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Wildflower families of the Discovery Islands
Forest-related journalism
Ocean-related reporting
Primary forest survey: Quadra Island
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (white-coloured wildflowers)
Loss of forest cover on Quadra Island
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (yellow-coloured wildflowers)
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (pink-coloured wildflowers)
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (Blue-flowered wildflowers)
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (Red-orange-flowered wildflowers)
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (brown-coloured wildflowers)
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (purple-coloured wildflowers)
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Marine mammals
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Land mammals
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Marine birds
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Forest birds
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Amphibians
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Reptiles
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Marine Invertebrates
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Fish
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (Green-flowered wildflowers)
Logging in the watersheds of Quadra Island
Plant species observed on the Discovery Islands that are endangered, threatened or species of concern
Animal species observed on the Discovery Islands that are endangered, threatened or species of concern
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (Trees and Shrubs)
Lichen species of the Discovery Islands
Primary forest survey: Read Island
Primary forest survey: Cortes Island
Primary forest survey: Maurelle Island
Primary forest survey: Sonora Island
Primary forest survey: West Redonda Island
Primary forest survey: smaller islands
Primary forest survey: East Redonda Island
Place names: Quadra Island
Place names: Cortes Island
Place names: Read Island
Place names: Maurelle Island
Place names: Sonora Island
Place names: West Redonda Island
Place names: East Redonda Island
Place names: smaller islands
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (Grasses, sedges & rushes)
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (Aquatics)
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (Ferns)
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (Lichens)
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (Fungi)
Plant species of the Discovery Islands (Mosses and Liverworts)
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Butterflies, Skippers and Moths
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Dragonflies and Damselflies
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Bees, Ants and Wasps
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Beetles
Animal species of the Discovery Islands: Slugs and Snails
Loss of forest cover on Read Island
Loss of forest cover on Cortes Island
Loss of forest cover on Maurelle Island
Loss of forest cover on Sonora Island
Loss of forest cover on West Redonda Island
Loss of forest cover on East Redonda Island
Solutions
Photographic survey
Forest carbon release by logging on the Discovery Islands
Portal: Public subsidization of logging on the Discovery Islands
Loss of forest cover on the Discovery Islands
The cost of the public subsidy of clearcut logging on the Discovery Islands
Impact of clearcut logging on forest-related employment
Loss of forest carbon sequestration capacity due to logging
Forest stewardship plans for area-based forest tenures on the Discovery Islands
History of forest loss on the Discovery Islands
Portal: A paradigm shift in how Discovery Islands forests are managed is urgently needed
Portal: Over-exploitation of BC forests
Portal: Imagining a new relationship with forests
Portal: Loss of primary forest
Portal: Destruction of wildlife habitat and loss of biodiversity
Portal: Loss of the hydrological functions of forests
Portal: Increase in forest fire hazard
Portal: Loss of carbon sequestration capacity
Portal: Increase in forest carbon emissions
Portal: Plantation failure
Portal: Use of ecologically damaging practices
Portal: Permanent loss of forest to logging roads, landings and quarries
Portal: Soil loss and damage
Portal: Loss of forest-related employment
Portal: Loss of employment resulting from the export of raw logs
Portal: Costs of floods, fires and clearcutting of community watersheds
Portal: The economic impact on communities of boom and bust cycles
Portal: The instability of communities dependent on forest extraction
Portal: Psychological unease caused by forest destruction
Portal: Loss of trust in institutions as a result of over-exploitation of forests
Portal: Social division caused by over-exploitation of BC forests
Portal: Loss of economic potential of other forest-related sectors
Portal: The economic cost of converting forests into sawdust and wood chips
Portal: The need to reform BC forest legislation
Portal: The need to expedite treaties with First Nations
Portal: The need to get informed, organized and ready for change
Portal: Surveys
Portal: The case for much greater conservation of forests on the Discovery Islands
Portal: Greater conservation of forests is needed to mitigate climate change
Portal: Retention of old and mature forest is necessary to protect biodiversity
Portal: Compared with old and mature forest, logged areas have a higher fire hazard
Portal: The extraordinary beauty of the Discovery Islands needs to be protected
Portal: We support Indigenous title and rights on the Discovery Islands
Portal: Logging on the Discovery Islands is heavily subsidized by the public
Species at risk on the Discovery Islands
Historical record of forest fires on the Discovery Islands
Lakes and wetlands of the Discovery Islands
Recreation Resources: Morte Lake-Chinese Mountain area
Recreation Resources: Nugedzi Lake-Mount Seymour area
Recreation Resources: Newton Lake-Small Inlet-Waiatt Bay area
Recreation Resources: Mud Lake-Nighthawk Lake area
Recreation Resources: Eagle Ridge-Blindman's Bluff area
Recreation Resources: Heriot Ridge area
Recreation Resources: Shellalligan Pass area
Recreation Resources: Two-Mile Lake-Clear Lake-Hummingbird Lake area
Recreation Resources: Maud Island-Saltwater Lagoon
Recreation Resources: Hyacinthe Point area
Recreation Resources: Raven Lake-Raven Ridge area
Recreation Resources: Main Lake Provincial Park
Recreation Resources: Octopus Islands Provincial Park
Recreation Resources: Darkwater Lake-Darkwater Mountain
Salmon bearing streams
Portal map: Salmon bearing streams of the Discovery Islands
Library: Logging and plantations create higher forest fire hazard
Libary: Conservation of forests needed to protect biodiversity
Library: Conservation of forests is needed to mitigate climate change
Library: Supporting Indigenous title and rights
Central library
Portal: Discovery Islands' place names
Export of raw logs from the Discovery Islands
Log exports from the Discovery Islands
Discovery Islands forest tenures and logging plans
Discovery Islands Protected Areas
Place names of the Discovery Islands
Portal: Calculation of direct local employment
Watersheds of Quadra Island
Watersheds of Read Island
Watersheds of Cortes Island
Watersheds of Maurelle Island
Watersheds of Sonora Island
Portal: Watersheds of the Discovery Islands
Engaging the mindustry
Species at risk of local extirpation
Artistic Expression
Volunteer
Discussion
Project calculations
Definitions
Fisheries surveys of Discovery Islands creeks
Portal: Resolution of forest-use conflicts
Vancouver Island Land Use Plan
About the Discovery Islands Conservation Project
Recent satellite imagery of forest cover loss on the Discovery Islands
Forest planning documents
Sources for April 2023 complaint to Forest Practices Board
Woodlot 2031 (Okisollo Resources)
Herbicide use
DI Forest Bulletin
Sources for 2024 submission on TFL 47 Johnstone Strait FSP
Comments on proposed cutblocks and roads
Blogs
Events
Downloads
Everything posted by Project Staff
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Hummingbird Mountain is on the left above Newton Lake. The groves are visible on the left (north) side of the summit. In this photo of Waiatt Bay, Hummingbird Mountain is on the left side near the head of the bay. Clearcuts on the right side of the photo are by TimberWest. Drone flights indicate there is little other primary forest remaining on the south side of Waiatt Bay.
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Abandoned Bay areas of old forest
Project Staff posted a record in Primary forest survey: Quadra Island
There are at least four areas of old forest (or concentrations of old trees) at Abandoned Bay, as shown in the images below. These are on the east side of Quadra Island north of Yeatman Bay. They have not yet been explored on foot. Okisollo Resources and Cape Mudge Forestry are actively logging in the area. Three additional clearcuts have been made since the satellite image below was taken. Cape Mudge Forestry also built a logging road in 2022 that runs south toward Yeatman Bay. -
Rhododendron groenlandicum (Labrador Tea) Observed near Nugedzi Lake BC List: S5 (Yellow) For more information see http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Rhododendron groenlandicum -
THE EASTERN END of Raven Ridge (photo below) contains remnants of primary forest, mapped by the BC CDC as a red-listed ecological community. The lake in the foreground has been tentatively named Copper Lake and the high point on the ridge above it as Copper Mountain (for reference purposes only). Below: The patches of remaining primary forest at the top of Copper Mountain -
Moneses uniflora (One-Flowered Wintergreen, Single Delight) Observed at the Long Lake Grove in 2020 by David Broadland BC List: S5 (Yellow) For more information see http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Moneses uniflora Photo by David Broadland -
This remnant grove of old forest has not yet been visited on the ground by the project. A drone flight was made in 2022 that confirmed this is old forest (photo below). TimberWest created a clearcut in the valley bottom below the grove in 2021-22. Forgotten Grove can be seen to the right of the TimberWest clearcut. Newton Lake and Hummingbird Lake are visible in the background. -
The Deepwater Valley Grove runs in an intermittent band for about two kilometres along the south side of the valley. There are likely 200 such trees in this band and as such represent a significant remnant of primary forest on Quadra Island. Most of the Douglas fir veterans are 250 to 300 years of age. See more about the Deepwater Valley Grove -
The Deepwater Valley Groves runs in an intermittent band for about two kilometres along the south side of the valley. There are likely 200 such trees in this band and as such represent a significant remnant of primary forest on Quadra Island. Most of the Douglas fir veterans are 250 to 300 years of age. See more about the Deepwater Valley Groves -
This small area of primary forest contains 30 to 40 old-growth Douglas firs. In 2020, this tree had the greatest girth of trees in the grove, at 12.8 feet in circumference at breast height. See more about the Long Lake Grove -
This small area of primary forest has 30 to 40 old-growth Douglas firs. In 2020, these trees were generally 10 to 12 feet in circumference at breast height. See more about the Long Lake Grove -
Newt Mountain-Small Inlet Groves Douglas fir on steep slope estimated circumference at breast height was 18 feet in June 2020. See more about the Newt Mountain-Small Inlet Groves -
This grove of 50+ Douglas fir veterans is southeast of Lake Assu and lies in Cape Mudge Forestry’s Woodlot 1969. A forest reserve encompassing the grove has been included in the company’s forest stewardship plan. See more about the Lake Assu Grove -
This grove of 50+ Douglas fir veterans is southeast of Lake Assu and lies in Cape Mudge Forestry’s Woodlot 1969. A forest reserve encompassing the grove has been included in the company’s forest stewardship plan. See more about the Lake Assu Grove -
This is a group of about 6 Douglas firs along the east bank of Luoma Creek near where it flows under a steel and concrete bridge on Saxon Main (?). Largest have a circumference at breast height of 21.1 feet. TimberWest has logged around several other vets in this area. A growth-ring count of nearby logs on the ground show these trees are approximately 350 years in age. -
This is a group of about 6 Douglas firs along the east bank of Luoma Creek near where it flows under a steel and concrete bridge on the logging road. Largest have a circumference at breast height of 21.1 feet. TimberWest has logged around several other vets in this area. A growth-ring count of nearby logs on the ground show these trees are approximately 350 years in age. -
This tree is typical of the size and age of Douglas fir veterans in Grieg's Grove. See more about Grieg's Grove -
The Greig's Grove Giant, a Douglas fir, had a circumference at breast height of 22.0 feet in August 2019. See more about Grieg's Grove -
Located on the peninsula between the lake and the wetlands. The old-growth firs in this grove are approximately 300 years old. Read more about this grove. -
Northern Pygmy Owl observed by Chia-Ling Lee on February 16, 2022 at 50.152624, -125.241853.
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By Jonathan R. Thompson et al Debate over the influence of postwildfire management on future fire severity is occurring in the absence of empirical studies. We used satellite data, government agency records, and aerial photography to examine a forest landscape in southwest Oregon that burned in 1987 and then was subject, in part, to salvage-logging and conifer planting before it reburned during the 2002 Biscuit Fire. Areas that burned severely in 1987 tended to reburn at high severity in 2002, after controlling for the influence of several topographical and biophysical covariates. Areas unaffected by the initial fire tended to burn at the lowest severities in 2002. Areas that were salvage-logged and planted after the initial fire burned more severely than comparable unmanaged areas, suggesting that fuel conditions in conifer plantations can increase fire severity despite removal of large woody fuels. (2007) Reburn severity in managed and unmanaged vegetation in a large wildfire.pdf
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By Lori Daniels and Robert Gray ABSTRACT: What is the dominant disturbance regime in coastal British Columbia? In this literature review, we discuss the relative importance of fire versus canopy gaps as agents of disturbance affecting the structure and dynamics of unmanaged coastal forests in British Columbia. Our analyses focus on the province’s wet coastal temperate rain forests, specifically the Hypermaritime and Very Wet Maritime Coastal Western Hemlock (CWHvh and CWHvm) subzones, and the Wet Hypermaritime and Moist Maritime Mountain Hemlock (MHwh and MHmm) subzones. After reviewing the relationships between disturbance events, disturbance regimes, and stand dynamics, we critically assess the traditional classification of fire regimes in the wet coastal temperate rain forests, in part by differentiating between fire occurrence and mean return intervals. We provide four lines of evidence to reject the traditional view that stand-initiating fire at intervals of 250–350 years was the dominant disturbance regime in the wet coastal temperate rain forests of British Columbia. According to recent field research, historical fires were very infrequent in wet coastal temperate rain forests and were more likely low- and mixed-severity events, rather than stand-initiating fires. As an alternative to fire, we propose that fine-scale gap dynamics is the dominant process explaining the structure and dynamics of most unmanaged stands in the province’s wet coastal temperate rain forests. Improved understanding of the spatial and temporal attributes of disturbance regimes in coastal forests has important implications for sustainable forest management and conservation of biodiversity. Disturbance Regimes in Coastal British Columbia Daniels & Gray (2006).pdf
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By Carter Stone et al The USDA Forest Service is progressing from a land management strategy oriented around timber extraction towards one oriented around maintaining healthy forested lands. The healthy Forest Initiative promotes the idea of broadscale forest thinning and fuel treatments as an effective means for mitigating hazardous fuel conditions and, by extension, fire risk. Fuels mitigation is proactive while fire suppression is reactive and expensive. Costs associated with suppressing large wildfires, as occur in the western USA with annual regularity, are astronomical and routinely exceed fire suppression budgets. It is not difficult to demonstrate that treating forest fuels is more cost effective than suppressing forest fires on untreated lands. In addition, forest thinning is potentially profitable, or at least can recoup the cost of thinning, and may also produce safer conditions for those living in the wildland-urban interface zones. Thinning practices also facilitate wildland firefighting efforts for monitoring and controlling future fire incidents as well as for forest health management practices by state and federal forestry agencies. However, forest thinning and other fuel treatment strategies can take many different forms, some of which can do more harm than good when considered with other factors that influence wildfire behaviour, such as weather and terrain. One example of this issue can be seen in Montana during the 2003 fires. At the Cooney Ridge fire complex, an extensively and homogeneously logged watershed burned severely and uniformly due to remaining ground slash (which had attained low fuel moisture after overstory removal) and severe fire weather (low relative humidity and strong upslope winds). This contrasted with a mosaic of burn severities in an adjacent watershed with higher fuel loads yet greater heterogeneity in fuel distribution at the stand and landscape levels. Harvesting timber does not translate simply into reducing fire risk. Given the stochastic nature of fire weather events, and the complex terrain of most forested landscapes in the western USA, applying a variety of forest thinning and fuel treatment operations towards the goal of maintaining a diverse forest habitat mosaic, also constitutes a sensible fire risk mitigation strategy. Forest Harvest Can Increase Subsequent Forest Fire Severity Carter Stone (2004).pdf
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By Mark E. Harmon, Chad T. Hanson and Dominick A. DellaSala Abstract: Biomass combustion is a major biogeochemical process, but uncertain in magnitude. We examined multiple levels of organization (twigs, branches, trees, stands, and landscapes) in large, severe forest fires to see how combustion rates for live aboveground woody parts varied with tree species, size, and fire severity in Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) and mixed conifer-dominated forests of the Sierra Nevada, California, USA. In high severity fire patches, most combustion loss was from branches < 2 cm diameter; in low to moderate severity patches, most was from bole charring. Combustion rates decreased as fire severity declined and with increasing tree size. Pinus species had little branch combustion, leading them to have ≈50% the combustion rate of other taxa. Combustion rates could be 100% for small branch segments and up to 57% for small tree aboveground woody biomass in high severity fire patches. However, combustion rates are very low overall at the stand (0.1%–3.2%) and landscape level (0.6%–1.8%), because large trees with low combustion rates comprise the majority of biomass, and high severity fire patches are less than half of the area burned. Our findings of low live wood combustion rates have important implications for policies related to wildfire emissions and forest management. (2022) Combustion of Aboveground Wood from Live Trees in Megafires, CA, USA.pdf
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By Peter Wood for Sierra Club BC BC’s Strategic Climate Risk Assessment identifies 15 climate risks, several of which have the potential to create catastrophic impacts for BC's communities. Overall, the assessment found that the greatest climate-related risks were severe wildfire, seasonal water shortage, and heat wave events. It also found that events such as severe river flooding were of “high consequence,” though less likely to occur. There is a large body of scientific literature that documents the impact that industrial logging has on the severity and frequency of many of these events, yet the Assessment did not consider this information. This presents a major blind spot that could undermine the assessment’s findings and the effectiveness of the Province’s response in defending communities from worsening climate impacts. This report attempts to address this gap in order to understand the role that forests in B.C. can play in either mitigating or exacerbating those risks, depending on how we manage them. It finds that nine of these risks are substantially affected by forest management, some of which could have catastrophic consequences for the health and safety of local communities. (2021) Intact Forests, Safe Communities.pdf
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A report by Natural Resources Defense Council, Nature Canada, Environmental Defence Canada and Nature Québec Protecting the world’s forests, just like a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, is essential to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change. Forests, in addition to their importance in maintaining biodiversity, play an irreplaceable role in global carbon regulation, absorbing one-third of human-caused carbon emissions from the atmosphere annually and storing this carbon long-term in their soil and vegetation. This is why forest protection and restoration are key pillars of international efforts to advance natural climate solutions (i.e., actions that preserve and enhance ecosystems’ role in absorbing and storing carbon). Preserving primary forests, which are forests that have never been impacted by significant human disturbance, is particularly critical. These forests, which are rapidly disappearing, hold unique value for the climate and biodiversity. Once gone, they are irreplaceable on any meaningful human timescale. (2021) How carbon loopholes for logging hinder Canada's climate leadership.pdf
