The historic logging boomtown of Port Renfrew is redefining its relationship with old trees.
Nestled on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, the town’s livelihood and identity grew out of logging old-growth forests for most of the 20th century. Mechanization of the logging industry in the 1980s led to significant job loss, which forced the town to find new ways to thrive.
The community of less than 300 residents now relies on tourist dollars attracted partly by the allure of its remaining tall trees.
“We’re calling ourselves ‘a tall tree town’ now because I think it works,” said Rose Betsworth, president of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber forged a new partnership with the Ancient Forest Alliance in 2009 after the Victoria based environmental group discovered an old-growth forest 15 minutes north of Port Renfrew.
Together they are pushing for full legislative protection of the 40 hectares of ancient forest, which the alliance named Avatar Grove in reference to the blockbuster movie with the conservationist tilt.
“We’re edging very close to protection status for Avatar Grove,” said Betsworth. “And if that happens it means all these other old growth have a chance. We want to showcase Port Renfrew and our old growth.”
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Betsworth explains that the site of the future tourist information centre is a beautiful spot.
A joint fundraiser between the chamber and the AFA raised more than $6,000 for a new tourist centre in Port Renfrew scheduled to open in May.
“We’re a tourist community. We rely on tourist dollars,” Betsworth said. “We’ve forgotten about the logging part of it now.”
The value of old wood
Old-growth forests, with towering trees typically 250 to a 1,000 years old, provide homes for unique ecosystems.
More than 73 per cent of productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged, according to the AFA website.
Worth more than $100,000 per log in the 1990s, old-growth trees fueled profits for British Columbia’s forest industry.
The industry continues to target old, large trees because they tend to be stronger than younger, smaller trees.
The coastal old-growth forests of B.C. absorb large amounts of water. That enables them to resist pests and forest fires and to grow up to 70 metres high. Their slow growth produces tighter growth rings and a higher quality of wood less susceptible to warping.
Dan Kuzman, a longtime resident of Port Renfrew, said that these old durable trees are important in the manufacturing of wood products.
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This red cedar, at least 250 years old, was cut down less than one kilometre away from Avatar Grove.
“Normally you wouldn’t see an old-growth tree made into two-by-fours and two-by-sixes,” Kuzman said. “It would be large beams or good plywood…Window sills, door jams, that kind of stuff. It’s all old-growth.”
Specialty items such as guitars and marine lumber are often by-products of the ancient giants, said Kuzman.
Preservation of some of the old forests is important, he said, but he questioned to what extent.
“I don’t see why you can’t keep some of them,” Kuzman said. “But saving them for the sake of saving them is not enough.
“Having the province, or the people of the province, not being able to benefit from [old-growth] from the economic part of it is probably wrong, more wrong than taking it from the people who are looking at it.”
The value of old forests
Mark Haddock, an attorney with the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, said that B.C. has predominantly valued old-growth forests for their economic value.
“We’ve tended to view it historically just as a resource for lumber extraction, not really seeing the connections between the sorts of ecosystems that are represented by those forests and the animals that depend on them,” he said.
Species such as Roosevelt elk and northern spotted owls rely on the mix of new, old and decaying trees found in old-growth forests for food and shelter. The logging of B.C.’s pristine forests endangers these species as clear cutting continues.
Keeping old forests intact also does more to mitigate climate change than planting new trees. More carbon can be stored in the soil of an undisturbed ancient forest.
“I think the conservation biology is pretty sound,” Haddock said. “I think it makes a pretty persuasive case to me as a British Columbian that there’s real merit in protecting old-growth forests. Now that we are aware of these ecological values, how do we act?”
Current provincial protection for old growth forests is a matter of discretion by the government, Haddock said.
“There are rules that can and do protect old-growth,” Haddock said. “It’s just that the amount of old-growth, that is protected is not stated in any mandatory way. It’s a discretionary decision by the government.”
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Watt overlooks clear cuts surrounding Port Renfrew.
The discovery of Avatar Grove by TJ Watt, cofounder of the alliance, and the subsequent barrage of media coverage triggered a public outcry to protect the remaining old-growth forests on the south of Vancouver Island.
Former Vancouver Island MP Keith Martin recently called for the creation of a national park reserve that would encompass the southern portion of the island and include Avatar Grove, which is only 25 per cent protected.
Companies continue to log giant cedars a kilometre away from the grove, Watt said, questioning how long the logging of old-growth forests can last.
“If they don’t have a plan and it’s not considered, what are they gonna do in a couple decades when they finish it?” he said.
“It’s not if, it’s when.”
Click here to view the original article
Avatar Grove must get saved
/in AnnouncementsThere’s a lot of nonsense and inaccuracies in Greg Klem’s confused letter (April 13) about the Ancient Forest Alliance and Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce’s cooperative efforts to protect the Avatar Grove.
Avatar Grove is particularly valuable because it is the easiest to access monumental stand of ancient trees near Port Renfrew. Other old-growth stands are farther away along rough logging roads, on steep slopes.
The thousands of visitors who’ve been there know it’s filled with majestic red cedars and Douglas firs, along with smaller hemlocks. The largest trees in Avatar Grove are about 14 feet in diameter, wider than my living room. You can see photos at https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/
A recent Forest Practices Board report notes that just one per cent of the Gordon Valley landscape unit consists of protected monumental trees over 400 years old. In addition, only about one-fourth or 4,000 hectares of the Gordon River’s 17,000 hectares is still old-growth, of which only half or 2,000 hectares are protected in Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s).
Most of the Avatar Grove’s biggest trees were marked with “Falling Boundary” and “Road Location” ribbons for logging when we started to popularize the area last year. Only 24 per cent of Avatar Grove is within an OGMA, according to Forests Ministry statements.
Similarly, TimberWest flagged their private lands for logging right next to the old-growth fringe around the Red Creek Fir last year, but backed off when we made noise. That was followed by BC Timber Sales logging about 500 metres away. The sign for the Red Creek Fir has never been replaced by the government after being destroyed.
Our old-growth forests have much greater value still alive for tourism, wildlife, and the climate. Let’s sustainably log second-growth and protect the last bits of old-growth like the Avatar Grove.
We’re proud to work with the many forward-thinking local business owners including the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce who see a future in keeping the largest trees in Canada standing.
Old trees find new value in historic logging town
/in News CoverageThe historic logging boomtown of Port Renfrew is redefining its relationship with old trees.
Nestled on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, the town’s livelihood and identity grew out of logging old-growth forests for most of the 20th century. Mechanization of the logging industry in the 1980s led to significant job loss, which forced the town to find new ways to thrive.
The community of less than 300 residents now relies on tourist dollars attracted partly by the allure of its remaining tall trees.
“We’re calling ourselves ‘a tall tree town’ now because I think it works,” said Rose Betsworth, president of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber forged a new partnership with the Ancient Forest Alliance in 2009 after the Victoria based environmental group discovered an old-growth forest 15 minutes north of Port Renfrew.
Together they are pushing for full legislative protection of the 40 hectares of ancient forest, which the alliance named Avatar Grove in reference to the blockbuster movie with the conservationist tilt.
“We’re edging very close to protection status for Avatar Grove,” said Betsworth. “And if that happens it means all these other old growth have a chance. We want to showcase Port Renfrew and our old growth.”
Betsworth explains that the site of the future tourist information centre is a beautiful spot.
A joint fundraiser between the chamber and the AFA raised more than $6,000 for a new tourist centre in Port Renfrew scheduled to open in May.
“We’re a tourist community. We rely on tourist dollars,” Betsworth said. “We’ve forgotten about the logging part of it now.”
The value of old wood
Old-growth forests, with towering trees typically 250 to a 1,000 years old, provide homes for unique ecosystems.
More than 73 per cent of productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged, according to the AFA website.
Worth more than $100,000 per log in the 1990s, old-growth trees fueled profits for British Columbia’s forest industry.
The industry continues to target old, large trees because they tend to be stronger than younger, smaller trees.
The coastal old-growth forests of B.C. absorb large amounts of water. That enables them to resist pests and forest fires and to grow up to 70 metres high. Their slow growth produces tighter growth rings and a higher quality of wood less susceptible to warping.
Dan Kuzman, a longtime resident of Port Renfrew, said that these old durable trees are important in the manufacturing of wood products.
This red cedar, at least 250 years old, was cut down less than one kilometre away from Avatar Grove.
“Normally you wouldn’t see an old-growth tree made into two-by-fours and two-by-sixes,” Kuzman said. “It would be large beams or good plywood…Window sills, door jams, that kind of stuff. It’s all old-growth.”
Specialty items such as guitars and marine lumber are often by-products of the ancient giants, said Kuzman.
Preservation of some of the old forests is important, he said, but he questioned to what extent.
“I don’t see why you can’t keep some of them,” Kuzman said. “But saving them for the sake of saving them is not enough.
“Having the province, or the people of the province, not being able to benefit from [old-growth] from the economic part of it is probably wrong, more wrong than taking it from the people who are looking at it.”
The value of old forests
Mark Haddock, an attorney with the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, said that B.C. has predominantly valued old-growth forests for their economic value.
“We’ve tended to view it historically just as a resource for lumber extraction, not really seeing the connections between the sorts of ecosystems that are represented by those forests and the animals that depend on them,” he said.
Species such as Roosevelt elk and northern spotted owls rely on the mix of new, old and decaying trees found in old-growth forests for food and shelter. The logging of B.C.’s pristine forests endangers these species as clear cutting continues.
Keeping old forests intact also does more to mitigate climate change than planting new trees. More carbon can be stored in the soil of an undisturbed ancient forest.
“I think the conservation biology is pretty sound,” Haddock said. “I think it makes a pretty persuasive case to me as a British Columbian that there’s real merit in protecting old-growth forests. Now that we are aware of these ecological values, how do we act?”
Current provincial protection for old growth forests is a matter of discretion by the government, Haddock said.
“There are rules that can and do protect old-growth,” Haddock said. “It’s just that the amount of old-growth, that is protected is not stated in any mandatory way. It’s a discretionary decision by the government.”
Watt overlooks clear cuts surrounding Port Renfrew.
The discovery of Avatar Grove by TJ Watt, cofounder of the alliance, and the subsequent barrage of media coverage triggered a public outcry to protect the remaining old-growth forests on the south of Vancouver Island.
Former Vancouver Island MP Keith Martin recently called for the creation of a national park reserve that would encompass the southern portion of the island and include Avatar Grove, which is only 25 per cent protected.
Companies continue to log giant cedars a kilometre away from the grove, Watt said, questioning how long the logging of old-growth forests can last.
“If they don’t have a plan and it’s not considered, what are they gonna do in a couple decades when they finish it?” he said.
“It’s not if, it’s when.”
Click here to view the original article
Secrets of Clayoquot Event – Tuesday, April 5th, 7:30-9:00pm, Ambrosia Event Centre, Victoria, BC.
/in AnnouncementsThe Ancient Forest Alliance is excited to host an important event presented by the Friends of Clayoquot Sound this coming Tuesday, April 5th from 7:30-9:00 PM at the Ambrosia Event Centre, 638 Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC.
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=175550509158893
Join sea kayakers Dan Lewis and Bonny Glambeck of Tofino for an unforgettable slideshow journey through the natural beauty and splendor of Clayoquot Sound.
Learn about the ecology of the region’s globally significant ancient rainforests, and how industrial activity threatens this UNESCO Biosphere reserve.
The couple are seasoned naturalists and expedition sea kayakers who have paddled most of the BC coast. They will share stories about their many adventures at home in Clayoquot Sound, and show images from some of BC’s leading outdoor photographers.
Don’t miss this entertaining, informative and inspiring evening!
This BC-wide tour brought to you by the Friends of Clayoquot Sound and Mountain Equipment Co-op
Admission by donation $5-$10 https://clayoquot.tumblr.co
Please CONFIRM your attendence, INVITE your family/friends and SHARE this event via Facebook, Twitter, E-Mail, etc!
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=175550509158893
New INCREDIBLE High-Definition (HD) Video Shot in the Avatar Grove!
/in Announcements, Thank You, VideoTweet
Click here for a direct link to the video
Professional videographer Darryl Augustine recently spent two days gathering high-definition video clips with AFA photographer TJ Watt in the Avatar Grove and Gordon River Valley near Port Renfrew.
Shooting with the Canon 5D MK II, the Canon 7D, and using a pocket dolly to roll smooth shots, Darryl has captured some of the most stunning, Planet Earth-like video of these incredible yet threatened forests. This clip is a rough edit of some of the footage gathered during the trip. (note – a clip of the San Juan Spruce is spliced in with the Avatar Grove footage)
Thanks to Darryl for volunteering his skills to help forward the campaign to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests! The video footage will prove very useful in the future for a mini-documentary and TV news media handouts.
Port Renfrew aided by donations
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Once the phrase “Avatar Grove” was coined, the flood gates opened out at Port Renfrew.
Avatar Grove refers to the stand of old growth forest just outside Port Renfrew and features the “Canada’s Gnarliest Tree,” a giant red cedar with a 12-foot wide contorted burl located just five minutes past the end of the paved road.
Perhaps it was because of the popular movie, perhaps it was the incredible tree itself but, in any case, efforts by the Ancient Forest Alliance are paying off and the trees in the grove are one step closer to being protected.
At a fundraiser on March 17 at the Sooke Harbour House, local area business people and interested conservationists came together to raise funds for an information centre in Port Renfrew.
“The Ancient Forest Alliance became an integral part of our community and the chamber of commerce and our campaign to protect these forests,” said Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce president Rosie Betsworth.
Ken Wu, of the Ancient Forest Alliance, spoke of small towns inCanada Canada
“It’s the real deal, the biggest fir tree on the planet and the gnarliest tree in the country in the Avatar Grove. It is a rallying point for people who want to save the old growth forest,” said Wu.
He said Avatar Grove is still unprotected although the logging company has stated it is not interested in logging in the grove.
“It is a magnificent forest for future generations. The increasing number of people will ramp up the total visitor-ship of the entire region,” said Wu.
Jon Cash was pointed out as the first person to push for increased protection of old growth in Port Renfrew. He said that with an adult population of 75 voters politicians aren’t there for you.
“The Ancient Forest Alliance has given us a voice and the chamber of commerce a voice… it is rebranding the whole town,” said Cash. “We are hugely affected by this campaign.”
He said people came to the area expected to see big trees and this “special place” needs to be treated as such.
Photographer TJ Watt said he has seen a shift in people’s willingness to protect those ancient trees.
“It was not by ranting and raving to save the trees,” he said.
The Ancient Forest Alliance is working to get the government to establish an old-growth management area where trees will be valued and protected.
“If we don’t succeed it will be the ‘Biggest Stump Capital of BC’,” said Watt.
By May 1, the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce wants to have its information centre up and running.
Adrianne Carr of the Green Party led the pledge auction which raised $6,100 in cash and in-kind services for the chamber of commerce.
A South Vancouver Island National Park Reserve
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A South Vancouver Island National Park Reserve
An idea whose time has come
by
Dr. Keith Martin, P.C., M.P.
Member of Parliament for Esquimalt – Juan de Fuca
VICTORIA, B.C. – South Vancouver Island in British Columbia is an extraordinarily beautiful part of our planet. It is a place of ecologically sensitive areas, some of which contain rare flora and fauna. However, population pressures threaten these areas and one day will, through urban sprawl, obliterate these important ecosystems. Once they are gone, they are gone forever.
However, we now have a precious opportunity to preserve these lands. The solution: that the lands of Mary Hill, Race Rocks, and the undeveloped portions of William Head and Rocky Point be designated a National Conservation Area. This should be part of a larger canvas— a South Vancouver Island National Park Reserve—which would include parks in East Sooke, Albert Head, and Fort Rodd Hill connected to the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail system and an expanded Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. This would also embrace the Upper Walbran Valley and sites around Port Renfrew that contain magnificent stands of old growth forests. These remarkable trees tower above all others and predate the birth of our county by centuries.
Linking these areas will create a contiguous area of parks. Uninterrupted protected spaces are crucial for the survival of both marine and terrestrial species. These lands can be managed in a sustainable way to create jobs and revenue from several untapped sources including from eco- and ethno-tourism ventures. Individuals from First Nations and other communities can educate people about the rich and fascinating natural and historical treasures in our backyard and earn sustainable monies from doing this. In other countries that still have wild spaces these activities generate millions of dollars.
Development can occur around existing towns in Jordon River, Port Renfrew, and Sooke. Building up and not out would mitigate urban sprawl, create the tax base needed for services, and provide the homes we all need to live in while preserving these priceless ecosystems.
We have but one opportunity to do this. The time to act is now. An expansion of the Pacific Rim National Reserve, linked to a chain of parks, would create the South Vancouver Island National Park Reserve. This would be an enduring legacy that generations to come will enjoy. We cannot let this moment pass.
Sooke fundraiser aims to raise awareness of Island’s ancient trees
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Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce and the Ancient Forest Alliance are jointly organizing a fundraiser Thursday evening to help raise awareness of the need to protect ancient trees.
The aim of the free-drink-and-free-appetizer event at Sooke Harbour House is to increase tourism to monumental trees around Port Renfrew.
The community is Canada’s big trees capital with Avatar Grove, the Red Creek fir — the largest Douglas fir in the world — and the San Juan spruce — the largest spruce tree in Canada — all in close proximity to town, said Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance.
This summer the Chamber of Commerce wants to hire someone to run its new information centre, Wu said.
“Thousands of visitors will be directed to visit Avatar Grove and ancient forests nearby,” he said.
“This will greatly help to raise the needed awareness about our endangered old-growth forests and will generate greater tourism to the region as friends tell friends to come and see the area’s incredible ancient trees.”
Avatar Grove profile on the rise
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The attraction hasn’t been promoted for long but the area near Port Renfrew dubbed “Avatar Grove” by the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is being seen by growing numbers of visitors, many being guided there by Alliance members.
The environmental advocates with the AFA have worked steadily at publicizing the site of old growth trees they became aware of in late 2009. Some of the cedar and spruce trees located there are reportedly among the oldest and largest on the continent.
The alliance has gained support for its efforts to preserve the grove – first with a sympathetic report from the Forest Practices Board then comments from Forests, Lands and Mines Minister Pat Bell that measures to protect the grove are being considered.
“I’ve had the chief forester working with the Ancient Forest Alliance along with some other prominent NGOs (non-governmental organizations),” the Minister told the Sooke News Mirror on February 18.
“We’re considering what we might be able to do and also mapping out what’s been done already. A significant portion of Avatar Grove is already protected.”
Minister Bell said the nearby logging licensee, Teal-Jones “haven’t indicated any interest in harvesting in there anyway. But if people feel more comfortable having a higher level of protection it’s something I’m prepared to consider.”
The Minister stressed the importance of the area being “safe and secure” if growing numbers of visitors are to show up at the grove which is about a 10-minute drive from Port Renfrew on the way to Lake Cowichan. He concluded by saying he expects to hear back from the chief forester within “the next few weeks.”
A February 10 report from the BC Forest Practices Board had apparently been inspired by a complaint from a private citizen focusing on old growth harvesting.
T.J.Watt, an AFA photograher/campaigner expressed gratification with the report that adds to support for grove preservation so far expressed by MP Dr. Keith Martin, MLA John Horgan and CRD Juan de Fuca regional director Mike Hicks, the Sooke Region Tourism Association and the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce.
“Wonderful,” is how Hicks described the news of possible government protection of the grove. On Feb. 17 Hicks said the grove is more valuable to local residents standing than cut.
“The loggers can survive on the second growth in the area,” added Hicks.
“It’s a positive step,” said Rose Betsworth of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce. “Avatar Grove has certainly put Port Renfrew on the map of late. Logging the grove would take away the good exposure we’re getting.”
Watt – the Alliance member credited with taking the hike that led to recent awareness of the grove said a preserved grove, over and above its value as a draw for nature lovers, would present other benefits as well.
“A key point is that old growth forests store two to three times more carbon per hectare than ensuing second-growth tree plantations,” Watt explained. “So keeping old growth forest around actually helps in the fight to stop climate change.”
Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director weighed in,
“How many jurisdictions on Earth still have trees that grow as wide as living rooms and as tall as downtown skyscrapers? And how many still say it’s good to cut down them down? We now have a major second-growth alternative, so it’s nuts to keep logging towards the end of the old-growth resource at this stage in our history.”
In B.C., Al Jazeera finds a new war to cover
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With Gadhafi teetering, Mubarak toppled and pretty much every Arab state having come down with a severe case of the wobbles, al Jazeera naturally turns its attention to Avatar Grove – a so-called clearcut and stand of massive trees on Vancouver Island.
It’s true. A crew from the Englishlanguage version of the Mideastbased news network has waded into the woods for a story on B.C. logging practices.
Which evokes a picture of Moammar, the man who put the Daffy in Gadhafi, glued to the big-screen TV and saying: “That’s the gnarliest Sitka spruce I’ve ever seen.”
Well, no, al Jazeera English is actually available to 220 million homes in more than 100 countries around the world, which is what has environmentalists excited.
“International audiences will be astounded to see that British Columbia still has 1,000-year-old trees with tree trunks as wide as living rooms and that tower as tall as downtown skyscrapers -and horrified to know that our government still sanctions cutting them down on a large scale,” said Ken Wu, executive director of the Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance, which is campaigning to end old-growth logging in areas where such trees are scarce.
Wu and Metchosin’s T.J. Watt guided the Toronto-based al Jazeera crew around the Port Renfrew area, taking in the area dubbed Avatar Grove.
The name might be so shamelessly contrived that it makes some want to club a whooping crane to death out of spite, but it seems to have done the trick in attracting attention to the cause.
“We’re always interested in environmental stories,” said al Jazeera producer Jet Belgraver, on the phone from Toronto. The story, which will air Saturday, aims to give global viewers “a bit of a reality check” about B.C. logging practices.
“When they think of Canada, they think of pristine forests.”
This sort of thing makes Canadians squirm. We get our noses out of joint when international media ignore us, then do a 180 and get all shirty when they report on our dirty laundry, as was the case when the world showed up for the Olympics and discovered that Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside looked like the cast party for Shaun of the Dead.
As for the struggle for Vancouver Island’s forests, it hasn’t really garnered international attention since 1993’s War in the Woods, the massive protest against Clayoquot Sound logging. The cameras rolled when activist rockers Midnight Oil -whose big, bald lead singer, Peter Garrett, went on to become Australia’s environment minister -played a concert at the protesters’ camp that July. Environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy, Jr. (another kind of rock star) waded in two weeks later. International pressure, the threat of boycott, eventually spurred B.C. forestry reform, such as it was.
Americans tend not to pay much attention to us anymore, though. The Washington Post shut its Canadian bureau in 2007, following the lead of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. Two years ago, CNN was so ignorant that when Barack Obama paid his first presidential trip to Canada, it identified the red-serge Mounties as soldiers.
Al Jazeera English bills itself as the only international network with a permanent bureau in Canada. The four-year-old, 24-hour news service, based in Qatar, began broadcasting as a digital channel in Canada last May.
The Toronto bureau’s staff are all Canadian, with Imtiaz Tyab, who had worked for the CBC in Vancouver, its on-camera face.
In fact, the entire network has a strong Canadian flavour, including Tony Burman, former editor-inchief of CBC News.
Although influential abroad, the network is having a hard time getting a toehold in the U.S., where the al Jazeera name conjures up images of bomb-happy radical Muslim clerics, and where there appears to be widespread support for exposing the public to a diversity of perspectives, as long as they’re American.
Al Jazeera isn’t that readily accessible in Canada, either.
Shaw carries it as a specialty channel in Victoria, up in the nosebleed section with the Knitting Knetwork and Lithuanian pay-per-view porn, or something like that. It’s easiest to stream it live over the Internet.
As for the old-growth logging practices at the heart of the story, Wu and Watt are encouraged that Forests Minister Pat Bell recently asked B.C.’s chief forester to investigate a Forest Practices Board recommendation that the province find a new way to protect ancient, giant trees.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine the government declaring Avatar Grove (even politicians have begun using the name) off limits to logging.
But Wu says that would just be a start. “It’s not just about saving the cherry on top of the cake.”
If the government doesn’t come up with an old-growth strategy acceptable to the Ancient Forest Alliance, the group plans to target vulnerable Liberal MLAs -not a war in the woods, but a war in the swing ridings.
Maybe that would bring back the cameras, the media always being drawn by war.
Click here to view original article
Al Jazeera Reports on Ancient Forest Alliance’s Campaign to Save Old-Growth Forests and the Avatar Grove
/in News CoverageTweet
Here is the news clip from Al Jazeera, one of the largest TV news networks on Earth that reaches 220 million homes in over 100 countries, who have just featured the Ancient Forest Alliance’s campaign to protect British Columbia’s endangered old-growth forests and the Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island.
Direct link to news clip on Al Jazeera website (and FORWARD to friends and SHARE on Facebook) at:
https://english.aljazeera.net/video/americas/2011/03/201136225519703638.html
Or on Youtube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azIKMhsDMoo
See the long version on Youtube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1ZNSo0-prI
Please Help Us!
SIGN and CIRCULATE our PETITION (ie. FORWARD to email contacts and SHARE on FACEBOOK, and POST on blogs…).
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/ways-to-take-action-for-forests/petition/
WRITE a LETTER – Do letters help? YES!!!!!
Letters are ways for politicians – who are elected or tossed out by voters, and who are also concerned about the province’s international reputation – to track how popular or unpopular their policies are. Each letter you write represents HUNDREDS of people who feel a similar way but didn’t take time to write! College Grants For Graduate Students [Original article no longer available]
Please WRITE to BC’s politicians to let them know that you want them to:
– Protect the Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew.
– Commit to a Provincial Old-Growth Strategy to ban and quickly phase-out old-growth logging in regions where they are now scarce (Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland, southern Interior, etc.)
– Ensure a transition to sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which now constitute the vast majority of the forested lands in southern BC.
– Ban raw log exports to foreign mills and provide incentives for a value-added, second-growth wood manufacturing industry.
Write to:
BC’s new Premier Christy Clark at premier@gov.bc.ca
Forests Minister Pat Bell at pat.bell.mla@leg.bc.ca
NDP leadership candidates:
John Horgan: info@horganforbc.caMike Farnworth: info@mikefarnworth.ca
Adrian Dix: info@adriandixforbc.ca
Nicholas Simons: nicholas@nicholassimons2011.ca
Dana Larsen: info@votedana.ca
ALSO if you live in BC, look up and write your own BC MLA, who you can find by entering your postal code in the “MLA look-up tool” here:
*** BE SURE to include your HOME MAILING ADDRESS so they know you are a real person!!
And stay tuned for more calls to action – rallies, slideshows, hikes, and various events…
Some more info:
See a spectacular video clip (and please forward and share) about the Avatar Grove at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_uPkAWsvVw
75% of Vancouver Island’s ancient forests have already been logged, including 90% of the largest trees that grow in the valley bottoms, according to satellite photos. See “before” and “after” maps at: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/
Old-growth forests are important for sustaining endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, and many First Nations cultures. See SPECTACULAR photos of Canada’s largest trees and stumps at:
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/
************************
Support the Ancient Forest Alliance!
We are a new organization and GREATLY need YOUR support.
DONATE at: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/donations.php
Visit the Ancient Forest Alliance at:
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/
Email: info@staging.ancientforestalliance.org
Petition: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/ways-to-take-action-for-forests/petition/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ancientforestalliance/