Opinion: Status quo a non-starter in B.C.’s forest industry

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Vancouver Sun Op-Ed by Arnie Bercov: Doug Donaldson understands better than most how neglected B.C.’s forests are, and how that neglect is mirrored in troubling job losses and missed employment opportunities in rural towns and First Nations communities.

As B.C.’s forests minister, he is also the MLA for the vast Stikine riding where Highway 37 is a gateway to old-growth forests that have been logged for decades with one goal in mind: to strip them of their trees and send virtually every log out of the province, in raw, unprocessed form.

Donaldson’s riding is also home to a mothballed pulp mill, idled sawmills and troublingly few value-added mills, including one — Kyahwood Forest Products — that is First Nation-owned, employs mostly First Nation people from the small community of Moricetown and that ought to be the norm in B.C., not the exception.

Donaldson knows all of this. He also knows that just 10 days after Premier John Horgan named him to cabinet, the Somass sawmill in Port Alberni closed, ending good-paying jobs for 80 people at a mill whose history traces to the 1930s.

Western Forest Products, which put those people out of work, is B.C.’s biggest coastal forest company and a major exporter of raw, unprocessed, old-growth logs.

Donaldson and his NDP colleagues were silent on Somass’s closure. In contrast, just months earlier, Horgan travelled to a recently closed sawmill in Merritt, where against a backdrop of a large sign reading, Closed by Christy Clark, he lashed out at the Liberals for failing to help a “community in distress.”

Well the time for posturing is over. Horgan is premier. He and his forests minister, whose file now includes “rural development,” must act. It’s up to them to lead on the forestry and rural-revitalization files.

Were it not for the efforts of my union, at least one other sawmill in the same riding that includes Port Alberni would be down by now. We see no signs of action from the government. What is its plan, if any?

During the last term of the Liberal government, more raw logs left B.C. than at any other four-year span in the province’s history. In 2016 alone, enough unprocessed logs left the province to frame 134,000 homes. More troubling, we see that de facto log exports are regularly occurring in the Interior of the province, where “have” regions become the sources of logs for the “have-nots.” The Merritt mill closure was partly caught up in that ugly reality.

Perpetuating the status quo translates into a wholesale assault on our coast’s diminished forests, rural communities and First Nations, a reality that Scott Fraser, Port Alberni’s MLA and Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation, understands better than most.

Donaldson, Fraser and all their cabinet colleagues have signed mandate letters that explicitly commit them to implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

I’ve read that document. I see what’s happening on First Nation lands. I know that we can and we must do better as an industry and as a society by bringing First Nations into true partnerships with resource industries. But I’m starting to seriously wonder whether the same can be said of this government.

It’s time for bold action by government, driven by a vision of what is socially, economically and ecologically just. Here’s what my union believes is possible and that’ll have the ultimate support of many First Nations, environmental organizations and some forest companies:

More old-growth forests protected. An end to raw-log exports. Increased forest-industry employment based on getting greater value from every log we cut, rather than shipping it off in unprocessed form. New, First Nation-area-based tenures that anchor new joint ventures where First Nations are majority partners.

By staying silent on mill closures and allowing raw-log exports to continue unchecked, our government is allowing our pockets to be fleeced.

Last year, Horgan tried to exploit the Merritt mill closure to his political advantage. Today, the buck stops with him, Donaldson, Fraser and the rest of the NDP cabinet.

Staying silent in the face of more mill closures, more forest depletion and continued failure to reconcile with First Nations isn’t an option.

Arnold Bercov is president of the Public and Private Workers of Canada.

Click here to view the original story in the Vancouver Sun.

Capturing the art of nature and change

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Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests have inspired acclaimed digital artist Kelly Richardson to move to Victoria, to be closer to the inspiration the ancient stands of trees provide.

In particular, she has had her eye on Port Renfrew — dubbed the “tall-tree capital” of Canada — and is featuring it in a digital-art creation that will be shown at Imax theatres as part of a film series. The series will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Imax’s invention.

The Ontario-born Richardson is working as an associate professor of visual arts at the University of Victoria, and before that she was a lecturer in fine arts at Newcastle University in northern England.

Richardson, 45, said a visit to Victoria in 2016 to give a talk at UVic featured a trip to the Port Renfrew area’s Avatar Grove, which had a big influence on her decision to move here.

She said she was “phenomenally moved” at the sight of the grove.

The move to Victoria fell into place when there was a job opportunity at UVic.

“I had been living in England for 14 years,” Richardson said. “I really loved my life in the U.K., I was not looking to leave.”

But she said she could not pass up the opportunity to live close to Vancouver Island’s forests, something that fits with the basis of her art.

“Most of my projects focus on environmental issues, and I work with landscapes, always as a starting point in the works.”

Richardson said she is best known for creating large-scale video installations, with a video camera and a single-lens reflex camera her basic tools.

“The best way to describe them is that they’re moving pictures or paintings,” she said. “They’re not still images, but they are environments that viewers feel as though they can walk within.

“Everything’s moving, and then there’s sound that accompanies each video, which helps to convince the viewer of where they are.”

Special effects are added to achieve the final result, she said, and offered some examples.

“There’s images from a desert landscape where I’ve inserted rockets, what look like rockets endlessly leaving what is presumed to be planet Earth. Another image has yellow tendrils of light in it that were inserted, so it looks like either a toxic spill of some description or a bioluminescent life form that either existed in the past or might exist in the future.

“So there’s always multiple ways to read it.”

Conservation is a big part of her message, Richardson said.

“The work gets out there into the world, and on the one hand I want it to be enjoyable as artwork, but I want it to be more than that as well,” she said. “Environmentally, with climate change and the vast changes that we’ve made since the Industrial Revolution, we’re facing incredibly uncertain futures as a result.

“What I want people to do is to think about where we’re heading and why.”

Richardson’s art has an international following.

“I tend to show in museums around the world or festivals like the Sundance Film Festival.”

She has also been featured in many solo and group exhibitions, and is part of collections at such sites as the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.

Read the original story here.

Tall trees draw renowned artist to Saanich

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The tall trees of Vancouver Island have drawn renowned visual artist Kelly Richardson to relocate from England.

Richardson was a lecturer at New Castle University the last 14 years, and was here to speak at the University of Victoria last year. During that trip she was brought to Avatar Grove, as she always visits the most unique and surreal natural landscapes whenever she travels.

Richardson’s known for hyper-real digital films and has been shown in North America, Asia and Europe, including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, and Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in Canada.

“I was overwhelmed by the fact [Avatar Grove] exists at all,” Richardson said. “When I learned there was a position coming up at UVic, I groaned, because I was very happy in England, but I was so overwhelmed by [the visit] I had to put my name in for the job, and now we’re here.”

Richardson’s now settled in Saanichton and teaches a full schedule of courses as an associate professor of visual arts courses at UVic.

She’s also wasted little time in pairing her move to the South Island with a visual arts project on the tall trees. Richardson is one of five artists commissioned to produce a large-format digital film short for the 50th anniversary of the invention of IMAX. For that, Richardson will partner with cinematographer Christian Kroitor (grandson of IMAX inventor Roman Kroitor). They’ll focus on the Island’s famed old-growth and ancient forests near Port Renfrew.

It is also Kroitor who is commissioning the IMAX project, called XL-Outer Worlds, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the invention of IMAX, set to tour IMAX theatres in 2019. The tall trees keep with the larger-than-life imagery IMAX.

Richardson’s multimedia work generally starts with her visiting a natural landscape that stands out and shooting it with her camera.

From there she creates video installations for museum or gallery scenarios on three big screens, big enough that viewers can immerse themselves in it. XL-Outer Worlds is her first time creating something or the massive IMAX screen. She’ll also bring the works into a the gallery or museum scenario, but this time it’ll be even bigger, with five screens, she said.

What marks Richardson’s work is the addition of other works that turn the images into something else, always keeping with an environmental theme, such as a proposed future landscape.

“There’s always multiple ways to read it, so sometimes it’s terrifying, and sometimes it’s positive,” Richardson said. “In this case, I’ll focus on implications of [human consumption on ancient forests], and what’s too much in terms of nature conversation. We’re still cutting a hectare of old growth every year, which is quite disturbing because it’s non-renewable.”

Read the original story here.

Kelly Richardson in Avatar Grove

New Visual Arts Professor Creates Avatar Grove Film Project

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Internationally acclaimed artist Kelly Richardson, a new professor in UVic’s Department of Visual Arts, is bringing the old-growth forests near Port Renfrew sharply into focus with a new digital art project.

Created with the participation of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), Richardson’s large-format film will be shot in July at Port Renfrew’s Avatar Grove (a popular nickname for its Nuu-cha-nulth Pacheedaht name of T’l’oqwxwat) by Christian Kroitor, the grandson of IMAX inventor Roman Kroitor, and released on IMAX screens across Canada next year.

The Ontario-born artist, who has been living in the UK since 2003 and teaching at Newcastle University in northeastern England since 2013, cites proximity to Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests as one of the reasons she moved to Victoria and accepted the position at UVic.

New project to be featured as part of IMAX 50th anniversary
Richardson and four other Canadian media artists—Michael Snow, Oliver Husain, Lisa Jackson and Leila Sujir— are featured in the upcoming XL-Outer Worlds project which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the IMAX, a Canadian invention by Roman Kroitor.

XL-Outer Worlds focuses on short films creating a larger-than-life landscape that forms an outer world.

Home to spectacular stands of old-growth trees
Richardson decided to move to Vancouver Island specifically upon seeing BC’s old-growth forests firsthand during her time as a UVic Visiting Artist in the fall of 2016.

“I was overwhelmed by my experience of those ancient stands, which was a huge influence in my decision to apply for a professorship at UVic,” says Richardson. “I couldn’t believe those ancient stands still exist at all anywhere in the world, let alone here. My upcoming projects will feature the old-growth forests in this region and I hope I can contribute to efforts to raise awareness about their outstanding beauty and the plight to protect what remains.”

Known for creating hyper-real digital films of rich and complex landscapes manipulated using CGI, animation and sound, Richardson’s work fuses 19th century painting, 20th century cinema and 21st century scientific inquiries. She creates works with strong environmental themes, asking viewers to consider what the future might look like if we continue on our current trajectory of global environmental crisis.

“It’s not just the sheer size but it’s actually how you feel in front of these ancient, ancient trees.” – Kelly Richardson, visual arts prof

In 2017, Richardson was involved in 14 solo and group exhibitions across Canada and in China, France, the UK and the US. Her video installations have been included in the Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and she was previously honoured at the Americans for the Arts’ National Arts Awards alongside Robert Redford, Salman Rushdie and fellow artist Ed Ruscha.

Richardson’s old-growth project will be created with the participation of the AFA which, together with the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, spearheaded the protection of Avatar Grove / T’l’oqwxwat located in the Pacheedaht First Nations’ traditional territory and home to one of the most spectacular and easily accessible stands of monumental old-growth trees in BC.

Read the original story here.

Port Renfrew’s Avatar Grove featured in national IMAX series

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Sooke News Mirror: A Victoria artist, recognized internationally, will showcase Port Renfrew’s old growth forests in a new IMAX project.

Kelly Richardson, who visited Avatar Grove two years ago has chosen it to be featured in her upcoming digital art installation series, which will be projected on IMAX screens across the country in 2019.

“Having lived and worked in England for the last 14 years, I recently relocated to Victoria in order to be closer to the truly magnificent old-growth forests. After visiting Avatar Grove during a work trip in the fall of 2016, I was overwhelmed by my experience of those ancient stands, which was a huge influence in my decision to apply for a professorship at the University of Victoria where I now work,” said Richardson in a press release.

“My upcoming projects will feature the old-growth forests in this region, and I hope I can contribute to efforts to raise awareness about their outstanding beauty and the plight to protect what remains.”

Richardson was born in Canada, and her artwork has been acclaimed throughout North America, China, and Europe, displayed in multiple museums, film festival, and expositions.

Her large format-film series where the ancient forests will be featured in, focuses on environmental themes and will encourage viewers to wonder why we have allowed ourselves to arrive at such an environmental crisis, and what our future might look like if we continue on this path of destruction.

“We’re excited to have such a renowned and original artist of Kelly Richardson’s caliber, focusing her talent to draw international attention through creativity to the endangered old-growth forests of Vancouver Island,” said Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance in a press release.

“The old-growth forests around Port Renfrew, which are still largely endangered, are clearly continuing to impress increasing numbers of people; not only tourists, businesses, and news media, but acclaimed artists as well.”

The AFA hopes all the attention being drawn to forests like Avatar Grove, will help catapult the campaign to convince the B.C. provincial government to protect old-growth forests in our region.

Read the original story here.

WATCH: Victoria artist to showcase Port Renfrew old growth forests in IMAX project

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WATCH: Vancouver Island’s endangered old-growth forests in Port Renfrew have captured the attention of an internationally acclaimed artist. The giant ancient trees will be featured in an upcoming digital art installation that will be projected on IMAX screens across the country.

They’re known as Canada’s tall trees the gorgeous giants part of the old growth forest in Port Renfrew are a magnificent sight to see.

“Trees that are as tall as a downtown skyscraper and as wide as your living room upwards of a thousand years old,” said TJ Watt from the Ancient Forest Alliance.

And they never fail to capture the attention of those lucky enough to witnesses their presence.

So, it was no surprise they caught the attention of internationally acclaimed artist Kelly Richardson, who took a job with the University of Victoria, after living in the UK for 14 years to be closer to the ancient giants.

Richardson is known for creating hyper-real digital films of rich and complex landscapes using CGI, animation and sound.

“It’s not just the sheer size but it’s actually how you feel in front of these ancient, ancient trees. I couldn’t believe those ancient stands still exist at all anywhere in the world let alone here,” said Richardson.

Infatuated with their beauty she hopes to bring the old giants to life on the IMAX screens for her latest work to celebrate 50 years since its invention.

“Without giving away too much you will be immersed in an old growth forest which has been shifted to an area of science fiction,” said Richardson.

But for her, it’s about more than just a visual experience.

“I want viewers to feel a potential future, what it’s like to live in that future and through that perspective view ourselves in our current situation with some measure of hindsight and clarity about what we are doing and where we are headed and why?” said Richardson.

Because while clearly magnificent to look at and a giant in size, the old growth trees are endangered.

“Old growth logging actually continues today on a very large scale. If you were to go to Port Renfrew this very week you will see old growth trees falling and hitting the ground,” said Watt.
The project will be shown on IMAX screens across the country premiering in 2019 and with a platform of that size, the goal is to bring attention to the issue of their preservation.

“ My hope is that one day we won’t have to protect them we can finally have then saved,” said Watt.

Watch the original CHEK News story here.

AFA Executive Director Ken Wu stands alongside a row of Sitka spruce and western hemlock trees growing in a line out of a nurse log in the unprotected FernGully Grove near Port Renfrew.

Forest advocacy group discovers grove of giant Sitka spruce trees on Vancouver Island

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A B.C.-based forest advocacy group has recently found an ancient grove, home to one of the biggest Sitka spruce trees in the country, on Vancouver Island.

A member of the Ancient Forest Alliance discovered the unprotected grove of giant Sitka spruce trees in the territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation that is near Port Renfrew, a town with the reputation of being the “tall tree capital of Canada.”

Ken Wu, the group's executive director, said he has had his eyes on the forest for many years, but it wasn't until Dec. 4 on a hike that he found the 11-foot-diameter Sitka spruce tree, which is wider than the 10 widest spruce listed on the B.C. big tree registry.

“[The grove] is one of the rarest types of old growth [and the] most beautiful forest,” Mr. Wu said on Sunday.

He said that finding a forest of unprotected giant Sitka spruce is highly significant because the vast majority of them on Vancouver Island have been logged.

The forest has been nicknamed FernGully Grove because of its dense and extensive understorey of ferns and is located on lands owned by TimberWest Forest Corp., but the advocacy group is encouraging the company to sell the land to the province for better protection.

According to a statement sent to The Globe and Mail, TimberWest said it has protected the Sitka spruce tree and the surrounding stand for many years, and it isn't planning to change its operation.

“We are committed to the responsible stewardship of our working forest, and actively solicit the input of interested stakeholders to strike the appropriate balance between ecological, social and economic interests. There are no plans to deviate from the conservation status of this grove in our inventory management,” TimberWest's spokeswoman Monica Bailey said in an e-mail.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the new BC NDP government to reimplement the provincial land acquisition fund, which was cancelled by the then-Liberal government in 2008, in order to purchase and protect private lands that have high conservation or recreation value.

“The B.C. government needs to implement a comprehensive, science-based plan to protect the remaining old-growth forests, while also supporting First Nations land-use plans and financing sustainable economic development and diversification in those communities in lieu of old-growth logging,” said Andrea Inness, a campaigner from the Ancient Forest Alliance.

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She added that the FernGully Grove area is another key reason why the new provincial government needs to take action soon.

Mr. Wu said the forest has some of the most amazing wildlife population on Vancouver Island such as elk, deer, bear and cougar, and he hopes it can be kept as an ecological reserve rather than a provincial park.

“We don't want lots of people to hike here because there is so much wildlife; they will be driven away if it becomes a tourist area.”

Sun shines through the moss and ferns in the unprotected FernGully Grove near Port Renfrew.

Towering near-record Sitka spruce located near Port Renfrew

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Port Renfrew is billed as Canada’s Tall Tree Capital, and the latest find is helping to enforce the nickname.

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) says they located an 11-foot diameter Sitka spruce tree that is the tenth widest Sitka spruce in Canada, according to the BC Big Tree Registry.

AFA says they found the massive tree in one of the last unprotected stands of old-growth Sitka spruce groves on Vancouver Island, nicknamed FernGully Grove, near Port Renfrew.

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From left: Ancient Forest Alliance volunteer Nathaniel Glickman

Massive near-record Sitka spruce tree found on Vancouver Island

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A forest advocacy group says it has discovered an unprotected old-growth forest that is home to a near-record sized Sitka spruce tree on Vancouver Island.

The Ancient Forest Alliance says the 3.3-metre wide tree was found on lands owned by TimberWest Corporation, near the town of Port Renfrew, also known as Canada’s tall tree capital.

According to the Big Tree Registry, the tree is the tenth widest Sitka spruce in Canada.

Now the group, which lobbies to keep old-growth forests from being logged, is petitioning B.C.’s New Democrat government to buy the land from TimberWest.

AFA executive director Ken Wu says finding a grove of unprotected giant Sitka spruce trees is significant given that the vast majority have been logged in the valley where they grow.

Wu says the area, which they have nicknamed FernGully Grove, is also home to dozens of one to two metre wide trees, giant sword ferns, and is the habitat for elk, deer, wolves, cougars and black bears. He says the grove “needs to be bought and protected by the province.”

Wu says in the past, TimberWest has held back from logging some contentious sites while negotiations for their purchase or protection have been underway.

He is hoping the company will do the same in FernGully Grove.

TimberWest and B.C.’s Ministry of Forests have been contacted with a request for information about potential plans for the area

Read the original article here.
 

Speakers and Ralliers at Ancient Forest Event

Groups demand protection of Island’s old-growth forests

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B.C.’s old-growth forests will not go down without a fight.

More than 200 people, including members of the Sooke, Port Renfrew, and West Shore chambers of commerce, First Nations, local governments and environmental groups, gathered in Victoria on Tuesday demanding the provincial government create policies to protect old-growth forests.

Old-growth forests play an important role for many reasons, including providing a home for endangered species, sustaining climate, attracting tourism, and is a large part of First Nations culture.

But 75 per cent of B.C.’s original old-growth forests have already been logged, and only eight per cent of Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests are in protected areas.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is seeking to have short and long-term policy changes implemented by the government.

The longer term policies would involve a law to protect forests, and annual funding that would allow the government to buy and protect lands of “high conservation, cultural or recreational value.”

For a more short-term solution, the alliance suggested implementing a policy that the B.C. government is almost finished developing called a Big Tree Protection Order, which would protect the biggest trees on the coast with buffer zones. They also believe the NDP should stop B.C. Timber Sales (the B.C. government’s logging agency) from cutting down any more old-growth areas.

The NDP’s 2017 election platform states: “we will modernize land-use planning to effectively and sustainable manage B.C.’s … forests and old growth. We will take an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.”

“We’ve long agreed with these campaigners more needs to be done to protect the health of our vital forests, which for 16 years were left degraded by the B.C. Liberal government,” said Premier John Horgan in a statement.

“Doug Donaldson (minister of forests) met in October with the groups who held the rally Tuesday night. They shared with him a thoughtful and comprehensive analysis with what they see as the problem and offered some solutions.”

Horgan said the campaigners’ discussion paper is being analyzed by the ministry right now and they will have more to say about it once the study is complete.

If the NDP follows through with the statement, the remaining old-growth forests would be protected.

“I’m looking forward to the solutions he (Donaldson) brings forward,” Horgan said.

Ken Wu, executive director of the alliance, said Tuesday’s rally sent an unmistakable message to the NDP that B.C. citizens want to see a major change and improvement in the forestry industry.

“We look forward to seeing some concrete action in the coming months, especially during the February sitting of the legislature, where we expect the B.C. government to follow through on its 2017 election platform commitments,” Wu said.

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