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Here are some photos of this past weekend’s boardwalk construction at Avatar Grove! Thanks to the hard work of many volunteers and the generous support from Sitka (who've raised the funds for the last 2 rounds of wood - amazing!!) we've managed to finish a few more key pieces in our push to launch the trail by the end of September! The popularity of Avatar Grove continues to grow exponentially (at times there were 30 cars there over the weekend!) making the boardwalk even more necessary to help protect the area's ecological integrity and improve visitor access and safety. There are still some key areas to finish before the launch but we’re making great headway thanks to YOUR support! We’d like to send our greatest thanks to all the incredible volunteers that came out and made the weekend possible as well as to Sitka for hosting events to raise money for the boardwalk!

If you'd like to help out, please contact AFA boardwalk coordinator TJ Watt: tj@15.222.255.145 Construction or trail building experience is an asset but not required.

To donate to the boardwalk construction, please visit: https://ancientforestalliance.org/avatar-grove-boardwalk-now-completed-and-open/

Thank you to Awaken Apparel, www.awakenapparel.ca, a new company designing and producing organic cotton and bamboo clothing in Canada with a mission to protect the Earth and empower people to live a more fulfilling life. They will be donating 10% of all their market and online sales to non-profit groups including the Ancient Forest Alliance.

If you're in Calgary, come out on Aug 22 to see a spectacular and informative slideshow by the Ancient Forest Alliance's executive director Ken Wu at the Patagonia store (downtown Calgary at Stephen Avenue) about "Exploring and Protecting the Old-Growth Forests of Coastal BC". https://www.facebook.com/events/1058597564218224/

Here's a Vancouver Sun article by Stephen Hume also based on the new Sierra Club mapping on how much old-growth remains:

Forest scientists like Jim Pojar say this forest should be considered the remnant of a dwindling non-renewable resource because the life cycle of these forests is so long that it will take 40 to 50 human generations before they recover to their original state.

Even then, he says, they won’t be anything like the forests that exist today, nor will the communities of plants, insects, birds and animals — about 400 species — that rely upon them.

Meanwhile, the Sierra Club study points out, even as the remaining rainforest vanishes under the chainsaw, the rate at which it’s being cut has increased by 12 per cent. And, it says, re-planted forests that won’t mature for another 250 years are already being logged after only 50 or 80 years as immature second and third growth.

Pojar, a forest ecologist who wrote the well-regarded guide, Plants of Coastal British Columbia, was an ecologist and researcher with the B.C. Forest Service for years. He recently authored a major study for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society on climate change and its implications for biodiversity and conservation policy.

“Given the amount and pace of climate change, all B.C. forest stands older than 150 years are non-renewable resources, and some of them should be removed from the timber harvesting land base,” says Pojar. “If logged they will not be replaced either naturally or artificially by mature and old stands with similar structure and function, even if they are allowed to grow old.

“Even if allowed to grow old they will not recover to the primary condition,” he says, “which is why I maintain that recovery of old growth forest is now an inappropriate, anachronistic concept, given rapid climate change, system unpredictability and scientific uncertainty.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance will be supporting the forestry workers with the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (now the Public and Private Workers of Canada) at a rally they are organizing in Port Alberni on July 22. Please come out if you can in solidarity with them and local Port Alberni activists to support a sustainable, second-growth forest industry and to end the export of raw, unprocessed logs out of Canada! https://www.facebook.com/events/1342362639111734/

In our campaign to protect the old-growth forests of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, there has been a huge amount of misleading PR stats thrown around by the logging companies and BC government in the media recently to make it sound like lots of old-growth forests remain and much has been protected - this is completely false. They are including vast tracts of stunted, low productivity bog and subalpine stands with low to no commercial value along with the productive stands, and also attach stats from the northern coast (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest, where much more old-growth remains and much more has been protected due to the concerted efforts of enviro-groups) to the southern coast (where very little has been protected, relatively little old-growth remains, and where the forests are much grander with different ecosystems). The fact is that 75% of the productive old-growth forests have been logged on the southern coast, including over 91% of the high productivity, valley bottom old-growth forests where the largest trees grow, while only 8% of the productive forests have been protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. Take note too that of 5.5 million hectares of original old-growth forests on the southern coast, 2.2 million hectares are considered low productivity (ie. bogs, high altitude, steep rocky slopes with stunted trees, etc.) - and if you go to the northern rainforest, most of the landscape is low productivity old-growth forests (or alpine rock and ice). See the stats and the "before and after" maps here, based on BC government and satellite data:
https://ancientforestalliance.org/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/

Today, May 30, 2016, the BC Chamber of Commerce membership at their Annual General Meeting almost unanimously passed the following resolution calling on the provincial government to expand the protection of old-growth forests across the province where they have or would likely have greater economic value if left standing (this is true throughout most of the southern half of the province...):

Have fun while supporting the protection of the endangered Walbran Valley this Friday, May 27th at the White Eagle Hall in James Bay as part of the Save the Walbran Tour! There will be great local musicians as well as information booths to learn more about how you can help out! Tickets $20 at Lyle's Place. The tour is being hosted by local organizers in conjunction with several non-profits and community initiatives.  For more info see:. https://www.facebook.com/events/1102443283130908/