Nestled on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, the town’s livelihood and identity grew out of logging old-growth forests for most of the 20th century. Mechanization of the logging industry in the 1980s led to significant job loss, which forced the town to find new ways to thrive.
At a fundraiser on March 17 at the Sooke Harbour House, local area business people and interested conservationists came together to raise funds for an information centre in Port Renfrew.
The aim of the free-drink-and-free-appetizer event at Sooke Harbour House is to increase tourism to monumental trees around Port Renfrew.
The environmental advocates with the AFA have worked steadily at publicizing the site of old growth trees they became aware of in late 2009. Some of the cedar and spruce trees located there are reportedly among the oldest and largest on the continent.
Watch the news clip from Al Jazeera, one of the largest TV news networks on Earth that reaches 220 million homes in over 100 countries, who have just featured the Ancient Forest Alliance’s campaign to protect British Columbia’s endangered old-growth forests and the Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island.
"We're always interested in environmental stories," said al Jazeera producer Jet Belgraver, on the phone from Toronto. The story, which will air Saturday, aims to give global viewers "a bit of a reality check" about B.C. logging practices.
Al Jazeera English is actually available to 220 million homes in more than 100 countries around the world, which is what has local environmentalists excited.
Speaking on CFAX 1070 with Dave Dickson Thursday, the Alliance's spokesperson Ken Wu explains how the network found out about Avatar Grove
"This will be the biggest international news hit for the old-growth campaign in a long time," Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance said Thursday. "There is a strong international market for environmental issues, particularly one that is very charismatic."
Bell’s announcement came on the heels of a similar recommendation released by the Forest Practices Board, an independent advisory group for the B.C. government.
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