Entries by TJ Watt

Sat. March 1st – 4th Annual Tree Huggers Ball Dance Party Fundraiser for AFA!

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It's that time of year again! The UVic Ancient Forest Committee is holding its 4th annual Tree Huggers Ball dance party fundraiser! This event, with great live bands and DJ's, has provided incredible support for the AFA, raising thousands of dollars over the past three years – all by having FUN!!

Where: Felicita's Pub at UVic
When: Saturday, March 1st
Time: 8pm-1am
Tickets: $10 at the door and all proceeds will go directly to the Ancient Forest Alliance! 19+ age event.

PHOTO GALLERY: Kwakiutl First Nation Protest Island Timberlands Logging

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A week ago, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners Ken Wu, TJ Watt, and Hannah Carpendale were in Port Hardy on northern Vancouver Island, where the Kwakiutl First Nation Band is currently protesting Island Timberlands' logging operations near their reserve. They invited us to meet community members, document the logging and protest, and support their efforts.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.722284207804436.1073741849.100000685892458&type=1&l=08ba57d909 

Oldies but goodies: The oldest establishments in B.C., and a couple of people as well

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Oldest Tree:
"If you were expecting Canada's longest-lived tree to be a towering monolith, you're in for a disappointment. B.C.'s oldest tree is a 1,835-year-old yellow cedar stump in the Caren Range of the Sunshine Coast.

Oldest Tree Protector:
"Victoria resident Al Carder, 103, has been working to identify and protect the province's tallest trees for close to 97 years. His devotion to big trees grew from a child's sense of self-preservation in Cloverdale in 1917, when his father suggested he accompany him to measure a nearby Douglas fir felled by loggers…Carder is an inspiration to young environmentalists. Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance, points out that Carder has outlasted B.C.'s 80-year-old second-growth forests, which replaced its felled old-growth giants."

Kwakiutl First Nation protests BC government’s attempts to shirk responsibilities

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"Last June, the nation went to court to seek a judicial review of decisions made by the Provincial Crown in granting land tenures to logging company Western Forest Products. Under the provisions of an 1851 treaty between the Crown and the Kwakiutl First Nation, the Kwakiutl argued the province should have consulted meaningfully with them before allowing Western Forest Products to remove more than 14,000 hectares of private land from the area covered by Tree Farm Licence 6. The licence also covers roughly half of traditional Kwakiutl territory.

The province filed its appeal several weeks ago, and members of the Kwakiutl have been protesting on their traditional territory ever since, and they have no plans to stop any time soon."

Tree growth never slows

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Many foresters have long assumed that trees gradually lose their vigour as they mature, but a new analysis suggests that the larger a tree gets, the more kilos of carbon it puts on each year. "The trees that are adding the most mass are the biggest ones, and that holds pretty much everywhere on Earth that we looked," says Nathan Stephenson, an ecologist at the US Geological Survey in Three Rivers, California, and the first author of the study, which appears today in Nature. "Trees have the equivalent of an adolescent growth spurt, but it just keeps going."

Kwakiutl protest logging

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With the blessing of the Kwakiutl Hereditary Chief, the Kwakiutl Indian Band held a peaceful protest last Thursday, January 9, at an Island Timberlands logging operations in Port Hardy. Band members carried signs proclaiming the area as Kwakiutl traditional territory and gathered at the entrance of the site.

163 Years of Delay, Denial and Dishonour: Kwakiutl First Nation Marks Treaty Anniversary with Day Twelve of Protest

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"The people of Kwakiutl have been left with no choice but to protest and stop Canada and BC from allowing Companies to cut and remove cedar trees from our Land," said Chief Coreen Child of Kwakiutl First Nation. Cedar is vital to the Kwakiutl people, contributing to every facet of life–from ceremony to sanctuary. "As our respected ones taught us, the trees are the 'standing people'. They have the same energy as a bear, a salmon, a mountain, or a human being. The trees in the forest are like family," said Tom Child, Lands Manager and Band Member of Kwakiutl First Nation.