Sitka Spruce grows on the BC coast and is the largest of the spruce species in BC. The wood of a Sitka spruce is light colored, soft but resilent with a strong heartwood making it one of the most important timber producing trees in BC. It is used in general construction, ship building plywood, musical instruments and for pulpwood. Years ago it was used for aircraft construction.
The latin name for Sitka Spruce is Picea sitchensis
They grow tall to a height of 40-70 meters with the record big tree as tall as 96 meters found at Carmanah Creek in the Cowichan Valley. They can easily grow from 2 - 4 meters in diameter. For more information on record big trees in BC see the Big Tree Registry at https://bigtrees.forestry.ubc.ca/bc-bigtree-registry/conifers/
North 53 39.806 West 122 56.952
Sitka spruce grows best in rich deep and well drained soils near streams along streams. Commonly it is found growing with Douglas fir, Western Red Cedar, Western Hemlock and Yellow Cedar.
The needles are about 2.5 cm long and are stiff with very sharp ends. For more information on white spruce, a handy field reference guide can be found here: https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/treebook/treebook.pdf
All hides for this Spruce Geo Art Series are camoed pill bottles or bison tubes. Each container contains a logsheet sealed in a tiny zip lock bag. Please bring your own pencil. This cache is not hidden at the posted coordinates, however all the information you need is on this cache page.
Photo Credit: Sitka Spruce tree image obtained from: Tree book - Learning to Recognize Trees of British Columbia, A. Inselberg - p. 68
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