Watch this Global News piece featuring Sierra Club BC’s Jens Wieting about BC’s global responsibility to protect endangered old-growth forests and the need for urgent action by the NDP government.
With the election of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s new pro-development president, resulting in anticipated increases in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, it is even more important that BC’s temperate rainforests – which store more carbon per hectare than any other forest on Earth – be protected. Yet, the NDP has yet to move on its 2017 election platform commitment to manage old-growth forests sustainably, using the ecosystem-based management approach of the Great Bear Rainforest.
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/nootka-island-logging-aerial-7.jpg7951200TJ Watthttps://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.pngTJ Watt2019-01-03 23:04:462023-04-24 16:54:29Disturbing finding about destruction of old-growth rainforest in B.C.
Thousands of ancient giants, like the enormous redcedar in this film, are being logged in Vancouver Island’s spectacular Nahmint Valley and many more are at risk. Speak up TODAY and send an instant message to the BC government demanding protection for BC’s endangered old-growth forests at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/send-a-message
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Screen-Shot-2018-12-18-at-5.10.00-PM.png6581122TJ Watthttps://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.pngTJ Watt2018-12-19 01:12:202024-07-30 16:58:17Ancient Giant Logged in the Nahmint Valley
Watch this Global News piece about the logging of magnificent ancient forests in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni, featuring AFA Campaigner Andrea Inness.
The AFA is calling on the BC government to immediately place a halt on the logging of old-growth forest “hotspots” of high ecological and recreational value – like the Nahmint Valley – and to use its control of BC Timber Sales to discontinue issuance timber sales in old-growth forests. Urgent action must be taken, particularly given the Nahmint is under investigation for potentially violating BC’s existing inadequate laws, which must be strengthened to protect ancient, endangered forests across the province.
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/nahmint-river-valley-port-alberni.jpg10001500TJ Watthttps://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.pngTJ Watt2018-12-18 23:55:462024-07-30 16:58:19Conservationists call for halt on old-growth logging in Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni
What Will it Take to Save BC’s Old-Growth Forests?
Summer 2018 marked the 25-year anniversary of the Clayoquot Sound mass blockades, where over 12,000 people took part in the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history to protect the area’s remaining intact ancient forests from logging. 25 years on, old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound and across BC are still awaiting protection and, on Vancouver Island, thousands of hectares of ancient forest ecosystems are being forever lost to industrial logging each year.
To commemorate these landmark protests, the AFA released a series of films exploring the significance of the War in the Woods of the 80’s and 90’s, the ecological and economic values of old-growth forests, and the role of Indigenous communities in their protection.
This film, which concludes our series, presents an overview of these issues and the solutions urgently needed to finally protect ancient forests. These solutions, including science-based old-growth protection legislation; policies that ensure sustainable, value-added second-growth forestry; and support for First Nations’ sustainable economic diversification, are fully within reach. They require political will from the NDP provincial government and broad support from British Columbians from all walks of life.
See interviews by Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder), TJ Watt (Ancient Forest Alliance photographer and co-founder), Valerie Langer (former Friends of Clayoquot Sound Campaign Organizer), Paul George (Wilderness Committee co-founder), Dr. Andy MacKinnon (forest ecologist, co-author of the Plants of Coastal BC), Arnie Bercov (Public and Private Workers of Canada President), Dan Hager (Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce President), Andrea Inness (Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner), Eli Enns (Tla-o-qui-aht Ha’uukmin Tribal Park co-founder, Indigenous Circle of Experts Co-Chair), and Tyson Atleo (Ahousaht hereditary leader)
Please help us in calling on the NDP government to finally end the decades-long battle for BC’s ancient forests by sending an instant message at www.ancientforestalliance.org/send-a-message today.
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Braden-Creek-Clearcut-Large.jpg8001200TJ Watthttps://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.pngTJ Watt2018-10-12 21:24:302023-04-06 19:07:30VIDEO: What Will it Take to Save BC’s Old-Growth Forests?
The argument against old-growth forest protection is typically based on the assumption that ‘locking up’ forests is bad for business. Nothing could be further from the truth.
BC’s old-growth forests play an important role in the province’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world every year.
Ancient forests such as those of Clayoquot Sound, Avatar Grove, and Cathedral Grove, and record-sized big trees like Big Lonely Doug and the Red Creek Fir, provide nearby communities like Port Renfrew, Sooke, Tofino, Ucluelet and Port Alberni with increased sustainable business and employment opportunities.
At the same time while protecting old-growth forests, the BC government must foster a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forestry sector by creating incentives and regulations and curbing raw log exports to keep more logs – and more forestry jobs – here in BC.
Video by filmmaker Darryl Augustine, with interviews by AFA campaigner Andrea Inness, Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce president Dan Hager, Tla-o-qui-aht tourism operator Tsimka Martin, AFA campaigner TJ Watt, forest campaigner Vicky Husband, and Public and Private Workers of Canada president Arnie Bercov.
Click here to watch the video on AFA’s YouTube channel.
Check out this most important video clip about the inspiring, cutting-edge First Nations-led efforts of the Tla-o-qui-aht, Ahousaht, and Hupacasath people to protect Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests! 25 years ago, on August 9, 1993, over 300 people were arrested trying to protect the old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, out of almost 900 people who would be arrested that summer. The Tla-o-qui-aht have declared most of their territory as Tribal Parks and the Ahousaht have developed a Land Use Vision that protects 82% of their territory from industrial logging, while the Hupacasath are speaking up for the protection of ancient forests in the Nahmint Valley. The BC government has yet to officially recognize and support these initiatives, and has not committed to undertaking conservation financing for these communities or elsewhere across most of BC at this time, while still supporting old-growth logging in the Nahmint Valley and in large regions of the province. However, there is hope – with your support for these First Nations conservation initiatives!
See the original video by filmmaker Darryl Augustine here.
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Clayoquot-Sound-July-2018-176.jpg8001200TJ Watthttps://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.pngTJ Watt2018-08-09 23:30:492024-07-30 17:02:50VIDEO: Clayoquot Tribal Parks and First Nations Old-Growth Protection
“Trees grow back! As long as we replant the trees, why shouldn’t we cut down the old-growth forests?”
This is a common contention, which is addressed in this latest video by filmmaker Darryl Augustine about some of the key differences between BC’s old-growth forests and the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they’re being replaced with. Our old-growth forests – centuries or millennia-old – have far greater structural complexity than second-growth plantations, which are re-logged every 50-60 years, never to become old-growth again. Hence, old-growth logging under BC’s forestry system is a non-renewable activity akin to fossil fuel extraction.
The distinctive features of old-growth forests (well-developed understories, multi-layered canopies, large amounts of woody debris, lots of canopy epiphytes of hanging mosses, ferns, lichens, etc.) support unique and endangered species that can’t survive in second-growth plantations (spotted owls, mountain caribou, marbled murrelets, etc.); store twice the amount of accumulated carbon per hectare than ensuing second-growth plantations; are vital pillars of BC’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry (tourists are not coming to see clearcuts and tree plantations!); conserve and filter clean drinking water for human communities and wild salmon; and are vital parts of many First Nations cultures: ancient cedars are used for carving canoes, totem poles, masks, etc. and old-growth ecosystems are used for food and medicines.
See interviews by TJ Watt (Ancient Forest Alliance photographer and co-founder), Dr. Andy MacKinnon (forest ecologist, co-author of the Plants of Coastal BC), and Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance executive director and co-founder).
The wave of environmental protests to protect the old-growth temperate rainforest in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island started in 1985 with the blockade on Meares Island by the Tlaoquiaht and Ahousaht First Nations and local conservationists. The protests reached their peak 25 years ago in the summer of 1993 when 12,000 people took part in the blockades by Kennedy Lake, resulting in the arrest of almost 900 people that summer – the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.
But the job is not done. Clayoquot Sound is still not saved and the large scale industrial logging of old-growth forests continues across large parts of the province. Meanwhile, the vast export of old-growth and second-growth raw logs to foreign mills erodes BC forestry employment opportunities. It’s time for the new NDP government of BC to finally protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and ensure a value-added, second-growth forest industry.
Watch this video clip about the protests by filmmaker Darryl Augustine, featuring Eli Enns (Tla-o-qui-aht Ha’uukmin Tribal Park Co-Founder, Indigenous Circle of Experts Co-Chair), Maureen Fraser (Friends of Clayoquot Sound Co-founder, former Tofino Long Beach Chamber of Commerce President ), Valerie Langer (former Friends of Clayoquot Sound Campaign Organizer), Vicky Husband (BC Conservationist, former Sierra Club of BC Conservation Chair, Order of Canada Recipient), and Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance Executive Director and Co-Founder).
Thanks to Warren Rudd for providing the historic video footage.
Click here to watch the video on AFA’s YouTube channel.
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Valerie-Langer-large.jpeg546800TJ Watthttps://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.pngTJ Watt2018-07-19 00:00:002023-04-06 19:07:31VIDEO: History of the 1993 Clayoquot Sound Logging Protests
Watch the latest video by filmmaker Daniel J Pierce who has spent years documenting the controversies surrounding old-growth logging by Island Timberlands – this time at McLaughlin Ridge and the Cameron Valley Ancient Forest near Port Alberni, featuring the campaign led by the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance, whom the Ancient Forest Alliance has been working with for many years!
Watch the film on Vimeo here. Read more about the Ancient Forest Alliance’s campaign to create a BC Park Acquisition Fund.
Learn more about Island Timberlands’ logging in Port Alberni and to support the Watershed Forest Alliance.
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/1.-Cameron-Firebreak-Big-Trees-Jane-Morden.jpg12001800TJ Watthttps://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.pngTJ Watt2014-12-05 00:00:002024-07-30 17:04:33VIDEO: Port Alberni Old-Growth Threatened by Island Timberlands
This great video by Wyatt Visuals, featuring researcher Ira Sutherland and Tla-o-qui-aht canoe carver Joe Martin, describes their work to measure the ecosystem services of Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests, including for First Nations cultural uses, in Nuu-chah-nulth territory in 2014.
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