Tag Archives: Western Yew

Fuel mitigation around the Cortes Recycling Centre

 “When you talk about fuel, most people think about fuel for a vehicle or fuel for something like that, but fuel for a forest fire  is wood on the ground or standing wood? The idea  is to reduce the fuel load to reduce the severity of a fire. As it approaches that location, the fire will slow down and most likely drop to the ground because we’ve opened up the canopy. The danger trees have been removed and the debris on the ground’s been removed. So it would be a lot easier for firefighters to make a stand,” explained Tor Ellingsen of Reef Point Falling.

He was talking about the recently completed Cortes Island Recycling Centre Wildfire Mitigation Project.

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Hugh’s huge yew: the largest native yew tree on Cortes Island?

CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Shortly after buying his property decades ago, local carpenter Hugh Barton found what might be the largest Western Yew on the Cortes Island. Hugh doesn’t know how old the tree is, but it appears to be more than 10 feet around at the trunk, at least 200 years old, and likely avoided the first round of logging on Cortes Island in the early 1900s.

Continue reading Hugh’s huge yew: the largest native yew tree on Cortes Island?