Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the AFA!

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Today is the 10-year anniversary of the Ancient Forest Alliance and we’re celebrating a decade of accomplishments made possible by YOU, our supporters!

With your help over the past 10 years, we’ve secured the protection of Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory (2012) and 60% of Echo Lake near Mission in Sts’ailes territory (2013). We also built a boardwalk through Avatar Grove, which now attracts thousands of tourists from around the world each year, massively bolstering the local economy.

We defeated the BC government’s proposal to expand tree farm licenses (2013/2014) in BC and have averted logging so far in ancient forest hotspots like the Central Walbran Valley in Pacheedaht territory.

We’ve built alliances with non-traditional allies resulting in numerous resolutions being passed in support for old-growth forest protection, including by the BC Chamber of Commerce in 2016 and the Public and Private Workers of Canada millworkers’ union in 2017.

We’ve brought attention to BC’s ancient forests on local, national, and international levels and, most importantly, we pushed the current BC government to potentially undertake new provincial old-growth management policies, for the first time in decades, including convening a Old-Growth Strategic Review panel to gather public input on old-growth management and commencing the protection of some of BC’s biggest old-growth trees (limited in scope thus far).

There’s still much work to be done, but we know with your support, there’s hope for the future of BC’s magnificent old-growth forests. Your passion, dedication, and generosity is the engine that keeps us going and we won’t stop until the province’s ancient forests get the protection they deserve. Thank you for standing with us on this journey.

– The Ancient Forest Alliance Team

Thank you to all the businesses, organizations, and artists who supported the AFA in 2019

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The Ancient Forest Alliance would like to extend our deepest gratitude to the many outstanding businesses, organizations, and artists who supported our ancient forest campaign in 2019.

A huge thanks the Ball Foundation for their generous support, which strengthened our capacity to engage “non-traditional allies” like recreation and faith groups to broaden support for old-growth protection, and to Patagonia for supporting our efforts to pursue conservation financing solutions for Vancouver Island First Nations through their Environmental Grants Program. Our deepest thanks also to the Calgary Foundation and Smith Share Foundation for your generous contributions to our campaign.

A big thanks to Patagonia Victoria for organizing a hugely successful benefit night for the AFA at the screening of Treeline and for welcoming our canvassers to set up holiday booths. Thank you MEC Victoria for their in-kind gifts and for lending their retail space for our community outreach work. We also deeply appreciate the many local businesses that share their space with our canvassers before and after their shifts. It means so much to our team!

We would like to thank Bough & Antler Northwest Goods for sharing their creative talents to design AFA’s custom logo t-shirts and for donating a portion of proceeds from their business sales; Sea Flora Skincare and Gran Manitou for their generous donations and in-kind gifts; Banyen Books & Sound and to i.O.N Clothing Featuring Hemp and Company for retailing AFA Merchandise in their storefront, Kerrisdale Cameras Victoria for organizing staff fundraisers; and Tribe Archipelago and Elastic Email for your generous monthly contributions.

Thank you to the following businesses and organizations for your generosity and support: Tantalus Design, Island Return it Sidney, Handsome Dan Enterprises, Grumpy Hat, Skye Dreamer, Cadboro Bay United Church, Brentwood College Environmental Club, and Sierra Club BC.

We were thrilled to receive in-kind support from a variety of businesses and artists at our 2019 Year-End fundraiser, including:

Adrena LINE Zipline Adventure Tours, Artisans Well Gallery & Gifts, Axe & Grind, Baby Dog Canada, Big Fish Lodge, Botanical Bliss, Barnaby Black, Candace Perry Moen, COBS Bread on Millstream, COBS Bread West Shore, Country Grocer, Crag X Climbing Gym, Diane Moran, Fairway Markets, Floyds Diner, Fountain Diner, Il Terrazzo Ristorante, IMAX VICTORIA, Handsome Dan’s Port Renfrew, Kleque Method, Logan Ford, Lorelei Green, Lordco Parts Ltd. , Lynn James Art, Mark Leiren-Young, The Market on Yates, MEC Victoria, Michael Layland, Mile 19 Signs & Graphics, Patagonia Victoria, Richard Krieger, Robinson’s Outdoor Store, Save-On-Foods, Seaflora Skincare, Sheringham Distillery, Shelly Knocton Art, Real Canadian Superstore, Terry McLean, Thrifty Foods, Tiger Dave Tattoos, Quality Foods – Langford, Quest Reality Games Victoria, Turmeric Indian Cuisine, The Village Estevan, Victoria Bug Zoo Inc., Val Gavin, Village Food Markets, Wild Renfrew   and Cello Bride for her beautiful cello performance.

Thank you all again for your support, creativity, and for helping to make our work possible.

Sincerely,

Andrea Inness, TJ Watt, Joan Varley, Rachel Ablack, Tiara Dhenin, Amanda Evans, and Jacob Swain.

The Ancient Forest Alliance Team

AFA Year-End Celebration- THANK YOU!

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Thank you to all who attended the AFA’s amazing 2019 Year-End Celebration last night! It was one of our best turnouts to date with more than 150 people joining us at the Victoria Event Centre. We are most grateful to you, our supporters, for your continued generosity and uplifting energy and to everyone who helped make the night a success! Special thanks to the talented Cello Bride for her heartfelt performance, the many business donors and local grocers who contributed to the silent auction and fed our guests (see below), Victoria Event Centre staff, and AFA’s hard working volunteers and team members!

Adrena LINE Zipline Adventure Tours, Artisans Well Gallery & Gifts, Axe & Grind, Baby Dog Canada, Big Fish Lodge, Botanical Bliss, Barnaby Black, Candace Perry Moen, COBS Bread on Millstream, COBS Bread West Shore, Country Grocer, Crag X Climbing Gym, Diane Moran, Fairway Markets, Floyds Diner, Fountain Diner, Il Terrazzo Ristorante, IMAX VICTORIA, Handsome Dan’s Port Renfrew, Kleque Method, Logan Ford, Lorelei Green, Lordco Parts Ltd. , Lynn James Art, Mark Leiren-Young, The Market on Yates, MEC Victoria, Michael Layland, Mile 19 Signs & Graphics, Patagonia Victoria, Richard Krieger, Robinson’s Outdoor Store, Save-On-Foods, Seaflora Skincare, Sheringham Distillery, Shelly Knocton Art, Real Canadian Superstore, Terry McLean, Thrifty Foods, Tiger Dave Tattoos, Quality Foods – Langford, Quest Reality Games Victoria, Turmeric Indian Cuisine, The Village Estevan, Victoria Bug Zoo Inc., Val Gavin, Village Food Markets, and Wild Renfrew

Patagonia Victoria Treeline Film Screening- THANK YOU!

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It was a full house last night at Patagonia Victoria for the showing of the film Treeline and we couldn’t be more grateful!

Thank you to everyone who joined us, to Driftwood Brewery for the drinks, and to Patagonia Victoria for hosting such a lovely evening. In the end, we raised $1500 thanks to all the donations!! ???

For those who didn’t see the film or would like to watch it again, you can find it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCEaYInJbos

AFA’s Youth Supporters

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We find inspiration knowing that younger generations are taking action to learn about and protect BC’s ancient forests as our now and future leaders. We’d like to send a shout-out to some of these amazing youth!

Thank you very much to Fiona and Melody for organizing a ‘Toonie Party’ for their 10th birthday, which raised $200 with support from family and friends. We’d also like to give thanks to the students from Wishart Elementary School who delivered petition signatures to Mitzi Dean at the Legislature; to Emma’s class at Regent Christian Online Academy for interviewing Joan, our Admin Director (and Emma’s Grammy) to learn about AFA’s work and how non-profit organizations can make a difference in this world; to Ben and his brothers in California for starting a ‘Save the World’ club to educate their community about pressing environmental issues; and to the Toronto students who presented on Big Lonely Doug at their Earth Day Symposium. Thank you all for your courage and support!

 

Grade 5 students from Wishart Elementary School with their old-growth poster-board.
L-to-R: Jennifer Neufeldt, Addison Foulis, Carter Hobson, & Maddie Kimola,

Thank you to our recent business supporters!

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At AFA, we’re no strangers to the daily grind and we know it takes great effort to run a successful enterprise. That’s why we’re especially grateful when the business community finds ways to support our ancient forest campaigns! We’ve recently received support from several stand-up businesses that we would like to acknowledge: Seaflora Skincare is donating 5% of e-commerce sales from all of May to AFA; Enlife Studio is donating 10% of proceeds from sales of forest-themed artwork; Gran Manitou is donating 10% from sales of their ‘Big Lonely Doug’ t-shirt, Skye Dreamer donated generous proceeds from their nature photography, and Bough & Antler Northwest Goods continues to regularly support our work, including designing the logo on our AFA t-shirt. Thank you all for your outstanding support and continued efforts to help conserve BC’s endangered old-growth forests!

Year-End Celebration & Fundraiser – THANK YOU!

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Thank you so much to everyone who came out and supported the AFA at our Year-End Celebration & Fundraiser on Nov. 29! We were delighted to welcome nearly 100 people throughout the evening, all who brought great energy, socializing, food and silent auction donations to make the night a great success! Excitingly, we raised nearly $5000!!

Thank you to Joe Martin for presenting on the knowledge and teachings of the Tla-o-qui-aht people and culture, to Rachel Ablack for sharing her beautiful voice with us all, to the Victoria Event Centre staff, and to our amazing volunteers, supporters, and AFA staff whom without, we could not have pulled off such an enjoyable and successful evening. We’re also sending a special thank you to the many wonderful businesses, artists, and individuals who generously donated over $3,500 in items toward our silent auction as well as delicious food toward the event:

Patagonia Victoria, Robinson’s Outdoor Store, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Sitka, i.O.N Clothing Featuring Hemp & Company, Pelican Products, Zero Waste Emporium, Inspire Hair Salon, Butchart Gardens, Deadbeetz Food Truck, Il Terrazzo Ristorante, Bon Macaron, Garden Works Oak Bay, Harmony Belly Dance Co., Esquimalt Farmer’s Market, Windblossom Massage, Hummingbird Crafts, TJ Watt Photography, HoopSpin Lab, Market on Yates, Country Grocer, and Thrifty’s Food James Bay, artists Logan Ford and Kleque Method, and AFA supporters Lyn James, Nitya & Scott Harris, Kristin Grant, and Amanda Evans.

We are so grateful for your dedicated support. Thank you again!

The AFA Team
TJ Watt, Andrea Inness, Joan Varley, Tiara Dhenin, Amanda Evans, Morgan Wheeler, Rachel Ablack, and Jenny Tan

Thank You to Patagonia Victoria!

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Thank you most graciously to Patagonia Victoria for generously donating $500 to the Ancient Forest Alliance! The donation comes from a recent symposium and sale at the University of Victoria which raised awareness about environmental activism, responsible consumerism, and outdoor adventures, and goes above and beyond the Patagonia Victoria/Banff /Calgary of Elements Inc. annual commitment to the 1% For the Planet program! Patagonia Victoria has also supported the movement to protect old-growth forests in BC by hosting numerous events in their store and helping to mobilize community members. We are enormously grateful for their continuous and outstanding support!

Ancient Forest Alliance

Thank You to All Supporters of the Ancient Forest Alliance!

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Thanks to our 2017 Donors!

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) was thrilled to grow our support base in 2017 to include a diversity of local businesses, artists, and organizations. The support and generosity of these businesses and individuals has been fundamental in our work to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and ensure a sustainable second-growth forest industry.

We are incredibly grateful to receive major support from Patagonia through their environmental grants program and to Valhalla Pure Outfitters in Nanaimo and Robinson’s Outdoor Store for awarding the AFA with conservation grants through Patagonia’s wholesale grants program. The Patagonia Vancouver and Patagonia Elements Victoria stores also offered their space on multiple occasions to host film nights and tabling events, with ticket sales proceeds going toward AFA campaigns.

Thank you to Robinson’s Outdoor Store in Victoria for hosting an amazing benefit night for the AFA with support from Patagonia, beer provided by Spinnakers, and the Giant Tree Hunters documentary provided by Nootka Street Film. We would also like to thank Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) for generously contributing funds, in-kind gifts, and store-front space to host our booth events in both the Lower Mainland and Victoria.

A big thanks again this year to ROOT Victoria for generously donating the proceeds from their opening dinner at the ROOT festival, and to Creatively United for hosting our canvassers and inviting our campaigners to speak at their Earth Day event.

Tribe Red Leaf Studios designed a special batch of AFA branded t-shirts, which they gifted to our staff and sold to earn funds for our campaigns. They also donate generously as monthly contributors!

Many thanks to Staekka Brand Goods and Apparel for supporting the Ancient Forest Alliance for a second year in a row, to Singing Bowl Granola for donating $1 per sale to the AFA during a special online promotion, to Fathom Stone Art for committing 1% of their proceeds from art sales toward protecting ancient forests, to Land & Sea West Coast Apparel for donating a portion of their annual sales toward our campaigns, and to the Ric Perron Community Film night for collecting donations for the AFA (queries: ricperron@shaw.ca).

We are grateful to Elastic Email for generously supporting us on a monthly basis; to Wild Coast Perfumery, Bough & Antler Northwest Goods, MacIsaac & MacIsaac, and Vicorp Services for their donations; and to Eternal Abundance Organic Vegan Grocery & Cafe and Banyen Books for supporting our campaigns by retailing AFA merchandise in their store-fronts.

Tall Tree Music Festival once again lent its support this summer to protect old-growth forests near Port Renfrew and beyond. Many thanks to the organizers for your hard work!

The AFA also received in-kind support from a variety of businesses and organizations during our 2017 year-end celebration and fundraiser. We would like to thank Patagonia Victoria,  Robinson’s Outdoor Store, MEC, Lumina Yoga & Wellness, Land & Sea West Coast Apparel, Emma Glover Designs, Expedition Old Growth, Olive the Senses, Harmony Bellydance Co., Butchart Gardens, Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub, Pelican Products, WindBlossom Massage, Il Terrazzo Ristorante, Café Brio, Phillips Brewery,  Mysore Victoria, Hemp & Co., Moksha Yoga Victoria, Heart and Hands Health Collective, Port Renfrew Marina and RV Park, Bahnmann Timber, The Land Conservancy, LUSH Cosmetics Victoria, the  UVic Ancient Forest Committee, Dr. Andrea Whelan at Hawthorne Naturopathic Centre, The Market on Yates, Red Barn Market,  Bon Macaron Patisserie , artists Paul Beique,  Keuque Method, and Logan Ford; musician Oliver Swain, DJs C-Frets, Rich Nines, and Taquito Jalepeno, as well as Social Coast and all our volunteers for helping to make the event a major success!

We are most grateful for the generous support we receive from businesses, organizations, and artists throughout Victoria, the Lower Mainland, and beyond. Your donations, talents, and creative fundraising efforts are appreciated.

Thank you for choosing to support the AFA!

Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Andrea Inness, Joan Varley, Amanda Evans, Tiara Dhenin, Kent MacWilliam
Ancient Forest Alliance

AFA core staff

THANK YOU to Everyone Who Helped Make Our Year-End Celebration a Success!

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The Ancient Forest Alliance would like to send a major THANK YOU to everyone who helped make our Year-End Celebration on November 25th a great success! The night was filled with great energy, socializing, music, food, and dancing. More than 150 people filled the Victoria Event Centre to its capacity.

Excitingly, we raised over $5000! A large portion of our proceeds resulted from the silent auction items that were generously donated by a variety of businesses and artists. We would like to thank the following groups for their support:

Patagonia Victoria, Robinsons Outdoor Store, MEC, Lumina Yoga & Wellness, Land & Sea Apparel, Emma Glover Design, Expedition Old-Growth, Olive the Senses, Harmony Bellydance Co., Butchart Gardens, Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub, Pelican Products, WindBlossom Massage, Il Terrazzo Ristorante, Café Brio, Phillips Brewery, Ashtanga Yoga Victoria, Hemp & Co., Moksha Yoga Victoria, Heart and Hands Health Collective, Port Renfrew Marina and RV Park, Bahnman Timber, The Land Conservancy, LUSH Victoria, the UVic Ancient Forest Committee, Andrea Renee Whelan at Hawthorne Naturopathic Centre, and artists Paul Beique, Keuque Method and Logan Ford for your beautiful artwork. To the Market on Yates and Red Barn Market, the appetizer platters were amazing! Thank you Bon Macaron Patisserie for the popular dessert.

We would also like to send a special thanks to Oliver Swain for his fantastic live performance, as well as C-Frets, DJ Rich Nines and Taquito Jalepeno for donating their time to the turn-tables. A double thanks to Chris Fretwell and Social Coast for playing a key role in organizing the event! Your time spent planning, printing materials and promoting the event is appreciated.

Of course, THANK YOU so much to our incredible volunteers, supporters and AFA staff who without, we could not have pulled off such an enjoyable and successful evening.

We are so grateful for your support.

Thank you,

Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Andrea Inness, Joan Varley, Amanda Evans, Tiara Dhenin, Kent MacWilliam
Ancient Forest Alliance