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.
Friday, Feb.7, 2014
4:30 to 6:00pm
West Mall Center rm 3253, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby
Join Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance to learn about the politics and ecology of BC’s endangered ancient forests, and find out how to help ensure their protection!
"They also wondered if TimberWest had tailored a definition of old growth that allowed them to search out and cut the last remaining stands of old forest by calling them second growth. 'How did TimberWest pull that off?' asked Valerie Langer of Forest Ethics Solutions. 'By using a bizarre, technically unheard of, definition they made up.' …[the local residents] found a recent cut-block full of tall, straight, giant trees dominated by Douglas fir over 500 years old and equally impressive stands of western red cedar. Unfortunately, they claim, the trees were already felled and lying on the ground."
Rally from 3:15 to 4:00 pm at the Martha Piper Fountain, and Forum from 4:30-7:00 pm at the Forest Sciences Center rm.1005, 2424 Main Mall. Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC) union along with diverse environmental, industry, and First Nations speakers.
“We’re concerned this has become a long-term problem,” said Jens Wieting from environmental advocacy group the Sierra Club. Ideally, a healthy forest will absorb more carbon in the soil and trees than it releases, for example through burning, decomposition and logging. This is sometimes called a carbon sink. Due to a number of factors — including pine beetle infestation, slash fires, wood waste and clear cutting — B.C.’s forests have not done this since 2003, and are emitting carbon dioxide at alarming rates, the group said.
Most living things reach a certain age and then stop growing, but trees accelerate their growth as they get older and bigger, a global study has found. "This finding contradicts the usual assumption that tree growth eventually declines as trees get older and bigger," said Nate Stephenson, the study's lead author and a forest ecologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS). "It also means that big, old trees are better at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere than has been commonly assumed."
Thanks to Cat Abyss Clothing, a new eco-friendly clothing company who will donate 10% of proceeds to the Ancient Forest Alliance from their kickstarter campaign.
Good news near Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast! All of the proposed clearcuts in the old-growth cedars of Dakota Bowl have now been dropped by BC Timber Sales. Thanks to Elphinstone Logging Focus for their work in this area, including finding the widest hemlock in BC!
DATE: Monday, December 2, 2013
LOCATION: Ambrosia Event Center, 638 Fisgard St.,Victoria
TIME: 7:00-9:00 pm
Drinks! Snacks! Silent Auction of Goodies! Presentations! New AFA calendars and shirts!
In this coverage of the Cathedral Grove controversy, take note that only 1% of old-growth Coastal Douglas-fir trees remain in all ecosystem types across the coast (i.e. they are not only scarce in the "Coastal Douglas Fir" biogeoclimatic zone which Island Timberlands seems to imply, but in the Dry Maritime subzone of the Coastal Western Hemlock zone where Cathedral Grove lies and in other forest types…) and that the planned protection as Ungulate Winter Range for black-tailed deer in the areas now being logged or roaded by Island Timberlands was supposed to be followed up by provincial legislation – but the lands were removed from the TFL and the company and BC government failed to follow-up with an agreement to ensure these areas' protection.
Donate
Send a Message
