Ancient Forest Alliance
Nov 3 2013

Anthony Britneff: The Liberals’ forest plans are not sustainable

"With the recent announcement that two sawmills in the communities of Quesnel and Houston will close with the loss of more than 430 jobs, the time has come to face an unpleasant but necessary truth.  Our forests are so depleted as a result of the unprecedented Mountain Pine Beetle outbreak and more than a decade-long logging frenzy in response to it, that we cannot possibly sustain the sawmilling industry that we currently have.  The provincial government has known for years that this would happen, yet did nothing of consequence to prepare for it.  Worse, it now appears to be using the unfolding crisis to set the stage for the virtual privatization of British Columbia’s public forests, a move that it knows full well most members of the public oppose."

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Nov 3 2013

Cathedral Grove threatened by nearby logging, conservationist says

“Cathedral Grove is B.C.’s iconic old-growth forest that people around the world love – it’s like the redwoods of Canada. The fact that a company can just move to log the mountainside above Canada’s most famous old-growth forest – assisted by the B.C. government’s previous deregulation of those lands and their current failure to take responsibility – underscores the brutal collusion between the B.C. Liberal government and the largest companies to liquidate our ancient forest heritage.”

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Nov 2 2013

Douglas Firs in jeopardy: conservationists

"People on Vancouver Island fear a stand of old-growth Douglas Firs near Cathedral Grove is about to be logged.Conservationists have seen evidence of a logging road being built into the patch of forest. 'We have already lost 99 per cent of the old growth coastal Douglas Firs.'”

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Nov 2 2013

B.C. old-growth logging plan slammed by conservationists

"Conservation groups are demanding forestry company Island Timberlands abandon plans to log old-growth forest on the perimeter of a Vancouver Island provincial park. The company is building a logging road to a site that sits 300 metres from the border of MacMillan Provincial Park, best noted for a protected stand of old-growth trees within the park known as Cathedral Grove."

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Oct 24 2013

Groups protest logging in Qualicum Beach watershed

Extremely rare groves of oldgrowth Coastal Douglas-firs, of which only 1% remain, constitute much of these contentious forest lands, they say. "These corporate private lands were previously regulated to public land standards for over half a century in exchange for the BC government's granting of free Crown land logging rights to the companies," said Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. "What has happened is that the regulations on private lands were removed recently, while the companies were still allowed to keep their Crown land logging rights."

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Oct 23 2013

Rally stands for ancient trees

CTV News Clip on the rally at Cathedral Grove against Island Timberlands: https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1029275

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Oct 23 2013

Protesters target old-growth logging on Island

"Protesters from the Ancient Forest Alliance, the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance and several other groups unfurled a banner reading 'Hands off old growth' and handed leaflets to visitors stopping at Cathedral Grove on Highway 4. Conservationists are calling on Island Timberlands to suspend plans to log old-growth forests while asking the provincial government to restore a park acquisition fund, and earmark $40 million a year for a decade to go into the fund."

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Oct 23 2013

Rally Against Logging Old-Growth Forests

Coast News - "Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance says the deregulation of large areas of old growth forest by the government in 2004 has enabled the company to start logging areas that animals like elk and deer, and endangered species like the Queen Charlotte Goshawk, rely upon for survival...'...they’ve got to back off from the areas that were previously designated for protection. These areas are the ecological gems; the high conservation-value forests and extremely rare old growth forests where deer and elk spend the winter. Those areas were all off-limits to logging until the government removed those environmental laws just a few years ago.'"

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Oct 20 2013

Are big-five forest firms about to get a windfall?

The Province - "Author Ben Parfitt is among those concerned about a small number of large forest companies gaining even greater control over B.C.’s publicly-owned forests."

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Ancient Forest Alliance
Sep 28 2013

Anti-logging blockade aims to protect Chilcotin moose

CBC News - "Members of the Tsilhqot'in First Nation have set up a blockade to stop logging southwest of Williams Lake, saying they're worried about declining moose populations in the Chilcotin. Chief Joe Alphonse, chair of the Tsilhqot'in government, says an area known as the "Big Meadow" was once an ideal moose habitat covered with lush forests of pine."

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