The connection between clearcut logging and Canada’s hottest day on record

The connection between clearcut logging and Canada’s hottest day on record

With temperatures set to soar to 47 C in B.C., forests provide a cool, wet place for animals and people alike to seek shelter

ByEmma GilchristJune 28, 20214 min. readPhotographer TJ Watt stands beside the stump of a giant old-growth cedar recently felled in the Caycuse watershed. Old-growth forests provide a refuge from extreme heat. Photo: TJ Watt / Ancient Forest Alliance

In a moment of weakness a couple of weeks ago, I agreed to run a 20-kilometre stretch of the Juan de Fuca trail on the southwest of Vancouver Island with a group from my gym.

“It’ll be fine,” I thought, comforting myself with the thought (a.k.a. delusion) that it would be a fun, elongated walk in the woods.

But as the date rapidly approached, there was just one problem: our “fun walk in the…