If the northern spotted owl is healthy, it’s a good sign that the old-growth forests where it lives are healthy. Unfortunately, the spotted owl is not doing well in British Columbia, the only place it lives in Canada. Only six of the beautiful brown-eyed birds remain here.
Spotted owls live up to 17 years in the wild, but they breed slowly, mating for life and producing just one or two chicks every two years. Silent hunters with excellent vision and hearing, the owls swoop through the open canopy of old-growth forests at dusk to catch wood rats, voles, mice, and squirrels. At one time, at least 500 pairs lived in B.C.’s forests, but over the past 100 years, their habitat has been so heavily logged that the owls have been unable to survive.
Spotted owls are particularly vulnerable to logging because of the way they nest and hunt. The owls don’t build nests but lay eggs in trees hollowed out by age or decay. And when a forest is cleared and prey populations decline, the birds often starve.
The B.C. government is belatedly trying to save the owls, with plans to capture two of the remaining males to breed with two single females in captivity. The government now has 10 owls in its breeding program and hopes to have 30 or 40 pairs so that 70 or so of the birds can be released back into the wilderness in the next decade. Government biologists have also been killing barred owls, which compete with the spotted owls for habitat.
The government has had a habitat conservation plan in place since 1997, but it was based on the premise that owl populations and habitat would be maintained only as long as those efforts did not lead to more than a 10 per cent reduction in the long-term timber supply over current levels. In 2003, the B.C. government allowed logging to proceed in six of the remaining 10 areas where spotted owls were found.
More than 70 per cent of the owls’ old-growth habitat, ranging from northern California to southwestern B.C., has now been logged. The spotted owl is listed as an endangered species in both Canada and the United States, with only a few thousand pairs remaining.
It doesn’t help that B.C. has no legislation to protect species at risk. Although the spotted owl is listed as endangered under federal law, Canada’s Species at Risk Act only applies to federal lands. If an owl were to take up residence at a post office or federal airport, it would be legally protected, but in the province’s old-growth forests, it is afforded no such status.
Why should we care? Well, beyond the fact that allowing any species to go extinct because of our activities is a pretty sorry indicator of our ability to manage our affairs, the spotted owl’s health, as we mentioned, gives us a pretty good indication about the health of the entire old-growth ecosystem. And when one species goes extinct, the effects cascade throughout the ecosystem.
We also know many plants and animals besides the spotted owl rely on old-growth forests for their survival. If habitat loss is threatening the survival of the owl, it is surely threatening the survival of other species as well.
In fact, a study we conducted found that one quarter of the plants and animals that share the spotted owl’s old-growth habitat in B.C.’s Lower Mainland are also at risk of disappearing, including tailed frogs, coastal marbled murrelets, northern goshawks, and fishers.
We must demand that the provincial government put an end to logging in old-growth forests and allow more second-growth forests to mature if we are to ensure the survival of the spotted owl and other old-growth dependent plants and animals. We also need a provincial law to protect plants and animals in B.C. that are at risk of disappearing, such as spotted owls, orcas, and grizzly bears.
It’s just not good enough to wait until an animal has all but disappeared and then scramble to try to bring it back. When we harm one animal and the ecosystem of which it is a part, we affect everything that is connected to it, including ourselves. The spotted owl’s fate should tell us something about ourselves. What kind of animal are we that put our economic and political agendas ahead of the very survival of another species?
Avatar worth saving
/in News CoverageAs one of the 80 hikers who visited Avatar Grove on March 28 with the Ancient Forest Alliance, I find it somewhat ironic that the Vancouver Olympics showcased the natural beauty of B.C.’s old-growth forests.
Majestic cedar trees, salmon and orca whales were all images seen in the Opening Ceremonies. How is it that we can value and promote these wonderful aspects of our province to the entire world, while at the same time allowing the fast-paced destruction of our natural ecosystems?
The logging of old-growth forests continues every day at unprecedented rates. We must make a transition into sustainable second-growth logging, ban raw log exports and re-tool B.C. mills to provide and ensure forestry jobs in perpetuity.
Ending old-growth logging and forestry jobs can co-exist in B.C. Old-growth forests, such as the Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island (part of Teal Jones’ TFL 46), are not only a part of our heritage in B.C., but they also provide habitat for animals of all shapes and sizes: bacteria, fungi, insects, amphibians, fish, birds, and land and ocean mammals. These forests provide carbon storage, are important to First Nations cultures and are evidently fundamental for B.C.’s tourism industry (as witnessed in the promotional imagery of the Olympics). Let’s end old-growth logging for the well-being of all British Columbians.
Avatar worth exploring
/in News CoverageI had the pleasure March 28 of joining 80 other members of the Ancient Forest Alliance to experience the small grove of old growth trees near Port Renfrew known (informally) as Avatar Grove. This amazingly rare site, which comprises an area approximately 10 square hectares, holds some of the oldest and largest trees remainig on Vancouver Island, some of which are more than 30 feet around and stand over 100 feet tall. My friends and I gazed up at these monstrous trees in amazement, realizing that many of them were 500 to 800 years old. We were shocked and deeply saddened to see survey tape surrounding the grove, including tape which indicated proposed new logging roads as well as cut lines.
We feel that it is extremely important that this small grove of trees is preserved, as it is one of the last such stands of ancient, old growth trees on the Island, 99 per cent of which have been destroyed by 150 years of industrial logging. Logging has left most hillsides and valley bottoms on the island devoid of much, if any life and what were once very rich and diverse eco-systems are now nothing more than sterile tree farms, assuming they have been fortunate enough to be re-planted. It’s amazing to me that the very few old growth trees which remain haven’t been protected from the chainsaws which have devastated our once verdant forests.
With the recent decline in fishing, Port Renfrew is in serious need of additional sites which will attract tourism. The Avatar Grove would be an ideal addition to what they currently offer the travelling public. Acquiring this grove of trees would be a win for all concerned, especially our children who we are forcing to live in a world greatly diminished in nature. This is our very last chance to preserve the Avatar Grove and the few remaining sites like it.
Monday Hits The Road To See Avatar Grove
/in News CoverageLast weekend, Monday hit the road with environmentalist Ken Wu and the Ancient Forest Alliance (along with 80 other curious community members) to pay a visit to what the AFA is calling “Canada’s gnarliest tree.” The giant Western Red Cedar is found about 10 kilometres north of Port Renfrew in the Gordon River Valley. The tree itself has a diameter of 12 feet at its base, while the giant burl that makes it a truly “gnarly” tree is about 10 feet in diameter. The tree is located among a stand of about 100-or-so ancient Western Red Cedars. Discovered by AFA members in February, a return visit a few weeks later showed the area is slated for logging, with many of the trees spraypainted, and the boundaries of what the AFA calls “Avatar Grove” marked off with flagging tape. Far easier to reach than the few other remaining old growth stands on the South Island, the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling for protection of the grove, and pushing its marketability as an eco-tourism destination. “The most important thing right now is to ensure that the Avatar Grove is not turned into a sea of giant stumps in the near future. The BC Liberal government needs to take action to protect this incredible ancient grove and the remaining endangered old-growth forests in southern BC before they are destroyed. British Columbia’s old-growth temperate rainforests, with their four meter wide ancient trees draped in moss and ferns and its incredible wildlife, are the real Pandora here on Earth,” says Wu.
Earthly Na’vi
/in AnnouncementsPhoto by TJ Watt
It didn’t take long for environmentalists to tap into James Cameron’s massively successful Avatar for a creative boost to their rallies. A small gathering of Na’vi – a.k.a. loincloth-clad protesters painted blue – joined 150 Ancient Forest Alliance supporters outside the Vancouver Art Gallery Saturday to drum up some support to save B.C.’s old-growth forests.
Science Matters: It’s getting harder and harder to spot the spotted owl
/in AnnouncementsIf the northern spotted owl is healthy, it’s a good sign that the old-growth forests where it lives are healthy. Unfortunately, the spotted owl is not doing well in British Columbia, the only place it lives in Canada. Only six of the beautiful brown-eyed birds remain here.
Spotted owls live up to 17 years in the wild, but they breed slowly, mating for life and producing just one or two chicks every two years. Silent hunters with excellent vision and hearing, the owls swoop through the open canopy of old-growth forests at dusk to catch wood rats, voles, mice, and squirrels. At one time, at least 500 pairs lived in B.C.’s forests, but over the past 100 years, their habitat has been so heavily logged that the owls have been unable to survive.
Spotted owls are particularly vulnerable to logging because of the way they nest and hunt. The owls don’t build nests but lay eggs in trees hollowed out by age or decay. And when a forest is cleared and prey populations decline, the birds often starve.
The B.C. government is belatedly trying to save the owls, with plans to capture two of the remaining males to breed with two single females in captivity. The government now has 10 owls in its breeding program and hopes to have 30 or 40 pairs so that 70 or so of the birds can be released back into the wilderness in the next decade. Government biologists have also been killing barred owls, which compete with the spotted owls for habitat.
The government has had a habitat conservation plan in place since 1997, but it was based on the premise that owl populations and habitat would be maintained only as long as those efforts did not lead to more than a 10 per cent reduction in the long-term timber supply over current levels. In 2003, the B.C. government allowed logging to proceed in six of the remaining 10 areas where spotted owls were found.
More than 70 per cent of the owls’ old-growth habitat, ranging from northern California to southwestern B.C., has now been logged. The spotted owl is listed as an endangered species in both Canada and the United States, with only a few thousand pairs remaining.
It doesn’t help that B.C. has no legislation to protect species at risk. Although the spotted owl is listed as endangered under federal law, Canada’s Species at Risk Act only applies to federal lands. If an owl were to take up residence at a post office or federal airport, it would be legally protected, but in the province’s old-growth forests, it is afforded no such status.
Why should we care? Well, beyond the fact that allowing any species to go extinct because of our activities is a pretty sorry indicator of our ability to manage our affairs, the spotted owl’s health, as we mentioned, gives us a pretty good indication about the health of the entire old-growth ecosystem. And when one species goes extinct, the effects cascade throughout the ecosystem.
We also know many plants and animals besides the spotted owl rely on old-growth forests for their survival. If habitat loss is threatening the survival of the owl, it is surely threatening the survival of other species as well.
In fact, a study we conducted found that one quarter of the plants and animals that share the spotted owl’s old-growth habitat in B.C.’s Lower Mainland are also at risk of disappearing, including tailed frogs, coastal marbled murrelets, northern goshawks, and fishers.
We must demand that the provincial government put an end to logging in old-growth forests and allow more second-growth forests to mature if we are to ensure the survival of the spotted owl and other old-growth dependent plants and animals. We also need a provincial law to protect plants and animals in B.C. that are at risk of disappearing, such as spotted owls, orcas, and grizzly bears.
It’s just not good enough to wait until an animal has all but disappeared and then scramble to try to bring it back. When we harm one animal and the ecosystem of which it is a part, we affect everything that is connected to it, including ourselves. The spotted owl’s fate should tell us something about ourselves. What kind of animal are we that put our economic and political agendas ahead of the very survival of another species?
Old growth forest for sale in Cape Scott Provincial Park
/in News CoverageOld growth forest for sale in Cape Scott Provincial Park
But you will have to move fast, according to real estate broker NIHO Land & Cattle Inc., given the pristine location on the emerald tip of north-western Vancouver Island, and the fact that both properties are thick with merchantable old growth trees.
The properties are just two of a number of privately-owned parcels that exist in Cape Scott Park, remnants of lands originally settled by Scandinavian settlers in the 19th century. Most of the pioneer lands were abandoned long ago, and gradually bought up by the province. But not all of the land.
News of the property sales came as a surprise to the Regional District of Mount Waddington, the regional municipality on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Mount Waddington’s Planner Jeff Long later confirmed that there is nothing the municipality can do to protect the old growth forests on either parcels, or to restrict any development plans on the parcels.
Recognizing the value of the old growth timber on the waterfront property in particular, the broker has hired a private company to do an “aerial overview,” estimating on its website that there is almost 30,000 cubic metres of merchantable timber up for grabs on that one site alone.
“Almost all of the property is covered in old growth timber which consists of cedar, hemlock, balsam, spruce, pine and cypress,” says the NIHO website. “There some big diameter trees on the property.”
Suntanu Dalal, a spokesman for the B.C. Ministry of Environment says the government is aware that the Cape Scott Park “in-holdings” are for sale, adding that there are at least 14 separate private pieces in Cape Scott Park covering about 150 hectares of land.
Dalal described the forests on the lands as “low-quality trees for harvesting,” an assessment at odds with both NIHO and their forestry surveyor.
Will the province consider buying this land to maintain the integrity of the park and Cape Scott Trail?
“The lands are on the Ministry’s regional acquisition list,” says Dalal. “But there are no immediate plans to purchase them.”
Link to article: https://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2010/03/31/Old-growth-forest-for-sale-in-Cape-Scott-Provincial-Park/
Old-growth forest worth preserving
/in News CoverageI had the pleasure last Sunday to experience the small grove of old-growth trees near Port Renfrew known informally as the Avatar Grove.
This amazingly rare site, which comprises approximately10 hectares, holds some of the oldest and largest trees remaining on Vancouver Island, some of which are 10 or more metres around and stand 30 metres or more tall, many 500 to 800 years old. I was shocked and deeply saddened to see survey tape surrounding the grove, including tape that indicated a proposed new logging road, as well as cut lines.
It is extremely important that this small grove of trees is preserved, as it is one of the last such stands of ancient old-growth trees on the Island. With the recent decline in fishing, Port Renfrew is in serious need of additional sites that will attract tourism, and the Avatar Grove would be an ideal addition to what they offer the travelling public. Acquiring this grove of trees would be a win for all concerned, especially our children — who we are forcing to live in a world greatly diminished in natural wonders such as these magnificent cedar, spruce and Douglas fir trees, which are among the oldest living things on Earth.
Avatar’s beauty exists in our world, too
/in News CoverageSo I finally went to see Avatar in 3-D. It was breathtaking, of course. But what struck me the most was at the end; I realized that I had viewed this epic story of environmental degradation through plastic 3-D glasses made in China.
There was a box to “recycle” them at the exit, but when I asked an attendant what happened to the 3-D glasses in that box, she said they got shipped to Toronto to meet an unknown fate.
The 3-D glasses are one product among millions that are used once and then discarded every day, without a thought about where the materials came from or where the product will end up, let alone what we could do to reduce waste. Because of this mindless consumption, we are making our planet uninhabitable.
Recently, I visited one of the few remaining areas of low-elevation old-growth forest on southern Vancouver Island, aptly nicknamed Avatar Grove. Breathtaking beauty exists in the real world too. However, the largest ancient trees are marked for logging. If everyone in B.C. who enjoyed Avatar stood up to save our few remaining ancient forests, that just might offset the environmental cost of all those 3-D glasses.
B.C.’s old-growth forests have support of the Na’vi
/in News CoverageDowntown Vancouver was visited by Na’vi from the extraterrestrial moon Pandora at a small rally for B.C.’s ancient rainforests Saturday afternoon.
Led by a carnival band in green costumes, about 100 supporters of the Ancient Forest Alliance borrowed from images from the blockbuster hit Avatar in their protest against the logging of old-growth forests and marched to the Vancouver Art Gallery with its message that the provincial government needs to take more action to protect those scarce landscapes.
“Avatar’s world under attack! What do we do? We fight back,” shouted one activist on a bullhorn.
Many of the activists wore face paint resembling the fictional Na’vi humanoids from Avatar, which has an environmental theme of humans wreaking havoc on the ancient forests of Pandora in the quest for the mineral unobtanium.
“We’re here to promote awareness and support to protect the last of our ancient forests because there aren’t many left, and we can support the forest industry with second growth,” said 28 year-old nursing student Jennifer Chow, who painted her entire body in blue.
“The theme of the movie was focused on protecting their forests so it’s a good way to promote awareness to the general public. I camp every year, I love using the forest – so I feel really connected to it,” explained Chow.
Playing more to the movie the alliance has recently dubbed an area near Port Renfrew as ‘Avatar grove’ because of its untouched, newly discovered old-growth forest within a tree-farm license.
According to the alliance old-growth forests need protection because they support biodiversity, counteract climate change, provide clean water for people and wildlife, are culturally significant, and are important for tourism.
“We want to phase out old-growth logging. We want a provincial old-growth strategy that inventories the remaining old-growth and protects it where it’s scarce,” alliance spokeswoman Michelle Connolly. “We want the [provincial government] to get a good understanding of where the last old-growth forests are.”
She said there is nothing wrong with logging, and one of her organization’s goals is to have sustainable jobs in forestry.
She said there are enough trees in the second-growth forests of B.C. to sustain the industry, however, the export of raw logs to foreign mills needs to end in order to ensure a guaranteed log supply for B.C. mills and value-added processing facilities.
Connolly’s group also believes there needs to be more tax incentives for mills to accommodate smaller diametre logs from second-growth forests.
“We don’t have enough mills to accommodate those logs. …There are a lot of jobs lost because of that,” said Connolly.
Connolly warns if nothing is done to identify and protect these forest they will be gone forever sooner than later.
The alliance also called on the government to “undertake new, democratic land-use planning processes to protect endangered forests based on new First Nations land-use plans, ecosystem-based scientific assessments, and climate mitigation strategies through forest protection.”
TOMORROW Saturday, March 27 – RALLY for Ancient Forests and Forestry Jobs!
/in Announcements, Take ActionSend a message to the BC Liberal government that they need to protect our ancient forests, ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and ban raw log exports to protect forestry jobs!
Vancouver, BC
12:00 NOON – Meet at Canada Place (closest Skytrain is Waterfront Station)
12:30pm – Begin march to Vancouver Art Gallery with the lively “Carnival Band”.
1:00 pm – Arrive at Vancouver Art Gallery-Georgia Street side: Speeches by Judith Sayers (former Chief of the Hupacasath First Nation), Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance Co-founder), Jens Wieting (Sierra Club of BC Forest Campaigner), and Stephanie Goodwin (Greenpeace)!
Invite everyone you know to this family-friendly event!
Confirm on Facebook and Invite your friends at:
https://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=345299427697&index=1
For more info contact the Point Grey Ancient Forest Committee at: ancientforestcommittee@gmail.com
Visit the Ancient Forest Alliance website: www.ancientforestalliance.org
Organized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, Point Grey Ancient Forest Committee, Simon Fraser University Ancient Forest Action Group.