Ancient Forest Alliance

Facebook game lets you solve anagrams to save Canada’s forests

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True to its name, in order to play Donate2Play Media’s first new game, Wordraiser, you’re going to have to pony up some change. Wordraiser is an anagram game that has players make as many words as possible out of one word.
If you manage to guess the key word, you get to level up. After leveling up a few times, you’ll be asked to buy “Karma Points” that enable you to play more games.

Donation packages range from $1 to $20 USD, where $1 USD equals 10 Karma Points, which is good for buying one game. But right now, it seems that there’s nothing stopping you from playing as much as you want. We’re not sure if this is a bug, as the game just launched during the previous weekend.

While Wordraiser is supposedly free-to-play, it’s also the offspring of Donate2Play’s partnership with The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), a Canadian grassroots organization devoted to finding the balance between forestry jobs and preserving British Columbia’s ancient woodlands (defined as tree populations that are over 120 years old). So half of the money given to Wordraiser will be split between AFA and Donate2Play.

Lastly, there’s a top ten high scores leaderboard that displays players’ names followed by their levels, and two of AFA’s founders, TJ Watts and Ken Wu, are currently on the board in ninth and third place, respectively. According to its Facebook page, Wordraiser currently has 202 monthly users.

Keep in mind, though, that Donate2Play is doing all the heavy lifting here, with no risk or prior investment from AFA. Outreach for the game is done via automatic Facebook wall posts. Players will also receive facts about British Columbian forests during load screens and photos of these forests by TJ Watt.

Canada's Gnarliest Tree in Avatar Grove

Port Renfrew: Gateway to the West Coast Trail

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Here we are at the beginning of the famous West Coast Hiking trail; home to some of the best salmon and halibut fishing in British Columbia. A few hours earlier we had arrived at our destination, the Wild Coast Cottages in Port Renfrew. One of our neighbours quipped that these quaint wooden cabins are dubbed by other guests as ‘the Yuppy way of camping.’

Indeed, the fully equipped cabins with wrap-around deck, which are about the size of a hotel suite, are the only way I like to camp!The Wild Coast Cottages, which are located in prime fishing grounds and boasts the only deep water moorage available in Port Renfrew, is our home while we explore this community of 250 year-round residents. Imagine Tofino two decades ago and you might be able to picture Port Renfrew. It retains its rugged, natural beauty with its roaring surf along the Strait of Juan de Fuca … a perfect, and may I say, spectacular landscape for hiking, fishing, strolling the beach and unwinding!

After settling into our cabin, we meet up with our hiking guide TJ Watt, the passionate founder of Ancient Forest Alliance. We head out on a rough, windy road to Avatar Grove, home to ‘Canada’s Gnarliest Tree’. What a treat to stand beside a 150-foot tall cedar tree that dwarfs anyone and everything around it.

After our hike, we head to the eclectic Coastal Kitchen Cafe. It was highly recommended by TJ, locals and many of the other hikers we met along the way. The place was packed and buzzing with activity. The seafood is local, portions huge, and it’s a great spot to people watch. My partner Dennis and I would venture to say our meals were as good as anything we’ve had in Vancouver. We shared a carrot ginger soup and a side of prawns. Afterwards, I went for the salmon dill quesidillas while Dennis chose the halibut.

As darkness approached, we set out for a stroll along the nearby beach, gathering driftwood for an evening fire. Picture this scene: A nice bottle of red wine, a good read, a cozy fire and a sky filled with stars. It doesn’t get much better than this!

The next morning, bright and early Dennis quietly leaves me sleeping soundly while he meets up with Karl Ablack. The evening before, Karl had offered him a golden opportunity to go fishing with him. The only catch? A 5:30 am start.

At 5:30 a.m., the two set out to fish off of what the locals call East Point. The real name is San Juan Point, located off of Hammond Rocks. They troll out to 500 feet of water and drift west across Owen Point and set the down riggers. Across the straight of Juan de Fuca, Dennis tells me he could see the outline of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. Within an hour they hook into two wild coho salmon, which they release. The next two bites were pink salmon that end up on our dinner table that evening. Karl tells Dennis that he often spots whales, sea lions and sea otters while plying the fishing grounds. It’s also not uncommon to spot a black bear or Roosavelt elk around the delta of the San Juan River.

Meanwhile I had met up with Rosie for a hike to Botany Bay. What a treat. We went down a trail constructed by the youth of the Pacheedaht and the T’Souke First Nations. It winds through the rich tidal pools and a shoreline filled with life … a natural jewel in the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park.

I feel in love with the simplicity and solitude of this magnificent place … Port Renfrew is worth the trip.

A Few Facts: 

Port Renfrew is located on the southern end of the West Coast Trail, a world famous hiking trail built in 1907 along the West Coast of Vancouver Island to save shipwrecked sailors. During the days of sail, from 1830 to 1925, 137 major shipping tragedies occurred in the immediate vicinity of the entrance to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. International recognition was given to the waters off Port Renfrew when it became known as ‘The Graveyard of The Pacific’.

Originally named Port San Juan, the settlers changed the name to honour Lord Renfrew who planned to settle crofters here.

In 2011, Port Renfrew came in 5th place in the World Fishing Network “Ultimate Fishing Town” competition.

Local population:

250 residents. Population expands ten-fold in the summer months with hikers, fishers, and campers.
Amazing natural spots: Avatar Grove, home of the Gnarliest Tree, and Botanical Beach are two of the most famous locations.
Trailhead of both the West Coast Trail and the Juan de Fuca Trail.

More Information:

Wild Coast Cottages: www.wildcoastcottages.com 

Coastal Kitchen Cafe: 1-250-647-5545

Ancient Forest Alliance: www.ancientforestalliance.org

 

Ancient Forest Alliance

Eco-cyclists on cross-country trek

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Finding a cause you really believe in can be hard, but one Victoria native and one Aussie are making tough activist work look easy.

Jaime Hall and Nigel Jackett are so committed to supporting the Ancient Forest Alliance, they’ve dedicated six months of their lives and $10,000 of personal funds to cycle 7,500 kilometres across Canada to raise awareness for the AFA’s Vancouver Island cause. Last May, the two flew from their home in Australia to start the trip in St. John’s, N.L., and they’re set on raising $10,000 by the time they cycle into Victoria this fall.

Cycling across Canada “has been a dream of mine for a long time, but we just needed to find the right reason to do it,” says Hall, 25, a musician who grew up here. “There are so many issues out west that a lot of the country doesn’t know about, even though it affects us all. This has been a wonderful way to spread that knowledge.”

The two are linking their adventures with the audience through their blog, tilthelasttree.com, and have requested pledges every time they spot a new species of bird. When Monday first talked to the pair, they had spotted 168 species and had raised $1,300 — and they’d only reached New Brunswick. Now, they’ve counted 240 different birds, and have topped $2,140 in Ontario.

“Ken Wu and the Ancient Forest Alliance have put such a lot of work into this really great, passionate organization, and we thought that donating our cause to them was a perfect fit,” says Jackett, 27, a bird biologist from Australia who studied and surveyed for the B.C. government on Vancouver Island.

Ken Wu, founder of the AFA, says the organization is thrilled with the committed support, as well as the way Hall and Jackett are working to raise awareness to issues that can be hidden from the rest of the country. Hall met Wu about five years ago, and the two have conversed on wilderness and eco-awareness matters ever since.

“Their goal is to raise $10,000 for us, which would be huge, as in 2010 we ran the whole organization on just over $50,000,” says Wu. “We’re totally grateful to have as informed and dedicated supporters as Jaime and Nigel helping to raise funds and awareness for our campaign.”

This year, the AFA has been focused on working with the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group, a First Nations band between Shawnigan Lake and Nanaimo, in their bid to stop large-scale clearcutting of the former TimberWest lands — lands which were sold to two public sector pension funds without consultation of local First Nations. The AFA has also kept up awareness hikes for Avatar Grove, the Port Renfrew forest that largely put the group in public radar, and has been planning a major rally for September.

To make a donation or download Hall’s by-donation songs, visit tilthelasttree.com.

Link to original article: https://www.mondaymag.com/articles/entry/eco-cyclists-on-cross-country-trek/news/

Nigel Jackett (left) and Jaime Hall are hoping to catalogue as many as 400 bird species as they cycle across Canada

’Til the Last Tree duo going the extra mile for B.C.’s old growth forest

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While most cross-Canada cyclists are wrapping up their journeys right about now, the curious duo of a musician and a wildlife biologist find themselves smack in the centre of the country, shivering in an uncharacteristically chilly early September evening.

If simple distance were the aim of Nigel Jackett and Jaime Hall, the 8,000 kilometres they’ve already travelled since April would have already have delivered them to the coast of British Columbia. On a mission to sight as many bird species as possible in their travels as way to raise money and awareness for The Ancient Forest Alliance, they expect to travel 11,000 kilometres before they’re finished.

Jackett, a wildlife biologist from Western Australia and his partner Hall, originally from B.C. are young, fit and passionate advocates of preserving B.C.’s remaining old growth rainforest habitat and advocating for sustainable logging practices in those areas.

“We’re the first people to ever ride across Canada bird-watching,” said Jackett. “Most people are finished in three months or less. We’ve already been going for four months.”

“You have to get into all sorts of habitat in order to get your bird list,” adds Hall.

So far the list consists of 239 species, the most recent of which, a black-billed magpie, was spotted near Wabigoon. They say they hope to reach 400 species before finishing their journey.

“We still can if we get to B.C. before a lot of the birds that summer over there head south in the fall migration,” said Jackett. “Manitoba holds a lot of different birds, so it’s conceivable that we can get to 400.”

While in northern Ontario, Jackett says they are ever on the lookout for a Great Grey Owl and the American Three-Toed Woodpecker.

A singer-songwriter, music has been helpful in helping Hall communicate their mission to others.

“We did a living room concert in Thunder Bay, which was really cool,” said Hall. “We got to talk to people about what we’re doing. They played a bit of one of my tunes on CBC (radio). There’s sprinklings of it here and there, but my music is definitely not the focus of the ride.”

Hall has put some of her songs on the duo’s website, offering downloads for donations.

Check out Nigell Jackett and Jaime Hall’s website, or donate to their cause at www.tilthelasttree.com.

Link to original article: https://thedrydenobserver.ca/2011/09/7308/

You can try out the new online game to help benefit the AFA while having some fun at www.wordraiser.com

Saanich company launches online game that aids ancient forests

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A Saanich-based company has set out to revolutionize non-profit fundraising, and they’ve turned to Facebook to do it.

On Sept. 8, Donate2Play Media launched its first social media game, a collaboration with local protectors of old growth forests, the Ancient Forest Alliance. The anagram game for Facebook, Wordraiser, combines images, facts and a petition related to the organization’s work, while prompting players for small donations to continue playing.

“Over beers we stumbled upon a concept where we use online gaming to generate funds,” said Adrian Pereira, one third of the team behind Donate2Play, along with his wife Kelly Pereira and friend Tomas Ernst. “It hadn’t actually been done before where we take a charity’s brand and make a game around the brand, integrating donating into the actual game.”

Donate2Play intends to continue covering the initial start up costs of developing games as they did for the Ancient Forest Alliance, while splitting revenue with non-profits in what Pereira describes as a no-risk business model.
“Essentially, Donate2Play is about trying to free (Ancient Forest Alliance) up from the headaches of traditional fundraising, so they can go out and do the work that they do really well, which is discovering new old growth forests,” Ernst said.

While the concept was in development, Ernst went on a nature walk with Ken Wu and TJ Watt, founders of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“This is an non-profit that’s already thinking outside the box,” Ernst said. “They’re already forming alliances with typically untraditional partners for a non-profit.”

While players unscramble words in Wordfinder, they’ll be shown images of some of B.C.’s biggest trees, but if they lose, they’ll be subject to viewing images of some of B.C.’s biggest stumps, photographed by Watt for the tricky and challenging anagrams, he said.

“People have been quite generous so far, but it’s nice any time you can create a new and innovative avenue to bring in funds, especially if it involves entertainment,” Watt added.

Donate2Play hopes to tailor games to organizations globally across the non-profit sector. The company can be found at www.donate2play.com. Visit www.ancientforestalliance.org for more information on the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Link to original article: https://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/saanichnews/news/129632158.html

Kelly Pereira demonstrates Donate2Play

Victoria firm taps into social gaming for fundraising

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Determined to remove or at least reduce the cap-in-hand approach to fundraising used by charities and notfor-profit organizations, a new Victoria company is taking the fundraising campaign to social games on Facebook.

Donate2Play Media, founded by Tomas Ernst, Adrian Pereira and Kelly Pereira, has launched a program to help not-for-profit organizations raise money by tapping into the massive online social-gaming scene.

The company launched the first of those games Thursday – Wordraiser on Facebook – customized for the Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance.

According to Ernst, Donate2Play is about “empowering organizations like the AFA to spend less time chasing money and more time doing what they do best.”

“It’s a new channel to raise funds. Online social games are a billion-dollar industry,” he said, noting they hope to funnel a small fraction of that to organizations like the AFA. “Our goal is to create fresh, online social games that are fun and exciting to help them grow their revenue stream and activate their membership base.”

The Wordraiser game challenges players to create words from a jumble of letters. Players graduate through levels by finding a word that uses all of the letters provided. The game also offers facts and images to raise awareness of the province’s old-growth forests.

The money is raised when players are prompted to donate at certain levels.

The donations start at $1 and can go up to $20. The money donated is split 50-50 between the organization – in the case of Wordraiser that’s the Ancient Forest Alliance – and Donate2Play.

“We don’t want to cannibalize their other donation avenues, this is about augmenting the traditional fundraising channels,” said Ernst who suggested this kind of donating is a lot like dropping spare change into a box at any retail outlet. “We want to tap into the high volume of online users and tap into micropayments, as not everyone has $1,000 to give.”

“This is a great way to reach a new demographic of people, especially ones who may not be aware of the threat to our old growth,” said TJ Watt, one of the co-founders of the AFA, which works to protect old growth forest in the province. “And there’s a powerful ability to share the game with Facebook friends.”

Neither the AFA nor Donate2Play could estimate what kind of money they expect to raise through the game.

“We hope to scale to multiple charities across many causes, we expect big things out of it,” said Adrian Pereira, who noted it’s not all about money. “This is also about building awareness and increasing the support base for the charity.”

Ken Wu, co-founder of the AFA, said the organization is acting like a bit of a guinea pig.

“We don’t know what this will mean for us, but the beauty of it is we don’t have to pay anything, they put in all the risk,” he said, adding the AFA raised about $60,000 last year through traditional channels and expects to raise as much as $90,000 this year. “And hopefully this helps with that, this is a new revenue stream.”

Donate2Play would not divulge what it paid to create the game, other than saying it was costly.

In a 2009 article, Gamepro.com estimated the cost of developing a Facebook game at anywhere between $30,000 and $300,000 over a six-month cycle.

“But we think it’s worth it when you look at the explosive growth online, when you look at games right now,” said Ernst

Link to Times Colonist article not available anymore.

Avatar Grove on the Pacific Marine Circle Route is home to ancient fir

Forest campaigner lauds Avatar Grove protection, criticizes trade-off

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Ken Wu welcomed the British Columbia government’s plans to protect a forest grove his Ancient Forest Alliance has campaigned to save, but criticized the government’s intention to open another old growth area to logging.

“It’s a mixed bag,” said Wu, after the ministry of forests, lands and natural resource operations announced plans this morning to designate 59.4 hectares of forest that include the Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew as an old growth management area while removing another 57.4 hectares from the same protection.

“It is an awesome thing to have Avatar Grove designated off limits to logging,” Wu said, noting that the grove his group named after a popular movie is exceptional valley bottom old growth.

“At the same time they’ve opened up about 57 hectares of OGMA as a trade off for the licensee,” he said. “It’s a no-go to open up other OGMAs to logging, even if they’re higher altitude old growth . . . There should be no more old growth logging down here period.”

The ministry is accepting comments on the plan until Nov. 9. It’s announcement notes the Renfrew planning area includes 11,624 hectares of OGMAs and another 7,732 hectares of old growth forest are protected in provincial and federal parks.

Link to Tyee article: https://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Politics/2011/09/07/AvatarGrove/

Ancient Forest Alliance executive director Ken Wu

Old growth trees cut down in the Caycuse Valley

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The local environment has been dealt a blow in the past few months, thanks to the logging of old growth forest in the Caycuse Valley.

“There’s only a few specks of this old growth left in the interior,” Ancient Forest Alliance executive director Ken Wu said. “We’d like to see the last of the old growth saved.”

West of Cowichan Lake and north of the Walbran Valley, an old growth stand of Douglas fir was clear-cut in June and July of this year, as a result of Teal Jones Group operations.

The Ancient Forest Alliance managed to get there in late June; far too late to prevent the logging from taking place.

The old growth forest that was logged was conveniently located in an unprotected tract of old growth, surrounded by the protected Ungulate Wintering Range and an Old Growth Management Area.

The Ungulate Wintering Range was designated by the Ministry of Forests to sustain black-tailed deer populations, while the Old Growth Management Area prohibits logging.

“Unfortunately, an important chunk of the old-growth Douglas firs were left out of protection and have now been clear-cut,” an Ancient forest Alliance press release reads.

“There’s almost none left,” Wu said, of the Caycuse Valley.

“We’re not saying don’t log, just don’t log the old growth.”

There’s still some unprotected old growth forest land in the Caycuse Valley that has the potential to see logging activity, unless the government steps in.

“If it’s not in a park, Ungulate Wintering Range, or Old Growth Management Area, it’ll become a sea of stumps,” Wu said.

The logging of the old growth Douglas fir will have a negative impact on various animal populations, Wu said, as it serves to provide deer with excellent wintering habitat, which includes the lichens they eat.

“At least 87 per cent of the productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island south of Port Alberni and Barkely Sound have already been logged,” the press release reads.

A before and after map is available online, at www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php.
With the old growth vanishing, deer are pushed into smaller and smaller non-sustainable spaces.

With higher concentrations of deer comes easier hunting by predators.

This will have a spiraling negative effect, affecting creatures that eat deer, including wolves, cougars, and bears, as well as First Nations and non-First Nations hunters.

“It’s to the detriment of all the things and people that use this forest,” Wu said.

Vancouver Island has already seen a four-fold drop in deer populations in recent decades, and a 99 per cent logging of old growth Douglas firs, Wu wrote in the press release.

Now, the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the provincial government to do a better job of protecting old growth forests. They’ve already had some successes in protecting the Avatar Grove, near Port Renfrew.

For the Ancient forest Alliance, it’s all about developing legal tools to help protect the largest monumental trees and groves in the province, maintaining the sustainable logging of second growth forests, and stopping the export of raw logs.
“More than ever, Christy Clark’s BC Liberal​ government is morally obliged to enact a comprehensive provincial old-growth strategy that will end the logging of our last endangered ancient forests.”

“It’s bad for deer, it’s bad for hunters, it’s bad for the ecosystem, it’s bad for tourism, and it’s ethically wrong.”

[Original BC Local News article no longer available]

Ancient Forest Alliance executive director Ken Wu

Clearcutting threatens black-tailed deer, activist says

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A dwindling black-tailed deer population on the Island is further at risk after clearcutting near Caycuse Valley, according to Ken Wu, president of the Ancient Forest Alliance, who has called on the province to protect more old-growth forests.

The newly cut area, near McClure Lake, is a popular winter spot for the deer, who survive on lichen found in the old-growth forest while receiving shelter from the Douglas firs. Their population has already dropped to one-quarter of their numbers in the 1970s, Wu said.

The deer are a food source for wolves and cougars as well as First Nations groups and other hunters, Wu said. By limiting their habitat, the deer are easier for predators to pick off at higher rates, he said.

The cutting was done by Teal-Jones Group about six weeks ago. The company would not comment on the cutting nor its knowledge of deer populations in the area.

Surrounding the 4.8 hectares that was cut is about 103 hectares of forest protected from clearcutting by its designation as oldgrowth management and ungulate winter range areas, according to the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. While deer may not seem at risk in cities or rural countryside, where they can be seen running through neighbourhood streets and feeding on farms, in higher-altitude areas they require forest shelter, Wu said.

Black-tailed deer populations on southern Vancouver Island are surveyed twice a year, and it has been noticed that their numbers are increasing, according to the ministry. Their habitat is protected based on the advice of biologists to ensure they have enough protection and food to survive the winter.

About 45 per cent of oldgrowth forest on Vancouver Island Crown land is protected, according to the ministry, but Wu said too many Douglas fir forests, such as the one near McClure Lake, are being clear cut. “It’s ridiculous and unethical to go to the end of the resource, especially when there is a second-growth alternative,” he said.

Second-growth forests, which can be used for logging, are less adequate habitats for deer, as they don’t have the same amount of lichen.

There are about 485,000 hectares of old-growth forest on Vancouver Island, which is protected, and the province is looking to expand this to include the Avatar Grove area.

Read more: https://www.timescolonist.com

Ancient Forest Alliance

Shaw TV: Avatar Grove & Eco-Tourism in Port Renfrew

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The Shaw Daily television program heads out to visit the popular Avatar Grove with the AFA and takes a look at how business owners in Port Renfrew are starting to embrace eco-tourism as a new economic driver.

Direct link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frFj9xWT8-0&feature=feedf