Entries by TJ Watt

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.

BC Hydro orders protestors off land near Site C dam

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Treaty 8 First Nations protest against the Site C dam in northeastern BC: "Local people are trying to protect the land – significant because it contains swaths of old-growth boreal forest – until court proceedings run their full course, Hofmann said."

B.C. forestry watchdog finds timber companies have too much power

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The board’s findings drew immediate support from the environmental community and those individuals who have fought against the province’s inability to stop controversial logging practices.
“Logging companies have free rein over everything,” said Dan Gerak, owner of Pitt River Lodge, who is fighting to stop the Teal Jones Group from logging his tourist viewscapes and the rainforest habitat of some of the last few grizzlies in southwest B.C.
“Somebody has to get control of these logging companies. They have way too much power.”

In terms of emissions, logging the Walbran makes no sense

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Here's a new article by the AFA's Ken Wu in Focus Magazine about the impacts of old-growth logging on climate change. In particular, it debunks the false notion that logging old-growth forests and replacing them with younger second-growth tree plantations benefits the climate. Scientific research shows that BC's coastal old-growth forests store two times more carbon per hectare than the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they're being replaced with – and that the second-growth plantations are simply trying to re-sequester or re-absorb the carbon that is lost into the atmosphere after logging the original old-growth forests. However, it'll take 200 years to resequester the released old-growth carbon, which will never happen under the 30 to 80 year rotation ages in coastal BC when our second-growth stands are slated to be relogged. Thus, there is a major net release of carbon – about 50% – when converting old-growth forests into second-growth stands. You can read the article online at: https://focusonline.ca/?q=node/979