Naming rights for this new species of Bryoria or “Horsehair Lichen”

Wade Davis and Andy MacKinnon, BC’s Best Known Botanists, Make Bids for Naming Rights for New Species of Old-Growth Forest Lichens as part of Conservation Fundraiser

“We’re lucky to have BC’s Rock Star botanists, Wade Davis and Andy MacKinnon, support this ground-breaking conservation fundraiser,” stated Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “Wade has a long history as a great conservationist and ethnobotanist, working for decades to protect BC’s wilderness as well as tropical ecosystems and cultures. Andy co-authored ‘Plants of Coastal BC’, which many think of as the ‘Bible of BC Botany’. He is also the foremost authority on old-growth forest ecology in this province.”

Old-growth redcedar stump in the Klanawa Valley. Vancouver Island

Parks Day Alert: Video clip of “Canada’s Largest Tree” and old-growth logging

The clip features Canada�s largest tree, a western redcedar named the Cheewhat Giant growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve north of Port Renfrew and west of Lake Cowichan. It also features new clearcuts and giant stumps of redcedar trees, some over 4 meters (14 feet) in diameter in the Klanawa Valley adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and also near the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park (in the Nitinat Lake/Rosander Main region) logged in 2010 and 2011.

Flagging tape marked "Falling Boundary" in the lower Avatar Grove when the forest was initially surveyed for logging.

Ancient Forest Alliance and Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce cooperate to Protect Old-Growth Forests and Avatar Grove through new Chamber Info Centre

The info centre will play host to a media press conference today, Thursday, July 14 at 12:00 noon, followed by a tour of the nearby unprotected Avatar Grove. Port Renfrew Chamber President Rosie Betsworth and Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt will discuss their cooperative efforts to promote and protect the Avatar Grove and other nearby old-growth forests.

The Al Jazeera film crew and AFA activists TJ Watt and Ken Wu visit Canada's largest spruce

Al Jazeera Covers Ancient Forest Alliance’s Campaign to Save British Columbia’s Endangered Old-Growth Forests and the Avatar Grove

An Al-Jazeera news crew toured the endangered Avatar Grove, the San Juan Spruce (Canada’s largest spruce tree), and clearcuts near the town of Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island last week with Ancient Forest Alliance activists Ken Wu and TJ Watt, and subsequently interviewed BC’s Forests Minister Pat Bell.

AFA Campaign Director Ken Wu sits atop a massive

B.C. looking for new ways to protect ancient trees

Bell, who has previously emphasized that B.C. has ample protection for old-growth trees, said the change is driven by the public mood.

Flagging tape marked "Falling Boundary" in the lower Avatar Grove when the forest was initially surveyed for logging.

BC Government considers protecting the Avatar Grove and Ancient Trees

Forests Minister Pat Bell’s statements comes on the heels of a new Forest Practices Board report released on Thursday that calls on the BC government and industry to seek “creative ways” to save ancient trees, that the land-use policy framework exists for the BC government to readily protect the Avatar Grove

Liberal MP Keith Martin stands on top of a massive

Forestry Watchdog Concludes Strong Public Interest for Saving Ancient Forests and that BC Government can Readily Protect Avatar Grove

This report brings the welcome conclusions that there is 'strong public interest' in protecting our extremely rare, monumental stands of coastal ancient forests like the Avatar Grove, and that the BC government has the legal mechanisms to quickly protect them – if they have the political will

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Ancient Forest Alliance’s One Year Anniversary, Organization Prepares for Province Wide Tour

Since then the non-profit environmental organization has become perhaps the fastest growing environmental group in BC, snowballing to 18,000 supporters through Facebook and by email, and garnering hundreds of news stories in the media on its campaigns.

Ken James of the Youbou TimberLess Society (YTS)

Tree-Huggers and Tree-Cutters Celebrate 10 Year Alliance

The Youbou TimberLess Society (YTS) will be hosting a film screening of their documentary videos “Stump to Dump”, and “Log Exports” produced by Lake Cowichan Secondary students, at the Duncan United Church Hall on Jan 20th at 7pm. A discussion with YTS members and Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance will follow.

A large group of hikers crowd around the massive redcedar dubbed "Canada's Gnarliest Tree" during an Ancient Forest Alliance led public hike to the Avatar Grove in summer 2010.

Endangered Avatar Grove Celebrates One Year Anniversary

To mark the one year anniversary since identifying the spectacular but endangered Avatar Grove the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce is repeating its request to the provincial government to protect the Grove while the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is planning to organize monthly public hikes to the Grove until it is saved.