Old-growth forest clearcut new Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island

Expected layoffs in B.C. government’s Ministry of Forests bad timing says NDP

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On the heels of issuing layoff notices to 294 public service workers Monday, the B.C. government is planning for another round of cuts in the Ministry of Forests by early summer.

At a time when lumber prices are booming but the industry is far from recovering, it’s either the worst time to slash jobs — according to the leader of the Opposition — or an opportune time to cut, according to an industry leader.

Of the 294 notices issued yesterday, 204 are in the Forests Ministry and 38 in the Integrated Land Management Bureau. The remaining 52 positions are in the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources.

The government intends to cut “no more than five per cent” of the 30,000-member civil service — a maximum of about 1,500 full-time equivalent positions — over the next three years.

In a letter to employees Monday, deputy minister Dana Hayden said the sooner the upcoming cuts are identified, the better. “Consequently, the workforce adjustment process for 2011/12 will likely occur before this summer.”

After more than three years in a down market cycle for the forest industry, lumber prices are up substantially — mainly because supply was taken off the market — but the industry is not expected to ramp up overnight, said John Allan, president of the Council of Forest Industries.

B.C. lumber production is down by 37.4 per cent in the last two years.

Allan said the ministry can absorb the cuts and continue to carry out its duties, including enforcement. “I’m frankly not concerned.”

But NDP Opposition leader Carole James slammed the government in question period yesterday, saying it doesn’t make sense to cut forestry workers when the government is trying to open new markets for lumber and diversify the industry. “I think it’s short-sighted and not looking long-term at growth,” said James in an interview.

Government should have run a deficit for at least another year, depending on the economic recovery, so it wouldn’t have had to make such deep cuts and lose so many experienced staff, she said.

The cuts, which include 22 compliance and enforcement staff, will have an impact on the forests ministry’s ability to monitor whether companies are following the law and protecting the environment, she said.

Ken Wu, of the Ancient Forest Alliance, agrees, saying enforcement in B.C.’s forests is already “way down” from the level in the early 1990s. “They never had enough people to begin with,” said Wu.

Rick Jeffery, chief executive officer of Coast Forest Productions Association, said the cutbacks won’t have any impact on the quality of B.C. forest management, however.

The annual allowable cut hasn’t been harvested in the last three years and that trend will likely continue, he noted. “One can ask whether we need as many bodies looking after ministry business if the amount of business they have has significantly dropped.”

Darryl Walker, president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, said the cuts have already gone too far, and the government appears to have no plan.

“In this day when forestry is in jeopardy — the great industry and engine that drove the building of this province and we seem to be giving up on it — I just don’t understand it,” Walker said.

The Forests Ministry budget drops to $595 million in 2011/12, from $641 million this year.

More people should be working in areas such as research in the ministry, not fewer, Walker said.

“It will turn around and we will want to rebuild the forest industry and yet we’re not doing anything to prepare young people for it.”

Benna Keoghoe stands next to a giant Douglas fir measuring 6ft in diameter growing in Mount Doug Park located within the Oak Bay/Gordon Head swing riding.

Environmental activist targets Oak Bay-Gordon Head riding to launch tree campaign

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You don’t have to drive hours out of Victoria to find old-growth trees or, for that matter, politicians who are hanging onto their seats by a thread.

Environmental activist Ken Wu, of the Ancient Forest Alliance, led media representatives into Mount Douglas Park on Friday to see a 400-year-old Douglas fir measuring two metres in diameter.

The tree is located in the riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head, where Liberal Ida Chong edged out the NDP candidate in last year’s election.

Environmental activist Wu chose this particular Douglas fir in this particular swing riding to launch a new campaign to save old-growth forests in B.C. The Ancient Forest Alliance is not a charity and therefore is permitted to condemn or endorse politicians and political parties.

“Whoever would think that we have an old-growth forest in the heart of urban Victoria and in the swing riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head?” said Wu.

The group is calling on the Liberal government to protect remaining old-growth forest, ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forest, ban raw log exports, and assist in retooling of old-growth sawmills for value-added wood manufacturing.

The dozen or so swing ridings in B.C. are the focus of the group’s campaign, he said. “All it would take would be a shift of seven or eight ridings in the province to cause this government to lose power,” Wu said. “What we’re doing today is taking the ancient forest movement to a whole new level.”

Without the neutral approach required by charities, he said, “we can go straight now to their sensitive areas … so they’ll either have to change their policies or lose the election.”

The organization will focus on public education and will not break the law in order to get its point across, Wu said.

Avatar Rally for B.C.’s Ancient Forests, 27 March 2010

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This video was made by Langara journalism students Linnaea and Jackie of the Avatar Rally to Save BC’s Ancient Forests and Forestry Jobs hosted by the Ancient Forest Alliance and Point Grey Ancient Forest Committee on Saturday March 27, 2010.

Please press the link to view the film: https://www.youtube.com/user/LeNezAh#p/a/u/0/OZazOer4oao

Benna Keoghoe stands next to a giant Douglas fir measuring 6ft in diameter growing in Mount Doug Park located within the Oak Bay/Gordon Head swing riding.

New Old-Growth Activist Teams to be Launched in BC Swing Ridings to take the Ancient Forest Campaign to a Whole New Level

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Without the handcuffs of charitable status which forbids organizations from condemning or endorsing politicians and political parties, BC’s new Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA – visit www.ancientforestalliance.org) is now positioned to organize hard-hitting campaigns in key provincial swing ridings. In particular, the AFA will be working to systematically train and guide activists to establish “Ancient Forest Committees” (AFC’s), or forest activist teams, in 8 to 10 provincial swing ridings over the next year. The AFC’s will be technically autonomous from the AFA, but will be trained and guided by the AFA particularly in their formative stages.

“As long as the BC Liberal government continues along its current path of justifying the liquidation of our last old-growth forests in southern BC and the export of raw logs to foreign mills, we’ll move to organize major public awareness campaigns in 8 to 10 swing ridings where we can exert a disproportionate amount of influence on the government and its policies – and cause them to lose the next election if need be,” states Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “Conversely, if they move to undertake a provincial old-growth plan that will protect our endangered old-growth forests and forestry jobs, we will most certainly give credit where credit is due. This is a whole new level of environmental campaigning where the ancient forest movement has not gone before – we will be a lot more effective now.”

The first of the Ancient Forest Committees to be launched on Vancouver Island will be the Oak Bay – Gordon Head Ancient Forest Committee, coordinated by local environmental activist Benna Keoghoe.

“Oak Bay-Gordon Head is one of the most environmentally conscious ridings in BC, and in fact in Canada. BC Liberal MLA Ida Chong won the last election by a 2% margin, by just over 500 votes. We know for a fact that there are thousands of environmentally-minded voters in the riding who will change their allegiances if they know that so far Chong has touted the standard BC Liberal stance that ancient forests are not endangered on Vancouver Island and are adequately protected, which is false,” states Benna Keoghoe, Oak Bay – Gordon Head AFC cofounder. “We’ll be organizing a lot of door canvassing, leaflet drops, petition drives, slideshows, nature walks, and protests in the riding.”

Currently the BC Liberals contend that old-growth forests are not endangered on Vancouver Island and that raw log exports should continue, while the NDP is calling for an Old-Growth Strategy that will inventory and increase protection for old-growth forests and they advocate restrictions on raw log exports. The BC Green Party is calling for the protection of the remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and an end to raw log exports.

Old-growth forests are important for sustaining species at risk, tourism, the climate, clean water, and First Nations traditional cultures.

Based upon an analysis of satellite photographs, about 88% of the original, productive old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island (south of Barkley Sound and Port Alberni) have already been logged, including 95% of the productive old-growth on low, flat terrain. Across the Island as a whole, about 75% of the original productive old-growth forests have been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow.

With so little of our ancient forests remaining, the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government to:

– Undertake a Provincial Old-Growth Strategy that will inventory the remaining old-growth forests and protect them where they are scarce (ie. Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland, southern Interior, etc.).

– Ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which now constitute the vast majority of BC’s landscapes.

– End the export of raw logs in order to ensure guaranteed log supplies for local milling and value-added industries.

– Assist in the retooling and development of mills and value-added facilities to handle second-growth logs.

– Undertake new land-use planning initiatives based on First Nations land-use plans, ecosystem-based scientific assessments, and climate mitigation strategies involving forest protection.

Lower Avatar Grove

Avatar worth saving

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As one of the 80 hikers who visited Avatar Grove on March 28 with the Ancient Forest Alliance, I find it somewhat ironic that the Vancouver Olympics showcased the natural beauty of B.C.’s old-growth forests.

Majestic cedar trees, salmon and orca whales were all images seen in the Opening Ceremonies. How is it that we can value and promote these wonderful aspects of our province to the entire world, while at the same time allowing the fast-paced destruction of our natural ecosystems?

The logging of old-growth forests continues every day at unprecedented rates. We must make a transition into sustainable second-growth logging, ban raw log exports and re-tool B.C. mills to provide and ensure forestry jobs in perpetuity.

Ending old-growth logging and forestry jobs can co-exist in B.C. Old-growth forests, such as the Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island (part of Teal Jones’ TFL 46), are not only a part of our heritage in B.C., but they also provide habitat for animals of all shapes and sizes: bacteria, fungi, insects, amphibians, fish, birds, and land and ocean mammals. These forests provide carbon storage, are important to First Nations cultures and are evidently fundamental for B.C.’s tourism industry (as witnessed in the promotional imagery of the Olympics). Let’s end old-growth logging for the well-being of all British Columbians.

AFA Campaign Director Ken Wu stands beside one of the Avatar Grove's largest redcedars.

Avatar worth exploring

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I had the pleasure March 28 of joining 80 other members of the Ancient Forest Alliance to experience the small grove of old growth trees near Port Renfrew known (informally) as Avatar Grove. This amazingly rare site, which comprises an area approximately 10 square hectares, holds some of the oldest and largest trees remainig on Vancouver Island, some of which are more than 30 feet around and stand over 100 feet tall. My friends and I gazed up at these monstrous trees in amazement, realizing that many of them were 500 to 800 years old. We were shocked and deeply saddened to see survey tape surrounding the grove, including tape which indicated proposed new logging roads as well as cut lines.

We feel that it is extremely important that this small grove of trees is preserved, as it is one of the last such stands of ancient, old growth trees on the Island, 99 per cent of which have been destroyed by 150 years of industrial logging. Logging has left most hillsides and valley bottoms on the island devoid of much, if any life and what were once very rich and diverse eco-systems are now nothing more than sterile tree farms, assuming they have been fortunate enough to be re-planted. It’s amazing to me that the very few old growth trees which remain haven’t been protected from the chainsaws which have devastated our once verdant forests.

With the recent decline in fishing, Port Renfrew is in serious need of additional sites which will attract tourism. The Avatar Grove would be an ideal addition to what they currently offer the travelling public. Acquiring this grove of trees would be a win for all concerned, especially our children who we are forcing to live in a world greatly diminished in nature. This is our very last chance to preserve the Avatar Grove and the few remaining sites like it.

An ancient western red cedar growing in Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew

Monday Hits The Road To See Avatar Grove

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Last weekend, Monday hit the road with environmentalist Ken Wu and the Ancient Forest Alliance (along with 80 other curious community members) to pay a visit to what the AFA is calling “Canada’s gnarliest tree.” The giant Western Red Cedar is found about 10 kilometres north of Port Renfrew in the Gordon River Valley. The tree itself has a diameter of 12 feet at its base, while the giant burl that makes it a truly “gnarly” tree is about 10 feet in diameter. The tree is located among a stand of about 100-or-so ancient Western Red Cedars. Discovered by AFA members in February, a return visit a few weeks later showed the area is slated for logging, with many of the trees spraypainted, and the boundaries of what the AFA calls “Avatar Grove” marked off with flagging tape. Far easier to reach than the few other remaining old growth stands on the South Island, the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling for protection of the grove, and pushing its marketability as an eco-tourism destination. “The most important thing right now is to ensure that the Avatar Grove is not turned into a sea of giant stumps in the near future. The BC Liberal government needs to take action to protect this incredible ancient grove and the remaining endangered old-growth forests in southern BC before they are destroyed. British Columbia’s old-growth temperate rainforests, with their four meter wide ancient trees draped in moss and ferns and its incredible wildlife, are the real Pandora here on Earth,” says Wu.

Na'vi characters rally for BC's old-growth forests on the streets and sidewalks of Vancouver.

Earthly Na’vi

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Photo by TJ Watt

It didn’t take long for environmentalists to tap into James Cameron’s massively successful Avatar for a creative boost to their rallies. A small gathering of Na’vi – a.k.a. loincloth-clad protesters painted blue – joined 150 Ancient Forest Alliance supporters outside the Vancouver Art Gallery Saturday to drum up some support to save B.C.’s old-growth forests.

The highly endangered Spotted owl. An estimated 5 individuals are thought to exist still in the wild.

Science Matters: It’s getting harder and harder to spot the spotted owl

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If the northern spotted owl is healthy, it’s a good sign that the old-growth forests where it lives are healthy. Unfortunately, the spotted owl is not doing well in British Columbia, the only place it lives in Canada. Only six of the beautiful brown-eyed birds remain here.

Spotted owls live up to 17 years in the wild, but they breed slowly, mating for life and producing just one or two chicks every two years. Silent hunters with excellent vision and hearing, the owls swoop through the open canopy of old-growth forests at dusk to catch wood rats, voles, mice, and squirrels. At one time, at least 500 pairs lived in B.C.’s forests, but over the past 100 years, their habitat has been so heavily logged that the owls have been unable to survive.

Spotted owls are particularly vulnerable to logging because of the way they nest and hunt. The owls don’t build nests but lay eggs in trees hollowed out by age or decay. And when a forest is cleared and prey populations decline, the birds often starve.

The B.C. government is belatedly trying to save the owls, with plans to capture two of the remaining males to breed with two single females in captivity. The government now has 10 owls in its breeding program and hopes to have 30 or 40 pairs so that 70 or so of the birds can be released back into the wilderness in the next decade. Government biologists have also been killing barred owls, which compete with the spotted owls for habitat.

The government has had a habitat conservation plan in place since 1997, but it was based on the premise that owl populations and habitat would be maintained only as long as those efforts did not lead to more than a 10 per cent reduction in the long-term timber supply over current levels. In 2003, the B.C. government allowed logging to proceed in six of the remaining 10 areas where spotted owls were found.

More than 70 per cent of the owls’ old-growth habitat, ranging from northern California to southwestern B.C., has now been logged. The spotted owl is listed as an endangered species in both Canada and the United States, with only a few thousand pairs remaining.

It doesn’t help that B.C. has no legislation to protect species at risk. Although the spotted owl is listed as endangered under federal law, Canada’s Species at Risk Act only applies to federal lands. If an owl were to take up residence at a post office or federal airport, it would be legally protected, but in the province’s old-growth forests, it is afforded no such status.

Why should we care? Well, beyond the fact that allowing any species to go extinct because of our activities is a pretty sorry indicator of our ability to manage our affairs, the spotted owl’s health, as we mentioned, gives us a pretty good indication about the health of the entire old-growth ecosystem. And when one species goes extinct, the effects cascade throughout the ecosystem.

We also know many plants and animals besides the spotted owl rely on old-growth forests for their survival. If habitat loss is threatening the survival of the owl, it is surely threatening the survival of other species as well.

In fact, a study we conducted found that one quarter of the plants and animals that share the spotted owl’s old-growth habitat in B.C.’s Lower Mainland are also at risk of disappearing, including tailed frogs, coastal marbled murrelets, northern goshawks, and fishers.

We must demand that the provincial government put an end to logging in old-growth forests and allow more second-growth forests to mature if we are to ensure the survival of the spotted owl and other old-growth dependent plants and animals. We also need a provincial law to protect plants and animals in B.C. that are at risk of disappearing, such as spotted owls, orcas, and grizzly bears.

It’s just not good enough to wait until an animal has all but disappeared and then scramble to try to bring it back. When we harm one animal and the ecosystem of which it is a part, we affect everything that is connected to it, including ourselves. The spotted owl’s fate should tell us something about ourselves. What kind of animal are we that put our economic and political agendas ahead of the very survival of another species?

Waterfront property with old-growth forest for sale in BC's Cape Scott provincial park.

Old growth forest for sale in Cape Scott Provincial Park

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Old growth forest for sale in Cape Scott Provincial Park

For just over $1.8 million, you can own 60 hectares of old growth forest and white sand shoreline within the boundaries of Cape Scott Provincial Park, just three kilometres off the world-famous Cape Scott Trail. If a more sheltered retreat is more your thing, $349,000 will buy about 16 hectares of old growth forest bordering the salmon-bearing Fisherman River – which is even closer to the Trail.

But you will have to move fast, according to real estate broker NIHO Land & Cattle Inc., given the pristine location on the emerald tip of north-western Vancouver Island, and the fact that both properties are thick with merchantable old growth trees.

The properties are just two of a number of privately-owned parcels that exist in Cape Scott Park, remnants of lands originally settled by Scandinavian settlers in the 19th century. Most of the pioneer lands were abandoned long ago, and gradually bought up by the province. But not all of the land.

News of the property sales came as a surprise to the Regional District of Mount Waddington, the regional municipality on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Mount Waddington’s Planner Jeff Long later confirmed that there is nothing the municipality can do to protect the old growth forests on either parcels, or to restrict any development plans on the parcels.

Recognizing the value of the old growth timber on the waterfront property in particular, the broker has hired a private company to do an “aerial overview,” estimating on its website that there is almost 30,000 cubic metres of merchantable timber up for grabs on that one site alone.

“Almost all of the property is covered in old growth timber which consists of cedar, hemlock, balsam, spruce, pine and cypress,” says the NIHO website. “There some big diameter trees on the property.”

Suntanu Dalal, a spokesman for the B.C. Ministry of Environment says the government is aware that the Cape Scott Park “in-holdings” are for sale, adding that there are at least 14 separate private pieces in Cape Scott Park covering about 150 hectares of land.

Dalal described the forests on the lands as “low-quality trees for harvesting,” an assessment at odds with both NIHO and their forestry surveyor.

Will the province consider buying this land to maintain the integrity of the park and Cape Scott Trail?

“The lands are on the Ministry’s regional acquisition list,” says Dalal. “But there are no immediate plans to purchase them.”

Link to article: https://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2010/03/31/Old-growth-forest-for-sale-in-Cape-Scott-Provincial-Park/