https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Keith-River-Old-Growth-BC-333.jpg
1365
2048
TJ Watt
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png
TJ Watt2026-03-03 09:07:112026-03-04 14:36:34NOW HIRING: Forest CampaignerRelated Posts
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Keith-River-Old-Growth-BC-333.jpg
1365
2048
TJ Watt
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png
TJ Watt2026-03-03 09:07:112026-03-04 14:36:34NOW HIRING: Forest Campaigner
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/2026-02-AFA-16-Birthday.jpg
1080
1920
TJ Watt
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png
TJ Watt2026-02-26 11:49:362026-02-26 11:49:36It’s AFA’s 16th Birthday!
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Caycuse-Logging-Split-View.jpg
1365
2048
TJ Watt
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png
TJ Watt2026-02-20 16:43:192026-02-20 16:45:09Budget 2026 Shortchanges Nature Protection and Sustainable Forestry Transition At a Critical Time for British Columbia
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Zeinab-Horizontal-Web.jpg
1000
1500
TJ Watt
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png
TJ Watt2026-02-20 11:35:152026-02-20 13:08:24Welcome, Zeinab, our new Vancouver Canvass Director!Take Action
Donate
Support the Ancient Forest Alliance with a one-time or monthly donation.
Send a Message
Send an instant message to key provincial decision-makers.
Photos: Fairy Creek From Above
/in Photo GalleryThe emerald-green ancient forests of the Fairy Creek Valley in Pacheedaht territory from above. Last week we took to the skies to document old-growth forests and logging across the west coast of Vancouver Island and, when you’re in the air, it’s clear just how incredibly rare a sight this is – a roadless valley free from clearcuts. But how long will it remain that way?
Independent blockaders have prevented further road construction into the valley headwaters for 10 months now, sparking what has become the longest running blockade movement in BC’s history with thousands of people involved. However, RCMP recently breached their Waterfall Camp and road equipment from Teal-Jones is once again headed towards Fairy Creek.
Premier John Horgan and the BC NDP government must intervene and enact immediate logging deferrals so that conservation solutions can be found. They must also adopt the Canadian government’s national protected area target of 30% of land and waters by 2030 and embrace federal funding to protect places like Fairy Creek and endangered old-growth forests across BC.
Send a Message today!!
https://www.endangeredecosystemsalliance.org/news/bc-protected-areas
First Nations and forest-dependent communities need funding for Indigenous Protected Areas and sustainable economic diversification in order to supplant the revenues from logging these irreplaceable ecosystems.
Professor finds more threatened owls and birds in Fairy Creek region, province sending biologists
/in News CoverageChek News
June 3, 2021
The provincial ministry in charge of forests is sending biologists to the Fairy Creek region following reported recent sightings of Western Screech-Owls, which are protected under the federal Species at Risk Act.
David Muter, Assistant Deputy Minister for the Resource Stewardship Division of the Forests and Lands Ministry, confirmed with CHEK News that a team of biologists is headed to where the sightings happened in Caycuse/Fairy Creek area.
“We’re going to be having our team out there on the ground trying to develop a plan on that specific site to make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect these owls,” said Muter.
The University of British Columbia’s Dr. Royann Petrell, who was the first to document threatened Western Screech Owls in the Caycuse/Fairy Creek area, has just returned from another trip to the region and says she saw one fly overhead while at the Fairy Lake Recreation Site.
“[It is] very significant because I don’t think anyone’s ever observed a screech owl in that area of Fairy Creek, at least officially,” she said.
Petrell, who has previously reported 10 owls in six different locations within the region, says during her latest trip she’s also documented a band-tailed pigeon and an Olive-sided Flycatcher — birds that are on the federal government’s list of special concern.
“I hope this time the government listens and halts the logging of the old-growth and all around for kilometres around where we saw the sightings,” said Petrell.
Petrell has sighted the owls on either side of the Fairy Creek watershed but none within it.
It comes a day after B.C. Premier John Horgan announced a plan to modernize regulations in the forest industry, which has since drawn criticism from the Ancient Forest Alliance.
“John Horgan barely mentioned old growth in his presentation and true modernization of BC’s forestry practices can only come when we address the ecological crisis that we’re in. It needs to be rooted in the survival of B.C.’s endangered old-growth forests,” said TJ Watt of Ancient Forest Alliance.
The head of the British Columbia Council of Forest Industries says it’s looking forward to helping shape the plan with the government and it wants to move the old-growth discussion.
“People are looking to products that are made from forest fibre that are sustainably managed as part of the climate solution and I think it’s not an either-or conversation,” said Susan Yurkovich, the council’s chief executive officer and president. “We can have environmental conservation. We can have old-growth forests and we can have economic contribution and I hope we can move the conversation to that space.”
Petrell says she’s hoping the federal government, which has jurisdiction over migratory birds will get involved in halting old-growth logging in the region because she doesn’t believe the province will.
Read the original article
Additional logging deferrals expected this summer, says forestry minister
/in News CoverageCBC British Columbia
June 2, 2021
Critics want to see action now
Forestry Minister Katrine Conroy says she expects new logging deferrals to be announced this summer, following Tuesday’s announcement of a new forestry plan.
The province’s plan is intended to modernize the industry, focusing on sustainability and redistribution of forest tenures.
Deferrals temporarily protect old growth, putting harvesting on hold in old forest ecosystems at the highest risk of permanent biodiversity loss. They can expire, and can be extended.
The province says there are 57 million hectares of forested land in B.C., and there are currently 13.7 million hectares of old growth in British Columbia, 10 million of which are protected or considered not economical to harvest.
Conroy said there is a policy in the new plan’s intentions paper that is a commitment to continue to defer logging old-growth forests.
“We are continuing to engage with Indigenous leaders, we’re working with labour, with industry and environmental groups to look at where there is to identify the potential for additional deferral areas,” she told All Points West host Kathryn Marlow.
“I expect we’ll be able to announce additional deferrals this summer.”
Critics of the plan have expressed concern that deferrals were not being made soon enough — that old-growth is being logged right now, and said these actions need to be taken immediately.
“The reality is this crisis is precipitated by the government making promises to save the most at-risk old growth and then not doing anything,” Wilderness Committee campaign director Torrance Coste said in an interview on Tuesday.
“We were expecting some acknowledgement of that and maybe a faster timeline or some immediate on-the-ground measures, some things that would actually make it different out in the forest tomorrow.”
Consulting with First Nations
Dallas Smith, president of the Nanwakolas Council in Campbell River, said First Nations have been concerned about logging old-growth trees for two decades, but recent protests in the Fairy Creek area have created more awareness.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s got to the point that it’s gotten to,” he said.
Smith hopes there will be more engagement between the provincial government and First Nations communities about the process of getting deferrals.
“We would love a chance to sit down with government, with the Ministry of Forests and have that discussion about all the tenures that exist within our territories, including B.C. timber sales, and just have a talk about how we fit within those licences that go there and start making some of that transition,” he said.
“There’s no new tenures out there so we have to find a way of redistributing existing tenures while keeping the continuity of the economy going.”
He wants to find the balance between conservation and First Nations being able to benefit from forestry on their lands.
Conroy said those conversations will happen.
“From my perspective, that’s a key part of it, she said, adding that the new plans include ensuring that Indigenous nations are involved when it comes to land management.
Read the original article