Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners took issue after a Cantelon’s constituency assistant included an AFA website hyperlink in an e-mail to a Nanoose Bay woman asking government to save coastal Douglas fir forests.
An environmental group working to protect old-growth forests in B.C. is condemning local MLA Ron Cantelon’s office for insinuating they support the logging of a parcel of Coastal Douglas Fir forest in Nanoose Bay.
“It’s a sleazy tactic to try and link us in their responses to concerend citizens when they write letters back as somehow insinuating that we are supporting the Nanoose Bay ancient forest logging,” said Ken Wu, one of the founders of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) in Victoria.
I read with dismay that BC Liberal MLA Ron Cantelon’s office has been invoking the Ancient Forest Alliance’s name to insinuate that we somehow support logging of the Nanoose Bay old-growth forest (block DL-33) because we support their decision to keep 1600 hectares of Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem off-limits to logging through a new Land Use Order. That’s like saying "because you like the new rain jacket I got you, you’ll like me dumping this bucket of cold water on your head, too.
The Shaw Daily local news program ran a great feature on the popular Avatar Grove in August 2010. Watch the video to see the giant gnarly redcedars the grove is now famous for and to hear some excellent commentary from Liberal MP Keith Martin on the need for more old-growth forest protection in BC!
Active logging operations are creeping closer to the largest Douglas fir in the world and environmentalists fear the 1,000-year-old tree will be left vulnerable to blowdown and its value as a tourist attraction will be degraded.
The Ancient Forest Alliance published photos of some of the biggest trees still standing in B.C. The newly formed organization is seeking to inform the public of the deteriorating existence of old-growth forests over the past century.
The Ancient Forest Alliance would like to acknowledge the generosity of Don Barthel, founder of Used Victoria https://www.usedvictoria.com/ for his donation of a data projector to us, which we have used numerous times to give slideshow presentations to hundreds of people and which we will use to reach thousands more over the next few years.
BC Government Expands Protections to 39,000 hectares of old-growth forests on northern and central Vancouver Island, and 1600 hectares of rare Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystems
Following a trip to visit Avatar Grove and nearby clearcuts in the Gordon River Valley with Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners TJ Watt and Brendan Harry, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca federal Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin wrote to the Times Colonist to express his ardent support for the protection of the old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island. Martin has proposed the expansion of the boundaries of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to include much of the remaining unprotected old growth stands on the South Island.
Despite the presence of ancient Red cedars and evidence of karst formations under the forest floor, the provincial forest ministry appears to see no need to protect the stand of trees north of Port Renfrew dubbed Avatar Grove.
The ministry recently rejected a proposal by the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce and the Sooke Regional Tourism Association to protect the grove in its entirety, arguing that 24 percent of the grove is in an old-growth management area, and that is sufficient protection.
Donate
Send a Message
