Let’s Celebrate the Coastal Douglas-fir Ecosystem!
We are celebrating the awe-inspiring Coastal Douglas-fir forest–supporting knowledge of, and connection to, the Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem is our theme* for 2026!
Did you know that the beautiful Douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone we call home is incredibly rare? The “Coastal” designation indicates this type of Douglas-fir ecosystem only occurs along the southeast coast of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast, and the Lower Mainland, and only from sea level to 150m in elevation. SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island is in the sweet spot for this endangered ecosystem. Thirty years ago it was estimated that only one-half of one percent of the original extent of this forest remained in an old-growth state1. Many of SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island’s Coastal Douglas-fir forests are currently in a state called “mature,” with trees that are 80+ years old, yet there are a few sentinel old-growth trees that help us imagine what, with protection and patience, SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island could look like.
Did you know that the Coastal Douglas-fir zone supports high biological diversity? In addition to the JSÁY | Douglas-fir that gives the ecosystem its name, are more than 500 species of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants found in an undisturbed Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem, and one study found over 400 species of insects in the canopy, of which 100 were exclusive to Coastal Douglas-fir forests1. The Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem is also home to ten provincially rare animals, like the marbled murrelet and the sharptail snake. Maybe you attended the Eagle Watch event and learned from Dave Manning and Eroca Dancer about their amazing work on bald eagles, who also rely on the Coastal Douglas-fir zone as important habitat.
* Last fall the Mayne Island Conservancy team brainstormed all the amazing ideas we had for activities and events we could do to engage the SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island community during the coming year. It was a fun and inspiring exercise–you should have seen all the sticky notes flying around the office! From that creative exercise we looked for a common thread–something that could bring focus to the work, something we could rally around. We realized that many of the activities aim to help everyone learn about and connect with the Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem, and our theme of the year emerged. We hope that by the end of the year you feel more aware and deeply connected to what makes the Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem such a special place.
- Flynn et al. 1999. Coastal Douglas-fir Ecosystems. BC Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks. ↩︎
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