Archive for month: April, 2011

Ken Wu with the Ancient Forest Alliance, spoke on behalf of old growth forests.

Join in on a grassroots community gathering to celebrate the legacy of BC's endangered ancient forests and to voice support for their protection. Featuring forest trivia, letter-writing, and a slideshow of images of BC's ancient temperate rainforests!

I would like to thank the Sooke Harbour House, The Ancient Forest Alliance and Adriane Carr for making the event all possible. We raised $6,100 in pledges and cash donations, and made new friends who own companies who are able to give a hand in other areas.

Four bright and dedicated students from Pearson College put together an excellent 7 minute documentary on the Avatar Grove and Vancouver Island’s threatened old-growth forests.

A recent Forest Practices Board report notes that just one per cent of the Gordon Valley landscape unit consists of protected monumental trees over 400 years old. In addition, only about one-fourth or 4,000 hectares of the Gordon River’s 17,000 hectares is still old-growth, of which only half or 2,000 hectares are protected in Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s).

Nestled on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, the town’s livelihood and identity grew out of logging old-growth forests for most of the 20th century. Mechanization of the logging industry in the 1980s led to significant job loss, which forced the town to find new ways to thrive.