Government natural resource officers have investigated situations where the poachers have caused environmental damage by taking down large Douglas fir or red cedar trees near sensitive waterways, he said. “These big trees, they’re providers of a whole variety of ecosystem benefits in terms of the stability of the banks and riparian areas, the habitat for wildlife, including cavity nesting birds that need these larger trees.” Austin said he arrived at a scene near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island where a would-be thief cut down a large Douglas fir but it didn’t go as planned and the tree was left to rot.