Entries by TJ Watt

New Visual Arts Professor Creates Avatar Grove Film Project

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Internationally acclaimed artist Kelly Richardson, a new professor in UVic’s Department of Visual Arts, is bringing the old-growth forests near Port Renfrew sharply into focus with a new digital art project.

Created with the participation of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), Richardson's large-format film will be shot in July at Port Renfrew’s Avatar Grove (a popular nickname for its Nuu-cha-nulth Pacheedaht name of T'l'oqwxwat) by Christian Kroitor, the grandson of IMAX inventor Roman Kroitor, and released on IMAX screens across Canada next year.

Port Renfrew’s Avatar Grove featured in national IMAX series

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Sooke News Mirror: A Victoria artist, recognized internationally, will showcase Port Renfrew’s old growth forests in a new IMAX project. Kelly Richardson, who visited Avatar Grove two years ago has chosen it to be featured in her upcoming digital art installation series, which will be projected on IMAX screens across the country in 2019. “Having […]

Internationally-acclaimed artist Kelly Richardson moves to Victoria, turns attention to “Tall Trees Capital” of Canada – Port Renfrew

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Vancouver Island’s famed old-growth forests near Port Renfrew – known as Canada’s “Tall Trees Capital” – have attracted the attention of internationally acclaimed artist Kelly Richardson, who will feature these ancient forests in an upcoming digital art installation to be projected on IMAX screens across the country as part of an upcoming large-format film series.

ACTION ALERT: Support Expanded Protection of the Endangered Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystem in British Columbia!

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The BC government is seeking YOUR INPUT on their proposal to increase the amount of Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystem protected on public (Crown) lands on Vancouver Island’s southeast coast and in the southern Gulf Islands.

The Coastal Douglas-Fir (CDF) ecosystem is home to the highest number of species at risk in BC and, with less than four percent of the region’s ecosystems currently protected by the province, the proposed protection measures are greatly needed. But by themselves, they're not sufficient to halt the loss of biodiversity from the region. 

Please take just a couple minutes to WRITE to the BC government, telling them you support their proposal to expand protections in the endangered Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystem on Vancouver Island and in the Gulf Islands!

Policy Recommendations for Old-Growth Forest Protection, support for First Nations, and Sustainable Forestry Jobs in BC

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Policy Recommendations for Old-Growth Forest Protection, support for First Nations, and Sustainable Forestry Jobs in BC Background British Columbia's old-growth forests are an iconic part of the province’s identity and are home to the largest trees on Earth, surpassed only by the US redwoods in grandeur. A century of industrialized logging has resulted in over […]

Thank You to All Supporters of the Ancient Forest Alliance!

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The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) was thrilled to grow our support base in 2017 to include a diversity of local businesses, artists, and organizations. The support and generosity of these businesses and individuals has been fundamental in our work to protect BC's endangered old-growth forests and ensure a sustainable second-growth forest industry. We would like to send a special thank you to everyone who supported our work this past year!

Talking Points for Meetings with Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs)

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Your MLA may or may not be well-informed on the need to protect endangered old-growth forests and to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry jobs. When meeting them, share your concerns, outline the basic information we’ve provided, and try to convince them to take a favourable stance if they haven’t already. You should also be prepared to discuss some key issues of concern your MLA is likely to point out. Below are some topics your MLA might bring up and how you can address them.

Ancient Forest Alliance supports BC government’s proposal to expand Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystem protection

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The Ancient Forest Alliance commends the BC government and Ministry of Forests on their proposal to increase the amount of Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystem protected on public (Crown) lands on Vancouver Island’s southeast coast and the southern Gulf Islands.The proposed new protected areas total 1,125 hectares and expand upon a similar process in 2010 that resulted in the issuance of similar land use orders which protected 2,024 hectares of public lands on southeast Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.

Forest advocacy group discovers grove of giant Sitka spruce trees on Vancouver Island

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Here is a recent Globe and Mail article about the ancient Sitka spruce grove that we located recently near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory. The grove includes a huge, 11 foot wide Sitka spruce that is wider than the 10th widest spruce (the Carmanah Giant) listed on the BC Big Tree Registry.

TimberWest Corp. is quoted, saying they have classified the area for conservation purposes for now within their private lands inventory. This should make it easier at some point for the land to be purchased – ideally by the province – as an ecological reserve or conservancy, as public protection is a far greater guarantee for the area's future security than a voluntary designation under the private ownership of a timber corporation.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners found the grove earlier this month and identified it as a significant old-growth site of high conservation value. People would have traversed, lived in, and hunted throughout the area for thousands of years, and early loggers had cut in the vicinity all around the grove a century earlier, but luckily left several relatively limited clusters of giant ancient spruce here.