The Sitka Foundation is based in Vancouver, British Columbia on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Application to Sitka Foundation is by invitation through our online platform. For general inquiries please contact us at info@sitkafoundation.org. For specific inquiries please contact one of our team directly.
About our logo
The Sitka spruce, Picea sitchensis, is an iconic tree to the West Coast of North America and the fourth largest tree species in the world. The tallest tree in Canada is a Sitka spruce in Carmanah Forest on Vancouver Island. This gigantic tree’s bioregion stretches from northern California to Alaska. Mostly recognized for growing to be the tallest and largest spruce, the Sitka has also been an icon in historical and popular culture. It has played a spiritual role, as seen in the mythical Golden spruce of Haida Gwaii and in Indigenous culture, but is also a very useful tree in the timber industry. Prized for its strength and straight, often flawless grain, the Sitka has been used in shipbuilding industries and early aeroplane construction and is also a prized wood for musical instruments. The Sitka spruce is also the star character of the children’s book, Maxine’s Tree, by Diane Carmel Léger. The Sitka spruce was chosen as the symbol and namesake of the Sitka Foundation because of its beauty, its dominance in the rainforest and coastal forests, and its iconic status as a natural symbol to be revered. It has also been extensively logged and exists in a small fraction of the territory it once inhabited. It is an important symbol to many in the Pacific Northwest.
Just as environmental projects that succeed, take root, and spread across the land in the form of community engagement, so the Sitka spruce has been transplanted across the world from its native region to areas such as Denmark, Norway, Great Britain and New Zealand. It is hoped that the ideas, mission, projects and partnerships of the Sitka Foundation also spread from community to community.
The second part of Sitka’s logo is a roughly painted circle which can be interpreted as an encapsulation of the earth and a realization of the circularity of life.
