Vegetation and Soils
Hornby Island is mostly covered by mixed forest dominated by Douglas-fir, Western red cedar, western hemlock, grand fir and lodgepole pine are the other large conifers present. The smaller Pacific yew is scattered in the understorey. The arbutus, a broadleaf evergreen species, is plentiful. Broadleaf deciduous trees include bigleaf maple, red alder, black cottonwood, Pacific flowering dogwood, cascara and several species of willow. Populations of Garry oak occur on the southern end of the island and at Helliwell Provincial Park. Only about 260 acres (1.1 km2) of undisturbed stands for older forest have been identified on Hornby Island, which amount to roughly 3.5% of the island's area. There are roughly 1,330 acres (540 ha) of older second-growth stands on the island, which amount to 19% of the island.
The island's soils have developed from marine deposits of variable texture, except for the higher elevations and steeper slopes where weathered clastic sedimentary rock provides the parent material. Most of Hornby's soils are sandy or gravelly, but some deep black loams occur in the northwestern part and many of the sands at the southern end have loam-textured topsoils. Podzols are common and the bleached sand grains associated with their eluvial (A2, Ae or E) horizons lend a salt-and-pepper appearance to many forest trails. In most cases, though, the E is not very thick and may be discontinuous. On this account, the soils were mostly classified as Brown Podzolic in a soil survey published in 1959. All of the island's soils are strongly acidic in their natural state except for those which have developed on shoreline shell middens.
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