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Toronto Star: The best place to go forest bathing? The ancient groves of Vancouver Island offer a meditative journey back in time

Mar 21 2025/in News Coverage

March 20, 2025
By Wing Sze Tang
Toronto Star

This is no ordinary walk in the park. British Columbia is home to some of the most enormous trees on the planet.

Tucked in an inlet on southern Vancouver Island, in the unceded territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation, there’s a little community with a lofty reputation: Port Renfrew (population: shy of 300), the so-called tall trees capital of Canada.

But “tall” undersells the scale.

Some of the most enormous trees on the planet — Sitka spruces, Douglas firs, Western red cedars — flourish in the lush temperate rainforests of B.C., nurtured by the downpours and year-round growing season.

Some of them rival skyscraper heights. The most ancient are 1,000 years old or so. The trees in and around this town thrive in thickets like Avatar Grove (temporarily closed) and Eden Grove, their evocative descriptions nodding to cinematic beauty, an unspoiled paradise.

Some of the trees are famous enough to warrant their own names, like Big Lonely Doug, Canada’s second-largest Douglas fir, measuring 216 feet tall. Spared by a logger, he stands as a solitary survivor in a stump-filled clear-cut near Port Renfrew. Now a poignant symbol of what we lose when old-growth forests are destroyed, Big Lonely Doug has become an ecotourist attraction, too.

Historically, Port Renfrew was a logging town. Its reinvention as a travel destination — with a sort of undiscovered-Tofino-ish vibe — is relatively new. It remains a small stop on the Pacific Marine Circle Route, with still-spotty Wi-Fi and just a smattering of restaurants and hotels, including the plush seaside cottages at Wild Renfrew. There’s not much to do, besides breathe the salty air and take in the scenery, but that’s enough.

Visitors come to try their hand at sport fishing, roam nearby Botanical Beach, hike the challenging backcountry (there’s access to the West Coast Trail and Juan de Fuca Marine Trail) and, of course, commune with the colossal trees.

Credit for the rise of tall-tree tourism here goes to the Ancient Forest Alliance, a charitable organization that advocates for protecting B.C.’s endangered old-growth forests. According to the organization, the province’s southern coast was home to 3.3 million hectares of productive old-growth forests, in the time before settlers arrived. Today, only 860,000 hectares are left, and the majority of this remains unprotected from potential logging.

If big trees become a major tourist draw, the thinking goes, there would be more motivation (and political pressure) to save B.C.’s few remaining old-growth forests.

In 2009, while scouting around Port Renfrew, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder and conservation photographer TJ Watt discovered a magnificent 50-hectare stand of enormous Douglas firs and red cedars. The relatively easy-to-reach wilderness area — it’s right off a road — would become Avatar Grove, home to “Canada’s gnarliest tree,” a strangely shaped red cedar distinguished by a 12-foot-wide burl.

The beloved Avatar Grove has been closed by provincial authorities since 2022, as it awaits necessary trail safety and environmental upgrades. There’s no reopening date yet. In the meantime, travellers can find a guide to other big trees in and around Port Renfrew on ancientforestalliance.org.

There’s the Red Creek Fir, the largest-known Douglas fir on Earth, in the San Juan Valley. Near it is the San Juan Spruce, one of the country’s biggest Sitka spruce trees. About a three-hour road trip from Port Renfrew, there’s also Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park, one of the most accessible stands of old-growth Douglas firs on Vancouver Island.

What the facts and figures and record-book brags can’t quite convey is the profound awe of being here, walking among giants that have survived a millennium and will outlast us, if we care to protect them. There’s a sense of the sublime you won’t know — until you come and feel for yourself.

On International Day of Forests, Conservationists Call for Modernization of BC Forestry Amid Tariff Threats

Mar 20 2025/in Media Release

Conservationists call for the protection of old-growth forests and incentives and regulations to ensure a modernized, value-added, second-growth forest industry.

Victoria, BC – Ahead of International Day of Forests on March 21, the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) are calling on the BC government to protect old-growth forests and to modernize the province’s forest industry in response to growing challenges, including the threat of escalating U.S. tariffs. The groups are advocating for a transition to a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry, the protection of old-growth forests by working with First Nations and the development of incentives for a conservation-based economy. This would help build a diversified, resilient economy in BC while undertaking the vital and overdue protection of endangered ecosystems.

“The BC government can go in two basic directions in response to the current tariff threats from the U.S.: take the easy but foolish route by falling back on the destructive status quo of old-growth logging and raw log exports, or instead take the opportunity to invest in a modernized, sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry that is the future of forestry in BC, while protecting the last old-growth forests,” said Ken Wu, Executive Director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance. “The province can be unwise and myopic, or smart and forward-looking. I sense that Premier Eby personally tends towards the latter approach, but we need to hold him to it and to help facilitate this transition.”

An immense redcedar measuring roughly 9 ft (3 m) wide recently felled in a BC Timber Sales cutblock in the Nahmint Valley.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner & photographer TJ Watt stands beside the fallen remains of an ancient western redcedar approximately 9 feet (3 meters) wide cut down by BC Timber Sales in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni in Hupačasath, Tseshaht, and Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ First Nation territory.

To help BC’s forestry sector remain competitive and sustainable, AFA and EEA are calling for policies that encourage a modernized, value-added, second-growth forest industry and the incremental elimination of raw log exports. This should include financial incentives for new industry investments in value-added and engineered wood products made from second-growth wood. These incentives can include rebates derived from the log export “fees in lieu” and PST and property tax relief, as well as government support for R&D and domestic and international market development for sustainable wood products. Undertaking log export restrictions and facilitating eco-forestry practices, such as longer harvest rotations and selective commercial thinning, as well as tenure reform and the establishment of regional log sorts, could further help to scale up the transition.

The call for modernization comes as the BC government commits to nearly $1.23 million to three forestry enterprises in Revelstoke through its BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund to help retrofit operations to process smaller-profile logs, increase value-added production, and reduce reliance on old-growth logging.

Alongside these measures, the groups emphasize the need for a BC Conservation Economy Strategy to support sustainable economic opportunities in regions where the large-scale expansion of the protected areas system is taking place. The province should establish government-supported business development hubs that provide financial incentives, in-kind business development support, and workforce assistance to build a diversified economy in the communities surrounding new protected areas.

“The protection of old-growth forests and the implementation of a Conservation Economy Strategy in BC can result in diverse economic opportunities, including in tourism and recreation, real estate, enhanced commercial and recreation fishing due to habitat protection, carbon offset projects, and non-timber forest products,” said TJ Watt, Campaign Director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “Coupling this with a transition towards a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest sector, it can help BC future-proof its economy.”

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance’s Executive Director Ken Wu stands beside a giant old-growth cedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance’s Executive Director Ken Wu beside a giant old-growth cedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory on Vancouver Island, BC.

To safeguard old-growth forests in BC, the government must develop an overarching provincial Protected Areas Strategy (PAS). This would entail proactively approaching and working with First Nations to protect candidate protected areas identified by the province, First Nations, and conservation groups in priority ecosystems as defined via Ecosystem-Based Targets. Ecosystem-Based Targets based on science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge should be used to identify the most endangered and least protected ecosystems, including the last big-tree old-growth forests.

Meanwhile, logging deferrals of the most at-risk old-growth forests identified by the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) have stalled. To date, only about half of the priority at-risk old-growth stands, approximately 1.23 million hectares of 2.6 million, have been deferred from logging, alongside another 1.21 million hectares of more marginal stands.

To help secure the remaining 1.37 million hectares of priority old-growth deferrals, AFA and EEA are renewing their call for immediate “solutions space” funding for First Nations to defer logging in old-growth forests where timber revenues are a key source of income for the First Nations. A portion of the BC Nature Agreement funds are a potential source, which could be directed toward new deferrals and extensions of existing ones.

Beyond immediate deferrals, the BC government must implement the overdue Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework, a policy framework to support the paradigm shift the government committed to that would place ecological integrity at the forefront of land and resource management. The framework should mandate legally binding, Ecosystem-Based Targets that include forest productivity distinctions to ensure that the most at-risk, least represented ecosystems are protected.

For these measures to be effective, Ecosystem-Based Targets must guide the establishment of large, legislated protected areas like Provincial Conservancies, not just conservation reserves like Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMAs) and Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHAs) which also require the closure of logging loopholes in their regulations. Currently, the boundaries of OGMAs can be altered under timber industry pressure, while logging is allowed in various types of WHAs that are supposed to protect old-growth dependent species. Strengthening protections within these reserves is essential to the permanent protection of the remaining old-growth forests in BC.

“We acknowledge the genuine historic progress in undertaking policies to expand the protected areas system and to pave the way to protect old-growth forests that have been committed to by the BC government in recent years. However, this International Day of Forests, we call on the government to urgently fill the remaining policy gaps to protect endangered old-growth forests and modernize the forestry industry, not only as an environmental imperative but to bolster sustainable jobs and businesses across BC amid rising challenges,” said TJ Watt, Campaign Director of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

A sprawling mountainside clearcut totalling nearly 40 hectares of old-growth and mature forest in the Klanawa Valley in Huu-ay-aht and Ditidaht territory on Vancouver Island, BC.

Raw log exports leaving Port Alberni, BC.

Thank you to these incredible businesses for their support!

Mar 11 2025/in Thank You

Our business donors are a critical part of the engine driving our old-growth campaign forward. We extend our sincerest thanks to the following for standing with us in our mission!

Kootenay Wildcrafting Company, who, in addition to being our newest monthly business donor, is donating 10% of their profits to the old-growth campaign.
Nathan Hutchinson, who has donated profits to AFA from his book, Evergreen.
Chris Sterry, who donates half the proceeds from his art to AFA and other charities.
The Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Island Section and Bluewater Adventures for their generous donations, and Wild Coast Perfumery for their ongoing support of our work.

Your dedication to the cause and creative ways of contributing are invaluable to the work we do and we appreciate your generosity greatly!

If you work at or own a business that is passionate about protecting the imperiled ancient forests of BC and would like to become a one-time or monthly donor, email info@ancientforestalliance.org to learn more.

2025 Activity Report & Financials

Apr 30 2026

2025 was a milestone year for the Ancient Forest Alliance and the old-growth campaign. Despite the BC government's backsliding on many of its old-growth commitments, there was still much work to be proud of, including celebrating our 15th year working to protect ancient forests. Check out our 2025 Activity Report & Financials to see the impact YOU made on 2025, plus, find out what we have in store for 2026!

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