanned more than the entire history of European arrival and colonization of the Discovery Islands.