Media Release Archives

AFA’s Executive Director Ken Wu steps down to start new organization, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, while remaining on AFA’s Board

Sep 7 2018/in Media Release/by TJ Watt

Victoria, BC – The Ancient Forest Alliance’s co-founder, Ken Wu, has announced his departure from his position as the organization’s Executive Director of eight years, since co-founding the group in early 2010. Wu is currently establishing a new national organization, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, that will be focused on promoting “ecosystem literacy” and the science-based protection of all native ecosystems in Canada.

Wu co-founded the Ancient Forest Alliance with TJ Watt in 2010 after working for a decade as the Executive Director and Campaign Director of the Wilderness Committee’s Victoria chapter. Watt, the AFA’s Campaigner and Photographer, whose photos of BC’s biggest trees and stumps have graced news and social media sites around the world since the organization’s inception, will join Campaigner Andrea Inness and Administrative Director Joan Varley to form an Executive Team that will replace the Executive Director and lead the effective management of the organization. Wu will remain on the Board of Directors of the Ancient Forest Alliance and will continue to assist the organization in an advisory, training, and fundraising capacity.

“It’s time for me to move on from running the day to day operations of the Ancient Forest Alliance as its Executive Director and to commence with my new organization, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, which I’ve been thinking about for several years now,” stated Wu. “For the past few years, I’ve had to split my time between Victoria, where I’ve lived for the previous 20 years running environmental groups including the Ancient Forest Alliance, and Montreal, where my family is. It’s become unfeasible to spend so much time in BC away from my 2-year-old daughter in particular.”

“I’m very excited to start a new national organization that will work to protect endangered ecosystems across the country, based on science and traditional ecological knowledge, and that incorporates the many insights on environmental campaigning that I’ve gained over the span of 27 years at the Ancient Forest Alliance and other environmental organizations. While I love old-growth temperate rainforests and am fully dedicated to their protection, I’ve always been a fanatic for the diversity of native ecosystems in Canada and around the world. For years, I’ve yearned to further explore and help protect the prairie grasslands and badlands, the dry Ponderosa pine forests, grasslands and “pocket desert” of the BC Interior, the diverse Carolinian deciduous forests of southern Ontario, the spectacular, rich marine ecosystems of both the East and West Coast, and the overlooked and neglected freshwater ecosystems of Canada.”

“I will continue to advise and assist the Ancient Forest Alliance in their work and will partner with the AFA through the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance on campaigns to protect old-growth temperate rainforests, which has been an enduring passion of mine since I was a child.”

“I’m proud of the work the Ancient Forest Alliance has done over the years, protecting the Avatar Grove, building alliances with First Nations, environmental groups, and non-traditional allies including businesses, Chambers of Commerce, unions, and forestry workers, and changing the narrative in BC forestry politics to show that protecting old-growth forests is a net benefit for the economy.”

“I feel confident leaving the AFA, given the organization now has long-term, dedicated, and highly skilled staff; is financially viable having grown almost ten-fold in annual revenues since its inception; and has an extensive, dedicated base of supporters that will always keep it afloat. At the same time, the organization still is modest in size and still needs to grow more in order to hire additional staff and increase its capacity to ensure the protection of BC’s old-growth forests. To this end, I will continue to assist the AFA everywhere I can while building my new organization.”

Since its founding, the Ancient Forest Alliance has grown from a small organization with just two staff, 300 donors and an annual revenue of $60,000, to nine primary staff, over 20,000 donors, and projected revenues of $600,000 this year – the vast majority of which comes from individual donors within British Columbia.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is best known for its successful campaign with the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce to protect the Avatar Grove old-growth forest and for building a high-quality boardwalk in the grove to protect the forest understory, enhance visitor safety and access, and to support the local eco-tourism economy. Since then, Port Renfrew has been dubbed the “Tall Trees Capital of Canada” and has experienced a massive surge in economic activity due to the interest in old-growth tourism around the town. The AFA’s campaign to vastly expand the ancient forest movement to include “non-traditional allies” including Chambers of Commerce (resulting in a resolution by the BC Chamber of Commerce in 2016 calling on the BC government to expand old-growth protections in the province to support the economy); with forestry workers including the Public and Private Workers of Canada (PPWC) (who passed a resolution calling for an end to old-growth logging on Vancouver Island in 2017), and with local governments (including the Union of BC Municipalities which called for an end to old-growth logging on Vancouver Island in 2016), has helped to change the narrative in the province that protecting old-growth forests hampers the economy and jobs – instead, showing the opposite to be true, that protecting old-growth forests creates significant revenues and employment opportunities in local communities.

The AFA has also helped to raise the profile of endangered old-growth forests in the province, partly through identifying and nick-naming ancient groves and trees, including “Big Lonely Doug,” Canada’s 2^ndlargest Douglas-fir tree near Port Renfrew, and by developing a viral campaign earlier this year against the logging of old-growth stands in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni, where Canada’s 9^thwidest Douglas-fir was cut down. The organization’s campaigns have exerted significant pressure on both the previous BC Liberal government, which backed down from opening up Old-Growth Management Areas for logging and from expanding Tree Farm Licences in the BC Interior due to pressure from the AFA and its allies, and now the new NDP government, which is feeling the heat in particular over old-growth logging by its own logging agency, BC Timber Sales, due to the AFA’s campaign in the Nahmint Valley.

More Background Info

Old-growth forests in BC are home to unique and endangered species that can only live in old-growth forests, are vital pillars of BC’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry, store vast amounts of atmospheric carbon, provide clean water for communities and wild fisheries, and are vital parts of many First Nations cultures. The 50- to 100-year-old rotation age for logging in BC ensures that old-growth forests will never return after they are cut; therefore, logging old-growth forests is a non-renewable activity. Large-scale industrial logging is the norm over vast regions of British Columbia, making it the last western jurisdiction where old-growth logging is still a dominant economic activity. On Vancouver Island, already about 80% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only about 8% of the original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas on Vancouver Island.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is pushing for the BC government to enact new legislation to protect BC’s remaining old-growth forests based on science, while also calling on the BC government to support First Nations land use planning with conservation financing dollars to support the sustainable economic development and diversification of the communities as old-growth forests are protected. In the meantime, immediate measures are needed to halt old-growth logging while land use plans are developed, including implementing moratoria in old-growth “hotspots” (i.e. more intact areas of greater conservation significance), effective legislation to protect the biggest trees with surrounding buffer zones as well as the grandest groves, upgrades to “non-legal” Old-Growth Management Areas into becoming legally-binding entities, and a halt to the BC government’s logging agency, BC Timber Sales, from issuing old-growth cutblocks. In addition, a BC land acquisition fund is needed to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands, including old-growth forests.

Wu’s new organization, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA), will focus on lobbying the provinces and territories to adopt the federal 17% protection target by 2020 for Canada’s terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, while ultimately pushing for federal and provincial endangered ecosystems legislation that requires protection targets be established based on the latest conservation biology science and Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge in all ecosystem types across the country. The organization will also focus on promoting “ecosystem literacy” to help expand awareness among Canadians about the biogeography, flora, fauna, and conservation status of ecosystems across the country, including where they live.

The Endangered Ecosystems Alliance’s first launch events will occur in Victoria on Sept. 17 (Alix Goolden Hall, 7-9pm), in Avatar Grove on Sept. 18 (meeting at the trailhead at 1pm and touring the grove until 4pm), and in Vancouver on Sept. 19 (Croatian Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive, 7-9pm), where guest speakers will include renowned conservation biologist Dr. Reed Noss, botanist Dr. Andy MacKinnon, conservationist Vicky Husband, forestry worker and union leader Arnold Bercov, and Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness.

The EEA’s new website (still under development) can be seen at: www.EndangeredEcosystemsAlliance.org

Nahmint Valley, Port Alberni - Huge Tree Logging

Hupacasath First Nation calls on BC Government to Halt Logging of Old-Growth Forest in Nahmint Valley on Vancouver Island

Aug 28 2018/in Media Release/by TJ Watt

Efforts to halt the logging of some of Canada’s largest old-growth trees in the Nahmint Valley, approved by the BC NDP government’s own logging agency, BC Timber Sales (BCTS), have taken a leap forward with the Hupacasath band council in Port Alberni releasing an open letter calling on the BC government to “pull” the old-growth cutblocks and to work collaboratively with the band to ensure the protection of the area’s old-growth forests, biggest trees, and monumental cedars.

The logging of over 300 hectares of ancient forest in the Nahmint Valley has resulted in overwhelming criticism of the BC NDP government for planning and auctioning off the old-growth forest cublocks through BC Timber Sales.

In an open letter from Band Council Chief Steven Tatoosh received by the AFA last week, the Hupacasath Nation expressed concerns about the recent, “unnecessary” harvesting of old-growth in their traditional territory, which, as Tatoosh stated, contradicts the NDP’s 2017 election platform and undermines government to government consultation with the Hupacasath Nation.

The letter, addressed to the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, calls on the BC government to immediately extinguish all approved cutblocks in the Nahmint Valley and to collaborate with the Hupacasath First Nation to review existing licenses and establish “best management practices for coastal legacy, monumental, and old-growth trees” in Hupacasath traditional territory, which have “immense cultural, spiritual and emotional value” to the Hupacasath Nation.

Hupacasath band member, Brenda Sayers, has spearheaded a group of band members working on developing solutions for protecting old-growth forests in their territory. Sayers was recently featured in a video documentary clip by the Ancient Forest Alliance which can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw4BToE48Ew&t=2s

“We support the Hupacasath First Nation band in their request to the BC government to halt BC Timber Sales’ plans for logging of some of Canada’s largest and oldest trees,” stated Andrea Inness, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner. “We also encourage the provincial government to move forward on its commitment to modernize land use planning in partnership with First Nations, and we urge the government to pair that process with funding for the sustainable economic development and diversification of First Nations communities in lieu of old-growth logging.”

Old-growth logging in the Nahmint Valley has continued through much of the summer, despite the major public outcry, including major media coverage and viral social media attention, after the Ancient Forest Alliance and local Port Alberni conservationists uncovered the logging of some of Earth’s grandest ancient forests and near record-sized trees – including the felling of what was the ninth widest Douglas-fir tree in Canada – in the Nahmint Valley in May (see AFA press releases here and here).

Maps obtained from BCTS show planned future logging throughout the valley, including in two large areas within an intact section of forest on the west side of Nahmint Lake; the slope below the west side of Gracie Lake, adjacent to an Ungulate Winter Range forest reserve; a low slope west of Nahmint Mountain; and on the northern slope at the upper end of the valley.

“British Columbians are outraged by the logging of endangered ancient forest ecosystems that’s taking place in the Nahmint Valley – and throughout many regions of BC – and are speaking out strongly in favour of old-growth protection,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner TJ Watt. “Thousands of concerned people have sent messages to the BC government, asking them to implement science-based policies to protect old-growth while ensuring a sustainable, second-growth forest industry. Unfortunately, so far it seems the NDP government would prefer to stick its head in the sand, engage in PR-spin, and carry on with business as usual.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is encouraging BC residents to continue to express their views to the BC government on old-growth logging, including in the Nahmint Valley, and on the need for interim protections for intact areas while science-based solutions and old land use plans are modernized to include First Nations land use plans.

“The Ministry of Forests says it intends to hold a public comment period on the new logging plans for the Nahmint Valley sometime soon,” stated Inness. “It will be a good opportunity for British Columbians to speak up to BC Timber Sales, forests minister Doug Donaldson, and Premier Horgan, calling on the NDP government to direct BCTS to stop issuing cutting permits in old-growth forests and to start supporting old-growth conservation solutions instead.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance, along with Sierra Club BC and Wilderness Committee, are calling on the BC government to enact a series of policy changes, including a science-based plan to protect old-growth forests, the use of regulations and incentives to ensure a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry, and financial support for the sustainable economic diversification of First Nations communities linked to their development of land use plans that protect old-growth forests.

Background Information

Old-growth forests are vital to sustaining unique endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations. On BC’s southern coast, satellite photos show that at least 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only about 8% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. Old-growth forests, with trees that can be 2000 years old, are a non-renewable resource under BC’s system of forestry, where second-growth forests are re-logged every 50 to 100 years, never to become old-growth again.

The Nahmint Valley is considered a “hotspot” of high-conservation value old-growth forest by conservation groups, with some of the largest tracts of remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island outside of Clayoquot Sound, and is home to Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, cougars, wolves, and black bears, as well as old-growth associated species like the marbled murrelet and northern goshawk. The area also supports significant salmon and steelhead spawning runs. The Nahmint is considered by many people to be one of the most scenic areas in BC, with its ancient forests, rugged peaks, gorgeous turquoise canyons and swimming holes, and large and small lakes, and is heavily used by hikers, campers, anglers, and hunters.The Nahmint Valley is located in the territories of the Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations.

The BC government has often stated that “over 55% of Crown old-growth forests on B.C.’s coast are protected,” but fails to mention that the vast majority of coastal old-growth forests are protected in the Great Bear Rainforest, not on Vancouver Island where old-growth logging occurs at a scale of about 11,000 hectares a year (in 2016). The government also claims that, “on Vancouver Island, over 40% of Crown forests are considered old growth, with 520,000 hectares that will never be logged;” however,these figures leave out the approximately 800,000 hectares of heavily logged-over private forest lands on Vancouver Island (which are still managed under provincial authority). The 520,000 hectares they reference also includes about 360,000 hectares of low-productivity forest (i.e. stunted, marginal forests that grow in bogs, on steep rocky mountainsides, and in the high sub-alpine zones where the trees are smaller and generally of low to no commercial value). Finally, the BC government fails to mention the context of how much old-growth has previously been logged: almost 80%, or about 16 million hectares of the original 20 million hectares, of productive old-growth forest on Vancouver Island and over 90% of the low elevation, high-productivity stands (i.e. the very rare “classic” monumental stands of giants being logged in the Nahmint right now).

BC Timber Sales (BCTS), a division of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, is the BC government’s logging agency that plans and directly issues logging permits for about 20 per cent of the province’s merchantable timber on Crown lands, which fall outside of forestry tenures. The BC government retains full control over which cut blocks are auctioned each year through BCTS and can therefore use this control to quickly phase out issuing timber sales in old-growth forests in these areas.

“The forests minister assures us that sufficient old-growth is protected in the Nahmint Valley, but it’s a question of quality, not just quantity,” stated Andrea Inness, AFA campaigner. “Most of the valley’s monumental groves, growing at lower elevations on the richer sites, have long since been logged and much of the remaining old-growth forests outside of current approved and planned cutblocks are comprised of smaller trees growing on low and medium productivity sites, including most of the forests protected in forest reserves. The BC government is skewing the numbers to hide the fact they’re auctioning off the grandest forests with the biggest trees while protecting forests of much lower commercial value that often lack the biodiversity of the richer, grander stands.”

“Fortunately, it’s not too late for the Nahmint Valley,” stated TJ Watt, AFA campaigner. “There are still significant tracts of old-growth forest left in the area and very high environmental and recreational values that are worth protecting. The BC government has an opportunity right now to turn things around and do the right thing, for which they will certainly gain public approval.”

An aerial view of the intact McKelvie Valley near Tahsis

Old-Growth Logging in the McKelvie Valley Opposed by Tahsis Village Council and Community Members

Aug 2 2018/in Media Release/by TJ Watt

Village of Tahsis

TAHSIS – Tahsis Village Council and members of the Tahsis community are joining forces with conservationists to oppose planned logging by Western Forest Products in the McKelvie Watershed, the last unlogged watershed in the Tahsis region, located in Nuu-chah-nulth territory.

The McKelvie Valley, which extends from the village of Tahsis on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island to the base of Mount McKelvie, features endangered ancient forest, rich wildlife habitat, and McKelvie Creek, a salmon spawning ground and the community’s source of drinking water.

“The McKelvie is an exceptionally significant ancient forest given that it is an entire intact valley in a region where virtually all valleys have now been fragmented and tattered by logging” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness. “As such, its value for wildlife, water, fisheries, tourism, recreation, and the climate are exceptional. Most controversies over old-growth logging today involve significant patches and groves of ancient forest, but we’re talking about an entire intact watershed here. The McKelvie also feeds into Tahsis’ drinking aquifer and the watershed itself is the town’s back-up drinking water supply. As such, it is a first-rate conservation priority and an old-growth ‘hotspot’ area that needs an immediate government moratorium on any logging plans”

The McKelvie Creek watershed falls within Western Forest Products’ (WFP) Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 19, which encompasses 190,000 hectares in the vicinity of Nootka Sound, in the territory of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation. The company plans to begin road-building into the McKelvie valley next year with the aim to commence logging operations in 2020. Western Forest Products also plans to log some of the remaining ancient groves nearby Tahsis and Leiner river valleys over the next 15 years.

Since WFP revealed its plans publicly last year, locals have grown increasingly concerned about the impacts of the proposed logging on Tahsis’ burgeoning tourism industry, increased flood risks, possible sediment run-off into McKelvie Creek, and the loss of rare, intact old-growth forests.

In response, Tahsis Village Council unanimously passed a resolution in June opposing all forms of resource extraction and development in the McKelvie watershed, including all logging activity.

“The Council’s resolution called on Minister Donaldson to remove the McKelvie Creek community watershed from TFL 19 in order to preserve one of the few remaining intact old-growth valleys on Vancouver Island,” stated Randy Taylor, Acting Mayor of the Village of Tahsis.

Concerned Tahsis residents also formed the “McKelvie Matters” advocacy group earlier this year to oppose logging in the watershed. Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance, Sierra Club BC, and Wilderness Committee are working to support both groups to help ensure their pleas are heard by the BC NDP government.

“The plan by Western Forest Products to log our drinking watershed and the steep, unstable hillside above Tahsis puts the health and safety of the people of Tahsis at risk,” stated Martin Davis, biologist, bat caver, and co-founder of the McKelvie Matters advocacy group. “It will destroy groves of huge Douglas-fir, remove much of our remaining regional Marbled Murrelet habitat, damage our premiere hiking trail, and will leave scars directly over town that will take generations to heal.”

“Residents of this community are passionate about protecting their community watershed. Not only is McKelvie Creek the source of our drinking water, it’s also important habitat for bear, elk, deer, cougars, and many bird species,” stated Acting Mayor Taylor.

“Logging the old-growth in the McKelvie Creek watershed is environmentally short-sighted, threatens our community’s drinking water supply, and undermines our economic recovery, which is based on eco- tourism.”

Since Western Forest Products closed the town’s sawmill in 2001, the village of Tahsis has been working to transition to a tourism-based economy by capitalizing on its stunning coastal scenery. Today, the area is renowned for sport fishing, kayaking, diving, hiking, caving, trail bike riding, and wildlife viewing tours.

The town is also adjacent to Nootka Island, home of the 35-kilometre-long Nootka trail, one of BC’s most spectacular trails, featuring old-growth temperate rainforest and a rich history as the site of the first contact between Europeans and First Nations people on Canada’s west coast. The village of Tahsis itself, located in Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations territory, holds historical and cultural importance as the winter home of Chief Maquinna and as a former gateway to a trade route spanning the entire width of Vancouver Island.

The area’s unique natural and cultural heritage is what led Tahsis resident and former New Brunswick NDP MLA and MP candidate, Shawna Gagné, to begin lobbying the BC government earlier this year to protect the McKelvie watershed as a heritage site.

“Heritage is something worth keeping, preserving, and protecting,” stated Gagné. “If heritage buildings, ruins, and pyramids are important to protect, why not our remaining endangered old-growth forests? Once they are logged, they’re gone forever. If we allow this area to be degraded by logging, we not only risk ecological damage, but also the area’s tourism appeal, the historic trails once used by Indigenous peoples, and the over 177 archeological sites already identified in this region.”

This time last year, conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance, Sierra Club of BC, and Wilderness Committee presented the BC Forests Minister with a suite of recommendations to protect endangered ancient forests while ensuring a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry. The recommendations included a halt on logging in old-growth forest ‘hotspots’ (endangered, intact valleys like the McKelvie watershed with high conservation and recreational value) and a science-based plan to protect old-growth forests across the province. Despite promising in their 2017 election platform to use the science-based, ecosystem-based management approach of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model for sustainably managing old-growth forests, the NDP government has yet to take any meaningful steps to prevent endangered forest ecosystems from being logged in BC.

“The BC government needs to break from the destructive and unsustainable status quo of old-growth forest liquidation, mill closures, and raw log exports, and start moving towards sustainable solutions,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “This starts by putting an immediate halt on logging in large, intact old-growth areas like the McKelvie Valley and in other old-growth forest hotspots in order to start negotiating solutions while there are still significant tracts remaining. So far, the BC government has not been following through on its promise to sustainably manage old-growth forests based on the Ecosystem-Based Management model used in the Great Bear Rainforest agreement, where most of the forests were protected based on science. It’s time for this government to be a sustainable, progressive, and forward-thinking government in terms of forestry.”

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt stands among towering old-growth Douglas-fir trees in Metchosin.

Ancient Forest Alliance Commends BC NDP Government for Expanding Protection for Coastal Douglas-Fir Ecosystem

Jul 24 2018/in Media Release/by TJ Watt

The Ancient Forest Alliance is thanking the BC NDP government, the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, and Forests Minister Doug Donaldson for protecting almost one thousand hectares of Coastal Douglas Fir (CDF) forests from logging on eastern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.

The 19 parcels of Crown lands totalling 980.5 hectares of second-growth forests (with scattered old-growth “veteran” trees in some areas) near Bowser, Qualicum, Nanoose Bay, Nanaimo, and Cedar, and on Galiano and Saltspring Islands, have been made off-limits to logging through an amended Land Use Order. These new additions have increased protection in the Coastal Douglas Fir zone to over 11,000 hectares in extent. The new protections expand upon a similar process in 2010 that resulted in the issuance of land use orders which protected 2,024 hectares of public lands on southeast Vancouver Island the Sunshine Coast.

“This is a good step forward for the protection of one of Canada’s rarest ecosystems and we commend the BC NDP government for moving ahead with these protections. A thousand hectares of extremely endangered Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystem – largely second-growth forests with some scattered old-growth ‘veteran’ trees – is highly valuable in terms of biodiversity conservation. About 50% of the ecosystem is already under pavement, farmland, or in heavily disturbed condition,” stated Andrea Inness, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner.

See the maps of the protected lands at: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/natural-resource-use/land-water-use/crown-land/land-use-plans-and-objectives/westcoast-region/southisland-lu/southisland_cdfmm_luor_27jun2018amend_maps.pdf

See the BC government’s media release at: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018FLNR0178-001441

The protection order only targets Crown lands, as private lands must be purchased from willing sellers in order to be protected. The Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystem is home to many species at risk and also has the best weather in Canada. Hence, most of Vancouver Island’s cities are in this ecological zone (Victoria, Nanaimo, Duncan, etc.). Most of the Coastal Douglas-fir zone was privatized through the E&N Land Grant over a hundred years ago. As a result, only 20% of the CDF ecosystem lies on public (Crown) lands, while 80% is privately owned. Almost all of it is unceded First Nations Coast Salish territory.

“This is a second phase expansion of the initial 2010 protections for the ecosystem, which originally protected about 2,000 hectares. We’d still like to see a third phase expansion to protect more of these Crown lands and, in addition, we’d like to see the province implement a provincial land acquisition fund of at least $40 million/year to begin with – less than 1% of the provincial budget – to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands, which dominate most of the Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystem, for new protected areas”, stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director.

More Background Info

The CDF zone encompasses about 260,000 hectares on southeast Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands south of Cortes Island, and a small area of the Sunshine Coast. About 50 percent of the entire ecosystem has been converted to human uses such as agriculture and urbanization. About one percent of the region’s original old-growth forest remains.

The Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem is the smallest of BC’s 16 major ecosystems or “biogeoclimatic zones.” It is also considered to be among the top four most endangered ecosystems in Canada, along with the Tallgrass Prairie in Manitoba, the Carolinian Forest in southern Ontario, and the “Pocket Desert“ near Osoyoos in southern BC. The ecosystem is characterized by its mild, Mediterranean-like climate; trees like the Douglas-fir, Garry oak, and arbutus; and large numbers of species at risk, such as the alligator lizard and sharp-tailed snake.

In order to establish an ecologically viable protected areas network in the Coastal Douglas Fir zone, the Ancient Forest Alliance advocates the protection of most Crown land parcels within the zone and the establishment of a joint provincial-federal parkland acquisition fund of at least $40 million/year ($20 million from each level of government) to purchase private lands for the establishment of new protected areas. The proposed fund would rise to an annual $100 million by 2024 through $10 million increases each year and would enable 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.

Species at risk within the Coastal Douglas-fir (CDF) zone include Garry oak trees, sharp-tailed snakes, alligator lizards, and Vancouver Island screech owl and pygmy owl subspecies.

“In an area where only nine percent of the land base is provincial Crown land, the purchase and protection of private land is critical if we want to avoid biodiversity loss in the long-term,” said Inness. “The protected area target set out for nations under the UN Convention of Biological Diversity is 17 percent. A land acquisition fund is a vital way to ensure enough large areas are protected to reach that 17 percent target in the Coastal Douglas-fir zone.”

The AFA is also encouraging the BC government to consider a third phase of land use order protections on additional Crown lands in the CDF zone to ensure this unique ecosystem is adequately conserved and can be enjoyed by BC residents and visitors for generations.

Conservationists Commemorate 25-Year Anniversary of Clayoquot Sound Mass Protests, Call on BC Government to Finally Do the Right Thing and Protect Old-Growth Forests

Jul 5 2018/in Media Release/by TJ Watt

Tofino, British Columbia – July 5th, 2018, marks 25 years since the launch of the Clayoquot Sound mass blockades against the logging of ancient forest in Clayoquot Sound by Tofino on Vancouver Island in Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations territory. Today, conservationists reflect on the impact of the historic movement and are urging the BC government to finally end the main forestry conflicts in BC by implementing science-based legislation to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests, new regulations and incentives to foster a value-added, second-growth forest industry, and support for First Nations land use planning and sustainable economic diversification.

See a new video trailer regarding Clayoquot Sound and BC’s old-growth forests at: https://youtu.be/BreQMR_JrEo

In the summer of 1993 thousands of Canadians came to Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, in the territories of the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples, to take part in the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. The historic protests, organized by the Friends of Clayoquot Sound in Tofino, sought to put an end to the logging of endangered old-growth forests by timber giant MacMillan Bloedel. Over 12,000 people took part in the blockade of logging trucks over the summer, with almost 900 people being arrested. The protests garnered international media attention.

Eight years earlier, in an unprecedented show of solidarity, the Tlaoquiaht and Ahousaht First Nations were joined by local environmentalists to blockade logging of the biggest trees in Canada on Meares Island. These we first major protests against old-growth forest logging in Canada. The First Nations, in 1984, established Canada’s first Tribal Park there. Since then, the Tlaoquiaht have declared much of their territory as a Tribal Park, while the Ahousaht have developed a Land Use Vision, declaring over 82% of their territory, including all of the major intact areas, off-limits to logging.

“The movement for Clayoqout Sound – which includes the largest tracts of old-growth temperate rainforest left in southern British Columbia – was revolutionary in its impacts,” stated Valerie Langer, one of the lead organizers of the Clayoquot Sound campaign in the 1980’s and ‘90’s. “It galvanized a powerful environmental movement, strengthened First Nations rights and innovated the market campaign strategy, resulting in dramatic improvements in conservation and management in Clayoquot Sound. Elevating public understanding of old forests and clearcutting led to new environmental and land use policies in the province with a number of protected areas created in the ensuing few years. But the evidence is clear that we have yet to strike the balance between forestry and conservation on Vancouver Island and even some protection in Clayoquot is still outstanding.”

The movement also laid the foundation for science-based land-use planning and ecosystem-based management in the Great Bear Rainforest, and the expansion of First Nations resource management rights and land use planning across BC – all measures the NDP government has committed to employ to sustainably manage old-growth forests in BC going forward. It also gave rise to a generation of environmental activists.

“As a university student heavily involved in organizing the large urban rallies in Vancouver and the student blockade day in 1993, the momentous scale and impacts of the Clayoquot Sound movement imbued in me a lasting inspiration that has never left. My experiences from the Clayoquot movement of the early ‘90’s continues to energize me and sustain a resilience in me to keep fighting for nature and for a better world, decades later,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance executive director Ken Wu.

25 years on, much has changed in BC since the “War in the Woods” of the 1990s. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of prime old-growth forests have been logged; the BC economy has diversified; second-growth forests now constitute most of the productive forest lands in southern BC; the legal recognition of aboriginal rights has greatly expanded; and most people “get” it that old-growth forests can and should be protected due to the second-growth alternative for forestry.

Employment levels in BC’s forestry sector have also declined dramatically, from 99,000 jobs in 2000 to 65,000 in 2015, a loss of one-third of all forestry jobs. According to a 2008 study, the value of protecting old-growth forests now outweighs the economic benefits of logging them in large parts of the province.

In recent years, support for increased old-growth protection has expanded far beyond the environmental movement to include forestry workers and unions, businesses and Chambers of Commerce, and municipalities across BC. For example, the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), representing mayors, city and town councils, and regional districts throughout BC, has passed a resolution calling for an end to old-growth logging on Vancouver Island; the BC Chamber of Commerce, representing 36,000 BC businesses, has called for expanded old-growth forest protection in BC in order to benefit the economy; and the Private and Public Workers of Canada (PPWC), representing thousands of BC forestry workers, are calling for an end to old-growth logging on Vancouver Island.

“The stage is totally set for a forward-looking, progressive BC government to protect our old-growth forests, ensure sustainable, value-added, second-growth forestry jobs, and to support First Nations land use planning and sustainable economic development. Doing so will finally put an end to the vast majority of the forestry and related land use conflicts in BC,” stated Wu. “Unfortunately, the large-scale industrial logging of endangered old-growth forests is still a reality in large parts of British Columbia, and the unsustainable high-grade depletion of our finest lowland ancient forests has resulted in the increasing collapse of species and ecosystems, the impoverishment of rural forestry-dependent communities and impacts on First Nations culture.”

Last year, several environmental groups, including the Ancient Forest Alliance, Sierra Club BC, and Wilderness Committee, presented a suite of policy recommendations to Forests Minister Doug Donaldson which would protect endangered ancient forests while ensuring sustainable, second-growth forestry jobs in BC. They included science-based old-growth protection legislation, financing for First Nations conservation-based economic development and land use planning, and incentives and regulations for a sustainable value-added forest industry.

“In their election platform, the BC government promised to manage BC’s old-growth forests based on the Ecosystem-Based Management approach used in the Great Bear Rainforest agreement, which resulted in the protection of most of the forests on BC’s Central and North Coast,” stated Andrea Inness, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner. “So far, there have been no significant changes to the unsustainable status quo in forest policies in BC. We’re at a historic juncture, wherein we still have the ability to protect some significant tracts of the finest ancient forests on Earth. But time is running out for this government to take meaningful action,” stated Inness.

More Background Information

Clayoquot Sound is 260,000 hectares in size (2600 square kilometres or 1000 square miles). It lies on western Vancouver Island and consists of a major cluster of largely-intact ancient forest valleys and islands on the Pacific Coast. It is home to bears, wolves, cougars, deer, elk, marbled murrelet seabirds, and a vast array of biodiversity. Most of Clayoquot Sound’s forests – about 75% – remain old-growth, while the inverse is true across Vancouver Island, where 75% of the productive old-growth forests have been logged. The BC NDP government’s 1993 Clayoquot Land Use Plan protected only 33% of Clayoquot Sound’s land area, much of it bogs and marginal low-productivity forests with small trees, while releasing the vast majority of the area’s productive old-growth forests with large trees for the logging industry. The Ahousaht and Tlaoquiaht First Nation bands since then have designated most of their territories off limits to logging through their own land use planning processes, but the BC government has yet to officially endorse or financially support the Ahousaht Land Use Vision or the Tlaoquiaht Tribal Parks.

Old-growth forests are vital to sustaining unique endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations. Old-growth forests – with trees that can be 2000 years old – are a non-renewable resource under BC’s system of forestry, where second-growth forests are re-logged every 50 to 100 years, never to become old-growth again.

On BC’s southern coast (Vancouver Island and the southwest mainland), 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. 3.3 million hectares of productive old-growth forests once stood on the southern coast (with an additional 2.2 million hectares of bog, subalpine forests, and other low productivity old-growth forests of low to no commercial value with stunted trees), and today only 860,000 hectares remain, while only 260,000 hectares are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. Second-growth forests now dominate 75% of the southern coast’s productive forest lands, including 90% of southern Vancouver Island, and can be sustainably logged to support the forest industry. See “before and after” maps and stats of the southern coast’s old-growth forests at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php

In order to placate public fears about the loss of BC’s endangered old-growth forests, the government’s PR-spin typically over-inflates the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including hundreds of thousands of hectares of marginal, low productivity forests growing in bogs and at high elevations with small, stunted trees, together with the productive old-growth forests where the large trees grow (and where most logging takes place). They also leave out vast areas of largely overcut private managed forest lands – previously managed as if they were Crown lands for decades and still managed by the province under weaker Private Managed Forest Lands regulations – in order to reduce the basal area for calculating how much old-growth forest remains, thereby increasing the fraction of remaining old-growth forests. See a rebuttal to some of the BC government’s PR-spin and stats about old-growth forests towards the BOTTOM of the webpage: https://16.52.162.165/action-alert-speak-up-for-ancient-forests-to-the-union-of-bc-municipalities-ubcm/

Ancient yellow cedar slated for logging in Schmidt Creek

BC Government Targets Another Old-Growth Rainforest Forest For Clearcut Logging

Jun 13 2018/in Media Release/by TJ Watt

VICTORIA, Unceded Lekwungen Territories – After visiting and documenting Schmidt Creek, the next valley slated for logging by government agency B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS), environmental organizations and Indigenous leaders are ramping up the call for the agency to discontinue logging permits in remaining endangered old-growth rainforests. The documentation of new BCTS logging roads in Schmidt Creek follows the recent discovery by the Ancient Forest Alliance of BCTS logging of endangered rainforest in the Nahmint Valley, near Port Alberni, including near record-sized ancient giants, wider than the biggest Douglas-fir in Cathedral Grove.

Schmidt Creek, located in Tlowitsis-Ma’amtagila territories on northeast Vancouver Island between Sayward and Telegraph Cove and adjacent to Johnstone Strait, contains several cutblocks slated for imminent logging. Last week, representatives from Sierra Club BC and the Wilderness Committee visited several of these cutblocks and new logging roads, which are located on steep slopes in the valley with a high risk of landslides and potential impact on globally unique orca rubbing beaches near the mouth of Schmidt Creek.

“For too long resource extraction companies have got away with taking from our shared territorial lands and waters,” said Rande Cook, Head Chief Makwala, Hamatam (Seagull) House, Ma’amtagila. “Non-Indigenous governments need to understand that this type of reckless logging is not sustainable or respectful to the land itself. Furthermore, this is not being done in the spirit of meaningful consultation with the proper Kwakwaka’wakw nations.”

“If this logging goes ahead it will destroy some of the last old-growth rainforest on Vancouver Island, which is outrageous and exactly what we need to be moving away from,” said Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island campaigner for the Wilderness Committee. “The fact that this has been signed off on by the provincial government is something everyone in the province should be ashamed of.”

BCTS is a stand-alone agency of the provincial forests ministry that manages around 20 per cent of the annual cut on provincial land. The agency is one of the operators that supported and implemented ecosystem-based management in the Great Bear Rainforest but continues to log the most endangered ancient rainforests in B.C., such as old-growth Douglas-fir ecosystems on Vancouver Island.

Last year, Sierra Club BC, the Wilderness Committee and the Ancient Forest Alliance called on forests minister Doug Donaldson to protect endangered old-growth rainforest including interim protection for remaining intact areas. One of the groups’ most straightforward recommendations is to direct BCTS to start by discontinuing the issuance of cutblock permits in old-growth rainforests. The minister rejected this request, and his ministry has yet to commit to any significant changes to forest management to ensure the survival of old-growth ecosystems.

“Anyone in their right mind knows it’s wrong to blast a road through an old-growth forest, yet that’s exactly what the BC government is doing, right near a park boundary,” said Mark Worthing, Conservation and Climate Campaigner with Sierra Club BC. “There has already been huge damage done in the valley by LeMare Lake Logging, and when a major rain event occurs it could send sediment onto critical orca rubbing beaches.”

In its 2017 election platform, the BC NDP promised to “apply an evidence-based scientific approach to land-use planning, using the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model for managing old-growth forests.” The B.C. government has not yet made any progress toward implementing this election commitment.

“We are running out of time to protect B.C.’s most productive ancient forests, where some of the biggest, oldest trees on Earth are found,” stated Andrea Inness, campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance. “After a century of logging, less than 10 per cent of these forests now remain and yet B.C. Timber Sales is still issuing logging permits in rare and endangered ancient forest ecosystems. When is the government going to realize this is not okay and start living up to its promise to manage old-growth sustainably, based on the scientific evidence?”

Schmidt Creek is in Tlowitsis-Ma’amtagila territories and is adjacent to the world-renowned Robson Bight Ecological Reserve, famous for its orca rubbing beaches.

Background info: https://sierraclub.bc.ca/proposed-old-growth-logging-on-vancouver-island-threatens-unique-orca-rubbing-beaches/

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner TJ Watt stands next to Canada's 9th-widest Douglas-fir tree

Canada’s Ninth-Widest Douglas-fir Cut Down in Old-Growth Forest Auctioned Off by BC Government’s Logging Agency

May 30 2018/in Media Release/by TJ Watt

For Immediate Release

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners were dismayed to discover that Canada’s ninth-widest Douglas-fir tree (compared to the trees listed on the BC Big Tree Registry) was cut down last week. The massive tree, which stood 66 metres (216 feet) tall and 3.0 metres (10 feet) in diameter, was located in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni and had only just been found by the group earlier this month, standing within a planned cutblock auctioned off by the BC government’s logging agency, BC Timber Sales. Two weeks after first finding the tree in early May, conservationists returned to find the colossal tree had been felled.

Thousands of old-growth trees are being logged in over 300 hectares of cutblocks issued by BC Timber Sales (BCTS) in the Nahmint Valley. The 300 hectares constitute some of the very grandest remaining “monumental” stands of “high productivity” old-growth forests (i.e. the largest trees on the best growing sites) left in the valley. Most of the Nahmint Valley’s monumental groves, growing at lower elevations, have long since been logged and much of the remaining old-growth forests outside of these cutblocks are comprised of much smaller trees growing on low and medium productivity sites, including much of the 2700 hectares forests currently reserved in Old-Growth Management Areas and other forest reserves. Environmentalists are now redoubling their efforts to pressure the BC government to direct their logging agency to stop issuing old-growth cutblocks in BC, to implement a Big Tree Protection Order to protect BC’s biggest trees (including buffer zones) and grandest groves, and most importantly, to develop comprehensive, science-based legislation to protect endangered old-growth forest ecosystems across the province while ensuring a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry. The Nahmint Valley contains some of the most extensive remaining stands of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island outside of Clayoquot Sound and is in the territory of the Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations bands.

“We’d seen this magnificent Douglas-fir, towering above its neighbours in the forest earlier in May and decided to take a measurement. We couldn’t believe we’d found the ninth-widest Douglas-fir in the country,” stated Mike Stini of the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance. “To see it lying on the ground two weeks later was devastating, especially since these big, old Douglas-firs are now endangered after a century of commercial logging. There are less than 1% of the old-growth Douglas-firs on the coast remaining. It’s like finding a huge black rhino or Siberian tiger that’s been shot. There are simply too few today and logging the last of these giants shouldn’t be allowed to happen anymore in BC,” stated Stini.

“According to BCTS’ policy, Douglas-fir trees over 2.1 meters (7 feet) wide and western redcedars over 3 metres (10 feet) wide located within BCTS-issued cutblocks should be left standing,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner TJ Watt. “In spite of this policy, they still cut down Canada’s 9th widest Douglas-fir tree that was 3 meters (10 feet) wide – far larger than their minimum protection size – and we saw several fresh cedar stumps wider than 3 metres. In addition to it being a weak policy to begin with, with plenty of loopholes and lacking buffer zones for the biggest trees, they aren’t even implementing it in the Nahmint Valley. BCTS’ ‘best practices’ didn’t even save the ninth-widest Douglas-fir in Canada.”

BC Timber Sales in January launched their big tree protection policy, the Best Management Practices for Coastal Legacy Trees initiative, to protect the largest trees over a minimum diameter size in BCTS-issued cutblocks. The policy fails to include mandatory buffer zones (creating more “Big Lonely Doug” scenarios where the largest Douglas-firs and redcedars stand alone in clearcuts) and has many loopholes (such as allowing the largest trees to be cut if they block access for logging or if the government deems that there are enough large trees already protected in the area). Despite the policy being in place, the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and local conservationists found freshly logged western redcedar and Douglas-fir trees throughout the valley – including Canada’s ninth-widest Douglas-fir – that exceeded the minimum protection sizes set out in the policy.

“Although it should be a no-brainer to protect BC’s biggest trees, what we ultimately need is protection for endangered forest ecosystems, which are under siege by commercial logging. Almost 11,000 hectares of old-growth forests were cut on Vancouver Island in 2016,” stated Ancient Forest Alliacne campaigner Andrea Inness. “And where better to start protecting old-growth than at the government’s own logging agency, BC Timber Sales?”

“It’s incredibly disappointing that the BC government has a deficient policy for big tree protection – which they aren’t even implementing – on BC Timber Sales managed lands where they directly plan logging and that they are dragging their heels on implementing a similar policy on other Crown lands,” stated TJ Watt. “We have been calling on the province to implement a Big Tree Protection Order to save BC’s last remaining big trees with buffer zones and smaller minimum protection sizes, but monumental trees continue to be cut while we wait for the NDP government to take action. Most importantly, we need old-growth ecosystems protected on a much larger scale, and a value-added, sustainable second-growth forest industry, which will require a far larger overhaul of BC’s unsustainable forest policies. If the BC government is showing itself to be incompetent in protecting the very largest trees in the province, this does not bode well for the necessary protections of forest ecosystems and tens of thousands of forestry jobs dependent on sustainable policies.”

The BC government began developing the Big Tree Protection policy in 2011 and, according to the Ministry of Forests, the policy is still under development and won’t be officially implemented for another year or two.

“We’ve been in liaising with the new government and Ministry of Forests since July last year and have put forward a suite of forest policy recommendations that the BC government can implement over both short- and long-term timeframes. In addition to a comprehensive, science-based law to protect endangered old-growth forests, one of the recommendations is for the BC government to direct BC Timber Sales to discontinue the issuance of old-growth cutblocks. They have declined to do so thus far,” stated Inness.

BC Timber Sales (BCTS), a division of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, is the BC government’s logging agency that plans and directly issues logging permits for about 20 per cent of the province’s merchantable timber on Crown lands, which fall outside of forestry tenures. The BC government retains full control over which cut blocks are auctioned each year through BCTS and can therefore use this control to quickly phase out issuing timber sales in old-growth forests in these areas.

The Ancient Forest Alliance, along with conservationists from Sierra Club BC and Wilderness Committee, have also met with Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson and key ministry staff to highlight the urgency of BC’s old-growth forest crisis and provide a map of old-growth ‘hotspots’ – areas of high conservation and recreational value that warrant immediate protection.

“For almost a year now, the NDP has been dragging its heels, giving excuses, and plodding along with the destructive status quo of high-grade old-growth forest liquidation, raw log exports, mill closures, and unsustainable forestry in general. It’s obvious they feel no sense of urgency to act,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance executive director Ken Wu.

“The NDP needs to wake up and break away from the old, unsustainable mindset that has driven the increasing collapse of both ecosystems and rural communities in this province,” said Wu. “Today, there’s a viable, potentially sustainable, second-growth forestry alternative that the government can foster through regulations and incentives while protecting endangered old-growth forests and supporting the economic diversification of First Nations and rural communities. So far it has only been the Green Party advocating major old-growth forest protection and a forest policy overhaul.”

The Nahmint Valley is considered a “hotspot” of high-conservation value old-growth forest by conservation groups, with some of the largest tracts of remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island outside of Clayoquot Sound, and is home to Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, cougars, wolves, and black bears, as well as old-growth associated species like the marbled murrelet and northern goshawk. The area also supports significant salmon and steelhead spawning runs. The Nahmint is considered by many people to be one of the most scenic areas in BC, with its ancient forests, rugged peaks, gorgeous turquoise canyons and swimming holes, and large and small lakes, and is heavily used by hikers, campers, anglers, and hunters.

More Background Info

Old-growth forests are vital to sustaining unique endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations. On BC’s southern coast, satellite photos show that at least 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only about 8% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. Old-growth forests – with trees that can be 2000 years old – are a non-renewable resource under BC’s system of forestry, where second-growth forests are re-logged every 50 to 100 years, never to become old-growth again.

On BC’s southern coast (Vancouver Island and the southwest mainland), 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. 3.3 million hectares of productive old-growth forests once stood on the southern coast (with an additional 2.2 million hectares of bog, subalpine forests, and other low productivity old-growth forests of low to no commercial value with stunted trees), and today only 860,000 hectares remain, while only 260,000 hectares are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. Second-growth forests now dominate 75% of the southern coast’s productive forest lands, including 90% of southern Vancouver Island, and can be sustainably logged to support the forest industry. See “before and after” maps and stats of the southern coast’s old-growth forests at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php

In order to placate public fears about the loss of BC’s endangered old-growth forests, the government’s PR-spin typically over-inflates the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including hundreds of thousands of hectares of marginal, low productivity forests growing in bogs and at high elevations with small, stunted trees, together with the productive old-growth forests where the large trees grow (and where most logging takes place). They also leave out vast areas of largely overcut private managed forest lands – previously managed as if they were Crown lands for decades and still managed by the province under weaker Private Managed Forest Lands regulations – in order to reduce the basal area for calculating how much old-growth forest remains, thereby increasing the fraction of remaining old-growth forests. See a rebuttal to some of the BC government’s PR-spin and stats about old-growth forests towards the BOTTOM of the webpage: https://16.52.162.165/action-alert-speak-up-for-ancient-forests-to-the-union-of-bc-municipalities-ubcm/

In recent times in BC, the voices for old-growth protection have been quickly expanding, including numerous Chambers of Commerce, mayors and city councils, forestry unions, and conservation groups across BC who have been calling on the provincial government to expand protection for BC’s remaining old-growth forests.

BC’s premier business lobby, the BC Chamber of Commerce, representing 36,000 businesses, passed a resolution in May of 2016 calling on the province to expand protection for BC’s old-growth forests to support the economy, after a series of similar resolutions passed by the Port Renfrew, Sooke, and WestShore Chambers of Commerce. See: https://16.52.162.165/media-release-historic-leap-for-old-growth-forests-bc-chamber-of-commerce-passes-resolution-for-expanded-protection/

Both the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), representing the mayors, city and town councils, and regional districts across BC, and Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC), representing Vancouver Island local governments, passed a resolution in 2016 calling on the province to protect the Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth forests by amending the 1994 land use plan. See: https://16.52.162.165/media-release-ubcm-passes-old-growth-protection-resolution/

The Public and Private Workers of Canada (PPWC), formerly the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada, representing thousands of sawmill and pulp mill workers across BC, passed a resolution in 2017 calling for an end to old-growth logging on Vancouver Island. See: https://16.52.162.165/conservationists-applaud-old-growth-protection-resolution-by-major-bc-forestry-union/

Each year, a significant portion of the provincial timber harvest is carried out on BC Timber Sales (BCTS) controlled land through its timber sales program. BCTS, a division of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRO), is the BC government’s logging agency that plans and directly issues logging permits for about 20 percent of the province’s merchantable timber on Crown lands, which fall outside of forestry tenures. Under this system, logging rights are granted through competitive auction to the highest bidding company for each timber sale, which provides benchmark costs and prices from the harvest of Crown timber in BC in order to set stumpage rates for tenure holders. The remaining 80 per cent of the province’s annual timber harvest occurs under the timber tenure system through tree farm or forest licences within Timber Supply Areas, woodlot licences, First Nations woodland licences, community forest agreements, or other tenures.

As the BC government retains full control over which cut blocks are auctioned each year through BCTS, the new government should use this control to quickly phase out issuing timber sales in old-growth forests and support implementation of conservation steps.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness walks beside an enormous

Massive Cutting of Canada’s Grandest Old-Growth Forests Coordinated by BC Government’s Logging Agency – Near Record-Sized Douglas-firs Found in Nahmint Valley on Vancouver Island

May 18 2018/in Media Release/by TJ Watt

Hundreds of hectares of the grandest old-growth forests in Canada are being logged at breakneck speeds right now in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni, including thousands of old-growth western redcedars – some 4.3 meters (14 feet) in diameter – and exceptionally large Douglas-firs. BC’s 5th and 9th widest Douglas-fir trees, according to the BC Big Tree Registry, were found on the expedition to the area.

Port Alberni – Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) were dismayed last week to discover that the BC government’s logging agency, BC Timber Sales (BCTS), has auctioned off at least 300 hectares of some of the world’s grandest old-growth forests in the Nahmint Valley for logging, with thousands of old-growth trees already having been cut down this spring. AFA campaigners TJ Watt and Andrea Inness, arborist-conservationist Matthew Beatty, and local Port Alberni conservationists Mike Stini and Ariane Telishewsky, came across the new clearcuts and road-building operations with enormous, 12-foot-wide, freshly cut logs of ancient cedars on May 6.

The campaigners also identified an enormous Douglas-fir tree, which they dubbed the “Alberni Giant”, that is wider than the fifth widest Douglas-fir tree listed in the BC Big Tree Registry at almost 11.5 metres (38 feet) in circumference or 3.7 metres (12 feet) in diameter. In addition, they found a Douglas-fir tree 3 metres (9.9 feet) in diameter, making it wider than even the widest Douglas-fir in Cathedral Grove, which is 2.8 metres (9.2 feet) in diameter, as well as a massive 4.3-metre or 14-foot-wide western redcedar.

The cutblocks targeting prime ancient forests were identified by the AFA and are on BCTS-controlled Crown lands and total over 300 hectares in the Nahmint Valley, with some cutlbocks being 30 hectares – or about 30 football fields – in size. The Nahmint Valley is in the territory of the Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations bands.

“The BC NDP government is fully in charge of BC Timber Sales’ mandate. For them to let their own logging agency auction off logging rights to some of the largest and oldest endangered trees on Earth is like enabling the slaughter of elephant herds or the harpooning of blue whales. It’s the very opposite of sustainable forest management. The new NDP government needs a serious wake-up call. They need to end the status quo of old-growth liquidation – for starters, BCTS must stop issuing old-growth cutblocks – and instead ensure a sustainable second-growth forest industry,” stated AFA forest campaigner Andrea Inness.

“It’s brutal, what’s happening out there. In advance of our trip I researched where the finest old-growth stands might be located based on Google Earth satellite maps and each one turned out to have a logging cutblock placed on it – cutblocks planned and issued by the BC government’s own logging agency. We visited many spectacular trees on the day we arrived – some trees bigger than even those found in Cathedral Grove – and, by the second day, many of them were already on the ground. It’s a full-on assault. All day long the sounds of chainsaws, drilling machines, and huge trees crashing down boomed throughout the valley,” stated TJ Watt.

The Nahmint Valley is considered a “hotspot” of high-conservation value old-growth forest by conservation groups and is home to Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, cougars, wolves, and black bears, as well as old-growth associated species like the marbled murrelet and northern goshawk. The area also supports significant salmon and steelhead spawning runs. The Nahmint is considered by many people to be one of the most scenic areas in BC, with its ancient forests, rugged peaks, gorgeous turquoise canyons and swimming holes, and large and small lakes, and is heavily used by hikers, campers, anglers, and hunters.

“Only about 1% of the original old-growth Douglas-fir stands still remain on BC’s coast, and just about the finest stands are here in the Nahmint Valley. The area is also prime wildlife habitat for so many species. Having explored the forests around Port Alberni for decades, I can say with confidence that the remaining old-growth forests in the Nahmint are a first-rate conservation priority,” said wildlife expert Mike Stini of the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance.

The NDP’s 2017 election platform states that “In partnership with First Nations and communities, we will modernize land-use planning to effectively and sustainably manage BC’s ecosystems, rivers, lakes, watersheds, forests and old growth, while accounting for cumulative effects. We will take an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.” (see page 61 of their platform at: https://action.bcndp.ca/page/-/bcndp/docs/BC-NDP-Platform-2017.pdf). If taken literally and seriously, this would almost certainly result in the protection of the remaining endangered old-growth forest on BC’s southern coast and in the BC Interior, where old-growth forests are far scarcer and more endangered than in the Central and Northern Coast (Great Bear Rainforest) where 85% of the forests (including the vast majority of the old-growth) were set aside in protected areas and under the ecosystem-based management reserve networks.

Several environmental groups, including the Ancient Forest Alliance, Sierra Club BC, and Wilderness Committee, are calling on the BC government to implement a series of policy changes that can be rolled out over both short- and longer-term timelines. This includes a comprehensive, science-based law to protect old-growth forests and financial support for sustainable economic development and diversification of First Nations communities, known as “conservation financing,” while supporting First Nations land use plans. While these longer-term solutions are being developed, an interim halt to logging in old-growth “hotspots” – areas of high conservation value – must be implemented to ensure the largest and best stands of remaining old-growth forests are kept intact while a larger plan is developed.

There are also a number of policies that can be readily implemented more quickly. For example, the NDP government should direct BCTS to discontinue issuance of old-growth cut blocks and support the implementation of conservation solutions in such rare and endangered forests. In addition, there needs to be an effective big tree protection order with buffer zones and forest reserves such as many Old-Growth Management Areas that currently exist only on paper should be made legally binding and the system should be quickly expanded to protect additional endangered old-growth forests. Finally, annual funding needs to be directed to establish a park acquisition fund, which would allow the BC government to purchase and protect private lands of high conservation, cultural or recreational value.

“So far, the new NDP government has, disappointingly, supported the destructive status quo of high-grade old-growth forest liquidation, raw log exports, mill closures, and unsustainable forestry in general. They need to break away from the old unsustainable mindset that has driven the increasing collapse of both ecosystems and rural communities in this province. When it comes to forestry, the NDP have not distinguished themselves from the BC Liberals in terms of any new laws or regulations, and it’s very unwise for them to think they can take the environmental movement for granted and test its patience with excuses, heel-dragging, and PR spin while the destructive status quo rages on. Today there is a viable, potentially sustainable, second-growth forestry alternative that the government can foster, while protecting endangered old-growth forests and supporting the economic diversification of First Nations and rural communities,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance executive director Ken Wu.