Blog Archive Layout

Comment: A new path for B.C.’s last great ancient stands

May 18 2013/in News Coverage

New maps of the remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and the southwest mainland highlight the large-scale ecological crisis underway in B.C.’s woods.

In the 1990s, conservationists fought for whole valleys. Those are now gone, except in Clayoquot Sound. Today, almost all of our ancient forests are tattered and fragmented.

At least 74 per cent of the original, productive old-growth forests on our southern coast have been logged, underscoring the need for a science-based provincial plan to protect our remaining old-growth forests and for a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry.

Most significantly, at least 91 per cent of the biggest, best “high productivity” old-growth forests in the valley bottoms have been logged. These are the classic monumental stands rich in biodiversity that most people visit and picture in their minds, places like Cathedral Grove, the Carmanah, Walbran, Goldstream and Avatar Grove.

A century of unsustainable high-grade logging has depleted these lowland ancient forests, resulting in diminishing returns as the trees get smaller, lesser in value and more expensive to reach.

The ecological footprint from logging millions of hectares of B.C.’s grandest ancient forests — an area bigger than many European nations — is at least on par with any pipeline or fossil-fuel megaproject.

Scientific studies show that our coastal old-growth forests store two times or more carbon per hectare than the ensuing second-growth tree plantations. Only a tiny fraction of the carbon gets stored in long-lasting wood products. The vast majority ends up decomposing as wood waste in clearcuts, landfills and sewage. It would take 200 years or more for the second-growth to re-sequester all of the released carbon, which won’t happen with our 70-year rotations.

A recent B.C. Sierra Club report showed that just one year’s worth of old-growth logging in southwest B.C. in 2011 released more carbon than the province’s entire “official” greenhouse-gas reductions over three years, from 2007 to 2010.

The dramatic decline of old-growth species reveals our collapsing ecosystems. An estimated 1,000 breeding adult spotted owls once inhabited B.C.’s wilds. Today, fewer than a dozen individuals survive. Marbled murrelets have declined substantially over much of the coast, while in B.C.’s interior, mountain caribou have declined by 40 per cent since 1995.

Across B.C., thousands of salmon- and trout-bearing streams have been decimated by siltation and logging debris.

B.C.’s diverse First Nations cultures are being impoverished, not only by the destruction of salmon streams, but by the disappearance of monumental cedars that many once carved into canoes and totem poles.

The massive export of raw logs has been driven by a combination of the government’s deregulation agenda and by the unsustainable depletion of the prime old-growth red cedar, Douglas fir and Sitka spruce stands in the lowlands that coastal sawmills were originally built to process.

At a critical juncture in 2003, the B.C. government removed the local milling requirement for companies with logging rights so that they didn’t have to retool their mills to process the changing forest profile — the smaller old-growth hemlocks and Amabilis firs higher up, and the maturing second-growth trees in the previously cut lowlands.

Without any government regulations or incentives to retool or add value to second-growth logs, this resulted in three million logging-truck loads of raw logs going to foreign mills in China, the U.S. and elsewhere over the last decade. More than 70 B.C. mills closed and 30,000 forestry jobs were lost. B.C.’s coastal forest industry, once Canada’s mightiest, is now a remnant of its past.

Most of our remaining old-growth forests are “low-productivity” marginal stands of smaller trees with little to no timber value, growing at high elevations, on steep, rocky mountainsides and in bogs. The B.C. government has been spinning a tale that “old-growth forests are not disappearing” with their statistics that fail to mention how much productive old-growth forests once stood, and that include vast tracts of stunted, low-productivity forests to overinflate how much remains. It’s like combining your Monopoly money with your real money and then claiming to be a millionaire, so why curtail spending?

The history of unsustainable resource extraction around the world is filled with examples where the biggest and best stocks have been depleted, one after another, causing the collapse of ecosystems and the loss of thousands of jobs along the way. B.C.’s politicians must not allow this familiar pattern to continue in B.C.’s forests under their watch — or through their active support.

A major change in the status quo of unsustainable forestry is vital. Politicians who fail to understand this fundamental concept don’t deserve power. Those who do will finally bring an end to B.C.’s War in the Woods.

Ken Wu is the executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

A map of the remaining productive old-growth forests left on Vancouver Island and the SW Mainland as of 2012.

Maps show impact of overcutting old-growth forests, conservation groups say

May 14 2013/in News Coverage

New maps of B.C.’s forests put together by conservation groups using provincial government data show 74 per cent of productive old-growth forests has been logged and much of the remaining old growth is made up of small, stunted trees.

On the valley bottoms, where the largest old-growth trees grow, 91 per cent has been logged, leaving only nine per cent of the classic old forest with iconic trees, the maps show.

Victoria conservationist Vicky Husband said it’s an ecological crisis due to a century of overcutting the biggest and best trees.

“[It] has resulted in the increasing collapse of ecosystems and rural communities,” Husband said.

Even 20 years ago, there were intact watersheds and whole valleys to save, but now they are all gone, except in Clayoquot Sound, Husband said.

With ancient forests mostly tattered and fragmented, she said, B.C. needs a government that would “have the wisdom” to implement a science-based old-growth protection plan immediately to save what remains. They also need to ensure a sustainable value-added second-growth forest industry, she added.

The maps are based on last year’s inventory data from the Forests Ministry.

The analysis is based on conservative calculations, said Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The actual amount of logging is probably much higher,” he said.

The depletion of larger trees has left the industry in a financial crunch as the trees get smaller, since they’re worth less but more expensive to reach, Wu said.

The government counters that large swaths of old-growth are protected in park and old-growth management areas.

On Vancouver Island, 46 per cent of the forest on Crown land is old-growth, says a ministry statement: “Of the 862,125 hectares of old-growth forest, it is estimated that over 520,000 hectares will never be harvested.”

But Wu said those figures do not present the real picture. “The B.C. government, for the past decade, has been spinning a tale that all is well in the woods and that old-growth forests are not disappearing, by their promotion of totally misleading statistics,” Wu said.

Much of the old-growth included in the government’s estimates are “bonsai” forests in bogs or at high altitudes, where the stunted trees have little commercial value, he said.

“It’s like combining your Monopoly money with your real money and then claiming to be a millionaire, so why curtail spending?”

An example of High Productivity Old-Growth Forest. Ancient Forest Alliance volunteer Mary Vasey stands amongst old-growth redcedars in the unprotected Upper Castle Grove in the the Walbran Valley on southwestern Vancouver Island.

"The Good, the Bad, and the Wobbly"

May 13 2013/in Media Release

“The Green, Liberal, and NDP platforms on old-growth logging and sustainable forestry can best be summarized as ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Wobbly’,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “The Greens have committed to ending logging of our endangered old-growth forests, the BC Liberals are still spinning their anti-environmental fairy tale that ‘old-growth forests are not disappearing’, and the NDP are trying to figure out how far they’ll go to protect old-growth forests but have not provided any details or made any strong commitments.”

On old-growth logging and sustainable forestry, the parties’ platforms are as follows:

The Green Party’s platform can be described as “Good”.
The Greens have committed to a science-based plan to fully protect BC’s old-growth forests in endangered regions, to reduce the unsustainable overcutting of second-growth forests with longer rotations and to phase-out clearcutting, and to increase the fee on raw log exports to support value-added processing of BC wood products. https://www.greenparty.bc.ca/forest_action_plan and https://www.greenparty.bc.ca/forestry

The BC Liberals’ platform can be described as “Bad”.
The BC Liberals maintain that old-growth forests are not disappearing, that raw log exports are necessary, and continue to support the status quo of large-scale old-growth liquidation. See this article in the Times Colonist.

The BC Liberals have been promoting misleading statistics for a decade where they’ve overinflated the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including vast tracts of stunted, non-commercial “bonsai” forests in bogs and at high altitudes in their statistics. “It’s like including your Monopoly money with your real money and then claiming to be a millionaire, so why stop spending?” Wu noted. “The BC Liberals have been the ‘Despoilers of Beautiful BC’ when it comes to supporting large-scale old-growth logging and unsustainable forestry across most of the province.”

The NDP’s platform platform can be described as “Wobbly” or “Vague”.
The NDP mention protecting “valuable old-growth forests” in their main platform (see page 42: https://www.bcndp.ca/files/BCNDP-Platform-2013-Web.pdf- Link no longer available), but don’t provide any key details like “how”, “how much”, “where”, and “when”. The party has not committed to ending old-growth logging in any region of BC, nor to a science-based old-growth protection plan for the province. The party says it aims to reduce raw log exports, but provides no details how except to “work with stakeholders”. During the election campaign, thousands of people have written emails and called NDP candidates (see https://www.BCForestMovement.com – Link no longer available) asking them to end logging of endangered old-growth forests. The NDP’s position has evolved from no mention of old-growth, sustainable forestry or the environment in their status quo Forestry Platform (April 15), to a brief mention of old-growth in their Main Platform (April 24), and in recent days increasing mention of saving old-growth forests in their various PR initiatives (but still lacking detailed, strong commitments).

“As the NDP are likely to be the next government, I sure hope they remember the 1990’s ‘War in the Woods’, and that they truly listen to the conservation movement and implement a science-based old-growth protection plan that will end endangered old-growth logging and ensure a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry,” stated Ken Wu.

New maps of BC’s southern coast highlight the ecological crisis in BC’s forests due to old-growth logging. At least 74% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including at least 91% of the biggest, best old-growth stands (ie. the“classic” high productivity valley-bottom old-growth forests with the largest monumental trees most heavily visited by tourists and featured in photos). See the new maps and statistics at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/

Ancient forests are vital to sustain endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures.

The BC Conservatives have made no mention in their platform or website about old-growth protection, sustainable forestry, or anything environment-related to forestry. About the only mention of forestry in their platform is a strange statement that “the BC Liberals have shown little enthusiasm for the development of British Columbia’s abundant natural resources.” “They must have a pretty scary platform on the environment if they think that,” Wu observed.

MORE BACKGROUND INFO:

How has the NDP’s Position Evolved on Old-Growth Forests?

– From 2006-2008 (Forestry Critic Bob Simpson) the party called for a “Provincial Old-Growth Plan for the Coast and Interior”. During this time, Simpson moved the party into a strong position in favour of protecting old-growth forests, but was ousted from the party a couple years later.

– In 2011 during Adrian Dix’s NDP party leadership bid, Dix had quickly followed the lead of his opponent, John Horgan, who was also vying for party leadership and who had made old-growth forest protection a key part of his platform. Dix soon followed, committing to: “Develop a long term strategy for old growth forests in the Province, including protection of specific areas that are facing immediate logging plans…” See point 4 under “Ecosystem Management” at: [Original article no longer available] . This commitment has since not been further developed, re-mentioned, or even officially adopted by the party.

– On April 15, 2013, the NDP’s Forestry Platform was launched (Forestry Critics Norm MacDonald and Bill Routley). There was no mention of old-growth forests, sustainability, or the environment. See: https://www.bcndp.ca/files/BG-BCNDP-130415_-_Forestry.pdf

– On April 22 (Earth Day), 2013, the NDP’s Environment Platform was launched. There was no mention of old-growth forests in the media release or in public. See: https://www.bcndp.ca/newsroom/dix-invests-green-projects-ends-carbon-credit-fund-and-reaffirms-opposition-enbridge

– On April 24, 2013, the NDP’s Main Platform was launched. The words “Protect significant ecological areas like wetlands, estuaries and valuable old-growth forests” were included in the Environment section. This was a recent step forward, but still vague without details. See page 42: https://www.bcndp.ca/files/BCNDP-Platform-2013-Web.pdf

Tracts of old-growth forests are regularly protected in BC each year through the implementation of regional land use plans that designate new Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s), often in marginal old-growth stands with stunted trees – while at the same time larger areas of productive old-growth forests are logged.

Key questions about the NDP’s old-growth commitment include if it would be above and beyond the protection levels of current land use plans; if it would be a limited, ad-hoc approach on the party’s whim wherever they choose to or choose not to protect, or if would be a comprehensive, systematic protection plan across the province; if it would involve science-based conservation assessments that set old-growth protection/ restoration targets in each ecosystem and region of the province that must be met to minimize biodiversity loss; and if they would actually end old-growth logging in any regions deemed endangered by science.

“A crucial question is if the NDP’s old-growth protection commitment would exceed the inadequate protection levels of the status quo under the BC Liberals and restrict or fully end the logging of endangered old-growth forests in any regions of the province. Without further details, the NDP’s stance could very well be just a continuation of the unsustainable status quo. In fact, BC’s top industry insiders say it is,” stated Ken Wu.

The presidents of BC’s two largest old-growth logging industry associations, Rick Jeffrey of the Coast Forest Products Association (CFPA) and John Allen of the Council Of Forest Industries (COFI), have both stated that the NDP’s forestry platform represents the status quo, with little difference from the BC Liberal government’s policies. See “Parties’ Forestry Platforms Show Few Differences, Industry Insiders Say”: https://www.timescolonist.com/parties-forestry-platforms-show-few-differences-industry-insiders-say-1.111472 and “Global TV: Cathedral Grove and NDP on Forestry” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOz232HDx3Y

See spectacular photos of our old-growth forests at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/.

See a recent ancient forest campaign video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YTizBF-jE

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!

Announcements