John Dean Provincial Park

John Dean Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. The park is located on and around Mount Newton, a small mountain in the middle of the Saanich Peninsula, north of Victoria, BC. The park is named after John Dean, who was a pioneer of the area and erected a cabin close to what is now the center of the park. Dean donated the original land which became the park in 1921, which was later expanded. Dean's cabin was razed in 1957, but the foundation and much of the building material remains, and the site is marked with a signpost.

John Dean Provincial Park contains virgin old-growth Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) and western red cedar (Thuja plicata), whereas almost all other spots contain 2nd growth or less. The tallest tree, a Douglas-fir just off the Valley Mist trail is an impressive 70.9 metres tall, and is the tallest tree in the municipality of North Saanich (the runner up is 69.9 metres tall, very close by.) 73% of Vancouver Island's productive old-growth forests have been logged, 87% on southern Vancouver Island, and 99% of the coastal douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone (see Biogeoclimatic zones of British Columbia.) This species of douglas-fir, is currently the second tallest tree in Canada (93.27 metres, after a 96-metre sitka spruce, the Carmanah Giant.) The douglas-fir used to be the second tallest tree in the world, taller than the redwoods, only over-passed by the mountain ash of Australia, which exceeded 150 metres tall (one douglas-fir reached a record height of "just" 126.5 metres, which is still almost 13 10-metre diving boards). The trees in the park, though, in no way set a record when compared to the giants of the wetter, better tree growing habitat of the west side of Vancouver Island, but are parts of the endangered dry old-growth douglas-fir habitat, of which 99% is gone. The park also contains rare native wildflowers, the pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), and the increasingly endangered Garry oak (Quercus garryana var. garryana), along with its distinct and beautiful ecosystem.

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