Entries by TJ Watt

Scarves for Sustainability Fundraiser – NOW until August 31st!

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From now until August 31st, you can support the AFA by purchasing a scarf through the Scarves for Sustainability initiative at https://scarvesforsustainability.com! Scarves for Sustainability is a project that emerged from the Royal Roads University BCom program with the mission of helping to protect old-growth forests in BC. Scarves for Sustainability sells light, high quality custom silk scarves printed with images of BC’s protected old-growth forests, visible on both sides of the scarf. Through this initiative, they will be donating 100% of the profit from the sale of the scarves to the Ancient Forest Alliance to support our work to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests!

Thank you to Angeline Arsenault, Darren Chan, Maria Fadda, Myles Cook and Nicole Melanson, the creators of the Scarves for Sustainability initiative, for your generous vision and creative support!
 

Photo Gallery: Avatar Boardwalk Construction – August 13/14 2016

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Here are some photos of this past weekend’s boardwalk construction at Avatar Grove! Thanks to the hard work of many volunteers and the generous support from Sitka (who've raised the funds for the last 2 rounds of wood – amazing!!) we've managed to finish a few more key pieces in our push to launch the trail by the end of September! The popularity of Avatar Grove continues to grow exponentially (at times there were 30 cars there over the weekend!) making the boardwalk even more necessary to help protect the area's ecological integrity and improve visitor access and safety. There are still some key areas to finish before the launch but we’re making great headway thanks to YOUR support! We’d like to send our greatest thanks to all the incredible volunteers that came out and made the weekend possible as well as to Sitka for hosting events to raise money for the boardwalk!

If you'd like to help out, please contact AFA boardwalk coordinator TJ Watt: tj@15.222.255.145 Construction or trail building experience is an asset but not required.

To donate to the boardwalk construction, please visit: https://ancientforestalliance.org/avatar-grove-boardwalk-now-completed-and-open/

Thank You to Awaken Apparel!

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Thank you to Awaken Apparel, www.awakenapparel.ca, a new company designing and producing organic cotton and bamboo clothing in Canada with a mission to protect the Earth and empower people to live a more fulfilling life. They will be donating 10% of all their market and online sales to non-profit groups including the Ancient Forest Alliance.

New Spectacular Drone Video of Tree Climbers Scaling Canada’s 2nd Largest Douglas-fir Tree, “Big Lonely Doug”

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Today the Ancient Forest Alliance is releasing a spectacular new HD drone video of tree climbers scaling the second largest known Douglas-fir tree in Canada, “Big Lonely Doug”, in a clearcut on Vancouver Island. Remotely-piloted drones equipped with high definition video cameras are a new tool being used by conservationists like the AFA to monitor and document endangered ecosystems such as Vancouver Island’s old-growth temperate rainforests.

Rare cougar sighting in endangered forest on Vancouver Island

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CTV has run the AFA photographer TJ Watt's still photo of the large cougar and also his video of the smaller cougar in the endangered Upper Walbran Valley:

A conservation photographer has captured a rare photo and video of cougars in the Walbran Valley.
According to a B.C. organization that works to protect endangered forests, cougars on the island tend to avoid clear cut areas.
The Ancient Forest Alliance photographer documented the two cougars, likely a mother with her juvenile offspring, from his car.
“I’ve spent over a decade exploring the old-growth forests of Vancouver Island several times a week, and I grew up here, but I never saw a cougar until this past weekend,” TJ Watt said.
Watt said seeing the carnivores was a “dream come true.”

Rare cougar sighting – Mother and juvenile filmed and photographed in the Walbran Valley’s endangered old-growth forest

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This past weekend in the Walbran Valley’s endangered old-growth forest, conservation photographer TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance captured a photograph and video of a rare cougar encounter – two cougars in fact, a large and smaller one, likely a mother with her juvenile offspring. In the brief encounter, the large adult cougar casually bounded across the road, pausing in one instant long enough for Watt to get a somewhat blurry photo through his front window, while the juvenile meandered for about 20 seconds along the road, allowing Watt to capture several seconds of shaky video.