Recent News

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.

Camping in Port Renfrew? Try the Pacheedaht Campground and RV park!

To get to the campground from Victoria take West Coast HWY #14 and turn RIGHT onto Deering rd immediately upon reaching Port Renfrew. Cross the single lane bridge over the San Juan River and once on the other side there is camp parking on both the left and right hand side of the road.
Announcements
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.
News Coverage
Canada’s largest tree

The Week – We’ve Still Got Wood

To celebrate Parks Day this past week, the AFA captured a YouTube video of Canada’s largest tree, a western red cedar named the Cheewhat Giant, growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake, north of Port Renfrew and west of Lake Cowichan. The tree remains the country’s biggest with a trunk diametre over six metres (20 feet).
News Coverage
The Cheewhat Giant is over 6 meters (20 feet) in trunk diameter

Meet Cheewhat, Canada’s largest tree — and help the alliance keep giants like it safe

The giant western red cedar reaches 56 metres high and spans six metres around, containing enough wood to make 450 telephone poles. It’s accessible by a logging road and by hiking in.
News Coverage
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.

Canada’s Largest Tree – The Cheewhat Giant!

Click to see Canada's largest tree, a western redcedar named the Cheewhat Giant growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on southerwestern Vancouver Island! The clip also features new clearcuts and giant stumps of redcedar trees, some over 4 meters (14 feet) in diameter in the nearby Klanawa Valley and Nitinat Lake/Rosander Main region.
Announcements
Old-growth redcedar stump in the Klanawa Valley. Vancouver Island

Parks Day Alert: Video clip of “Canada’s Largest Tree” and old-growth logging

The clip features Canada�s largest tree, a western redcedar named the Cheewhat Giant growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve north of Port Renfrew and west of Lake Cowichan. It also features new clearcuts and giant stumps of redcedar trees, some over 4 meters (14 feet) in diameter in the Klanawa Valley adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and also near the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park (in the Nitinat Lake/Rosander Main region) logged in 2010 and 2011.

Media Release
The new Port Renfrew Tourist Information Centre will help to funnel thousands of new visitors into the surrounding old-growth forests

Coastal town replaces logging with tourism

"We used to depend on logging to sustain Port Renfrew. Now the tables have turned and we're looking at the tall trees as our future," said Betsworth as the two groups cemented their partnership Thursday with the opening of a new tourist information centre, where visitors can pick up a map of the area's massive old-growth trees.

News Coverage
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.

CHEK TV News clip featuring Port Renfrew’s new Tourist Information Centre and the Avatar Grove

The Ancient Forest Alliance along with the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce launched the new Tourist Information Centre today which will serve to funnel thousands of visitors into the town's surrounding old-growth forests, raise awareness of the need to protect them, and help create a vibrant eco-tourism based economy.
News Coverage
Flagging tape marked "Falling Boundary" in the lower Avatar Grove when the forest was initially surveyed for logging.

Ancient Forest Alliance and Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce cooperate to Protect Old-Growth Forests and Avatar Grove through new Chamber Info Centre

The info centre will play host to a media press conference today, Thursday, July 14 at 12:00 noon, followed by a tour of the nearby unprotected Avatar Grove. Port Renfrew Chamber President Rosie Betsworth and Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt will discuss their cooperative efforts to promote and protect the Avatar Grove and other nearby old-growth forests.

Media Release
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.

Thank you to Mountain Equipment Co-op for supporting the Ancient Forest Alliance!

A big thanks goes out to Victoria's MEC for helping fund the Ancient Forest Alliance's BC slideshow tour as well as our public hikes to the Avatar Grove which will continue into the fall!
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Victoria, B.C. V8W 1J6

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Ancient Forest Alliance

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is a registered charitable organization working to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and to ensure a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry.

AFA’s office is located on the territories of the Lekwungen Peoples, also known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.
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