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THANKS to the Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) for recently supporting the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) again most generously in our efforts to expand support among "non-traditional allies" including businesses, faith groups, forestry workers, and many others. The MEC and their hundreds of employees have been one of the great supporters of the Ancient Forest Alliance and our campaigns to protect BC's endangered old-growth forests since our earliest years! See their website at: www.MEC.ca

What have we accomplished?  Where are we headed? 

** Please DONATE here! You can also still order 2017 calendars and cards online here! **

2016 has been the most significant and successful year so far for the Ancient Forest Alliance since our founding in 2010!  Not only did we grow significantly in 2016 because of your support – allowing us to build greater organizational capacity to achieve the enormous policy shift needed to save BC’s old-growth forests and ensure a sustainable, second-growth forest industry – but we’ve also made enormous leaps in the campaign towards actually achieving these goals.

Please consider the Ancient Forest Alliance as a priority for your final donations in 2016! Our thousand year old ancient forest ecosystems will be most grateful.

THANKS most gratefully to Patagonia Victoria for supporting the Ancient Forest Alliance for a 3rd year with a huge donation yesterday of $2500! The donation comes as part of the participation of Patagonia Victoria/Banff /Calgary of Elements Inc. in the 1% For the Planet program. Patagonia Victoria has also supported the movement to protect old-growth forests in BC by hosting numerous events in their store and helping to mobilize community members. In addition, Patagonia stores everywhere are donating 100% of their sales from Black Friday - worth a whopping $10 million - to environmental groups across the continent! Please show your gratitude to them this Holiday Season!

Saturday, December 3, 7:30PM
Gallery 1965 (1965 Main St. - see map)

Come out for an evening of film and other creative works supporting old-growth forest conservation! The event will feature ‘Verge: Dancing a Scarred and Sacred Landscape’ (an environmental dance film set in Avatar Grove and around Big Lonely Doug), selected previews from the documentary series ‘Heartwood’ by Daniel J. Pierce, photography by conservation photographer and AFA campaigner TJ Watt, live music, as well as a cash bar (wine & beer). This event is organized by the creators of the film 'Verge.' Entry is by suggested donation of $10-15, with all proceeds going to support the AFA. Learn more about the movement to protect BC's old-growth forests, and engage with artists and their work that aims to ensure the preservation of these forests into the future!

See details and invite others on Facebook HERE

Come out for a screening of Hadwin's Judgement with special guest TJ Watt of the AFA, organized by Metchosin supporter Ric Perron at the Metchosin Community House (4430 Happy Valley Rd) on Friday November 25th at 7pm.  Entry is by donation, with all proceeds going to support the Ancient Forest Alliance. 

Be sure to check out 'Back to the Roots', a forest-themed evening at this year's @Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF). AFA photographer TJ Watt will be on stage presenting the AFA's documentary produced by Roadside Films, the Climbing Big Lonely Doug Drone video, and a slideshow of his top images from the west coast. The night also features a peek at Daniel Pierce's Heartwood Documentree and a new film on the ancient forests of the Incomappleux Valley titled "Primeval" by Damien Gillis. Join us at The Rio Theatre on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 7:30pm (doors 6:30pm). Tickets available online HERE. Hope to see you there!

So many THANKS to the Mountain Equipment Co-op's staff (many of them from Victoria and Vancouver pictured here on our 2013 hike to the Lower Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew) for choosing the Ancient Forest Alliance again for their year-end staff donation! We're most grateful to this wonderful group of outdoor and nature enthusiasts for supporting us over so many years!!

Today the Ancient Forest Alliance (www.AncientForestAlliance.org), the Hua Foundation (www.HuaFoundation.org) and the Stanley Park Ecology Society (www.StanleyParkEcology.ca) launched a new educational program that will eventually target the half a million Chinese-speakers in the Lower Mainland about the ecology and conservation of BC's old-growth forests.

The organizations held their first "training for educational tour guides", volunteers who are interested in potentially leading old-growth nature walks in Mandarin or Cantonese, in Stanley Park. The Ancient Forest Alliance's Ken Wu and the Hua Foundation's Kevin Huang guided the dozen volunteers along some of the most spectacular old-growth trails in the park, the Tatlow and Lovers Trails where 14 feet wide, 800 year old redcedars still stand, and explained in English about the plants, animals, ecology, and related conservation issues regarding old-growth forests in British Columbia. The specialized terminology will subsequently be translated by skilled volunteers into Chinese for the participants to study.

As there are half a million people in the Lower Mainland who identify their mother tongue as Chinese, this program aims to help raise the awareness and level of engagement of a major segment of BC's population on the ecology and conservation needs of old-growth forests.

At a future date to be announced, once there is a trained core of nature guides, there will be public tours in Mandarin and Cantonese in the old-growth forests of Stanley Park and potentially in the Walbran Valley, Avatar Grove, Eden Grove, and Echo Lake Ancient forests.

If you can speak Mandarin or Cantonese and would like to participate in this program, please contact Ken Wu at info@ancientforestalliance.org

Last weekend's hurricane-force winds in Port Renfrew resulted in at least 30 trees (luckily none of the spectacular giants) crashing down over the Avatar Grove trail in the Lower Grove, damaging sections of the boardwalk (see photos HERE). This is unfortunate, as the Ancient Forest Alliance had literally just completed the boardwalk a week before after 3 years of hard work and was about to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to launch its completion. We now have to clear the trail and fix the boardwalk, steps, and platforms in the Lower Grove before we re-open it, which will take several months given the wet winter weather that is descending upon us. For now the Upper Avatar Grove remains open. Thank you for your patience and your support! We look forward to launching the fixed and completed boardwalk in the spring!