Tag Archives: Heartwood

Forests

MYCOBlitz 2023 on Cortes Island

“The goal of a MYCOblitz is to document MYCOdiversity; i.e. the diversity of fungal species present on Cortes Island.Fungal fruiting bodies vary month to month, location to location, season to season. Therefore ongoing MYCOblitz’s are required to cover these bases!!” – email from Sabina Leader Mense

Close to 70 people of all ages took part in Cortes Island’s community fungal forest walk on November 1, 2023. The students of the Cortes Island Academy were among them. We were greeted outside the Linnaea Education Centre by one of the islands better known scientists, who declared:

“Good afternoon. Good afternoon. ‘Truncocolumella citrina‘ you can call me, the Latin name for Lemon truffle. On any day other than MYCOblitz, my name is Sabina Leader Mense. I’m a founding director and an educational research associate with the Forest Trust for the Children of Cortez Island Society and it’s my pleasure on their behalf to be hosting MYCOblitz 2023.” (Cheers)

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Forests, Parks

Learning about Old Growth on the Rainforest Trail

The Rainforest Trail, near Tofino, is much more than a simple path through the woods. Massive western red cedars and western hemlocks tower over visitors as they follow the twisting boardwalks through an enchanted landscape full of the ferns, lichen and fungi typical of an old growth ecosystem. The oldest inhabitant of this stand is a red cedar that was reputedly a sapling when Marco Polo set off for the Orient in 1271. This means it is about 950 years old today. A series of information plaques transform the +2 kilometre hike into an educational experience.

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Forests

The Quadra Project: Dying Trees

We don’t know what death is, perhaps because we really don’t know what life is. The living have life, of course, as do trees. But the words “life” and “death” don’t explain anything. Some profound change happens when living things die, a mystery to which we give a great deal of thought when it pertains to ourselves, but we don’t give much thought to how trees die.

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Forests

David Shipway’s public letter to Mosaic

Attn: Colin Koszman/ Land Use Forester, Molly Hudson/ Director of Sustainability

itI started my working life in the late 60’s, surveying cutblocks and new roads with MacMillan Bloedel on many of the lands now being managed by Mosaic – up in the headwaters of the Oyster, the Quinsam, the Campbell, the Eve and the Salmon. I witnessed the last of the valley bottom old growth being logged, magnificent cedar groves that would now be considered a national treasure, and saw the montaine plateaus of Mountain Hemlock, ancient Yellow Cedar and Western Yew before anyone had touched them.

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Forests

When does a tree reach maturity?

The photo at the top of this page shows a pile of second growth logs at Mount Elphinstone, on the Sunshine Coast. The yellow ring on the outside is sapwood, which carries water and minerals to the crown of the tree. It both contains more water and is softer than the darker heartwood at a trees core. As trees mature, the sapwood layer grows smaller. 

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