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Date: Sunday, August 28th
Time:  1:30-3:00 pm
Donation range: $20 to $100

Location: Meet at 1:30 at the Sumallo Grove parking lot and picnic area, which is also the beginning for the Skagit Valley Trail.

Park Map: https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/ecmanning/manning.pdf (note: it’s about 2 hour drive from Vancouver)

Park website: https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/ecmanning/#Location

Difficulty Level: EASY

Dogs must be leashed at all times.

Join Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners Ken Wu and TJ Watt and lichenologist Stu Crawford (tentative) on an easy nature walk and talk through one of the most incredible old-growth forests left in the Lower Mainland, the Sumallo Grove in Manning Provincial Park.

This grove is one of the most diverse ancient forests in the province, with Sitka spruce mixed in with Douglas firs and giant redcedars, and is in the Cascade Mountain Range which barely comes into Canada from the US. The Sumallo Grove is traditionally home to the endangered spotted owl (recently disappeared, as only 5 individuals now remain in BC’s wilds due to old-growth logging), as well as wolves, grizzlies, black bears, cougars, wolverine, elk, moose, deer, and a strange little rodent called a “mountain beaver”.

Learn about the ecology and the politics of the Ancient Forest Alliance’s campaign to protect the last ancient forests around the Lower Mainland and what you can do to help.

This area is also the start of the Skagit Valley Trail through Skagit Valley Provincial Park – a couple hours along the trail brings you to another phenomenal stand of giant Douglas firs and redcedars, and further still is an ecological reserve filled with rare, huge black cottonwoods! Hiking this trail is not part of this particular event, but more adventurous enthusiasts may want to hike it after our guided walk in Sumallo Grove.

Guest presenter bios:

Stu Crawford is an ecological consultant and one of the handful of lichenologists in BC. He received his masters degree in biology studying under ethnobotanist Dr. Nancy Turner at the University of Victoria on First Nations consumption and use of lichens (yes, you can eat some lichens! learn more on the hike…).

TJ Watt and Ken Wu are co-founders of the Ancient Forest Alliance. TJ Watt graduated from the Western Academy of Photography and Ken Wu from UBC’s Biological Sciences program specializing in Ecology.

***This event is a fundraiser for the Ancient Forest Alliance which is in need of funding to continue its vital campaigns to protect BC’s ancient forests and forestry jobs.

If you can, please email us at info@ancientforestalliance.org to let us know how many of you are coming so we can get a sense of our numbers.