On March 28th 2010, the Ancient Forest Alliance took a group of over 80 people to raise awareness about Vancouver Island’s rapidly vanishing old-growth ecosystems.
Filmed and edited by Nic Vandergugten.
An informative and spectacular slideshow presentation of the largest trees in Canada including the Red Creek Fir, San Juan Spruce, Cheewhat Cedar and the newly-discovered Avatar Grove, and the politics and ecology of BC’s old-growth forests and forestry jobs, will be presented on Thursday, May 27 (7:00-8:30 pm, Central Hall on Fulford-Ganges Rd., by donation) by Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the newly formed Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA).
“We’re grateful for the local support of Jonathan and Karen Clemson on Saltspring Island in hosting this event. Saltspring Island may very well have the highest population density of tree-huggers in North America. It’s a key place for us to build support to expand the campaign to save BC’s last ancient forests and to ban raw log exports to foreign mills,” states Ken Wu, AFA campaign director.
To date, about 75% of Vancouver Island’s productive old growth forest has been logged according to satellite photos, including 90% of the flat valley bottoms, while only 6% of its original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks. Meanwhile thousands of forestry jobs are being lost as millions of cubic meters of raw logs are exported each year to foreign mills.
Old-growth forests are important for sustaining species at risk, tourism, clean water, and First Nations traditional cultures.
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 and protect old-growth forests where they are scarce (egs. Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Lower Mainland, southern Interior, etc.).
– Ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which now constitute the vast majority of southern BC’s forests.
– 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.
“How many jurisdictions on Earth have trees with trunks as wide as living rooms and that grow as tall as downtown skyscrapers? We’re so lucky to have such exceptionally magnificent forests on Vancouver Island. Unfortunately 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow have already been cut here, yet the BC Liberal government still contends that it’s fine for the industry finish off the last of the unprotected stands,” states TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance.
THIS EVENING, Friday, May 7 –
AND Friday May 14, Friday May 21
Bikram’s Yoga (Saanich) is holding a fundraising yoga session for the Ancient Forest Alliance tonight (and the next two Fridays in May)! Many thanks to them!
7:45 pm, #100 – 1620 Garnet Road
See the event on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101642096547414&ref=ts
BIG TREES PEDAL POWERED TOUR
10 cyclists will be riding 260 kilometers to the biggest trees in Canada by Port Renfrew, the Red Creek Fir and the San Juan Spruce and to the spectacular Avatar Grove, from June 3 to 6 to raise funds and awareness for the Ancient Forest Alliance!
PLEASE make a pledge at $1/kilometre to the riders for our cause by emailing them your name, contact info, and pledge amount to organizer Tom Fortington at: bigtreetour@gmail.com
See more info on their website at: https://www.tumblr.com/
FUNDRAISING UPDATE
(DONATE at https://donate.ancientforestalliance.org/):
So far 200 supporters have contributed $8854 since we launched our funding drive on March 22, with a minimum goal of raising $20,000 by June 21. Please donate, whether $10 or $1000. Your support will enable us to continue to snowball this movement by rounding up new allies, organizing events, undertaking expeditions to document endangered ancient forests, training new activists, informing and mobilizing thousands of citizens…and a whole lot more.
Honouring our Ancient Forests with incredibly talented musicians, dancers and artists, this event will take place on 3 different levels.
Main Level:
An inner journey into the beauty of vibration, universal rhythm and movement with master didgeridoo player *Shine Edgar*, guitar virtuoso *Michael Waters* and cello maestro *Allannah Dow*. You can listen to some of their music at https://www.ladybirdmusic.com
https://www.ladybirdmusic.com/Dissolve%20Prestigious.mp3
Around the Fire:
Open musical jam with the Sisters of Sound – Colleen Ariel on harp, Sparrow Deviyani and her guitar/singing bowls, Sacha Levin on Drums and Natania Rogers with her belly dancing and amazing hang playing.
Captivating world music DJ’ed by ElementalRhythm (Jordan Tal)
Downstairs:
Dancing to a fusion of blues and world music with amazing dancer-teacher duo David Yates and Diane Garceau of Night and Day Dance.
[Original article no longer available]
With** Special Guests**Joseph Pepe’ Danza an electrifying percussionist and multi-instrumentalist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffo9K6FvB9I Robin Layne driven by Latin-spiced hand percussion: cajón, congas, and shakers.
Zamir Dhanji an amazing hang player and Imran Dhanji a talented beat-boxer.
Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos – Master shakuhachi performer, Kirk Watson – Bass Guitar
Schedule
7pm – Doors Open
7:30-8:30 – Concert inside / Musical Jam outside
8:30-9:00 – Break – participants and musicians will have a chance to trade places.
9:00-10:00 – Concert inside / Musical Jam outside
10:00-11:00 – Sisters of Sound / The Giving Tree / Sounds of Nature and Forest
11:00-2:00am – Dance into the night with the *11 Hour Orchestra*
https://www.myspace.com/11hourorchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SsraBTukec
What to Bring
On this journey, we are all participants! So, please bring:
-your favorite food and/or drink from around the world to share
-your musical instruments
-your own cushion (to make sure we have enough)
Suggested donation at door:
$10 unwaged and students
$15 waged
$20 well-waged
$40 halla halla
** ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SUPPORT THE ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE AND OUR LOCAL MUSICIANS **
About The Cause:
Old-growth forests are our natural heritage, and BC’s south coast holds one of the last such ecosystems on Earth. Our ancient forests support a complex network of which we are all part, yet these forests continue to be logged at a rate that will soon lead to their extinction if we do not make a change. The Ancient Forest Alliance is a grassroots environmental organisation that works to foster knowledge and connection to these forests, as well as to advocate politically for their protection.
About Tzvi’s Place
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=535782130#!/group.php?gid=256272593472
Victoria Natural History Society article by the Ancient Forest Alliance – May-June 2010 issue
View how the Clayaquot protests of 1993 changed the face of environmentalism: https://16.52.162.165/clayoquot-protest-20-years-ago-transformed-face-of-environmentalism/
Sunday, April 25 – Nature/ Old-Growth Walk in Mount Douglas Park: Oak Bay-Gordon Heads’ Old Growth in its Own Backyard!!! Meet: 1pm in the lower parking lot (at the bottom of the drive up to the top lookout). Join Benna Keoghoe of the Ancient Forest Committee of Oak Bay-Gordon Head, popular CRD naturalists Darren and Claudia Copley, and members of the Ancient Forest Alliance to see the little-recognized and little-appreciated old growth ecosystem in the heart of urban Victoria (including its largest Douglas fir!). This will be a fairly easy walk, about 90 minutes at the most. It is of course recommended to wear suitable footwear and rain gear if necessary. Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=635681862&ref=profile#!/event.php?eid=112498998782690&ref=mf. For more info contact Benna Keoghoe at afc.oakbay@gmail.com
Thursday, April 29 – Vancouver Island’s Biggest Trees and Biggest Stumps – Launch Presentation of the new Oak Bay – Gordon Head Ancient Forest Committee, coordinated by Benna Keoghoe, additional presentation on the Avatar Grove by TJ Watt, BC forest policy and campaign update by Ken Wu. 7:00-8:30 pm, UVic, Clearihue C110. By donation. Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=114312995255977&ref=mf. For more info contact Benna Keoghoe at afc.oakbay@gmail.com.
Saturday, May 1st – Lower Mainland Old-Growth Hike up Sumas Mountain (near Abbotsford at Whatcom Road Exit) – Join the SFU, UBC, and Point Grey Ancient Forest Committees and the Ancient Forest Alliance to see an amazing stand of old-growth forests, including a most massive Douglas fir! Meet at 10:30 am at JJ Bean (Commercial Drive and 6th in Vancouver). Hike will be led by Tara Sawatsky and is moderate and will be 1.5 hours or so round trip. Drivers needed – all those able to drive with extra seats please get in touch. Passengers should chip-in for gas. Contact Michelle Connolly at ancientforestcommittee@gmail.com or Hannah Carpendale at ancientforests@sfpirg.ca
Fundraising Update – Please support the Ancient Forest Alliance!
DONATE to the ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE online or by cheque at: https://donate.ancientforestalliance.org/
The Ancient Forest Alliance – BC’s newest major grassroots environmental group founded just 3 months ago – needs your support GREATLY.
We launched a fundraising campaign on March 22, with a goal of raising $20,000 by June 21.
So far, over 120 generous individuals have contributed over $7000. THANK YOU for your generous support!
Whether you can donate $10 or $1000, your support is great appreciated, and we’ll ensure that your support will go farther with us than with almost any other environmental group in the country.
We’re in the works right now in building the MOST EFFECTIVE campaign for ancient forests and to ban raw log exports this province has ever seen…underway are a whole lot of new activists, new allies, and new strategies not seen before that will ratchet-up this campaign to an unprecedented level to save what are undoubtedly the MOST BEAUTIFUL ecosystems in WORLD, BC’s spectacular old-growth forests with their thousand year old, moss-draped giants trees with trunks as wide as your living room, that tower as tall as downtown skyscrapers…that are being reduced into a sea of giant stumps right now.
This is not an easy campaign, to put it mildly…at risk are several million hectares of endangered ancient forests. Many millions more, most of the biggest and the best, have already been cut. To save what remains and to sustain forestry jobs at the same time through a sustainable second-growth industry under a stubborn government, will be an intensely difficult task…but we will succeed with your help.
DONATE to the ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE online or by cheque at: https://donate.ancientforestalliance.org/
Or if you’re in Victoria on Saturday, April 24, come see us at our Earth Day booth at Centennial Square between 1 to 4 pm.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support for our new organization!
Ken Wu – Campaign Director
TJ Watt- Forest Campaigner and Photographer
Katrina Andres – Operations Director
Brendan Harry – Grassroots Organizer and Communications Coordinator
Michelle Connolly – Vancouver Coordinator
Tara Sawatsky – Forest Campaigner
Slideshow of the Avatar Grove, San Juan Spruce, and Red Creek Fir
Wednesday, April 21
2:00 pm
Coastal Kitchen Cafe (17245 Parkinson Rd.), Port Renfrew
See a truly spectacular slideshow by Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners TJ Watt and Ken Wu about the endangered Avatar Grove, Red Creek Fir, and San Juan Spruce near Port Renfrew, and on how we can sustain forestry jobs at the same time!
Guest Speaker: KEN JAMES, Youbou Timberless Society
