Rock music video to support old-growth forest conservation in BC

The Vancouver Island based Artist Response Team (ART) is proud to announce the release of its newest song and video in support of ancient forests in BC and the Ancient Forest Alliance. The song was written and performed by Holly Arntzen and Kevin Wright of ART and features world-class guitarist David Sinclair (Sarah McLachlan, kd lang). They perform under the band name, The Wilds.

The MR. DOUGLAS video, was shot mostly in the Koksilah Ancient Forest, an unprotected grove of old growth Douglas Fir and cedar trees located west of Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island.

The song was inspired by a trip to the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan where there is a cross-section of a 1300-year-old fir tree that blew down in a storm in the 1960s. The tree rings are marked to correspond with events down through history that the tree lived through; the publishing of the first book in China in 868 AD, the arrival of the Vikings in North America in 1000, the rise of Ghengis Khan in 1206, and Columbus’ first journey to the New World in 1492. The song is a walk through history.

There is less than 1% of the original coastal old growth Douglas Fir forests left in BC, and we are still cutting them down. A recent story in the Victoria Times Colonist documents the struggle going on to reap the economic windfall from highly valuable old growth on the one hand… and on the other hand, preserve the last remnants of old growth ecosystems for future generations, the protection of drinking water, and conservation of habitats.

WATCH MR. DOUGLAS on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aKH54msZ0AY