Entries by TJ Watt

THANK YOU to Our 5 Year Anniversary Supporters!

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Thank you to all who donated towards the AFA’s 5 Year Anniversary Celebration & Dinner as well as our 5th Anniversary Earth Day fundraising goals! We greatly appreciate the guests, volunteers, businesses, organizations, artists and others whose generous contributions made the evening an occasion to remember, as well as the many others who weren’t able to make it but have contributed during this pivotal time.  With your dedicated support, we will continue to broaden our movement, complete the Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew, protect specific endangered ancient forests, and work towards ensuring comprehensive, science-based legislation to protect endangered old-growth forests across BC.

Port Aberni water fight has political implications

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Back in 2013, a group of 23 organizations, foresters, scientists and local MLA Scott Fraser signed a letter expressing concern that 60 per cent of old growth – some designated by provincial scientists as critical winter range for deer and elk under the tree farm licence from which they were removed in 2004 — had been logged in the upper watershed. Old growth there also serves as a filtration system for the town’s high quality water.

“Logging on these steep old-growth slopes has a high potential to alter the quality and rate of water flow and the streams’ courses,” Fraser warned in a letter last October to the Managed Forest Council which oversees logging practice on private lands. Watershed cutblocks above China Creek “should never have been logged,” he said.

You’re invited! AFA’S "5 Year Anniversary Celebration & Fundraising Dinner" Friday, April 17th

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This is a very special time in our journey: 2015 marks 5 years since the birth of our passionate organization. Thanks to your generous support, we've flourished and grown since our humble beginnings and we hope you can make it to our sustainable dinner event and presentations in Victoria on April 17th! Free drink ticket, door prizes, music, socializing with other supporters! Presentations (Dr. Andy Mackinnon, Vicky Husband, Arnie Bercov, Ken Wu, TJ Watt…) Limited space available so get your tickets soon!

Clear-cutting threatens Echo Lake eagle colony (includes VIDEO and PHOTO GALLERY)

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Every fall, hundreds of eagles descend upon the Fraser Valley to roost in the treetops surrounding Echo Lake. Experts say there is no other place like it in the world. “This is eagle central. It’s the place that if you want to protect the largest concentration of raptors on earth, this is just about it here,” says Ken Wu of Ancient Forest Alliance….  The fight continues to protect old-growth forest from logging. While the B.C. Government announcing 55 hectares were protected as old growth management areas, there are still 40 hectares that fall under a woodlot license.

Echo Lake home to diverse and endangered species

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“These biodiversity surveys show that protecting all of Echo Lake’s surrounding old-growth and mature forests is important not only for saving the largest night-roosting site for bald eagles on Earth, but also for a large diversity of other species, including many species at risk,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “And these new findings are just the tip of the iceberg from just a single weekend of surveys – future surveys will undoubtedly turn up much more. It further re-enforces the fact that it should be a no-brainer for the BC government to protect all of Echo Lake’s surrounding forests.”

Race is on to save Fraser Valley’s bald eagles, Echo Lake old-growth forest

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"Up to 700 bald eagles roost in a small grove of old-growth trees around Echo Lake in the Fraser Valley each fall. Does this sound like the kind of place that should be logged?…When salmon return to spawn, the eagles spend their days feasting on fish on the river banks, then, just as darkness descends, fly up to roost in the towering Douglas firs and cedars surrounding Echo Lake…Mr. Ben-Oliel, with support from the Ancient Forest Alliance, started a campaign in 2012 to save the Echo Lake forest. In 2013, the government protected 55 hectares – just over half the old-growth around the lake. But Mr. Ben-Oliel is horrified the plan still allows about 40 hectares of old growth and mature forest to be logged on the north and west sides of the lake."

Diverse and Endangered Species found at Echo Lake Ancient Forest near Vancouver

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Mission, BC – A biodiversity survey (ie "Bio-Blitz") of an extremely rare but endangered, lowland old-growth forest between Mission and Agassiz (about a 2 hour drive east of Vancouver), the Echo Lake Ancient Forest, famous for its bald eagles, has revealed that it is also home to a large diversity of flora and fauna. This includes many species at risk such as various species of bats, frogs, snails, dragonflies, and moss. The surveys, conducted over a weekend last year by biologists and naturalists, and coordinated by the Ancient Forest Alliance, have now been compiled and will be submitted to the BC Ministry of Environment’s Conservation Data Centre and Wildlife Species Inventory. Over 2 days, approximately 174 plant, 55 vertebrate, 153 invertebrate, and 38 fungi species were found around Echo Lake.

AFA’s TJ Watt wins Eco-Hero Award!

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Congratulations to the AFA’s photographer and campaigner TJ Watt, who through popular vote was tied for first place in the local Eco-Hero competition by Hemp & Company! We're proud of TJ, who's photography has gone around the world to highlight the beauty and the plight of BC’s endangered old-growth forests. Thanks for everyone's support and votes!

Comox Lake watershed logging under the microscope following boil water advisory

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Logging company officials maintain harvesting increases in the Comox Lake watershed in recent decades had nothing to do with the extended boil water advisory in the Courtenay area. But as more severe storms wreck havoc on the ecosystem, which provides the drinking water for tens of thousands in the Comox Valley, a local conservation group says it's time to rethink forestry practices.