Nat Geo Travel Features TJ Watt’s Photo of Flores Cedar

Wow!! National Geographic Travel has featured AFA photographer TJ Watt’s image of a record-sized cedar tree on Flores Island alongside Ahousaht Hereditary Representative Tyson Atleo!

Destination Canada selected the image for its ‘Canada. A Year in Pictures’ gallery with National Geographic. The gallery celebrates the landscapes, people, and places that make Canada extraordinary, with this photo highlighting perhaps the most impressive tree in the country and the longstanding relationship between the Ahousaht people and old-growth forests.

Located on Flores Island in Ahousaht territory in Clayoquot Sound, the tree, nicknamed “The Wall,” is more than 17 feet (5 metres) wide near its base and around 150 feet (46 metres) tall.

Thankfully, it now stands protected as part of the biggest old-growth protected-areas victory in decades: 76,000 hectares of new conservancies in Clayoquot Sound, established through the leadership of the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht Nations in partnership with the BC government.

It’s not always the case that the forests featured in AFA’s photographs have a happy ending. We’re thrilled this one does, and that this historic achievement continues to be recognized and celebrated.