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TJ Watt stands beside a giant redcedar in Jurassic Grove on a foggy day.

Photos: Jurassic Grove in the Fog

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A mystical day in the woods at Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory. Exploring this incredible grove of old-growth redcedar trees was like stepping back into prehistoric times.

On this particular day, the fog was so thick it felt like you could swim through it. Shimmering water droplets dripped from the dark green needles while the sound of ocean waves softly filtered through the forest. The odd raven call only added to the magic of it all.

We often have to hustle through the forest, trying to quickly capture images of a place we might not see again. This day, it was nice to slow down and soak up the scenery. A rainforest really feels like a rainforest this time of year.

If you’re looking to visit old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, see our Ancient Forest Hiking Guides for Victoria and Port Renfrew. As always, be sure to tread lightly.

You can also help us protect old-growth forests like this one by making a charitable donation to Ancient Forest Alliance this holiday season.

 

Climbers scale Big Lonely Doug in Pacheedaht territory against a bluebird sky.

Financial Review: Why we should embrace tall-tree tourism

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June 4, 2024
By Ute Junker
Australian Financial Review

Original article here.

Only 34 per cent of the world’s surviving forests are old-growth ones, and many are under threat. If California’s Redwood National Park is anything to go by, there is hope, however.

This is a tree that demands attention. Thrusting 70 metres into the sky – about the height of a 20-storey building – the towering Douglas fir has a diameter of almost four metres. That sort of girth doesn’t develop overnight: this specimen has been sinking its roots into the rich earth of Canada’s Vancouver Island for around 1000 years.

There is another reason this tree stands out. It stands alone.

Once sheltered by the old-growth forest that enveloped it on all sides, its sheer verticality is cast into stark relief by the stump-studded scrublands that surround it. Fourteen years ago loggers razed the entire forest save for this one survivor, dubbed Big Lonely Doug. Doug owes his survival to a logging company surveyor who – for reasons unknown – wrapped a ribbon around its massive trunk on which were written the words “Leave tree”.

“Big Lonely Doug represents both incredible beauty and incredible destruction,” says conservation photographer TJ Watt. Describing himself as a “big-tree hunter”, Watt spends much of his time exploring remote parts of Vancouver Island in search of the region’s last arboreal giants.

TJ stands in the forefront wearing a black hoodie. Behind him stands a number of old-growth cedars and other ancient trees.

Photographer and co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, TJ Watt. © TJ Watt

As co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, he has worked for years to protect the region’s oldest trees from logging. Stands of tall trees such as Avatar Grove – identified by activists in 2009 and placed under government protection three years later after a protracted campaign – have become tourist attractions in their own right. Nearby Port Renfrew, formerly a quiet fishing village, now markets itself as the Tall Trees Capital of Canada.

The battle between tourism and logging is not a new one, but the Canadian province of British Columbia is a critical frontline. The temperate rainforests that blanket the province’s Pacific Coast are places of incredible beauty, where soft light filters through the high tree canopy, loamy scents of rich soil rise with every footfall, and the mosses and lichens that blanket most surfaces soften every sound.

They are a vital environment for grizzly and black bears.

These forests, which comprise more than 60 per cent of the province, also play a vital role in combating climate change. Studies have shown the tall trees in old-growth forests are especially effective at sequestering large amounts of carbon. Rainforests are oxygen-rich environments: they cover less than 10 per cent of the world’s land surface yet produce nearly a third of our oxygen.

Only around 30 per cent of the world’s surviving forests are old-growth ones, however, and many are under threat. Across the world, communities are turning to tourism as a way to protect these precious landscapes. The success of these projects is not only vital for local communities – in British Columbia’s case, predominantly First Nations people – but also for the health of our planet.

British Columbia’s government recognises that its forests draw tourists. Tall trees feature prominently on the province’s tourism website, along with the slogan “Super, Natural British Columbia”. But Watt says a bigger commitment is needed.

“If the B.C. government got on board and improved the signage and roads, and did some more promotion, you would see such an incredible boom. We could be like the redwoods of Canada – that’s a dream of mine.”

A woman in a blue jacket stands on a boardwalk looking up at an amazing ancient western redcedar. She is surrounded by lush green old-growth forest.

A hiker admires an ancient red cedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew, BC. © TJ Watt

South of the border with British Columbia, the redwood forests of northern California are home to sequoias and Douglas firs that stand up to 100 metres tall. They are proven money-spinners. The US National Parks Service reports that in 2022, 458,400 visitors to Redwood National Park spent around $US31 million and sustained more than 400 jobs.

Different countries take different approaches to marketing their old-growth forests. In Waipoua on New Zealand’s North Island, the emphasis is on particularly mighty specimens such as Tāne Mahuta, the king of the forest. The largest kauri tree in the country, Tāne Mahuta stands over 51 metres tall, with a girth of almost 14 metres.

On the Kii Peninsula on Japan’s Honshu island, where pilgrims have followed the Kumano Kodo trail through shady forests for more than a thousand years, the experience is as much about communing with culture as it is about marvelling at nature.

A hiker looks up to the lofty tree tops in the Milkshake Hills Forest Reserve in Tasmania’s Tarkine Rainforest.

A hiker looks up to the lofty tree tops in the Milkshake Hills Forest Reserve in Tasmania’s Tarkine Rainforest. Alice Hansen

An increasing attraction for some visitors are the wellness benefits associated with spending time among tall trees. Study after study has indicated that immersion in nature can improve everything from heart health to emotional wellbeing, and help stave off cognitive decline.

“There are so many physical and mental health benefits from going to these ancient natural places, embedding a little natural code in people who are usually living in busy urban environments,” says Mark Olsen, chief executive of Tourism Tropical North Queensland.

Olsen is intimately involved with Australia’s most successful tall-tree tourist destination, the Daintree Rainforest. One of the oldest rainforests in the world, listed as a World Heritage site since 1988, the Daintree’s flora is as remarkable as the region’s cassowaries and tree kangaroos.

Twelve of the planet’s 19 families of primitive flowering plants are found here, including 50 species rarely seen anywhere else. The Daintree is also home to the world’s tallest conifer, the bull kauri, which can grow up to 50 metres in height.

Since 2019, the park has been jointly managed by the Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, and the cultural knowledge of the Eastern Juku Yulanji people is now a key part of the tourist offering.

Being introduced to the landscape by an Indigenous guide changes your perspective, says Olsen. “You no longer see a wall of green. You see a cultural landscape.”

Just as in British Columbia, Australian Indigenous communities are benefiting from tourism. “They get to look after Country, to stay on Country, to teach the language connected to that landscape. It’s about the inseparability of story and place,” Olsen says.

An overhead view of the Daintree Forest in Tasmania.

The Daintree Rainforest is a precious resource. Jason South

The Daintree may be a success story but elsewhere in Australia, “irreplaceable” tall-tree forests remain at risk, says Amelia Young, the Wilderness Society’s director of national campaigns. “Because of our evolutionary history, these forests are unlike those found anywhere else on Earth. There are so few left, [yet] they are incredibly significant for biological and cultural reasons.”

These forests include the jarrah trees in Western Australia’s southwest, which are “still subject to deforestation, principally for bauxite mining”; the mountain ash forests of Victoria’s Central Highlands region; and, of course, Tasmania’s old-growth forests.

An edited image depicting the before and after the effects of mining on the left, and the old jarrah forest on the right.

Alcoa bauxite mining operations in an area that was once jarrah forest in Western Australia. Getty/Nine News

Last year The Wilderness Society released its Big Tree State report showcasing eight potential sites for tall-tree tourism in the Huon, Styx and Tyenna valleys. It estimated that an initial investment of $745,000 would generate 139,000 visitor days and $20.2 million in revenue for regional communities.

Tasmania’s government has since promised to introduce new protections for tall trees, but Young says this is only part of the solution. “We also need to protect younger forests so they can become old forests.”

Of course, forest tourism brings its own challenges. In California’s Redwood National Park two years ago, the National Parks Service was forced to close off an area around Hyperion, spruiked as the tallest tree in the world. Trespassers face a $US5000 fine ($7500) and six months in prison.

Even though the National Park Service had kept quiet about the exact location of the soaring redwood – at 115 metres, it is taller than the Statue of Liberty – so many people had found their way there that the ground around its base had eroded, potentially endangering its roots.

Wilderness areas require particular protections, says Dr Susanne Etti, the global environmental impact manager for Intrepid Travel. The company hosts multi-day treks in Tasmania’s Tarkine Rainforest, and has implemented protective measures there ranging from waste-removal processes to managing contaminants.

“Our leaders are very clear about the dangers of contamination from pathogens,” she says. “Cleaning your boots at the start of a trip must be second nature.”

Three lodges with canvass roofs sit at the edge of the forest looking out onto a very still Clayoquot Sound at Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge.

Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge is literally embraced by the forest.

Luxury tourism operators are also finding ways to ‘immerse’ their guests in landscapes that remain relatively untouched. At Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, an exclusive wilderness camp on Vancouver Island’s wild west coast, room rates start at $CA2900 ($3190) a night.

General manager Sarah Cruise says she sees a physical change in travellers during their stay: “You watch your guests come in drained, and see them filling up on green.” The effect of being surrounded by these towering trees fulfils our deepest needs as a species, she adds.

Gesturing to the forest outside her office, Cruise says: “This is our home, this is where we belong – we just don’t know it.”

 

Six of the many images that are depicted on AFA's greeting cards, including Big Lonely Doug, an old-growth sunset, waterfall, the San Juan Spruce, Cheewhat Giant, and Avatar Grove

AFA Greeting Cards are on sale for 20% off until August 31st!

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Have a special occasion coming up? Pick up your next set of greeting cards from Ancient Forest Alliance while they’re 20% off and help protect old-growth forests in BC!

Choose one of our specially curated sets of six cards for $20 or get a deal and choose two sets for $35!

Taken by AFA photographer TJ Watt, these photos feature big trees, birds, bears, flowers and fungi from locations such as Echo Lake, Meares Island, Carmanah Valley, Flores Island, and Brooks Peninsula, each card captures the beauty of the West Coast.

All cards are 5×7, blank inside and printed on 100% PCW recycled paper using vegetable-based inks. The educational descriptions on the back of the cards help to inspire others to share your love of old-growth forests.

All proceeds support the campaign to protect endangered old-growth forests in BC and ensure a sustainable second-growth industry. Offer ends August 31st or while supplies last.

Grab yours today!

12 images of the AFA greeting cards, including old-growth sunset, Big Lonely Doug, Mossy Maple Grove, Roosevelt elk, Avatar Grove, San Juan Spruce, an aerial image of Flores Island, and many more!

All cards are 20% off! Here are some of the images you can get on your cards.

 

Thanks for the support at our Year-End Celebration & Fundraiser!

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Thanks to all who attended and/or supported our Year-End Celebration & Fundraiser!

We’re feeling extremely grateful following our event this past Tuesday evening, where you helped us raise $5,284 for old-growth protection through donations, the silent auction, and merchandise sales! We hope you enjoyed the engaging presentations, food, drinks, and socializing with other old-growth fans.

As always, meeting and having conversations with many of you in person is a great reminder of what a dedicated, passionate, and kind community we have standing with us. We couldn’t have achieved all the latest success without you!

A special shoutout goes to the local businesses and individuals who kindly donated items to our silent auction. Thank you to: Jordan Fritz Art, Botanical Bliss, Fish Hair Salon, Handsome Dans Port Renfrew, Pilgrim Coffee House, Lorelei Green Art, Timothy Colman, Zula Jewelry, The Papery, Smoking Lily Handcrafted Goods, Seaflora Skincare, Spinnacle Yarns, Russell Books, Wild Coast Perfumery, Richard Malacek, Robinson’s Outdoors, Patagonia Victoria, Ecologyst, Bolen Books, and Barbara Brown Art.

Your support this season will make a huge difference and will ensure we’re able to hit the ground running come 2024.

For the forests,
The Ancient Forest Alliance team

 

Ancient Forest Alliance photographer & campaigner, TJ Watt, beside an enormous old-growth Sitka spruce growing unprotected west of Lake Cowichan in Ditidaht territory.

Billion-dollar BC Nature Agreement will Supercharge Protected Areas Expansion across the Province

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For Immediate Release
November 3rd, 2023

Conservationists thank the BC and federal governments for the $1.1 billion launch of the BC Nature Agreement. The federal government has provided $500 million and BC is providing $563 million from diverse funding sources — now purposed toward achieving BC’s 30% by 2030 nature protection, conservation, and restoration goals via First Nations conservation agreements.

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) are greatly applauding the BC and federal governments and the First Nations Leadership Council for launching the BC Nature Agreement, with $1.1 billion in funding to start, to help achieve BC’s minimum protected areas target of protecting 30% by 2030 of its land area. The tripartite agreement, negotiated between the BC government, the federal government, and the First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC), comes with a $563 million contribution from the province and a $500 million federal contribution. The fund will continue to grow with major contributions from the philanthropic community and potentially from future government budgets over time.

Funds will be used for supporting First Nations to establish Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) and conservation initiatives, endangered species recovery, compensation of resource licensees, and habitat restoration, with a central mandate to achieve the 30% by 2030 protection target of BC in line with Canada’s national protection target.

“This is the largest provincial funding package in Canada’s history for nature conservation, and we understand it will continue to grow beyond the initial sum of $1.1 billion,” stated Ken Wu, Executive Director for EEA. “Our central campaign focus for years has been on the necessity of government funding for First Nations to establish new protected areas to save old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems in BC. Today, Premier Eby, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, and the First Nations Leadership Council delivered, and we thank them greatly. The funds will be critically important as the ‘fuel’ to enable Indigenous conservation initiatives to help BC reach its minimum protection target of 30% by 2030. Now we need ecosystem-based protection targets connected to these conservation funds to prioritize the most endangered and least protected ecosystems in BC. Without ecosystem-based targets to aim protection priorities wisely, it’ll be like a fire brigade hosing down all the non-burning houses while the houses on fire are largely ignored. Or a surgeon who doesn’t make distinctions between organs, instead just aiming to reach an overall target of removing a couple of kilograms.”

“Because First Nations are legally in the driver’s seat in BC when it comes to on-the-ground protection of their unceded territories, a major fund such as the one announced today is vital to support them and to deal with all the various costs of establishing new protected areas, particularly in contested landscapes,” stated TJ Watt, Campaigner for AFA. “It would be impossible to essentially double the protected areas in BC from 15% now to 30% over the next seven years without it. The major funding that Eby and Guilbeault have just put forward is a big deal. Step by step, the province is moving forward with support from the federal government to create the policy vehicle and funding streams that will enable First Nations to drive where we all need to go: the protection of native ecosystems and old-growth forests in BC. Funding for First Nations-led deferrals in the most at-risk old-growth stands is still outstanding, and we will keep working to see that these vital ‘solutions space’ funds are provided.”

In BC, the province cannot unilaterally establish protected areas and “just save the old growth” on Crown/ unceded First Nations lands — the support and shared decision-making of local First Nations governments is a legal necessity in their territories. Protected areas establishment and logging deferrals move at the speed of the local First Nations whose territories it is — the BC government’s policies and funding can facilitate or hinder, help speed up or slow down, the abilities of First Nations to protect ecosystems. Conservation financing, included in this funding package, is a vital enabling condition that can greatly facilitate and speed up the protection of old-growth forests.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director, Ken Wu, stands beside a monumental old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director, Ken Wu, stands beside a monumental old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

Today’s BC Nature Agreement funds come from four federal funding pots (Enhanced Nature Legacy, Nature Smart Solutions Fund, BC Old-Growth Fund, and 2 Billion Trees program) and most of the funding was, until now, largely inaccessible for BC protected areas. The provincial funds also come from diverse sources — disparate funds that are now newly tasked to fulfill the mandate of the BC Nature Agreement’s 30% by 2030 goal to protect, conserve and restore ecosystems via First Nations’ shared decision-making initiatives. These include the $150 million in provincial contributions to BC’s Conservation Financing Mechanism announced last week, another $100 million from the Watershed Security Fund and $200 million from the Northeast Restoration Fund, and a host of other smaller funding pots.

In addition, the BC Old-Growth Fund, worth $50 million from federal funds and which must be matched by a $50 million provincial contribution (ie. $100 million), comes into force (and will grow by an additional $32 million in federal funds committed earlier, or $64 million in matching total funds), and is mandated to protect the most at-risk old-growth forests (ie. grandest, rarest and oldest stands) in the Coastal and Inland Rainforests, and the Coastal Douglas-Fir biogeoclimatic zone. These are among the most endangered ecosystems in BC, which evolved to naturally exist with high proportions of their landscapes in an old-growth condition, with greater levels of biodiversity adapted to old-growth forests than most other ecosystems (hence, the prioritization of funds for these ecosystems is sensible from a conservation perspective — the other $1 billion is available to protect forests including old-growth in other ecosystems).

While a minor subset of the overall BC Nature Agreement, the BC Old-Growth Fund is indispensable to help protect the “biggest and best” remaining old-growth stands in BC, with a mandate akin to ecosystem-based targets to protect 400,000 hectares to 1.3 million hectares of old-growth and mature forests in the most at-risk old-growth forest types by supporting First Nations conservation initiatives. Some of these hectares might come from the finalization of the ecosystem-based management reserves negotiated years earlier in the Great Bear Rainforest final agreement. Hopefully, with support from the greater BC Nature Agreement funds, most of the remaining tracts of the at-risk old-growth forests in the Coastal and Inland Rainforests and Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystems are picked up for protection with this fund.

TJ Watt said, “We want to flag that provincial leadership is now vital to fulfilling the mandate of the BC Old-Growth Fund, to identify the key sites, which have already been largely mapped by the province’s appointed Technical Advisory Panel, and to pro-actively approach and work with First Nations and to bring them the resources and support needed to work on protecting these most important at-risk stands. BC bureaucrats sitting on their haunches and waiting to be approached won’t get the job done.”

The BC Nature Agreement fund comes on the heels of the $300 million Conservation Financing Mechanism and in fact, includes the $150 million provincial contribution to that fund. The BC Nature Agreement fund can also be used to augment the Conservation Financing Mechanism, which, unlike the BC Nature Agreement itself, can be used to support First Nations economic development initiatives linked to new protected areas.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director, Ken Wu, stands beside a monumental old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director, Ken Wu, stands beside a monumental old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

EEA and AFA are now focused on closing several additional gaps in BC’s old-growth and protected-areas policies, which include:

  • Ecosystem-based protection targets, ie. legally-binding targets set for all ecosystems that factor in “forest productivity distinctions” (sites that grow large trees in warm, rich soils typically at lower elevations and more southerly latitudes, vs. sites that typically grow small trees in cold, rocky, or boggy sites) set by science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees. These targets are vital to ensure that the most at-risk and least protected ecosystems are prioritized — otherwise, protection will still be largely focused on alpine and subalpine areas with low to no timber values, with the exception of the old-growth that the BC Old-Growth Fund protects.
  • Deferral or “solutions-space” funding for First Nations to forgo logging in the most at-risk old-growth priority areas as defined by the province’s appointed Technical Advisory Panel (TAP). This is a critical stepping stone to at least get the full remaining 1.4 million hectares of TAP’s priority areas deferred. First Nations with logging interests in these areas need compensation for their lost revenues for two years while deferrals are enacted, during which time they can potentially undertake protected areas and land-use planning.
  • Upholding protected areas standards. A provincial Protected Areas Strategy with goals, objectives, strategies, and resources must be developed, and must emphasize Provincial Conservancies, Ecological Reserves, and Protected Areas (PAs), and other real protected areas. Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMAs) have moveable boundaries upon request by logging companies, and many types of Wildlife Habitat Areas allow logging — these loopholes must be closed, and until then, they must not be included in BC’s 30% by 2030 accounting. In addition, the province is developing a new IPCA designation that is considering “flexitarian” standards that might allow for commercial logging (cultural cedar harvesting for First Nations community use, of course, should be safeguarded and is different in scale and purpose than commercial logging). Weak and/or moveable conservation designations are akin to the “cryptocurrency of protected areas,” and BC must focus on real protected areas and close the moveable boundary loophole with OGMAs in particular, as OGMAs are a needed designation to save the labyrinth of remaining old-growth fragments.
Ancient Forest Alliance photographer & campaigner, TJ Watt, stands between two enormous old-growth Sitka spruce growing unprotected near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

Ancient Forest Alliance photographer & campaigner, TJ Watt, stands between two enormous old-growth Sitka spruce growing unprotected near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

EEA and AFA are also noting that much of the funding agreement, with the exception of the conservation financing component ($150 million from BC, and $150 million from the BC Parks Foundation), is narrowly defined so as not to fund First Nations’ owned businesses as alternatives to the nations’ old-growth logging dependencies. The lack of funding to support economic alternatives in First Nations communities, which keeps these communities dependent on old-growth logging revenues and jobs, is the single greatest barrier to the protection of old-growth forests across BC. This barrier is not lost upon many of the key timber-centric senior provincial bureaucrats who continue to marginalize the availability of such funds for First Nations’ economic development, along with the lack of deferral funding. This will also be an issue that our organizations will also be watching and working on.

More Background Info

  • Conservation financing is key to meeting First Nations’ needs for sustainable economic development alternatives to their old-growth logging dependencies. Many or most BC First Nations have an economic dependency fostered by successive BC governments on forestry, including old-growth logging, and require support to develop sustainable alternatives in ecotourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products like wild mushrooms, and other businesses if they are to forgo their old-growth logging interests to establish new protected areas and to not lose major jobs and revenues. Nations also need funding to develop the capacity to undertake land-use planning, mapping, engagement of community members, stakeholders, and resource licensees, and for stewardship and management jobs in new protected areas.
  • On BC’s Central and North Coasts (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest), $120 million in conservation financing from the province, federal government, and conservation groups in 2007 resulted in the protection of almost 1.8 million hectares of land (about 2/3rds the size of Vancouver Island), the creation of over 100 businesses and 1000 permanent jobs in First Nations communities, and significantly raised the average household income in numerous communities.
  • BC’s old-growth forests have spawned one of the most passionate and pervasive ecosystem-protection movements in world history, and for good reason. They contain some of the largest and oldest living organisms that have ever existed in Earth’s history — forest giants that can live to 2000 years old and grow wider than a living room. Old-growth forests are vital to support unique and endangered species, climate stability, clean water, wild salmon, First Nations cultures, and BC’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry. These forests have unique characteristics that are not replicated by the ensuing second-growth tree plantations they’re being replaced with. In fact, second-growth forests in BC are logged every 50-to-80 years on BC’s coast, never to become old growth again.
  • Well over 80% of the original, productive old-growth forests (sites where most big trees and timber values reside) have already been logged, and over 5 million hectares of big treed, rare (by ecosystem type), and very oldest old-growth forests remain unprotected in BC, with 2.6 million hectares identified as the top priorities for logging deferrals by the province’s appointed science panel or Technical Advisory Panel.
Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director, Ken Wu, stands beside a giant Sitka spruce tree in an old-growth forest west of Lake Cowichan in Ditidaht territory.

BC Launches Vital Conservation Financing Mechanism to Protect Old-Growth Forests and Ecosystems

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For Immediate Release
October 26, 2023

Starting with an initial $300 million of provincial and philanthropic funding, the indispensable fund that will “fuel” or power the creation of new protected areas by supporting First Nations protected areas initiatives will continue to grow with additional federal, provincial, and private funds. Conservationists give thanks to Premier Eby for fulfilling a key commitment.

Today, the BC government made good on a vital conservation commitment made last December by Premier David Eby to develop a conservation financing mechanism to fund Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) by funding First Nations’ economic, capacity, stewardship, and management needs linked to protecting ecosystems. The new fund consists of a $150 million provincial contribution and $150 million to be raised by the BC Parks Foundation, the official charitable fund of the province’s BC Parks agency, for a total of $300 million to start. The fund is likely to grow quickly with major federal protected areas funding soon, additional provincial protected areas funds (conjoined with the federal funds via the BC Nature Fund and BC Old-Growth Funds, two additional funds currently under negotiation), funds from the international philanthropic community, and contributions from private citizens over time.

“This is a vital step forward to protect nature in British Columbia on a major scale — Premier Eby should be thanked for this. Conservation financing is the indispensable ‘fuel’ to power along the establishment of new protected areas in BC — without it, the large-scale protection of the most endangered and contested ecosystems, such as those with the largest trees and greatest timber values, would be largely impossible,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance. “Since 2017 my colleagues and I have been calling on the province to undertake conservation financing, and three years ago we launched the main campaign with diverse allies calling for federal and provincial conservation funding to protect old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems – and today Premier Eby has delivered. This is a huge conservation victory for the many thousands of people who’ve spoken up for years for this.”

“This conservation financing mechanism puts major wind in the sails for the protection of old-growth forests in BC. After we’ve spent years relentlessly focusing on the centrality of conservation financing to support First Nations’ protected areas initiatives, Premier Eby has delivered on one of his three big commitments now. His other major commitments include doubling the protected areas in BC from 15% now to 30% by 2030 — this funding will make it possible as the fund grows — and targeting protection for biodiverse areas, which we interpret to mean the potential development of ecosystem-based protection targets which haven’t happened yet. We will continue working to ensure these commitments come to fruition,” stated TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner & Photographer, TJ Watt, stands beside an unprotected old-growth redcedar tree in the Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner & Photographer, TJ Watt, stands beside an unprotected old-growth redcedar tree in the Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

In BC, it’s important to note that the province cannot unilaterally establish protected areas and “just save the old-growth” on Crown lands — the support of local First Nations governments is a legal necessity in their unceded territories. Protected areas establishment and logging deferrals move at the speed of the local First Nations whose territories it is. The BC government’s policies and funding can facilitate or hinder, help speed up or slow down, the abilities of First Nations to protect ecosystems. Conservation financing is a vital enabling condition that can speed up the protection of old-growth forests.

Across BC, First Nations have an economic dependency on forestry jobs and revenues, including in old-growth logging — a dependency fostered and facilitated by successive BC governments. Many First Nations also have an economic dependency on other resource industries, including mining and oil and gas. Hence, conservation financing to fund First Nations’ sustainable economic alternatives in ecotourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products (eg. wild mushrooms), and other industries, linked to the establishment of new protected areas, is vital for First Nations to be able to transition from their dependency on old-growth logging revenues and jobs and other resource industries in endangered ecosystems. Without conservation financing, the establishment of new protected areas in areas with high timber values would be like asking First Nations to simply jettison their main source of revenues and jobs — something that no major human population would do without economic alternatives and support.

On BC’s Central and North Coasts (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest), a conservation financing investment of $120 million in 2006 ($30 million from the province, $30 million from the federal government, $60 million from conservation groups) for First Nations sustainable economic development and stewardship needs, resulted in the protection of about one third of the region, about 1.8 million hectares. The initial investment, as a result of interest and carbon offsets, has ended up providing over $300 million in investments to First Nations’ owned businesses and stewardship initiatives, supporting over 100 First Nations-owned businesses, funding over 1000 jobs, and raising the average per household income substantially in First Nations communities.

Several loopholes or gaps remain in the BC government’s protected areas and conservation financing initiatives that the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance and Ancient Forest Alliance will continue to work to close.

  1. Just as conservation financing was linked to protection targets (specific valleys and ecosystem retention targets) in the Great Bear Rainforest, the new conservation financing mechanism needs to be tied to “ecosystem-based targets”, that is, protection targets developed for each ecosystem that ensure that all ecosystems, including the most endangered and contested landscapes such as “high productivity” old-growth forests with the greatest timber values, are protected based on science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. These targets should be developed by a Chief Ecologist (similar to BC’s Chief Forester, but with an ecological lens) and various science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees – new positions that are currently under consideration as the province develops a Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework. The province already has mapped the most at-risk old-growth forest types via their Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) and it’s vital that these conservation financing funds are linked to those deferral targets as priority, potential protected areas. Linking the conservation financing mechanism to the development of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF), (in particular should it develop ecosystem-based protection targets) is vital once the initiative is finalized.
  2. The province’s conservation funds (and/or other provincial funds currently under development) should also be used to immediately provide funding for First Nations to help offset lost logging revenues when being asked to accept logging deferrals in their unceded territories as identified by the government’s old-growth science panel, the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP). This “solutions-space” funding, as was used successfully in Clayoquot Sound, will be critical in helping ensure the deferral of the roughly 1.4 million hectares (more than half) of priority old-growth deferrals that remain outstanding from the original 2.6 million hectares.
  3. Ensuring that conservation financing supports only protected areas that meet the standards and permanency of true protected areas – meaning supporting designations that exclude commercial logging (while protecting First Nations cultural harvesting of individual trees, such as monumental cedars for dugout canoes and totem poles), mining, and oil and gas developments, and whose boundaries cannot be readily shifted. Provincial Conservancies and a few other provincial designations termed “Protected Areas” are designations that exclude commercial logging, mining, and oil and gas development, but that protect First Nations subsistence and cultural rights (hunting, fishing, gathering, cultural cedar harvest), co-management authority, and rights and title, and would have the standards and permanency of real protected areas. Conservation regulations such as Old-Growth Management Areas (which allow moveable boundaries to let companies log the biggest trees, to be replaced by “protecting” areas with smaller trees) and Wildlife Habitat Areas (which can still allow commercial logging, for example in Spotted Owl and Northern Goshawk ‘buffer’ areas) would not meet the threshold of real protected areas unless their loopholes are closed.

“We’re watching with great concern as the province might be looking to establish new ‘flexitarian’ designations – tenuous or fake ‘protected areas’ that still allow logging or boundary shifts to occur. These types of loopholes can easily result in the high-grade logging within such ‘protected areas’ of the very geographically limited monumental old-growth stands and the most endangered ecosystems, which can often constitute one or two percent or less of any major landscape area,” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director, Ken Wu, beside an old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director, Ken Wu, beside an old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

“The big campaign now will be for ecosystem-based protection targets — without them, we’ll see a massive number of hectares of new protected areas in alpine and subalpine areas with little to no timber value, and that skirt around saving the big timber that will still get logged. Without ecosystem-based targets, it’s like calling in fire trucks to hose down all the houses that are not burning, while the houses on fire get ignored. Ecosystem-based targets means you aim protected areas establishment right, to save the most endangered and least represented ecosystems”, stated Ken Wu, EEA executive director.

“Premier Eby has done something great today and we thank him. We still have to close several gaps and loopholes, related to linking conservation financing to ecosystem-based targets and the most at-risk old-growth, to ensure protected areas integrity moving forward, and to ensure deferral funding comes from various government sources. But make no mistake, this is a very good day,” stated TJ Watt, AFA campaigner.

Old-growth forests are vital to support unique and endangered species, climate stability, clean water, wild salmon, First Nations cultures, and BC’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry. They have unique characteristics that are not replicated by the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they are being replaced with and that are logged every 50 to 70 years on BC’s coast, never to become old-growth again. Well over 80% of the original, productive old-growth forests (medium to high productivity sites where most big trees and timber values reside) have already been logged, and over 5 million hectares of big tree, rare (by ecosystem type), and very ancient old-growth forests remain unprotected in BC.

Watch this small video series by the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance’s Ken Wu explaining conservation financing, BC’s old-growth policy progress and remaining loopholes, and ecosystem-based targets.

See the news article and the media release that launched the campaign in 2020 for conservation financing from the provincial and federal governments.

A mossy big leaf maple tree with licorice ferns growing along its trunk and branches.

Licorice Ferns

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The licorice fern is a dainty forest dweller primarily found growing on mossy rock faces and the trunks and mossy branches of old-growth trees, sometimes hundreds of feet above the ground in the forest canopy. Licorice ferns are especially abundant on the branches of old big-leaf maple trees as well. Great examples can be found in Mossy Maple Grove and Mossome Grove.

These ferns get their name from the flavour of their rhizomes, which when exposed and nibbled on have a stevia-like sweetness mixed with that taste of black licorice…and dirt. The rhizomes can also be boiled to make a licorice-flavoured tea. Next time you’re in a forest with a lot of moss and maples, keep your eyes peeled for these cute ferns.

Before COP15, Conservation Groups call on BC Government to Commit to Funding and Targets to Expand Protected Areas in BC

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For Immediate Release
November 30, 2022

BC has a chance to protect the most endangered ecosystems and promote community economic, social and cultural well-being linked to nature conservation – and also to finally end the War in the Woods over old-growth forests.

In the lead-up to the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal where 195 countries will meet next week to negotiate new international protected areas targets and policies, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) and the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) are calling on the BC government to commit to the federal protected areas targets to protect 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030 its land and marine areas, at a bare minimum, and to ensure a significant federal-provincial funding package (the “Nature Agreement” that is currently being negotiated) that directs funding for the right “places, parties, and purposes” needed to ensure an effective protected areas system in BC.

The federal government has committed $3.3 billion over 5 years to expand terrestrial ($2.3 billion) and marine ($1 billion) protected areas, along with several billion dollars more for “natural climate solutions” that often overlap with nature protection initiatives.

BC’s share of those funds are between $200 to $400 million, yet the province has neither embraced the federal funds nor committed its own funds – nor even embraced the federal protected areas targets yet.

For the protection of the most at-risk old-growth stands, the federal government has also earmarked $55 million in a BC old-growth fund (a campaign for this fund was spearheaded by the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs in 2020), contingent on BC providing matching funding for a total old-growth fund of $110 million – which again the BC government has not committed to.

For almost 2 years, the federal and BC governments have been in negotiations to develop a bi-lateral Nature Agreement on a funding package with protected areas targets for BC, yet still nothing has been announced just 1 week from the start of the UN Biodiversity Conference.

“Now is the time, in the lead-up to the UN Biodiversity Conference, for the BC government to commit to major federal funding and to provide its own funding on a sufficient scale. With significant funding and protected areas targets, including targets for all ecosystem types that ensures prioritization for the most underrepresented and at-risk ecosystems, such as the last of the ‘high-productivity’ old-growth stands with the biggest trees, we could see a historically unprecedented expansion of the protected areas system to safeguard the rarest and most endangered ecosystems in BC – and to end the half-century long ‘War in the Woods’. We’ve maintained for years that funding is the fundamental driver for protected areas expansion in BC, in particular to support First Nations sustainable economic development linked to new protected areas and for private land acquisition. Without this funding, major protected areas expansion in BC cannot happen at a scale and speed commensurate to the extinction and climate crises”, stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director.

“Thousand-year-old trees with trunks as wide as living rooms and as tall as downtown skyscrapers are still being cut on a daily basis in BC. The provincial government has reaped billions from the logging of these highly endangered and irreplaceable ecosystems and now, with the planet facing a climate and biodiversity crisis that threatens the survival of even our own species, it’s time for them to give back. This means matching the federal government’s major funding commitments towards expanding protected areas in BC, adding additional funds of their own, and ensuring those funds are directed towards protecting the highest value forests that remain, not just scrub, rock, and ice. Leaving high-value old-growth forests standing needs to be made as economically viable for communities, even in the short term, as cutting them down”, stated TJ Watt, Campaigner and Photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

AFA’s TJ Watt beside an old-growth redcedar stump near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

Across BC, most old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems are on the unceded territories of diverse First Nations, whose consent is a legal necessity to establish new legislated protected areas in the province. The British Columbian government is currently under pressure to help finance First Nations old-growth logging deferrals and protection, in particular to fund First Nations sustainable businesses and jobs linked to new protected areas, a process known as “conservation financing”. Across BC, numerous First Nations have an economic dependency on old-growth timber revenues that has been facilitated and fostered by successive provincial governments. Unfortunately, the provincial government has not committed the key funding to First Nations to help them develop economic alternatives to old-growth logging (in such industries as tourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, or non-timber forest products like wild mushrooms) as was done in years past to secure the protection for large sections of BC’s Central and North Coast (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest) and Haida Gwaii, and as is currently underway to protect most of Clayoquot Sound. Without the key funding, many or most cases First Nations will have no choice but to default back to the status quo of old-growth logging on large parts of their territories.

That is, major funding worth several hundred million dollars is needed to support sustainable economic alternatives (ie. business development) for First Nations communities linked to Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and old-growth logging deferrals. Compensation currently exists for First Nations forestry workers (ie. the labour side) via the province’s $185 million fund to support BC forestry workers affected by old-growth logging deferrals, while the province has also provided $12 million (an insufficient amount) to help First Nations undertake land-use planning, including assessing old-growth logging deferrals and the impacts to their communities. However, it is the “business side” of the equation – the largest part of funding needs, estimated to cost about $600 to $800 million for First Nations in order to supplant their old-growth logging interests (for example, to protect much of the Great Bear Rainforest, which is 6% of the land area in BC, $120 million in conservation financing was brought in from environmental groups and the provincial and federal governments, and tens of millions more in carbon offset funding) that will enable them to protect the most at-risk old-growth forests in BC – that is lacking from government at this time. Additional funds are also needed by First Nations to protect non-old-growth forest ecosystems as well – second-growth forests, grasslands, wetlands, etc.

At its core, to actually protect the most contested and endangered high-productivity old-growth forests sought after by the timber industry with the biggest trees and greatest biological richness, the conservation financing for First Nations businesses must be tied to supplanting old-growth logging interests specifically in the stands most coveted for logging. Simply providing capacity funding or labour support, or even economic development funding not linked to protecting the most valuable old-growth timber, is a recipe for the biggest and best old-growth stands to still fall, while new protected areas skirt around these monumental stands and instead protect smaller trees in the lower-productivity old-growth stands typically at higher elevations, in poor soils or in boggy landscapes, and that have fewer species at risk and which are far more represented in the existing protected areas system.

Unprotected old-growth forest at risk of future logging on Edinburgh Mountain near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

In addition, to protect endangered ecosystems and old-growth forests on private lands, provincial and federal government funding is needed to purchase these lands. In BC, only about 5% of the lands are privately owned, concentrated on southeastern Vancouver Island, in the Lower Mainland, and in major river valleys in BC.

If the BC government ends up providing major funding and adopting the federal protected areas targets with a new Nature Agreement deal, there are still ways the agreement can come up short. For such a deal to be most effective, the funding must be directed to the key “places, parties, and purposes”:

Places: Priority must be given to the most endangered ecosystems that are most at risk from industry – in particular logging, agricultural conversion and suburban sprawl – in the major valley bottoms and lower elevations in southern BC where most of the people and industry are, and by no coincidence where most species and ecosystem at risk are. The government will tend to protect vast areas of lower productivity “rock and ice” – alpine areas at high elevations and far northern forests with minimal timber value in order to maximize the hectares protected for PR purposes and that minimize the impacts to most industries, which also minimizes protection for the vast majority of species and ecosystems at risk. These alpine, subalpine, far northern, and bog ecosystems are native ecosystems that deserve protection, but a far greater emphasis must be on saving the most contested, endangered ecosystems right now given the current ecological crisis.

The government also has to stop its “creative accounting” on how much they claim is protected in BC. About 15% of BC is in legislated protected areas – however, in some of its PR claims, the province has sometimes been adding an extra 4%, largely in tenuous conservation regulations, known as Old-Growth Management Areas and Wildlife Habitat Areas, that lack the permanency (OGMA’s can be moved around in chunks and logged, for example) and/or the standards (oil and gas and some logging is allowed in some types of WHA’s) of real protected areas.

Parties: Priority should be given to First Nations sustainable economic development linked to new protected areas and conservation reserves. Legally mandated corporate compensation for logging, mining and oil and gas companies should be years down the road – First Nations must come first, being Nations, as they decide the fate of their unceded territories. Land acquisition funding for private lands is also important.

In addition, as most First Nations have not initiated new land use planning processes where protected areas are decided, it is vital that much of the funding be “open” and uncommitted at this time to help drive protection options during the land use planning processes over the next couple years.

Purposes: Funding for the development of sustainable businesses for interested First Nations that is linked to new protected areas is by far the largest amount of funding needed – smaller funds are needed for First Nations capacity around land-use planning and deferral assessments and for interim jobs and labour needs. Without this core business development funding, protected areas will be add-ons that will largely skirt around the status quo of old-growth logging in the core areas with the biggest trees. The excuse of government saying that “First Nations haven’t been telling us they want conservation financing” is both incorrect in many cases, and often disingenuous when they haven’t even raised the possibility of any major conservation financing to First Nations.

Increasing the economic dependency of communities on old-growth logging, whether First Nations or non-First Nations, is the wrong approach for these conservation funds, including tenure buy-backs if they lack legal conservation measures to protect the remaining old-growth and endangered ecosystems.

Provincial funds are also needed from other sources – but not from the conservation funds of a Nature Agreement – to support incentives for a value-added, second-growth forest industry and the expansion of a smart, second-growth engineered wood products industry in general across BC.

It should also be noted that forestry revenue-sharing agreements do not constitute “conservation financing” for First Nations, contrary to the recent PR-spin of the BC government – quite the oppositive, it entrenches the economic dependency of the communities on old-growth logging (which would be akin to sharing oil and gas revenues, and then expecting the communities to then stop oil and gas activities).

“We hope the new Premier David Eby takes this chance for a major protected areas funding agreement of a sufficient size and with ambitious targets, aimed at the most endangered ecosystems and that prioritizes support for First Nations. He can end the War in the Woods and ensure the protection of the amazing diversity of endangered ecosystems across BC – what a great start to his first 100 days that would be and a historic leap forward for the planet!” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director.

EEA Excutive Director, Ken Wu, beside an incredible unproteted old-growth redcedar at Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

More background info:

Old-growth forests are vital to support endangered species, First Nations cultures, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and tourism.

Protecting nature is not only vital to avert the extinction crisis and the climate crisis (by drawing down vast amounts of atmospheric carbon into protected forests, grasslands, and wetlands) but research shows that nature and protected areas are vital for our health and for the economy.

Increasing studies show that being in forests and nature supports our mental and physical health, reducing all sorts of ailments and boosting our immune systems. Recent research has even shown that many trees and plants emit a defensive compound called “phytoncides” which boost our immune systems when we breathe them in.

Studies also show that protected areas, including protecting old-growth forests, attract and foster more diverse, resilient, and prosperous economies, including supporting businesses and jobs in the tourism and recreation sectors; commercial and recreational fishing industry by sustaining clean water and fish habitat; real estate industry by enhancing property values in communities near protected green spaces; non-timber forest products industries like wild mushroom harvesting; high tech sector by attracting skilled labour that locates to areas with a greater environmental quality of life; and by providing numerous ecosystem services that benefit businesses.

The province appointed an independent science team, the Technical Advisory Panel, in 2021 who recommended that logging be deferred on 2.6 million hectares of land with the grandest (biggest trees), oldest and, rarest old-growth stands while First Nations land use plans are developed over a couple years to decide which areas are permanently protected in legislation. These recommended deferral areas have been put forward by the BC government for the consent of local First Nations to decide which areas get deferred. Currently about 1 million of the recommended 2.6 million hectares (ie. 40%) are under deferral, while some areas have been logged. Unfortunately, the provincial government has not committed any concrete funding to First Nations to offset their lost revenues should they accept old-growth logging deferrals in areas where they have logging interests, nor to help them develop economic alternatives to old-growth logging.

EEA Executive Director, Ken Wu, by an old-growth Douglas-fir in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in Hupacasath, Tseshaht, & Uclulet territory.

Moss

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Like a botanical Clark Kent, these unassuming plants are hiding superhero qualities. Not only does moss have the ability to absorb liquids up to 20 times their weight, but they also act as insulation for soil and tree roots – either keeping it cool or warming it up. They help to colonize areas affected by deforestation and wildfires, and in extreme temperatures, they can go dormant in order to survive. 

 

Mosses date back 450 million years, with up to 25,000 known species. They are found on every continent, even the frigid wastes of Antarctica! They are non-flowering plants, and instead of roots, they have rhizoids, which are like tiny hairs that fix the moss to surfaces such as soil, tree bark, or rock.

 

On the BC coast, Bigleaf Maples – like the ones found in Mossome Grove and Mossy Maple Grove – can harbour enormous amounts of moss on their branches due to their calcium-rich bark, which is one of five minerals needed for moss to grow. This relationship is symbiotic, as the maples deploy aerial roots to access nutrients in the soils that develop under these moss mats.

 

Another important function of moss is as a Marbled Murrelet’s nest. Marbled Murrelets are a species of seabird found in coastal BC. They don’t build conventional nests, rather, they find a wide branch with thick moss high in an old-growth forest to lay their egg. Because only giant old-growth trees have branches large enough to support the huge cushions of moss that murrelets require for nesting, murrelets are dependent on the vanishing old-growth forests for their survival.

 

Next time you’re walking in an old-growth forest, remember that you’re walking among superheroes.

 

Thank you to our recent business supporters!

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A big shout out to the following groups supporting the AFA’s ancient forest campaign:

For their August fundraiser, M!LA Plant Based in Vancouver is donating $1 from each sale of two menu features: the Stand By Me cocktail and Spring Pea Tart

Anthex and collaborators organized a digital music fundraiser inspired by the majestic Avatar Grove while bringing awareness to BC’s endangered ancient forests: https://avatargrovealbum.com

MAiiZ Nixtamal is donating 16% from tortilla sales throughout August as part of their community fundraising efforts.

Cove Continuity Advisors for supporting the AFA as part of their 1% for the Planet commitment.

And, Cork it Wine Making for donating $5 from every wine kit sold during a recent promotion.

Thank you again to each of you! We appreciate your generosity