Ancient Forest Alliance executive director Ken Wu

Clearcutting threatens black-tailed deer, activist says

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.
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Ancient Forest Alliance

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

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.
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Canada’s largest tree

Canada’s biggest tree

Canada’s largest tree, a western redcedar named the “Cheewhat Giant” stands in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake west of Lake Cowichan. The tree is over six meters (20 feet) in trunk diameter, 56 meters (182 feet) in height and 450 cubic meters in timber volume (or 450 regular telephone poles’ worth of wood).
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A waterfall cascades through the old-growth redcedars in the endagered Avatar Grove.

Province takes step towards protecting ‘Avatar Grove’

Speaking on CFAX 1070 with Adam Stirling Tuesday afternoon, the group's spokesperson Ken Wu says the government made the commitment on Saturday
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Photographer TJ Watt is dwarfed by one of the huge alien shaped Red Cedar's in the threatened Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew

B.C.’s Avatar Grove needs park status, say environmentalists

The move to protect the grove has the support of the local chamber of commerce and the logging company that has the cutting rights to the area, but Wu says without park status, there is no guarantee the grove will not be logged in the future.
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AFA's photographer TJ Watt takes a shot of "Canada's Gnarliest Tree" in the Upper Avatar Grove

Hunt for trophy trees yields a treasure trove on Vancouver Island

The popularity of Avatar Grove, as it was named in a brilliant branding move, has convinced the British Columbia government to protect the area — and it may yet lead to a rethinking of how the province manages its oldest forests.
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Bidders can buy the rights to name these two new species of lichen.

Naming rights to new lichen species up for sale

The money will go to two conservation projects — to help the Ancient Forest Alliance protect B.C.'s old growth forests, and help the Land Conservancy buy private lands in the Clearwater Valley to expand Wells Gray Provincial park.
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The lichens being auctioned off for namining rights are a key part of the diet of BC's mountain caribou.

Likin’ a lichen? Why not put your name on it forever?

National Geographic explorer Wade Davis, who lives in the Stikine Valley in northern B.C., has made a $3,000 bid. And Andy MacKinnon, a noted author who works as a forest ecologist for the B.C. government, has offered $3,200.
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Naming rights for this new species of Bryoria or “Horsehair Lichen”

Like lichen? Name of species up for grabs in fundraiser

Normally, the person who makes the discovery gets the right to name a newly discovered species but Goward decided to auction off that right to raise funds for the Ancient Forest Alliance and The Land Conservancy of British Columbia.

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A large group of hikers crowd around the massive redcedar dubbed "Canada's Gnarliest Tree" during an Ancient Forest Alliance led public hike to the Avatar Grove in summer 2010.

Eco-tourism in Port Renfrew

The Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the Ancient Forest Alliance, the advocacy group that leads tours of the majestic ‘Avatar Grove’, to funnel more tourists into the area and feed the local economy.
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