In the northeast corner of the University of B.C. Botanical Garden, among the native species, a tree with a golden glow stands out from the rest. Visitors seeking the famous Golden Spruce are drawn to its presence — standing 10 metres tall and beaming even on a cloudy day. But they’ve been fooled. This tree is a yellow cypress, and one with a decidedly less controversial history. The true golden spruce — or rather, a scion grown from a cutting taken in the 1960s when the original was still alive — is much harder to spot. Under the shade of shore pine, hemlock and Japanese maple trees, and marked only by a simple card reading “Picea Sitchensis — gold needle selection, Port Clements, B.C.,” the 40-year-old tree stands no more than three metres high. It’s just a baby compared with the original, a 300-year-old marvel of a Sitka spruce that grew on Haida Gwaii’s Graham Island before it was chopped down in winter 1997 by a misguided activist with a chainsaw named Grant Hadwin, who was taking a stand against logging in the old-growth forest. Revered by the Haida First Nation and known as K’iid K’iyaas, or “ancient tree,” it formed an important part of Haida culture and creation mythology. Its felling shocked the country. Hadwin publicly took responsibility for cutting down the spruce, which stood 50 metres high and 180 centimetres across and was known for its bright golden needles. But Hadwin disappeared after he sent to news outlets and government a manifesto upbraiding the logging industry and its supporters. He never showed up for his day in court; his kayak was found near Alaska months later but he was never seen again. Because of the tree’s rarity and the mysterious circumstances surrounding its demise an effort was made to restore some part of its history. The top was preserved and sent to forestry researchers, who propagated the cuttings and distributed them across B.C. Other offspring were grown from grafts made secretly in the 1960s and sold commercially across the U.S. Two were given to UBC back then. One remains. A golden ‘shrub’ At the botanical garden, the young golden spruce is more remarkable for its heavy south slant than for its needles, because the ones at eye level are still green. It’s from exposure to sunlight that the uppermost needles turn their famous golden hue, from a genetic lack of chlorophyll. “You’d walk by it a hundred times before you’d ever notice it,” said one visitor on a tour led by Dana Cromie, who’s been a volunteer guide for a decade. At least half the garden’s visitors ask to see the tree, Cromie said. It barely stands out among the taller trees above and red huckleberry below, and has more branches on one side than the other. It was created from a branch cutting and it’s difficult to train new cells to form a tall trunk column, known as a leader. But the leader is emerging, slowly. “It’ll eventually sort itself out,” Cromie said. “As long as it keeps growing that (leader), it will be a real tree.”

A more prominent sign detailing the tree’s storied journey to the site is in the works, said Daniel Mosquin, the botanical garden’s research director. The spruce doesn’t receive any special treatment, beyond watering and normal care, and it’s been a long time since it was actively studied. Still, it should survive, Mosquin said. It doesn’t have to compete for soil nutrients the way a naturally-occurring one would, and it’s maintained by garden staff. But because the tree doesn’t produce much chlorophyll, and because it is better suited to a more coastal environment, the growth of the golden spruce is handicapped. “I suspect it will just keep trucking along. But I don’t think it will ever reach the majesty of the one that was on Haida Gwaii,” Mosquin said. The genetic anomaly that made that tree beautiful also made it weak. Many of the seedlings that were planted did not survive. After the original tree came down, the top was sent to the Cowichan Lake Research Station. About 100 cuttings were grafted onto Sitka spruce samples and of those, 60 survived, said station manager Mark Griffin. Twenty have been planted on the property, after spending years in a greenhouse. The trees, which measured between 65 and 70 centimetres this spring, prefer conditions that mimic the forests of Haida Gwaii. Difficult to grow “They need to be in the shade to thrive,” Griffin said. “We have some wetter areas scattered around the station where they seem to do well. Usually it’s alongside a creek with a full canopy ... they are kind of a finicky plant.” The other grafts were given to Haida Nation. It’s not clear how many were planted — it’s believed to be around eight — nor how many survived. Many believe they were planted in secret locations. Haida Nation’s leader Guujaaw could not be reached for comment; others said it was still too painful to discuss. John Disney, who moved to the island 50 years ago on an eight-week logging contract and never left, can recall Haida elders telling and re-telling the story of the golden spruce. But he hasn’t heard mention of the seedlings in years. “A piece of the culture was suddenly hacked out of everybody. It affected the local people a lot,” said Disney, economic development officer on the Old Masset village council. “Now it’s not talked about in an emotional way ... also I think the feeling is that it’s not the same tree. To get to that magnificent tree we have to wait 300 years.” A seedling was also planted on the waterfront in Masset, located on the northern shore of Haida Gwaii. That tree has died. “We planted it in an out-of-the-way spot we thought would be suitable, and just kind of left it to do its thing. We checked on it a couple of years ago and it hadn’t survived,” said the town’s chief administrator Trevor Jarvis. Another was rooted close to the same spot as the felled tree, said Berry Wijdeven, a B.C. Forestry biologist in the region.