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Modelled after the American Forestry Association’s Social Register of Big Trees, the British Columbia Register of Big Trees records the biggest individuals for each of BC’s native tree species.
The registry was established In 1986 by the B.C. Forestry Association.
Big trees were nominated by people who submitted information
forms, photos and maps. The man who initiated the register, and
who located more record trees than anyone else, was Randy Stoltmann.
Randy published many of the registry records in his book Guide
to the Record Trees of British Columbia (Stoltmann 1993).
Randy Stoltmann died in a tragic ski-mountaineering accident
in May of 1994. Shortly before his death, Randy copied most of
the registry records into a report for the B.C. Conservation
Data Centre (CDC).
The B.C. Forestry Association changed its name to Forest Education
B.C. and most recently to FORED BC. They stopped maintaining
the register after Randy's death and their register files (containing
maps and photographs) are missing. For several years, people
were unable to nominate record trees.
Using the records given to them by Randy as a nucleus, the CDC
offered to become the new custodian of the British Columbia Register
of Big Trees. The CDC maintained the Register until 2009, when it was transferred here.
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