SAVE OUR CLIMATE AND ANCIENT FORESTS!

/in /by

The ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE’s Special INFO NIGHT, CELEBRATION, and FUNDRAISER!

Please support the new organization in its crucial, formative first year! See great speakers, have a drink, meet other supporters, and make a donation if you can!

Elizabeth May, John Horgan, Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Adriane Carr, Jens Wieting, and other speakers…

TUESDAY, NOV. 30, 2010
Ambrosia Centre,
638 Fisgard St.,
VICTORIA, BC
7:00- 8:00 pm  Presentations and Slideshows! (FREE)
8:00-9:00 pm  Fundraiser, Drink, and Socialize! (Donations during the pledge auction…)

Confirm and invite others on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143700762345115&index=1

BC’s old-growth forests are vital for mitigating climate change by storing far more carbon per hectare than the second-growth tree plantations that replace them.

Conversely, climate change is destroying our old-growth forests by killing more trees through intensified winter storms, droughts, and disease.

With Stephen Harper recently killing Canada’s only climate change legislation through the unelected Conservative Senate just before the UN Climate Summit begins in Mexico (the follow-up to last year’s Copenhagen summit) and with the BC Liberal government still contending with a straight face that “we have more old-growth forests today than we did historically” (Forest Minister Pat Bell on the “Voice of BC” in September), we SERIOUSLY must expand the movement for our forests and climate!

The Ancient Forest Alliance, a new organization launched in January of this year, has grown by leaps and bounds with thousands of supporters. We‘re almost 1 year old and if we are to sustain and expand our campaign into a more powerful provincial force, we need YOUR support!

We’ve organized numerous hikes, expeditions (including finding the Avatar Grove), slideshows, rallies, and petition drives, brought on board many new allies, and garnered a huge amount of provincial and national media coverage on our campaigns. See some of what we’ve done at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news.php

But we need YOUR help to keep going and growing!

PLEASE COME OUT and INVITE FRIENDS and FAMILY to JOIN US!

So…

In the 1st Hour:   Hear some of Canada’s MOST ACCOMPLISHED long-time forest activists and see a truly SPECTACULAR SLIDESHOW

In the 2nd Hour:   We hope you stay for this, to donate during the PLEDGE AUCTION, along with having a drink or two (if you stay you get a FREE drink ticket for the bar if you’re 19 or older) and SOCIALIZING with the other supporters and AFA activists from Victoria and Vancouver.

Here is a list of the evening’s presentations. Each will be quite brief:

“Ecology and Politics of BC’s Ancient Forests, the spectacular Avatar Grove, and the First Year of the Ancient Forest Alliance,” spectacular slideshow by TJ Watt and Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance

“The UN Climate Summit in Cancun, Stephen Harper’s sabotage of Canada’s Climate Bill, and Prospects for Climate Progress,” by Elizabeth May, Author of “At the Cutting Edge: The Crisis in Canada’s Forests” and co-author of “Climate Change for Dummies”, former executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, and current national leader of the Green Party of Canada

“BC’s Climate and Forests Campaign:  The push for forest protection and climate conservation areas in BC”, by Jens Wieting, Sierra Club of BC coastal forest coordinator.

NDP MLA John Horgan with also speak on his support for saving the ancient forests of the Avatar Grove!

“Grassroots movements and environmental activism: Some lessons from the 1980’s and ‘90’s”, by Adriane Carr, former Wilderness Committee executive team member and Clayoquot Sound campaigner and deputy Green leader of Canada

Adriane will also be the Pledge Auctioneer to help us raise funds that night! (she’ll explain how a Pledge Auction works)

For more info contact the Ancient Forest Alliance at info@16.52.162.165

Avatar Grove: Don’t Miss It

/in /by

Many of you will have seen James Cameron’s movie, Avatar. It’s set in the distant world of Pandora, where industrialization threatens both the indigenous people and the planet’s environment.

Some of you may have heard that we have our own ‘Avatar Grove’ on southern Vancouver Island. Located just 15 minutes from Port Renfrew, the Grove is a magnificent place populated with oldgrowth red cedars including ‘Canada’s Gnarliest Tree,’ a giant tree with a 12 foot wide, contorted burl.

I recently took a trip to Port Renfrew to see the trees for myself. Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance gave myself, Mike Hicks, the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area director, and Jon Cash of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce a tour of Avatar Grove and a nearby clearcut littered with giant stumps. The contrast was striking.

I believe there is more value in oldgrowth forests standing up than there is lying on the ground. They sustain species at risk, assist in our attempt to fight climate change, and encourage opportunities for education and eco-tourism. Rather than logging this area, providing a few months of short-term employment, I would rather we develop a plan to get more value from our oldgrowth forests.

Forest-dependent communities, First Nations and local government need to know the province’s land base can still provide jobs. But what is missing is the provincial government’s plan to make it happen.

Long-term, stable jobs can be created on the land base. Let’s focus on better managing our second growth forests. Developing value added industry by providing log owners opportunities for sales here on Vancouver Island.

Much of our productive lands on Vancouver Island have already been logged so it’s obvious that the future of forestry is in sustainable second-growth harvesting. Sawmills need to be re-tooled to deal with second-growth timber. Updating the mills will keep workers in the forest and support our local economies.

Our second growth forests can and should provide local employment not just in the woods but through remanufacturing wood locally. Our region was built on forestry and I believe we can be sustained by local value added manufacturing.

Eco-tourism is crucial to this plan. Encouraging travelers from across the globe to visit our region, stay in hotels, eat in local restaurants, shop at local stores – the economic benefits are obvious. And we get to share with the world what we already know, that the beauty and the majesty of Vancouver Island is unmatched and that we will do all we can to preserve it.

I’d encourage you to visit Avatar Grove. To take it all in before, sadly, it may be too late.

Log exports a thorn in the side of communities

/in /by

While some business owners argue that raw log exports keep lumber companies solvent while they wait for the industry to turn around, others point out that tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in the lumber industry and raw log exports discourage creating new ones.

I have long opposed raw log exports. I’ve heard from too many people who lost their jobs and have seen strong companies like Madill shut down because our local lumber industry was in decline.

Now that the industry seems to be on an uptick with the Western Forest Products mill in Ladysmith starting up again, we still need a national forest strategy to keep the industry healthy and sustainable.

New Democrats have some solid ideas on what a strategy should include. We know that offering one-off programs like the green transformation fund can help immediate problems but we need other cost effective and efficient policies working together to support a long-term revitalization of the forestry sector.

A value-added tax credit program that escalates along with the level of local production would encourage job creation in forestry towns. Companies that ship raw logs would not qualify for this credit but others that use raw logs locally to produce paper, or veneer or other lumber products would.

Loan guarantees for large and small operations with significant business in the forestry sector is another important strategy to improve the industry. Guarantees give banks assurances that they will be paid back and helps release credit into the marketplace.

It is a strange situation that while consumers can access record-low mortgage rates right now, small and medium-sized businesses have had trouble getting credit.

With loan guarantees, lumber companies can re-tool and modernize their operations while maintaining their payroll.

None of these will work without concerted effort to reduce or eliminate the effect of unfair US subsidies for American mills. Providing a similar level of subsidy to Canadian mills could cost between $2 and $5 billion — but that isn’t what stakeholders here want. They want to compete on a level playing field.

So it is up to the federal government to negotiate with the Americans to ensure unfair subsidies are not propping up mills there.

That includes companies here deciding to export raw logs to their American operations to keep them profitable while Canadian mills close for lack of fibre.

Jean Crowder is the NDP Member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Cowichan.

Much of Vancouver Island's second-growth forest is being logged quickly and shipped out of BC as raw logs instead of being processed and manufactured at local mills.

Minister says more log shipping capacity needed in B.C.

/in /by

The future of exporting logs from both Prince Rupert and Vancouver looks bright as Forest Minister Pat Bell announced on November 2 that Canada has surpassed Russia to become China’s largest trading partner when it comes to softwood lumber, but notes that now is not the time for B.C. to rest on its laurels.

“The number one thing we hear from CEOs here in China is about freight capacity for shipping to China. They are very concerned and say that we need to step up to ensure that the capacity is there,” said Minister Bell during a November 2 media call, noting that moving into the top position “is a reach benchmark”.

“Vancouver is almost at capacity and Prince Rupert has only incremental capacity available…It is one of the things we have already turned our attention to and Shirley Bond, the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, is already doing work in that area.”

Currently Prince Rupert ships both raw logs, with 264,389 tonnes shipped as of the end of September – an increase of 73 per cent compared to the same time period – and in containers through Fairview Terminal, and those numbers could see significant growth based on this recent trade mission to China. As well as attending the groundbreaking of a new four story housing complex that will have three stories built from lumber in a development area that is expected to house 100,000 people, Bell said there are three more mid-level and two low-level housing developments on the way and a new Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with a subsidiary of the largest importer of softwood lumber in the country.

“[The housing] is a first, a new entry into the Chinese market that will hold great benefits for B.C.,” said Bell, noting that Cedar is the most dominant lumber requested for high end housing in the county.

“We’ve moved away from having to build demonstration houses to attract developers and we are now at the point where they are approaching us.”

But Skeena – Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen lashed out

at the Minister for his comments on the future of log exporting to Asia.

“Our capacity for shipping value-added products should be the question. It is great that we are interacting and trading with China, but to ship raw logs and resources when our mills are suffering is ridiculous,” he said during a November 3 media call.

“To hear the Minister of Forests talk about exporting raw logs is very frustrating…It is unconscionable for a forest minister to be talking about shipping raw logs, period. We should be scratching and fighting for all value-added product that we can get.”

B.C. minister denies selling out lumber industry in China

/in /by

Selling lumber, not logs, is the focus of a B.C. sales blitz in China, provincial Forests Minister Pat Bell said Monday.

Bell, speaking from China, lashed out at criticism of his government’s sales efforts and emphasized a just-completed deal for Vernon-based Tolko Industries Ltd. to sell about 364 million board feet of lumber to Chinese companies, including studs made of wood damaged by pine beetles.

“To suggest we should not try and build a brand new market is completely irresponsible,” Bell said.

Ken Wu, founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, said last week that the government should bar the export of raw logs and old-growth wood to China.

Wu said stricter export regulations should be put in place to ensure Canadian manufacturing jobs do not move to China. Raw logs are increasingly attractive to China, where labour costs are cheaper than in Canada and factories can be built quickly, he said.

“It’s a set-up for a huge ramp-up for raw log exports because there’s no restrictions beyond saying they’re surplus to domestic needs.”

However, Bell said increasing sales of lumber, not raw log exports, is at the top of his agenda.

Currently, he said, lumber makes up 93 per cent of wood products going to China — the remaining seven per cent consists of raw logs.

“And the vast majority of that (raw logs) is from Coast Tsimshian Resources in the Terrace region where no mills are up and running, although we are working very hard to change that,” Bell said.

There is a detailed process to determine that export logs are surplus to B.C.’s needs before a permit is issued, Bell said.

The province regulates raw log exports from Crown lands and the federal government regulates exports from private land.

This summer it was estimated that during the first six months of the year, B.C had exported 387,000 cubic metres of low-grade logs to China, the world’s largest importer of logs.

“I don’t worry about it because we have a very clearly defined export process and only surplus logs are sold,” Bell said. “Also, it is far more efficient to ship kiln-dried lumber long distances than it is to ship logs.”

Old-growth logs head out of the the Gordon River Valley near Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island

Lumber sales to China criticized

/in /by

The province is making a mistake by trying to increase lumber exports to China, says the founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

As Forests Minister Pat Bell heads to China on a trade mission, Ken Wu is calling on the government to ban the export of raw logs and old-growth wood to China before it starts doing so.

Wu, who returned recently from a trip to China, said he believes expanding Chinese markets for B.C. wood will be disastrous for B.C.’s old-growth forests and manufacturing jobs, if export restrictions or regulations are not put in place first.

“China’s monstrous appetite for resources, its enormous base of new middle-class consumers and its vast amounts of cheap labour will virtually commit B.C. to a path of eliminating our last old-growth forests and wood manufacturing industries,” Wu said.

Bell, accompanied by senior executives from the forest industry, forestry trade associations and representatives from the United Steelworkers union, left for China on Thursday and will remain there until Nov. 8 in an effort to increase lumber sales and strengthen commercial relationships.

“In recent years we’ve made great strides in demonstrating the benefits and breaking down barriers to wood-frame construction in China,” Bell said before leaving.

Regular contact with Chinese customers and government officials is essential if record-breaking sales to China are to continue, Bell said.

“The message that B.C. will be delivering is that B.C. is a reliable supplier. We are in this for the long-term and we are eager to work with them to better understand and meet their needs,” he said.

But Wu said, although China is currently buying B.C. lumber, industry analysts believe China is really interested in B.C.’s logs.

“Purchasing manufactured products with labour costs added is less attractive to the Chinese than manufacturing the raw resource themselves for one-tenth the labour costs,” Wu said.

Ban Old-Growth Wood and Raw Log Exports to China, Ancient Forest Alliance tells BC Liberal government on the Eve of Trade Mission

/in /by

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government to ban old-growth wood and raw log exports to China on the eve of the BC Liberal government’s trade mission to China. Starting tomorrow, from October 28 to November 8, Pat Bell, BC’s new Minister of Forests, Mines, and Lands (formerly the Minister of Forests and Range) will be embarking with industry reps on the BC government’s largest trade mission to China so far.

 

“Having just come back from a trip to China, I’m more than convinced that expanding Chinese markets for BC wood without any significant export restrictions or regulations will turn out to be a first rate disaster for BC’s old-growth forests and jobs in our wood manufacturing sector,” states Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “China’s monstrous appetite for resources, its enormous base of new middle-class consumers, and its vast amounts of cheap labour will virtually commit BC down a path towards eliminating our last old-growth forests, sawmills and wood manufacturing industries, should the BC Liberals continue to open up Chinese markets without any major regulations.”

  

For several years the BC Liberal government has been spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars to market BC wood products and to lobby Chinese authorities to change building codes in Chinese cities to allow for the construction of six-storey, wood-frame apartments, to promote wooden trusses on roofs, and generally to promote the use of BC wood for construction in a country where concrete, stone, and steel are mainly used.

 

Currently, several hundred thousand cubic meters of coastal old-growth hemlock and some cedar (4% of BC’s cedar sales) are going to China, as well as large amounts of interior pine, spruce, and fir. The BC government is expecting that a new record of almost 6 million cubic meters (2.5 billion board feet) of BC wood will be exported to China this year (see https://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2009-2013/2010FOR0177-001275.htm), with a goal of reaching 14 million cubic meters (6 billion board feet)  within the next few years. Typically about 70 to 80 million cubic meters of wood are logged each year in BC.

 

In order to protect its own sawmilling sector, in 2008 Russia announced that it would implement an 80% tax on the export of raw logs leaving the country, which took effect in 2009. Seeing an opening in the Chinese markets which once relied on Russian logs, Forests Minister Pat Bell began a series of trade missions to China in 2008, which he stated was for BC “lumber, not logs”. However, in 2009 Bell approved the first set of raw logs to be exported to China by Coast Tsimshian Resources from BC’s northern coast. In 2009, the company exported 120,000 cubic meters of raw logs to China, Japan, and Korea.  China is reportedly the world’s largest importer of raw logs.

 

“While in the beginning they’ve largely been purchasing BC lumber, which will keep some BC mills afloat, industry analysts have pointed out that China is really interested in BC’s logs – I suspect for the simple reason that purchasing manufactured products with North American labour costs added is less attractive to the Chinese than manufacturing the raw resource themselves for one-tenth the labour cost,” states Wu. “The BC Liberals opened the gates for raw log exports to China last year, despite their previous hollow assertions that their trade missions were for lumber. So in the not too distant future, I would be surprised if BC’s wood manufacturing industry doesn’t begin a migration to China, like so many other North American industries. BC workers will be able to thank Pat Bell and the Campbell government for facilitating this.”

 

Old-growth forests are important for supporting species at risk, tourism, the climate, clean water for salmon and people, and many First Nations traditional cultures.  75% of Vancouver Island’s productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow.  

 

See “before” and “after” maps of Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth forests at:  https://www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php

 

See SPECTACULAR photo galleries of Canada’s largest trees and stumps at:

https://www.ancientforestalliance.org/galleries.php

 

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government to:

 

–  Protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests

– Ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which now comprise the vast majority of the forested land base in southern BC.

– Ban raw log exports to foreign mills to ensure a guaranteed log supply for BC mills and investors

– Provide assistance and incentives for the retooling and development of value-added mills and wood processing facilities to handle second-growth logs.

 

“There’s nothing wrong in principle with selling BC wood products to China. However, because it is such a huge market with so much cheap labour, we have to regulate our exports there to protect BC jobs and our environment – starting with a ban on old-growth wood and raw log exports,” states Wu. “Without the needed controls, the BC Liberal government is committing BC’s economy to a deeper path dependency on old-growth liquidation and raw log exports, which will result in the demise of our last old-growth ecosystems and thousands of BC jobs in the wood manufacturing sector. Who the hell wants that?”

ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE CALLING FOR BAN ON EXPORT OF RAW LOGS TO CHINA

/in /by

B.C.’s new Minister of Forests, Mines, and Lands, Pat Bell, leaves tomorrow for a trip to China to talk lumber.

Not everyone though sees the potential business as good for our province. Co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, Ken Wu, sees problems ahead.

“He’ll be embarking in the largest trade mission in B.C’s history to China so far along with 30 industry representatives. We’re calling on the B.C. Government to ban the export of old-growth wood and raw logs to China. Otherwise we’re gonna be essentially losing our jobs and the quality of our environment.”

China relied on Russian logs untill last year when Russia implemented a 80% tax on raw log exports to protect their own sawmilling sector.

Canada’s Largest Spruce Tree – The San Juan Spruce!

/in /by

San Juan Sitka Spruce

Seen here is the San Juan Spruce tree. It is Canada’s largest Sitka spruce tree and the second largest in the world! It grows on Vancouver Island alongside the San Juan River about 35 minutes from Port Renfrew, BC. The towering tree measures 38.3′ in circumference, reaches 205′ tall, and has a crown spread of 75′. By volume it contains 333 cubic meters of wood which is equal to 333 telephone poles!

Despite all of this the tree and surrounding forest has not been afforded any legislated protection from the BC Liberal government. We are calling on the province to protect the area of forest, both old-growth and second growth, from the San Juan Spruce to the nearby Red Creek fir.

GPS Location for the tree is:
lat = 48.5879222222,
lon = -124.186630556

Old-growth logging on Vancouver Island

Clearcuts blamed in First Nation flooding

/in /by

KINGCOME INLET – Clearcut logging and a receding glacier were pinpointed Tuesday as probable contributors to a devastating flood which swept through the remote First Nations community of Kingcome Inlet last month.

Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan and First Nations leaders, who converged on the village to take a first hand look at the damage, said a helicopter trip up the Kingcome River Valley was startling.

“Right at the glacier is an obvious unravelling of the slopes,” said Duncan,
who announced financial help adding up to $770,000 and said a key part of
the recovery plan will be a full hydrological assessment of the valley.

“I was expecting to see a significant event. What I wasn’t expecting was to
follow mud all the way to the headwaters and major, significant issues at
the head of the glacier,” said Duncan, adding that there will be no quick
fix.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo said the situation up
the valley means the community will remain vulnerable.

“It has been severely impacted by decades of clearcut logging and, at the
head of the glacier, I saw a torrent of mud and debris,” he said.

Increased monitoring will be necessary once residents return to the village
and one of the priorities will be ensuring the helicopter pad is usable at
all times, Duncan said.

Helicopters provided the only way out for about 120 residents when water
quickly rose up to four metres in parts of the village.

Wayne Goodridge, a pilot for West Coast Helicopters, the first to fly in
amid the flooding, said water was rising so fast it was uncertain whether
the helipad behind the school would remain usable.

“It was up to almost the top of the helipad – almost 15 feet. If it had gone
on any longer we would have been plucking them off the rooftops,” he said.

Apart from a handful of members of the Dzawada’enuxw First Nation who stayed when the water rose, most are now evacuated to Alert Bay, where residents are staying with friends and relatives.

In Kingcome Inlet, porches and steps have been knocked off homes, which are built on stilts to withstand regular, smaller floods. Mud fills crawl spaces and propane tanks lie at drunken angles.

Even though many electric meters were underwater, power has stayed on and Tuesday, as assessors and electrician pored over wiring and looked at other safety issues, Duncan said repair work could start on many of the homes.
“The sooner we can get people back in the community the better we will be.

Band council chairman Joe Willie said that although people are anxious to
get home, he is not yet sure it is safe.

Willie said he is pleased with support being offered by the federal
government, but the immediate offer of $100,000 for assessments and social
services help and $20,000 per house is not likely to go far. “We are an
isolated place and it costs a lot of money just to get materials in,” he
said. “Only one barge has agreed to come up the river. The rest wouldn’t
risk coming up the river.”

Although the river level has dropped, debris has collected in different
areas, creating hazards for boats. The small boats travelling the muddy
river take passengers to an open area of Broughton Archipelago to get on a
larger vessel.

The federal government is investigating building a road into the area and
about $900,000 has been spent on engineering costs, Duncan said.

Others would like to see logging companies, which have taken so much out of the area, help pay for some of the flood costs. Dave Darwin, who looks after Kingcome Inlet’s power, said the valley bottom was first stripped of all its old growth trees and then logging companies clearcut beside the main river and the tributaries. The river can no longer meander as it used to, he said.

“Maybe we can get some environmental group to finance a lawsuit,” he said.

Chief Bob Chamberlin, Musgamagw-Tswataineuk Tribal Council chairman, said the provincial government has some responsibility because it oversees
forestry. “The provincial government has enjoyed unlimited revenue from this place with no return to the First Nation that holds title. I think that
would be an interesting conversation,” he said.

However, the immediate concern has to be those driven from their homes,
Chamberlin said. “It has been 17 days now and every day we wait it’s going
to get worse,” he said. “There are 30 children displaced from their homes
and their community and we need to make proper plans.”