A scant 10 minute walk off a logging road near the BC's West Coast town of Port Renfrew is Avatar Grove, a stand of old cedars so majestic, powerful and gnarled that T. F. Watt said he and his colleagues from the Ancient Forest Alliance "were running around like kids in a candy story" when they found it in 2009.
The government has until 3 p.m. Thursday to submit a bid to buy 395 hectares of waterfront property for sale by forest company Merrill & Ring, based in Washington state.
Quadra Island’s roughly 3,000 full-time residents have led a charge to raise more than $200,000, to try to push the province into action to save the property from logging or development.
“Island Timberlands has built a road right up to it, and there’s flagging tape right at the entrance,” said Ray McLellan, who has tracked and watched cougars at the small cave since he was growing up in Port Alberni in the 1970s.
If you can stave it off until Sunday (Aug. 4), you can get a cut from noted Vancouver master stylist Champ Waterhouse at the Spirit of the Sea Festival – and help protect endangered old-growth forests in B.C. in the bargain.
Nature Walk and Fundraiser for the Ancient Forest Alliance with Victoria Natural History Society president Darren Copley and Royal BC Museum collections manager Claudia Copley, and with the Ancient Forest Alliance’s Ken Wu and TJ Watt through the Spectacular ROYAL ROADS ANCIENT FOREST!
Join Darren Copley, Victoria Natural History Society president, and Claudia Copley, Royal BC Museum entomology collections manager, BC spider expert Dr. Robb Bennett, and Ancient Forest Alliance organizers Ken Wu and TJ Watt on Sunday, July 21st for a fantastic forest hike. You'll learn about the plants and wildlife of our old-growth forests, see the progress of the boardwalk so far and find out how you can help support the completion of this important project!
“There’s so little of this lowland, monumental forest left,” said Mr. Wu. “Luckily, as a result of massive public pressure, this area was saved. It’s one of the finest groves of old growth in B.C. … and it is generating hundreds of thousands of dollars for the local economy each year.”
Jon Cash, a director of Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce and owner of Soule Creek Lodge, said the economic impact of the trees isn’t something environmentalists have dreamed up.
Join the Ancient Forest Alliance's Ken Wu, TJ Watt, and Hannah Carpendale for a guided nature walk to some of the largest old-growth redcedars, Douglas-firs, grand firs, and bigleaf maples left in the Lower Mainland! Learn about the ecology, plants, and animals that inhabit this forest.
Juniper Ridge is an increasingly rare tract of old-growth forest filled with endangered old-growth Douglas-fir trees, sensitive ecosystems of brittle reindeer lichens growing on open rocky outcrops, and an abundance of juniper shrubs.
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