Green Timbers Urban Forest

Set in the centre of the urban development of Surrey, one of the cities of Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is a forest. Green Timbers Urban Forest consists of about a square mile of wooded area astride Fraser Highway and facing Mount Baker, just across the international border in Washington, USA.

Until 1929, people from a distance would come to see the 200-foot timber in this area. As early as 1860, attempts were made to have the region designated as a park. However, 5,000 acres were clear-cut, with the last giant trees falling in 1930, despite efforts to save them.

Reforestation was started in the same year. The Inaugural Plantation is still in existence. An arboretum of foreign trees -- Garry oak and Eastern white pine -- were added for experimental purposes. A forest nursery and forestry training and education centre were also established.

In 1987, the Green Timbers Heritage Society was formed in an effort to save an area that had been cleared for a sports complex. After eight years of lobbying, the area was designated as part of Green Timbers. A small lake and wetland were added to this clearing by deepening and broadening King Creek. Hundreds of trees, including about thirty indigenous plant species new to the forest, have been planted in this area. Today, Green Timbers and the adjacent Ministry of Forests cover 560 acres.

We would like to thank Wady Lehmann of the Green Timbers Heritage Society for the information that he has given to us for this section. Our family has enjoyed numerous visits to this quiet and peaceful forest, where we can enjoy nature while shutting out the city traffic all around us. We hope that others will enjoy going there as well and will do their part in helping to keep the forest beautiful.

Throughout the Forest are numerous trails.

Affiliated with the Forest is the Arboretum.

External Links:
These pictures were not taken by us, but by other persons.

See Picture 1.

See Picture Set. (Used by permission of City of Surrey.)

See Map. (Used by permission of City of Surrey.)


Flora


Fauna