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A rare photo of a cougar captured in the endangered Walbran Valley through the front window of AFA photographer TJ Watt's car.

Rare cougar sighting – Mother and juvenile filmed and photographed in the Walbran Valley’s endangered old-growth forest

Aug 4 2016/in Media Release

For Immediate Release

August 4, 2016

Rare cougar sighting – Mother and juvenile filmed and photographed in the Walbran Valley’s endangered old-growth forest

At a rare encounter earlier this week, Ancient Forest Alliance photographer TJ Watt filmed and photographed two cougars, a mother and a juvenile, in the endangered old-growth forest of the Walbran Valley on southwestern Vancouver Island. Activists continue to push for the valley’s full protection.

See the photograph of the large cougar here: https://ancientforestalliance.org/pic.php?pID=122

See the video of the juvenile cougar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7QbQHE6Nv0

See spectacular photos of the Walbran at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=7 and www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.943847985709789.1073741894.823970554364200&type=3

Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island – This past weekend in the Walbran Valley’s endangered old-growth forest, conservation photographer TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance captured a photograph and video of a rare cougar encounter – two cougars in fact, a large and smaller one, likely a mother with her juvenile offspring. In the brief encounter, the large adult cougar casually bounded across the road, pausing in one instant long enough for Watt to get a somewhat blurry photo through his front window, while the juvenile meandered for about 20 seconds along the road, allowing Watt to capture several seconds of shaky video. Watt had been returning in his van with a group of volunteers after giving a workshop at the Walbran Valley Convergence, a celebration organized by the Friends of Carmanah-Walbran of the 1991 environmental protests in the valley. He was driving through a section of old-growth forest near a steep canyon in the endangered “Special Management Zone”, an area that is still being logged by licensee Teal-Jones.

“I’ve always dreamed of seeing a cougar, let alone photograph and film one! I’ve spent over a decade exploring the old-growth forests of Vancouver Island several times a week, and I grew up here – but I never saw a cougar until this past weekend. It was a very brief encounter, which explains the shaky photo and video – but certainly breathtaking and magnificent all the same! To see these elusive large carnivores is rare – few people, including those who spend a lifetime working in or exploring the woods on Vancouver Island, get to see them, let alone photograph or film them! I feel lucky, but the sighting underscores the great need for the BC government to protect the remaining old-growth forests of the Walbran Valley – and across the province – before it is turned into a sea of stumps,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer.

Research of cougars on Vancouver Island show they tend to avoid clearcuts, while old-growth forests provide cover for them and wintering habitat for their main prey, black-tailed deer. Estimates for cougars on Vancouver Island have ranged from roughly 300 to 800 individuals. The Walbran and adjacent Carmanah Valley’s old-growth forests are also home to wolves, black bears, Roosevelt elk, and spawning coho, chum and steelhead in the river, as well as species at risk that are associated with old-growth forests, like the marbled murrelet, northern goshawk, Vaux’s swift, long-eared bats, and hundreds of new species of arthropods (insects, spiders, mites) found in the mossy old-growth canopy.

“The old-growth forests in the endangered Central Walbran Valley are the grandest in the country, akin to being the ‘Redwoods of Canada’! Not only are they home to gargantuan red cedars, Sitka spruce, and Douglas-fir trees 500 to a thousand years old, they sustain charismatic large carnivores, herbivores, and many old-growth dependent species. Industrial encroachment into Vancouver Island’s last old-growth forests like the Walbran Valley is jeopardizing the wildlife,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “It’s time the BC Liberal government update the 22 year old Vancouver Island Land Use Plan to protect the remaining old-growth forests, and to ensure a sustainable second-growth forest industry instead.”

More Background Info:

40% of the Walbran, the Lower Valley, was protected in 1994 in the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park, while the other 60% in the Central and Upper Valley was left outside of the park and is the centre of much environmental concern and controversy about the old-growth logging taking place there. The total Walbran watershed is 13,000 hectares, while the protected Lower Walbran Valley is about 5500 hectares, the Central Valley is 500 hectares and the Upper Valley is 7000 hectares. 2600 hectares including the Central Valley and part of the Upper Valley is a “Special Management Zone” – which still allows for major old-growth logging and fragmentation through smaller but more numerous clearcuts. The cougar was spotted in the Special Management Zone, an area which has seen environmental protests and blockades over the past year. The most intact portion of the Special Management Zone is the 500 hectare Central Walbran, which includes the largest tracts of contiguous old-growth forests and many of the largest trees and groves, including the Castle Grove, Castle Giant, Tolkien Giant, and Karst Giant.

Logging licensee Teal-Jones has 8 cutblocks planned for the Central Walbran Valley, of which one, Cutblock 4424, has been granted a cutting permit by the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations. The company has stated that they are not pursuing logging plans in the Central Walbran Valley for now, a positive step forward at this time. The company has been logging in other parts of the Special Management Zone, an activity condemned by the conservationists. The Walbran Valley is in the unceded territory of the Pacheedaht band in Tree Farm Licences 44 and 46 on Crown lands.

Over the past few months, resolutions for the protection of the Walbran Valley and/or the old-growth forests of Vancouver Island have been passed or supported by major business associations and local governments, including the BC Chamber of Commerce, representing 36,000 BC businesses; local Chambers of Commerce in Port Renfrew, Sooke, and the WestShore (Langford, Colwood, Metchosin, Highlands, View Royal); the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC), representing 53 municipal, town, and regional district councils; the district councils of Victoria, Metchosin, and Tofino; and by Federation of BC Naturalists (BC Nature), representing 53 naturalist clubs with over 6000 members. See a media release: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1010 and an article: www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-chamber-of-commerce-hugs-old-growth-trees-1.2267701

Port Renfrew, formerly a logging town, has been transformed in recent years into a big tree tourism destination as hundreds of thousands of tourists have come from around the world to visit some of Canada’s largest trees in the nearby Avatar Grove, the Red Creek Fir (the world’s largest Douglas-fir tree), Big Lonely Doug (Canada’s 2nd largest Douglas-fir tree), San Juan Spruce (until recently Canada’s largest Sitka spruce tree – its top broke off in a recent storm unfortunately), the Harris Creek spruce (one of the largest Sitka spruce trees in Canada), and the Central Walbran Valley.

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, and today 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 Vancouver Island's productive forest lands, including 90% of southern Vancouver Island, and can be sustainably logged to support the forest industry. See maps and stats at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php

Rare sighting of mother cougar and juvenile on Vancouver Island as activists push for forest conservation

Aug 4 2016/in News Coverage

Conservation photographer TJ Watt had mere seconds to take a photo of a mother cougar before it disappeared into the forest last weekend in Vancouver Island’s Walbran Valley.

He says the encounter reminded him how important it was to conserve the region’s old-growth forest.

Watt had just returned to his car when a large couger bounded out onto the road in front of him and paused before crossed onto the other side, into the forest. A smaller, juvenile cougar followed and Watt managed to capture a video of it.

“I’ve always dreamed of seeing a cougar,” said Watt, who explores the old growth forest in the area several times a week.

This was his first time encountering a cougar, he said in a written release from the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“The sighting underscores the great need for the B.C. govenrment to protect the remaining old-growth forests of the Walbran Valley and of cross the province, before it is turned into a sea of stumps.”

Walbran Valley is located in the southwest part of Vancouver Island and is home to some of the oldest and largest trees in Canada. About 40 per cent of the valley is protected from logging while the rest is still subject to old-growth logging.

[Original Metro News article no longer available]

What Do You Get When Forestry Workers, First Nations, Environmentalists and a Politician Meet Up At A 7-Eleven In Port Alberni?

Aug 3 2016/in News Coverage

Here's a new article by Alicia LaRue about the recent sustainable forestry rally, organized by the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC) union, supported by the Ancient Forest Alliance, WCWC, and Unifor, calling for the protection of old-growth forests, an end to raw log exports, and regulations and incentives for a value-added, sustainable second-growth forest industry.

*****

A rally of people dumbfounded at the management of B.C.’s forestry industry…while the corporations are logging all the way to the bank!

As a recent resident to Port Alberni one thing that I can say is that the forestry industry is huge part of the fabric of the city…from the good old days of MacMillan Bloedel to a waterfront inlet almost completely dedicated to the forest industry. Most of the buildings you see while walking through the South Port and upper Third Avenue area offer a sense of the historical roots of Port Alberni. Buildings that were built on the backs of past generations brought to this community for the wood industry are now sitting dormant, swallowed by time with rust, graffiti, neglect and one can't help but wonder what the future is for this little town.

When receiving a Facebook invite to a local protest of raw log exports from Ken Wu (founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance), I was hesitant to accept the offer. I had no idea what to expect, plus I wondered if attending the protest would cause some to shun me in our small community built on logging.

I arrived expecting a lot of hippies (not that there is anything wrong with hippies), but was shocked to see dozens of middle aged white men!! (Not that there is anything wrong with middle aged white men). This is a segment of the population I would not expect to be protesting… and on top of it, protesting the logging industry. Most of the protesters (around 100) have been affected first-hand by the mismanagement of our natural resources. These protesters have lived through the evolution of crappy political decisions, big corporate greed, and dwindling local jobs. The second-growth trees are being shipped off to Asian markets faster than we can even breathe the air that they produce. With all these factors, these protesters were pissed!! And rightly so…

Marching down Johnson Street to Victoria Quay, cars driving by honked their horns with excitement and support. The issue of raw logs affects everyone in the area in some way or another. I think we can all agree that we (as Island folks) are all in some way passionate about our beautiful trees and the future of them. One man who worked in the industry mentioned to me that “If we cannot profit in some way off the trees, I would rather them stay in the ground then see them being shipped off!” We were all on ground zero. Marching past the Arlington Hotel (now the Blue Marlin Inn), it was like ghosts from the past Port Alberni marched with us in support.

The speakers, Arnold Bercov, President of Public and Private Workers of Canada, and Alberni-Pacific Rim MLA Scott Fraser, both spoke of the obvious profit of big corporations while rural areas suffer. Also, those Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance) and Torrance Coste (Wilderness Committee) spoke of respect and unity with the logging industry. Of course, Ken and Torrance are inspirational, level-headed leaders who are passionate and speak on behalf of what many people are experiencing. They are anything but crazy or radical. The First Nation speaker Brad Young (Executive Director of the National Aboriginal Forestry Association) mentioned how the tides have turned. First Nations in the past were bombarded with a system imposed to take advantage of them. Currently, that system is turning and taking advantage of all people. Young mentioned that First Nations know how it feels and are excited about taking back what is ours to manage it the “right way”.

Something that I personally gathered from this protest is that we all want a better future: one of community, jobs and sustainability for future generations. Our natural resource industry is what makes us Canadian. Our resources are valuable and to see them being profited by a select few is completely unacceptable!! This is a key issue in the upcoming provincial election. We need to all make it a high priority to give the power back to the people and not just business, industry and corporations. I hope protests like this will keep happening in Port Alberni and will grow in the future. Let the voices be heard from those who have been through the highs and lows of poor forestry management to take back our beautiful home. Please, get involved however you can!! Write to your local government. Lets take our Canada back!!

Here are some more key facts around raw log exports (curtsy Ken Wu, AFA)

– About 6 to 7 million cubic metres a year are exported from B.C.'s coastal forests, which is about 60% of the coastal second-growth that is cut.

– This is worth thousands of potential milling jobs that are lost when those logs are exported to China, Korea, Japan, and the USA

– If we are to create a sustainable forest industry we need to save the last old-growth forests (of which about 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including more than 90% of the valley bottoms) and manufacture the second-growth logs that are harvested here to increase the employment-to-harvest ratio. Instead, we are going the other way, exporting more raw logs and having fewer jobs.

– The main reason for the decline of coastal forestry employment over the past 20 years is because they have logged the biggest, best old-growth trees in the valley bottoms and at the lower elevations, resulting in diminishing returns as the remaining old-growth trees get smaller, more expensive to reach, and with lower returns. As the second-growth forests have matured, the B.C. government has deregulated much of the industry and provided no incentives or regulations to facilitate a value-added second-growth forest industry.

– The reason that there is a surplus of logs which can be exported, compared to the milling capacity on the coast is because the B.C. government allowed vast numbers of old-growth mills to shut down by removing the local milling requirement in 2003. The old-growth forests have been depleted instead of mandating that those mills retool to handle second-growth logs as the second-growth forests mature.

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