MP Keith Martin stands in front of "Canada's Gnarliest Tree" in the endangered Upper Avatar Grove.

Ancient Forest Alliance supports MP Keith Martin’s proposal to expand Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to include Canada’s grandest old-growth forests

Port Renfrew, BC – The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is supporting Member of Parliament (Esquimalt- Juan de Fuca) Keith Martin’s proposal to extend Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s boundaries to protect adjacent endangered forests, including the grandest stands of old-growth trees in Canada. Last week Martin joined Ancient Forest Alliance activists TJ Watt and Brendan Harry on a guided tour through the spectacular Avatar Grove and a nearby clearcut filled with giant stumps near the national park reserve.
Media Release
AFA Campaign Director Ken Wu sits atop a massive

“Canada’s Biggest Stumps Competition” Launched

Discovery of numerous 12 to 15 feet (3.7 to 4.6 meters) wide old-growth stumps recently logged near the Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island prompts creation of a new Facebook group where members can upload their largest stump photos.
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Photographer TJ Watt is dwarfed by one of the huge alien shaped Red Cedar's in the threatened Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew

Earth Day Media Release: Avatar’s James Cameron Invited by Environmental Group to Visit the Endangered “Avatar Grove” of Ancient Trees

British Columbian environmentalists with the new environmental group, the Ancient Forest Alliance, are inviting James Cameron, director of the blockbuster film Avatar, to visit a spectacular but endangered old-growth forest on Vancouver Island nicknamed the “Avatar Grove” and to endorse its protection. Today, the film Avatar is being released on DVD and blue ray disc to coincide with Earth Day, a release date chosen by Cameron in order to raise environmental awareness. Avatar is the highest grossing film at the box office in world history, generating $2.7 billion (US) in sales internationally (the next highest was the Titanic, also directed by Cameron, which grossed $1.8 billion US).
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Benna Keoghoe stands next to a giant Douglas fir measuring 6ft in diameter growing in Mount Doug Park located within the Oak Bay/Gordon Head swing riding.

New Old-Growth Activist Teams to be Launched in BC Swing Ridings to take the Ancient Forest Campaign to a Whole New Level

Without the handcuffs of charitable status which forbids organizations from condemning or endorsing politicians and political parties, BC’s new Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA - visit www.ancientforestalliance.org ) is now positioned to organize hard-hitting campaigns in key provincial swing ridings. In particular, the AFA will be working to systematically train and guide activists to establish “Ancient Forest Committees” (AFC’s), or forest activist teams, in 8 to 10 provincial swing ridings over the next year. The AFC’s will be technically autonomous from the AFA, but will be trained and guided by the AFA particularly in their formative stages.
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Ancient Forest Alliance

World’s Largest Douglas fir Threatened by Proposed Logging in Adjacent Old-Growth Forest

A new proposed logging cutblock near the world's largest Douglas fir tree, the Red Creek Fir, has been identified as that of TimberWest, a BC-based logging company. The Red Creek Fir, located 15 kilometers east of Port Renfrew, is recognized as the largest Douglas Fir Tree on Earth, with enough wood to make 349 telephone poles (ie. 349 cubic meters in total timber volume - see https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hre/bigtrees/docs/BigTreeRegistry.pdf). It is 73.8 meters in height and has a trunk 4.2 meters wide (Diameter-at-Breast-Height or DBH).

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A ship loaded with raw logs leaves the Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island.

It’s time for the BC government to curb raw log exports and boost value-added forestry jobs, say unions and environmental groups

Vancouver – Between 2013 and 2016, more raw logs were shipped from BC than during any other four-year period in the province’s history, prompting two forest industry unions and three leading environmental groups to call for a ban on raw log exports from old-growth forests and a bold government action to plan to stimulate BC’s flagging forest sector.

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Ancient Forest Alliance

World’s largest Douglas fir at risk, fearful environmentalists charge

The world's largest Douglas fir could be at risk, say Vancouver Island environmentalists.
Media Release
Ken Wu beside the Red Creek Fir. Growing in the San Juan Valley near Port Renfrew BC

Largest Douglas fir in the world at risk say environmentalists

New logging tape marks an area about 50 metres away from the largest Douglas fir in the world in the Red Creek area east of Port Renfrew.
Media Release
Ancient Forest Alliance

British Columbia: Clearcutting the "Avatar Forest"

An exceptionally spectacular and accessible stand of newly discovered old growth redcedars and Douglas firs near Port Renfrew has recently been marked for logging. The unprotected forest on Crown lands about 10 kilometers north of Port Renfrew, nicknamed the “Avatar Grove” after the hit movie for its awe-inspiring beauty and alien-shaped, enormous trees covered in burls, was discovered in early December last year by Vancouver Island photographer and “big tree hunter” TJ Watt and a friend.
Media Release
Ancient Forest Alliance

An exceptionally spectacular and accessible stand of newly located old growth redcedars and Douglas firs near Port Renfrew has recently been marked for logging.

An exceptionally spectacular and accessible stand of newly located old growth redcedars and Douglas-firs near Port Renfrew has recently been marked for logging.

Media Release