Article by Dr. Keith Martin

Saving Our Forest Giants

Saving our Forest Giants

 

Port Renfrew is the furthest outpost of my riding. It is a land of extraordinary beauty with mountains that hug a rugged coastline, rivers that run through deep valleys, and a land that harbours significant biodiversity. This area also contains some of the oldest and most majestic living things on our planet. In the area of the Gordon River Valley and further north in the upper Walbran Valley are some of the largest trees on the planet. A few weeks ago, I went into this remote area with a small team from the Ancient Forest Alliance to document these giant Western Red Cedars, Sitka Spruce and Douglas Fir that jut out of the surrounding valley floors like spires from cathedrals.

These trees are very important as they harbour a wide variety of plants and animals when alive, and when they fall, they also provide homes for everything from black bear to fungi. As standing behemoths or fallen giants, they are integral parts of their ecosystems.

However, my trip was also a race against time. For as you read this article, these giants of the forest are being cut down. As I stood in the middle of a clear-cut, I could hear the sharp crack as another tree was being cut down. Less than one kilometer away, I could see the top of a mountain being clearcut. In this clear-cut I stood atop a stump of a recently fallen tree that was at least 6 metres in diameter. Looking at the tightly packed rings of the tree showed that it was more than a thousand years old, yet it would have taken only minutes to cut it down.

Beyond the obvious loss of these magnificent giants is the tragedy that we can do better; cutting down these trees provides a short term benefit and a much larger,

long term loss. We can save these trees and in fact get more money from them alive than dead. Ecotourism walks to see these giants and their habitats with informed guides can provide much more revenue and jobs than cutting these trees for lumber and paper. Secondary growth could still be harvested. This would provide employment in an area that has had chronically high unemployment and low incomes. In many communities,

aboriginal and non aboriginal people have created businesses to guide people through the beautiful areas they live in. It is especially valuable when ethnocultural tours are provided. The region from Sooke to Port Renfrew is an ideal area for ethno-cultural tourism. Only two and a half hours from Victoria, it is a much shorter drive than to go to

Cathedral Grove up island, and is much more impressive.

Let’s work to stop the clear-cutting of old growth trees on South Vancouver Island. If we do this then we will provide long term economic opportunities and save these giants forever. These trees are more valuable to tourism and to the ecosystem than as lumber.

by Dr. Keith Martin, MP

MP Keith Martin stands in front of "Canada's Gnarliest Tree" in the endangered Upper Avatar Grove.

MP Keith Martin wants to expand Pacific Rim park

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is supporting Member of Parliament (Esquimalt- Juan de Fuca) Keith Martin’s proposal to extend Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s boundaries to protect adjacent endangered forests, including the grandest stands of old-growth trees in Canada.

Recently Martin joined Ancient Forest Alliance activists TJ Watt and Brendan Harry on a guided tour through the spectacular Avatar Grove and a nearby clearcut filled with giant stumps near the national park reserve.

Last fall, Martin proposed to expand Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to protect threatened forest lands along the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, in part to protect former Western Forest Products lands by Jordan River and the Juan de Fuca Trail that were threatened by development due to their removal from Tree Farm License 25. While the Capital Regional District has recently purchased the lands by Jordan River and the Sooke Potholes, other forested areas with high conservation and recreation values remain threatened in the region, particularly old-growth forests on Crown lands near Port Renfrew and Crown and private lands adjacent to the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail Provincial Park. Martin has expressed an interest in including such areas in his proposal, which he intends to introduce as a private members bill in the House of Commons at a future legislative session.

“These trees are some of the oldest living creatures on our planet. Cutting them down provides a short term benefit and a much larger long term loss. Ethno-tourism and eco-tours would provide for long term jobs and economic security in this area that has suffered from chronically high unemployment. We are in a race against time to save these forest giants. I am asking the provincial and federal governments to work with the forestry companies to stop this destruction of our old growth forests in the Gordon River Valley, Upper Walbran and surrounding areas,” said Dr. Martin.

Located on unprotected Crown Lands less than a 15 minute drive from Port Renfrew, Avatar Grove is home to dozens of some of the South Island’s largest redcedars and Douglas firs, including several trees with trunks reaching over 12 feet in diameter.

Nanoose Bay resident Helga Schmitt walks through the endangered old-growth coastal Douglas fir forest which the province has approved for logging by the Snaw-naw-as First Nation despite pleas by local governments and community groups to save the area.

Endangered forest turns into Island battleground

The fate of a small patch of endangered Vancouver Island forest has put local residents and politicians at odds with the province and a First Nations band.

The Snaw-naw-as First Nation has been issued a one-time forest licence by the province to cut 15,000 cubic metres of wood west of Nanoose Bay to raise much-needed cash — even though the rare remnant of endangered coastal Douglas fir forest contains endangered plants and animals.

The licence was issued despite a provincial commitment not to approve logging in coastal Douglas fir forests until a protection strategy is in place.

Pleas to save District Lot 33 from the chainsaw are coming from politicians and community groups, fuelled by expert opinions that the 64-hectare block of Crown land should not be cut. But the province and Snaw-naw-as First Nation are not budging.

Snaw-naw-as administrator Brent Edwards said the economic development project is urgently needed by the 231-member band.

The cutting permit has not yet been approved, but logging will start as soon as the paperwork is in place, said Edwards, who expects the band to net about $750,000.

“We are not trying to polarize people or anything, but we have an agreement with the province,” said Edwards, pointing out 80 per cent of the remaining coastal Douglas fir ecosystem is in private hands.

Those who want the ecosystem protected should be looking at private land instead of the sparse areas of Crown land available for treaty settlement or agreements with First Nations, he said.

On eastern Vancouver Island, the majority of land claimed by First Nations falls within the E&N land grant and private land is not on the treaty negotiation table.

But the First Nation is meeting growing resistance from the community and local governments, said Annette Tanner of Western Canada Wilderness Committee. “They want to see this diverse ecosystem, home to many red and blue listed species, including a herd of elk, protected and preserved,” she said.

Qualicum Beach council, the Regional District of Nanaimo and the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities have all passed resolutions asking the province to take another look at the issue.

“This is a very sensitive piece of property,” said Barry Avis, Qualicum Beach councillor and association vice-president.

“For myself, there’s a level of frustration. Does the voice of the people mean nothing?”

The Forest Practices Board has also upheld a complaint by Nanoose Bay resident Kathy McMaster, saying the province did not abide by its commitment to defer issuing new forest tenures until its stewardship strategy was in place.

Board chairman Al Gorley said the bigger problem is the potential extinction of coastal Douglas fir forests.

Adding to the controversy is a biologist’s report to the company contracted by Snaw-naw-as to lay out cutblocks, which lists globally and provincially imperilled species in the forest. In the leaked memo, the biologist recommends against harvesting stands within the licence.

The province is working toward protecting about 1,600 hectares of Crown-owned coastal Douglas fir forest, most of it on Vancouver Island, with the ultimate goal of protecting 20 per cent of the remaining ecosystem.

But Forests Minister Pat Bell, who could not be reached for comment, has said reports show District Lot 33 is not prime land and does not meet criteria for protection, although he has agreed to review the Forest Practices Board report.

Scott Fraser, Alberni-Pacific Rim MLA, said a 2006 consultant’s report to the government says the forest is in good condition and should not be cut, so Bell is “either misinformed or misinforming the public.”

It is the government’s duty to protect species at risk, Fraser said.

“You can’t get more endangered than this, but there’s no Environment Ministry oversight, even though the decision goes completely against the strategy of protecting critical habitat.”

Environment Ministry spokesman Suntanu Dalal said Environment Minister Barry Penner would not comment, saying the Forests Ministry is taking the lead on the file.

Edwards said the Snaw-naw-as will try to mitigate harm to endangered species and will obey all provincial regulations.

“You can’t log without having impacts, but if there are fingers to be pointed, it’s not at us,” he said.

Berni Pearce of Arrowsmith Parks and Land-Use Council, a community-based conservation group, said the First Nation is being presented with a terrible choice. “[They can] benefit from an economic opportunity while contributing to the destruction of the [coastal Douglas fir] — their forest home over ages past — or forego this opportunity, conserve the CDF forest and end up with nothing for their people. This is an unacceptable situation,” she said.

The parks and land-use council is recommending that the province protect District Lot 33 and ask the federal government for help in paying compensation or providing suitable economic opportunities.

2011 Tall Tree Music Festival - Port Renfrew

Inaugural Tall Trees Music Festival grows deep roots

The streets of Toronto were lit up by burning police cars on the weekend of June 26. But back on the Island, music fans were lighting other things as they danced to the music of Jon and Roy, Current Swell, the Racoons, DJ Tedder, Listening Party and other local acts at the first ever Tall Trees Music Festival.

Taking place in Port Renfrew, located on Pacheedaht First Nations territory, the festival was a perfect example of local bands playing for local fans, all in front of a backdrop of tall trees and eagles silhouetted against the West Coast sunset.

Tall Trees offered fans a chance to see some of the best up-andcoming musicians the area has to offer in the loose musical region of surf, folk, rock, and drum and bass/mash up DJ’s

“This festival is a beauty; one hell of a time. It was pretty bang on and I think it should be an annual thing. Just epic,” said Scottie Stanton of Victoria’s Current Swell. “There’s a lot of local talent. And you know there is that festival vibe that you just cannot pay enough for. It’s the best feeling in the world to be around a bunch of people that have the greatest energy.”

DJ Tedder, who moved to Victoria from South Africa when he was 10, agreed.

“It’s a great vibe out here, everyone is happy and friendly, good hope for next year. The setting makes all the difference. It’s a total B.C. vibe.” For Patrick Codere of Mindil Beach Markets, Tall Trees was a bit of an educational experience.

“There is so much to learn from watching other bands,” he said.

“The vibe in Victoria’s music scene is awesome. If you go to a bill of three bands at least one of them is going to be good.”

The band, who hail from the Sunshine Coast and Victoria, felt right at home tucked away amongst the trees playing folkfunk- reggae inspired music with a touch of Jurassic 5.

The festival was put on by Radio Contact, a promotional companycollective based in Victoria. Three Point Property group asked Radio Contact if they would promote and put on an event on an ocean-view bluff set for development by the company. The site, previously a campsite, was eloquently located in the belly of the San Juan Valley.

“The festival grounds seem to speak for themselves. The venue is so awesome, I love it out here. Pretty much everything I’ve heard this weekend I’ve enjoyed,” said Jon Middleton of Jon and Roy, who will be playing at Rifflandia in Victoria this fall.

As Middleton and I stood on the boardwalk talking about Victoria’s growing music scene, the hillside to the west was blanketed with beautiful first and second growth forest, while the eastern hills were juxtaposed with massive clear-cut logging. It’s a paradoxical combination of landscapes that small town B.C. culturally navigates in order to have a prosperous province. The balance between conservation and industry is an act that Port Renfrew is historically familiar with, and one that was represented well at the Tall Tree Music Festival in the contrast between the development work of Three Point Properties, and the conservation work of the Ancient Forest Alliance, who will be receiving most of the proceeds from the festival.

“Everything that we do, we try to have an benefit aspect to,” said Mike Roma of Creative Design/Radio Contact. “And in this case the Ancient Forest Alliance is interested in preserving and protecting a great portion of Port Renfrew.”

“Not only do we want to have a festival here to promote music, but also to promote the community. I think it’s been a massive success, surpassing all our expectations.” Katrina Andres, Operations Director for the Ancient Forest Alliance, said the festival was very positive.

“I had a great time and it seemed like a really successful event. I hope Radio Contact can do it annually,” she said.

Many of the musicians who performed at Tall Trees came not only to make music, but to support the area as well.

“I signed the Ancient Forest Alliance petition,” said Roy Vizer of Jon and Roy. “It’s nice that this sort of [show] brings awareness to the issues in the area. It brings a lot of money to the cause.”

Singer-songwriter Vince Vaccaro moved to Victoria from Montreal when he was 12. His music is a dreamy hybrid of folk and Xavier Rudd earth-tones. The combination of Montreal’s artistic blood, with a Zephyr muse is one worth paying attention to.

Vaccaro believes that we have a responsibility to keep our environment and our economy working together sustainably.

“Our province is our garden, and if we don’t manage it well, our jobs and industries are going to collapse,” he said. “If we don’t find a way to make logging sustainable, then we aren’t doing ourselves any favors in logging for our short-term gains.”

Vaccaro put his money where his mouth is, stepping in to help the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“I’m going to grab the Ancient Forest Alliance clip board and try and sign people up on the petition. There are only two of them, and they are really trying to not be in people’s faces too much, which is good. People are here to party,” he said smiling.

Nanoose Bay resident Helga Schmitt walks through the endangered old-growth coastal Douglas fir forest which the province has approved for logging by the Snaw-naw-as First Nation despite pleas by local governments and community groups to save the area.

Forestry agency has no guidance on conflict over Douglas fir stand

Note: Here is a recent news article about the Nanoose Bay Forest, followed by the media release from the Forest Practices Board, that notes that the province must do more to protect the highly endangered Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem, yet does not prescribe further action. The AFA does not believe that any old-growth forests within the Coastal Douglas Fir zone on Crown or private lands should be allocated for logging – only 1% of the original old-growth remains in the Coastal Douglas Fir zone.

Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance

The provincial forestry watchdog agency agrees the province should allow a mature coastal Douglas fir forest in Nanoose to be logged, but stops short of saying how it can be done.

The Forest Practices Board investigated a complaint against the B.C. Forests Ministry for issuing a woodlot licence for District Lot 33, a 64-hectare property containing rare coastal Douglas fir forest in Nanoose Bay.

Two years ago, the province granted a woodlot licence to the Snaw-naw-as (Nanoose) First Nation to log DL 33. The band’s five-year licence allows up to 15,000 cubic metres of timber to be cut on roughly a third of the property. Logging is expected to start this summer.

In its complaint, the Arrowsmith Parks and Land Use Council said the woodlot licence conflicts with a provincial obligation to protect 1,600 hectares of Crown land to preserve rare Douglas fir forests.

The Forest Practices Board said while it agrees, there may be too little Crown land and too many competing interests to meet that obligation.

“Sometimes the best we can do is lay the facts out as objectively as possible and report on that,” said Al Gorley, board chairman.

Kathy McMaster led a petition to stop the logging and says she is disappointed the board didn’t offer any solutions to protect the property.

“The report is critical of the government, quite rightly, but it doesn’t make any recommendations for changing this. It says there isn’t enough land for government to do what it wants to do and it’s too bad.”

The Snaw-naw-as needs the timber for economic development. Its next step is to get final approval for its cutting permit. No word was available when that is expected to happen.

 

 

Forest Practices Board News Release, 18 June 2010:

Co-operation Key to Survival of Coastal Forest Ecosystem

VICTORIA – An investigation report released today upholds a public complaint about proposed logging in a rare forest type near Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island.

Local residents filed a complaint with the board when they discovered about one-third of the 64-hectare parcel of coastal Douglas fir forest, known as DL 33, was slated to be logged, contrary to provincial government promises.

“In order to meet an Interim Measures Agreement with the Nanoose First Nation, the Province did not abide by its commitment to defer issuing new forest tenures until its stewardship strategy was in place,” said board chair Al Gorley.

As part of its stewardship strategy for the coastal Douglas fir (CDF) ecosystem, the Province identified 1,600 hectares of Crown]owned forest for potential protection. However, the Ministry of Forests and Range issued the tenure for DL 33 before the proposed protection order was approved, on the basis that it did not include DL 33. The ministry has not yet issued a permit to begin logging.

“Taken in isolation, DL 33 is important, but is not the real issue,” said Gorley. “It is a symptom of a problem that has been more than 100 years in the making. Given the large proportion of CDF on private land, and competing interests and priorities on provincial land, there may be little the Province can do on its own to ensure long-term viability of this ecosystem.”

The Province controls just 23,500 hectares (about nine percent) of the remaining CDF forests, and has protected 7,600 hectares to date. The proposed order would protect another 1,600 hectares. The board’s report notes that the stewards of private, federal and local government lands will have to participate further in conservation if greater viability of the ecosystem is desired.

This is the board’s third complaint investigation involving management of the CDF by the Province. In 2005, the board recommended a conservation protocol be developed before any further logging of CDF on Crown land. Then, in 2007, the board recommended the Province finalize a stewardship strategy for management of this ecosystem.

The Forest Practices Board is B.C.’s independent watchdog for sound forest and range practices, reporting its findings and recommendations directly to the public and government. The board is required to investigate public complaints about forest planning and practices.

A map of the riders 260km round trip Big Trees Pedal Powered Tour.

Trees and Bikes: The Big Tree Tour

The Big Tree Tour is a fundraising ride started by four friends who happen to be very passionate about the work the Ancient Forest Alliance is doing. “We also like riding bikes,” said Big Tree Tour organizer and rider Leroy Nixon. The purpose of the tour is to raise awareness about the preservation of our ancient forests through ecotourism and human-powered travel.

The four riders will embark on a 260 kilometer tour of southern Vancouver Island that took place from June 3-6. It started in Victoria, went up to the Cowichan River Valley, across the Vancouver Island Range, then continued through to the Wild West Coast forest in Port Renfrew – where there was a day-long break – then back to Victoria. The tour included some of the most beautiful scenery this province has to offer, with visits to the world’s oldest, largest and most endangered trees.

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is a new organization that is motivated to protect British Columbia’s old growth forests. Ken Wu, co-founder of the AFA, said, “This is a very original awareness and fundraising tour to the biggest trees in Canada. BC’s magnificent but highly endangered old-growth rainforests are natural world wonders, they need all the help they can get. As a new organization the Ancient Forest Alliance is extremely grateful to these pedal-powered advocates for their support.”

If you wish to donate to the cause, there are donation jars in Vancouver at Dream Cycle, and Bikes on the Drive or at Fairfield Cycles in Victoria. You can also sponsor a rider online at bigtreetour.tumblr.com

AFA Campaign Director Ken Wu sits atop a massive

Ancient forests and new advocates

The following is an excellent article from March in UBC’s student newspaper, The Ubyssey. Note the comment from the president of the Truck Loggers Association in favour cutting down Cathedral Grove as the old-growth is “decaying” and “falling over” and creating a park in younger forests somewhere else! Old school 1980’s thinking, long since marginalized by insights from the science of forest ecology.
Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance

Canada is among the last of the developed nations that logs its old-growth forests. In the US, the vast majority of logging takes place in second-growth stands, while Europeans log second- and third-growth forests. Southwestern Australia halted the logging of its old-growth forests six years ago, as did New Zealand in the year 2000.

Enter the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), a recently launched lobby group that works to change this.

The Handcuffs Come Off
The AFA advocates for the protection of old growth forests and ban raw log exports. They held their launch event this January in front of Greater Victoria’s largest douglas fir, where they outlined their approach to environmental advocacy.

Unlike similar organizations, the AFA announced that they will not seek charitable status. This hurts the group’s ability to fundraise, but relieves them of what co-founder Ken Wu calls “the handcuffs of charitable status.”

Organizations with charitable status cannot support or oppose any political candidate running for public office. Charities are also limited by what is called the “ten per cent rule”: only ten per cent of the charity’s resources can be spent explicitly calling for law or policy changes. Without these limitations the AFA can exert as much of their resources as they see fit to call for governmental policy changes.

The AFA will also be able to publish which politicians support policies to protect old-growth forests, and which politicians maintain that old-growth forests in BC are not endangered. The handcuffs are off and the gloves are on.

The AFA wants the BC Liberals to pursue policies that protect remaining old-growth stands. Wu maintains that BC’s policies surrounding company rights to log old-growth forests will have to change soon. He said that the supply of large and readily accessible old-growth trees in southern BC is almost exhausted.

The UBC Connection

Several of the core members of the AFA – Ken Wu, Tara Sawatsky and TJ Watt – previously worked for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC), an organization that was instrumental in getting UBC’s Ancient Forest Committee (AFC) up and running.

Monika Dean, the current head of the UBC AFC, said the WCWC helped them create strategies to inform the public about the urgency to protect old-growth trees and train AFC members for campaigning. They also helped fund trips to Tofino so that students could see first-hand the wilderness that the UBC AFC wants to protect.

It’s a high priority for the UBC AFC to keep them going on the Tofino trips, but they are expensive. Students not only get to see what an old-growth forest looks like, but also learn about how to run a political campaign and talk to the media.

The AFA intends to do much its lobbying very near UBC at the Vancouver-Point Grey, which is also Premier Gordon Campbell’s riding. “The AFA plans to work very closely with the students and community old-growth protection groups – including the UBC and Point Grey Ancient Forest Committees. We also want to start new [Ancient Forest Committees] on other campuses and swing ridings,” said Wu.

Logging, Old-Growth and Clear-Cutting

The AFA has formulated several specific calls for the BC Liberal government. Their first call is not at all that surprising given their name – they’re calling for the immediate protection of at risk old-growth forests. Their second call is for the BC Liberal government to ensure a sustainable rate of second growth logging.

When asked if the AFA had formulated a concrete definition for ‘sustainable rate of cut,’ Ken Wu says:
“A sustainable rate of cut involves reduced rate of cut. You slow down. It means that you’re not going to run out of mature trees and be left with young trees that are not ready to harvest. It means a longer rotation of 200 or 400 years in coastal forests. It would mean a loss of conventional clear-cutting jobs, but it doesn’t necessarily mean a loss of jobs in the logging industry. We advocate more labour-intensive selective logging combined with value added manufacturing.”

They will face some opponents. “Clear cutting is done for a reason,” says Wayne Lintott of the Interior Logging Association, who claims that clear-cutting is not solely a profit-driven practice. He gives clear-cutting the interior of BC as an example because like in Hope by Manning Park, the mountain pine beetle is devastating wood crops. The trees which he was referring to are second growth trees. Lintott likened the logging industry to farming. “We can replant. It regrows. It’s a sustainable industry.”

Dave Lewis of the Truck Loggers Association challenges the unthinking use of the word “old-growth.” The definition of “a previously untouched tree,” is an unrealistic one, he explains given the First Nations’ use of trees and the forest-thinning effects of large fires.

“The forest typically referred to as ‘old-growth’ are 600 to 700 years old and are at the end of their lives,” he said. “They have decaying and falling over trees. Naturally these forests typically revert from large Douglas first to a hemlock and cedar mix.”

“The way to regenerate the douglas first that people so prize is for there to be a burn – but burns are unsafe and not publicly tolerated. Harvesting mimics the effect of the burn.”

According to Lewis, old Douglas first typically regenerate in full sunlight and in mineral soil, which are the typical conditions to be found after a large forest fire.

Lewis believes that a longer rotation period could be good. He says a longer rotation time, particularly for trees in isolated locations such as cliff faces, make logging more economical, because the lumber per square meter becomes more valuable. Also, more land is protected in reserves than is available for harvesting this way. Lewis feels that it is in everyone’s best interests – environmental activists and logging interests alike – to work together.

“We need to identify a reasonable amount of forest types in specific areas that we want to preserve and how we can best manage that,” he says. “Imagine if we started to actively manage our parks. If people are saying that ‘we love old douglas firs’ – how cool would it be if when a park [like Cathedral Grove] turns 400 years old and starts to decay we could replace it with a 200 year old park [in the same area with the same types of trees] and let that park grow for 200 years.”

Beyond Logging

How trees are logged isn’t the only issue. The AFA is also concerned about BC’s policies regarding raw log exports. They would like to see the BC Liberals shift the focus of the logging industry away from raw log exports and towards BC-based milling and value-added manufacturing.

To this end, the AFA wants the BC Liberal government to halt the export of raw logs to countries like the USA and Japan in order to promote log supplies for BC industries. Moreover, the AFA wants to see the BC Liberals assist in the re-tooling of local mills to handle second-growth logs rather than old-growth logs, and the building of value-added wood processing facilities in BC.

Finally, the AFA wants the provincial government to undertake new land-use planning initiatives based on First Nations land-use plans, scientific assessments and climate mitigation strategies. Wu believes that “old-growth forests should be an important part of BC’s climate change mitigation strategy because old-growth forests can store as much as two to three times more carbon per hectare than second-growth forests.”

“Our goals are doable,” Ken Wu says confidently. “We’re following a strategy that works. We’re continually building grassroots support and education the public. An educated public exerts the greatest lobby pressure on government.”

The AFA will be in the neighbourhood very soon. On March 27, they’re holding an Avatar-themed protest at noon starting at Canada Place. There will be speeches to follow in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery at 1pm.

It’s going to be a busy week for environmental protestors, as the UBC AFC is also having a protest on Friday, March 26, on campus. They will be doing an “aerial art piece” where protesters will arrange themselves at noon in front of Koerner’s Library in a configuration to be photographed form above. In the past, UBC AFC members arranged themselves into the shape of a pine tree.

A giant redcedar over 40ft around found recently along the Gordon River near Port Renfrew

Hunting the ancient giants

They don’t have much in the way of money, equipment or people, but Ken Wu says big tree hunting is drawing critical attention to the plight of old growth forests.

Wu, the former public face for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, helped found a splinter group three months ago called the Ancient Forest Alliance.

On a shoestring budget and spending weekends tromping through remote forests on the south Island, the group has become the new watchdog for the back country.

Near Port Renfrew, Wu said they’ve located and documented some of the biggest trees in Canada, notably in an area nicknamed “Avatar Grove” after the popular sci-fi movie. They’ve also found clearcut remains of what they are calling “Canada’s biggest stumps.”

In April in Gordon River Valley north of Port Renfrew, the group found stumps up to 15 feet in diameter cut within tree farm licence 46, under the tenure of Teal Jones. Wu argues that the forest industry should focus on second growth and value-added timber products.

“There are few jurisdictions or governments that feel companies are entitled to take 1,000 year old-growth that are taller than a skyscraper,” Wu said. “Having these kind of trees on Vancouver Island is globally exceptional. To be cutting down 2,000-year-old trees is nuts.”

Wu helped found the AFA with the specific intent to avoid charitable status to allow it to engage in political activism. The group recently demonstrated outside the office of Liberal MLA Ida Chong, calling for better protection of old growth forests.

Wu admits being new and not having charitable status has its pitfalls. Non-profit WCWC had million dollar budgets, he said, where the AFA has a modest goal of raising $40,000 this year.

“Not being constrained by charitable status allows us a stronger presence. Sometimes to protect something you’ve got to act,” he said.

Part of the public awareness strategy is leading tours into Avatar Grove and other big tree forests near Port Renfrew to highlight out-of-sight old growth in the Capital Region.

Photographer and big tree hunter TJ Watt, of Metchosin, found Avatar Grove last December, calling it comparable to the popular Cathedral Grove forest near Port Alberni.

Watt said he spends weekends typically hiking rougher terrain to hunt and photograph ancient trees too remote and inaccessible to the public.

“We feel the photo aspect brings eyes and ears to areas that normally go unprotected, but are relatively close at the same time. We want to show what is going on in our backyard.”

For more, see ancientforestalliance.org. The AFA also has a Facebook page called “Canada’s Biggest Stumps Competition.”

San Juan Spruce tree and the Red Creek Fir - some of the Canada's largest trees found right nearby!

Reinventing Renfrew

When members of the Ancient Forest Alliance asked Port Renfrew restaurant owner Jessica Hicks to host a public meeting about a stand of old growth trees dubbed Avatar Grove, Hicks thought she might use the event as a fundraiser for the fledgeling environmental group. Then, reflecting on her Coastal Kitchen Cafe’s place in the community and the smouldering tension between environmentalists and B.C.’s logging towns, Hicks decided a simple information session might ruffle fewer feathers.

The restaurateur’s hesitation to dive headlong into promoting the AFA’s forest preservation vision may well be a metaphor for Port Renfrew today, where many residents are striving to champion the town’s justified status as an ecotourism mecca, while simultaneously recognizing its fading days as a hardscrabble logging town. This combination of optimism and memory doesn’t necessarily mean bad blood, just a recognition of a town in the midst of a long transition.

“I support the logging families,” says Hicks. “If you came to town, you would not find one local who says they don’t support logging. So you’ve just kind of got to go, ‘There is a way to work together.’ We’re not saying ‘Stop logging,’ we’re saying, ‘Wow, look at these things like Avatar Grove and the potential they offer and could you possibly just save this little piece?’ Let’s save some of the old growth for people to enjoy.”

Today, only a handful of Renfrew families still earn their keep falling trees. Most who do have done so for decades and might well be the last generation that will. This deep ebb in forest industry employment is a far cry from the company town that Port Renfrew was four decades ago before the big companies pulled out and left town.

Since then, eco-tourism has helped drive the town’s modest economy, servicing visitors to wonders like Botanical Beach and the West Coast and Juan de Fuca trailheads. Members of the Pacheedaht First Nation, who number about 100 around Renfrew, have long taken visitors out on salmon and halibut fishing expeditions. But now a new push is on to turn tourism attention not to the region’s marine bounty, but to its awesome trees.

And that’s where the Ancient Forest Alliance comes in, building bridges in the community to sell the idea that the centuries old stands of Douglas fir, Red cedar and Sitka spruce within easy driving of the town are of greater economic value standing tall and mossy to the year-round population of 200 residents than on a barge floating toward Asia.

At every opportunity, the AFA tells its hundreds of supporters who venture out to visit the area’s mammoth trees to do their shopping at Renfrew’s local businesses, hoping to prove tree tourism’s value to the community.

“Port Renfrew is a place where you’ve got a high level of consciousness among businesses that their future is not in logging,” says Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder Ken Wu. “Their future is going to be taking advantage of the long term sustainability of the region, especially the biggest trees in the country, which are literally at their doorstep.”

From Wu’s perspective, it is the giant old growth that sets Renfrew apart from other small B.C. towns hit by hard times.

“Logging is still a part of the community, as it is in pretty much all rural B.C. communities,” says Wu. “The difference though, is that tourism and potential ecotourism is a more significant part of the economy in that community. I’m not going to go so far as to say it would become a second Tofino, but it certainly can ramp up the cash flow coming into town just by promoting the biggest trees in the country. Literally, Port Renfrew is the big trees capital.”

“Second Tofino” is a term sometimes bandied about by more ambitious boosters of Renfrew’s future, one that doubtless sends a shiver down the spine of longtime residents. But certainly the newly paved Pacific Marine Circle Route from Lake Cowichan to Renfrew, which now links the mid Island to the West Coast, has opened the area to a less intrepid breed of outdoor enthusiasts.

“Without the circle route you had to take your four-wheel drive and hike through the logging roads,” says Juan de Fuca NDP MLA John Horgan. “Now that you’ve got it paved, you can get close to some of the biggest trees with your Honda hybrid, so those opportunities are pretty exciting.”

Of course, notes Horgan, the provincial government’s investment in laying asphalt on the Circle Route would be all for naught if the very features that draw tourists to Renfrew meet their end by chainsaw.

“If you’re going to make those sorts of transportation investments to encourage people to come, you have to ensure that they’re not coming to see stumps,” says Horgan. “You need to ensure that they’re coming to see trees that are hundreds, sometimes thousands of years old, so that’s an integral part of it and they need to be preserved.”

Preserving those trees, says Horgan, takes political will of the kind that saw parts of the Carmanah Walbran Valley set aside as provincial park by buying out the tenure rights of the forest companies.

The clock, it would appear, is ticking to save Renfrew’s old growth giants, as Surrey-based Teal Jones Logging continues to cut some of the largest trees in the Gordon River Valley just outside the town. Several trees in the so-called Avatar Grove have already been marked for future cutting.

Meanwhile, after several years of waning optimism, the Coastal Kitchen’s Jessica Hicks senses good things to come for her community.

“About two years ago I was kind of feeling that it wasn’t really going to take off and I was really considering sort of moving on,” says Hicks. “But as of this year, I’m personally really excited. Things don’t happen over night, and Port Renfrew just has so much going on, but we have to have services to back that up.” M

Sidebar: Too Big to Fall – A Forest Alliance wishlist

When the Capital Regional District issued its recent call for public input on South Island areas that deserve regional park designation using funds from the CRD’s annual parks levy, the upstart Ancient Forest Alliance was there with a wishlist of areas in need of immediate park protection:

• The Red Creek Fir, which is the world’s largest known Douglas fir, and its surrounding private and Crown lands about 15 kilometres east of Port Renfrew

• The “Avatar Grove,” an easily accessible stand of Douglas firs and Red cedars about 10 kilometres north of Port Renfrew

• The San Juan Spruce, the world’s second largest known Sitka spruce, located on Crown lands 15 kilometres east of Port Renfrew

• The Refugee Tree, the largest Red cedar in the Capital regional District, located just south of Sombrio Beach

• The Muir Creek watershed west of Sooke on lands owned by TimberWest and Western Forest Products.

Ancient Forest Alliance

Discover Sooke Blog – Avatar Grove in Port Renfrew

Over the long weekend, Mrs. Discover Sooke and I, made the trek west from Sooke to Port Renfrew to visit the much talked about piece of land with a few remaining first growth forest trees standing on it. This piece of land has been dubbed “Avatar Grove”, after the movie, for its large and gnarly trees.

It took us about an hour and a half to drive there from Sooke. The directions we got were really good and had no problem in finding this plot of land which has been slated for clear cutting at any moment.

Regardless of your stance on forestry and the industry, there is something to be said about any large first growth trees and just leaving them be.

We wandered around for an hour or so taking in the lush west coast rain forest and forest floors lush with ferns and moss.

There are two sides to the Avatar Grove. The upper grove and the lower grove. We managed to wander around the lower grove and Mrs. Discover Sooke is 8 months pregnant and the steep trek up to the upper grove proved to be a little hard for her to manage.

After we left, we decided to take the rest of the Pacific Marine Circle route to Duncan and Cowichan Bay to eat some dinner, then head back to Sooke on highway #14.

There were MANY people driving this newly paved route and many people camping alongside the route. One of the nicest stops we made between Port Renfrew and Duncan was the Harris Creek Canyon. The road follows along this river for many kilometers and we stopped a couple of times to take in the roaring water crashing through the canyon, which can be seen on this video. The sun was out and the weather couldn’t have been better for this trip.

Please enjoy.