Stanley Park’s giant Hollow Tree used to be a world-famous landmark. Tourists and locals engaged in increasingly ridiculous behaviors of seeing just how much could fit inside of it. Many tourists and locals had a photo of them inside the tree…while inside a car. In a moment that captures that sense of wonder, remnants of mystery, and, well the, hubris of the era, an elephant was once transported out to the tree for a photo opportunity.

What is the oldest tree in Pacific Spirit Park (PSP)? We don’t know exact ages, but if you are looking for old trees, especially big old trees, you would find them on the cliff slope forests of Wreck Beach or in the Ecological Reserve along Sword Fern trail.

Let me pitch you a science fiction story idea: A young government scientist, working for a government forestry department, discovers evidence that trees are intelligent and self-aware beings. Her work grabs the attention of the public and media, but is ridiculed by fellow scientists and the forestry industry. As years go by, more and more studies come out that support her findings. Suddenly society as a whole is forced to grapple with the idea that plants might just be consci

When I first read about how Pacific Coastal Tribes made use of the Western Redcedar’s bark for clothing, it immediately conjured up the image of them walking around in an armoured suit made out of wood. Using wood for clothing seemed incredibly uncomfortable -think of the splinters!- but at the time I just let the irrationality of it go. Hey, it was hundreds of years ago right?

When I was living in Guelph, Ontario I used to spend a lot of time in a forest just outside city limits hiking to a massive oak tree that the locals call “Titan”. Titan was maybe the biggest tree I’ve even seen. It looked like a tree that Druids would worship. It was an Eastern North American Bur Oak, Quercus macrocarpa, America’s strongest Oak.