Well, this is a different sort of hunt. In British Columbia, a man has spent his life searching for trees. But not just any tree – he seeks out the oldest in the forests. And this time, he found one of the oldest ever documented. TJ Watt, a forest explorer, searches the forests for trees that are centuries old, massive and that have never been photographed or seen before. His hope, he said, is to showcase these natural wonders and protect them from logging.
After spending hours with a friend on Flores Island, which is in the Clayoquot Sound on Ahousaht territory, he got a shock. “After bush whacking for a while in the woods, we started to see some really large cedars, then suddenly, up ahead, we could see the looming trunk of this giant tree,” Watt said.
It was so large that at first, we almost thought we were looking at two trees.”
As he and his friend wandered closer to the tree, Watt said he was stunned – the tree was 151 feet tall and at least 17 and a half feet in diameter. It is believed to be more than 1,000 years old. It’s one of the largest old-growth cedars ever documented in British Columbia, Watt said.
TJ Watt stands beside “The Wall” — an ancient western red cedar tree.. Photo by TJ Watt
“I feel humbled every time I think about it,” he said. “I nicknamed it ‘The Wall,’ because it can only be described as a literal wall of wood.” Watt said he’s never found anything like this in his 20 years of tree hunting. “I’ve found thousands and thousands of trees, and I’ve shot hundreds of thousands of photos of old-growth forests,” he said. “But I’ve never seen a tree as impressive as this one.”
Watt said finding it was unlike anything else. “It was incredible to stand before it,” he said. “I’d describe it as a freak of nature because it actually gets wider as it gets taller. As I looked up at it, I felt a sense of awe and wonder.” Watt found the tree last year, but it wasn’t made public until this past summer. The tree was at first thoroughly documented, and input was given by the Ahousaht First Nation, which has lived in the territory for thousands of years.
“It was decided that we should keep the tree’s location a secret because these are sensitive areas, and everything could get pretty trampled if word got out where to find it,” Watt said. More than 1,100 members of the Ahousaht First Nation live on Flores Island, said Tyson Atleo, a hereditary representative for the nation and caretaker of the nation’s cultural traditions and history. Atleo said he didn’t know about the colossal cedar until Watt took him to see it.
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“The tree leaves you with a sense of wonder about the natural world and the universe,” Atleo said. “There is so much about that tree and the life it upholds that we will never understand. When you look at it, it hits you like that.” He said the Ahousaht people would have admired it over the ages. “People would have seen this tree for hundreds of years — my people would have interacted with it for as long as it’s been here,” Atleo said.
Today we covet these large trees because there are so few of them left.”
Watt said that while British Columbia is working on a plan to protect the old-growth forests, it’s been slow work implementing it. “There’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said. But Watt’s work, Atleo said, is making a difference. “We need to acknowledge that our community is reliant on some [logging] employment in the forest sector, but we are envisioning doing it in a better and new way,” Atleo said. “TJ’s work is helping raise public awareness and inspiring people to feel connected to these forests.” For a look at this centuries-old tree, watch below.
Sources: Washington Post | Independent
