by Ryan Regier | May 12, 2025 | Blog, Plants
About a month ago I was browsing the shelves of Woodward Library – UBC’s Science and Forestry Library – and stumbled across a book published in 1942 that sent me down a research rabbit hole about a native common tree in Pacific Spirit Park. The book in question,...
by Ryan Regier | Mar 4, 2025 | Blog, Plants
Stanley Park’s giant Hollow Tree used to be a world-famous landmark. Tourists and locals engaged in increasingly ridiculous behaviors of seeing just how much could fit inside of it. Many tourists and locals had a photo of them inside the tree…while inside a car. In a...
by Ryan Regier | Jan 22, 2025 | Blog, Plants
In February 1920 the American Forestry Magazine ran the all-capital headline “DISCOVERY OF SUGAR ON DOUGLAS FIR”. The opening paragraphs of the article is worth reading for the pulsing excitement: Long before the first white man came to North America with his luxuries...
by Ryan Regier | Dec 17, 2024 | Blog, Plants
What is the oldest tree in Pacific Spirit Park (PSP)? We don’t know exact ages, but if you are looking for old trees, especially big old trees, you would find them on the cliff slope forests of Wreck Beach or in the Ecological Reserve along Sword Fern trail. The...
by Ryan Regier | Aug 18, 2024 | Blog, Plants
Pacific Yew Tree: A Fantasy Tree Turned Real Let’s imagine a Tree from a Fantasy Novel written by an author like Ursula Le Guin or J.R.R. Tolkien. A Tree of legend and lore which characters regard with awe. The “Death Tree” let’s call it. The bark, wood, and leaves of...
