All sights in British Columbia

Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Trees

Posted by Alex Turnbull, Tuesday, 26th April 2005

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Well here’s something I didn’t expect to see. Thousands of trees floating in the water as part of a logging operation on Vancouver Island. I think it’s actually a strangely beautiful image (thumbnail #1). However, the whole thing becomes a little scary when you see just how many trees are involved; have a look at the number of logs being processed over in Vancouver (thumbnail #2), and there’s thousands more down here.

We’ve also located places where trees are being cut from – for example near Baxter Park in Maine (notice the piles of logs by the side of the road), and also next to the Redwood National Park. Phil says:

This is an image of typical redwood forest clearcutting in Northern California. You can zoom out pretty far and it’s still visible. Also notice that this particular location is right next to Redwood National Park — and it’s obvious from the satellite photo where the protected land begins. You can discern how recently a clear-cut was made by how green it is — the light brown splotches are most recent. I’ve travelled in this place quite a bit, and the logging companies make efforts to log away from main roads & coastlines, perhaps hoping people don’t notice the amount of clearcutting that still happens. They can’t hide anymore.

How right you are Phil.

Logging on Vancouver Island Logging on Vancouver Island

On a positive note however, I assume these are giant Redwood trees? Wow, they are huge! Looks like the green ‘ground covering’ is the top of normal sized trees, with these monsters looming above them, apparently up to 350 feet!

Redwoods

Thanks to Jean Lorraine, Jeff Miller, Wes, Karen Pease and Phil.

Post Office, Vancouver

Posted by James Turnbull, Tuesday, 12th April 2005

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A giant postage stamp on top of Vancouver’s downtown post office (North West is up). Here’s a a normal sized stamp for comparison.

Stamp

Thanks: “amaily post”