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Deformed cedar puts new face on old-growth protection on Vancouver Island

Mar 25 2010/in News Coverage

Gnarly, dude. Environmentalists are exploiting a grotesquely shaped western red cedar to highlight the need to protect a grove of old-growth trees near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.

The Ancient Forest Alliance describes the ancient cedar as “Canada’s gnarliest tree” and the patch of forest where it is located as Avatar Grove after Canadian James Cameron’s blockbuster movie with an environmental theme.

The alliance fears that at least part of the grove could be logged by the Surrey-based Teal-Jones Group; it urges protection for the 100 or so massive old-growth cedar and Douglas fir trees due to their easy public access.

The grove is located about 10 kilometers north of Port Renfrew in the Gordon River Valley in Tree Farm License #46, the environmental group said.

The gnarly western red cedar measures 11 meters in circumference near the base of its trunk. Its look is attributed to a burl created by a non-lethal fungal infection that caused the tree trunk to grow giant contorted lumps, the alliance states.

Officials with Teal-Jones and the B.C. forests ministry were not immediately available to comment.

Please Support the Ancient Forest Alliance!

Mar 23 2010/in Take Action

Please Support the Ancient Forest Alliance!

Help the fledgling organization take the campaign to save BC’s old-growth forests and to ban raw log exports to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL!

Fundraising goals:
$10,000 by Earth Day, April 22
$10,000 by Summer Solstice, June 21

Donate online at: https://donate.ancientforestalliance.org/

Or send a cheque made out to the “Ancient Forest Alliance” to AFA, 706 Yates Street, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC V8W 3S1

During our first 2 months, the Ancient Forest Alliance has made quite a splash. We’ve:

– Garnered a huge amount of media coverage for our campaigns (see https://ancientforestalliance.org/recent-news/) including in Maclean’s Magazine and the Vancouver Sun
– Directly engaged hundreds of people through old-growth hikes and slideshows
– Attracted over 6000 new supporters on Facebook
– Are now organizing a major rally in Vancouver for March 27 that will draw hundreds of people into the streets to mount pressure on the BC Liberal government over their backwards forestry policies… (see https://ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=27)

With YOUR support, we will take the campaign to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL…

We are organizing a new campaign for ancient forests and forestry jobs NEVER BEFORE SEEN in this province, including:

– Organizing in BC “swing ridings” mass awareness and mobilization campaigns. Of 85 provincial electoral ridings, only a dozen or fewer actually determine the outcome of most BC elections. That’s because in swing ridings the race is tight between the BC Liberals and the NDP – the rest of the ridings are pretty safe for either party (ie. have a large margin of support for the party candidates). There is a disproportionately strong influence on government policies from the electorate in swing ridings.

– Proliferating the number of new activists and “core organizers” in the forest protection movement by training and guiding activists to establish new “Ancient Forest Committees” (activism teams) to organize campaigns in key swing ridings and in other areas.

– Enlisting many “non-traditional allies”, particularly among faith groups and in the business community, as well as among unions, scientists, municipal councillors, and First Nations band councils. Some of these groups hold a disproportionate amount of influence on the BC Liberal government as funders or being part of their core constituencies.

-Exploring and documenting many new endangered areas filled with giant trees – or that have been recently destroyed by clearcutting. We will show the world through the first rate work of AFA photographer and “big tree hunter” TJ Watt (see photogallery at: https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=464212940556) what’s at stake and is being destroyed in this spectacular province…

And much more!

The sad fact is, if we let the status quo rage onwards without a major, politically hard-hitting challenge – which we are positioned to undertake with YOUR support – we will end up with the demise of numerous species at risk such as the spotted owl (literally only 6 left in BC’s wilds), marbled murrelet, Vancouver Island wolverine (not seen since 1992), numerous southern steelhead and coho runs, and many other life forms; ruined scenery and tourism/recreational opportunities; vast amounts of greenhouse gas emissions from the clearcutting of ancient forests; muddied watersheds and salmon streams as clearcuts and logging roads erode into them; and the collapse of most coastal forestry jobs and forestry-dependent communities.

So we’re determined that if the BC Liberal government continues along its current forest policy path for southern BC, which can be summarized as:

– Liquidate the remaining unprotected old-growth forests.
– Close the old-growth dependent mills as the old-growth stands are depleted.
– Liquidate the maturing second-growth at breakneck speeds.
– Export the raw logs to foreign mills.
– Convert the cutover lands to residential developments.

…then we’ll have them thrown out of office in 3 years time.

On the other hand, if they move to protect our endangered ancient forests, ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and end the export of raw logs, we will be glad to give credit where credit is due. It’s only fair. We truly hope they do good and right.

To build the strongest campaign we need just a fraction of the funds typically used by the larger environmental groups. Dollar per dollar we’ll guarantee that your funds will go farthest with us to build a most powerful movement and ancient forest campaign. We need funds to pay for minimal core staff requirements, travel costs, phone bills, web work, room bookings, printing costs, and more.

Our goal is to raise $20,000 by June 21. Can you help us?

Here’s how:

1. Please directly DONATE to us, whether $20 or $2000, it all adds up!

Online with your credit card through Paypal (secure) at: https://donate.ancientforestalliance.org/

You may also send cheques made out to the “Ancient Forest Alliance” at:
Ancient Forest Alliance
706 Yates Street
PO Box 8459
Victoria, BC V8W 3S1

***Note: Donations to the Ancient Forest Alliance are not tax deductible. The Ancient Forest Alliance is a registered BC non-profit society (# S0056367) but does not have charitable status (thus allowing us to be more political and effective…)

2. Get your FAMILY (parents? rich relatives?) or close FRIENDS to do the same. Send them this email and really encourage them!

3. Organize a simple fundraiser for us. This could include:
– Holding a yard sale/ garage sale.
– Selling your unneeded items on E-Bay or Craigslist and donating us the proceeds.
– Holding a benefit house party for us (charge a fee or by donation…)

THANK YOU so much for your consideration! With your help we will ensure a most powerful campaign for our ancient forests and forestry dependent communities.

For the Wild,

Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Katrina Andres, Michelle Connolly, Tara Sawatsky, Brendan Harry
Ancient Forest Alliance

Visit the Ancient Forest Alliance website at:
https://ancientforestalliance.org/

Join us on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=464212940556

Photographer TJ Watt stands on the back of a giant dinosaur shaped old-growth Maple tree alongside the San Juan river

Alliance Protects Ancient Forests

Mar 22 2010/in News Coverage

A recent shakeup in Victoria’s activist community may signify a new chapter in our long history of environmental action.

The longtime coordinator for the Victoria branch of BC’s Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC), Ken Wu, has recently left that organization to start the fledgling Ancient Forest Alliance with co-founder TJ Watt.

At recent info session held at UVic, Wu, Watt—a Metchosin-born wilderness photographer and self-proclaimed “big tree hunter—and Sierra Club coastal forest campaigner Jens Wieting addressed a mixed crowd of environmentalists and community members.

“There’s something very different about this,” says Wu. “Virtually every environmental group in the province has charitable status, and charitable status, including what the WCWC has, restricts what you can do and say.”

Under charitable status, an organization can neither reject nor endorse specific political parties or candidates.

This makes it nearly impossible to overtly organize campaigns in electoral districts where the public hugely influences government policies, due to the fact that the riding can go to the NDP or BC Liberals, explains Wu.

Called swing ridings, these districts are the front lines of political influence, and the AFA, unlike the WCWC, is now free to enter the fray.

“We can organize riding by riding now,” says Wu. “We’re not going to be partisan in the sense that were going to endorse any political party, per se, ideologically, but on the issues we can say, ‘This BC Liberal MLA in this riding has stated that it’s fine to log off all of our last unprotected old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and to keep exporting raw logs. So, if you care about our ancient forests and forestry jobs, don’t vote for him.’”

“I couldn’t say that while I was at the Wilderness Committee,”continues Wu. “Now I can. This will have a huge influence on BC government policies.”

While foregoing charitable status ostensibly casts off an annoying political muzzle, it poses challenges elsewhere—without it an organization can’t issue tax receipts for donations, and fundraising becomes more difficult.

But Wu remains confidently optimistic. “I know a lot of people will appreciate us being able to be more direct and honest about the government and politicians in regards to the fate of our ancient forests,” he says.

The AFA also plans to become a centre for training new activists, according to Wu. “Another function of the AFA will be to help empower, train, and guide new citizens’ groups that are going to fight for ancient forests,” he says. “We’ll run a most effective campaign with a miniscule fraction of the funds used by the larger environmental groups who have budgets of millions of dollars.”

At the recent presentation, local wilderness photographer and AFA co-founder Watt showcased photos of some of Vancouver Island’s biggest known remaining old-growth trees. While many large trees still exist in and around the greater Victoria area, “to see the big, big trees, you need to get out of the dryer areas, and further up the coast,” says Watt.

Among those showcased was the recently discovered Refugee Tree, situated just 20 minutes past Jordan River and measuring over 45 feet around; the famous San Juan Spruce, which contains enough wood to make 330 telephone poles and is the second largest of its kind in the world; and Port Renfrew’s own Red Creek Fir, which is the largest of its kind known to exist on Earth.

Unfortunately, much of the surrounding area is slated for logging, which could leave trees vulnerable to blow down. Today, less than one percent of coastal Douglas Fir old growth is still standing, and 97 percent of valley bottoms, which are typical areas to find old growth trees, have been logged. The last one percent of unprotected old growth Douglas Fir is still currently slated for liquidation.

“We have the largest of something in the world and we’ve done absolutely nothing to promote it. Up until now there’s been no signage, the trails have never been taken care of, there’s virtually no effort to let people know these exist,” says Watt, “and this leads me to believe that maybe someone doesn’t want people to know that they exist.”

According to Wieting, BC’s coastal forests are among the best carbon storehouses on the planet, and one of the world’s most powerful tools in the fight against climate change.

A recent Sierra Club report states that on Vancouver Island alone 370 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, or more than five times the official annual BC emissions, have been released into the atmosphere over time as a result of the conversion of at least one million hectares of old growth into second growth.

As a result, many of the island’s ecosystems are now below a critical level of old-growth forest needed to sustain species.

The report calls for an urgent transition to the innovative land-use planning model that has been successful in the Great Bear Rainforest on the coastal mainland.

The AFA and Sierra Club BC are calling for a comprehensive and systemic change to current BC forest practices that would protect remaining old growth in regions where they are scarce, and ensuring the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which constitute the majority of forest systems in southern Vancouver Island.

In addition, the AFA is calling for provincial assistance in retooling coastal BC’s sawmills in order to accommodate second growth logs, as well as an end to raw log exports, which could ensure a constant supply of logs for BC-based wood-processing facilities, and generate much-needed jobs within the forestry sector.

The AFA hopes to raise $10,000 by Earth Day on April 21, and another $10,000 by Summer Solstice on June 21.

News Article Link: https://nexusnewspaper.com/articles/28668

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