Underground Explorers

The ancient temperate rainforests of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii (BC, Canada) are part of the Coastal Western Hemlock biogeoclimatic zone, in which Western Redcedar and Western Hemlock trees dominate. These coastal rainforests produce trees that can live over 1,000 years and measure up to 5 metres in diameter. Black bears in these forests commonly use hollow trees for denning, but large hollow trees are generally removed during forest harvesting operations, leaving few suitable options after forest harvesting. Given the relatively short harvest schedule of forests in BC, there is little opportunity for such bear dens to persist, or develop in future forests. Understanding the ecological conditions necessary to create suitable arboreal bear dens is critical to sustainable bear management in BC. This project represents the first molecular characterization of the wood decay fungi responsible for creating cavities suitable for denning. Knowing the identity and distribution of the microbes responsible for this process is step one in being able to predict, protect and create the conditions needed for the survival of arboreal bear dens in BC, and the bears that rely on them.