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San Juan Spruce tree and the Red Creek Fir - some of the Canada's largest trees found right nearby!

Old-Growth Forest Slideshow Comes to Saltspring Island on Wednesday, October 6th

Oct 1 2010/in Announcements

Saltspring Island, Canada- Co-founders of the newly formed Ancient Forest Alliance Ken Wu and TJ Watt will host an informative and inspiring slideshow featuring spectacular photographs of Canada’s largest trees, including the Red Creek Fir, San Juan Spruce, Cheewhat Cedar, and the newly-discovered, threatened Avatar Grove. The presentation will include discussion of the stunning ecology and complex politics surrounding BC’s old-growth forests and forestry jobs. It will be held at Central Hall on Fulford-Ganges Road from 7:00-8:30 pm on Wednesday, October 6th, 2010.

“Time is running out for our endangered old-growth forests and BC’s coastal forestry jobs. Saltspring Island is famous as a hub of environmental consciousness – it may very well have the highest density of tree-huggers in North America! It’s a key place for us to build support and expand the campaign to protect our ancient forests, ensure sustainable second-growth forestry, and to ban raw log exports to foreign mills,” states Ken Wu, AFA campaign director.

To date, about 75% of Vancouver Island’s productive old growth forest has been logged according to satellite photos, including 90% of the flat valley bottoms, while only 6% of its original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks. Meanwhile thousands of forestry jobs are being lost as millions of cubic meters of raw logs are exported each year to foreign mills.

Old-growth forests are important for sustaining species at risk, tourism, clean water, and First Nations traditional cultures.

With so little of our ancient forests remaining, the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government to:

– Undertake a Provincial Old-Growth Strategy that will inventory and protect old-growth forests where they are scarce (egs. Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, Lower Mainland, southern Interior, etc.).

– Ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which now constitute the vast majority of southern BC’s forests.

– End the export of raw logs in order to ensure guaranteed log supplies for local milling and value-added industries.

– Assist in the retooling and development of mills and value-added facilities to handle second-growth logs.

– Undertake new land-use planning initiatives based on First Nations land-use plans, ecosystem-based scientific assessments, and climate mitigation strategies involving forest protection.

“How many jurisdictions on Earth have trees with trunks as wide as living rooms and that grow as tall as big-city skyscrapers? We’re so lucky to have such exceptionally magnificent forests here in southern Coastal BC. Unfortunately 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow have already been cut here, yet the BC Liberal government still contends that it’s fine for the industry finish off the last of the unprotected stands,” states TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Horgan, Hicks, and Cash Join Ancient Forest Alliance on Tour of Avatar Grove and to Canada’s Biggest Trees and Stumps

Sep 28 2010/in Media Release

Port Renfrew, BC- Malahat-Juan de Fuca MLA John Horgan, CRD Director for the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area Mike Hicks, and Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce member Jon Cash joined the Ancient Forest Alliance’s TJ Watt and Ken Wu for a visit to the threatened Avatar Grove, San Juan Spruce (Canada’s largest spruce tree), and a nearby clearcut with giant stumps this past Tuesday, September 28. Both politicians have expressed an interest in the protection of these world-class old-growth stands.

“BC’s endangered ancient forests are incredibly valuable for many reasons,” states TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “Not only are they among the most at-risk ecosystems in the world but they’re probably some of the most beautiful places on the planet. People come from around the globe to visit these forests and they spend money here in the process. Old growth tourism has enormous potential here to combine long-term, stable jobs with sustainability. Lots of people have realized this: that’s why local businesses and politicians have shown such strong support for the protection of these forests.”

To date, local representatives from every level of government have spoken up favorably for protecting old growth stands on southern Vancouver Island. Horgan’s, Hick’s, and Cash’s tour comes hot on the heels of Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Keith Martin’s proposal to extend Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s boundaries to protect adjacent endangered forests, including the grandest stands of old-growth trees in Canada in the Upper Walbran Valley, Avatar Grove, and forests in and around the Red Creek Fir and San Juan Spruce.

In addition, local businesses took a similar stance when the Sooke Regional Tourism Association and the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce submitted a written request earlier this year asking the BC government to spare the Avatar Grove from logging. Yet the province refuses to heed the rally cry from the public and businesses alike.

The Capital Regional District’s parks department also undertook a public input process in the spring to determine candidate areas for new regional parks in which there was a large amount of public support for the protection of the Avatar Grove and forests around the Red Creek Fir and San Juan Spruce. The CRD board of directors earlier this year voted to increase the annual parkland acquisition fund from $10 to $20 per average household by 2014, raising tens of millions of dollars for the purchase of private lands. Crown lands, such as in the Avatar Grove, would require a transfer of management authority from the province to the regional district should the area be made a regional park.

“Whether by supporting their protection in new CRD regional parks, provincial protected areas, or in an expanded Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, local politicians like Hicks, Horgan, and Martin are vital to ensure that a solution is implemented that protects the last remnants of ancient forests here while a sustainable second-growth forest industry is developed,” states Ancient Forest Alliance campaign director Ken Wu.

“Tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry in BC and the province’s largest employer. Millions of tourists come to see BC’s giant trees and ancient forests, and millions more will come if they are protected and promoted while we shift the logging industry into sustainably logging second-growth stands instead,” adds Watt. “It’s 2010 and the logging of centuries-old giant trees with trunks as wide as a living room is continuing daily in this province. For now, we still have the golden opportunity to protect some of the most charismatic and threatened ecosystems on Earth.”

Old-growth forests are extremely important for sustaining species at risk, tourism, clean water, and First Nations traditional cultures.
About 75% of the original productive old-growth forests have been logged on Vancouver Island, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow, according to satellite photos. Only about 6% of the Island’s original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks.

With so little of our ancient forests remaining, the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC government to protect our endangered ancient forests, ensure sustainable second-growth forestry, ban raw log exports, and assist in the development of value-added, second-growth mills and facilities.

Ancient Forest Alliance Stands in Solidarity with Forestry Workers

Sep 17 2010/in Media Release

Friday, September 17th, 2010

Environmental Group’s Forest Campaigner, TJ Watt, speaks to hundreds-strong forestry union rally

Nanaimo, BC, Canada – In a seemingly unlikely event, the Ancient Forest Alliance stood in solidarity with members of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada and the United Steelworkers union in Nanaimo yesterday as part of the ongoing fight to ban raw log exports in BC. AFA forest campaigner TJ Watt spoke alongside union officials, Nanaimo MLA Leonard Krog, and Nanaimo-North Cowichan MLA Doug Routley to the hundreds of workers in attendance, denouncing the export of raw logs and calling for the protection of BC’s threatened forestry jobs.

“Under Gordon Campbell’s BC Liberals we have seen over 60 mills shut down across the province since 2003 while raw log exports have nearly doubled” said Watt. “It’s time to ban raw log exports in BC, to rejuvenate local mills, and to once again provide secure jobs for the thousands upon thousands of forestry workers who have been kicked aside by this backwards policy”. Simply put – “Exported logs = exported jobs”.

The AFA believes there can be a solution that works for both our ancient forests and our forestry workers. “The BC Liberal government needs to stimulate investment in the retooling of old-growth sawmills so they can handle second-growth trees. With 90% of the most productive lands on Vancouver Island having already been logged, the future of this industry is in sustainable second-growth forestry,” says Brendan Harry, communications director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “They also need to establish incentives for the creation of value-added facilities where we will see more refined products made here in BC and even more jobs created. This should be a no brainer.”

It is inevitable that there will be a transition to logging of only second-growth forests in the not so distant future as the remaining old-growth forests are logged out on Vancouver Island and the Southern Mainland . The Ancient Forest Alliance calls on the BC Liberal government to make this transition happen now, in a planned, rational way, allowing for the protection what little endangered old-growth ecosystems are left and ensuring a smooth shift to sustainable second-growth logging instead.

With so little of our ancient forests remaining, the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government to:

· Immediately protect the most at-risk old-growth forests – such as those on the South Island where only 12% remains and on eastern Vancouver Island where only 1% remains.

· Undertake a Provincial Old-Growth Strategy that will inventory the old-growth forests across the province and protect them where they are scarce through legislated time lines to quickly phase-out old-growth logging in those regions (ie. Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland, southern Interior, etc.).

· Ensure that second-growth forests are logged at a sustainable rate of cut

· End the export of raw logs in order to create guaranteed log supplies for local milling and value-added industries.

· Assist in the retooling and development of mills and value-added facilities to handle second-growth logs.

· Undertake new land-use planning initiatives based on First Nations land-use plans, ecosystem-based scientific assessments, and climate mitigation strategies involving forest protection.

“If the industry does not adjust in order process second-growth trees, what happens down the road when that’s basically all that’s available? Where are the forestry jobs going to be?” Watt wonders. “The rest of most the world is logging second, third, fourth growth and making it work. We need to be moving up the value chain, not down it. In the end, it’s about the long term sustainability of a resource and an industry, and right now we’re moving in completely the wrong direction.”

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