May 7 2015

Environmentalists aim to block logging

An environmental group based in Powell River intends to halt logging after releasing its bird nest assessment on Lot 450.... “What it proves conclusively is that there are very high wildlife values there that are threatened by this logging activity and more caution is needed,” said Judy Tyabji Wilson, Pebble in the Pond president. Tyabji Wilson added that on the basis of the report Pebble in the Pond’s board of directors has decided to file an injunction against Island Timberlands. “We will be taking court action against them so that we can at least stop the logging until proper studies are done,” she said. “Time is of the essence.” Island Timberlands began harvesting trees on the company’s private managed forest land in Lot 450 on April 22.

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May 6 2015

B.C. coastal community calls for end to logging in city

Powell River was founded by the timber industry, but the small Sunshine Coast community about 145 kilometres northwest of Vancouver is in an uproar now that loggers are cutting trees right in the heart of the city. Since loggers started clearing roads through the urban forest a few weeks ago, there have been packed public meetings and threats of an injunction by an environmental group. More than 1,000 people have signed an online petition calling for an end to the logging of what is known as Lot 450. Island Timberlands, which holds timber rights to several hundred hectares of forest land owned by the community, has announced plans to cut the area over the next several months.

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Ancient Forest Alliance
May 5 2015

VIDEO: Logging plans draw protests in Powell River

Protesters took to the streets of Powell River upset by plans by a Nanaimo based logging company to cut trees in the city.

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May 4 2015

Island Timberlands discloses its logging plans

Here’s an article in the Powell River Peak about Island Timberlands’ plans to log in the City of Powell River (including a map of the planned cut area).

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Apr 21 2015

Port Aberni water fight has political implications

Back in 2013, a group of 23 organizations, foresters, scientists and local MLA Scott Fraser signed a letter expressing concern that 60 per cent of old growth – some designated by provincial scientists as critical winter range for deer and elk under the tree farm licence from which they were removed in 2004 — had been logged in the upper watershed. Old growth there also serves as a filtration system for the town’s high quality water. “Logging on these steep old-growth slopes has a high potential to alter the quality and rate of water flow and the streams’ courses,” Fraser warned in a letter last October to the Managed Forest Council which oversees logging practice on private lands. Watershed cutblocks above China Creek “should never have been logged,” he said.

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Mar 28 2015

Clear-cutting threatens Echo Lake eagle colony (includes VIDEO and PHOTO GALLERY)

Every fall, hundreds of eagles descend upon the Fraser Valley to roost in the treetops surrounding Echo Lake. Experts say there is no other place like it in the world. “This is eagle central. It’s the place that if you want to protect the largest concentration of raptors on earth, this is just about it here,” says Ken Wu of Ancient Forest Alliance....  The fight continues to protect old-growth forest from logging. While the B.C. Government announcing 55 hectares were protected as old growth management areas, there are still 40 hectares that fall under a woodlot license.

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Mar 27 2015

Echo Lake home to diverse and endangered species

“These biodiversity surveys show that protecting all of Echo Lake’s surrounding old-growth and mature forests is important not only for saving the largest night-roosting site for bald eagles on Earth, but also for a large diversity of other species, including many species at risk,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “And these new findings are just the tip of the iceberg from just a single weekend of surveys – future surveys will undoubtedly turn up much more. It further re-enforces the fact that it should be a no-brainer for the BC government to protect all of Echo Lake’s surrounding forests.”

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Mar 25 2015

Race is on to save Fraser Valley’s bald eagles, Echo Lake old-growth forest

"Up to 700 bald eagles roost in a small grove of old-growth trees around Echo Lake in the Fraser Valley each fall. Does this sound like the kind of place that should be logged?...When salmon return to spawn, the eagles spend their days feasting on fish on the river banks, then, just as darkness descends, fly up to roost in the towering Douglas firs and cedars surrounding Echo Lake...Mr. Ben-Oliel, with support from the Ancient Forest Alliance, started a campaign in 2012 to save the Echo Lake forest. In 2013, the government protected 55 hectares – just over half the old-growth around the lake. But Mr. Ben-Oliel is horrified the plan still allows about 40 hectares of old growth and mature forest to be logged on the north and west sides of the lake."

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Feb 24 2015

Environmentalists explain importance of old growth

The Port Alberni Watershed Forest Alliance has been relentless in their campaign to save the old-growth forests around Port Alberni, at McLaughlin Ridge, the Cameron Valley Ancient Forest, Horne Mountain (above Cathedral Grove) and Katlum Creek. Led by Jane Morden and a great local team, they are real forest heroes in this province!

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Feb 24 2015

Comox Lake watershed logging under the microscope following boil water advisory

Logging company officials maintain harvesting increases in the Comox Lake watershed in recent decades had nothing to do with the extended boil water advisory in the Courtenay area. But as more severe storms wreck havoc on the ecosystem, which provides the drinking water for tens of thousands in the Comox Valley, a local conservation group says it's time to rethink forestry practices. 

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