Blog Archive Layout

World’s Largest Douglas-fir Under Threat

Mar 2 2010/in News Coverage

Please Note: Keith Martin supports an expansion of Pacific Rim National Park, not necessarily the heritage trees designation as stated in the article.

The world’s largest Douglas fir tree, the famous Red Creek Fir tree, located in Port Renfrew at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, remains vulnerable to the effects of logging in an adjacent old-growth forest, claim environmentalists.

The Red Creek Fir giant, a major tourist attraction in the region, stretches more than 73.8m (242ft) in height with a trunk 4.2m (13’ 9”) wide, has environmentalists concerned that the venerable fir will loose its forest padding sheltering the enormous tree to future logging in the area.

“They’ve already logged almost 90% of the old-growth forests on the south island, including 99% of the ancient Douglas firs,” explains Ken Wu, co-founder of the newly-formed Ancient Forest Alliance.

A Ministry of Forest and Range spokesperson, in a recent Times Colonist interview, stated that British Columbia Timber Sales has no immediate plans to log in the area.

However, Ancient Forest Alliance, in conjunction with Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca MP Keith Martin, want the British Columbia government to establish a Provincial Heritage Trees designation that will identify and protect the 100 largest and oldest specimens of each of the province’s tree species. Currently there is no provincial legislation that specifically protects the largest or oldest specimens of BC’s world-renowned old-growth trees.

“If we have laws that recognize and protect heritage buildings that are 100 years old, why don’t we have laws that recognize and protect our 1000 year old heritage trees? How many jurisdictions have trees that can grow as wide as a living room and as tall as a downtown skyscraper,” asks TJ Watt, photographer and co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

British Columbia is home to a number of record-size ancient trees including the world’s largest Douglas fir (the Red Creek Fir near Port Renfrew), the world’s second largest western red cedar (the Cheewhat Cedar by the West Coast Trail/ Nitinat Lake), and the world’s second largest Sitka spruce tree (the San Juan Spruce by Port Renfrew). The majority of British Columbia giant trees lack official recognition or protection.

Ken Wu stands beside the Red Creek Fir tree. Image courtesy TJ Watt.

Old-growth forests could bring tourists

Mar 1 2010/in Announcements

The Feb. 20 Raeside cartoon is a perfect representation of the Liberal government’s stance on the fate of our world-class ancient forests. The cartoon depicts Gordon Campbell promoting the province to Olympic tourists by showing off our spectacular old-growth forests. The tourists, upon returning next summer to take photos, find a field of giant stumps.

This continues to be the fate of many of our last stands of giant trees in southern B.C. and shows a lack of understanding of what draws many people to the best place on Earth.

Vancouver Island has the potential to be the Costa Rica of the north, with a thriving eco-tourism market that brings in tourists from all over the globe to see our amazing temperate rainforests. These dynamic ecosystems clean our water, fight climate change and contain mammoth 1,000-year-old trees with trunks more than six metres wide and 90 metres tall.

The government is complacently allowing the clearcutting of these rare gems and their subsequent conversion to much smaller and ecologically simpler second-growth tree plantations.

People are not travelling from across the world to see plantations and clearcuts. The government needs to say enough is enough in regard to logging our natural old-growth heritage and protect what little we do have left, while ensuring a sustainable second-growth, value-added industry.

A ship loaded with raw logs leaves the Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island.

It’s time for the BC government to curb raw log exports and boost value-added forestry jobs, say unions and environmental groups

Feb 27 2010/in Media Release

Vancouver – Between 2013 and 2016, more raw logs were shipped from BC than during any other four-year period in the province’s history, prompting two forest industry unions and three leading environmental groups to call for a ban on raw log exports from old-growth forests and a bold government action to plan to stimulate BC’s flagging forest sector. See the Canadian Centre for Policy Alterniatives Press Release with communications info for intereviews.

The call follows new research released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ BC Office (CCPA-BC) that shows how exports of raw, unprocessed logs are surging. If these logs were processed in some of BC’s hardest hit forestry communities, at least 3,600 new jobs could be generated.

“This carnage has to stop,” says Arnold Bercov, president of the Public and Private Workers of Canada (PPWC), one of two unions representing BC pulp and paper mill workers.

“Last year, BC forest companies exported enough raw logs to frame nearly 134,000 homes, which equals roughly half of Vancouver’s standing single-family homes. Thousands of good-paying jobs in rural communities are at risk every day that the government fails to act,” he added.

The PPWC, along with Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, the Ancient Forests Alliance, Sierra Club of BC and the Wilderness Committee, say the Province should enact a bold three-point plan to curb exports and stimulate jobs.

1. Place an immediate ban on all exports of raw logs from old-growth forests.

2. Immediately impose progressively higher taxes on log exports from second-growth forests to encourage investment in domestic mills.

3. Introduce new policies to increase value-added forest manufacturing and jobs in rural and First Nations communities.

“We are extremely troubled by present trends. BC’s biggest log exporters are decimating old-growth forests and exporting huge numbers of raw logs, while the industry continues to bleed manufacturing jobs,” says Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island campaigner for the Wilderness Committee. “Worse, the industry is on the same dangerous path in younger, second-growth forests which are our only hope for the future. ”

Four years of log export data analyzed by CCPA-BC researcher and resource policy analyst Ben Parfitt uncovered a number of disturbing trends in log exports from BC.

• Between 2013 and 2016, nearly 26 million cubic meters of raw logs, with a combined sales value of more than $3 billion, were shipped from BC – more than any other four-year period since record keeping began.

• More than one in three logs exported in the past five years came from centuries-old old-growth forests, including from the Great Bear Rainforest.

• Most log exports in the past five years came from public lands under direct provincial control, not from private lands where the BC government has no jurisdiction, which is a sharp reversal from previous norms.

• Nearly half of all export applications in 2016 were by member companies of the Coast Forest Products Association, one of BC’s most powerful lobbies for continued raw log exports.

“One huge concern for forest industry workers and environmental organizations alike is that the door appears to be wide open for companies to close sawmills and simply increase their log exports. That is a recipe for disaster for our environment, our economy and rural and First Nation communities,” Parfitt says.

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