John Dean Provincial Park

John Dean Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. The park is located on and around Mount Newton, a small mountain in the middle of the Saanich Peninsula, north of Victoria, BC. The park is named after John Dean, who was a pioneer of the area and erected a cabin close to what is now the center of the park. Dean donated the original land which became the park in 1921, which was later expanded.^[1] Dean's cabin was razed in 1957, but the foundation and much of the building material remains, and the site is marked with a signpost.

John Dean Provincial Park contains virgin old-growth Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) and western red cedar (Thuja plicata), whereas almost all other spots contain 2nd growth or less. The tallest tree, a Douglas-fir just off the Valley Mist trail is an impressive 70.9 metres tall, and is the tallest tree in the municipality of North Saanich (the runner up is 69.9 metres tall, very close by.) 73% of Vancouver Island's productive old-growth forests have been logged, 87% on southern Vancouver Island, and 99% of the coastal douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone (see Biogeoclimatic zones of British Columbia.) This species of douglas-fir, is currently the second tallest tree in Canada (93.27 metres, after a 96-metre sitka spruce, the Carmanah Giant.) The douglas-fir used to be the second tallest tree in the world, taller than the redwoods, only over-passed by the mountain ash of Australia, which exceeded 150 metres tall (one douglas-fir reached a record height of "just" 126.5 metres, which is still almost 13 10-metre diving boards). The trees in the park, though, in no way set a record when compared to the giants of the wetter, better tree growing habitat of the west side of Vancouver Island, but are parts of the endangered dry old-growth douglas-fir habitat, of which 99% is gone. The park also contains rare native wildflowers, the pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), and the increasingly endangered Garry oak (Quercus garryana var. garryana), along with its distinct and beautiful ecosystem.

The tree species in the park include: western red cedar, coast douglas-fir, red alder, 1 shore pine, grand fir, arbutus, garry oak, some western hemlock (most abundant off the valley mist trail), bigleaf maple, the occasional pacific yew, some small black cottonwood, and shrub-like pacific serviceberry, cherries (Prunus genus), and a few willows (Salix genus).

In first nation culture, the top of the mountain was called Lau Wel New, the high land that enabled them to survive the great flood-they anchored their canoe with a western red cedar rope to a tall arbutus tree at the summit.

An organization of local citizens called the Friends of John Dean Park help upkeep the trails and signage throughout the park.^[2] There are approximately 6 km of hiking trails, with no significantly steep trails. The higher up the mountain, the trees change from a cedar-fir habitat to an oak-arbutus-fir forest. There are several lookout areas where hikers can get views of the Saanich Peninsula and the Saanich Inlet. There is also a large military installation on the mountain.

References

Exploring

Ancient forest alliance data: http://www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php

BC big tree registry

LiDar Data for the Saanich Peninsula

Coordinates: 48°36′44″N 123°26′53″W / 48.61222°N 123.44806°W / 48.61222; -123.44806