Blog Archive Layout

AFA photographer TJ Watt shows a print of his photo of a man on a stump in the Gordon River valley that won first place in a Outdoor Photography Canada magazine photo contest.

Metchosin photographer earns national recognition

Feb 17 2011/in News Coverage

A stunning photograph by Metchosin photographer TJ Watt has gained national recognition.

Watt earned first place in Outdoor Photography Canada magazine’s “human impact on the environment” photo contest.

The image is of a lone man standing on the stump of an ancient tree in the middle of a clear cut in Gordon River valley, near Port Renfrew.

“This shot I feel summed up the factual aspects of what’s happening and the emotional aspects,” Watt said. “It summarizes the whole impact in the photo.”

While shooting in the Gordon River valley, Watt said he’d come across stumps with circumferences of nearly 50 feet.

The photo was taken about a year ago after Watt discovered this area.

He uses his photography to spread word on environmental activism. Watt is a founding member of the Ancient Forest Alliance, a group that has highlighted the so-called Avatar Grove trees near Port Renfew.

“I think the main thing is these places are actually so close to us, but seem so remote. They are finally getting out to the world through photos,” Watt said.

Watt’s photo may be on the cover of an upcoming environmental documentary and possibly even in a museum exhibit. Both projects are still in the works, Watt said.

The same photo also earned Watt first place in the Metchosin Day photography contest.

“It’s also been in many different newspapers,” Watt said. “It’s been travelling around and I get many requests by e-mail for it. It’s not just about pretty pictures now. There is a higher cause to my photos.”

[Original article no longer available]

Loggers painted a sad face with its tongue sticking out making a mockery of the old-growth devastation in the background. Upper Walbran Valley

No Paradigm Shift in BC Government, But New Recognition of Public Mood for Protecting Avatar Grove and Expanding Old-Growth Protection

Feb 17 2011/in News Coverage

Ancient Forest Alliance plans public hike to Avatar Grove on Sunday, February 27

Forest activists reacted with amusement at comments made by the BC government and a logging industry representative in a Times Colonist article “BC looking for new ways to protect ancient trees” on Tuesday.

In the article the Forests Minister Pat Bell states, “BC has more old-growth today than we’ve ever had,” and that “we are not running out of old-growth on Vancouver Island…”

“Somehow a century of industrial logging has actually increased the amount of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, according to the BC government. Maybe the Ancient Forest Alliance should take up logging to increase the amount of old-growth forests in BC!” joked Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) executive director. “The BC government still retains its old mindset about old forests, as they’re still into their silly spin-doctoring – clearly they haven’t experienced a paradigm shift about our old-growth forests. However, the fact is this government has always maintained such nonsense – the main difference now, the new thing here, is their acknowledgement that there is a real public mood in seeing greater protection levels for our old-growth forests, including the Avatar Grove and BC’s largest trees. Of course we welcome this acknowledgement on the need to expand old-growth forest protections.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance is planning another public hike to the Avatar Grove on Sunday, February 27. More details will be posted on its website www.ancientforestalliance.org next week.

Since the Avatar Grove was located in December of 2009 by Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner TJ Watt, the AFA has organized countless public hikes, slideshows, rallies, photography expeditions, letter-writing drives, and petition drives to get the area protected. There has been a torrent of local, provincial, and national media stories about the Avatar Grove, and support has snowballed to include the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, Sooke Region Tourism Association, and local elected representatives at the federal, provincial, and regional levels including Liberal MP Keith Martin, NDP MLA John Horgan, and Regional Director Mike Hicks, respectively. The Avatar Grove consists of numerous monumental ancient redcedars, some 14 feet (over 4 meters) in trunk diameter, giant Douglas firs, and a few large Sitka spruce, all of which are heavily targeted by the old-growth logging industry. “Canada’s Gnarliest Tree”, a huge redcedar with a 10 foot (3 meter) wide burl, is also found in the Avatar Grove. The area was surveyed and flagged with falling boundary and road location tape by Teal-Jones by February of 2010. See Avatar Grove photos at: https://ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/

Almost 6000 people have now viewed the Ancient Forest Alliance’s new video clip (1 minute), “Canada’s Gnarliest Tree – Save the Avatar Grove” at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_uPkAWsvVw

“We’ll give thanks if Bell makes good to protect the Avatar Grove. Protecting our most impressive monumental trees and ancient groves is much needed, although most importantly we need to protect old-growth ecosystems on a larger scale. Saving the cherry on top while the voracious neighbour devours the rest of the cake will still deprive our children,” states Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “The logging industry’s appetite has devoured 90% of our valley bottom ancient forests on Vancouver Island where the largest trees grow – they’ve had far more than their share. “

“There is an inevitable transition to logging only second-growth forests in southern BC as the old-growth stands run out – what we’re saying is let’s make the transition now while we still have some significant old-growth stands left, for wildlife, tourism, the climate, and future generations. I think the majority of British Columbians would agree with that,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer.

In Tuesday’s Times Colonist article, Rick Jeffery, president of the Coast Forest Products Association, also spin-doctored various statistics, claiming that there are more protected areas than lands available for logging (reality check: most park lands consist of alpine rock and ice, marginal subalpine forests, and coastal bog forests, and contain a minority fraction of productive forest lands of value for logging), that most monumental stands of ancient trees are already protected (reality check: 90% of Vancouver Island’s productive old-growth forests in the valley bottoms, where the monumental stands grow, have already been logged, and a significant amount of the remainder is unprotected), and that the threat against a stand like the Avatar Grove is an exception.

“The Avatar Grove is just one example of the thousands of ancient forest stands currently under threat in BC, literally hundreds of which get clearcut each year – that’s a simple, sad fact. The difference with the Avatar Grove is that it is easy to get to and grows on gentle terrain so that large numbers of people have now seen this place. Most other endangered ancient forests are remote and difficult for the average person to get to, and thus their destruction goes unseen,” states TJ Watt, AFA explorer and photographer.

On Vancouver Island, according to satellite photos, about 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. See “before” and “after” maps at:

https://ancientforestalliance.org/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/

AFA Campaign Director Ken Wu sits atop a massive

B.C. looking for new ways to protect ancient trees

Feb 16 2011/in Media Release

VICTORIA — The province is looking at new ways to safeguard ancient trees or groves of forest giants in response to the wishes of British Columbians, says Forest Minister Pat Bell.

In the wake of a report from the Forest Practices Board last week that said creative ways should be found to protect giant trees, Bell has asked the province’s chief forester to look into the matter.

Bell, who has previously emphasized that B.C. has ample protection for old-growth trees, said the change is driven by the public mood.

“For me, what has changed is not whether or not there’s protection for the 10 largest trees or for unique situations such as Avatar Grove. There’s just a public desire to see something stronger than what already exists,” he said.

Any tweaking of existing rules or new protection tools will be “surgical” in nature, allowing the ministry to protect unique individual trees or specific patches of forest around them, Bell said.

A complaint about giant trees cut adjacent to a stand of massive trees nicknamed Avatar Grove, near Port Renfrew, sparked the Forest Practices Board report. Bell said Avatar Grove could be considered a unique circumstance.

“It is certainly one of the areas which could fall within a measure of this sort,” he said.

However, realistically, there was little chance Avatar Grove would have been logged because of the quality of the wood, said Bell, who has been in contact with the Teal-Jones Group, which holds the cutting licence.

“I have had a chat with them and they are quite interested in working with us on it,” he said.

Rick Jeffery, Coast Forest Products Association president, said he is looking forward to hearing what rule changes might be proposed, but the vast majority of monumental trees and groves are already protected by existing regulations.

“Every once in awhile you run across something like Avatar Grove that hasn’t been captured by those rules and it brings all sort of controversy,” Jeffery said.

“But something like that is by far and away the exception, not the rule.”

Regulations for operating in B.C.’s forests are stringent and the 3.5 million hectares set aside for parks and conservancies contain old-growth and monumental trees, Jeffery said.

“The forest industry operates on only 2.5 million hectares and, in any given year, we are cutting about one per cent of that,” he said.

Bell’s apparent change of heart has surprised Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance, who has campaigned for protection of old-growth ecosystems.

“I have to admit this was an unexpected surprise considering the rocky relationship the B.C. government has had with our campaign for so long,” Wu said.

“If this is genuine, minister Bell should be commended for taking the first steps toward positive change here. Let’s see if this pans out.”

He argued there is an urgent need to protect old-growth ecosystems on a larger scale.

But Bell said any new protection for special trees will not include a ban on logging old-growth or a new old-growth strategy.

“B.C. has more old-growth today than we ever have had,” Bell said.

“We are not running out of old growth on Vancouver Island or in B.C. They are maturing at a level that exceeds any harvest that is taking place.”

Click here to view original article

NOW HIRING: Forest Campaigner

Mar 3 2026

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is hiring a passionate Forest Campaigner to join our team and help protect old-growth forests in BC!

Employment

It’s AFA’s 16th Birthday!

Feb 26 2026

On Tuesday, February 24th, we’re celebrating 16 years of working together with you, our community, to ensure the permanent protection of old-growth forests in BC. To mark the date, will you chip in $16 or more to support our work?

Announcements

Budget 2026 Shortchanges Nature Protection and Sustainable Forestry Transition At a Critical Time for British Columbia

Feb 20 2026

BC’s Budget 2026 fails to provide the funding needed to secure lasting protection for endangered ecosystems and at-risk old-growth forests in the province.

Media Release