The B.C. government will examine the contentious possibility of opening old-growth forests to logging in parts of the province hardest hit by plummeting timber supplies. It's an idea that both proponents and opponents say would require chopping protective measures that took years to create.
The British Columbia government says it is acting on a series of recommendations to help the province's forest industry in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Critics say it's a weak response to the issue that shows the government hasn't learned from the collapse of other natural resource industries.
The song was inspired by a trip to the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan where there is a cross-section of a 1300-year-old fir tree that blew down in a storm in the 1960s.
In an ethereal valley near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island, more than 100 remarkable Douglas-fir and red cedar trees have held their ground for centuries. Members of the Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance came upon the gnarled titans – some over 60 metres tall and more than four metres in diameter – in December 2009. Soon after, they learned the area was slated for harvest and launched a campaign to save "Avatar Grove."
Logging on hillsides such as McLaughlin Ridge inevitably affects the water supply of surrounding communities and the province should do more to help protect watersheds, says the chairman of the AlberniClayoquot Regional District.
An old-growth forest near Port Alberni that had been protected as critical habitat for wintering deer and endangered goshawks is being logged by Island Timberlands – even though newly released documents show Environment Ministry staff strongly disagreed with the company's harvesting plans.
The next eight months will be a crucial time period for the fate of BC’s old-growth forests – in fact, the most important in BC’s history for ancient forests.
Please DONATE to help the Ancient Forest Alliance build a much-needed “War Chest” of funding during this crucial pre-election period to shape major provincial policy decisions.
To celebrate the Charity Pot and the Ancient Forest Alliance, LUSH is hosting a party at the downtown location at 1003 Government St. in Victoria TOMORROW, Saturday, September 15th from Noon until 6pm where you can pick up an Ancient Forest Alliance “Charity Pot”, hear more about the AFA's campaigns, enter a draw for a spectacular print by forest campaigner and photographer TJ Watt, or pick up a selection of our greeting cards ($3.00) or a Big Tree Poster ($10 each or 3 for $25).
These days, visitors to Port Renfrew can pick up a map to the area's largest trees and set out to explore what's been coined the Big Tree Capital of Canada. While some of Canada's largest trees are out of reach of a typical rental car, there are still plenty of accessible giants – aided by the recent paving of the Pacific Marine Circle Route, which allows travellers to drive across the interior of the island and pop out on the east coast near Duncan, rather than doubling back along the same route to Victoria.
Recently, survey tape for logging was discovered in the Upper Castle Grove in the Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island – that is, in Canada’s finest stand of monumental old-growth red cedar trees. The Castle Grove is an extensive stand of densely-packed enormous cedars which includes the “Castle Giant”, a 16 foot (5 meter) diameter cedar in the Lower Castle Grove that is one of the largest trees in Canada. The flagging tape for the potential logging comes to within 50 meters of the Castle Giant.
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