Environmental organization launches VIRY REAL (Vancouver Island Rainforest therapy – Real Earth Appreciation Lessons) for distraught Avatar film-goers

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Victoria, Canada – A Canadian environmental organization has established a 3 Step Program designed to cure thousands of movie-goers who complain about sinking into a depression in their drab, Earthly lives after watching scenes of spectacular alien rainforests and wildlife in James Cameron’s hugely popular film, “Avatar” (see article www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html ), which is now history’s highest grossing film at the box office.

“To treat the thousands of deprived souls who don’t get out into nature enough, and who therefore believe that the Earth’s ecosystems are boring and unspectacular unlike those of the alien world ‘Pandora’, we will be offering a simple, yet effective 3 step program to heal their souls of their Post-Avatar Depression,” states environmentalist Ken Wu, co-founder of the newly formed Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA). The AFA is a new non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of British Columbia’s old-growth temperate rainforests (see www.ancientforestalliance.org and the Facebook group and photos at www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=267708511607)

The program, known as VIRY REAL (Vancouver Island Rainforest therapy – Real Earth Appreciation Lessons) consists of 3 simple, yet effective steps to cure Post-Avatar Depression:

  1. Get out and experience nature.
    This includes the old-growth forests of Vancouver Island, the tropical rainforests of Indonesia, the savannahs of Africa, the cypress swamps of Louisiana, the prairie grasslands of Alberta, the deciduous forests of eastern North America and Europe, or going to your own neighbourhood forest, field or wetland – that is, experiencing nature anywhere on this incredible planet, Earth.
  2. Take action to defend nature.
    This entails putting pressure on governments through letters, petitions, and protests to implement environmental laws and policies, pressuring corporations to change their practices, and simplifying one’s consumptive wants.
  3. Get others to do the same.
    Join environmental groups, donate, and recruit friends, family, classmates, and co-workers to hike, write, petition, and protest just like you!

“We guarantee that once you’ve successfully completed our simple, yet effective 3 step program, you will be cured of your Post-Avatar Depression,” states Wu. “We will guide you through each step of the way: from joining hikes in the endangered ancient forests of Vancouver Island, to writing and protesting to protect these forests, to undertaking outreach to get thousands of people to do the same.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance was launched in January of 2010 to organize grassroots support to protect the remaining old-growth forests in British Columbia, where trees can grow trunks over 20 feet (6 meters) wide, reach heights over 300 feet (95 meters) tall, and live to be almost 2000 years old (see spectacular photos on the Facebook page of the Ancient Forest Alliance).

75% of the productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have already been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Unfortunately, only 6% of Vancouver Island’s productive forests are protected in parks. Meanwhile logging companies are clearcutting the unprotected old-growth forests at breakneck speeds for pulp, toilet paper, phone books, newsprint, and lumber, while the British Columbian government contends that there is no need to protect the remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island. The Ancient Forest Alliance advocates the protection of our endangered old-growth forests, sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and a ban on the export of raw, unprocessed logs to foreign mills in order to protect Canadian jobs.

“James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ is a landmark film that is helping to propel forward the values of environmental and cultural appreciation across much of the world, including the need to protect nature and old-growth forests – that is, as long as the viewers make the connection to things that are actually here on Earth!” states Wu.

“Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests are the Real Pandora, here on Earth. We have giant, moss and fern-draped ancient trees almost as large as Home Tree in Avatar, spectacular creatures like bears, wolves, mountain lions, wolverine, and elk in our forests, and giant blue whales, killer whales, elephant seals, and huge Stellar sea lions along our Wild Coast,” notes Wu. “And when you look across this planet –with its enormous baobab, banyen, and sequoia trees, its elephants, rhinos, hyenas, oranguatans, Siberian tigers, wood bison, Kodiak bears, tapirs, whale sharks, manatees, leopard seals, walruses, California condors, and giant, shaggy Bactrian camels, and our incredible cultural diversity, you realize that we inhabit a place as spectacular – and a lot more real – than Pandora. But just like on Pandora, we have a real fight to defend it as the forces of greed, disconnect, and short-sightedness move at breakneck speeds to destroy the beauty and diversity on Earth.”

Ancient Forest Alliance

Island forest group strikes out on its own

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Veteran activists with the Victoria branch of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee are splitting from the group’s Vancouver headquarters and forming a new organization dedicated to fighting for old-growth forests.

The break follows a WCWC decision to centralize its old-growth campaign in Vancouver, reduce staff in Victoria, dismantle the website and close the Johnson Street store.

Campaign director Ken Wu — who had already announced he was leaving WCWC — forest and marine campaigner Tara Sawatsky and photographer TJ Watt launched the non-profit Ancient Forest Alliance at a news conference in Francis King Regional Park yesterday.

The new group will plug the gap the WCWC move would have left on southern Vancouver Island, said Wu, who does not believe the planned changes will benefit the environment but says he doesn’t want to waste time bickering.

“The important thing is to move on and do good things. I don’t want to spend time mired in mud-slinging, but people must know there’s a void which needs to be filled,” he said.

Wu was planning to travel and work for Green Party Leader Elizabeth May when he left WCWC, rather than start a new organization. “But Victoria stands out as a real stronghold of people who have a connection with ancient forests,” said Wu, who worried momentum would be lost.

The Ancient Forest Alliance will campaign for legislative changes and build on local grassroots support.

Watt will lead expeditions into less accessible areas as he documents endangered ancient forests, heritage trees and clearcuts.

The biggest change is the Alliance will not apply for charitable status, giving it more political freedom.

“We will be able to call it as we see it because we will no longer have the handcuffs of charitable status,” Wu said.

The group is calling on the province to conduct an inventory and protect old-growth forests, ensure sustainable logging of second-growth, end the export of raw logs and assist in the retooling of sawmills to handle second-growth.

At first, campaigners will volunteer their time and use Facebook and Twitter to mobilize supporters.

“We have a skeletal structure of an organization. We have a name, we have a G-mail account and we have a knowledge base and relationships we have developed,” Wu said.

Joe Foy, WCWC national campaign director, said the decision to close the Johnson Street store was made because it was not making money and about $1,000 a month could be saved by moving the office to a second-storey location.

The new WCWC set-up in Victoria will consist of an outreach co-ordinator, who will organize rallies and slideshows, and a coastal campaigner, working on issues such as ending salmon farming and keeping oil off the coast, Foy said.

Staff will also work with the Vancouver forestry campaigner on old-growth issues, as problems with too much old-growth logging and “biodiversity meltdowns” are similar throughout the province.

“We had noticed Victoria was becoming a little bit cut off from the rest of the organization,” Foy said.

There is room for both the WCWC and the Alliance in Victoria, he said, adding forest companies that insist on logging old-growth should be “quaking in their boots.”

“We are certainly working for the same goals and, down the road, I think it will become clear there are areas where we can help each other out,” Foy said.

“I think Vancouver Island is very lucky that Ken has decided to stay and fight this battle.”

Ancient Forest Alliance

Old Forests, New Twist

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Tis the season, it would seem, for turmoil in the environmental movement. With run-of-the-river power projects testing the solidarity of green-minded British Columbians, and last summer’s high-profile battle for the leadership of The Land Conservancy, we now have the Western Canada Wilderness Committee announcing the closure of its Victoria storefront and shifting the focus of its Island campaigner to marine issues from old-growth forest protection.

Puzzled – and more than a little incensed – by the decision from the Wilderness Committee’s Vancouver-based executive and board is longtime WCWC forest campaign director Ken Wu, who this week announced the formation of his own old-growth preservation group to be known as the Ancient Forest Alliance. The AFA intends to plug what Wu sees as a gap left by WCWC’s planned changes to its Island initiatives.

In late 2009, Wu resigned his WCWC post, planning to embark on some long-deferred European backpacking, and set about training Tara Sawatsky to take over the job of galvanizing public support to save Island old-growth. But the Wilderness Committee head office in Vancouver has since decided the primary focus of its Victoria campaigner will be ocean-oriented, and Sawatsky was not offered the job.

“The central duty of the Victoria campaigner will be to be responsible for the marine campaigns for the whole organization, so that will include oil and gas, fish farms and the like,” says WCWC’s national campaign director Joe Foy.

“What we’re trying to do is integrate ending old-growth logging on Vancouver Island with our objectives to end old-growth logging around the Lower Mainland,” Foy continues. “So, our Victoria campaigner will be working closely with campaigners in this office in a broader strategy to end old-growth logging in the South Coast rainforest.”

Wu is struggling to find the logic in the WCWC executive’s decision to refocus its Vancouver Island efforts, especially when WCWC projects around old-growth logging had been gaining momentum over the past few years.

“If you look at all the indicators of success for an environmental organization, in terms of membership, fundraising, grassroots support, media coverage, influence – the Wilderness Committee of Victoria excelled, and that’s a simple fact,” says Wu. “So I’m not speculating on anyone’s motives, but what this decision does do, is that it eliminates the strongest part of the Wilderness Committee, which is its Victoria office, and centralizes the control and power in the Vancouver office.”

Wu says victories from the Victoria office have been plentiful.

“We killed the working forest proposal,” Wu told Monday. “We stopped coastal oil and gas development for almost a decade. We stopped the Malahat highway expansion through the old-growth forests at Goldstream provincial park, and when I first came we pushed the CRD to implement a parks levy and we’ve taken the old growth campaign to unprecedented heights.”

A rally for ancient forests in October 2008 saw more than 2,500 people, from loggers to environmentalists, come together on the legislature lawns to protest old-growth forest mismanagement.

Joe Foy says the decision to shut down the organization’s Johnson Street storefront is intended to save WCWC approximately $1,000 a month. Wu’s former position will be split in two, with the marine campaigner, as well as an outreach co-ordinator to build public engagement for WCWC’s projects.

“It’s a change in how we do our business, it’s a change calculated to put more dollars into campaigning by getting a savings on the higher rent that a store requires, and it’s a change calculated to build better teamwork between the various offices of the Wilderness Committee,” he says.

Wu has decided to put his travel plans on hold to continue his public relations battle against current logging practices on Vancouver Island.

He says a key difference between the efforts of the Ancient Forest Alliance and the Wilderness Committee is that his group will not be constrained by rules that prevent organizations with charitable status from taking overtly political positions. This means elected officials who maintain that B.C.’s old growth forests are intact, or defend the export of raw logs, should be prepared for some salty commentary from the AFA.

“I think people have to face consequences for doing bad things, and there should be corresponding consequences for doing good things, and this is how our world becomes a better place,” Wu says. “The main thing around this is that we need a positive alternative that mobilizes the grassroots and pushes hard in terms of punishment and rewards for issues that involve the people of Vancouver Island.”

WCWC’s Foy says he doesn’t anticipate an exodus of donors and supporters from WCWC to the Ancient Forests Alliance.

“There is a room, and a need for 20 Ken Wu’s on Vancouver Island, and it would be sad if the movement lost him, but it looks like that’s not what’s going to happen and that’s great,” says Foy.

Backing against a giant Douglas fir in Francis King Regional Park

Old-growth forest activists launch new group

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Prolific environmental activists have formed a fledgling old-growth forest watchdog group after parting ways with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.

Amid the towering Douglas firs of Francis King Regional Park on Tuesday, Ken Wu announced the formation of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) with former WCWC colleague Tara Sawatsky and photographer TJ Watt.

Wu, the long-standing public face of WCWC environmental campaigns in Greater Victoria, said the emerging group will seek to document intact and clear-cut old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and the southern Mainland.

Wu said the AFA also plans to advocate for B.C.-based value-added milling of second growth timber to preserve jobs while discouraging raw log exports.

“We’ll find in 10 to 15 years our ancient forests will be liquidated,” Wu said. “All that makes us special will be lost.”

Watt said he’s explored more than 100 different forest areas on Vancouver Island and has witnessed logging practices the group is trying to target.

“Our ancient forests hold some of the largest trees on Earth,” Watt said. “The most amazing places are lost before the public knows anything about them.”

Unlike the WCWC, the AFA will not seek charitable status, allowing the group to take partisan political stands. Registered Canadian charities are banned from political activity.

As of Tuesday, the AFA admittedly has little more than its name and a “G-mail account,” Wu said, but he expects online social networking to help build local awareness and support.

“Victoria stands out in the world as a stronghold of environmentally conscious people,” he said. “We don’t expect to get huge donations, but we can be honest and direct. I like the idea of not having charitable status.”

Wu announced his departure from WCWC last November, but launched the splinter group this month in response to wilderness committee plans to ramp down operations in Victoria. Wu said the WCWC is ending it’s old-growth campaign, “leaving a void that needed to be filled.”

“It’s a huge waste of time bickering back and forth,” Wu said. “You can fight for the organization or you can fight for the environment.”

Joe Foy, WCWC national campaign director in Vancouver, said when it comes to environmental activism, the more the merrier. By avoiding charitable status, Foy agreed the AFA has opened the door to blending political and environmental activism.

“Charitable status helps with fundraising, but restricts the kind of activities you can engage in,” Foy said. “(The AFA) helps create diversity of environmental groups in B.C. with a diversity of tactics. Both are good things.”

Foy described the state of old-growth on the Island as “absolutely grim.” Ancient trees outside of parks and other managed forest areas are subject to few protections, he said.

“We view ourselves as having large, intact ecosystems, but Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland are long past that point,” Foy said. “We need to protect every fragment that’s left.”

Foy suggested Wu is overstating upheaval within the WCWC. Two people are being hired to manage campaigns and public outreach in Victoria. The old-growth campaign isn’t over, he said, but is being tied with the effort on the Mainland.

The WCWC Rainforest store in downtown Victoria is losing money will likely be closed by March, Foy said, but a Victoria WCWC office will be staffed and maintained.

“There’s a saying that with many people, you have to go slow. But if you want to go fast, go by yourself,” Foy said. “Ken wants to go fast. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

For more on the AFA, see www.ancientforestalliance.org.

Ancient Forest Alliance

Local Environmental Activist Takes New Role in Protecting Old Growth Forests

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Ken Wu — The former campaign director for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee — and the new head of the Ancient Forest Alliance says there are a million hectares of unprotected old growth forests at risk on BC’s south coast.

“We need to continue putting pressure on government through hundreds of thousands of people, and so the Ancient Forest Alliance, the new organization today, will help us fill that void, but it will also have an added bonus. It may not sound like a bonus at first but it actually is, for our effectiveness is that we won’t have charitable status. That means we can say and do as we need when it comes to criticizing politicians or supporting politicians.”

“Charitable status handcuffs you in terms of what you can and can’t say about politicians. For example, you’re not allowed to say that this particular politician in BC, this little politician’s stance is that old growth forests are not endangered on Vancouver Island, raw log exports will continue and it’s fine to log off the rest of the unprotected old growth, therefore you should not vote for him if you care about old growth forests. You can’t say that. But it’s the truth when it comes to these issues.”

Wu was a guest on CFAX 1070 with Dave Dickson this afternoon.

Ancient Forest Alliance

Wu in the Wild

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When last we heard from Ken Wu, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee’s Victoria campaign director had announced he would be stepping aside to travel the world. But those plans have been put on hold, with Mr. Wu launching a new environmental group in response to a wilderness committee decision he says will downsize the campaign against old growth logging on Vancouver Island. But Joe Foy, a senior staffer with committee, has rejected Mr. Wu’s interpretation of that decision.

Speaking to reporters at Saanich’s Francis/King Regional Park, Mr. Wu said the Ancient Forest Alliance – whose founders include the committee’s former junior campaigner Tara Sawatsky and Metchosin photographer T.J. Watt – “will fill a void.”

“The Western Canada Wilderness Committee’s office, its old growth campaign, it’s three old growth campaigners, its storefront and its Website will be closed shortly – not my decision,” he explained. “And I believe it’s important we continue to educate and mobilize the people of Victoria.”

In an interview with Public Eye, Mr. Foy confirmed the committee’s store in Victoria is being replaced with an office because the store “wasn’t a money-making venture for us.”

But he said no jobs are being eliminated, although some of their responsibilities are being changed. As a result, the committee’s old growth campaign on the island will be directed from Vancouver as part of a province-wide effort against such logging.

“It’s perfectly legitimate for Ken to be concerned. It’s a really important campaign. But I think he’s got it wrong,” said Mr. Foy.

Still, the committee’s national campaign director described Mr. Wu’s decision to continue his environmental work as “awesome.”

“The campaign and the movement in the general can very much use Ken Wu,” he said.