Caren Range Tours
A tour group inspects the clearcut at the foot of Middle Peak in September 1994 - some of the 3,500 visitors who have gone on a Friends of Caren guided walk over the last 5 years. Photo credit: Dr. John Field
In May of 1991, when the Friends of Caren began their free public tours into the proposed Caren Range park, the snow was still on the ground. Each summer since then, regardless of weather conditions, the Friends have mounted their tours, offering people a chance to experience the Caren's ancient forests, the lookout tower's spectacular views, the huge waterfall that cascades over the cliffs above Pender Harbour, as well as the encroaching clearcuts. Over the past five years, more than 3,500 people have participated in the Friends of Caren outings.
The Friends of Caren tours are one of the most important and popular tourist attractions on the Sunshine Coast. Professional biologists and naturalists volunteer their services as tour leaders. They explain to visitors the dynamic nature of the ancient forests and the importance of the forest and lake ecosystems in sustaining the hydrology of the region. As a result of the tours, hundreds of people now make their own way into the Caren Range to enjoy the mountain air, the wonderful views, the hiking, cross-country skiing and the solitude of the forests.
Representatives of B.C.'s Ministry of Environment and Parks stand by "Bigfoot", one of the Caren's ancient yellow cedars. Photo credit: Will Paulik
John Field, who has coordinated most of the Friends' tours over the last five years says, "We never turned anyone away. We always found someone who would make sure everyone who wanted to get up to the Caren got there. How else would we have moved our message about the marvellous attributes of the Caren out to the world? The Caren is now known internationally."
The ancient sub-alpine forests that crest the Caren Range are probably Canada's, and possibly the world's, oldest closed-canopy stands of trees. The annual growth rings on stumps in the clearcuts that surround the Caren testify to the remarkable age of the remaining uncut forest.
Paul Jones of Friends of Caren inspects yellow cedar stump that turned out to be, upon tree ring analysis by a professional dendrochronologist, Canada's oldest known tree, at 1,835 years Photo credit: Dr. John Field
Clearcutting advanced as far as Middle Peak in the Caren Range before the Friends of Caren began their efforts to create a park on the Caren. Even with the whole Caren protected, less than two percent of the Sunshine Coast Timber Supply area will be protected from logging. Photo credit: Paul Jones
In 1991, the Friends of Caren discovered a 1,717 year old yellow cedar stump. In 1993, they found an even older one. Dendrochronological analysis revealed that it was 1,835 years old when cut(without anyone knowing its antiquity) during the normal course of clearcut liquidation of the old growth forest in the late 1980s. These stumps represent the oldest specimens ever found for the yellow cedar tree species. A Caren western hemlock stump, with 1,238 annual growth rings, proved to be the world record in age for this species. These ancient trees are not just isolated anomalies. Many of the Caren trees are well over 1,000 years old. It is quite possible that, as research continues, a tree over 2,000 years old may eventually be discovered in the Caren.
A round cut from the Caren's 1,835 year old stump—the world's oldest known yellow cedar—was dated and placed on public display in the Wilderness Committee's store at 20 Water Street in Gastown—Vancouver’s most ancient(less than 150 years old)neighbourhood. Near the centre of the yellow cedar round is noted the fall of Rome, 395 A.D.
Spectacular views from the Caren's east slopes, including Sechelt Inlet and Narrows Inlet. Photo credit: Paul Jones
Marbled murrelets on Malaspina Strait. These birds have been traced to the Caren where they nest. Photo credit: Paul Jones
Close-up of empty marbled murrelet nest on a tree limb in the Caren—taken after the chick had fledged. Note white fecal ring around the nest's edge. This is the first active marbled murrelet nest found in Canada. Photo credit: Paul Jones
Why is Caren Range forest so old? No one knows the answer. The absence of any evidence of fire or catastrophic blowdown indicates that this forest's gradual development has been uninterrupted since the great glacial ice sheet that covered the area melted away about 12,000 years ago.
Most of the young forest on the western slopes of the proposed Caren Range park area has never felt the destructive force of the axe or chainsaw. This forest naturally regenerated after the area was burned around 1915 by prospectors crudely searching for minerals. Douglas fir grows on the moister sites, and lodgepole pine on the drier sites, but the trees are still small. The productivity of the forest is rated low by foresters because of the preponderance of rocky outcroppings and thin soils, the result of periodic lightning fires on this drier side of the Sechelt Peninsula.
On the eastern slopes of the Caren, a new forest of predominantly Douglas fir, western hemlock and redcedar extends down to tidewater from the ridgetop subalpine oldgrowth forest that was originally spared as a firebreak between the east and west side slopes. The forest is naturally regeneration from ancient Douglas fir seed trees left during the turn-of-the-centry logging. These giant veterans dot the hillside.
The new forests that border the oldgrowth at the top of the Caren Range are extremely important biological buffer zones. They provide natural wildlife corridors, especially for species like marbled murrelets that travel from ocean to ridgetop. They protect the oldgrowth forest from "windthrow"—trees blowing down along the forest edges exposed next to clearcuts. And they will eventuslly expand oldgrowth habitat as they slowly mature.
Simply protecting the narrow band of ancient forest along the Caren Range ridgtop, as some are suggesting, would fail to preserve biodiversity. The shore- to summit 8,500 hectare Caren Range park proposal is endorsed by the Friends of Caren, Western Canada Wilderness Committee and the Vancouver Natural History Society's Conservation and Education Committee, as the best chance to protect the Caren's wildlife and ecosystem integrity over the long term.
