Ancient Forest Alliance
  • Home
  • About Us
        • Who We Are
        • History & Successes
        • Work With Us
        • Contact Us
  • Our Work
    • Activity Reports
    • Building Alliances
    • Campaigns
  • Ancient Forests
    • FAQs
    • Before & After Old-Growth Maps
    • Myths & Facts
    • Directions to Avatar Grove
    • Port Renfrew Big Trees Map
  • Recent News
    • Recent News
    • Research & Reports
    • Media Releases
    • Publications
  • Photos & Media
        • Map of Gallery Locations
        • Themes
          • Biggest Trees
          • Biggest Stumps
          • Low Productivity Old-Growth
        • Videos
        • Vancouver Island North
          • East Creek Rainforest
          • Klaskish Inlet
          • Mahatta River Logging
          • Spruce Bay
          • Tahsis
            • McKelvie Valley
            • Tahsis: Endangered Old-Growth Above Town
          • Tsitika Valley
          • White River Provincial Park
        • Vancouver Island Central
          • Barkley Sound
            • Vernon Bay
          • Clayoquot Sound
            • Flores Island
            • Meares Island
          • Cortes Island
            • Children’s Forest
            • Squirrel Cove Ancient Forest
          • Nootka Island
          • Port Alberni
            • Cameron Valley Firebreak
            • Cathedral Grove Canyon
            • Juniper Ridge
            • Katlum Creek
            • Nahmint Valley
            • McLaughlin Ridge
            • Mount Horne
            • Taylor River Valley
        • Vancouver Island South
          • Carmanah
            • Carmanah Tree Climb
          • Caycuse Watershed
            • Before & After Logging – Caycuse Watershed
            • Before & After Logging Caycuse 2022
            • Caycuse Logging From Above
            • Lower Caycuse River
            • Massive Trees Cut Down
          • Klanawa Valley
          • Koksilah
          • Mossy Maples
            • Mossy Maple Gallery
            • Mossy Maple Grove
          • Port Renfrew
            • Avatar Boardwalk
            • Avatar Grove
            • Big Lonely Doug and Clearcut
            • Bugaboo Ridge Ancient Forest
            • Eden Grove
            • Exploring & Climbing Ancient Giants
            • Fairy Creek Headwaters
            • Granite Creek Logging
            • Jurassic Grove
            • Loup Creek
            • Mossome Grove
            • Mossome Grove Tree Climb
          • Walbran Valley
            • Castle Grove
            • Central Walbran Ancient Forest
            • Hadikin Lake
            • Walbran Headwaters At Risk
            • Walbran Overview
            • Walbran Logging
        • Haida Gwaii
        • Sunshine Coast
          • Day Road Forest
          • Mt. Elphinstone Proposed Park Expansion
          • Powell River
            • Eldred River Valley
            • Mt. Freda Ancient Forests
          • Roberts Creek Headwaters
          • Stillwater Bluffs
        • Inland Rainforest
          • Ancient Forest/ Chun T’oh Whudujut Provincial Park
          • Parthenon Grove
        • Mainland
          • Echo Lake
          • Kanaka Bar IPCA Proposal
  • Take Action
    • Sign Petition
    • Send a Message to the BC Government
    • Sign a Resolution
  • Store
  • Donate
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
  • Store
  • Donate
News Coverage
"Canada's gnarliest tree" grows in Avatar GroveMar 25 2010

The gnarliest tree in Canada found in the endangered Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Mar 25 2010/News Coverage
Share this far and wide!
     

A new Canadian environmental organization, the Ancient Forest Alliance (www.ancientforestalliance.org), is claiming to have found what may be the “gnarliest tree in Canada” in the endangered “Avatar Grove” on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Set amidst a hundred or so of some of Canada’s largest old-growth trees in the extraordinarily spectacular but threatened Avatar Grove temperate rainforest, the tree with what may be the largest and most contorted burl (wooden lump) in Canada was located in mid-February on a bushwacking expedition by TJ Watt and Ken Wu, both co-founders of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA). The incredible and unique old-growth western redcedar measures 37 feet or 11 meters in circumference (12 feet or almost 4 meters in diameter) near the base of its trunk. The burl, created by a non-lethal fungal infection that causes the tree trunk to grow giant contorted lumps, is about10 feet or 3 meters in diameter. An image of the tree and of the various other endangered old-growth redcedars and Douglas firs in the Avatar Grove have been uploaded onto a new Facebook Group at:
https://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=photos&gid=480609145246

The release of the Avatar Grove images, taken in February, also coincides with the upcoming “Rally for BC’s Ancient Forests and Forestry Jobs” in Vancouver this Saturday, March 27 (12:00 pm Protesters meet at Canada Place, 12:30 pm March begins, 1:00 pm Arrive at Vancouver Art Gallery for speeches by Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance, Stephanie Goodwin of Greenpeace, Jens Wieting of the Sierra Club, Dr. Judith Sayers former chief of the Hupacasath First Nation, and others). The rally will have an Avatar-theme, with participants encouraged to dress in blue and put on tails like the “Na’vi” rainforest humanoids in the film.

“This could very well be Canada’s gnarliest tree, if you consider both the enormous size and crazy shape of its burl. The bizarre shape of its burl may resemble various creatures, such as a Nightmare Rabbit with a Cane, Jabba the Hut, or some say Elvis – everyone has their own take on what they can see in the tree’s burl. The official name for the tree will be determined by an online competition and vote in the future,” states Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “But 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.”

Named after James Cameron’s blockbuster, environmentally-themed movie which has become history’s highest grossing film at the box office, the exceptionally spectacular and accessible stand of old growth redcedars and Douglas firs, typically with trunks 6 to 13 feet in diameter and often covered in giant contorted burls and hanging mosses as in an alien rainforest, is about 10 kilometers north of Port Renfrew in the Gordon River Valley in Tree Farm License #46 (the Teal-Jones Group based in Surrey has logging rights there). It was located in early December last year by Vancouver Island photographer and “big tree hunter” TJ Watt and a friend. In a return visit in February by Watt and Wu, both co-founders of the new Ancient Forest Alliance, the Avatar Grove was found to be slated for logging, with many of its trees spray painted and bearing falling-boundary flagging tape, while road location ribbons have been strung throughout the entire area. Small portions of the Grove are tenuously protected in an Old-Growth Management Area, but the vast majority of its largest trees are unprotected and marked for logging.

“This area is just about the most accessible and finest stand of ancient trees left in a wilderness setting on southern Vancouver Island,” stated TJ Watt, AFA photographer. “All other unprotected old growth stands near Victoria are either on steep, rugged terrain far along bumpy logging roads, or are small isolated stands surrounded by clearcuts and second-growth and near human settlements. This area is a wild region on vast Crown lands, in a complex of perhaps 1500 hectares of old-growth in the Gordon River Valley – only 5 minutes off the paved road, right beside the main logging road, and on relatively flat terrain. This could become a first rate eco-tourism gem if the BC government had the foresight to spare it. We’ll be putting in a formal request that they enact a Land Use Order to protect it quickly before it falls.”

Old-growth forests are important for sustaining species at risk, tourism, clean water, and First Nations traditional cultures. Avatar Grove is in close proximity to the Gordon River, home to steelhead and salmon runs, and evidence of cougars and elk were apparent in the Grove.

Based upon an analysis of satellite photographs, about 88% of the original, productive old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island (south of Barkley Sound and Port Alberni) have already been logged, including 95% of the productive old-growth on low, flat terrain. Across the Island as a whole, about 75% of the original productive old-growth forests have been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Avatar Grove is one of the very few flat, valley-bottom old-growth forests left on the entire South Island.

With so little of our ancient forests remaining, the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government to:

· Immediately protect the most at-risk old-growth forests – such as those on the South Island where only 12% remains and on eastern Vancouver Island where only 1% remains.
· Undertake a Provincial Old-Growth Strategy that will inventory the old-growth forests across the province and protect them where they are scarce through legislated timelines to quickly phase-out old-growth logging in those regions (ie. Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland, southern Interior, etc.).
· Ensure that second-growth forests are logged at a sustainable rate of cut
· End the export of raw logs in order to create guaranteed log supplies for local milling and value-added industries.
· Assist in the retooling and development of mills and value-added facilities to handle second-growth logs.
· Undertake new land-use planning initiatives based on First Nations land-use plans, ecosystem-based scientific assessments, and climate mitigation strategies involving forest protection.

“Tourists come from all over the world to visit the ancient forests of BC and Avatar Grove stands out as a first rate potential destination if the BC Liberal government doesn’t let it fall. But if the government chooses to allow this rare and impressive area to be logged, they will need to re-write the tourism business plan for the area to say ‘ideal location for world class Provincial Park…in 500 years time’ ,” stated TJ Watt.

https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Upper_Avatar_Grove-8.jpg 650 453 fairwindcreative https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png fairwindcreative2010-03-25 00:00:002018-12-17 19:12:31The gnarliest tree in Canada found in the endangered Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Recent News

  • SALMON PARKS: Inside a movement to conserve Pacific Northwest old growthMar 21 2023
  • A male Williamson's Sapsucker clinging to a Pine TreeSapsucker housing crisis: endangered woodpecker ‘condos’ are being clear cutMar 7 2023
  • Two northern spotted owls sit side-by-side on a branchBC extends ban on old-growth logging for two years to assist endangered spotted owl’s recoveryMar 6 2023
View All Posts

Categories

Archive

Find us on

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
Share this far and wide!
     

Related Posts

SALMON PARKS: Inside a movement to conserve Pacific Northwest old growth

Mar 21 2023
The Seattle Times covers The Nuchatlaht and Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations' efforts to establish a number of Salmon Parks in their unceded territories that would protect hundreds of square kilometres of ancient forests, salmon watersheds, and previously logged areas in need of restoration.
Read more
News Coverage
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screen-Shot-2023-03-21-at-2.40.03-PM.png 1224 1904 TJ Watt https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png TJ Watt2023-03-21 14:46:442023-03-21 16:07:52SALMON PARKS: Inside a movement to conserve Pacific Northwest old growth
A male Williamson's Sapsucker clinging to a Pine Tree

Sapsucker housing crisis: endangered woodpecker ‘condos’ are being clear cut

Mar 7 2023
Almost two decades after the Williamson’s sapsucker was listed as endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, the BC government continues to sanction logging in the bird’s old-growth forest critical habitat.
Read more
News Coverage
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Williamsons-sapsucker-iStock-526723766-e1677525599182-2200x1411-1.jpeg 1411 2200 TJ Watt https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png TJ Watt2023-03-07 11:21:312023-03-07 11:21:31Sapsucker housing crisis: endangered woodpecker ‘condos’ are being clear cut
Two northern spotted owls sit side-by-side on a branch

BC extends ban on old-growth logging for two years to assist endangered spotted owl’s recovery

Mar 6 2023
On Friday, the province announced it had extended the suspension of old-growth logging activity in the Fraser Canyon's Spuzzum and Utzilus watersheds for two more years to help with the recovery of the critically endangered spotted owl.
Read more
News Coverage
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screen-Shot-2023-03-06-at-4.44.15-PM.png 808 1436 TJ Watt https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png TJ Watt2023-03-06 16:50:212023-03-06 16:56:03BC extends ban on old-growth logging for two years to assist endangered spotted owl’s recovery
A side profile of BC's premier, David Eby

BC moves to fast-track its overdue old growth protection commitments

Feb 23 2023
Premier David Eby announced on Wednesday his plans to fast-track his government’s progress on protecting old growth, including $25-million to help First Nations participate in land-use decisions on old-growth forests, and $90-million added to the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund to help forestry companies retool their mills to adapt to second-growth timber.
Read more
News Coverage
https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-23-at-2.22.28-PM.png 828 1398 TJ Watt https://ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png TJ Watt2023-02-23 14:27:182023-03-10 10:11:50BC moves to fast-track its overdue old growth protection commitments
See All Posts

Take Action

 Donate

Support the Ancient Forest Alliance with a one-time or monthly donation.
How to Give

 Send a Message

Send an instant message to key provincial decision-makers.
Take Action

Get in Touch

Phone

(250) 896-4007 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)

Address

205-620 View Street
Victoria, B.C. V8W 1J6

Privacy Policy

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube

Resources

  • Recent News
  • Old Growth FAQs
  • Research & Reports
  • Photos & Media
  • Videos
  • Directions to Avatar Grove

Who We Are

  • Who We Are
  • History & Successes
  • Activity Reports
  • Campaigns
  • Contact

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is a registered non-profit 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.
Copyright © 2023 Ancient Forest Alliance • All Rights Reserved
Earth-Friendly Web Design by Fairwind Creative
Scroll to top
╳
Ancient Forest Alliance
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • History & Successes
    • Work With Us
    • Contact Us
  • Our Work
    • Our Work
    • Activity Reports
    • Building Alliances
    • Campaigns
  • Ancient Forests
    • FAQs
    • Before & After Old-Growth Maps
    • Myths & Facts
    • Directions to Avatar Grove
    • Port Renfrew Big Trees Map
  • Recent News
    • Recent News
    • Research & Reports
    • Media Releases
    • Publications
  • Photos & Media
    • Map of Gallery Regions
    • Themes
      • Biggest Trees
      • Biggest Stumps
      • Low Productivity Old-Growth
    • Videos
    • Inland Rainforest
      • Ancient Forest/ Chun T’oh Whudujut Provincial Park
      • Parthenon Grove
    • Mainland
      • Echo Lake
      • Kanaka Bar IPCA Proposal
    • Haida Gwaii
    • Sunshine Coast
      • Day Road Forest
      • Mt. Elphinstone Proposed Park Expansion
      • Roberts Creek Headwaters
      • Stillwater Bluffs
    • Sunshine Coast: Powell River
      • Eldred River Valley
      • Mt. Freda Ancient Forests
    • Vancouver Island South
      • Carmanah Tree Climb
      • Klanawa Valley
      • Koksilah
    • VI South: Caycuse Watershed
      • Before & After Logging – Caycuse Watershed
      • Before & After Logging Caycuse 2022
      • Caycuse Logging From Above
      • Lower Caycuse River
      • Massive Trees Cut Down
    • VI South: Mossy Maples
      • Mossy Maple Gallery
      • Mossy Maple Grove
    • VI South: Port Renfrew
      • Avatar Boardwalk
      • Avatar Grove
      • Big Lonely Doug and Clearcut
      • Bugaboo Ridge Ancient Forest
      • Eden Grove
      • Exploring & Climbing Ancient Giants
      • Fairy Creek Headwaters
      • Granite Creek Logging
      • Jurassic Grove
      • Loup Creek
      • Mossome Grove
      • Mossome Grove Tree Climb
    • VI South: Port Alberni
      • Cameron Valley Firebreak
      • Cathedral Grove Canyon
      • Juniper Ridge
      • Katlum Creek
      • Nahmint Valley
      • McLaughlin Ridge
      • Mount Horne
      • Taylor River Valley
    • VI South: Walbran Valley
      • Castle Grove
      • Central Walbran Ancient Forest
      • Hadikin Lake
      • Walbran Headwaters At Risk
      • Walbran Overview
      • Walbran Logging
    • Vancouver Island Central
      • Barkley Sound: Vernon Bay
      • Nootka Island
    • VI Central: Clayoquot Sound
      • Flores Island
      • Meares Island
    • VI Central: Cortes Island
      • Children’s Forest
      • Squirrel Cove Ancient Forest
    • Vancouver Island North
      • East Creek Rainforest
      • Klaskish Inlet
      • Mahatta River Logging
      • Spruce Bay
      • Tsitika Valley
      • White River Provincial Park
    • VI North: Tahsis
      • McKelvie Valley
      • Tahsis: Endangered Old-Growth Above Town
  • Take Action
    • Sign Petition
    • Send a Message to the BC Government
    • Sign a Resolution
  • Store
  • Donate