This short video, part of the series “Heartwood: A West Coast Forest Documentree” by Daniel Pierce of Ramshackle Pictures, features groups coming together in solidarity in Cathedral Grove in October 2013 to fight Island Timberlands’ old-growth logging near Port Alberni.
Government scientists Darryn McConkey and Erica McClaren stated "negotiations ceased because we could not agree on the management regime within these boundaries. Island Timberlands wanted to extract timber resources from within UWRs [Ungulate Winter Ranges] and WHA 1-002 [Wildlife Habitat Area for endangered Queen Charlotte Goshawks]
and Ministry of Forests could not scientifically rationalize how the quality of these areas could be maintained." Ministry scientists go on to say that Island Timberlands's proposed management "did not incorporate any input from the Ministry of Environment" and "is not supported by the best available science."
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.
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.
Shaw TV's Sucheta Singh takes us just north of Port Renfrew to Avatar Grove. A magical place full of old growth forest the size of skyscrapers.
The agreement — which will preserve another 500,000 hectares of old growth — increases forest protection to nearly 70 per cent in the mid-coast region from the 50 per cent level already protected by 2009. The addition pushes the amount of old-growth forest preserved to more than three million hectares, an area larger than Metro Vancouver.
"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."
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."
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.
The oldest trees in a forest aren't just passively clinging to the carbon they've drawn from the atmosphere and stored as leaves and wood – they're capturing CO2 at a pace that increases with each passing year.
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