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Conservationists locate what may be Canada’s most magnificent and photogenic old-growth forest on Vancouver Island

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The Ancient Forest Alliance’s campaigner and photographer TJ Watt by BC’s ninth widest bigleaf maple, the Woolly Giant, completely draped in hanging moss and ferns, in the Mossome Grove (short for “Mossy and Awesome” Grove) near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.

The “Mossome” Grove (short for “Mossy and Awesome” Grove) consists of giant, prehistoric-looking, shaggy bigleaf maples with tall, straight Sitka spruce, and is found near Port Renfrew

Conservationists in British Columbia have recently located what may very well be the most magnificent and awe-inspiring old-growth forest in the country on Vancouver Island. The spectacular, largely unprotected grove, with several near record-size trees, highlights the need for new policies by the BC government to protect BC’s biggest trees, grandest groves, and old-growth forest ecosystems. The BC government has recently stated that they are currently developing a new set of policies to manage BC’s old-growth forests but have not revealed any details yet.

The 13 hectare grove of immense old-growth Sitka spruce and bigleaf maples draped in hanging mosses and ferns, nicknamed the “Mossome Grove” (short for “Mossy and Awesome” Grove), was initially located in October and explored again in late December by conservationists Ken Wu of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance and TJ Watt, Andrea Inness, and Rachel Ablack of the Ancient Forest Alliance. The grove is located on Crown land in the San Juan River Valley near Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island in the unceded territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation band. Most of the grove is unprotected, with a small portion, about four hectares, lying within an Old-Growth Management Area and in the riparian reserve along the San Juan River.

“This is perhaps the most magnificent and stunningly beautiful old-growth forest I’ve ever seen, and I’ve explored a lot of old-growth forests in my time,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance and former executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance and the Wilderness Committee’s Victoria office, who has 28 years’ experience exploring and campaigning to protect BC’s old-growth forests. “This is the first time in Canada we’ve located a prominent stand of this rare forest type, with old-growth spruce and maple trees growing together. The combination of giant Sitka spruce, as tall and straight as Roman pillars, and huge, ancient, bigleaf maples draped in hanging mosses and ferns, resembling prehistoric shaggy monsters, makes this perhaps the most photogenic forest in the country. Hollywood could not make a more stunning, picture-perfect forest than this one. This is the best example of ‘charismatic megaflora’ that I’ve ever seen. Of all of BC’s ancient forests, this one deserves protection not only due to the scarcity of its ecosystem type, but because of its sheer unique beauty.”

The Mossome Grove stands on Crown lands in the operating area of BC Timber Sales, with a portion within a Woodlot Licence allocated to the Pacheedaht band and the rest under the regulatory authority of BC Timber Sales. BC Timber Sales is the notorious BC government logging agency which has come under fire across the province for auctioning off old-growth forests to be clearcut in such places as the Nahmint Valley and Schmidt Creek on Vancouver Island, as well as in Manning Provincial Park’s “donut hole”.

Several of the Mossome Grove’s largest trees are near record-sized, including a Sitka spruce that would rank the ninth widest in comparison to those currently listed on the BC Big Tree Registry (with a diameter of 3.1 meters or 10 feet & 1 inch) and a bigleaf maple that would rank the ninth widest on the registry (with a diameter of 2.29 meters or 7 feet & 6 inches). The massive maple, nicknamed the “Woolly Giant”, also may very well have the longest horizontal branch of any tree in British Columbia, measuring 23.1 meters (76 feet) long – more than the height of many second-growth trees – and is covered in thick mats of hanging mosses and ferns, resembling a prehistoric monster.

The Ancient Forest Alliance’s campaigner Rachel Ablack by a huge Sitka spruce among then sword ferns in the Mossome Grove (short for “Mossy and Awesome” Grove) near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.

Along with its “charismatic megaflora”, the Mossome Grove is also home to “charismatic megafauna”, including significant numbers of Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, black bears, wolves, and cougars, who inhabit the productive San Juan River Valley. Old-growth forests on Vancouver Island in the area are also important habitat for the marbled murrelet, northern goshawk, pygmy owl, screech owl, Vaux’s swift, and long-eared bats.

Old-growth Sitka spruce and bigleaf maple stands are best known in the Hoh, Queets, and Quinault Valleys in the Olympic National Park in Washington State, where millions of tourists visit to marvel at the mossy giants. In Canada, such ancient spruce/maple stands are essentially unknown by the conservation movement and tourism industry for the simple reason they are virtually non-existent here, except for this newly-identified stand and possibly a few small patches scattered around southwestern Vancouver Island. At the time of European colonization in BC, there would have been more extensive but still limited old-growth Sitka spruce and bigleaf maples stands in the San Juan, Nitinat, and Fraser Valleys. However, virtually all have been logged or converted to agriculture or urban sprawl (in the case of the Fraser Valley where Vancouver stands today).

“This is like a combination of the monumental Sitka spruce stands of the Carmanah Valley and the gorgeous bigleaf maples of the Mossy Maple Grove that we popularized a few years ago near Lake Cowichan. The two combined are essentially the apex of the grandeur and beauty that could exist in a forest”, stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer. “Photogenically, this grove should be a new poster child for BC’s endangered ancient forests – and the urgent need to protect their beauty. We need old-growth protection at all spatial scales at this time, to save the biggest trees, grandest groves, and old-growth forest ecosystems on a vaster scale.”

Due to its limited size, the scarcity of this forest type, and the fact that there are no trails, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance and Ancient Forest Alliance are not publicly revealing the Mossome Grove’s location at this time until it can be safeguarded from excessive trampling, and most importantly, from future commercial logging.

The Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development since 2012 has been working to develop a “Big Tree Protection Order”, a policy originally aimed at protecting the largest trees and grandest groves in BC. Successive governments, including the NDP, have dragged out the policy’s development and implementation and appear to be leaving out the most important facets of the proposed policy, that is, to include buffer zones around the largest trees, to include the grandest groves (concentrations of exceptionally large trees), to make the threshold sizes for protection reasonable (instead of protecting only the very few largest trees), and to make the policy legally-binding rather than voluntary. Currently the policy is being piloted in selected parts of Vancouver Island and also in areas managed by BC Timber Sales, where it is called the “Coastal Legacy Tree” policy. The Coastal Legacy Tree policy recently failed to protect the ninth widest Douglas-fir tree in BC in the Nahmint Valley. See: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/old-growth-logging-1.4689648

“Without buffer zones to surround and protect the largest trees, and without also protecting the grandest groves, the BC government’s currently proposed big tree protection policy is essentially a ‘Big Lonely Doug policy’ that will leave a few sad giants standing alone in clearcuts scattered around Vancouver Island,” stated Andrea Inness, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner, referring to Canada’s 2ndlargest Douglas fir, nicknamed ‘Big Lonely Doug’ by AFA campaigners who identified the tree in 2014. “The largest trees and grandest groves are like the ‘icing on the cake’, while protecting old-growth ecosystems on a larger scale, that is, saving the ‘rest of cake’, is ultimately the most important task. But it would be a shame to lose the icing…without it, a cake is not quite the same.”

More background info

While an effective Big Tree Protection Order would be particularly important in cases like the Mossome Grove, more important would be science-based legislation to protect BC’s remaining old-growth forest ecosystems on a much more comprehensive scale. While new legislation and updated land use plans are being developed, moratoria on the most intact and highest conservation value old-growth forests like at the nearby Edinburgh Mountain and Upper Walbran Valley need to be implemented in places, while the BC government needs to also implement incentives and regulations for the development of a value-added, sustainable second-growth forest industry.

Conservation financing support from the provincial and federal governments is also needed for BC’s First Nations communities to help foster sustainable businesses and jobs in the communities based on eco- and cultural tourism, clean energy development, non-timber forest products (e.g. wild mushroom and berry harvests), sustainable seafood harvesting, and value-added second-growth forestry.

To ensure the protection of all ecosystem types, federal and provincial “Endangered Ecosystems Acts” are also needed to establish science-based protection and recovery targets for all ecosystems across Canada, including rare plant communities such as old-growth Sitka spruce and bigleaf maple groves like Mossome Grove.

In the interim, the federal government has committed to protecting 17% of Canada’s land and freshwater ecosystems by 2020 and must greatly step up its prioritization and activity to achieve this target (currently Canada is at 10.6% protection). In particular, most of the provinces, including British Columbia, must still commit to meeting the 17% target, and conservation groups will be lobbying the province to adopt this target shortly.

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 up to 2,000 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 Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC government to implement a comprehensive, science-based plan to protect all of BC’s remaining endangered old-growth forests while also ensuring a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry.

Due to the popularity of nearby old-growth forests for large numbers of visitors from across the world, the former logging town of Port Renfrew has rebranded itself in recent years as the “Tall Trees Capital of Canada.” Not only is the town located near Mossome Grove, but is also near many of the province’s most popular ancient forest destinations including the Avatar Grove, Central Walbran Valley, Big Lonely Doug (Canada’s 2nd largest Douglas-fir), Red Creek Fir (the world’s largest Douglas-fir), Harris Creek Spruce (an enormous Sitka Spruce), San Juan Spruce (previously Canada’s largest spruce until the top broke off last year), Eden Grove, and Jurassic Grove. These ancient forests and trees attract hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world, strengthening the economy of southern Vancouver Island. Environmental groups encourage visitors to stay in local accommodations, buy food and groceries in local stores, and camp in the Pacheedaht-run campground to help boost the local economy with eco-tourism dollars.

Various chambers of commerce, starting with the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, have called for increased protection of BC’s ancient forests. The BC Chamber of Commerce, BC’s premier business lobby 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: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1010

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 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 Private and Public 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/

See maps and stats on the remaining old-growth forests on BC’s southern coast 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 BC government’s PR-spin typically over-inflats 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 smaller, stunted trees, in with the productive old-growth forests, where the large trees grow (and where most logging takes place). 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/

Photo Gallery: Old-Growth Logging on Edinburgh Mt. Near Port Renfrew

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New logging has commenced on Edinburgh Mountain, an exceptional old-growth forest “hotspot” near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory on  Vancouver Island and the location of Big Lonely Doug (Canada’s second largest Douglas-fir tree) and the spectacular Eden Grove.

AFA campaigners visited the cutblock December 15th and were dismayed to find scores of giant trees cut down, including two-meter-wide cedars and an extremely rare, two-meter-wide, old-growth Douglas-fir. Over 15 hectares is being logged by Teal Jones, which adds to the over 75 ha of old-growth forest the company has logged on the mountain since 2016.

Just 50 meters away from the active cutblock stands a Douglas-fir tree that is the 6th widest Douglas-fir tree on record, according to the BC Big Tree Registry, and the 7th widest when including the Alberni Giant in the Nahmint Valley. While the near record-sized tree is located within a Wildlife Habitat Area, it remains vulnerable to future logging.

Old-growth hotspots of high conservation and recreational value, like Edinburgh Mountain, are disappearing before our eyes and will be reduced to tattered fragments if action isn’t taken soon. The BC government MUST place an immediate halt on logging in hotspots to ensure the largest and best stands of remaining ancient forests are kept intact and develop a science-based plan to protect endangered old-growth forests across BC!

TAKE ACTION NOW and send a message to the BC government, calling for an immediate halt to logging in old-growth ‘hotspots’ and sweeping new policies to protect BC’s endangered ancient forests! www.ancientforestalliance.org/send-a-message

Read our press release on the recent logging here

Photos: TJ Watt

New Logging Operations Underway on Edinburgh Mountain, an Old-Growth Forest Environmental “Hotspot” near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island

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Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance are dismayed that new logging has commenced on Edinburgh Mountain, an old-growth “hotspot” of high conservation value near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory on western Vancouver Island. A 15.6 hectare cutblock, featuring old-growth forest with monumental redcedars and Douglas-firs, is being logged by Teal Jones Group and adds to the over 75 hectares of old-growth forest the company has logged on Edinburgh Mountain since 2016.

Ancient Forest Alliance’s Rachel Ablack (left) and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance’s Ken Wu (right) sit atop the 2 metre (7 foot) wide stump of a freshly cut western redcedar tree on Edinburgh Mt. near Port Renfrew

Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) campaigners visited the cutblock over the weekend and found scores of giant trees cut down, including two-meter (seven-foot) wide cedars and an extremely rare, two-meter-wide, old-growth Douglas-fir, which had previously been photographed by AFA campaigner TJ Watt while still standing.

“The Ancient Forest Alliance is highly concerned about the future of this magnificent area, which includes almost 1,500 hectares of intact old-growth forest,” stated AFA Campaigner and Photographer TJ Watt. “Edinburgh Mountain is one of the largest contiguous tracts of unprotected ancient rainforest on southern Vancouver Island south of Barkley Sound and, without legislated protection, this spectacular forest is being whittled away, clearcut by clearcut.”

The Edinburgh Mountain Ancient Forest, as it’s known by conservationists, is the location of Big Lonely Doug, Canada’s second largest Douglas-fir tree, which stands alone in a clearcut at the base of the mountain, and is important habitat for endangered northern goshawks and marbled murrelets. It also contains one of the finest and most endangered lowland, valley-bottom, old-growth forests left on Vancouver Island: the spectacular Eden Grove.

60 percent of Edinburgh Mountain is available for logging, with the remaining 40 percent in tenuous forest reserves such as Old Growth Management Areas, whose boundaries can be adjusted to allow logging companies access to commercially valuable forests as they run out of timber elsewhere. The government contends that the removal of such protections requires the protection of other, similar forests, but often it results in the protection of lower quality stands with smaller trees than the original stand.

Just 50 meters away from the active cutblock stands a Douglas-fir tree that is the 6th widest Douglas-fir tree on record, according to the BC Big Tree Registry, and the 7th widest when including the Alberni Giant in the Nahmint Valley. While the near record-sized tree is located within a Wildlife Habitat Area, it remains vulnerable to future logging, as the designation legally allows clearcut logging in almost 75% of the reserve. In fact, in 2010 and 2012, some of the largest trees in Canada were logged within this Wildlife Habitat Area.

“The logging of Edinburgh Mountain not only threatens the ecological integrity of the area, it also extinguishes future tourism opportunities for Port Renfrew, a former logging town that has rebranded itself as the Tall Tree Capital of Canada,” stated Watt. “Hundreds of thousands of tourists have come from around the world in recent years to visit ancient forest groves, such as Avatar Grove, and some of Canada’s largest trees near the town. These visitors expect to see ancient forests, not clearcuts. If kept intact, Edinburgh Mountain could offer spectacular and long-term tourism and recreation opportunities for those visitors. Once it’s logged, those economic opportunities disappear too.”

The new logging on Edinburgh Mountain comes at a time when conservationists are still waiting on the BC NDP government to formulate a plan to implement its 2017 election platform commitment to use the ecosystem-based management approach of the Great Bear Rainforest to sustainably manage old-growth forests across the rest of the province.

“Old-growth ‘hotspot’ areas of high conservation and recreational value, like Edinburgh Mountain, will be reduced to tattered fragments if immediate action isn’t taken,” stated AFA Campaigner Andrea Inness. “The government needs to place an interim halt on logging in hotspots to ensure the largest and best stands of remaining old-growth forests are kept intact, while developing comprehensive science-based legislation to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests. The province’s long overdue Big Tree Protection Order must also be implemented to protect BC’s biggest trees with buffer zones and the province’s grandest groves. Finally, the government needs to create a provincial land acquisition fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands.”

 

Background Information:

Old growth forests are integral to British Columbia for ensuring the protection of endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations. At present, over 79% of the original productive old-growth forests on BC’s southern coast have been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only about 8% of Vancouver Island’s original old growth forests are protected in parks and Old Growth Management Areas.

See maps and stats on the remaining old-growth forests on BC’s southern coast at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php

The AFA is calling on the BC NDP government to protect the ecological integrity of BC’s old-growth forests while maintaining jobs and supporting communities by: implementing a science-based plan to protect endangered old-growth forests; providing financial support for First Nations’ sustainable economic development as an alternative to old-growth logging and formally recognizing First Nations’ land use plans, tribal parks, and protected areas; and curbing raw log exports and providing incentives for the development of value-added, second-growth wood manufacturing facilities to sustain and enhance forestry jobs.

In 2016, The Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce signed a resolution calling on the BC government to increase protection for old-growth forests to benefit the economy. The total flow of dollars spent in Port Renfrew in rental accommodations, restaurants, grocery stores, and businesses in general has increased with Big Tree Tourism. The Sooke and WestShore Chambers of Commerce have also spoken up for the protection of the old-growth forests in the Walbran Valley, while the BC Chamber of Commerce has passed a resolution calling for the increased protection of old-growth forests in BC to support the economy. The Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC), the Wilderness Tourism Association of BC (WTABC) and the councils of Victoria, Metchosin, and Tofino have all passed resolutions for the protection of remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island or across BC.

Ancient Giant Logged in the Nahmint Valley

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Thousands of ancient giants, like the enormous redcedar in this film, are being logged in Vancouver Island’s spectacular Nahmint Valley and many more are at risk. Speak up TODAY and send an instant message to the BC government demanding protection for BC’s endangered old-growth forests at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/send-a-message

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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.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness walks beside an enormous

Eco-group files complaint over old-growth cuts

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Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness walks beside an enormous

Photo by TJ Watt

Times Colonist: An environmental group has filed a complaint over logging in the Nahmint Valley, alleging trees were cut, including one of Canada’s biggest, without regard to values such as conservation or recreation.

The Ancient Forest Alliance, an eight-year-old conservation group founded to highlight the need to protect forests as natural habitat, objects to the B.C. government decision to auction 300 hectares in various-sized cutblocks in the Nahmint Valley, southwest of Port Alberni.

Some of the resulting cutblocks logged last spring were 30 hectares. One contained a Douglas fir whose measurements, three metres in diameter, would have placed it ninth on the B.C. Big Tree Registry, a list maintained by the forest faculty at the University of British Columbia.

“Elsewhere in the valley, we found cedar stumps over 10 feet in diameter,” said TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner in an interview. “There are a fair number of trees there that we feel should still be standing.”

Watt’s group filed a complaint in June with the B.C. government, contending the logging failed to take into account aspects such as the protection of sensitive or endangered plant communities. The big Douglas fir, about 800 years old, should have been left standing because it qualified as what is known as a legacy tree. The group has not heard any response to its complaint.

The Nahmint Valley is about 194 square kilometres, about 20 km southwest of Port Alberni. The area includes the Nahmint River, which widens into the 13-kilometre-long Nahmint Lake, both known for good fishing.

As far back as 1975, when the area was the responsibility MacMillan Bloedel, a B.C. forestry corporate giant at the time, the provincial government identified the Nahmint Valley as an area whose resources include more than just timber. They also include fishing, hiking, camping and wildlife habitat.

“The Nahmint is just a spectacular valley for anyone who visits the area,” said Watt.

The B.C. Ministry of Forests said in an emailed statement it reviews the timber blocks to be auctioned in the Nahmint Valley to ensure no legacy trees are at risk.

The ministry statement said B.C. Timber Sales, an agency responsible for about 20 per cent of annual tree harvest in the province by auctioning cutblocks, has conducted an inventory of old-growth cedar trees in Nahmint. It has identified more than 200 with a diameter greater than one metre and worthy of being considered for retention.

Also, an area of about 2,700 hectares, six times the size of Stanley Park, has been protected as wildlife habitat within the Nahmint Valley or identified as winter foraging range for deer and elk.

“We recognize the value of old-growth forests for their biodiversity and are currently working on an old-growth strategy,” said the statement.

See article here: https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/eco-group-files-complaint-over-old-growth-cuts-1.23543570

Conservationists call for halt on old-growth logging in Vancouver Island’s spectacular Nahmint Valley in light of forestry watchdog investigation

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Arborist-conservationist Matthew Beatty stands atop a massive redcedar log in the Nahmint Valley

Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance are concerned that old-growth logging in the Nahmint Valley is continuing and that future logging is being planned for the area by the BC government, despite the fact a Forest Practices Board investigation is underway into whether the logging by BC Timber Sales fails to comply with legal orders.

Victoria, BC – The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC NDP government to halt further logging in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni while investigations into potential non-compliance by the BC’s government’s logging agency, BC Timber Sales (BCTS), are currently underway.

Nahmint Valley – BC’s 9th widest Douglas-fir tree – BC Timber Sales

In May 2018, the Ancient Forest Alliance exposed the logging of some of the world’s largest trees by BCTS in Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations territory in the Nahmint Valley. Over 300 hectares were auctioned off for logging with some cutblocks being 30 hectares – or about 30 football fields – in size. Thousands of old-growth trees have since been cut, including a Douglas-fir tree measuring 3 metres (9.9 feet) in diameter, which ranked 9th on the BC Big Tree Registry’s list of the widest Douglas-firs in the province.

“After exploring and documenting various old-growth cutblocks planned by BCTS throughout the Nahmint Valley, we submitted a natural resource violation complaint to the Ministry of Forests in June, alleging that BC Timber Sales’ Forest Stewardship Plan fails to meet the results and strategies set out in the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan Higher Level Plan Order that rare and underrepresented plant communities be represented and protected,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner and Photographer TJ Watt.

“We also pointed out that one of the primary land use objectives for the Nahmint Valley in the Vancouver Island Summary Land Use Plan includes the retention of a ‘high proportion’ of old forest, including large, old-growth Douglas-fir trees. In addition, the three-metre-wide Douglas-fir that was felled in May, which we estimated to be at least 800 years old, was in violation of BCTS’ “Best Management Practices for Coastal Legacy Trees” policy, which states that the minimum size for retention of Douglas-firs is 2.1 meters. We believe other western redcedars and Douglas-firs in the BCTS-issued cutblocks also exceeded the minimum threshold size for protection.”

An investigation by the Ministry of Forests ensued as a result of the AFA’s complaint, but the results of that investigation have not been made public. The AFA has also yet to receive any information in response to a freedom of information (FOI) request submitted in September, seeking information on the ministry’s investigation, despite the investigation having been completed and the due date for response to the FOI having passed in late November. The Forest Practices Board also recently launched an investigation into the logging in the Nahmint Valley. Meanwhile, BC Timber Sales released its 2018 West Coast Operating Plan in October, outlining additional old-growth timber sales in the Nahmint Valley that have yet to be auctioned off.

“We are deeply concerned about the potential violation, given the abundant ecological, tourism and recreational, and cultural values of the Nahmint Valley and possible negative and long-term impacts on these values,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner Andrea Inness. “We are also concerned that BCTS is continuing to engineer future logging cutblocks for the Nahmint Valley despite the results of the ministry’s investigation not having been released and the Forest Practices Board now conducting their own investigation. Given there’s a possibility that the BC government’s logging agency is in violation of its own land use regulations, these future logging plans should be placed on hold until it is determined the law isn’t being broken.”

“Ultimately, however, what’s needed is for the BC government to use its control over BC Timber Sales to discontinue issuance of old-growth timber sales altogether. The ongoing logging of some of Canada’s largest trees and most spectacular ancient forests in the Nahmint Valley is proof that BCTS cannot be trusted to sustainably manage BC’s endangered old-growth forests.”

 

Background Information:
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.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC government to implement a series of policy changes to protect endangered old-growth forests, including an interim halt to logging in old-growth “hotspots” – areas of high conservation value, such as the Nahmint Valley – to ensure the largest and best stands of remaining old-growth forests are kept intact. It also includes the implementation of the province’s long-overdue Big Tree Protection Order, meant to protect the country’s largest trees with buffer zones; a provincial land acquisition fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands; a comprehensive, science-based plan to protect endangered old-growth forests across the province; and conservation financing support for First Nations communities in lieu of old-growth logging.

Money trees

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CBC News
November 13, 2018

The struggle over what’s ancient, giant, valuable and dwindling in B.C.’s coastal forests

I.

For the past seven years, environmentalists in B.C. have been looking for trees just like it — wide, tall and centuries old — big, ancient trees that erupt out of the ground and make people standing beside them look minuscule and insignificant.

They could be red cedar, Douglas fir, hemlock or sitka spruce, at least 250 years old and dominant in the densely forested landscapes where they grow.

In May, an hour’s drive southwest from the Vancouver Island logging town of Port Alberni, a group including TJ Watt and Andrea Inness found one — a giant Douglas fir measuring 66 metres tall and three metres in diameter at chest height.

“It’s kind of like coming across a unicorn,” said Inness, 36, who grew up on a small island off Vancouver Island and talks about old-growth giants with a religious reverence.

The pair, who work for the environmental group the Ancient Forest Alliance, figured it was the ninth largest tree of its kind in Canada and around 800 years old.

“Trees of that size are so few and far between now … less than one per cent remains of the old-growth Douglas fir stands, so we were giddy with excitement,” said Inness.

But two weeks later, the giant fir was cut down by loggers who say it was rotten in its core and worth more being turned into products like wooden beams than living out its life in the forest.

“It creates a lot of revenue,” said fourth-generation logger Jeremy Matkovich about old-growth trees like the fir. “It has supported my family, my dad’s family — it’s going to be [the same for] my kids’ family, probably their kids.”

The tree is — or was — a symbol of the latest iteration of B.C’s War in the Woods where, on one side, environmentalists want all old-growth trees off limits to cutting because of the role they play in preserving biodiversity and keeping climate change from advancing.

The other side — forestry workers — wants at least some old-growth trees available to logging as the wood is valuable and important to an industry that supports more than 140 rural communities across the province.

II.

Many Canadians know Douglas firs as well-shaped and fragrant Christmas trees in their homes, but in B.C.’s temperate rainforest, they can reach staggering heights and live for up to 1,000 years.

It can rain up to 250 centimetres a year in these rainforests, which are along the coast of B.C.’s mainland, Haida Gwaii and western Vancouver Island. All that moisture feeds an ecosystem perfect for trees to grow into massive green and growing monoliths.

Stepping into a grove like the one where the giant Douglas fir was discovered is like pushing through a heavy curtain of green and entering into a dimension where the only sounds you hear are the sway of massive branches in the wind, the dripping of moisture and the soft crunch of your feet sinking into dense, soft earth of rotting wood and fern fronds.

The air is dank and dense with oxygen, the smell slightly sweet and deep.

Both loggers and environmentalists agree that there is a big wow factor when they come across a truly big old tree.

“It’s breathtaking to stand before something that’s lived for upwards of 1,000 years,” said Watt. “It’s a truly humbling experience.”

The province says there are 1.9 million hectares of forests on Crown land on Vancouver Island. About 840,000 hectares of that is considered old growth and out of that, the province says 520,000 hectares are protected from logging.

Still, the Sierra Club of B.C. estimates that around 10,000 hectares of old growth, 100 square kilometres, is being cut each year.

One of the Ancient Forest Alliance’s 10 demands for the industry is to transition to only cutting second growth trees, leaving all old growth to remain, live, die and help the groves exist and thrive. Second growth forests are made up of replanted trees that get harvested every 50 to 100 years.

Loggers say significant groves of old-growth forest are already protected and the industry is transitioning to second growth, but to stop cutting old growth immediately could put whole towns out of work.

It’s been 25 years since 800 people were arrested as they tried and succeeded in saving the ancient forests of Clayoquot Sound near the coastal towns of Tofino and Ucluelet.

Loggers themselves respect those turbulent years, saying that forest practices were modernized as a result. The rate of cutting dropped and there were also changes to better manage ecosystems.

III.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness looked sad when asked about the big fir being cut down.

“[It’s] a little bit like coming across an elephant that’s been shot for its ivory and it’s wrong,” she said. “[It’s] a little bit hopeless that the ninth widest tree in Canada can’t be protected … what hope is there for the rest of endangered eco-forest systems?”

She stood in a special place for the Ancient Forest Alliance called Avatar Grove, which is a 20-minute drive from Port Renfrew on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.

Inness looked up to the top of another Douglas fir, which is not as big as the one that was taken, but still impressive. Its roots have formed a sort of platform above the spongy earth where it grows. Its trunk is dense and gnarled and wide. Inness craned her neck back to try and glimpse its top.

“You know, I get a profound sense of just connection to nature, connection to the past,” she said about this area.

“This is what Vancouver Island is supposed to look like and did look like for many, many thousands of years.”

Avatar Grove, (yes, named after the movie) is the alliance’s showcase for old, ancient trees.

TJ Watt first went into the area in 2010 and took Ancient Forest Alliance founder Ken Wu to the green and lush ravine leading down to the Gordon River the following year.

At that time, there were markers hung from trees, put there by logging surveyors, but no cutting permit had been issued.

Watt and Wu knew it was a special area with several large and impressive Douglas firs, but also red cedars that were unique and old because of the giant burls on their trunks.

After photographing the trees, they set to work advocating to have the area saved from logging, built stairs and boardwalks for easier access for visitors and applied to the province to have the area designated as a recreation area.

Now thousands of people come each year to walk through and take photographs of themselves standing beside the trees.

Port Renfrew has also since rebranded itself as Canada’s tall tree capital, hopeful that tourism dollars will be its key economic driver rather than logging or fishing.

“It brings me such joy to hike here throughout the summer months. You bump into people from all around the world, many … say it’s the most beautiful place they have ever been,” said Watt, who owns a home in Port Renfrew.

“But at one point in time its future was uncertain.”

The big tree hunters hope to develop other groves like this, creating showcases for people to see and experience these ecosystems.

“Avatar Grove … has been an incredibly useful tool for advocacy and for getting people connected to these amazing forests,” said Inness.

IV.

What groups like the Ancient Forest Alliance are doing has resulted in a new version of the War in the Woods, a public relations battle over B.C.’s iconic old trees that is playing out online, in political lobbying and during hikes in the forest rather than with civil disobedience and arrests like the summer of 1993.

Inness, along with Watt, a soft-spoken 34-year-old who grew up skateboarding outside Victoria, and Wu, 44, are full-time big tree hunters looking for specimens they say are anchors of B.C.’s unique coastal rainforests.

“I feel truly lucky that we still have some of Earth’s last temperate rainforests right here on Vancouver Island,” said Watt. “[The] passion in my life is exploring and documenting these landscapes, hopefully resulting in their protection.”

Their campaigns dispute the province’s numbers about what amount of old growth is left. Wu argues that the province includes old-growth trees that exist in hard-to-log areas or places where they actually don’t grow that big or contribute as much to ecosystems as their giant cousins in lush valley bottoms.

“It’s like adding your Monopoly money with your real money and saying you are a millionaire,” said Wu.

The B.C. government fails to mention the context of how much old growth has been previously logged, said Wu. The AFA estimates that to be 75 per cent or about 1.5 million hectares of the original two million hectares of productive old-growth forest on Vancouver Island.

Environmentalists like those with the AFA say that remaining huge and ancient trees are worth far more to the unique ecosystem of the coastal temperate rainforest than being cut down and milled.

They support diverse ecosystems and even when they hollow in the middle, die, fall over and rot, they help support the growth of new trees, plant life and animals.

Some First Nations want also old growth preserved for cultural and environmental reasons. There is also an economic model showing their value as tourist and recreation destinations.

To strengthen these messages Inness, Watt and Wu push through yet-to-be-logged wild areas on public land to find trees like the big fir. They photograph the giants to reflect their stunning size and age. The goal is to hopefully drum up support over social media from residents to call on governments to keep them from being logged.

“To fight to protect something, you need to know about it and care about it and I think photography as an art form, especially, helps bridge that gap and make people aware about these incredible old-growth forests that are home to some of the largest trees on Earth that are still actually being cut down in many cases,” said Watt.

V.

Forestry workers — loggers — have themselves been outspoken about the photos and campaigns organizations like the AFA are doing, saying they hurt their industry at a time when changes could be coming from the provincial government on how Crown land and its resources are managed.

“It puts a bad name to everyone out here trying to make a living,” said Jeremy Matkovich, 42, a third generation logger from Campbell River.

His grandfather worked in an era when horses were used to haul logs out of the forest.

His father is still logging and his two sons, 19 and 21, are also loggers.

He stood in a cut block devoid of standing trees, wore a high visibility vest and defended the industry that has supported his family and his town for a century.

“We do it in an environmentally safe way,” he said about modern day logging.

“I don’t think [people] understand how many products they actually have in their home from logging.”

With Matkovich was Zoltan Schafer, a registered professional forester who started working as a logger when he was 14 years old.

He’s known as Zolie and seems to know pretty much everything and everyone involved with logging on Vancouver Island. He turns 60 this year and says much has changed since he started in the 1970s.

“It’s been a drastic change,” he said, adding that the Clayoquot protests really paved the way for these changes.

“I think the environmental movement was probably a good thing to wake up the industry but I think the balance has to come back.

“Are we always going to have old-growth timber?” he asked. “Yes.

“Maybe not in the percentage that certain people want, but we have reserves. And it’s going to stay.”

From the air on a helicopter ride to the area around Nahmint Lake, outside Port Alberni, Schafer pointed out dense groves of old growth that he says won’t be logged. Their scraggly tops, poke out above other trees along the water’s edge.

The tour was organized by the Truck Loggers Association, which represents loggers working public lands. Up above the landscape, yes there are bare, clear-cut areas, but it’s hard not to notice the vibrant green tree tops where old growth is or the emerald carpet of second growth trees.

There are still so many trees, either there for hundreds of years or replanted in the past 50.

The area the helicopter set down in was recently cut. Hundreds of logs still littered the landscape, the smell of sawdust and earth was strong and fragrant.

Schafer showed us around, walking up and down one of the access roads built to get at the trees. He has the body of a hockey player, wore a yellow and orange high visibility vest and kept his hands tucked in his waistband.

He wore his baseball hat at an angle on his head but his boots were well-worn and when he talked about changes to the industry, he was serious.

“They don’t try and clear cut anymore. They try and leave mosaics,” he said about the area.

What he is talking about is how modern logging looks. Gone, he said, is the complete mowing down of trees off entire hillsides, leaving 100 hectares of nothing but stumps and garbled up leftover trees, rocks and mud.

Loggers now leave parcels or swaths of trees of different sizes within and around the cutting areas, what Schafer calls mosaics. This is intended to help preserve the natural diversity of the area and help it when it’s replanted.

In January, the province also published a special legacy tree policy to help loggers assess large, ancient trees that should be kept from being cut. The government is reviewing it to potentially strengthen it.

Still, old-growth trees — the giants — are prized.

Schafer walked over to one that had been cut down, chopped into chunks beside the access road we stood on. It’s a big red cedar, probably somewhere around 300 years old.

Schafer counted the rings and pointed out how blemish-free the wood is, how at a mill it can be made into high value lumber or even even high-end furniture or musical instruments.

“This is what we call a ‘money tree,’” he said.

According to the Truck Loggers Association, these types of trees are worth far more than second growth trees.

Typical coastal old-growth sites can yield as much as 1,500 to 1,800 cubic metres per hectare whereas second growth sites yield around a third of that because they are harvested at younger ages, according to the TLA.

If you picture a cubic metre as a box, it has 1,000 litres of space.

Old-growth logs fetch around $350 per cubic metre for lumber-quality logs and $700 per cubic metre for high-end grades. By comparison, second-growth logs range between $120 and $200 per cubic metre.

It’s not hard to understand how old growth has kept logging as a viable industry along B.C.’s coast. Based on the TLA’s numbers, logging one hectare, or 0.01 square kilometre of the highest quality old-growth trees, could potentially generate wood worth more than $1 million.

As Schafer walked through the area pointing out old-growth trees that are currently off limits to cutting, he explained how increased protections have come, and continue to come, but to transition immediately out of logging any old-growth trees to just cutting second growth is not doable.

“We have to have a balance,” he said.

The TLA agrees and says that the current proportion of the harvest from coastal second-growth forests has risen steadily over the last decade from about five per cent of the harvest in 2000 to about 50 per cent of the total harvest today.

Leaving every remaining old-growth tree standing on Vancouver Island would result in the closure of four saw mills, at least one pulp mill and spell the end of the cedar shake and shingles industry, according to the TLA.

Schafer said the industry is sustainable with its current practices.

“I think there is a balance and I think it’s being done and I don’t think you are going to satisfy everybody,” he said. “You never are.

“I think the loggers do care, the ones I have dealt with and work with. We all try and do the right thing … protecting the streams and wildlife, cleaning the block up, getting it replanted.”

Schafer said this right where the big fir, described as a unicorn, was logged in May, two weeks after it was recorded by environmentalists.

The province’s legacy tree policy didn’t end up protecting it because the area was auctioned off by the government before the policy took effect.

No matter, say loggers like Matkovich who argue the tree was better served coming down than left standing.

“It was completely rotten,” said Matkovich. “It only had probably 50 years left and it would have blown over anyways.”

They resent the photos the AFA took and posted online of the tree cut from its base and lying prostrate on the ground.

VI.

Many people working within B.C.’s logging industry know that times continue to change and some are already getting prepared for there being less old growth to cut and mill.

On the shores of the inlet outside Port Alberni, fourth generation logger Mike McKay showed us his sawmill, Franklin Forest Products.

It was a logging camp in the 1930s before being converted to a sawmill in the late ‘70s.

His father brought it into the modern area in the 1990s and now McKay is taking it further.

He pointed to a structure of beams, belts, ladders and steel — a processor that can mill second growth logs.

“I’m going to take one last kick at the cat,” he said about the seven-figure investment he hopes will give his mill a future.

McKay, 48, employs 35 people.

“I am proud of that,” he said out from under his hard hat, which is emblazoned with maple leaves and the words “Canada Strong.”

“Sometimes it’s a little bit of pressure to keep them all employed but we seem to be doing a good job.”

The mill once had 70 workers before downturns in the industry. It also used to only cut old-growth logs, but now, 75 per cent of what McKay turns into fence posts and lumber is from old growth, and 25 per cent is from second growth.

“I think there is a transition period that we all need,” he said, adding that if there was an immediate transition to second growth logging only, his mill would go out of business.

McKay said there has been a significant preservation of old-growth forests around Port Alberni. The rest, he said, need to function as working forests, meaning they should be cut and replanted at intervals.

While environmentalists like Watt and Wu describe these working forests — second growth groves — as “astroturf” because of how uniformly they look from the air compared to old-growth groves, they do recognize their utility.

The AFA is supportive of a second growth industry and wants the province to help people like McKay retool their mills to be able to process it. But they also say curbing the export of logs from B.C. to overseas would equally help.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is looking to the B.C. NDP to make good on its 2017 election platform, to partner with First Nations to further modernize public land use planning, which is managing land in ways that meet economic, environmental, cultural and social objectives.

That could include coming up with more huge protections like what was done in the Great Bear Rainforest on B.C.’s central coast. An area the size of Vancouver Island is now off limits to logging.

In its 2018 budget, the province committed $16 million over three years to land use planning and the forestry ministry is reviewing how it treats old growth as part of that.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners say they’re waiting to see what comes from the province while continuing to push their way through the dense groves on Vancouver Island to find more old-growth trees to wow the public and policymakers with, like that huge Douglas fir they found in May.

“Holy moly — that’s a hell of a cedar,” Wu said as he scrambled through the fern-covered forest floor of yet another grove already surveyed for logging.

He stood up against the trunk of the massive cedar and posed for a photo taken by Watt.

They’re hopeful impressions like this will do something to keep these old giants from being felled but realistic that loggers will most likely get here first.

See the original piece here

Acclaimed Documentary, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, Depicts Beauty and Destruction of BC’s Old-Growth Forests

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Cinematographer Nicholas de Pencier filming in Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.

For immediate release
October 18, 2018

The widely acclaimed documentary film entitled Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, which premiered last month at the Toronto International Film Festival, highlights the profound impact humanity has had on planet Earth, including the destructive logging of BC’s coastal temperate rainforests.

Anthropocene is the final installation in a series of three films that includes multiple-award-winning films Manufactured Landscapes (2006) and Watermark (2013) by renowned filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier and photographer and artist Edward Burtynsky. The film, which had shoots in 43 locations in 20 different countries, features scenes of Avatar Grove, a now-famous old-growth forest that the Ancient Forest Alliance successfully campaigned to protect, and old-growth logging near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island as an example of the extent to which humans have altered the natural world and its ecological processes.

“Having grown up on Vancouver Island, it was very important to me that we showcase both the beauty and the destruction of BC’s coastal temperate rainforests in the film,” stated Anthropocene Co-Director, Jennifer Baichwal. “Of the many dramatic examples of humanity’s impact on the natural environment that we documented across the world, the logging of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island was deeply disturbing.”

“These incredible ecosystems evolved over many thousands of years and yet, in a little over a century, we’ve managed to wipe out about 80% of the original, productive old-growth forest in southwest BC and well over 90% of the highest productivity forests with the biggest trees and most biodiversity. Witnessing this destruction first-hand was devastating and made me want to fight for a complete moratorium on old-growth logging in BC and Canada, period. There is plenty of second-growth available for industry and logging old-growth is cynical, greedy, and deeply short-sighted. When will we stop? When there are no trees left?”

The film artfully explores the theory proposed by the Anthropocene Working Group, an international body of scientists, that we have entered a new geological epoch wherein humans are the primary cause of planetary change. It is also part of a larger body of work called The Anthropocene Project, which includes exhibits at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada, featuring photographic prints, high-definition murals, film and augmented reality (AR) installations. One of the three AR installations allows viewers to experience Big Lonely Doug, Canada’s second-largest Douglas-fir tree which stands alone in a clearcut on Vancouver Island, at or near actual scale.

Anthropocene also includes footage by Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner and Photographer TJ Watt, including the logging of some of Canada’s finest old-growth forest in the Nahmint Valley, as well as a shipment of raw logs exports leaving Port Alberni for overseas markets. Watt worked with the filmmaking crew for several days over the course of two years while they were shooting for the film, guiding them to big trees and clearcuts around the Port Renfrew area.“It was an amazing opportunity,” said Watt. “For more than a decade I have looked up to renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky and I’m honoured to have worked alongside him and the rest of the talented team on this powerful film. It’s been a great reminder that, on a global scale, the ancient forests of BC are some of the most precious and threatened places on the planet.”

“Seeing the destruction of Vancouver Island’s ancient forests depicted alongside the world’s largest and most polluting mines, most destructive machines, iconic endangered species like Sumatran tigers, and coral bleaching events in the Great Barrier Reef really puts the situation into context,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner Andrea Inness.

“BC’s old-growth temperate rainforests are globally significant. Not only are they admired and visited by millions of people from around the world, they are an important component in the fight against dangerous climate change. They store more carbon per hectare than any forest on Earth. Continuing to log these carbon sinks – particularly in light of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent findings – is downright foolish.”

“The BC government has a window of opportunity right now to protect the last remnant tracts of productive old-growth in BC before they’re lost, but first they need a major wake-up call. BC decision-makers need to listen to the messages that films like Anthropocene are sending: that our extractive, resource-based economy has done irreparable damage to the planet and that we need to apply our ingenuity towards innovative and truly sustainable solutions.”

 

Background information on old-growth forests
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 (see maps and stats at: https://16.52.162.165/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/).

Old-growth forests – with trees that can be 2,000 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 Ancient Forest Alliance is recommending comprehensive, science-based plan to protect endangered old-growth forests, policies that ensure a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry, and support for First Nations land use plans, Indigenous Protected Areas, and sustainable economic development and diversification in lieu of old-growth logging.

Despite their 2017 election platform promise to use the ecosystem-based management approach of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model for managing old-growth forests across the province, the BC NDP government has yet to take any meaningful action toward this commitment.

 

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

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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 2ndlargest 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 9thwidest 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