Carmanah Valley canopy research station
Platform at the 150 foot level goes all around the tree. This is the largest of the four in the tree.
Twelve stories above the ground is a long ways up, especially on a climbing rope. That's exactly how some dedicated old growth forest researchers go to work in the upper Carmanah Valley these days.
When University of Victory scientists stand on the first platform they are 125 feet above the forest floor. It's so hard to shout instructions to the ground crew, they use two way radios to communicate, yet they are only half way up the tree! Three higher platforms, accessed via alumininum ladders are located at the 150 ft., 175 ft., and 204 ft. levels. Another platform is located in a nearby Sitka, accessible to researchers via a traverse on horizontal climbing ropes.
In the spring of 1990, Western Canada Wilderness Committee constructed North America's first, and the world's highest, rainforest canopy research platforms. With the help of mountain climbing experts who volunteered their time, the platforms were installed without pounding a nail or tightening a lag bolt into the trees.
Aluminum ladders with backup safety ropes provide access to the top three platforms in the main research tree.
Modeled after tropical rainforest research efforts, the Carmanah platforms give scientists access to the world of the temperate rainforest canopy. The limbs start about 100 feet from the ground, and continue for nearly 150 feet. The huge twisted limbs, bigger than most trees found in eastern Canada, are draped in thick moss pads, bathed in a constant mixture of mist and dripping water. It is a unique environment for plants and animals.
Several research projects are currently under way. Using the platforms as observation perches, marbled murrelet observers track the flight paths of these tiny seabirds that are known to depend upon nesting in the canopy of ancient, never-logged Pacific coast rainforests. In areas that have been clearcut logged, the bird disappears. Although B.C. is thought to have 10% of the world population, to date no nests have been discovered here. In June 1990 the Carmanah research team reported 70 murrelet sightings in the area of the research station in a single morning. Recently, by climbing other trees, they have discovered indentations in the moss on several branches which are apparently abandoned nesting sites.
Currently the most intensive studies are those designed to produce base line information about the insects found in the canopy. University of Victoria researchers are collecting insects using various kinds of traps at different levels within the canopy. There is every indication that new species will be found when all the "bugs" collected are classified. No one knows how the invertebrate species of a temperate rainforest contribute to the long term health of the ecosystem.
Carmanah scientists tell us that we have barely scratched the surface. We need to learn more about the rainforest creatures of the night, the bats and owls that also are dependent on the ancient forest canopy. As well, studies are just beginning on a population of mice that has been found living in the canopy, 200 feet above their normal habitat.
