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."
Unfortunately the court injunction has been extended in the Walbran Valley – see this article from the Vancouver Sun.
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.”
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
Make the Ancient Forest Alliance your Holiday-Giving Priority by picking up some of our beautiful AFA merchandise and/or donating!
• To order products online visit: www.ancientforestalliance.org/store.php
• To donate visit: https://ancientforestalliance.org/donations.php
We’re proud to present the Ancient Forest Alliance’s 2016 CALENDAR! It features many of the special places on British Columbia’s coast that we’ve explored as we work to secure provincial legislation to protect our endangered old-growth forests and forestry jobs. It includes beautiful photos of Avatar Grove, Big Lonely Doug, Central Walbran Valley, Nootka Island, Cameron Valley, Mossy Maples, wildlife, and more!
See here for a full list of items and details on how to purchase/donate!
The AFA office space in Victoria (Central Building, 620 View St, 3rd floor #306, inside the Volunteer Victoria office) will be closed at 4pm on Dec 23rd and from Dec 24th-Jan 4th. The office will re-open on Jan 5th with the regular office hours of Tues & Thurs, 11am-5pm.
There are 3 articles on the endangered old-growth forests of Vancouver Island – the Central Walbran, Nootka Trail, and the East Creek Rainforest – as well as photos from the AFA's TJ Watt, in this latest issue of Wild Coast Magazine, an outdoor adventure and exploration magazine for the Pacific Coast.
"Business leaders in Port Renfrew, B.C., a community that once thrived on forestry, are calling for a ban on logging in the nearby Walbran Valley. The valley is full of ancient old-growth trees, and the Chamber of Commerce says tourists who come to see them have created a multibillion-dollar economy along Vancouver Island's west coast."
Great news! The Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, representing 73 businesses, is calling for the protection of the Central Walbran Valley's old-growth forests! See here for today's media release.
Times Colonists' Jack Knox on the possible funding mechanisms for a BC Natural Lands Acquisition Fund (ie. "Park Acquisition Fund"):
Could unredeemed pop- bottle deposits save B.C.’s precious green bits? Yes, says the Ancient Forest Alliance. So could a property-speculation tax, or money from the extraction of non-renewable natural resources, or a dozen other potential revenue streams.
The Victoria-based conservation group wants the province to set up a $40-million-a-year fund to protect critical natural areas — crucial wildlife habitat, recreation corridors, sources of drinking water and so on — before they get covered in asphalt.
…The group had the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre look at ways other jurisdictions fund similar endeavours.
The law centre found 16 ways that other governments, mostly in the U.S., pay for conservation projects.
…Greater Victoria residents recognized that 16 years ago when they voted for the CRD’s parks acquisition fund, which now generates about $3 million a year. It has been used to preserve much of the region’s taken-for-granted greenery: the Sooke Potholes, bulldozer-bait property next to the Juan de Fuca trail, land linking Mount Work and Thetis Lake parks, and the massive swath of the Sooke Hills that Victorians view as the city's backdrop.
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