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Protect McLaughlin Ridge YouTube Clip (1min)

Nov 13 2011/in Announcements, News Coverage, Video

Direct link to YouTube clip (1min): www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsZiO1wAKwE

Help us protect the old-growth forests of McLaughlin Ridge near Port Alberni!

Conservationists are calling on the BC government to protect a 500 hectare tract of ancient Douglas fir forest near Port Alberni that biologists have classified as both critical habitat for wintering deer and nesting endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks. Conservationists would like the BC government to protect the old-growth forest on private land on McLaughlin Ridge by purchasing it from Island Timberlands.

See the photo gallery here: www.ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=10

The land was formerly intended for protection as an Ungulate Winter Range (UWR) for black-tailed deer and as a Wildlife Habitat Area (WHA) for the endangered goshawk until 2004 when the BC Liberal government removed 88,000 hectares of land now owned by Island Timberlands from their Tree Farm Licenses (TFL’s), thus removing most existing environmental protections on those lands and failing to implement other planned protections. Island Timberlands began logging the 500 hectare tract of old-growth forest a year ago, clearcutting 100 hectares or more from both sides of the Grove, while about 400 hectares of the core area still remains – for now.

Local Port Alberni activist Jane Morden stands beside the McLaughlin Giant - an old-growth Douglas-fir measuring 23.5ft in circumference / 7.5ft in diameter.

Chainsaw buzz stirs up once-protected old growth

Nov 12 2011/in News Coverage

Environmentalists want the province to buy a tract of previously protected old-growth forest near Port Alberni that is now being logged by Island Timberlands.

McLaughlin Ridge was classified as critical habitat for wintering deer and endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks until 2004, when the province allowed it to be removed from a tree farm licence.

Different regulations governing private managed forest land mean part of the 500-hectare forest is now being logged.

“Here’s another major example of the serious havoc wreaked by the BC government’s TFL-removal scheme,” said Ken Wu, cofounder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The BC government created this mess by largely deregulating these forest lands and now they need to clean it up by protecting the previously protected old-growth forests, deer winter range and endangered species habitat.”

The area is used by black-tail deer, which feed on lichen hanging from old-growth trees when snow is on the ground.

“These are not deer that live at sea level, where there is rarely snow, or urban deer that feed on your flowers and garden veggies,” Wu said.

“The deer rely on old-growth forests like McLaughlin Ridge for winter shelter and lichens, which are lacking in clearcuts and second-growth stands.”

Endangered Queen Charlotte goshawk nest in the area, which is considered by government biologists to be one of the most ecologically significant sites in BC, said Jane Morden, coordinator of the Port Alberni-based Friends of McLaughlin Ridge.

“To let the whole thing get logged would be a travesty,” she said.

However, Island Timberlands spokeswoman Morgan Kennah said logging in McLaughlin Ridge is based on information the company receives from consulting biologists.

“We maintain an inventory of the goshawk nests because they are a species of critical importance and we modify our practices if nests are found in the area,” she said.

In keeping with the rules guiding logging on private managed forest land, critical wildlife habitat is protected by changing patterns of logging or volume, Kennah said.

Forests Minister Steve Thomson, who is on a trade mission in China, could not be contacted Monday.

[Direct link to the Times Colonist article no longer available]

The McLaughlin Giant - Old-growth Douglas-fir measuring 23.5ft in circumference or 7.5ft in diameter

Protect McLaughlin Ridge! Please take 5 minutes to write a quick email!

Nov 11 2011/in Take Action

Protect McLaughlin Ridge!

Please take 5 minutes to write a quick email!

Old-Growth Logging of Forest Lands Intended for Protection on Vancouver Island Threatens Deer Winter Range and Endangered Goshawk Habitat

* See a new YOUTUBE clip (1 minute) about McLaughlin Ridge at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsZiO1wAKwE

* See a SPECTACULAR new photogallery of the endangered McLaughlin Ridge at: https://www.ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=10

Conservationists are calling on the BC government to protect a 500 hectare tract of ancient Douglas fir forest near Port Alberni that biologists have classified as both critical habitat for wintering deer and nesting endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks. Conservationists would like the BC government to purchase the old-growth forest on private land on McLaughlin Ridge from Island Timberlands.

The land was formerly intended for protection as an Ungulate Winter Range (UWR) for black-tailed deer and as a Wildlife Habitat Area (WHA) for the endangered goshawk until 2004 when the BC Liberal government removed 88,000 hectares of land now owned by Island Timberlands from their Tree Farm Licenses (TFL’s), thus removing most existing environmental protections on those lands and exempting the area from other planned protections. Island Timberlands began logging the 500 hectare tract of old-growth forest a year ago, clearcutting 100 hectares or more from both sides of the Grove, while about 400 hectares of the core area still remains – for now.

***Note: We don’t want to get any “bah humbug” complaints about how deer eat your garden veggies and are common in Victoria! On Vancouver Island as a whole, deer populations have plummeted from over 200,000 in the 1970’s to less than 60,000 animals today. These are not urban deer that live by the coast without snow – these are deer that live in the interior mountains of Vancouver Island at higher elevations where there is over 10 feet of snow and no garden veggies! The old-growth forests in such regions provide both shelter and food (in the form of lichens) – but most of their wintering habitat at such elevations have been logged now.

See more details on the Ancient Forest Alliance’s press release at:

https://www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=320

See the Alberni Valley Times article “Critics Insist Logging Harms Wildlife” at:

https://www2.canada.com/albernivalleytimes/news/story.html?id=d7fe1099-d963-4e1a-b9ef-d878c7eefeef

PLEASE take 5 minutes and WRITE a Letter to Minister of Forests Steve Thomson at: steve.thomson.mla@leg.bc.ca

and Minister of the Environment Terry Lake at: terry.lake.mla@leg.bc.ca

telling them:

– McLaughlin Ridge has the largest and highest quality wintering range for black-tailed deer on southern Vancouver Island

– It is vital habitat for the endangered Queen Charlotte goshawk on southern Vancouver Island

– It is part of the last 1% of old-growth Douglas firs on BC’s coast

– The old-growth forests there were formerly intended for protection from logging as an Ungulate Winter Range and Wildlife Habitat Area until the BC government removed the Tree Farm License (TFL 44) from these lands in 2004, thereby exempting the area from these planned environmental protections.

– Therefore the BC government must remedy this situation by protecting these areas that were formerly intended to become off-limits to logging by buying them – with a high priority going to McLaughlin Ridge.

***Be sure to include your name and your home mailing address so that they know you are a real person!

Thank you!

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