Conservationists call for halt on old-growth logging in Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni

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Watch this Global News piece about the logging of magnificent ancient forests in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni, featuring AFA Campaigner Andrea Inness.

The AFA is calling on the BC government to immediately place a halt on the logging of old-growth forest “hotspots” of high ecological and recreational value – like the Nahmint Valley – and to use its control of BC Timber Sales to discontinue issuance timber sales in old-growth forests. Urgent action must be taken, particularly given the Nahmint is under investigation for potentially violating BC’s existing inadequate laws, which must be strengthened to protect ancient, endangered forests across the province.

Old-growth logging in 2017 - Edinburgh Mt

VIDEO: What Will it Take to Save BC’s Old-Growth Forests?

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What Will it Take to Save BC’s Old-Growth Forests? 

Summer 2018 marked the 25-year anniversary of the Clayoquot Sound mass blockades, where over 12,000 people took part in the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history to protect the area’s remaining intact ancient forests from logging. 25 years on, old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound and across BC are still awaiting protection and, on Vancouver Island, thousands of hectares of ancient forest ecosystems are being forever lost to industrial logging each year.

To commemorate these landmark protests, the AFA released a series of films exploring the significance of the War in the Woods of the 80’s and 90’s, the ecological and economic values of old-growth forests, and the role of Indigenous communities in their protection.

This film, which concludes our series, presents an overview of these issues and the solutions urgently needed to finally protect ancient forests. These solutions, including science-based old-growth protection legislation; policies that ensure sustainable, value-added second-growth forestry; and support for First Nations’ sustainable economic diversification, are fully within reach. They require political will from the NDP provincial government and broad support from British Columbians from all walks of life.

See interviews by Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder), TJ Watt (Ancient Forest Alliance photographer and co-founder), Valerie Langer (former Friends of Clayoquot Sound Campaign Organizer), Paul George (Wilderness Committee co-founder), Dr. Andy MacKinnon (forest ecologist, co-author of the Plants of Coastal BC), Arnie Bercov (Public and Private Workers of Canada President), Dan Hager (Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce President), Andrea Inness (Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner), Eli Enns (Tla-o-qui-aht Ha’uukmin Tribal Park co-founder, Indigenous Circle of Experts Co-Chair), and Tyson Atleo (Ahousaht hereditary leader)

Please help us in calling on the NDP government to finally end the decades-long battle for BC’s ancient forests by sending an instant message at www.ancientforestalliance.org/send-a-message today.

VIDEO: Old-Growth Protection and Sustainable Economic Opportunities

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The argument against old-growth forest protection is typically based on the assumption that ‘locking up’ forests is bad for business. Nothing could be further from the truth.

BC’s old-growth forests play an important role in the province’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world every year.

Ancient forests such as those of Clayoquot Sound, Avatar Grove, and Cathedral Grove, and record-sized big trees like Big Lonely Doug and the Red Creek Fir, provide nearby communities like Port Renfrew, Sooke, Tofino, Ucluelet and Port Alberni with increased sustainable business and employment opportunities.

At the same time while protecting old-growth forests, the BC government must foster a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forestry sector by creating incentives and regulations and curbing raw log exports to keep more logs – and more forestry jobs – here in BC.

Video by filmmaker Darryl Augustine, with interviews by AFA campaigner Andrea Inness, Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce president Dan Hager, Tla-o-qui-aht tourism operator Tsimka Martin, AFA campaigner TJ Watt, forest campaigner Vicky Husband, and Public and Private Workers of Canada president Arnie Bercov.

Click here to watch the video on AFA’s YouTube channel.

VIDEO: Clayoquot Tribal Parks and First Nations Old-Growth Protection

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Check out this most important video clip about the inspiring, cutting-edge First Nations-led efforts of the Tla-o-qui-aht, Ahousaht, and Hupacasath people to protect Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests! 25 years ago, on August 9, 1993, over 300 people were arrested trying to protect the old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, out of almost 900 people who would be arrested that summer. The Tla-o-qui-aht have declared most of their territory as Tribal Parks and the Ahousaht have developed a Land Use Vision that protects 82% of their territory from industrial logging, while the Hupacasath are speaking up for the protection of ancient forests in the Nahmint Valley. The BC government has yet to officially recognize and support these initiatives, and has not committed to undertaking conservation financing for these communities or elsewhere across most of BC at this time, while still supporting old-growth logging in the Nahmint Valley and in large regions of the province. However, there is hope – with your support for these First Nations conservation initiatives!

See the original video by filmmaker Darryl Augustine here.

VIDEO: Old-Growth Forests vs. Second-Growth Plantations: The Differences

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https://youtu.be/XIs0W0IQsos

 “Trees grow back! As long as we replant the trees, why shouldn’t we cut down the old-growth forests?”

This is a common contention, which is addressed in this latest video by filmmaker Darryl Augustine about some of the key differences between BC’s old-growth forests and the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they’re being replaced with. Our old-growth forests – centuries or millennia-old – have far greater structural complexity than second-growth plantations, which are re-logged every 50-60 years, never to become old-growth again. Hence, old-growth logging under BC’s forestry system is a non-renewable activity akin to fossil fuel extraction.

The distinctive features of old-growth forests (well-developed understories, multi-layered canopies, large amounts of woody debris, lots of canopy epiphytes of hanging mosses, ferns, lichens, etc.) support unique and endangered species that can’t survive in second-growth plantations (spotted owls, mountain caribou, marbled murrelets, etc.); store twice the amount of accumulated carbon per hectare than ensuing second-growth plantations; are vital pillars of BC’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry (tourists are not coming to see clearcuts and tree plantations!); conserve and filter clean drinking water for human communities and wild salmon; and are vital parts of many First Nations cultures: ancient cedars are used for carving canoes, totem poles, masks, etc. and old-growth ecosystems are used for food and medicines.

See interviews by TJ Watt (Ancient Forest Alliance photographer and co-founder), Dr. Andy MacKinnon (forest ecologist, co-author of the Plants of Coastal BC), and Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance executive director and co-founder).

Please SHARE far and wide!

View the original video here.

Valerie Langer

VIDEO: History of the 1993 Clayoquot Sound Logging Protests

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The wave of environmental protests to protect the old-growth temperate rainforest in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island started in 1985 with the blockade on Meares Island by the Tlaoquiaht and Ahousaht First Nations and local conservationists. The protests reached their peak 25 years ago in the summer of 1993 when 12,000 people took part in the blockades by Kennedy Lake, resulting in the arrest of almost 900 people that summer – the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.

But the job is not done. Clayoquot Sound is still not saved and the large scale industrial logging of old-growth forests continues across large parts of the province. Meanwhile, the vast export of old-growth and second-growth raw logs to foreign mills erodes BC forestry employment opportunities. It’s time for the new NDP government of BC to finally protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and ensure a value-added, second-growth forest industry.

Watch this video clip about the protests by filmmaker Darryl Augustine, featuring Eli Enns (Tla-o-qui-aht Ha’uukmin Tribal Park Co-Founder, Indigenous Circle of Experts Co-Chair), Maureen Fraser (Friends of Clayoquot Sound Co-founder, former Tofino Long Beach Chamber of Commerce President ), Valerie Langer (former Friends of Clayoquot Sound Campaign Organizer), Vicky Husband (BC Conservationist, former Sierra Club of BC Conservation Chair, Order of Canada Recipient), and Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance Executive Director and Co-Founder).

Thanks to Warren Rudd for providing the historic video footage.

Click here to watch the video on AFA’s YouTube channel.

Cameron Firebreak

VIDEO: Port Alberni Old-Growth Threatened by Island Timberlands

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Watch the latest video by filmmaker Daniel J Pierce who has spent years documenting the controversies surrounding old-growth logging by Island Timberlands – this time at McLaughlin Ridge and the Cameron Valley Ancient Forest near Port Alberni, featuring the campaign led by the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance, whom the Ancient Forest Alliance has been working with for many years!

Watch the film on Vimeo here.
Read more about the Ancient Forest Alliance’s campaign to create a BC Park Acquisition Fund.

Learn more about Island Timberlands’ logging in Port Alberni and to support the Watershed Forest Alliance.

Video by Daniel J. Pierce, director of Heartwood: A West Coast Documentree

VIDEO: Reexamining the Forest

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This great video by Wyatt Visuals, featuring researcher Ira Sutherland and Tla-o-qui-aht canoe carver Joe Martin, describes their work to measure the ecosystem services of Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests, including for First Nations cultural uses, in Nuu-chah-nulth territory in 2014.

Click here to watch on Vimeo.

VIDEO: “Big Lonely Doug,” Canada’s 2nd largest Douglas-fir tree!

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Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island, 2014 – “Big Lonely Doug,” a recently found old-growth Douglas-fir tree standing alone in a clearcut on southern Vancouver Island, has been officially measured to be the second largest Douglas-fir tree in Canada. Last week, renowned forest ecologist Andy MacKinnon, who manages the BC Big Tree Registry run by the University of British Columbia and is also the co-author of the best-selling “Plants of Coastal British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon,” measured the goliath tree.
Click here to watch on AFA’s YouTube channel.

For Immediate Release
April 24, 2014
“Big Lonely Doug” Officially Measured and Confirmed as Canada’s 2nd Largest Douglas-fir Tree
Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island – “Big Lonely Doug”, a recently found old-growth Douglas-fir tree standing alone in a clearcut on southern Vancouver Island, has been officially measured to be the second largest Douglas-fir tree in Canada. Last week, renowned forest ecologist Andy MacKinnon, who manages the BC Big Tree Registry (see: https://bigtrees.forestry.ubc.ca/) run by the University of British Columbia and is also the co-author of the best-selling “Plants of Coastal British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon”, measured the goliath tree. The results are as follows:
Big Lonely Doug dimensions:

  • Height: 70.2 meters or 230 feet
  • Circumference: 11.91 meters or 39 feet
  • Diameter: 3.91 meters or 12.4 feet
  • Canopy Spread: 18.33 meters or 60.1 feet
  • Total Points (“AFA Points” – American Forestry Association, NOT Ancient Forest Alliance!): 714.24 AFA points.

This makes Big Lonely Doug the second largest Douglas-fir tree in British Columbia and Canada in terms of total size, based on its “points” (ie. a combination of circumference, height, and crown spread) and the second largest in circumference. Big Lonely Doug was first noticed by Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner TJ Watt several months ago as being an unusually large tree, and the organization returned several weeks ago to take preliminary measurements. Official measurements were taken last Friday.
The world’s largest Douglas-fir tree is the Red Creek Fir, located just 20 kilometers to the east of Big Lonely Doug in the San Juan River Valley, and is 13.28 meters (44 feet) in circumference, 4.3 meters (14 feet) in diameter, 73.8 meters (242 feet) tall, and has 784 AFA points.
Conservationists estimate that Big Lonely Doug may be 1000 years old, judging by nearby 2 meter wide Douglas-fir stumps in the same clearcut with growth rings of 500 years. Big Lonely Doug grows in the Gordon River Valley near the coastal town of Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island, known as the “Tall Trees Capital” of Canada. It stands on Crown lands in Tree Farm Licence 46 in the traditional territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation band.
Conservationists are calling for provincial legislation to protect BC’s biggest trees, monumental groves, and endangered old-growth forests.
“We’re encouraging the province to keep moving forward with its promise to protect BC’s largest trees and monumental groves, and to also protect BC’s endangered old-growth ecosystems on a more comprehensive basis,” stated Ken Wu, AFA executive director. “The days of colossal trees like these are quickly coming to an end as the last unprotected lowland ancient forests in southern BC where giants like this grow are almost all gone.”
The BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations is currently working to follow up on a 2011 promise by then-Forest Minister Pat Bell to develop a new “legal tool” to protect the province’s biggest old-growth trees and grandest groves. Such a legal mechanism, if effective and if implemented to save not just individual trees but also the grandest groves, would be an important step forward in environmental protection and for enhancing the eco-tourism potential of the province. More comprehensive legislation would still be needed to protect the province’s old-growth ecosystems on a larger scale, to sustain biodiversity, clean water, and the climate, as the biggest trees and monumental groves are today a tiny fraction of the remaining old-growth forests which remain mainly on more marginal growing sites with smaller trees.
BC’s old-growth forests are important to sustain numerous species at risk that can’t live or flourish in second-growth stands; to mitigate climate change by storing over twice as much atmospheric carbon per hectare than the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they are being replaced with; as fundamental pillars for BC’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry; to support clean water and wild salmon; and for many First Nations cultures who use ancient cedar trees for canoes, totems, long-houses, and numerous other items.
“The vast majority of BC’s remaining old-growth forests are at higher elevations, on rocky sites, and in bogs where the trees are much smaller and in many cases have low to no commercial value. It’s the productive valley-bottom stands where trees like the Big Lonely Doug grow that are incredibly scarce and are of the highest conservation priority right now,” stated TJ Watt.
See previous media coverage on Big Lonely Doug at:
• Global TV https://globalnews.ca/news/1235236/canadas-second-largest-douglas-fir-tree-may-have-been-found-near-port-renfrew
• Times Colonist https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/vancouver-island-douglas-fir-may-be-canada-s-second-biggest-1.916676
• Vancouver Observer https://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/canadas-second-largest-douglas-fir-discovered
• CHEK TV https://www.cheknews.ca/?bckey=AQ~~,AAAA4mHNTzE~,ejlzBnGUUKY1gXVPwEwEepl35Y795rND&bclid=975107450001&bctid=3374339880001
• Huffington Post https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/03/26/big-lonely-doug-tree_n_5038519.html?1395881730
• MetroNews [Original article no longer available]

VIDEO: Ancient Forest Movement of BC

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BC’s ancient forest movement is a diverse coalition of First Nations, community activists, youth and elders, unions and businesses, conservationists, recreationists and everyday British Columbians who are united against the industrial-scale logging of BC’s endangered old-growth forests. This short video is part of the series Heartwood: A West Coast Forest Documentree by Daniel Pierce of Ramshackle Pictures and features many of these groups coming together in solidarity in Cathedral Grove in October 2013 to fight Island Timberlands’ old-growth logging near Port Alberni.

Watch other videos in the Heartwood series.

Watch this film on Vimeo.