West Vancouver Old Growth Conservancy Society

The Old Growth Conservancy Society (OGCS) is a registered society working in partnership with the District of West Vancouver, British Columbia in the management and stewardship of West Vancouver’s Old Growth Conservancy.

The Old Growth Conservancy is a 54 hectare (133.6 acre) forested area at 760 metres (2500 feet) elevation, south of the Cypress Provincial Park boundary and west of the Cypress Bowl Road.  It contains a mosaic of different aged forest stands, including significant old-growth with some western redcedars up to 900 years old.  Threatened by golf course development in 1990, the Conservancy is now protected by municipal bylaw.  While there is no formal access to the Conservancy, several West Vancouver parks contain old-growth stands that are accessible by trails.

The Conservancy and a few other remnant stands in parks and other District land are all that remain of the ancient forests that once covered West Vancouver’s mountainside.  These forests were part of the renowned temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, considered “the finest coniferous forests in the world.”