Mary Vasey stands beside the largest old-growth bigleaf maple in the Mossy Maple Grove.

Mossiest forest in Canada creating buzz in Lake Cowichan

Diverse mosses, licorice ferns and lobaria “lettuce” lichens and more fauna grows on the trees in Mossy Maple. According to Wu, Mossy Maple hosts more plants growing on trees than any other trees in North America. The area is also home to bears, cougars, elk and a host of other wildlife.

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Scientific American: Designate a species with your name or your pooch’s

There are species named after famous people: Strigiphilus garylarsoni is a louse named after the cartoonist Gary Larson.

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Lichen auction closes Dec. 15

Two "name that lichen" auctions organized by Upper Clearwater naturalist Trevor Goward will end on Thursday, Dec. 15.  "It's been almost three centuries since Carolus Linnaeus invented the modern biological classification system; and even now the names of the people he honored in the name of various plants and animals are still with us," said Goward. "With any luck, your name will last at least as long as Canada does."

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Renowned lichenologist Trevor Goward stands beside the new species of Bryoria or "horsehair lichen" he discovered. To place a bid for the naming rights to this species visit: https://www.charitybuzz.com/categories/43/catalog_items/272986

Taxonomy – The name of the lichen

The Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance, which is dedicated to protecting and advocating for the province’s old-growth forests, is soliciting bids for Bryoria, a “horsehair lichen” that cascades over tree branches in long, black strands.

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Lichen names up for auction

After discovering two new lichen species in the southern Interior, lichenoligist Trevor Goward decided to donate the naming rights to raise money for conservation causes.

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Hul'qumi'num Chief Treaty Negotiator Robert Morales and and HTG Executive Assistant Rosanne Daniels under the mossy maples.

‘Canada’s mossiest rainforest’ needs protection, Island groups say

The Alliance and Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group have earmarked two stands near Cowichan Lake of giant old-growth bigleaf maple trees, which they're describing as "Canada's mossiest rainforest," and want the provincial government to buy the stands from TimberWest.
 

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Protect McLaughlin Ridge YouTube Clip (1min)

The McLaughlin Ridge is a 500 hectare tract of ancient Douglas-fir forest near Port Alberni that biologists have classified as both critical habitat for wintering deer and nesting endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks. Conservationists would like the BC government to protect the old-growth forest on private land on McLaughlin Ridge by purchasing it from Island Timberlands.

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Local Port Alberni activist Jane Morden stands beside the McLaughlin Giant - an old-growth Douglas-fir measuring 23.5ft in circumference / 7.5ft in diameter.

Chainsaw buzz stirs up once-protected old growth

Environmentalists want the province to buy a tract of previously protected oldgrowth forest near Port Alberni that is now being logged by Island Timberlands. McLaughlin Ridge was classified as critical habitat for wintering deer and endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks until 2004, when the province allowed it to be removed from a tree farm licence
 

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Columbia Blacktail Deer

Critics insist logging harms wildlife

In 2004, the B.C. government removed 88,000 hectares of land now owned by Island Timberlands from their Tree Farm Licenses.  Critics say this removed most of the environmental protections formerly acknowledged on those lands.

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Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance stops to look at Canada's Gnarliest tree in the Avatar Old Growth Forest near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island

Welcome to Avatar forest in B.C.

PORT RENFREW, B.C.—Pink ribbons knotted to tree branches at the side of a gravel logging road mark the entry to an amazing earthly experience, something so different from anything most people have experienced it might be on another world.

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