Join TJ Watt, Hannah Carpendale and Michelle Connolly from the Ancient Forest Alliance to learn about the ecology and politics of BC’s ancient forests and find out how YOU can get involved in the growing movement to save them!
Thursday July 29th
7pm-8:30pm
Burnaby Public Library, McGill Branch
4595 Albert St. (near Hastings & Willingdon)
For more info, contact hannah@15.222.255.145
The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is supporting Member of Parliament (Esquimalt- Juan de Fuca) Keith Martin’s proposal to extend Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s boundaries to protect adjacent endangered forests, including the grandest stands of old-growth trees in Canada.
Recently Martin joined Ancient Forest Alliance activists TJ Watt and Brendan Harry on a guided tour through the spectacular Avatar Grove and a nearby clearcut filled with giant stumps near the national park reserve.
Last fall, Martin proposed to expand Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to protect threatened forest lands along the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, in part to protect former Western Forest Products lands by Jordan River and the Juan de Fuca Trail that were threatened by development due to their removal from Tree Farm License 25. While the Capital Regional District has recently purchased the lands by Jordan River and the Sooke Potholes, other forested areas with high conservation and recreation values remain threatened in the region, particularly old-growth forests on Crown lands near Port Renfrew and Crown and private lands adjacent to the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail Provincial Park. Martin has expressed an interest in including such areas in his proposal, which he intends to introduce as a private members bill in the House of Commons at a future legislative session.
“These trees are some of the oldest living creatures on our planet. Cutting them down provides a short term benefit and a much larger long term loss. Ethno-tourism and eco-tours would provide for long term jobs and economic security in this area that has suffered from chronically high unemployment. We are in a race against time to save these forest giants. I am asking the provincial and federal governments to work with the forestry companies to stop this destruction of our old growth forests in the Gordon River Valley, Upper Walbran and surrounding areas,” said Dr. Martin.
Located on unprotected Crown Lands less than a 15 minute drive from Port Renfrew, Avatar Grove is home to dozens of some of the South Island’s largest redcedars and Douglas firs, including several trees with trunks reaching over 12 feet in diameter.
Port Renfrew, BC – The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is supporting Member of Parliament (Esquimalt- Juan de Fuca) Keith Martin’s proposal to extend Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s boundaries to protect adjacent endangered forests, including the grandest stands of old-growth trees in Canada. Last week Martin joined Ancient Forest Alliance activists TJ Watt and Brendan Harry on a guided tour through the spectacular Avatar Grove and a nearby clearcut filled with giant stumps near the national park reserve.
Last fall, Martin proposed to expand Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to protect threatened forest lands along the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, in part to protect former Western Forest Products lands by Jordan River and the Juan de Fuca Trail that were threatened by development due to their removal from Tree Farm License 25. While the Capital Regional District has recently purchased the lands by Jordan River and the Sooke Potholes, other forested areas with high conservation and recreation values remain threatened in the region, particularly old-growth forests on Crown lands near Port Renfrew and Crown and private lands adjacent to the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail Provincial Park. Martin has expressed an interest in including such areas in his proposal, which he intends to introduce as a private members bill in the House of Commons at a future legislative session.
“These trees are some of the oldest living creatures on our planet. Cutting them down provides a short term benefit and a much larger long term loss. Ethno-tourism and eco-tours would provide for long term jobs and economic security in this area that has suffered from chronically high unemployment. We are in a race against time to save these forest giants. I am asking the provincial and federal governments to work with the forestry companies to stop this destruction of our old growth forests in the Gordon River Valley, Upper Walbran and surrounding areas,” said Dr. Martin.
Located on unprotected Crown Lands less than a 15 minute drive from Port Renfrew, Avatar Grove is home to dozens of some of the South Island’s largest redcedars and Douglas firs, including several trees with trunks reaching over 12 feet in diameter. Moreover, many of the cedars have incredible, alien shaped burls that helped garner the forest its blockbuster nickname. In stark contrast, an area logged in March just over 1 km away is a sprawling sea of stumps, many of which measure up to 15 feet in diameter. With most of its largest trees spray-painted and the borders marked with falling boundary and road location flagging tape, Avatar Grove is at risk of succumbing to the same fate as the neighbouring stand of giant trees.
“Southern Vancouver Island is home to Canada’s largest trees and some of the most amazing ancient forests in the world. They are also among the most endangered forests in the country,” states Brendan Harry, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner. “With only 6% of the Island’s original, productive old growth forests protected in parks, the majority of the remaining old-growth forests are found on unprotected Crown lands, making them vulnerable to logging. Sadly, these rare ecosystems continue to be destroyed by clearcut logging. The expansion of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve would be an important step forward in protecting some of these incredibly valuable, embattled ancient forests.”
Specifically, the Ancient Forest Alliance would like to see the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve expanded to include:
– Unprotected Crown lands, including the Avatar Grove and other old-growth areas in the Gordon River Valley; the Upper Walbran Valley; the Klanawa Valley; Crown lands adjacent to the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail Provincial Park, including the Refugee Cedar (the largest cedar within the CRD); and Canada’s largest trees, the San Juan Spruce (largest spruce in Canada) and the Red Creek Fir (largest Douglas fir in the world), found in the San Juan River Valley. If this last area is protected, the expanded national park reserve will be home to the largest trees in Canada of three different species (Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, western redcedar) as the park reserve already includes the Cheewhat Cedar, Canada’s largest redcedar and largest tree (based on overall size or timber volume) in the country.
– Private lands adjacent to the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail Provincial Park, which would have to be purchased. Since the current Juan de Fuca Marine Trail Provincial Park is often little more than 100 meters wide and huge development pressure looms in the region in part due to the deletion of forest lands from Tree Farm License 25, expanding the protective buffer to the trail would help to maintain and insulate recreational integrity from clearcutting or subdivisions.
– Existing Provincial Parks, including the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park and Juan de Fuca Marine Trail Provincial Park which would be upgraded to national park reserve status.
“Tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry in BC and the province’s largest employer. Millions of tourists come to see BC’s giant trees and ancient forests, and millions more will come if they are protected and promoted, while we shift the logging industry into sustainably logging second-growth stands instead,” states TJ Watt, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “It’s 2010 and the logging of centuries-old giant trees with trunks as wide as a living room is continuing daily in this province. The expansion of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is a golden opportunity to protect some of the most charismatic and threatened ecosystems on Earth.”
Old-growth forests are extremely important for sustaining species at risk, tourism, clean water, and First Nations traditional cultures.
About 75% of the original productive old-growth forests have been logged on Vancouver Island, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow, according to satellite photos. Only about 6% of the Island’s original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks.
With so little of our ancient forests remaining, the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC government to:
– Undertake a Provincial Old-Growth Strategy that will inventory and protect old-growth forests where they are scarce (egs. Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland, southern Interior, etc.).
– Ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which now constitute the vast majority of BC’s landscapes.
– End the export of raw logs in order to ensure 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.
The streets of Toronto were lit up by burning police cars on the weekend of June 26. But back on the Island, music fans were lighting other things as they danced to the music of Jon and Roy, Current Swell, the Racoons, DJ Tedder, Listening Party and other local acts at the first ever Tall Trees Music Festival.
Taking place in Port Renfrew, located on Pacheedaht First Nations territory, the festival was a perfect example of local bands playing for local fans, all in front of a backdrop of tall trees and eagles silhouetted against the West Coast sunset.
Tall Trees offered fans a chance to see some of the best up-andcoming musicians the area has to offer in the loose musical region of surf, folk, rock, and drum and bass/mash up DJ’s
“This festival is a beauty; one hell of a time. It was pretty bang on and I think it should be an annual thing. Just epic,” said Scottie Stanton of Victoria’s Current Swell. “There’s a lot of local talent. And you know there is that festival vibe that you just cannot pay enough for. It’s the best feeling in the world to be around a bunch of people that have the greatest energy.”
DJ Tedder, who moved to Victoria from South Africa when he was 10, agreed.
“It’s a great vibe out here, everyone is happy and friendly, good hope for next year. The setting makes all the difference. It’s a total B.C. vibe.” For Patrick Codere of Mindil Beach Markets, Tall Trees was a bit of an educational experience.
“There is so much to learn from watching other bands,” he said.
“The vibe in Victoria’s music scene is awesome. If you go to a bill of three bands at least one of them is going to be good.”
The band, who hail from the Sunshine Coast and Victoria, felt right at home tucked away amongst the trees playing folkfunk- reggae inspired music with a touch of Jurassic 5.
The festival was put on by Radio Contact, a promotional companycollective based in Victoria. Three Point Property group asked Radio Contact if they would promote and put on an event on an ocean-view bluff set for development by the company. The site, previously a campsite, was eloquently located in the belly of the San Juan Valley.
“The festival grounds seem to speak for themselves. The venue is so awesome, I love it out here. Pretty much everything I’ve heard this weekend I’ve enjoyed,” said Jon Middleton of Jon and Roy, who will be playing at Rifflandia in Victoria this fall.
As Middleton and I stood on the boardwalk talking about Victoria’s growing music scene, the hillside to the west was blanketed with beautiful first and second growth forest, while the eastern hills were juxtaposed with massive clear-cut logging. It’s a paradoxical combination of landscapes that small town B.C. culturally navigates in order to have a prosperous province. The balance between conservation and industry is an act that Port Renfrew is historically familiar with, and one that was represented well at the Tall Tree Music Festival in the contrast between the development work of Three Point Properties, and the conservation work of the Ancient Forest Alliance, who will be receiving most of the proceeds from the festival.
“Everything that we do, we try to have an benefit aspect to,” said Mike Roma of Creative Design/Radio Contact. “And in this case the Ancient Forest Alliance is interested in preserving and protecting a great portion of Port Renfrew.”
“Not only do we want to have a festival here to promote music, but also to promote the community. I think it’s been a massive success, surpassing all our expectations.” Katrina Andres, Operations Director for the Ancient Forest Alliance, said the festival was very positive.
“I had a great time and it seemed like a really successful event. I hope Radio Contact can do it annually,” she said.
Many of the musicians who performed at Tall Trees came not only to make music, but to support the area as well.
“I signed the Ancient Forest Alliance petition,” said Roy Vizer of Jon and Roy. “It’s nice that this sort of [show] brings awareness to the issues in the area. It brings a lot of money to the cause.”
Singer-songwriter Vince Vaccaro moved to Victoria from Montreal when he was 12. His music is a dreamy hybrid of folk and Xavier Rudd earth-tones. The combination of Montreal’s artistic blood, with a Zephyr muse is one worth paying attention to.
Vaccaro believes that we have a responsibility to keep our environment and our economy working together sustainably.
“Our province is our garden, and if we don’t manage it well, our jobs and industries are going to collapse,” he said. “If we don’t find a way to make logging sustainable, then we aren’t doing ourselves any favors in logging for our short-term gains.”
Vaccaro put his money where his mouth is, stepping in to help the Ancient Forest Alliance.
“I’m going to grab the Ancient Forest Alliance clip board and try and sign people up on the petition. There are only two of them, and they are really trying to not be in people’s faces too much, which is good. People are here to party,” he said smiling.
A federal Liberal member of Parliament is continuing his drive to expand the boundaries of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
Dr. Keith Martin, MP for Esquimalt – Juan de Fuca, toured a section of old-growth forest and some clear cuts near Port Renfrew last week with members of the Ancient Forest Alliance.
“These trees are some of the oldest living creatures on our planet,” said Martin, in a press release. “Cutting them down provides a short term benefit and a much larger long term loss.”
Martin also called for an end to old-growth logging in the Gordon River Valley, Upper Walbran and surrounding areas.
In the fall of 2009, Martin proposed expanding the park’s boundaries.
The park currently covers three sections: the Long Beach Unit, the Broken Group Islands Unit and the West Coast Trail Unit.
The Ancient Forest Alliance is a Victoria-based environmental organization dedicated to protecting old-growth forests.
After hosting 7 “Karma Classes” in support of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), Bikram’s Yoga in Saanich (https://www.bikramyogasaanich.com/) mailed a cheque to the AFA for nearly $1000!
THANK YOU so much to Abbey and all the staff at Saanich Bikram’s. We are so appreciative of this support, especially at this formative stage of the organisation.
Another massive THANK YOU is owed to Cindy Bernicot, who organised a very successful night of belly dancing, beer, and burgers in Fort Langley on June 5th. Almost 50 dinner tickets sold for the event and, all told, it raised nearly $600 for the Ancient Forest Alliance. We are extremely grateful for all this support at this crucial early stage of the organisation.
July has arrived and we are just weeks away from our $30,000 July 31 fundraising deadline. The recent slew of highly successful community-organized benefit events has gone a long way toward our target, and it would be wonderful to maintain this level of momentum.
The Ancient Forest Alliance is working to build the strongest campaign on just a fraction of the funds typically used by the larger environmental groups. YOU can help us do exactly that by hosting a fundraiser for us!
Organize a simple fundraiser for us. This could include:
– Holding a yard sale/ garage sale.
– Selling your unneeded items on E-Bay or Craigslist and donating us the proceeds.
– Holding a benefit house party for us (charge a fee or by donation…)
The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone at Radio Contact Productions, Bigfish Lodge, Wild Coast Cottages, and Sitka Surfboards for organising such a successful event and so generously supporting the AFA. Thanks, as well, to all the volunteers, the event sponsors, the amazing musicians, and everyone who attended in support of the AFA!
Held Fri-Sat June 25-26, the Tall Tree Festival was a huge success. The 2 day music festival featured live music and DJs, with the proceeds going to the AFA. There was an AFA table set up during the festival and hundreds of signatures were collected for the Ancient Forest petition (https://16.52.162.165/ways-to-take-action-for-forests/petition//). Forest campaigner and photographer TJ Watt took to the stage on Saturday to tell the lively, hundreds-strong crowd about the dire need for the protection of BC’s endangered ancient forests.
