Recent News

"Canada's gnarliest tree" grows in Avatar Grove

No Charlie Brown Tree

O’ Christmas tree! O’ Christmas tree! Thy status is so precarious—at least if you’re the gnarly old beauty celebrating your one-year birthday in Avatar Grove. But this season isn’t just a time to celebrate: it’s time to get serious about conservation efforts, according to the Ancient Forest Alliance.
News Coverage
CRD Director Mike Hicks and son

Avatar hopes high in Port Renfrew chamber

To mark the first anniversary of the discovery of the groves by the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce is adding its voice to the chorus calling for the grove’s long-term preservation.
News Coverage
Flagging tape marked "Falling Boundary" in the lower Avatar Grove when the forest was initially surveyed for logging.

Port Renfrew’s ‘Avatar Grove’ To Become Eco-Tourism Site

The Ancient Forest Alliance is planning monthly public hikes to the Grove which features 50 hectares of old growth trees, located in an area just discovered by the Alliance a year ago.
Announcements
Hikers gather around the largest alien shaped cedar in the Lower Avatar Grove

Island’s own Avatar Grove to open near Port Renfrew

In hopes of increasing public interest in saving the area from logging, the group is planning monthly public hikes to the grove, starting in January. Meanwhile, the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce has repeated its call for protection of the old-growth stand.
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.

Endangered Avatar Grove Celebrates One Year Anniversary

To mark the one year anniversary since identifying the spectacular but endangered Avatar Grove the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce is repeating its request to the provincial government to protect the Grove while the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is planning to organize monthly public hikes to the Grove until it is saved.

Media Release

Endangered Avatar Grove

Between Port Renfrew and Cowichan Lake, above the banks of Gordon River, a small pocket of old-growth western redcedars (Thuja plicata) and Douglas-firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii) was discovered earlier this year. It represents a rare remnant of valley-bottom primary forest on southern Vancouver Island, where 96% of the original forest has been logged. This place was dubbed Avatar Grove, after this year’s box office blockbuster Avatar, the story line of which is a cautionary tale warning against the unsustainable use of our planet’s resources.
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Slideshow to protect Island’s ancient forests

The Comox Valley Naturalists Society will be hosting a slideshow presentation 7-9 p.m. on Dec. 8 by Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance to raise awareness of and support for the need to protect BCs endangered old growth forests. The presentation will be at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Ave., Courtenay. Admission is by donation.
Announcements
Large scale clearcutting of second-growth forests near Shirley in 2011.

Letter to the Editor: Governments failing forest industry

As you may be well aware, our successive B.C. governments have had no interest in delaying or stopping logging of old growth trees. Their record is abysmal plus disgraceful in this regard.
News Coverage

Scientists Urge Canada to Protect Its Northern Rainforests as Climate Change Insurance

A new book released this week highlights the urgent need to protect Canada’s more than 20 million hectares of pristine temperate and boreal rainforests. Found in British Columbia, Newfoundland, Quebec, and New Brunswick, these globally important rainforests absorb and store vast amounts of carbon. Scientists argue that protecting these rainforests is a critical insurance against climate change and are calling on the Canadian government to take this message to the upcoming global conference on climate change.
News Coverage

SAVE OUR CLIMATE AND ANCIENT FORESTS!

See great speakers, have a drink, meet other supporters, and make a donation if you can! Elizabeth May, Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Adriane Carr, Jens Wieting, and other speakers... TUESDAY, NOV. 30, 2010 Ambrosia Centre, 638 Fisgard St., VICTORIA, BC 7:00-9:00pm
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(250) 896-4007 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)

Address

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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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