Randy Stoltman

When a native of Vancouver, Randy Stoltman had an unquenchable thirst for exploring, photographing and working to protect the wilderness areas of the west coast. Combining his technical background with his love for wilderness, Stoltmann has measured mapped and documented record sized trees and ancient forests since high school. He loved hiking, bushwacking and ski-mountaineering through the backcountry of southwestern B.C.

Hiking Guide to the Big Trees of Southwestern British Columbia , originally published in 1987, was Stoltmann's first book. Since then, he has been a contributing writer to the award winning 1989 book Carmanah:Artistic Visions of an Ancient Rainforest. He has also provided information for numerous other books and magazine articles, and his photos of ancient forests have appeared in such publications as Canadian Geographic and Western Living.

Randy died in a mountaineering accident but his spirit lives on in his books, and in the inspiration to save the big trees. Randy helped raise the public consciousness of the threat to unique and irreplacable heritage, the trees. The Western Canada Wilderness Committee is working very hard to save a wilderness area in B.C. that is called the Randy Stoltman Wilderness Park. His dedication in this lifetime is acting as an inspiration to protect endangered areas.

Hiking Guide to the Big Trees
by Randy Stoltman
Publisher Western Canada Wilderness Committee
This guidebook points the way to where people can enjoy a few remaining stands of large old-growth trees. It explains a few basic functions of old-growth eco-systems and points out the difference between these and second growth forests. The guidebook is offered in the hopes that our children may also walk in the wilderness and see, hear, feel, smell and touch the ancient forests - and that the forests,in return, will touch them.