Port Alberni Archives

AFA executive director Ken Wu stands beside the Alberni Giant

Blame for felled Nahmint giant placed on NDP

Jun 1 2018/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

Logging underway in the Nahmint Valley threatens one of the last prime spots of B.C. old-growth habitat and points to the NDP government’s failure to honour its election promise, says an Island-based conservation group.

Ancient Forest Alliance led a media tour on Wednesday, May 23 to examine a freshly felled Douglas fir estimated to be 800 years old.

“This is a monumental screwup,” said Ken Wu, alliance executive director. “They’ve just cut down the ninth largest Douglas fir.”

Group researchers identified the living tree earlier this month as chainsaws buzzed with logging activity on surrounding mountainsides. They assumed the big fir was protected and were astonished to find it felled a couple of weeks later.

Wu said their concerns relate not only to the felled fir but to the area as a whole. Nahmint Valley, 40 km west of Port Alberni, is known as an all-too-rare “hot spot” of old-growth in the province.

He holds the NDP government directly responsible because the logging is administered by its own agency, B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS). BCTS has auctioned cut blocks that overlap areas of ancient old growth, the group contends. Extensive logging in the area began this spring.

Mike Stini, a Port Alberni conservationist, said he spoke with the mill owner responsible for the cut block and was told the contractor was specifically told not to fall the big Douglas fir in question.

“There are so few of the giant first left,” Stini said. “We’ve got to do something.”

Giant fir and cedar are the crux of Nahmint habitat critical to species such as Roosevelt elk, marbled murrelet and northern goshawk. The picturesque valley is also a popular destination for recreationalists. Wu compared the felling of the fir to the slaughter of endangered elephants or the last of a species.

“It really is like blowing away the last remaining black rhinos,” he said. “The crazy thing is, most of the region is second growth.”

The Nahmint Valley is largely virgin forest yet there is plenty of second- and even third-generation forest available for harvest, he noted. In comparison, highly productive old-growth represents less than 10 percent of Island forests.

Not far from the site of the downed fir stands another that has been labelled the “Alberni Giant,” an even larger Douglas fir believed to be 800-900 years old. That tree remains protected in a zone designated for ungulate winter range. Other old growth is not similarly protected.

“This is not isolated,” said TJ Watt, a photographer who uses satellite imagery and provincial mapping to identify surviving old-growth trees. His work led him to the Douglas fir and others in the Nahmint.

“It’s happening all over the Island all of the time,” Watt said. “Old-growth logging is not a thing of the past.”

Trees several hundred years old, larger than those in Cathedral Grove, are still coming down in the face of the B.C. government’s new “big tree policy” established in January, the group said. They were told by regional staff of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations that the Nahmint cut blocks were laid out five years ago.

Forest Alliance posted photos of the felled tree on Facebook last week, triggering widespread condemnation unlike any the decade-old lobby group has seen.

“What has changed is not government policy,” Wu said. “The NDP government has exactly the same policy as the Liberal government. The change is in the moment because there are so many log exports and because there are second-growth alternatives. Businesses and people in general realize that we shouldn’t be logging the last of the remaining old growth forest. We can have all the jobs and keep all the old growth, too.”

They’ve met with Forests Minister Doug Donaldson on the issue and want to take the old-growth issue straight to Premier John Horgan since cutting contradicts the NDP pledge to adhere to an ancient growth model.

“We have raised the issue that the Nahmint really is a hot spot area and that they have to instruct B.C. Timber to stop auctioning old-growth cut blocks,” Wu said. “Certainly don’t place cut blocks in old-growth stands where logging is allowed. They don’t mandate a buffer zone and as a result they’re still logging 12-foot cedars.

“Hopefully there is some movement on the government’s part to change from the status quo,” he added. “They can’t take for granted the support of the environmental movement.”

A call to MLA Scott Fraser’s office was referred to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, which hadn’t responded by press time.

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

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

May 30 2018/in Media Release/by TJ Watt

For Immediate Release

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Background Info

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to Everyone who Helped Make our Vancouver Spring Social and Fundraiser a Success!

May 30 2018/in Announcements/by TJ Watt

The Ancient Forest Alliance is sending an enormous THANK YOU everyone who helped make our May 16th Spring Social and Fundraiser a major success! The event was our first in Vancouver in recent years and allowed us to connect with many of our most generous supporters in the Lower Mainland while fostering awareness around the threats facing BC’s ancient forests and working towards meeting our strategic $20,000 fundraising goal for September 1st. The event helped us raise an amazing $4,000, pushing us almost halfway to our goal!

A significant portion of these proceeds were generated by the silent auction, with items generously donated by the following:

Patagonia Vancouver, Lush Handmade Cosmetics on W 4th Ave, Banyen Books & Sound, Greystone Books Ltd., Burdock & Co, Central City Brewing, The Farmer’s Apprentice, Virtuous Pie , Jamjar Folk Lebanese, Eternal Abundance, Ten Thousand Villages, Unity Yoga Teahouse, Moksha Yoga Vancouver, Figaro’s Garden, Hummingbird Crafts, and Garden Consult Extraordinaire, Michael Denhamer. Thank you also to the Beaumont Studios for hosting our event and providing great service.

The funds generated are being put toward the following campaign activities:

Planning expeditions into several remote endangered ancient forests in BC to document their beauty and destruction with professional photos and videos. Read our recent media release on old-growth logging in the beautiful Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni and watch the CHEK TV news report for an example.
Commission an economic report on the value of standing old-growth forests.
Commission updated mapping on the status of Vancouver Island old-growth forests, based on ecosystem types.
Conduct major outreach campaigns to non-traditional allies such as businesses, unions, faith and multicultural groups and engage First Nations allies and councils.
Print and distribute a new educational brochure on key old-growth policies needed from the new NDP government to overhaul BC’s backwards forest policies.

The generosity of our growing Vancouver support base, local businesses, organizations, and artists is fundamental and greatly appreciated as we work with determination to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests while ensuring a sustainable, second-growth forest industry.

Thank you for choosing to support the AFA!

Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Andrea Inness, Joan Varley, Amanda Evans, Tiara Dhenin, Morgan Wheeler and Nova Raye
Ancient Forest Alliance

Ancient Forest Alliance

NDP under fire for allowing old growth logging near Port Alberni

May 29 2018/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

WATCH THE CHEK NEWS STORY HERE

They're the giants of the forest — massive, old-growth western red cedars and Douglas firs — and images of these towering trees being cut down have sparked outrage.

“The visuals that we're starting to see come out the latest cutting of old growth forest is really devastating,” says B.C. Green Party forestry critic Adam Olsen. “It's important we're protecting the old stands, especially on Vancouver Island where we have so little old growth left”

Olsen says he's shocked the B.C. NDP government is letting it happen.

“What we're seeing right now is the liquidation of our forests!” says Olsen. “Frankly, this government has continued the exact same policy as the Liberal government did. That's not what my expectation was. My expectation was for them to re-invigorate the forestry industry and make sure we're not liquidating our forests.”

The logging is taking place in Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni.

B.C. Timber Sales, an agency of the provincial government, auctioned off more than 300 hectares of old growth forest to logging companies. Trees hundreds of years old are being cut down, including a tree considered the tenth widest Douglas fir in the province, according to the B.C. BigTree registry, and one of the largest in Canada.

“This Douglas fir is 10 feet in diameter,” says Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder TJ Watt. “There's less than one per cent of the old growth Douglas fir trees remaining today on B.C.'s coast and this is just unacceptable.”

There are guidelines for the protection of 'legacy trees' — defined as exceptionally old or unique stands, like nearby Cathedral Grove, but these trees weren't protected.

“There's over 3,000 hectares in that valley alone of protected old growth forest so it's a balancing act and we acknowledge that people have been waiting for change around that,” says forestry minister Doug Donaldson. “We've inherited a lot of this from the previous government and we're working on addressing those concerns.”

The province says it's working on modernizing the land use plan.

As it stands now, only about 55 per cent of old growth forests on crown land are protected.

See the original story here.

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

Ancient Forest Alliance calls for end to old-growth logging in Nahmint Valley

May 28 2018/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

WATCH VIDEO NEWS COVERAGE HERE

The Nahmint Valley south of Sproat Lake near Port Alberni is a spectacular piece of Vancouver Island. The mountains are tall and so are the trees, but the conservation group Ancient Forest Alliance says too many of the tallest and oldest trees are being cut down.

The group recently became aware of logging in the area and on a recent trip saw an orange ribbon with “Falling Boundary” written it.

It was near a Douglas fir that was over three metres wide and was the 10th widest Douglas fir tree in B.C. according to the BC BigTree registry.

On a return trip a few days later, it had been cut down.

“We're standing here right beside a Douglas fir tree that was cut down just this past week, larger than the largest one at Cathedral Grove,” said TJ Watt, co-founder of Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), on Friday. “This Douglas fir is 10 feet in diameter, there's less than one per cent of the old growth Douglas fir trees remaining today on BC's coast and this is just unacceptable.”

The group says it is not against logging at all but insists that remaining old growth trees in B.C. need to be saved.

“It's kind of like shooting the tigers in India right? They used to shoot a lot of tigers now we don't anymore,” said local Port Alberni conservationist Mike Stini. “It's about saving something that's rare and endangered.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance says it is hypocritical that Premier John Horgan who when in opposition visited Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew in efforts to save old growth trees there but now as premier, he is allowing the government agency BC Timber Sales to auction off 300 hectares of old growth forests in the Nahmint Valley to logging companies.

“And B.C. Timber Sales is meant to be implementing what they call best management practices for legacy trees. Legacy trees being those that meet certain criteria in terms of size. This would absolutely fall within that category.” said Ancient Forest Alliance's Andrea Inness.

A statement to CHEK News from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development reads: “There are 2,760 hectares of old growth protected in the Nahmint landscape unit. Since August 2016, BCTS has awarded five timber sales totalling 319 hectares. On Vancouver Island’s public lands, there are about 520,000 hectares of old growth forests that will never be logged. Government is continuously reviewing practices to ensure healthy ecosystems and that logging is sustainable.”

Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Doug Donaldson said: “The new government is committed to modernizing the land use planning process, and protecting old growth forests is a vital component of that. As part of Budget 2018, we committed $16 million over three years to modernizing the land use planning process and work has begun. The first step is collaborating with Indigenous Peoples. More information about land use planning will be coming this fall.”

“Over 55 per centof Crown old growth forests on B.C.’s coast are protected. On Vancouver Island, over 40 per cent of Crown forests are considered old growth, with 520,000 hectares that will never be logged. The Vancouver Island Land Use Plan designated areas for protection and areas suitable for resource development, including logging. Logging continues to support jobs in communities such as Port Alberni.” added Donaldson.

But the Ancient Forest Alliance doesn't agree.

“The B.C. government is deceptively playing with numbers by including vast areas of much smaller trees growing on high rocky mountainsides to inflate their old-growth statistics, in order to mask their logging of the very rare monumental stands of the biggest trees in the valley bottoms and low elevations – where over 90 per cent have been logged, including 99 per cent of the old-growth Douglas-firs on the coast.” said TJ Watt.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness stands atop Canada's 9th-widest Douglas-fir tree

Old growth logging intensifies in Nahmint Valley

May 28 2018/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

Nahmint Valley, BC — Some of the largest trees in Canada are being cut west of Port Alberni as part of old-growth logging currently underway in the Nahmint Valley.

Recent harvesting includes a massive Douglas fir that was cut down earlier in May. This tree measured 31 feet in circumference and 10 feet wide, dimensions that would rank it among the country’s top 10 largest Douglas firs in the BC Big Tree registry, a public record managed by the University of British Columbia.

This discovery was reported to the Ancient Forest Alliance, an organization that works to protect old-growth forests and promote sustainable second-growth forestry practices.

AFA Executive Director Ken Wu said that an estimated one per cent of Vancouver Island’s old-growth Douglas fir trees are still standing, and compared the forestry practices in Nahmint to hunting endangered animals.

“It’s sort of like coming across a herd of elephants and slaughtering them all, they’re so rare these days, these monumental stands,” he said.

The AFA has identified two trees in the valley with dimensions that rank them among the largest of their species in Canada. These include the three-metre-wide Douglas fir that was recently cut down and what the AFA is calling “the Alberni Giant,” a Douglas fir growing deep in the Nahmint forest with a diameter of 3.7 metres (12 feet). They also found a 4.3-metre-wide (14-foot) western red cedar standing in Nahmint.

Some of these trees are thicker than those found in Cathedral Grove, which are provincially protected from harvesting. The grove’s largest tree is an 800-year-old Douglas fir measuring 2.8 metres in diameter, bringing the possibility that the Alberni Giant could be as old as 1,000 years.

“They are vitally important for endangered species and wildlife that need old-growth forest,” said Wu of the giant trees. “They provide clean water for steelhead and salmon in the Nahmint River, they store more carbon per hectare than any other type of forest on earth.”

The Nahmint trees are in 300-hectares of cutblocks that were auctioned for harvest by BC Timber Sales, a provincial agency that manages Crown land for the forestry industry. Nahmint’s largest old-growth fir trees each bring tens of thousands of dollars in marketable wood, according to information provided by the forestry contractor currently working on the cutblocks.

According to the province’s Vancouver Island Land Use Plan, the Nahmint Valley is not an area that should be seeing intensified old-growth logging. The valley falls under the Special Management category, which prioritizes “environmental, recreational and cultural/heritage values.”

“In the Nahmint landscape unit, there are 2,760 hectares of old growth management areas, ungulate winter ranges and wildlife habitat areas that protect old-growth forests,” said the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development in an email to the Ha-Shilth-Sa. “In addition, BCTS conducted a cedar assessment and specifically identified old growth cedar trees to retain from logging.”

The ministry emphasized that there are 520,000 hectares of Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests that will never be logged, comprising 55 per cent of the Island’s old growth forest that lies on Crown land.

But TJ Watt of the AFA believes that Nahmint’s largest trees are being targeted for logging. He said that the cutblocks designated for harvesting are the same parts of the Nahmint Valley that hold the largest old-growth trees.

“We looking to protect the same areas that the logging industry is looking to take,” said Watt. “It’s happening all over the Island, all of the time. Old-growth logging is not a thing of the past, it just often happens in areas that are mostly out of sight and out of mind.”

The Nahmint Valley is in the Hah=uu>i of the Hupacasath and Tseshaht First Nations. The old-growth harvesting has sparked concern from some in these First Nations, including Brenda Sayers, a Hupacasath member who has taken family members to Nahmint in the past.

“I travelled out there quite often when I first moved home. I brought my nieces and nephews to get them acquainted with different parts of our traditional territory,” she said. “I haven’t been out there in a while actually, because it breaks my heart. I don’t know that I could handle seeing the state of the way things are.”

Sayers believes the practice goes against a pledge the NDP government made during the last provincial election.

“In partnership with First Nations and communities, we will modernize land-use planning to effectively and sustainably manage B.C.’s ecosystems, rivers, lakes, watersheds, forests and old growth, while accounting for cumulative effects,” stated the NDP platform in 2017. “We will take an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.”

“The province has once again failed our Indigenous people,” said Sayers. “Some people think reconciliation means renaming a street or having cross-cultural workshops to minimise racism. To me, reconciliation is the land, and the government needs to recognize First Nations as the original right holders to the land.”

Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson responded to say that working with First Nations is the first thing the province plans to do as it revises its forestry management.

“The new government is committed to modernizing the land use planning process and protecting old-growth forests is a vital component of that,” he said. “As part of Budget 2018, we committed $16 million over three years to modernizing the land use planning process and work has already begun. The first step is collaborating with Indigenous Peoples. More information about land use planning will be coming in the fall.”

In a document dated Sept. 11, 2017, BC Timber Sales listed best management practices for “legacy trees,” which are exceptionally old and unique stands in the province’s forests.

“BC Timber sales recognizes that legacy trees are often attributed with having important cultural, aesthetic and ecological value,” stated the document. “These trees, when retained, can play an important role in habitat conservation by bridging old-growth characteristics into second-growth stands. In addition, large trees are increasingly supporting the growing ecotourism economy as valuable destinations in and of themselves.”

The BCTS guidelines for the protection of legacy trees cite a minimum diameter of three metres for western red cedars and 2.1 metres for Douglas fir, well under the width of the largest old-growth trees identified by the Ancient Forest Alliance in the Nahmint Valley.

But the BCTS document noted that all legacy trees might not be protected.

“Legacy trees may need to be felled during or after primary harvesting operations if they constitute a safety hazard (or are affected by other operational factors) that cannot be addressed through pother means,” stated the document.

These other operational factors could include “impacts to cutblock design, in particular in cutblocks that rely on overhead cable harvest systems,” “known First Nations interest,” and the “local abundance of legacy trees,” according to the BCTS document.

Wu believes that what’s going on in the Nahmint Valley shows that these guidelines are not serving their conservationist purpose.

“It has enough loopholes to drive a logging truck through,” he said.

Sayers noted that logging Nahmint’s old-growth trees threatens a “sensitive and valuable ecosystem” that provides protection for elk and deer during the winter.

“I think it’s really a crime against nature,” she said. “Every tree is an individual ecosystem. We believe that they have a spirit and as old as they are, they’ve witnessed to the things that took place in our traditional territory. They have a history, they hold knowledge and they’re sacred to us.”

“I feel bad for the loggers whose job it is to mow these trees down, because they have to live with that,” added Sayers. “They’re removing something that’s been gifted to us, they’re removing that right for their children and grandchildren and future generations.”

Click to read the original article.

People are furious about the destruction of these old growth giants. And you won’t believe who’s approving it.

May 28 2018/in News Coverage/by TJ Watt

Andrea Inness, a forest campaigner with Ancient Forest Alliance, and several other people went on an expedition on May 6, to the Nahmint Valley, which is about an hour outside of Port Alberni on logging roads. Once there, they were horrified to find massive, centuries-old red cedar and Douglas fir trees being cut down.

“We expected to see some logging, but we were all astonished to see how much had taken place. There were near record-breaking trees that we found that were being cut,” Inness said in an interview. “We were shocked at the scale of the logging and so dismayed to see these cedars lying on the ground.”

The B.C. government promises progress by the fall. Let’s hope that includes a move to make it a crime to cut down these majestic, centuries-old trees.

Adam Olsen, the B.C. Green Party critic for forests, said this issue could become a big problem for the government, if they don’t change their policy. More on that further down.

Inness says the group found a tree equivalent to the fifth widest Douglas Fir tree in the country and another that was equivalent to the ninth widest.

“We were just back there (on May 23) and it had been logged,” Inness said. “It was heartbreaking. It’s an absolute failure on the B.C. government’s part to protect these rare and endangered trees.”

Although size isn’t necessarily indicative of the exact age of a tree, Inness said those big trees are between 500 and 1,000 years old. And irreplaceable.

“It’s almost as if the government itself was condoning the slaughtering of white rhinos or the harpooning of blue whales. It’s unbelievable,” Inness said.

The government freely admits that logging is still going on in old-growth forests on Crown land in B.C., but says it is continuously reviewing practices to ensure that logging is sustainable and ecosystems are healthy.

In its election platform, the NDP promised to work with First Nations and communities to “modernize land-use planning to effectively and sustainably manage BC’s ecosystems, rivers, lakes, watersheds, forests and old growth, while accounting for cumulative effects. We will take an evidence-based scientific approach and use the ecosystem-based management of the Great Bear Rainforest as a model.”

The 6.4-million-hectare Great Bear Rainforest was created by a 2016 agreement between the B.C. government and Coastal First Nations to conserve 85 per cent of the forest and 70 per cent of the old growth.

Protecting old growth forests is a vital component of modernizing the land-use planning process, said Doug Donaldson, B.C.’s Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Minister.

“As part of Budget 2018, we committed $16 million over three years to modernizing the land use planning process and work has already begun,” Donaldson said in a statement. “The first step is collaborating with Indigenous Peoples. More information about land use planning will be coming this fall.”

Donaldson said more than 55 per cent of Crown old growth forests on B.C.’s coast is protected and that on Vancouver Island more than 40 per cent of Crown forests are considered old growth, including 520,000 hectares that will never be logged, but that the land-use plan on the island allows for logging in certain areas and logging supports jobs in rural communities.

But still, felling these giant trees is completely legal, even on Crown land, with permits issued by BC Timber Sales, a government agency that provides the cost and price benchmarks for timber harvested from public land in British Columbia.

Arborist-conservationist Matthew Beatty atop a newly fallen western red cedar in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni. Photo by TJ Watt

People are furious about the loss of these trees, MLA says

“People are furious about what’s been going on,” Olsen, the B.C. Green Party critic for forests, told National Observer. “People have not responded to any other campaign more abrasively and angrily than they are this one. We’ve received over 4,000 emails on this issue all within a few days.”

Olsen said the Greens would like to see the government stop auctioning off the right to log these trees and to work on developing a sustainable second-growth logging industry. He doesn’t believe the government is getting the highest value possible for these trees and that it needs to look beyond the immediate short-term economic gains of cutting them down.

“With so much of the old growth already cut, … certainly it would be our desire to see the B.C. government taking a different approach,” Olsen said. “It is essentially extending the same unsustainable practices that the former government took to devastating habitat.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance and other B.C. environmental groups are also calling for an end to logging ancient trees.

“We are calling on the B.C. government to implement a comprehensive, science-based law to protect endangered old growth forests,” Inness said. “We want not only a policy that protects the largest trees on the coast, of which these would absolutely qualify, with buffer zones around them, but also, beyond just protecting big trees, we need to protect entire forest ecosystems.”

The environmental groups aren’t alone. The BC Chamber of Commerce said in 2016 that “many local communities economically would stand to receive a greater net benefit in revenues and jobs over the ensuing decades from the protection of key old-growth forests in their region.”

Also in 2016, the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) passed a motion calling for the protection of old-growth forest on Vancouver Island because of its “significant economic, social and environmental value as wildlife habitat, tourism resource, carbon sink and much more.”

Even the Public and Private Workers of Canada (PPWC) has called for the protection of old-growth rainforest on Vancouver Island, for forestry companies to transition to second-growth logging and for an end to raw-log exports.

Ariane Telishewsky of the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance sits on top of a massive red cedar stump in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni. Photo by TJ Watt

Ancient trees play a vital role in climate change, survival of species

These ancient trees play a vital role in climate change – they can store two to three times more carbon than second-growth forests, Inness said. They are also very important for endangered and threatened species.

The Nahmint Valley is home to Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, cougars, wolves, and black bears, as well as species that live only in old-growth forests, like the marbled murrelet and northern goshawk. Olsen also emphasized that old-growth forests provide productive spawning areas for salmon.

The AFA would like to see B.C. protect all old-growth forests and make the transition to a second-growth forest industry now, rather than when all of the non-protected old-growth forests are gone.

“We need incentives for companies to retool their mills and we also need more incentive to add value to the wood here in B.C. and at the same time, curbing raw log exports,” Inness said. “That would not only sustain the amount of forestry jobs in B.C., but possibly even increase forestry employment in the province.”

A future in which BC’s rare and beautiful old-growth forests remain intact, but with jobs to spare in its economy is a future worth fighting for. This future must include a flourishing second-growth forestry industry and a sustainable transition for First Nations. The B.C. government promises progress by the fall. Let’s hope that includes a move to make it a crime to cut down these majestic, centuries-old trees.

Link to original article: www.nationalobserver.com/2018/05/28/opinion/people-are-furious-about-destruction-these-ancient-old-growth-giants

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

May 18 2018/in Media Release/by TJ Watt

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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