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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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Earth-Friendly Web Design by Fairwind Creative
Earth-Friendly Web Design by Fairwind Creative
Tree growth never slows
Many foresters have long assumed that trees gradually lose their vigour as they mature, but a new analysis suggests that the larger a tree gets, the more kilos of carbon it puts on each year. "The trees that are adding the most mass are the biggest ones, and that holds pretty much everywhere on Earth that we looked," says Nathan Stephenson, an ecologist at the US Geological Survey in Three Rivers, California, and the first author of the study, which appears today in Nature. "Trees have the equivalent of an adolescent growth spurt, but it just keeps going."
Kwakiutl protest logging
With the blessing of the Kwakiutl Hereditary Chief, the Kwakiutl Indian Band held a peaceful protest last Thursday, January 9, at an Island Timberlands logging operations in Port Hardy. Band members carried signs proclaiming the area as Kwakiutl traditional territory and gathered at the entrance of the site.
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.
163 Years of Delay, Denial and Dishonour: Kwakiutl First Nation Marks Treaty Anniversary with Day Twelve of Protest
"The people of Kwakiutl have been left with no choice but to protest and stop Canada and BC from allowing Companies to cut and remove cedar trees from our Land," said Chief Coreen Child of Kwakiutl First Nation. Cedar is vital to the Kwakiutl people, contributing to every facet of life--from ceremony to sanctuary. "As our respected ones taught us, the trees are the 'standing people'. They have the same energy as a bear, a salmon, a mountain, or a human being. The trees in the forest are like family," said Tom Child, Lands Manager and Band Member of Kwakiutl First Nation.
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.