Now Deferred
(Mossy Maple Grove Deferred. Mossy Maple Gallery remains unprotected.)
Near Cowichan Lake on Vancouver Island.
The Cowichan people who are part of the Hul’qumi’num Treaty group
A several-kilometer-long stretch
Public & Private (Mosaic) Lands
The Mossy Maple Grove is a small tract of enormous old-growth bigleaf maple trees — some as much as 2 meters (7 feet) in diameter — completely draped in hanging gardens of mosses and ferns found on private lands along a creek just south of Cowichan Lake on Vancouver Island. Unlike other spotlighted old-growth forests in BC that are generally dominated by coniferous trees such as Douglas-fir, Sitka spruce, and western redcedar, this is an old-growth deciduous rainforest, making it one of the most unique old-growth forests in coastal BC.
The grove, with its prehistoric-looking maples festooned with ferns and mosses, has an otherworldly fantastical character, prompting AFA to nickname it ‘Fangorn Forest’ after the ancient forest in The Lord of the Rings. Abundant tracks and scat reveal that this site provides valuable habitat for elk, deer, wolves, cougars, and black bears (so far no hobbit tracks have been detected, despite an extensive search!).
Most recently, the forest has been deferred from logging for at least 25 years through Mosaic’s BigCoast carbon project. This is a good step forward. Now it’s up to the BC government to create a Provincial Land Acquisition Fund to help purchase and protect these scarce and valuable old-growth forests.
The nearby Mossy Maple Gallery is a more open, park-like stand of scattered giant maples and some enormous cedars and Douglas-firs growing on public lands north of Mossy Maple Grove. Giant Devils Club with their brutally spiny stems, and legions of elk, deer, wolves, cougars, and black bears make this area home as evidenced by their abundant tracks and scat. This area is also known to local hunters.
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