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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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Oldies but goodies: The oldest establishments in B.C., and a couple of people as well
Oldest Tree:
"If you were expecting Canada's longest-lived tree to be a towering monolith, you're in for a disappointment. B.C.'s oldest tree is a 1,835-year-old yellow cedar stump in the Caren Range of the Sunshine Coast.
Oldest Tree Protector:
"Victoria resident Al Carder, 103, has been working to identify and protect the province's tallest trees for close to 97 years. His devotion to big trees grew from a child's sense of self-preservation in Cloverdale in 1917, when his father suggested he accompany him to measure a nearby Douglas fir felled by loggers...Carder is an inspiration to young environmentalists. Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance, points out that Carder has outlasted B.C.'s 80-year-old second-growth forests, which replaced its felled old-growth giants."
Conservation and industry reach agreement on protecting old growth in the Great Bear
The agreement -- which will preserve another 500,000 hectares of old growth -- increases forest protection to nearly 70 per cent in the mid-coast region from the 50 per cent level already protected by 2009. The addition pushes the amount of old-growth forest preserved to more than three million hectares, an area larger than Metro Vancouver.
Surprise! Old growth trees are ‘star players’ in gobbling greenhouse gas.
The oldest trees in a forest aren't just passively clinging to the carbon they've drawn from the atmosphere and stored as leaves and wood - they're capturing CO2 at a pace that increases with each passing year.
SFU Slideshow: The Campaign to Protect BC’s Endangered Ancient Forests!
Friday, Feb.7, 2014
4:30 to 6:00pm
West Mall Center rm 3253, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby
Join Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance to learn about the politics and ecology of BC’s endangered ancient forests, and find out how to help ensure their protection!
How Many Old Growth Trees Make a Forest?
"They also wondered if TimberWest had tailored a definition of old growth that allowed them to search out and cut the last remaining stands of old forest by calling them second growth. 'How did TimberWest pull that off?' asked Valerie Langer of Forest Ethics Solutions. 'By using a bizarre, technically unheard of, definition they made up.' ...[the local residents] found a recent cut-block full of tall, straight, giant trees dominated by Douglas fir over 500 years old and equally impressive stands of western red cedar. Unfortunately, they claim, the trees were already felled and lying on the ground."
UBC Forestry Forum and Rally – Thursday Jan.23 at UBC
Rally from 3:15 to 4:00 pm at the Martha Piper Fountain, and Forum from 4:30-7:00 pm at the Forest Sciences Center rm.1005, 2424 Main Mall. Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC) union along with diverse environmental, industry, and First Nations speakers.
Carbon emissions from BC forests alarming: environmental group
“We’re concerned this has become a long-term problem,” said Jens Wieting from environmental advocacy group the Sierra Club. Ideally, a healthy forest will absorb more carbon in the soil and trees than it releases, for example through burning, decomposition and logging. This is sometimes called a carbon sink. Due to a number of factors — including pine beetle infestation, slash fires, wood waste and clear cutting — B.C.’s forests have not done this since 2003, and are emitting carbon dioxide at alarming rates, the group said.
Trees accelerate growth as they get older and bigger, study finds
Most living things reach a certain age and then stop growing, but trees accelerate their growth as they get older and bigger, a global study has found. "This finding contradicts the usual assumption that tree growth eventually declines as trees get older and bigger," said Nate Stephenson, the study's lead author and a forest ecologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS). "It also means that big, old trees are better at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere than has been commonly assumed."
Thanks to Cat Abyss Clothing!
Thanks to Cat Abyss Clothing, a new eco-friendly clothing company who will donate 10% of proceeds to the Ancient Forest Alliance from their kickstarter campaign.
No sale for Dakota Bowl cutblocks
Good news near Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast! All of the proposed clearcuts in the old-growth cedars of Dakota Bowl have now been dropped by BC Timber Sales. Thanks to Elphinstone Logging Focus for their work in this area, including finding the widest hemlock in BC!