“Big Lonely Doug”, a recently found old-growth Douglas-fir tree standing alone in a clearcut on southern Vancouver Island, has been officially measured to be the second largest Douglas-fir tree in Canada. Last week, renowned forest ecologist Andy MacKinnon measured the goliath tree. The results are as follows..
Article by Huffington Post on the recent measurement of Big Lonely Doug as the second largest Douglas fir in Canada.
Coverage by CTV News on Big Lonely Doug, officially measured as the second-largest Dougas fir tree in Canada.
Conservationists call on BC government to expand protection around Cathedral Grove, including Mount Horne, the scenic Cameron Lake, the Alberni Summit Highway, and the Cameron River Canyon, as Island Timberlands is poised to log Mount Horne above the world-famous old-growth forest.
The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation band in southern Clayoquot Sound (Meares Island, Kennedy Lake, Long Beach, Clayoquot Valley, Tofino and Tranquil Creeks region…) have a long history of pioneering Tribal Parks and continue to do so today. Here's a good article about their recent celebration and some history of the battle for old-growth forests on Meares Island in the early 1980's that really sparked the campaigns to save Vancouver Island's old-growth forests over 30 years ago!
The Meares Island Tribal Park was the first Tribal Park declared in British Columbia, and resulted in keeping the island’s majestic old-growth red-cedar forests still standing to this day. Since that time the Tribal Park model has not only been expanded by Tla-o-qui-aht in their own territory, but has also inspired First Nations’ protected areas across British Columbia and increasingly, around the world.
“The declaration of Meares Island as a Tribal Park 30 years ago set in motion an idea that has caught and spread throughout indigenous communities, that we can sustain our cultures by safeguarding the land and living things that provide for us,” stated Eli Enns, Tla-o-qui-aht co-founder of the Ha’uukmin (Kennedy Lake Watershed) Tribal Park in Clayoquot Sound. “We can assert our own management plans for our territories, as we have been doing for thousands of years, so that we can continue to live in harmony with the land that sustains us and all of humanity.”
Many Earth Day events throughout the world are focused on trees and forests. In Western Canada, conservationists are calling on the British Columbia government to expand protection around MacMillan Provincial Park to fully encompass the forests above and adjacent to the world-famous Cathedral Grove.
Come out to support the Ancient Forest Alliance at these upcoming Earth Day/Week events, booths & fundraisers in Victoria and Vancouver, including the Earth Day Parade & Celebration, Creatively United for the Planet, Cafe 932, North Park Bike Shop, Grassroots Eco Salon's "Haircuts not Clearcuts" fundraiser, and the Granville Island Public Market. SEE HERE for details on all these events. Thanks so much to these organizers and local businesses for your support!
Approximately 200 people came out to hear from First Nations, labour leaders, forestry policy analyst Anthony Britneff and noted environmentalist Vicky Husband. Britneff is a former senior forester with the B.C. Ministry of Forests and Range. He retired in 2010 after 40 years with the agency, and has been speaking out about what he calls "a perfect storm of mismanagement." On April 1, Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steven Thomson announced a public consultation on a proposal to increase area-based tenures and tree farm licences. The consultation runs until May 30. "This process is not a public consultation at all. It's the government asking for feedback on what it plans to do," Britneff said.
"When you drill down past all the headings and references to Area-based Forest Tenures on the Ministry’s website and in its Discussion Paper, it becomes clear that what the Ministry is proposing is a rollover of volume-based licences into one particular – and highly controversial – type of area-based tenure, i.e. Tree Farm Licences (TFLs).
So, rather than a Discussion Paper on Area-based Forest Tenures, the Discussion Paper could be more accurately described as a Discussion Paper promoting the benefits of Tree Farm Licences and defining the criteria for rollover to these TFLs. Why confound the terms and cause confusion? Why not make it crystal clear, with no ambiguity, that this whole exercise is about TFLs alone? Well, Tree Farm Licences have always been controversial in BC. Just last year, the Minister of Forests tried to push through legislation allowing for large-scale conversion of existing timber licenses into TFLs. Many in the province felt that this move would be a giveaway to the investors and shareholders of a few big companies at the expense of other sectors of the forest industry, First Nations and the population as a whole. In the face of widespread opposition, the Forest Minister was forced to withdraw the legislation."
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