THE HUNT FOR CHAMPION TREES: WHO THEY ARE AND WHERE TO FIND THEM AROUND REVELSTOKE

AMANDA LEWIS’ NEW BOOK INSPIRES TO GET OUT AND CONNECT WITH OUR

FOREST NEIGHBOURS

By Connor Arsenault

We have some very big trees in British Columbia. Maybe you’ve stumbled upon some of them in your travels throughout the province, whether it’s in a national park or even in the hills outside of town. These encounters can be serendipitous and awe-inspiring.

While most of us are not actively searching out these giants, there’s a woman who decided to do just that, and she’s written a book about it too. Amanda Lewis set out to visit all of the “champion trees” in the UBC Big Tree Registry and gave herself a one-year timeline for doing it. The result: a wonderful book called Tracking Giants: Big Trees, Tiny Triumphs and Misadventures in the Forest, detailing her wild journey.

After living away from BC for almost 10 years, working what had been her dream job in Toronto, Lewis felt that the time had come to come back to B.C., and she uprooted herself and moved back to Vancouver. Having grown up on the West Coast, to come back to these forests made her feel at home, and she decided to start a blog documenting her romps through the woods on the North Shore. A friend of hers told her about the BC Big Tree Registry and the idea for this book was born.

The BC Big Tree registry is a database created by the UBC Faculty of Forestry. It is an ever-evolving database, with trees inputted by scientists, forestry professionals and even just regular people like you and me. One of the features of this database is the “champion trees” section. These are the biggest known individuals of a species here in BC.

Not everything went as planned for Lewis on her mission to find the champion trees on the list, and the road to finding these giant trees turned out to be a lot more than Lewis had bargained for. That said, one of the biggest takeaways for her was that it wasn’t necessarily always the finding of the big tree, but paying attention to the surroundings and letting the forest influence her.

If you’re inspired to go and visit some big trees in our area, the BC Tree Registry even has an interactive map, and you can find out where some of the largest trees are around Revelstoke. One key statistic to know when looking at these postings is DBH. This stands for “diameter at breast height,” and is forestry lingo for the width of the trunk.

Some of the biggest trees on the registry around Revelstoke can be found out on Frisby Ridge, down near Akolkolex Falls, up near Downie Creek, and if you’re feeling especially adventurous you can even boat across Lake Revelstoke (regular canoes will work fine) and visit some trees at the base of Frisby Ridge.

Obviously not all the big trees around here are posted on the interactive map, and there’s no substitute for talking with the locals to get personal recommendations on some big old trees to visit.

A lot of these big trees can be way out away from town and down some pretty wild logging roads. Remember to take care and be aware about logging traffic. If you’re going looking for these trees on your own, consider giving a trip plan to someone you trust and bringing survival supplies.

That said, you never know just what you’ll find out there and going hunting for big trees can be a downright spiritual experience. Keep an open mind and maybe you’ll learn a thing or two from these ancient giants.