Elk are among the wildlife you will find among the towering trees in Avatar Grove.

‘Big trees’ of Avatar Grove are pure magic

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There are some places so precious that just standing there makes you proud to be a Canadian.

Avatar Grove is one of those.

Some of the oldest, biggest, and most gnarly trees in the country stand in these woods, found by hikers like T.J. Watt. He’s so passionate about ancient forests, the professional photographer calls himself a “big tree hunter.”

“I knew that only 4% of the old-growth forest was left in southern Vancouver Island,” he says, while hiking in the woods near Port Renfrew, at the far western edge of Canada. “For the most part, we just saw large stumps. Basically, I thought there was no hope of finding ancient trees.”

But Watt was determined, and his search along the Gordon River here led him through thick undergrowth to massive red cedars and Douglas firs.

He found enough giants in the forest in late 2009 to alert Victoria biologist Ken Wu, then with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. By the time the pair returned in January 2010, trees in the grove already had been flagged for logging.

“We couldn’t leave them,” Watt says in a strangled voice. “Those logging flags were just unbelievable. We had a real sense of urgency about saving these trees.”

The men immediately founded the Ancient Forest Alliance, drawing such international attention they had 15,000 hits on their Facebook page in only a few days.

“We knew it could be gone in a month or so, and then we held a press conference in the forest. We didn’t have any bank account, but we got media attention around the world,” Watt recalls.

International students from Korea, Mexico, Japan, and Brazil, all studying at the University of Victoria, joined Canadian naturalists in visiting Avatar Grove, named for the fantasy landscape in James Cameron’s movie, Avatar.

Public pressure mounted for saving the trees, and in February, the BC government declared a 59-hectare chunk of forest off-limits to logging. Provincial tourism officials were so excited by new visitors arriving in Port Renfrew, they added Avatar Grove and other tree sites to “natural wonders” along the new Pacific Marine Circle Route.

In addition to the spectacular Avatar Grove, the 74-metre-tall “world’s largest Douglas fir” is also in Port Renfrew, along with the 68-metre San Juan Spruce, tallest in Canada and second tallest in the world. Together, these trees have made Port Renfew the “big trees capital of Canada.” Some are are estimated to be close to 1,000 years old.

Port Renfrew is known already as one of the best spots to get fresh food, hot shower, and a cosy bed for those starting or leaving the rugged 75-km West Coast trail. (Reservations must be made through Parks Canada. Peak hiking season is mid-June to mid-October.) Port Renfrew is also the terminus for the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail, a 47-km wilderness trek along the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.

“Port Renfrew has traditionally been a resource-based town, with logging and fishing,” says Watt, whose dad owns the Port Renfrew Marina. “What’s bringing people now are the trees.”

Jessica Hicks, co-owner with husband Tom Wyton, of the Coastal Kitchen Cafe, says the surge in international travellers has been “incredible.”

A couple of visitors a day would ask directions to ancient trees just last year, and now it’s 40 or more a day, she says. Local businesses had to produce more maps to keep up with demand.

“It’s a forever thing,” she says. “Hundreds, then thousands of people are coming from all over the world, from the Gulf Islands to Germany to see the trees. It’s not crowded, and we really like these people — they respect the environment.”

AVATAR MOVIE INSPIRES AN ECO-TRAVEL DESTINATION

Hicks says after 12 years in business in Port Renfrew, she’s been “amazed” by the extra business in the past two years. “T.J. and the others have really made a difference here,” she says. “It’s awesome — interest is growing, but it’s not so huge that anyone is producing Avatar Grove T-shirts yet.”

Brothers Jon and Tim Cash, chefs from Toronto, bought a large oceanfront property and added a luxury lodge with private cabin and three upscale yurts, all with Pacific or San Juan Inlet views. Their Soule Creek Lodge opened in 2001.

“More people are more interested in the trees than Botanical Beach, which used to be the big draw,” says Jon Cash, former Chamber of Commerce president here. “The beach would draw 60,000 people a year and now, it’s all about the trees. People will drive across the country to find the largest tree.”

Guests from the Netherlands, France, and England are drawn by eco-marketing of the “Jewel of the West Coast,” and Cash says he’s now handing out thousands of maps for self-guided tours of the big trees, compared to hundreds just a few years ago.

Visitors are drawn not only by the ancient giants, but wildlife, including Roosevelt elk, deer, wolves, bears, and cougars. Pileated woodpeckers, hawks, and bald eagles are common.

Hikers can roam the woods for hours without seeing anyone. Some hikes, like Avatar Grove, are more demanding, so the Ancient Forest Alliance assesses hiking difficulty on its website.

Watt is still searching for more ancient trees, figuring he just found the “eighth-largest Douglas fir in Canada,” estimated at more than three metres in width.

These giant trees can be found less than a half hour from the road in Port Renfrew. (TJ Watt photo)

It’s not recommended for novices, but Watt climbed the San Juan Spruce and found eagles near its top. Branches were so dense, they support a mat of “suspended soil in the mass a foot thick,” he says. “It really shows what we’ve got and what we could be losing.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance is campaigning to have Avatar Grove protected as a provincial park, and is raising money to build a boardwalk to make the giant trees there more accessible. (See its Facebook page.)

“We have an opportunity to leave behind a green legacy, of saving the last of the old-growth forests, or we could be the last liquidators of the ancient forest,” Watt cautions. “Most old growth is tucked away in valleys and so it’s hard to see.”

Avatar Grove and the other giants here are less than a half-hour from the road.

MORE ABOUT AVATAR GROVE

Location. The forest is about a two-hour drive west of Victoria along Highway 14, a paved road that is mostly two lanes. There’s no gas station, so be certain to fill up before heading to Port Renfrew.

Where to Stay: There’s camping, RV sites, cabins and two main hotels, Soule Creek Lodge ($145-$215/night, including breakfast; $36 dinner for guests only, BYOB) and Port Renfrew Resorts ($190 and up/night for waterfront, log cabins).

Dining Tips: Bison burgers and fish and chips are popular at Coastal Kitchen Cafe, but hardly anyone leaves without a platter-sized, chocolate pecan cookie. They’re $3 and homemade daily.

The pub at Port Renfrew Resorts has a pool table and big-screen TVs indoors and an outdoor deck overhanging the San Juan Inlet. It also features aboriginal art and carving throughout the grounds, and historical photos of area fishing and logging.

Soule Creek Lodge asks guests each morning about food allergies and preferences, then the chefs prepare a feast with local, seasonal ingredients. Fresh-from-the-dock fish includes sockeye salmon, tuna, and halibut, all wild and caught nearby.

The last of BC's old-growth forest continues to be targeted by logging companies like this example on southern Vancouver Island.

URGENT: BC’s FOREST RESERVES in PERIL! PLEASE WRITE-IN and SPEAK UP!

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URGENT:  BC’s FOREST RESERVES in PERIL!   PLEASE WRITE-IN and SPEAK UP!
Currently the BC Liberal government is proposing to open up protected forest reserves for logging in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region of BC’s central interior. These threatened forest reserve designations include:
– Old-Growth Management Areas (that protect representative tracts of scarce old-growth forests)
– Riparian Management Areas (that protect fish habitat and water quality)
– Ungulate Winter Ranges (wintering habitat for mountain caribou, moose, mountain goats, etc.)
– Wildlife Habitat Areas (that protect species at risk like grizzlies and other wildlife)
– Visual Quality Objectives (that protect scenery for tourism)
– Recreation Areas (campsites, hiking areas, etc.)
The proposed environmental deregulation would take place in a massive region in four “Timber Supply Areas” (TSA’s): the Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake, and Lakes (Burns Lake area) TSA’s.
The BC Liberal government is proposing a temporary quick-fix for the timber shortage caused by a combination of the pine beetle epidemic (due to climate change and decades of wildfire suppression) and the timber industry’s massive overexpansion and unsustainable logging of vast tracts of both beetle-killed and living, non-affected trees in the BC interior over the past decade. The BC government is hoping to prop-up the unsustainable scale of the bloated forest industry in the region for three or four more years – until the last of the protected forest reserves in the region have also been logged.
It’s like burning up parts of your house for firewood once you’ve depleted all your other wood supplies – it won’t last very long and in the end you’ll be a lot worse off.
This is a precedent-setting proposal of provincial significance that could be used later to justify opening up millions of hectares of protected forest reserves across the province where timber shortages also occur due to a long history of unsustainable logging.  We need YOU, your family and your friends to SPEAK UP to ward off the BC Liberal government from moving ahead with this outrageous, destructive proposal.
WRITE-IN and SPEAK UP!
Until July 20th, the Special Committee on Timber Supply, consisting of four BC Liberal and three NDP MLA’s (Members of the Legislative Assembly), will be taking written public input (and video messages, if you are so inclined), holding public hearings in rural communities in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region, and meeting with stakeholders in Vancouver.
Please take a few minutes to WRITE to the” Special Committee on Timber Supply” at: timbercommittee@leg.bc.ca
Please be sure that you also CC your email to:
Premier Christy Clark:  premier@gov.bc.ca
Opposition Leader Adrian Dix:  adrian.dix.mla@leg.bc.ca
Your own MLA who you can find at:  [Original article no longer available]
***Be sure that you also include your home mailing address so that they know you are a real person. 
Let them know in your words that you:
  1. Oppose logging in protected forest reserves in BC, which are vital for wildlife, tourism, clean water, fish, and recreation.
  2. Instead support a sustainable economy based on reducing the massive wood waste in clearcuts, value-added wood manufacturing, sustainable rates of harvest, retraining and supporting displaced forest workers, tourism, increased forest conservation, and diversifying rural economies.
  3. The interior logging industry’s massive expansion in recent years under the rationale of tackling the pine beetle epidemic was recognized from the outset as only temporary and clearly unsustainable in the long run. Rewarding unsustainable actions with more unsustainable actions like logging in protected forest reserves is short-sighted and more destructive.
NOTE: If you or friends and family live in BC’s central interior please SPEAK UP at the public hearings in Williams Lake (July 5), Prince George (July 6), Quesnel (July 6), 100 Mile House (July 5), Kamloops (July 12), and Merritt (July 12)!  In Vancouver from July 9 to 11, the committee will be meeting with representatives of organizations, stakeholder groups, and individuals (you must schedule this in advance).  See details on MLA Bob Simpson’s website at:  https://www.bobsimpsonmla.ca/timber-supply-committee/
MORE INFO:
Old-growth logs head out of the the Gordon River Valley near Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island

B.C. warned not to touch reserves for short-term supply

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When a special committee of the provincial legislature came to the Interior town of Valemount last week seeking views on how to maintain timber harvests in forests decimated by the pine beetle, it reopened some old wounds for Valemount Mayor Andru McCracken.

A decade ago, Valemount was a thriving forestry town with a large sawmill. There was a district forestry office at nearby McBride, employing 25 people, which oversaw the timber supply in the Robson Valley Forest District.

The district office closed in 2003 as part of a provincewide cutback of government services. The sawmill closed and was dismantled in 2006 after a legislative change removed the requirement that timber be processed locally. Most Robson Valley timber now goes to a mill 300 kilometres away in Prince George.

The Robson Valley’s largely hemlock and cedar forests have not been hit hard by the pine beetle. But timber in the dead forests to the west of Valemount is drying and cracking to the point it can no longer be turned into lumber.

To access more timber, the B.C. government is floating a plan that includes logging in areas that were previously off limits for environmental or “visual quality objectives” and changing the boundaries of forest districts to add timber to one district at the expense of another.

Victoria has already announced plans to ease logging restrictions in the Fraser timber supply area, including upper Stave Lake, upper Harrison Lake and Chehalis Lake.

McCracken is concerned that Valemount will lose control over what timber it has left.

The special committee, struck on May 16, is travelling across the Interior seeking public consultation until July 12 and is to submit a report with recommendations Aug. 15. Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad is the chair.

Rustad said people speaking at the hearings have been passionate in their views.

“When we are in Burns Lake [which lost its mill in a fire Jan. 21] we are hearing, ‘We want to have our mill rebuilt,’ and in a lot of other communities we are hearing, ‘Whatever you do, don’t put our mills at risk.’ This is a very serious issue across the entire mountain pine beetleimpacted area,” he said.

The plan to take a second look at the remaining timber supply, came about shortly after it was discovered there is not enough timber in the Burns Lake area to warrant rebuilding the sawmill. The government wants to drum up enough timber through other means to save Burns Lake and, by extension, other resource towns also faced with dwindling timber supplies for their mills.

The beetle has destroyed 10 million cubic metres of timber.

“To put that in perspective that’s enough wood to feed eight fairly sizable sawmills. And eight sawmills represents about a third of the forest industry throughout that area,” said Rustad.

Besides logging in forest reserves and changing administrative boundaries, the committee is considering: . Increasing the harvest of marginally economic timber.

. Shifting to area-based tenures giving forest companies more management control over the land.

. More intensive forest management through fertilization and silviculture.

McCracken is flattered that the government wants his opinion but he thinks it’s a bit late to be asking. And he is concerned that the province may end up taking even more timber from the Robson Valley to feed beetleaffected mills to the West.

“We are in a colonial situation,” he said.

McCracken isn’t the only one concerned.

The Association of B.C. Professional Foresters, environmentalists and even the forest industry and the University of B.C. dean of forestry have expressed concerns, specifically over the second look at forest lands that are set aside for ecological reasons.

“The message we want out there is: ‘We are not going to damage our environmental standards,” said John Allan, president of the Council of Forest Industries, which intends to submit a brief. “I am struggling with how you would free up anything more than a few scraps of timber without doing environmental damage.”

Allan said the effect of the beetle is a critical problem that deserves a broader and deeper examination than the committee can accomplish with its tour. The economic future of the forest industry is at stake, he said.

“This issue is so important it calls for more than a few meetings in the middle of summer.”

The 5,400 members of the Association of B.C. Forest Professionals are urging that the government put the forests first.

The forests are the province’s most valuable renewable resource, said Mike Larock, who is travelling to towns along with the committee. He said the professional association fears sustainability may be damaged for political expediency.

“We think that just by focusing on one end product, or one benefit, you actually lose sight of the forest, the very thing that provides all the benefits,” he said.

John Innes, dean of the faculty of forestry at the University of B.C., said that the mills running out of timber will be able to gain a short-term timber supply if reserves are logged but it could be at the expense of sustainable forests.

“What people seem to forget – and I don’t really understand this – is that there was extra capacity created to process this lumber when the beetle reached its peak. Surely people then realized that this was a temporary thing; that it wasn’t going to last.”

Because of the risks of going into the reserves, the outcomes for industry and the environment are uncertain, he said.

“We have never had such proposals for what, in my view, are a pretty regressive step in forest management.”

Vancouver Sun Article: https://www.vancouversun.com/technology/warned+touch+reserves+short+term+supply/6840692/story.html#ixzz1yvXxjait

Ancient Forest Alliance

Leave Old Growth Alone Says Union

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A major forest sector union is coming out against proposals from the British Columbia government that could see protected areas opened to logging.

“It’s just short term gain for probably long term pain,” said Arnold Bercov, the forest resource officer for the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, which represents some 2,000 workers in the sector in the province. “As I tell the guys, [if we] cut them all down tomorrow we’re screwed and we don’t cut any down.”

The B.C. Legislature has a committee touring Interior communities this week asking the public where timber supply should come from as cut levels are reduced in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic.

A cabinet document leaked in April outlined several possibilities, including logging at an unsustainable rate, cutting down more old growth and wildlife habitat, and allowing cabinet to make decisions instead of the chief forester. Premier Christy Clark confirmed at the time the document reflected the discussion cabinet was having and that the B.C. public needed to have.

Bob Matters, the chair of the wood council for the United Steelworkers Union, which represents the most forest sector workers in the province, in April told The Tyee that his union generally supported the government’s direction.

USW members include those who worked at the Babine Forest Products sawmill in Burns Lake before it burned after a January explosion. The difficulty finding a timber supply for Hampton Affiliates Ltd. to justify rebuilding the mill led to the production of the cabinet document and the appointment of the legislature’s committee.

No jobs without trees

“I’m not trashing any other union,” said the PPWC’s Bercov. “They can come to whatever conclusion they want.”

He said he’s sympathetic to the Steelworkers, to people who are out of work and to the mill owners. “Nobody’s going to rebuild the mill unless they have fibre supply.”

At 62 years old, Bercov has worked in the industry since he was a teenager. When he started, he said, he didn’t think about where the trees came from and didn’t care, but over time that changed. “I think, where does it end?”

If every tree is protected, there are no jobs, he said. But if everything is logged there are no jobs either, he said. “All I’m saying is we have to find that balance.”

For six years, some of it as co-chair, Bercov was on the board of the Forest Stewardship Council of Canada, the certification and labelling organization that promotes responsible forest management. Through that experience he saw the value of hearing and respecting the perspectives of environmentalists, First Nations, the industry and others, he said.

And today he and the PPWC made a joint a statement with the conservationist group Ancient Forest Alliance on the proposal to log protected areas. Bercov, by the way, said he respects AFA executive director Ken Wu and “I value what he tells me.”

Working with Wu

Wu is of course against logging in protected areas, which he compares to burning your house for firewood.

“This is precedent-setting,” he said, noting the industry in other parts of the province says it faces timber shortages. “There’s no way we’re going to let them do that.”

The legislative committee will hear from stakeholders in Vancouver for three days, but Wu said the committee should add opportunities for the public also to voice their concerns in Victoria and Vancouver.

The committee needs to hear that there is strong opposition to taking trees from areas set aside for old growth, wildlife habitat and views. “It’s rewarding unsustainable behaviour with more unsustainable behaviour,” he said. “You don’t reward the unsustainable activity of the industry with more unsustainable activities.”

There are various reasons the forest industry is facing reduced cuts, he said. They include the expansion of the mountain pine beetle from years of forest fire suppression and climate change and from the industry’s over cutting, he said.

Wu said conservationists are watching the positions the province’s political parties take on logging protected areas and are prepared to make it an election issue.

Bercov said it’s not in his union’s interest to reignite a war between the industry and environmentalists. “Just to go in and renew the battles with environmentalists is a loser for the province,” he said. “I don’t think our union’s interested in refighting them. I’d rather work with environmental groups than against them.”

The province needs to look at ways to get more value from the trees the industry cuts, he said. That means reducing log exports and getting the highest value possible out of each log. It also means more intensive tree planting and silviculture, he said.

And it means managing the reduction in timber in the interior and other areas, rather than desperately seeking more, he said. “Cutting down reserves and angering people isn’t a solution. It’s short term.”

A better managed forest would lead to more jobs, he said. “We want to create employment, not at any cost, but I think you’d create more employment if you did thing right,” he said. “To me it’s about jobs. We want to create as many jobs as we can out of every tree that’s cut here.”

It’s entirely possible to protect the forest, look after the needs of wildlife and still have enough timber supply to provide jobs, he said. “Balance always works best.”

Ancient Forest Alliance

Province to ease logging restrictions in Fraser region

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The B.C. government plans to relax logging restrictions on about 9,500 hectares of Crown land, including the well-loved getaway of Harrison Lake.

Areas slated for reduced protection within the Fraser timber supply area include upper Stave Lake and Chehalis Lake, as well as upper Harrison Lake. They had been partly protected previously because of their natural beauty.

The planned changes result from an industry-requested review of Crown lands managed under “visual quality objectives” of the Forest and Range Practices Act. The objectives are used to protect all or part of scenic areas and travel corridors for the benefit of communities and tourism. In some cases, logging must follow natural landscape contours, employ selective cutting, or utilize helicopters without road construction.

Lloyd Davies, a visual resource management specialist with the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, said in an interview that industry argued that the upper end of Harrison Lake received fewer visitors than the south end, near the tourist destination of Harrison Hot Springs. They also noted a major landslide had severely damaged three campgrounds and restricted public access at Chehalis Lake in December 2007.

Logging restrictions in upper Stave Lake will be relaxed to bring the level of protection for viewscapes into line with the rest of the lake.

The Vancouver Sun received details of the changes following a freedom-of-information request.

The relaxations in logging of scenic areas is a concern for tourism operators dependent on wilderness viewscapes.

Fraser River Safari in Mission con-ducts scenic boat tours of Stave Lake and would like to see less logging to benefit tourism in the area.

“It is a concern,” said company co-owner Jo-Anne Chadwick, noting the situation is compounded by reckless public use of Crown land, including rampant littering. “We are working hard to get people to understand, to connect with nature.”

The province plans to make logging less restrictive across 9,453 hectares and more restrictive across 1,200 hectares, mainly to preserve views-capes at Alouette Lake. The difference is 8,253 hectares – an area about 20 times the size of Stanley Park.

Management will not change across another 35,867 hectares.

“We’ve looked at it and tried to make balances,” Davies said.

He noted the province rejected a relaxation of logging requirements in other scenic areas such as along the Coquihalla Highway and Pitt River.

An order allowing the changes is expected to take place as soon as June 29.

Dan Gerak, owner of Pitt River Lodge, said he can support logging that respects the importance of maintaining “visual quality” for tourism operators – something that major clearcuts do not.

“We have seen areas in the Pitt where the company is able to take timber out and leave strips, and from the ground it is hard to see that any-thing is gone. That we are okay with, but not big clearcuts in visually sensitive areas.”

Gerak added that face-to-face dialogue is important because the detailed maps provided by forestry are “very hard to understand for the average person that isn’t in forestry.”

Ancient Forest Alliance

Campaign for a $40 million per year BC Park Acquisition Fund Launched

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This week the Ancient Forest Alliance has launched a campaign, including a new petition at www.BCParkFund.com, the distribution of 50,000 new brochures (see https://www.bcparkfund.com/newsletter/June-2012-Parks-Acquisition.pdf) into key communities, and outreach to other conservation and recreation groups, calling on the BC Liberal government to establish a dedicated “BC Park Acquisition Fund” of at least $40 million per year. The fund would raise $400 million over 10 years, enabling the timely purchase of significant tracts of endangered private lands of high conservation, scenic, and recreation value to add to BC’s parks and protected areas system.

“While private land trusts are vital for conservation, they simply don’t have the capacity to quickly raise the tens of millions of dollars needed each year to protect enough endangered lands within the short time spans many areas have left to exist – only governments have such funds,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance (www.ancientforestalliance.org).

In years past, the BC government has designated funds for new park acquisition in the provincial budget; however, the funds have been inconsistent and simply too small.

“While $40 million might sound like a lot, let’s remember that it is only 1/1000th or 0.1% of the $40 billion provincial budget. Surely we can afford to invest 0.1% of the provincial budget to protect our endangered species and invest in BC’s scenic and recreational assets?” Wu asked.

Across British Columbia many of the most endangered ecosystems are found on private lands. These include the Coastal Douglas-fir and Dry Maritime forests on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, with their Mediterranean-like climates, twisted arbutus trees on rocky outcrops, and extremely scarce ancient groves; dry ecosystems of BC’s southern interior, including the fragrant Ponderosa Pine forests, sage-filled grasslands, and semi-arid “pocket desert”; waterfowl-filled wetlands and rich deciduous forests in the Fraser Valley and along our largest rivers; and other magnificent but endangered ecosystems threatened with encroaching developments.

These private lands are jam-packed with endangered species. They are also usually found closest to BC’s main population centers, making them highly accessible locations for environmental education and nature tourism. As such, they are potentially the highest-value additions to BC’s world-class parks and protected areas system.

Several of the most endangered old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast survive on the hundreds of thousands of hectares of private corporate lands owned by Island Timberlands and until recently, TimberWest, who sold their BC lands in 2011 to two public sector pension funds managed by the BC Investment Corporation (BCIMC) and the federal Public Sector Investment Management Board (PSIMB). Old-growth forests are vital for supporting endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water and salmon, and many First Nations cultures.

Island Timberlands in particular in 2012 is aggressively moving to log many of its lands with the highest conservation and recreational values. Conservationists are calling on the company to back off from such plans, while at the same time calling on the BC government to help purchase the companies’ contentious private lands.

Earlier this week a meeting between Cortes Island residents and Island Timberlands representatives resulted in a deadlock in negotiations due to fundamental disagreements about the company’s logging plans that might start as soon as this September. See: https://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/no-negotiation-progress-island-timberlands%E2%80%99-plans-log-cortes-island-forests

Contentious old-growth and mature forests (see spectacular PHOTOS in each link) that are threatened by Island Timberlands on their private lands include:

  • About 1000 hectares of forest on Cortes Island (PHOTOS)
  • McLaughlin Ridge near Port Alberni (PHOTOS)
  • The Cameron Valley Firebreak near Port Alberni (PHOTOS)
  • Lands near Cathedral Grove (Macmillan Provincial Park), including the magnificent Cathedral Grove Canyon a few kilometres upstream near Port Alberni (PHOTOS)
  • Stillwater Bluffs near Powell River on the Sunshine Coast (PHOTOS)
  • The Day Road Forest near Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast (PHOTOS)

Contentious forests on former TimberWest lands, now owned by the BCIMC and the PSIMB, include:

  • Mossy Maple Grove or “Fangorn Forest” near Cowichan Lake (PHOTOS)
  • Koksilah Ancient Forest near Shawnigan Lake (PHOTOS)
  • Muir Creek Ancient Forest near Sooke (no photos available yet)

Park acquisition funds already exist on a smaller scale in several Regional Districts in BC, including the Capital Regional District (CRD) in the Greater Victoria region which has a Land Acquisition Fund of about $3.5 million each year. The CRD has spent over $34 million dollars since the year 2000 to purchase over 4500 hectares, including lands at Jordan River, the Sooke Hills, the Sooke Potholes, Thetis Lake, Mount Work, and Mount Maxwell on Salt Spring Island, to expand their system of Regional Parks.

“Studies have shown that for every $1 spent by the BC government on our parks system, another $9 in tourism revenues is generated in the provincial economy,” stated TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the AFA. “What better investment can we make than to spend a very modest sum each year to protect Beautiful British Columbia? A BC Park Acquisition Fund would be a win-win for everyone.”

Ancient Forest Alliance

Timber Workers and Conservationists Join Forces to Oppose Proposed Logging of Protected Forest Reserves in BC’s Interior

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Two seemingly disparate organizations, the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC), a union of several thousand BC sawmill and pulp mill workers, and the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), a non-profit conservation organization, are joining forces to defend forest reserves in BC’s Interior from a BC government proposal to log them (see https://thetyee.ca/News/2012/06/18/Timber-Survey/). The two organizations will work together to raise public awareness and to encourage their members and supporters to write-in and speak up during the government’s public consultation process that ends on July 15.

“Many people believe forestry workers only think about the short term and care nothing about the bigger picture or future generations. That’s simply not the case. Our members live in the communities that would be directly affected by this short-sighted proposal and some of them took part in the land use planning processes twenty years ago that established these forest protections. They hunt, fish, hike, recreate, enjoy the scenery, and have a quality of life that is enhanced by the standing forests in their regions,” stated Arnold Bercov, Forest Resource Officer of the PPWC. “Opening up protected forest reserves is short-term thinking that does nothing to solve the fundamental problem of unsustainable overcutting, massive wood waste, a lack of value-added manufacturing, and a failure to diversity rural economies. We need to come up with more sustainable strategies that instead factor in the big picture and the long-term health of communities.”

Currently the BC Liberal government is floating a proposal to potentially open up protected forest reserves for logging in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region of BC’s Interior. These threatened forest reserve designations include:

  • Old-Growth Management Areas (that protect representative tracts of scarce old-growth forests)
  • Riparian Management Areas (that protect fish habitat and water quality)
  • Ungulate Winter Ranges (wintering habitat for mountain caribou, deer, elk, moose, and mountain goats)
  • Wildlife Habitat Areas (that protect species at risk such as grizzlies and other wildlife)
  • Visual Quality Objectives (that protect scenery for tourism)
  • Recreation Areas (campsites, hiking areas, etc.)

The proposed environmental deregulation would take place in four Timber Supply Areas (TSA’s): the Prince George, Quesnel, Williams Lake, and Lakes (Burns Lake area) TSA’s.

The rational for opening up forest reserves is that an impending shortfall of available timber to support local sawmills will soon take effect, known as the “falldown effect”. This shortfall in timber in relation to an overcapacity in the forest industry is the result of the loss of mature forests from the pine beetle infestation (caused by climate change and forest fire suppression) and a massive industry expansion in the Interior in recent years to take advantage of the infestation.

Instead, the workers-conservationist alliance of the PPWC and AFA is calling for a forest and jobs transition strategy involving ending massive wood waste in clearcuts (see https://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/wood-wasted-bc-logging-sites-would-fill-cross-country-truck-convoy-%E2%80%94-twice), incentives for value-added wood manufacturing industries, support and training for unemployed forestry workers, and economic diversification of rural communities.

“Opening up protected forest reserves to try to prop-up an unsustainable industry a bit longer is like burning parts of your house for firewood after depleting all other wood sources. In the end, you’re a lot worse off,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “You can’t just reward unsustainable behaviour with more unsustainable behaviour. The Interior timber industry’s unsustainable expansion and overcutting of beetle-affected wood and vast areas of living trees should not be rewarded with more of the same inside of our protected forest reserves now – that’s the worst, most myopic course of action possible and it’s precisely the type of mindset that has brought this planet to the ecological brink. If this option is chosen, it’ll be the albatross hanging around the responsible politicians’ or party’s necks heading into the next BC election.”

Over the next several weeks, until July 15, the Special Committee on Timber Supply, consisting of four BC Liberal MLA’s and three NDP MLA’s, will be holding public hearings in rural communities in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region to gather public input and to meet with key stakeholders. Committee Chair John Rustad, BC Liberal MLA for Nechako Lakes, has already spoken in the media with a heavy bias towards justifying logging in forest reserves. While the committee will meet individually with stakeholders in Vancouver from July 9 to 11, no public hearings have been scheduled in Vancouver or Victoria despite the issue’s importance to all British Columbians.

“This is a precedent-setting proposal of provincial significance. If the falldown in timber volumes in the Cariboo-Chilcotin region can be used to justify opening protected forest reserves there, it could also be used to open up protected forest reserves across much of the province where the timber industry’s massive overcutting of lower elevation old-growth forests has caused a huge falldown effect and extensive mill closures everywhere,” stated Ken Wu. “We’re going to encourage everyone across the province to speak up on this one and to prepare for an extended and relentless battle if need be.”

Opposition against opening up protected forest reserves has come from such organizations as the BC Association of Professional Foresters, BC Wildlife Federation, BC Wilderness Tourism Association, the Healthy Forests Healthy Communities initiative, BC’s main environmental groups including the Ancient Forest Alliance, and now the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada union.

The original 10 magic tickets!

AFA’s tickets for Tall Tree Music Festival SOLD OUT! Proceeds to help fund Avatar Grove Boardwalk!

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The great folks at the Tall Tree Music Festival donated 10 tickets to the AFA (our’s just sold out! Additional tickets available at www.talltreemusicfestival.com) to sell for their third-annual event happening this June 21, 22 & 23!  The fesitval (19+) is set in the rugged hills of Port Renfew not far from the Avatar Grove and features 3 nights of great live music, awesome DJ’s and amazing people! If you’ve been the previous years, you know this is not a weekend to miss! A HUGE thanks to the Tall Tree Society for their continued support towards the protection of BC’s ancient forests!

*You must be at least 19 years of age with two pieces of Government ID to enter the festival. No ID = no entry.

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THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

  • You must be at least 19 years of age with two pieces of Government ID to enter the festival. No ID = no entry.
  • Gates open at 4:00 PM on Thursday, June 21st.
  • Absolutely zero tolerance for drinking and driving. There will be road blocks present.
  • There is no cell reception in Port Renfrew.
  • There is no gas station in Port Renfrew: fill up at either Lake Cowichan or Sooke on your way.
  • There will be no ATM on site. Bring cash.
  • No pets allowed.
  • No bottles or glass allowed.

Location: Brown’s Mountain, Port Renfrew

  • June 21st, doors at 4pm
  • June 22nd, doors at 10am
  • June 23rd, doors at 10am

Camping: 

  • 3 day Camping: $45.00
  • 2 day Camping: $30.00

GETTING READY FOR TALL TREE:

Be prepared for camping:

Bring layers—Browns Mountain gets cold at night, even in the summer. Be prepared for coastal weather: both heavy rain and sunshine. Bring sunscreen. Bring a flashlight (or two) for the evening. Bring a tarp for your tent. Be prepared for insects. Bring water to stay hydrated.

Be ready to walk a lot:

After parking, you’ll have to walk your gear to the shuttle pickup, and once dropped off you’ll have to walk your gear to your camping site. Be prepared to have to walk through the gates. We’re on a mountain—be prepared to walk/trip/fall on uneven terrain. Campsites can be up to 1-2km from the main stage, so bring your walking shoes/sandals/calloused feet.

The parking area is separate from the camping area.

Do not leave valuables in your vehicle. All vehicles are parked at the base of the mountain and all festival attendees will be shuttled up to their campsites.

Ancient Forest Alliance

THURSDAY & FRIDAY, JUNE 14-15 : HELP! VOLUNTEERS GREATLY NEEDED in Victoria!

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Please help us LABEL and STUFF Envelopes, have some pizza and drinks, and meet other local tree-huggers!
Times: 6:30-9:30 pm both Thursday & Friday (June 14th & 15th)
Location: Media One, #201-2612 Bridge Street (near Bay) in Victoria. Please use the side door below the stairs in the parking lot beside the brown building. Park along the street – not in the private lot. *Note – If you have an extra folding chair, please bring it if possible in case we run out of seats!
We will be mailing our new publication in support of a BC Park Acquisition Fund, asking the BC government to do its fair share to purchase endangered private lands for protection, such as old-growth forests threatened by Island Timberlands on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
If you have neat(ish) writing you can help us label envelopes, and if your writing is messy you can help us stuff them 🙂
A large group of visitors walk through the Lower Avatar Grove. A boardwalk will help protect the Grove's ecological integrity

Avatar Grove’s popularity creates need for trail

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Thousands of pairs of feet have tromped through Avatar Grove over the last two years, and now the old-growth forest needs some protection from too much love.

The Ancient Forest Alliance, which brought Avatar Grove into the public eye and lobbied for its protection, has asked the Forests Ministry for permission to build a trail and boardwalk.

“We want to improve accessibility and it’s vital to protect the ecology and make sure the tree roots don’t get worn down,” said TJ Watt, the Alliance campaigner who discovered the grove.

The group, supported by the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, is prepared to fundraise and use volunteer labour to build the trail, Watt said.

However, it is looking for an engineer to help with design and safety issues, he said.

A heavily used but unofficial trail has been created through the trees by the many tree-loving tourists and a boardwalk and steps are particularly needed in wet areas and steep slopes, Watt said.

“People visit year-round, even in rain and snow,” he said. “I would guess tens of thousands of people have been there now.”

Platforms will be created beside the much-photographed gnarly tree and other areas of particular significance.

Access from the logging road is currently hit-and-miss, so signs are needed to direct people to the one-kilometre trail and to ask them to stay on the trail and pack out litter, Watt said.

Rosie Betsworth, Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce president, said the public passion for tall trees has put the community – which previously relied largely on logging – back on the map.

“I am surprised how many people love big, old trees,” she said.

“People are coming to Port Renfrew, not just for camping and fishing, they are coming in herds to see tall trees. – One of the most often asked questions in Port Renfrew is ‘How do you get to Avatar Grove?’ ”

The grove was discovered by Watt in February 2010. Shortly afterward, much of it was flagged for logging, as only 24 per cent was protected through an old-growth management area.

The Ancient Forest Alliance spearheaded a campaign to protect the grove and, earlier this year, the provincial government expanded the old-growth management area to 59 hectares.

The environmental group is now fighting to protect another stand of old-growth trees it has nicknamed Christy Clark Grove.

Watt said that even though he immediately saw the magic of the gnarly trees, ferns and massive Douglas firs, he is surprised the area has become such a tourism driver.

“But it is the most fantastic place for people to come and experience B.C.’s coastal rain forest,” he said.

Times Colonist article: https://www.timescolonist.com