The awe-inspiring Mossome Grove (short for “Mossy and Awesome” Grove) is extremely unique due to its impressive combination of Sitka spruce trees and huge ancient bigleaf maples with branches draped in hanging mosses and ferns. It also contains several near record-sized trees including a massive bigleaf maple nicknamed the Woolly Giant, which would rank the 9th widest on the BC Big Tree Registry at 2.29 meters (7 feet, 6 inches) in diameter and may have the longest horizontal branch of any tree in British Columbia, measuring 23.1 meters (76 feet) long!
The area, which may very well be one of Canada’s most spectacular old-growth forests, was identified by AFA campaigners and Ken Wu of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance in 2018. The Mossome Grove stands on Crown lands in the operating area of BC Timber Sales, with a portion within a Woodlot Licence allocated to the Pacheedaht band and the rest under the regulatory authority of BC Timber Sales. Most of the grove is unprotected, with a small portion, about 3-4 hectares, lying within an Old Growth Management Area and in the riparian reserve along the San Juan River. See our media release for further details!
