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In an effort to record arthropod biological diversity in northern ancient rainforests the first project was initiated in the Carmanah Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
In 1993, a cluster of five Sitka spruce trees taller than 60m were identified and incorporated into the Carmanah canopy access system. Access to the canopy was by means of a 2:1 mechanical advantage pulley system. Four wooden platforms strapped onto the branches and trunk of the main tree provided consistent heights (31 to 67 metres) from which to sample. A series of burma bridges provided access to the four other Sitka spruce trees.
At the inception of this study this station was the only permanent access system of this type available for long-term work on arthropod in the canopy of northern temperate rainforests.
From 1992-1996 we systematically collected an estimated three million arthropods and analyses focused on answering the following questions: