Preparing a slice from a douglas fir stump in the Elaho Valley
The oldest closed-canopy forest in Canada overlooks Vancouver Island and spectacular coastal inlets from the Caren Range on the Sechelt Peninsula in southwestern B.C. It was here that in 1995 Marion Parker dated a yellow cedar tree at 1,836 years , making it the oldest recorded tree in Canada.
The trunk of this tree now lies shattered beside its stump in a Park , a testament to our evolving awareness . Logging in these primaeval forests continues virtually unabated , globally , tempered somewhat by their increasing scarcity and the shifting debate around our Sense of Place .
In 1996 , two displays made from this stump by Paul Jones and Ken Lay were instrumental in establishing Spipiyus Provincial Park in the Caren Range and in providing a vision for some of the area's uniquely rich biodiversity . "Spipiyus" is the Sechelt Nation's word for the elusive , old growth dependent marbled murrelet which nests precariously on the mossy limbs found only in such forests .
Puzzling
A picture tells a thousand years
Adriane Carr , Leader of the B.C. Green Party , Educating
Working with The Wilderness Committee , we have made four 12' x 12' displays from a 1,200 year old red cedar in the Elaho Valley near Whistler , an area proposed as a National Park . These were made up of six 6' x 4' panels and assembled , they reveal an elaborate organic form . Squamish Elders use the decaying material found in the
cavities as a pigment for creating their petroglyphs , as they have for millenia . Their name for this sacred material sounds like "cometh" .
We then took slices from the stump of a 980 year old Elaho Valley fir and made two flat and two folding , wheeled displays . These measured only 7' x 7 ' although the annual growth rings appear about 120 to the inch .
We used a camera lens to count the rings
Thousands of people have now made the journey into this timeless place and tours are offered locally each summer .One of these displays can be seen nearby at The Iris Griffith Centre on Ruby Lake Lagoon . The Centre is an excellent place to learn about the regions' vibrant flora and fauna
