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Saanick -— The Douglas fir Andy MacKinnon leans against is 40 metres tall. It’s likely more than 500 years old and its fire-scarred trunk is almost two metres in diameter.

In most other countries, the tree would be the largest in the land, says MacKinnon, a forest ecologist who spent three decades with British Columbia’s government researching old-growth forests.

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At Francis/King Regional Park, minutes from Victoria, the park’s trees are protected from logging, but about 150 kilometres west of Victoria, old-growth forests with 1,000-year-old trees twice the size of those in the park are being cut down every day, said MacKinnon.

The world’s largest trees face dangers similar to elephants, whales and bison that have been hunted to the brink of extinction, he said.

Right now, MacKinnon said it’s open season on B.C.’s old-growth forests outside of parks or protected areas.

“You hear debates about how much old growth we’d like out on the landscape and some people will say ‘X’ and some people will say ‘Y,’ but I think most people will agree that when you are down to less than one per cent, that’s too little,” he said.