"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.
Victoria, BC – Conservationists are calling on the BC government to establish a Natural Lands Acquisition Fund. In a new report (https://www.elc.uvic.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/FindingMoneyForParks-2015-02-08-web.pdf) prepared for the Ancient Forest Alliance, the UVic Environmental Law Centre (ELC) is calling on the Province to establish an annual $40 million Natural Lands Acquisition Fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands.
Friday, December 11th, 4-7pm (**drop in anytime; special presentation by Ken & TJ at 6pm)
AFA Victoria office (620 View St, 3rd floor #306)
You're invited to the Ancient Forest Alliance's Holiday Season Open House! Come by the AFA office to enjoy some drinks and snacks (including Sea Cider and Tugwell Creek Mead), meet and socialize with other supporters, watch a brief fun presentation by the AFA's Ken Wu and TJ Watt as well as some short film clips from this year, and check out the AFA's holiday gifts!
We greatly appreciate your support and look forward to celebrating with you!
Thursday, December 10, 2015
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Patagonia Vancouver store, 1994 W. 4th Avenue, Kitsilano
Join members of the Ancient Forest Alliance and their hosts from Patagonia Vancouver for a screening of Darryl Augustine's 17 minute film "The Ancient Forest Alliance", some smaller videos including "Climbing Big Lonely Doug" and "Save the Central Walbran Valley (with drone footage)", and a new slideshow presentation by Ancient Forest Alliance activists Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Hannah Carpendale, and Mike Grant on "Exploring and Protecting our Biggest Trees and Old-Growth Forests".
Admission: by donation
For more info contact: info@ancientforestalliance.org
Join and invite others on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1689628047987222/
After a 10-year "climate action pause," Canada is back at the international table. Though expectations are high that the new government will work to end our dependence on fossil fuels and speed up the transition to renewable energy, there has been little discussion about the importance of and threats to our forests in the fight against global warming.
"Conservationists who want the government to take action on climate change by protecting B.C.'s old-growth forests say they've measured a near-record-size red cedar in Vancouver Island's central Walbran Valley.
The Ancient Forest Alliance said the tree that it calls the Tolkien Giant is the ninth-widest western red cedar in the province, according to a list compiled by the University of B.C.'s forestry faculty.
It said the tree has a circumference of 14.4 metres, or 47 feet, stands 42 metres high and lies within a protected reserve.
However, logging is proposed for an area 200 metres away that includes another huge tree the alliance calls the Karst Giant, executive director Ken Wu said Friday.
"Outside the central Walbran, the rest of the upper Walbran is tattered like Swiss cheese. So it means that the little remnants of old-growth are surrounded by clearcuts.
"The issue is large-scale industrial logging throughout the central Walbran valley and for this particular tree, they've already cut the other side of the river so they want to ring this area with clearcuts."
See this article in GlobalNews about the call from conservationists for the BC government to act on climate change by protecting giant trees and surrounding old-growth forest in the Central Walbran Valley!
Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance have located and measured two huge western redcedar trees, one of which makes it into the top 10 widest redcedars in BC, in the endangered Central Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island. The “Tolkien Giant” comes in as the 9th widest western redcedar in BC, according to the BC Big Tree Registry.
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