Entries by TJ Watt

Hope on Vancouver Island following historic Great Bear Rainforest agreement

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After years of protests, boycotts, and negotiations, the Sierra Club of BC, ForestEthics, and Greenpeace, working to protect the northern rainforest of BC (the Great Bear Rainforest) have now succeeded in getting 85% of the forests there off-limits to logging through legislation (conservancies and parks) and regulatory protections (forest reserves, ecosystem-based management).
Now it's time to get the southern rainforest (ie. Vancouver Island and the SW Mainland coast), where only 8% of the productive forests are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas/ Wildlife Habitat Areas/ Ungulate Winter Ranges (forest reserves), protected with modern, science-based, expanded protections.
Here's a CHEK TV piece where the AFA's Ken Wu talks about the endangered Central Walbran Valley and Vancouver Island.

Most of B.C.’s Great Bear Rainforest protected

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Great news – Huge strides in getting the northern rainforest of BC protected! Now to get the southern rainforest on Vancouver Island and the SW Mainland protected, and in the rest of BC, where protection levels are far, far behind! Global TV:
An agreement has been reached to protect 85 per cent British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest from logging, ending a decades-long battle to safeguard the central coast rainforest.
The deal signed between First Nations, environmental groups and the British Columbia government covers 3.1-million hectares in protection, an area that is the size of Nova Scotia.
Jens Weiting of the Sierra Club said logging in the remaining part of the forest will be tightly controlled.
“It’s a globally outstanding region, also, in terms of its size. It is 6.4-million hectares. It is larger than many European nations. It is larger than the Netherlands or Belgium or Switzerland and it is really a global responsibility to find solutions to protect the ecological integrity and support communities in this region.”

Islands in the Sky: Chopping Ancient Walbran Valley Forest Spells Extinction for Treetop Species

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Check out the new Desmog Article on the endangered Central Walbran Valley: “By taking these trees down or by causing disruption you are committing species to go extinct… . Who would feel good about species going extinct just because we have mismanaged a resource? That’s the bottom line.”
The province has granted Surrey-based Teal Jones Group a permit for a 3.2-hectare cutblock east of Carmanah Walbran Park.
The cutblock is in the 500-hectare Central Walbran where, unlike the valley further south which is tattered with cutblocks, there is contiguous old-growth.
“It’s where our forests reach their most magnificent proportions,” said Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance.
"These are the classic giants. The biggest and the best — and some of the largest remaining tracts and finest old growth western red cedars are in areas such as Castle Grove, together with old-growth dependent species such as the Queen Charlotte goshawk and marbled murrelet,” Wu said, emphasizing the importance of these areas for tourism as well as biodiversity.

Ground zero for Walbran

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WildCoast Magazine on the endangered Central Walbran Valley:
"What we’re looking at across this wide valley is a messy forest – the indication it is old-growth. In the valley bottom is Castle Grove, one of the finest remaining examples of ancient red cedar stands. It and the surrounding old growth on the lower slopes make up one of the largest intact chunks of endangered, unharvested forest remaining on Vancouver Island.
It’s a rare view. On Vancouver Island south of Barkley Sound, about 90 percent of the original forest has been logged, along with about 95 percent of the lowland old growth.
'What we’re really down to is the last remnants of the classic giants and it’s the best of the classic giants because it’s literally in the Carmanah-Walbran-San Juan-Gordon River, these four southern valleys where you get the very best growing conditions in the entire country. If you go north it gets colder, as you go east it gets drier,' says Ken Wu, a campaigner for the Ancient Forest Alliance."

Conservation groups plan a provincial fund to buy new parks

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Island Tides, a great newspaper serving the Gulf Islands, has printed the full article on the 16 conservation and recreation groups in BC calling on the BC government to establish a $40 million/year land acquisition fund to purchase and protected endangered ecosystems on private lands. Places like McLaughlin Ridge in Port Alberni's drinking watershed, Horne Mountain above Cathedral Grove, the Cameron Valley Firebreak (similar to a 2nd Cathedral Grove but unprotected), the Koksilah, Muir Creek, Stillwater Bluffs, the Day Road Forest…and hundreds of other endangered areas on private lands could benefit from such a fund.

Push for provincial land-acquisition fund gathers steam

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"A plan to establish an annual $40-million provincial fund to purchase private land now has 16 conservation and recreation groups behind it.
Wu said that the push to preserve more land takes in a variety of needs, including protecting watersheds that supply drinking water and helping tourism by keeping natural areas intact. He said he expects tourism businesses to start getting behind the fund.
The call for a provincial fund has picked up momentum with a report from the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre that included a 'menu' of funding options used by governments across North America.
…one measure that has worked well in other places is using unredeemed deposits from beverage containers.  Dubbed 'pops for parks,' it is estimated that the strategy could generate $10 million to $15 million a year.
“If you don’t return [the containers], then that money, in places like New York state and a lot of jurisdictions in the U.S., is used by the government to expand their protected-area system….'”

‘The Ecology and Status of the Central Walbran Ancient Forest’ by the AFA’s Ken Wu and TJ Watt

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When: Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, 7:00 pm
Where: The HUB, 2375 Koksilah Road, Cowichan Station (south of Duncan)

Learn about the old-growth forest ecology, wildlife, relevant policies, and conservation status of the Central Walbran Valley's old-growth forests in the context of southern Vancouver Island. Discussion to follow.
Find out what you can do to help protect the area's ecology and to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry jobs

Free. Donations appreciated to cover hall rental.

Questions: cvns@naturecowichan.net

Old Growth Walbran – Shaw TV Victoria

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Check out the news report by Shaw TV on the endangered Central Walbran Valley! TJ Watt and Ken Wu from the Ancient Forest Alliance talk about their goal of legislation to protect all of BC's endangered old-growth forests and to ensure a sustainable second-growth forest industry, and Dan Hager of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce talks about the local business community's interest in seeing the Central Walbran protected for tourism.