Entries by TJ Watt

The fight to save Echo Lake’s old trees and wildlife has begun

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Here's a new story in today's Globe and Mail about the old-growth forest campaign, spearheaded by local landowners Susan and Stephen Ben-Oliel and supported by the Ancient Forest Alliance, to protect all of the forests in the mountains surrounding Echo Lake (a rare lowland old-growth forest between Mission and Agassiz in Sts'ailes territory, and also the world's largest night-roosting site for bald eagles) from logging:
“Echo Lake is home to the largest night-roosting site for bald eagles on Earth,” said Mr. Wu, who in 2012 launched a campaign to save the area, then slated for logging.
In 2013, the British Columbia government set aside 55 hectares, protecting just over half the old-growth cedars and Douglas firs around the lake.
Mr. Wu wasn’t satisfied and since then has been pushing for the addition of another 40 to 60 hectares to the reserve, which would protect the key eagle area. “That would get the bowl, essentially the mountain and forest that rings Echo Lake. So it should be a no-brainer at this point,” he said.

New calls for a moratorium on old-growth logging

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Here's a new Focus magazine article by Briony Penn about Vancouver Island's old-growth forests, featuring forest ecologist Dr. Andy MacKinnon, Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce president Dan Hager, Jens Wieting of the Sierra Club, AFA, Ahousaht and Tofino councils, and the growing support among businesses, chambers of commerce, and municipal councils for protecting BC's old-growth forests.

Rare Lowland Old-Growth Forest at Risk – Road-building and Logging Surveys Underway at Echo Lake, the World’s Largest Night-Roosting Site for Bald Eagles, east of Vancouver

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Road-building is scheduled to begin this week and preliminary logging surveys of the old-growth redcedars are underway by Echo Lake, an extremely rare, lowland old-growth forest about 2 hours east of Vancouver between Mission and Agassiz. Echo Lake is part of the drinking watershed for local people, is home to the largest night-roosting site for bald eagles on Earth, and harbours much wildlife including bears, cougars, bobcats, wintering black-tailed deer, osprey, numerous bats, and various Species at Risk. Local landowners and conservationists are redoubling efforts to convince the BC government to protect the endangered north and west sides of the lake.

Sustainable Forest Rally (July 22, Port Alberni)

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The Ancient Forest Alliance will be supporting the forestry workers with the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (now the Public and Private Workers of Canada) at a rally they are organizing in Port Alberni on July 22. Please come out if you can in solidarity with them and local Port Alberni activists to support a sustainable, second-growth forest industry and to end the export of raw, unprocessed logs out of Canada! https://www.facebook.com/events/1342362639111734/

Photo Gallery: Avatar Boardwalk Construction – June 18/19 2016

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For the second time this month, volunteers have worked with the Ancient Forest Alliance to construct boardwalk at the Avatar Grove. This round was a huge success! Together we completed 50+ feet of new walkways over many of the areas that flood in winter time and added a beautiful staircase leading off the road to our new viewing platform in the Lower Grove. Volunteers also worked hard to add mesh traction to the many steps, cut and carried over 100 planks of wood into the bush, mixed cement and moved heavy rocks, and did it all with a great attitude and smiles. Thank you all so much!! We're making tremendous progress thanks to the help of the many dedicated individuals who've come out and the donations made by AFA supporters and local businesses. We're working to finish the boardwalk this summer, hopefully after 1 or 2 more work parties. The boardwalk is necessary to help protect the area's ecological integrity and improve visitor access and safety. Stay tuned for further info if you'd like to help out, contact boardwalk coordinator TJ Watt: tj@15.222.255.145 Trail building or construction experience is an asset (we can use more of you!) but not required.

See the photo album at: https://www.facebook.com/ancientforestalliance/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1061996910561562

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

Photo Gallery: Cameron Valley Ancient Forest with the Vancouver Sun

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Last week Vancouver Sun's columnist Stephen Hume came with us to see the endangered Cameron Valley Ancient Forest (ie. "Firebreak"), a truly spectacular lowland stand of densely-packed, monumental old-growth Douglas-firs akin to a "second Cathedral Grove". This grove stands out as among the finest remaining old-growth Douglas-firs anywhere left on the planet and is of international conservation significance.

See the photo album at: https://www.facebook.com/ancientforestalliance/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1061910110570242

Axing old growth a crime against nature

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The Vancouver Sun's columnist Stephen Hume came with us to see the endangered Cameron Valley Ancient Forest (ie. "Firebreak"), a truly spectacular lowland stand of densely-packed, monumental old-growth Douglas-firs akin to a "second Cathedral Grove". This grove stands out as among the finest remaining old-growth Douglas-firs anywhere left on the planet and is of international conservation significance. Please share and add your voice to the comments section at the end!

Voice of BC: Water, Trees & Climate

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The AFA's Ken Wu joins Ben Parfitt of the Centre for Policy Alternatives on a pundit panel on the Voice of BC (aka "the Vaughn Palmer show") on aspects of forest, water, and climate policy in BC.

Old-Growth Maps

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In our campaign to protect the old-growth forests of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, there has been a huge amount of misleading PR stats thrown around by the logging companies and BC government in the media recently to make it sound like lots of old-growth forests remain and much has been protected – this is completely false. They are including vast tracts of stunted, low productivity bog and subalpine stands with low to no commercial value along with the productive stands, and also attach stats from the northern coast (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest, where much more old-growth remains and much more has been protected due to the concerted efforts of enviro-groups) to the southern coast (where very little has been protected, relatively little old-growth remains, and where the forests are much grander with different ecosystems). The fact is that 75% of the productive old-growth forests have been logged on the southern coast, including over 91% of the high productivity, valley bottom old-growth forests where the largest trees grow, while only 8% of the productive forests have been protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. Take note too that of 5.5 million hectares of original old-growth forests on the southern coast, 2.2 million hectares are considered low productivity (ie. bogs, high altitude, steep rocky slopes with stunted trees, etc.) – and if you go to the northern rainforest, most of the landscape is low productivity old-growth forests (or alpine rock and ice). See the stats and the "before and after" maps here, based on BC government and satellite data:
https://ancientforestalliance.org/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/

Some say the fate of British Columbia’s old-growth forests rests in the balance

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Here's a new article featuring renowned forest ecologist Dr. Andy MacKinnon about the fate of BC's endangered old-growth forests. Take note that the forest industry and BC government are spinning the situation about old-growth forests to make it appear as if they are not endangered and that they are already well protected – this is completely false, and they do this by including vast areas of stunted marginal non-commercial stands (bog forests, high elevation and far northern old-growth forests on steep rock faces with small trees, etc.) with the productive old-growth stands with big trees that have been heavily logged, and by combining the southern rainforest (Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland) with its different ecosystems, higher levels of logging, and far lower protection levels, with the northern rainforests (Great Bear Rainforest) where 20 years of boycotts by environmental groups of logging companies in the area resulted in a far greater level of protection in a more intact region of the province, ie. they are two different regions.