The Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance, which is dedicated to protecting and advocating for the province’s old-growth forests, is soliciting bids for Bryoria, a “horsehair lichen” that cascades over tree branches in long, black strands.
After discovering two new lichen species in the southern Interior, lichenoligist Trevor Goward decided to donate the naming rights to raise money for conservation causes.
The Alliance and Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group have earmarked two stands near Cowichan Lake of giant old-growth bigleaf maple trees, which they're describing as "Canada's mossiest rainforest," and want the provincial government to buy the stands from TimberWest.
The McLaughlin Ridge is a 500 hectare tract of ancient Douglas-fir forest near Port Alberni that biologists have classified as both critical habitat for wintering deer and nesting endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks. Conservationists would like the BC government to protect the old-growth forest on private land on McLaughlin Ridge by purchasing it from Island Timberlands.
Environmentalists want the province to buy a tract of previously protected oldgrowth forest near Port Alberni that is now being logged by Island Timberlands. McLaughlin Ridge was classified as critical habitat for wintering deer and endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks until 2004, when the province allowed it to be removed from a tree farm licence
In 2004, the B.C. government removed 88,000 hectares of land now owned by Island Timberlands from their Tree Farm Licenses. Critics say this removed most of the environmental protections formerly acknowledged on those lands.
PORT RENFREW, B.C.—Pink ribbons knotted to tree branches at the side of a gravel logging road mark the entry to an amazing earthly experience, something so different from anything most people have experienced it might be on another world.
DND, which controls more than 4,000 hectares of land around Greater Victoria, is looking at selling surplus land. The Ancient Forest Alliance has called on the federal government to create protected areas or turn parcels over to agencies which can protect ecosystems.
Ancient Forest Alliance worries about potential sell-off of unused DND lands for real estate development and calls for federal government to let Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada, the provinces, regional districts, and First Nations protect unused DND lands.
The potential sell-off of Department of National Defence (DND) lands reported by the Ottawa Citizen and the Canadian media recently is causing concern for conservationists who fear some of Canada’s most endangered ecosystems could be jeopardized by real estate development.
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