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A giant redcedar tree on Flores Island. Ahousaht Hereditary Representative Tyson Atleo stands at its base.

Photo of Giant Old-Growth Cedar Wins Prestigious International Award

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For Immediate Release
June 21, 2024

Ancient Forest Alliance Photographer TJ Watt awarded Royal Geographical Society Earth Photo 2024 prize for Image of the Enormous Tree in Clayoquot Sound, Canada, featured on CNN and in The Guardian.

The award coincides with the largest old-growth protected areas victory in decades announced earlier this week in Clayoquot Sound, including for the forest pictured.

Ancient Forest Alliance Photographer and Campaigner TJ Watt has received an award in Earth Photo 2024, an international photography competition currently on display at the Royal Geographical Society in London, UK. His award-winning image, titled Flores Island Cedar, features a gargantuan redcedar tree – perhaps the most impressive tree in Canada – with Tyson Atleo, an Indigenous Hereditary Representative of the local Ahousaht people, standing next to the tree’s base providing a sense of scale. Watt located the enormous tree in 2022 on Flores Island in Clayoquot Sound in the unceded territory of the Ahousaht on western Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The contest, which saw over 1900 entries from around the world and 11 award winners, celebrates photography and moving images that tell compelling stories about our planet, its inhabitants, its beauty, resilience and fragility.

“I’m thrilled and honoured to have received an award in the Earth Photo 2024 contest. I always hope my images of old-growth forests reach as wide an audience as possible, inspiring people and raising global awareness of the need to protect them. The tree in the winning image is the largest one I’ve ever found in nearly 20 years of searching for big trees in BC. It’s more than 17 feet (5 meters) wide near its base, 151 feet tall (46 meters), and likely well over a thousand years old, given its size. Unlike most other trees, it grows wider as it gets taller, making it perhaps the most impressive tree in the country when you’re standing before it. In the photo, Ahousaht Hereditary Representative Tyson Atleo stands alongside the mammoth-sized trunk, adding a sense of scale during our visit to the tree in 2023”, stated TJ Watt, Photographer & Campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

A giant redcedar tree on Flores Island. Ahousaht Hereditary Representative Tyson Atleo stands at its base.

Watt’s award-winning image, Flores Island Cedar, features an enormous redcedar tree – perhaps the most impressive tree in Canada – with Tyson Atleo, an Indigenous Hereditary Representative of the local Ahousaht people, standing at the tree’s base providing a sense of scale.

Coincidently, the photo award announcement happened to closely coincide with the biggest old-growth protected areas victory in decades when, earlier this week, the leadership of the Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, and BC NDP government declared the protection of 76,000 hectares of land in new conservancies in Clayoquot Sound near Tofino, BC. Most of the lands committed for protection are comprised of some of the grandest and most intact coastal old-growth temperate rainforests on Earth, including the forest where Watt’s winning photo was captured.

“It’s not always the case that the forests featured in my photographs have a happy ending. But in this case, I’m so grateful that they do. The announcement of the new conservancies in Clayoquot is incredible news, and I extend my deepest gratitude to the leadership and vision of the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht people, who’ve now secured protection for some of the grandest old-growth rainforests on Earth in their territories. Their proper care and stewardship go back thousands of years, and as a result, one can still find themselves standing in magnificent ancient forests home to trees that have lived for more than a millennium. A special thanks to Tyson Atleo and the Ahousaht Guardians for their time spent with me in the woods as well”, stated Watt.

Watt’s image was specifically awarded the National Trust Attingham Award for images that show the work or impact of volunteers protecting habitats under the threat of climate change. A second image of Watt’s titled Fallen Giants, featuring him laying atop a freshly fallen old-growth redcedar tree cut down in Quatsino territory on northern Vancouver Island, was also shortlisted in the competition. Both images were part of a body of work Watt created with support from the Trebek Initiative, which also named him a National Geographic and Royal Canadian Geographical Society Explorer.

The winning images of Earth Photo 2024 have also attracted international attention, with high-profile features in The Guardian and CNN. BC-based photographer Taylor Roades was also awarded for her series Alaska Rust Rivers.

To view the collection of winning images online, visit the Royal Geographical Society website or the Parker Harris website.

“Congratulations to all the shortlisted and winning photographers for their stunning and thought-provoking images. Photography is a powerful tool for raising public awareness about the many issues our fragile Earth faces. Thanks to the Royal Geographical Society, Parker Harris, Forestry England, and all those who made Earth Photo possible, helping to get these images and messages out in front of the world”, stated Watt.

Earth Photo was jointly created in 2018 by Forestry England, The Royal Geographical Society and Parker Harris, one of the leading visual arts consultancies in the UK. For those looking to view the images in person, they will be on display at the Royal Geographical Society in London, UK, from June 18 – August 21, 2024, with additional exhibit times listed here.

Nature photographer discovers ancient ‘freak-of-nature’ tree hiding in plain sight: ‘I’ve never seen a tree as impressive as this one’

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December 15, 2023
The Cool Down
By Jeremiah Budin

A nature photographer in British Columbia discovered one of the largest old-growth cedars ever documented off the coast of Vancouver Island — and he’s not telling you or anyone else how to find it.

TJ Watt, a co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, a charitable organization that works to protect endangered old-growth forests, waited more than a year after first happening across the massive tree, which he nicknamed “The Wall,” to even tell the world about its existence, according to The Washington Post.

During that time, Watt consulted with members of the Ahousaht First Nation, who have lived in the area 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 told the Post.

He also took time to thoroughly measure and document The Wall. It is believed that the massive tree is over 1,000 years old, standing 151 feet tall and 17 and a half feet in diameter.

“I’ve found thousands and thousands of trees, and I’ve shot hundreds of thousands of photos of old-growth forests,” Watt told the Post. “But I’ve never seen a tree as impressive as this one.”

“It was incredible to stand before it,” he continued. “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.”

Canada’s largest documented tree, a humongous red cedar known as the Cheewhat Giant, is located in the protected Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and stands 182 feet tall and 19 feet in diameter, per the Post.

Old-growth forests play an essential role in wildlife habitat, species diversity, carbon storage, and other crucial ecological processes. However, like so many parts of the natural world, they are threatened by pollution, the effects of human-caused extreme weather events, and the logging industry.

Although trees such as the Cheewhat Giant are protected, per the Post, 80% of the original old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have already been logged, according to the Ancient Forest Alliance. That’s why it is essential that The Wall stays protected and its location unreleased.

Read the original article.

Massive red cedar resembling rock wall discovered in Ahousaht territory

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August 3, 2023
Ha-Shilth-Sa
By Karly Blats

Ahousaht, BC
It was like nothing Ahousaht’s Tyson Atleo had ever seen before.

Giving the illusion of a rock wall, a massive western red cedar tree in Ahousaht territory near Tofino in Clayoquot Sound has been named one of Canada’s most impressive trees by conservationists on Vancouver Island.

Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) photographer and campaigner TJ Watt identified the remotely located tree on Flores Island while exploring with a friend.

The huge tree measures more than 17 feet (five metres) wide near its base, and its trunk gets even wider going upwards more than dozens of meters. According to a press release from the AFA, the tree stands 151 feet (46 metres) tall and is assumed to be well over a thousand years old given its size.

According to the AFA, the tree could have the largest or near largest timber volume of any tree in Canada for about the first 50 feet of its trunk—the part you see and experience from the ground.

“After nearly two decades of photographing, exploring and searching for big trees in old-growth forests across BC, no tree has blown me away more than this one,” said Watt in a press release. “It’s a literal wall of wood. Your brain can’t compute the scale when you stand below it. The first time I arrived, from a distance I thought it had to be two trees because of how wide the trunk and limbs are. It defies words. As an avid big tree hunter, it’s a highlight of my life to find something as spectacular as this.”

According to the BC Big Tree Registry, the tree would currently rank as the sixth largest known red cedar in the country. The registry’s largest red cedar is the Cheewhat Giant, which is located in Ditidaht territory southeast of Nitinat Lake.

The record-sized tree on Flores Island has so far garnered the nickname ‘The Wall’, or ‘ʔiiḥaq ḥumiis’, meaning ‘big red cedar’ in the Nuu-chah-nulth language. It grows on unprotected Crown/public lands in the unceded territory of the Ahousaht First Nation.

No logging plans exist for the area and the Ahousaht First Nation’s Land Use Vision, currently in the late stages of negotiations with the BC government, includes the protection of the forest where this tree is found.

“It was unlike anything I had ever seen before,” said Ahousaht First Nation Hereditary Representative Tyson Atleo. “When TJ first contacted me to go visit the tree, I was assuming it was like many I had experienced across different territories on the Island including in Ahousaht – but this one was obviously quite special. It really does look like a rock wall when you’re hiking up towards it and then you actually realize it’s a tree. It’s just breathtaking.”

Old-growth forests are culturally significant to the Ahousaht people, Atleo said, because they provide the nation with everything they need to survive, from shelter to transportation to clothing.

Aerial view over the ancient forests of Flores Island in Ahousaht territory in Clayoquot Sound, BC.

“The forest provides for every aspect of our wellbeing in addition to being home to our food sources,” Atleo said. “Everything that we need to survive is there, and not only physical survival but it’s a place representative of natural law. So it’s also our place for spirituality, for learning everything we need to know about being good humans on this planet.”

The Ahousaht First Nation’s Land Use Vision calls for the protection of 80 per cent of Ahousaht territory through the creation of new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), encompassing most of the old-growth forests in their territory, to be legislated as Provincial Conservancies by the province.

“The 2017 Land Use Vision that we’re working on implementing builds off thousands of years of stewardship and more recently decade’s worth of efforts by some of our late leaders and current leaders,” Atleo Said. “Efforts that include stopping clear-cut harvesting in Ahousaht territories.”

Atleo said the large red cedar is currently within the boundaries of a tree farm license, and that the objective is to transition that tree farm license into new protected areas and a new forest tenure for Ahousaht.

The Ahousaht First Nation is keeping the location of the tree private at this time, but Atleo said they may take visitors there in the future.

See the original article here.

1,000 year old tree found on Flores Island to be protected

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July 28, 2023
CHEK News
By Kori Sidaway

Watch CHEK’s video coverage here.

Nearly two decades into his hunt for B.C.’s biggest trees, it takes a lot to blow away Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and National Geographic explorer TJ Watt.

A tree on Flores Island has done just that. Five metres (17 feet) wide at its base, even wider as it goes up, reaching more than 150 feet tall, the western red cedar is likely more than 1,000 years old.

“When I first saw it I thought, initially, it was a rock wall,” said Watt.

It’s a sprawling fortress of tree limbs which Watt has dubbed, “Canada’s most impressive tree.”

“It’s just the most mind-blowing thing I’ve seen in nature,” said Watt.

Though currently unprotected, Ahousaht First Nation plans to protect this tree and 80 per cent of other trees in their territory.

“I believe firmly that we do need to protect from ourselves, from extraction and exploitation,” said Tyson Atleo with Ahousaht First Nation. “We need to put a pause on harvesting. We need to put a pause on exploitation so we can re-calibrate that relation. I know we can and Ahousaht is leading that way right now.”

Ahousaht’s approach for a successful conservation-based economy is one that Atleo believes other First Nations could model after.

The next step as Watt sees it, is the province working to ensure it’s an easy process to get there

“[B.C. Premier] David Eby needs to step in to make sure ministries are doing everything in their power to reduce barriers to old growth conservation, stop heel-dragging on conservation financing, provide funding to support old growth deferrals and ensure the oldest and best trees in B.C. Are being protected,” said Watt.

Protected, so generations to come can stand under or see, something that’s been here for more than a millennium. The biggest, Watt is sure, is still yet to come.

“Where that tree might be, who knows, so the hunt continues,” said Watt.

View the original article here.

 

BC big tree hunter documents grandest old-growth tree he’s ever seen

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July 29, 2023
CBC News
By Chad Pawson

TJ Watt says Western red cedar near Tofino is a 46-metre-tall leviathan of a biodiverse ecosystem.

For 20 years, Victoria’s TJ Watt, 39, has trekked through the province’s vast and verdant landscape seeking out giant, old trees to document them and make a case for their conservation.

Now, at a time when exceptionally large trees have dwindled due to logging, he’s recorded what he calls the tree of his lifetime.

“No tree has blown me away more than this one,” he said. “It literally is a wall of wood.”

Watt photographed the tree, a Western red cedar, in 2022 on Flores Island in fabled Clayoquot Sound on Ahousaht First Nations territory while on a field trip as a National Geographic and Royal Canadian Geographical Society explorer. (The species is also spelled redcedar because it’s not deemed to be a true cedar.)

It’s estimated to be 46 metres tall and five metres wide at its base. The old-growth tree, part of forests that store carbon and support many species of plants and animals, is estimated to be at least 1,000 years old, according to Watt.

Its dimensions put it at the very top of the biggest and oldest trees in the province and across Canada.

“Unlike most other trees, it actually gets wider as it goes up,” said Watt. “It’s really the highlight of my life to come across something this spectacular.”

Watt and the Ahousaht First Nation have now revealed images and details of the tree to the public — although keeping its location secret — to show it as an example of the importance of the province meeting commitments to overhaul forestry to balance harvesting with ecological values.

“It’s representative of a healthy, intact, coastal, temperate ecosystem,” said Tyson Atleo, 36, a hereditary representative of the Ahousaht First Nation. “We don’t see a lot of trees that size anymore.”

The tree has been nicknamed “The Wall” or “ʔiiḥaq ḥumiis,” meaning “big redcedar” in the Nuu-chah-nulth language. It’s in a type of forest that’s in danger of disappearing from BC’s landscape due to a history of intense logging.

“Forests like this have just been reduced to a tiny, tiny fraction of their original extent today,” said Watt. “We need to be doing everything we can in our power to ensure that they remain standing, especially given the climate and biodiversity crisis.”

The tree is not currently in danger of being logged as it’s in an area where old-growth logging is being deferred as part of work between First Nations and the province to protect old-growth forests at risk of permanent biodiversity loss.

Aerial view over the ancient forests of Flores Island in Ahousaht territory in Clayoquot Sound, BC.

The Ahousaht First Nation, whose territory spans Clayoquot Sound, a globally recognized biosphere reserve, is at the forefront of work to keep significant trees in biodiverse forests standing while finding other ways, such as tourism, to replace lost revenues.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to share … who we are as the Ahousaht, what our values and principles are, but also help [visitors] experience the magic of our territories as is exemplified by this incredible tree,” said Atleo.

Ahous Adventures, an Ahousaht-owned and operated eco-cultural tour company in Tofino, won’t be taking visitors to the tree in order to keep the area protected but does other tours to show off the region’s other impressive trees.

‘An ecosystem unto itself’

Nations like the Ahousaht are hoping for more conservation funding from the province to be able to develop alternative economic opportunities in their territories that will allow for trees like ʔiiḥaq ḥumiis, to remain standing.

In order to raise funds on its own, the Ahousaht has established a voluntary stewardship fee for its territories, much like BC Parks’ day-use passes.

Meanwhile, others also making careers of trying to locate and document massive old-growth trees that still exist, say coming across trees like The Wall is akin to a religious experience.

“You feel so small, and you realize it is so incredibly important what these things are. They represent so much more than just a tree. It’s an ecosystem unto itself,” said Colin Spratt, a conservation photographer who takes people on tours of Vancouver’s Stanley Park to show off old-growth trees there.

View the original article here.

Existence of massive, ‘mind-blowing’ old-growth tree revealed in Clayoquot Sound

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July 27, 2023
The National Observer
By Clayton Keim

An enormous old-growth cedar tree has been identified in Vancouver Island’s Clayoquot Sound, possibly dating back over a millennium.

The western redcedar reaches a towering height of 46 metres and stands five metres wide at its base.

It is currently the sixth largest redcedar in Canada, according to the BC Big Tree Registry. TJ Watt, a photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance, was awed when he initially encountered the tree. “It was absolutely mind-blowing.

“It didn’t even look like a tree at first from a distance; it looks more like a rock wall,” he said. “It really defies words, and it stands in a class of its own.”

The Ahousaht Nation, whose territory encompasses many old-growth forests including those on Clayoquot Sound, has been aware of the tree for some time. The decision to highlight its existence was made, in part, to promote the protection of old-growth trees across B.C. “We need to do more to protect these types of forests because there are fewer and fewer left,” said Tyson Atleo, hereditary representative for the Ahousaht Nation.

“We know that we are causing significant destruction of old-growth rainforests that we are really collectively dependent on as a species for the biodiversity that they uphold, as well as for carbon sequestration.”

Many comparable old-growth cedars in B.C. are widest at the base, gradually tapering off as they grow larger. Watt was shocked when this tree inverted the structure of comparable trees. “The trunk expands ever wider as it goes up into this sprawling, fortress-like canopy,” he said, going on to describe it as “the most impressive tree in Canada given its size.”

Cedar trees hold a unique significance to the Ahousaht Nation due to their versatility and abundance; they are used for housing, cooking and transportation. Bark that is stripped and soaked in water becomes soft and pliable, and is used for clothing.

“Cedar is really the tree of life to our people, as it provides us with the materials to live a healthy and happy life in this region,” said Atleo.

Research into old-growth forests has applications for both medicine and ecological conservation. “The canopy of this tree is filled with various types of epiphytes [moss, ferns and lichens], other trees, moss maps and canopy soils,” explained Watt. “Undoubtedly, there are new species to be found suspended up above the forest floor.” For those discoveries to take place, however, old-growth forests must be protected.

Conservation groups are calling for the B.C. government to recognize the importance of arboreal protection. “If they skirt around the forests that are most at risk and only protect those that were not truly at risk of logging to begin with, then it won’t be doing justice to these forests,” Watt said.

Read the original article here.

See VIDEO of Canada’s Most Impressive Tree!

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This is huge — literally! We’re thrilled to share a video of what may very well be Canada’s most impressive tree. This gargantuan redcedar measures over 17 ft (5 m) wide near its base and 151 ft (46 m) tall. However, unlike most other trees, its trunk gets wider going upwards, culminating in a sprawling fortress-like crown of wooden spires akin to a massive wooden wall of an ancient castle.

This giant could possibly have the largest or near largest timber volume of any tree in Canada for about the first 50 feet of its trunk — the part you see and experience from the ground. This would make it, experientially, perhaps the most impressive tree in Canada, despite other cedars being taller or ranking higher overall.

It grows in a remote region of Flores Island in Ahousaht territory in Clayoquot Sound, BC, and has so far garnered the nickname ‘The Wall’, or ‘ʔiiḥaq ḥumiis’, meaning ‘big redcedar’ in the Nuu-chah-nulth language. The exact location has been asked to be kept private at this time.

AFA Photographer & Campaigner TJ Watt first located and photographed the tree in 2022 with his friend Nathaniel Glickman before returning in the spring of 2023 with Tyson Atleo, Hereditary Representative of the Ahousaht Nation and the Natural Climate Solutions Program Director of Nature United, and members of the Maaqutusiis Hahoutlhee Stewardship Society (MHSS).

Thankfully, the incredible Land Use Vision from the Ahousaht Nation, currently in the late stages of negotiations with the BC government, calls for the protection of 80% of Ahousaht territory, including the ancient forest where this tree is found. This would happen through the creation of new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) to be legislated as Provincial Conservancies by the province.

The BC government must fully fund and support Indigenous-led protection of old-growth across BC, including in the remaining monumental old-growth stands and those identified as most at risk by the province’s science panel, the Technical Advisory Panel.

AFA commends the Ahousaht Nation for continuing to be such incredible stewards of their lands, which thankfully still harbour some of the most magnificent ancient forests, trees, and wildlife on Earth.

When visiting Ahousaht territory, visitors are encouraged to participate in their voluntary Stewardship Fee. Revenues from the Stewardship Fee directly fund the MHSS Stewardship Guardian Program which works on restoration, monitoring, infrastructure maintenance, and visitor engagement for the Ahousaht. Stewardship Fees can be paid online or at their office at 9-368 Main Street in Tofino. Also be sure to check out Ahous Adventures.

Thank you to the Trebek Initiative for helping make this expedition work possible.

▶️ Read our full media release here!

? Take a look at our photo gallery here!

? And don’t forget to SPEAK UP! Send-a-Message calling on the province to commit funding and set ecosystem-based targets for protecting the last monumental old-growth forests across BC.