Ancient Forest Alliance

BC considers ‘limited logging’ of old-growth

The government is now constructing ground rules so that by early 2013 it can begin revisiting the designation of some sensitive areas, mainly in the north-central triangle between Burns Lake, Prince George and Quesnel.

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Plan to maintain timber supply widens land base.

The B.C. government announced plans on Tuesday to meet timber supply shortages in the B.C. Interior by reviewing current prohibitions on logging in environmentally sensitive areas and giving forest companies more power to manage the land base.

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Forests Minister Steve Thomson

NDP Sets Fire to Libs’ Forest Industry Fix

The British Columbia government says it is acting on a series of recommendations to help the province's forest industry in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Critics say it's a weak response to the issue that shows the government hasn't learned from the collapse of other natural resource industries.

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AFA's Hannah Carpendale stands amongst the giant Douglas-fir tree's of the unprotected Kosilah Ancient Forest near Shawnigan Lake.

Rock music video to support old-growth forest conservation in BC

The song was inspired by a trip to the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan where there is a cross-section of a 1300-year-old fir tree that blew down in a storm in the 1960s.

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British Columbia Magazine: Ancient cedars saved

In an ethereal valley near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island, more than 100 remarkable Douglas-fir and red cedar trees have held their ground for centuries. Members of the Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance came upon the gnarled titans - some over 60 metres tall and more than four metres in diameter - in December 2009. Soon after, they learned the area was slated for harvest and launched a campaign to save "Avatar Grove."

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Local Port Alberni Activist

Land swaps could protect watersheds, official says

Logging on hillsides such as McLaughlin Ridge inevitably affects the water supply of surrounding communities and the province should do more to help protect watersheds, says the chairman of the AlberniClayoquot Regional District.

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The scarred landscape of an Island Timberlands clearcut along the McLaughlin Ridge from Oct. 2011. Approximately 400 hectares of the original 500 HA of old-growth remains along the ridges' core.

Battle revealed over use of sensitive Island forest near Port Alberni

An old-growth forest near Port Alberni that had been protected as critical habitat for wintering deer and endangered goshawks is being logged by Island Timberlands - even though newly released documents show Environment Ministry staff strongly disagreed with the company's harvesting plans.

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San Juan Sitka Spruce

On the big tree trail on Vancouver Island

These days, visitors to Port Renfrew can pick up a map to the area's largest trees and set out to explore what's been coined the Big Tree Capital of Canada. While some of Canada's largest trees are out of reach of a typical rental car, there are still plenty of accessible giants - aided by the recent paving of the Pacific Marine Circle Route, which allows travellers to drive across the interior of the island and pop out on the east coast near Duncan, rather than doubling back along the same route to Victoria.

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Photo by TJ Watt

Letter to the Editor – Pine beetle claims refuted

Re: Kieran Report, Aug. 23-29

In his attempt to blame the NDP government of the 1990s for the pine beetle epidemic in B.C.'s forests, Brian Kieran claims that the "infestation was first detected in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park and could have been contained there if forest companies had been permitted to go into the park and selectively log infested areas” — an argument that has been roundly refuted by everyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of the issue.

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Survey tape sparks logging concerns in Vancouver Island old-growth forest

The Vancouver Island old-growth forest that, over the decades, has sparked bitter confrontations over logging is again in the spotlight after survey tape was found near a grove of massive western red cedars.

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