Culturally modified tree

In British Columbia, one of the most commonly modified trees, particularly on the coast, is the Western Red Cedar.

Rhoads published in 1992 that within the territory of Southwest Victoria (about 10,000 km2) 228 CMTs were found in the vicinity of ancient camps.

In Canada, where research was for obvious reasons concentrated in the western provinces with its old forests, Ontario documented CMTs in 2001.

Even if loggers accept the restrictions and spare a CMT, these trees are endangered because they lose their "neighbours" and with them the protection against heavy storms.

Consequently, Hupacasath First Nation on the western shore of Vancouver Island claims a protective zone around the trees of at least 20 to 30 metres.

The logging industry has reduced the old forests to a minimum in most regions and thus destroyed the culturally modified trees.

[citation needed] The tiny Island of Flores is home to 71 registered culturally modified trees which are protected like archives, libraries, historic sites or memorials.

[citation needed] After historians and the courts had recognized that the trees of Meares Island are crucial for the culture and history of the Indian Nation living there, other indigenous groups started to register CMTs in their own reserves and in their traditional territories to get the same protection for them.

Consequently, the traces of bark peelers are interrupted from one year to the next, so that historians can exactly tell when the last Sami left the region under examination.

[citation needed] The most surprising fact was a consequence of research within the Bob Marshall Wilderness in northwestern Montana.

[citation needed] In 1985 a protection program was started in Washington's Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

In February 2008, the Colorado Historical Society decided to invest a part of its 7 million dollar budget into a CMT project in Mesa Verde National Park.