Last weekend, Monday hit the road with environmentalist Ken Wu and the Ancient Forest Alliance (along with 80 other curious community members) to pay a visit to what the AFA is calling "Canada’s gnarliest tree".
It didn’t take long for environmentalists to tap into James Cameron’s massively successful Avatar for a creative boost to their rallies.
If the northern spotted owl is healthy, it’s a good sign that the old-growth forests where it lives are healthy. Unfortunately, the spotted owl is not doing well in British Columbia, the only place it lives in Canada. Only six of the beautiful brown-eyed birds remain here.
For just over $1.8 million, you can own 60 hectares of old growth forest and white sand shoreline within the boundaries of Cape Scott Provincial Park, just three kilometres off the world-famous Cape Scott Trail. If a more sheltered retreat is more your thing, $349,000 will buy about 16 hectares of old growth forest bordering the salmon-bearing Fisherman River – which is even closer to the Trail.
I had the pleasure last Sunday to experience the small grove of old-growth trees near Port Renfrew known informally as the Avatar Grove
So I finally went to see Avatar in 3-D. It was breathtaking, of course. But what struck me the most was at the end; I realized that I had viewed this epic story of environmental degradation through plastic 3-D glasses made in China.
Downtown Vancouver was visited by Na’vi from the extraterrestrial moon Pandora at a small rally for B.C.’s ancient rainforests Saturday afternoon.
Led by a carnival band in green costumes, about 100 supporters of the Ancient Forest Alliance borrowed from images from the blockbuster hit Avatar in their protest against the logging of old-growth forests and marched to the Vancouver Art Gallery with its message that the provincial government needs to take more action to protect those scarce landscapes
Send a message to the BC Liberal government that they need to protect our ancient forests, ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and ban raw log exports to protect forestry jobs!
Vancouver, BC
12:00 NOON – Meet at Canada Place (closest Skytrain is Waterfront Station)
12:30pm – Begin march to Vancouver Art Gallery with the lively "Carnival Band".
1:00 pm – Arrive at Vancouver Art Gallery-Georgia Street side: Speeches by Judith Sayers (former Chief of the Hupacasath First Nation), Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance Co-founder), Jens Wieting (Sierra Club of BC Forest Campaigner), and Stephanie Goodwin (Greenpeace)!
The Avatar Grove — a stunning stand of old-growth trees on Vancouver Island — is slated for destruction but local "Na’vis" hope to save it.
In reference to the James Cameron blockbuster film Avatar, the Ancient Forest Alliance will dress in blue like the indigenous Na’vis in the movie, at a demonstration Saturday in Vancouver.
A new Canadian environmental organization, the Ancient Forest Alliance (www.ancientforestalliance.org), is claiming to have found what may be the 'gnarliest tree in Canada' in the endangered 'Avatar Grove' on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
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