Posts

How B.C.’s anti-logging activists are using drones to fight the ‘information war’

Here's a comprehensive article in The Province about the AFA's use of a drone in the endangered Central Walbran Valley.

News Coverage

Environmental group hopes new tech will help halt old-growth logging

Here's an article in the Times Colonist about the Ancient Forest Alliance's use of a drone to highlight the endangered old-growth forest in the Central Walbran Valley.

News Coverage
Screenshot from the new video clip which used drones to helped capture footage in the Central Walbran Valley

Drones used in BC’s Old-Growth Forest Campaigns – Walbran Valley conflict escalates

Conservationists are employing a new tool in the battle to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests – remotely-piloted drones. The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is using a small drone equipped with a GoPro camera to monitor and document the endangered old-growth forests of the Central Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island. This has allowed the organization to capture aerial video footage of old-growth forests threatened by logging on steep, rugged terrain that otherwise would take hours to hike to. 

Media Release

PHOTO GALLERY: Central Walbran Ancient Forest – Block 4403

Here are some fantastic images from part of the endangered Central Walbran Ancient Forest shot in early July by AFA's TJ Watt. The pictures were taken in the '4403' cutblock proposed by Teal-Jones (see map in gallery) just a few hundred metres from where people camp. This section of forest contains some absolutely incredible old-growth redcedar trees as well as some sensitive limestone karst features. Volunteers from the Friends of Carmanah Walbran have flagged a Witness Route into this area marked with yellow flagging tape making it easier to access now.

Please take 30 seconds to send a letter to the BC government asking them to protect the endangered Central Walbran and Edinburgh Mt Ancient Forests here: www.BCForestMovement.com  Thank you!!

PHOTOGALLERY at:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.886074168153838.1073741889.823970554364200&type=3

Photo Gallery
Ancient Forest Alliance's (AFA) Jackie Korn stands amongst incredible old-growth redcedar trees in proposed cutblock 4412 in the Central Walbran Ancient Forest.

PHOTO GALLERY: Central Walbran & Edinburgh Mountain Ancient Forest

Surrey-based forestry company, the Teal-Jones Group, is aggressively moving forward with plans to log and build roads into Canada’s two most magnificent old-growth forests, the Central Walbran Ancient Forest (about 500 hectares) and the Edinburgh Mountain Ancient Forest (about 1500 hectares) on southern Vancouver Island. The company is planning eight new cutblocks (clearcuts) and a new road in the Central Walbran, and two new cutblocks and a new road on Edinburgh Mountain. The Walbran Valley is home to perhaps Canada’s finest stand of old-growth redcedars, the Castle Grove, while Edinburgh Mountain is where “Big Lonely Doug” (discovered last year by Ancient Forest Alliance activists to be Canada’s 2nd largest Douglas-fir tree – alas, completely surrounded by a 2012 clearcut) still stands and where the threatened "Christy Clark Grove" (ie. Lower Edinburgh Grove) is located in the Gordon River Valley.

Here are some photos and maps by the AFA's TJ Watt, from a recent July 2015 visit to these areas:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.877459535681968.1073741888.823970554364200&type=3

Photo Gallery

Environmentalists fight to save tract of old-growth Island trees

New article about the fight to protect old-growth in the Central Walbran Valley around the renowned Castle Grove.

News Coverage
A Marbled Murrelet floats on the sea.

Audio Recording of the Threatened Marbled Murrelet, an Old-Growth Dependent Seabird, taken in the Endangered Central Walbran Valley

Two new recordings of the calls of a threatened, old-growth dependent seabird, the Marbled Murrelet, have been taken in the endangered Central Walbran Valley recently and were submitted last Friday to BC’s Ministry of Environment in hopes the new findings will halt logging plans in Canada’s grandest old-growth temperate rainforest.
Media Release
A massive old-growth redcedar tree found near the survey tape marked "Falling Boundary" in the unprotected Central Walbran Ancient Forest

Public Information and Community Forum to Save the Walbran Valley

Tuesday, July 21, 2015, 7-9 pm, Fernwood Community Centre, 1240 Gladstone Avenue.
The old-growth forests of the Central Walbran Valley are threatened with clearcut logging. This is one of the largest intact old-growth forests left on southern Vancouver Island, but is now at risk of being logged by Teal-Jones. See beautiful images of the valley and hear a variety of speakers at this free event hosted by the Friends of Carmanah-Walbran, Wilderness Committee, and Ancient Forest Alliance.
Announcements
Ancient Forest Alliance's Jackie Korn stands amongst incredible old-growth redcedar trees in proposed cutblock 4412 in the Central Walbran Ancient Forest.

Canada’s Two Grandest Old-Growth Forests Under Logging Threat by the Teal-Jones Group!

Port Renfrew –  Surrey-based forestry company, the Teal-Jones Group, is aggressively moving forward with plans to log and build roads into Canada’s two most magnificent old-growth forests, the Central Walbran Ancient Forest (about 500 hectares) and the Edinburgh Mountain Ancient Forest (about 1500 hectares) on southern Vancouver Island. The company is planning eight new cutblocks (clearcuts) and a new road in the Central Walbran, and two new cutblocks and a new road on Edinburgh Mountain. The Walbran Valley is home to perhaps Canada’s finest stand of old-growth redcedars, the Castle Grove, while Edinburgh Mountain is where “Big Lonely Doug” (discovered last year by Ancient Forest Alliance activists to be Canada’s 2nd largest Douglas-fir tree – alas, completely surrounded by a 2012 clearcut) still stands and where the threatened "Christy Clark Grove" (ie. Lower Edinburgh Grove) is located in the Gordon River Valley.

Media Release

War in the Woods II ?

Here is Focus Magazine on the battle for the Walbran Valley over the years since the early 1990's, with a potential resurgence in protests as Teal-Jones seeks to log in the largely intact central valley.

News Coverage