If Thomas's preliminary measurements are correct, the behemoth he found in Lynn Headwaters Regional Park would barely fit inside the cabin of a Boeing 747.
Regardless of its exact size, there is no doubt the massive tree is very, very old.
"It came at the end of about a 10-hour bushwhack," Thomas told Gloria Macarenko, host of CBC's On The Coast, on Monday.
He and his self-described "tree hunter" colleague Colin Spratt nicknamed the "awe-inspiring" tree they found in a grove of "primordial" red cedars the North Shore Giant.
Big-tree searcher Colin Spratt stands by a western red cedar in North Vancouver's Lynn Headwaters Regional Park.
He and biologist Ian Thomas measured the diameter at breast height (DBH) as being up to 5.8 metres.
According to the University of B.C.'s Big Tree Registry, a tree 5.8 metres in diameter would be the fourth widest on record. »