In 2018, I visited Port Renfrew, on Vancouver Island’s rugged and wild west coast. As a keen landscape photographer, I booked a tour with award-winning nature and conservation photographer, TJ Watt.
The tour took us to amazing places like Avatar Grove, named after the famous movie for its abundance of ancient forest giants, and Big Lonely Doug, a towering old-growth Douglas-fir tree standing alone in a clearcut.
Inspired by this heartfelt trip, I decided to volunteer my design skills to the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and co-founder TJ. At the time, I was working on a product design assignment for school, and I saw this as an opportunity to make a mark.
I created a “Doug Mug” using a photo I took of the tree on the trip. With guidance from TJ and the AFA, I sourced manufacturing and had 1000 mugs made to be sold on the AFA online store. The limited-edition mugs sold out quickly.
I also created a bookmark that showed the statistics and geographical location of Doug, as well as social media information for outreach. This was printed on Recycled paer and given out for free as marketing.
I continue to offer my services to the AFA in their endeavour to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and to ensure a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry.
Big Lonely Doug is a towering old-growth Douglas-fir tree, the second largest in Canada. It stands alone in a clearcut near Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island, its massive trunk as wide as a living room and its crown reaching higher than a downtown skyscraper. Only the Red Creek Fir, growing in a nearby valley, is larger.
The visitor to Big Lonely Doug is treated to a unique perspective. The approach to the tree follows a logging road through a forest that suddenly opens up to reveal the clearcut and Big Lonely Doug rising 230 feet, as high as a 23-story office tower.
