Rainforest ramble

Rainforest, you ask? Am I in Costa Rica or something? No I am not. I’m at home in the temperate rainforest. Well, that’s our official climate zone. There isn’t much that looks like a rainforest, but there is one area that does. 

We don’t go there with Georgie, because it is a nature conservancy and dogs are meant to be kept on leads. But she must have landed badly after one of her acrobatic ball jumps the other day, because poor Georgie is limping at the moment. No ball play for her for a while. And no ball play does open up possibilities.

It’s a beautiful day. Rain was in the forecast, but the sun is out and peeking through the trees. That’s probably why my eye was caught by this tree I don’t remember ever noticing before.

Joe points out that there’s a better angle for the shot and clambers into the undergrowth to get it.

I follow him in, pausing for an “arty” shot through the Spanish moss.

Arty it may or may not be, but where’s the tree?

Try again from beside Joe.

Bingo! Definitely today’s pic for Wales.

Come summer it will be bone dry in here, but at the moment parts look for all the world like some ancient swamp forest. 

This conservancy is known for the 1000-year-old cedar which somehow survived the chainsaws of the past. 

Dogs (and kids) are always keen to pass under it.

Once upon a time this and all the other Gulf Islands were covered in trees like this. That was before the European invaders arrived. Before Canada existed and the powers that be in its most western province decided to build an economy based on tearing down forests. 

Elsewhere on the island it is unusual to see really big trees. Even the biggest and tallest are at best second growth after the original forest disappeared. Occasionally you spot one, as we did on a recent walk.

When you do spot one, inevitably you will find this sign attached.

“Saved for food, shelter and nesting”. As if one tree (and it’s always just one tree) left in the middle of a clearcut is likely to “save” anything.