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Old-growth logging in 2017 - Edinburgh Mt

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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https://youtu.be/XIs0W0IQsos

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

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

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

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

Please SHARE far and wide!

View the original video here.