Happy Heritage Week 2021 with the theme “Where do you find Heritage?” Our fourth stop is an imaginary walk back in time, long before First Nations or Europeans first set foot on the North Shore, when the entire North Shore was covered in a dense forest. While North Shore Heritage normally focuses on built heritage, we recognize that heritage resources also include cultural assets and landscape features.
Although the majority of the original First Growth North Shore forests are now long gone – used for local buildings, ships or exported – there are still small old-growth stands in several West Vancouver parks and a larger 54-hectare (133.6 acre) forested area called The Old Growth Conservancy bordering the south side of Cypress Provincial Park. This Conservancy is protected by a municipal bylaw and managed by The Old Growth Conservancy Society (OGCS) in partnership with the District of West Vancouver. The OGCS contains mostly western hemlock and western redcedar but also contains mountain hemlock, yellow-cedar and amabilis fir. The oldest trees are the western redcedars with some as old as 900 years! The OGCS offers free 3-hour tours of the area on a limited basis for those who want to see these gentle giants for themselves Guided Tours | Old Growth Conservancy Society (OGCS).
Check out this photo of West Vancouver from 1921, before the area was logged.
View of West Vancouver in 1921.