A large group of hikers crowd around the massive redcedar dubbed "Canada's Gnarliest Tree" during an Ancient Forest Alliance led public hike to the Avatar Grove in summer 2010.

Eco-tourism in Port Renfrew

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Port Renfrew, long a logging town, has realized they can capitalize on the protection of their natural assets to keep the community alive.

The Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the Ancient Forest Alliance, the advocacy group that leads tours of the majestic ‘Avatar Grove’, to funnel more tourists into the area and feed the local economy.

The two organizations launched an info centre Thursday, July 14 that will hopefully be a hub for visitors looking for information about Avatar Grove and a boom for local businesses.

“What we used to rely on to sustain Port Renfrew was logging, but the tables have turned,” said Rosie Betsworth, chamber president.

She said while the partnership with an environmental group initially raised eyebrows among area residents, the forest alliance isn’t a “radical” group, instead one that aims to educate people gently about the importance of protecting old-growth forests.

“Their application is soft and it works.”

And it is working. The Ancient Forest Alliance holds tours once a month through the grove, and an average of 50 people show up each time, many from across Canada and Europe. TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer for the alliance, said thousands have come through the grove since he first discovered it in late 2009.

“There are five, six, seven cars there on an average day,” he said. The maps available in the info centre provide directions on how to reach the grove, a 20-minute drive from the village centre and then a 15-minute hike. It features the world’s biggest Douglas fir and Canada’s gnarliest tree, covered with a 10-foot wide burl at its base. Watt estimates the oldest tree in the grove is 500 years old.

Betsworth said the flow of visitors coming to see the grove is translating into real growth for the village, and she can understand why.

“The town is small, unique, green and clean,” she said. Everywhere you turn there’s something else to see.”

The community now has its first strip mall- a row of businesses with a restaurant, a market and the info centre, as well as a growing list of accommodations, eateries and eco-tourism opportunities.

She admits that the quality of the West Coast highway needs to be improved, and the switchbacks need to be gentler.

“The pressure is on” to keep the Pacific Rim Circle Route, a logging road which connects Port Renfrew to Lake Cowichan, maintained.

Watt thinks local businesses are on-board with this new tourism strategy.

“I find that most business owners have made the connection between protecting the earth and raising funds,” he said.

However, he’s not yet assured that the tourists will be able to visit Avatar Grove indefinitely.

On Watt’s second visit to the grove in February 2010, he noticed surveyor tape around some of the trees. Since then, it’s been “a long, drawn-out battle for the last year and a half” to get the grove protected. The government is currently consulting with Teal-Jones Group, which has logging rights. Watt thinks that with the frenzy of people coming in to see the trees, it would be in the government’s best interest to

“It’d be way too backwards to cut it down at this point.”

 

Link to Sooke News Mirror article: https://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/sookenewsmirror/lifestyles/125824828.html

The Cheewhat Giant is over 6 meters (20 feet) in trunk diameter

Meet Cheewhat, Canada’s largest tree — and help the alliance keep giants like it safe

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Tucked deep in the Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island sits the Cheewhat cedar, Canada’s largest tree.

“It’s like arriving at a small planet. You wouldn’t know it was there driving along a logging road unless someone showed you the spot,” said Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, an organization focused on protecting old-growth forest and promoting sustainable forestry jobs.

“Luckily, it’s in the borders of a national park that was made 40 years ago.”

The giant western red cedar reaches 56 metres high and spans six metres around, containing enough wood to make 450 telephone poles. It’s accessible by a logging road and by hiking in.

“It must be close to 2,000 years old,” Wu said.

While Parks Canada celebrated 100 years protecting trees like the Cheewhat Saturday, Wu said large stumps littering the area around the park are a sign that more needs to be done to save others like it.

“A lot of people think logging of old growth has ended, when it’s actually the norm on public land on B.C.’s coast,” he said.

“We’re saying that the collapse of the ecosystem as a result of resource depletion also results in the collapse of rural employment in those industries. We’ve seen it in fisheries and we’ve seen it actually happen over a 20-year span now with the collapse of coastal forestry employment.”

Instead, the organization advocates for the logging of second-growth forest where trees have been re-planted, “like the rest of the country and the rest of the world is doing,” Wu said.

Hannah Carpendale, outreach co-ordinator with the alliance, said it’s jarring travelling from the protected park to the areas that have been clear-cut. “Sometimes it’s hard to take it all in, the amount that’s been lost,” she said. “It’s not just the trees, it’s the entire ecosystem and everything that comes with it.”

The group has launched a petition in support of their cause and “have thousands of supporters now,” Wu added.

So far, the provincial government has said they’re considering increasing protection for old-growth forest and some of the largest trees near Port Renfrew.

Wu grew up in the prairies of Saskatchewan, where “you could hug a tree with one hand,” but has lived on the island for the past decade.

He became fascinated with old-growth trees as a 10-year-old when he saw a photo of six people dancing on a large stump.

“It blew me away that we had trees like that. Then I found out we still do,” he said. “You’ve got some of the biggest trees in the world [around the Pacific Rim Park], and some of the biggest stumps.”

Link to original news article: https://www.theprovince.com/travel/Meet+Cheewhat+Canada+largest+tree+help+alliance+keep+giants+like+safe/5114186/story.html#ixzz1SVaaILU7

Old-growth redcedar stump in the Klanawa Valley. Vancouver Island

Parks Day Alert: Video clip of “Canada’s Largest Tree” and old-growth logging

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For Immediate Release

Saturday, July 15, 2011

Parks Day Alert: Video clip of “Canada’s Largest Tree” and old-growth logging by Pacific Rim National Park Reserve released today

The Ancient Forest Alliance released a new video clip on Parks Day today about the threats to the ecological integrity of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and the surrounding old-growth forests.

See the clip “Canada’s Largest Tree – the Cheewhat Cedar” at: https://youtu.be/Xw2Im8nSOdg  

The clip was posted on the organization’s website (www.ancientforestalliance.org) and Facebook profile today, which is the 100 year anniversary of the federal national parks agency Parks Canada (founded in 1911, 26 years after the first national park was created, Banff National Park in Alberta) and the 100 year anniversary of BC’s provincial parks (Strathcona Provincial Park on Vancouver Island was created in 1911).
The clip features Canada’s largest tree, a western redcedar named the Cheewhat Giant growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve north of Port Renfrew and west of Lake Cowichan. The tree is over 6 meters (20 feet) in trunk diameter, 56 meters (182 feet) in height, and 450 cubic meters in timber volume (or 450 regular telephone poles worth of wood). Luckily the tree, discovered in 1988, is within the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, which was created in 1971.

The video clip also features new clearcuts and giant stumps of redcedar trees, some over 4 meters (14 feet) in diameter in the Klanawa Valley adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and also near the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park (in the Nitinat Lake/Rosander Main region) logged in 2010 and 2011.

Extensive logging of the last unprotected old-growth forests is taking place adjacent to the national park in the “West Coast Trail Wilderness” of the Klanawa Valley, Nitinat Lake region, Rosander Main region, Upper Walbran Valley, Gordon River Valley, Hadikin Lake region, San Juan Valley, and a lot of other areas as the market for western redcedar rebounds after the last recession.

“Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is a very narrow, linear park just a couple kilometres wide along much of the West Coast Trail unit that is threatened by logging of adjacent unprotected ancient forests. Nearby old-growth logging threatens the park’s ecological integrity by silting up salmon streams that run into the park, diminishing the contiguous wildlife habitat, and undermining the wilderness experience for hikers who often hear the roar of chainsaws through the narrow buffer of trees along the trail,” states Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “However, more importantly the last unprotected ancient forests in the Upper Walbran Valley, Klanawa Valley, and Gordon River Valley where the Avatar Grove still stands are literally the grandest forests left in Canada. They must be protected, and we need a forward thinking government to do so.”

Former Juan de Fuca Member of Parliament Keith Martin proposed to include the adjacent old-growth forests of the Avatar Grove, Red Creek Fir, San Juan Spruce, Walbran-Carmanah Valleys, Klanawa Valley, the Juan de Fuca Trail and adjacent lands, and endangered ecosystems at Mary Hill and Race Rocks within an expanded Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.

“Former Member of Parliament Keith Martin had a very visionary proposal to expand Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to enhance its ecological integrity and to protect the adjacent old-growth forests on southwestern Vancouver Island. I hope that other politicians will rise to the challenge to protect old-growth forests with the vision that Keith Martin set in motion,” states TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “Future generations will look back at the majority of BC’s politicians today who still sanction the elimination of our last endangered old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, despite the second-growth alternative for logging, and see them as lacking vision, compassion, and a spine. We desperately need more politicians with courage and wisdom to step forward.”

Satellite photos show that about 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow and most biodiversity is found. On southern Vancouver Island, south of Barkley Sound, about 87% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged.

See “before” and “after” old-growth forest maps at: https://16.52.162.165/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/

See other Ancient Forest Alliance’s Youtube Clips of Canada’s largest trees near Pacific Rim National Park Reserve at:

– World’s Largest Douglas Fir – the Red Creek Fir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfBWLVj-Xjg  

– Canada’s Largest Spruce – the San Juan Spruce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lql9_hWuFLA&NR=1  

– Canada’s Gnarliest Tree – Save the Avatar Grove: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_uPkAWsvVw  

See spectacular photo galleries of Canada’s largest trees at:

https://16.52.162.165/photos-media/

Ancient Forest Alliance

Canada’s Largest Tree – The Cheewhat Giant!

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Direct link to video: https://youtu.be/Xw2Im8nSOdg

Please SIGN our PETITION here: https://16.52.162.165/ways-to-take-action-for-forests/petition/

Seen here is Canada’s largest tree, a western redcedar named the Cheewhat Giant growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on southerwestern Vancouver Island. The tree measures over 6 meters (20 feet) in trunk diameter, 56 meters (182 feet) in height, and 450 cubic meters in timber volume (or 450 regular telephone poles worth of wood). Luckily the tree, discovered in 1988, is within the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, which was created in 1971.

The video clip also shows new clearcuts and giant stumps of redcedar trees, some over 4 meters (14 feet) in diameter in the Klanawa Valley adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and also near the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park, a short distance to the south.

Satellite photos show that about 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow and most biodiversity is found. On southern Vancouver Island, south of Barkley Sound, about 87% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged.

See “before” and “after” old-growth forest maps at: https://16.52.162.165/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/

Visit the Ancient Forest Alliance website at https://16.52.162.165/
to see more videos, photo galleries, new stories, and to find out how to can help!

Filmed and edited by TJ Watt

The new Port Renfrew Tourist Information Centre will help to funnel thousands of new visitors into the surrounding old-growth forests

Coastal town replaces logging with tourism

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PORT RENFREW — Rosie Betsworth and TJ Watt readily admit the irony of their relationship and acknowledge it is raising eyebrows among old-timers in Port Renfrew.

But, recognizing the old saying that necessity makes strange bedfellows, Betsworth, president of Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, believes the liaison with the Ancient Forest Alliance is positive for everyone mapping a new future for the former logging town.

“We used to depend on logging to sustain Port Renfrew. Now the tables have turned and we’re looking at the tall trees as our future,” said Betsworth as the two groups cemented their partnership Thursday with the opening of a new tourist information centre, where visitors can pick up a map of the area’s massive old-growth trees.

“Some of the older folks from the logging industry have other opinions and that’s fair. This community did survive by logging in the past, but they have to understand this is a new world. This will sustain our town,” Betsworth said.

The Chamber would never ally itself with a radical environmental group, but the AFA educates people about the forest and benefits of protecting old growth, Betsworth said.

“Their approach is soft and it works,” she said.

International visitors have been coming to the tiny west coast community of 270 people since news spread about a stand of massive trees dubbed Avatar Grove.

The Red Creek fir, the world’s largest Douglas fir, and San Juan spruce, Canada’s largest Sitka spruce are also in the area.

The AFA takes monthly tours to Avatar Grove, with between 30 and 80 people on each tour and vehicles are parked daily on the remote logging road as tourists struggle into the unforgiving old-growth terrain to look at gnarly giants.

Each of those visitors is likely to eat a meal or stay the night, Betsworth said.

“It’s a big economic driver.”

Watt, who has escorted thousands of visitors up and down the steep, slippery slopes of Avatar Grove, believes Port Renfrew’s future lies in nature.

“It has all the makings of an incredible destination — wildlife, rivers, lakes, beaches, big trees, fishing and surfing,” he said, looking at the “world’s gnarliest tree,” a red cedar, stretching up about 80 metres with a bulbous, three-metre burl and serpent-like roots.

Rough paths now run through the forest and pink tape indicates navigable routes through the green maze of rainforest, which produces giant mosquitoes as well as giant trees.

But much of the grove remains unprotected and the Teal-Jones Group has cutting rights.

“It would be such a smart choice to protect this area, such a great opportunity,” Watt said, musing about the public outcry if logging started in the grove.

The province is exploring protecting the whole stand through an old-growth management area, meaning no cutting would be allowed, and stakeholders are being consulted, Forests Ministry spokeswoman Vivian Thomas confirmed.

A section is already in an old-growth management area.

The prospect of an eco-tourism based economy, helped by the paving of the logging road from Port Renfrew to Lake Cowichan to form the Pacific Rim Circle Route, is taking root throughout the community.

Close to the tourist information centre, flatbed trucks are delivering pre-fabricated cabins to Three Point Properties’ Wild Coast Cottages development.

The 35 square-metre cottages, surrounded by innovative landscaping on 230 square-metre lots, sell for $129,000 to $159,000. Thirty-one out of 40 have sold since last June.

The second, waterfront phase, with 40 bigger, more expensive cottages, will be launched in a couple of weeks, said sales manager Nancy Paine.

“I have noticed the change in Port Renfrew in the last year,” she said.

“Lots of young people are becoming involved. It was once a forestry town — that’s why people lived here — and now it’s being promoted as the quintessential West Coast experience.”

A possible sign of Port Renfrew’s transformation is that the community now has what Betsworth describes as its first strip mall — four small businesses beside the West Coast Road.

There is still the weather factor, she acknowledged as a fine drizzle fell.

“But look how green everything is here. It’s a tradeoff. It’s a good lifestyle and you take the rain with the sun.”

Times Colonist article not currently available.

Flagging tape marked "Falling Boundary" in the lower Avatar Grove when the forest was initially surveyed for logging.

Ancient Forest Alliance and Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce cooperate to Protect Old-Growth Forests and Avatar Grove through new Chamber Info Centre

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Port Renfrew, BC – The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is supporting the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce during the launch of a new visitor information centre that will help bolster tourism in the region as well as funnel thousands of visitors into the town’s surrounding ancient forests.

The info centre will play host to a media press conference today, Thursday, July 14 at 12:00 noon, followed by a tour of the nearby unprotected Avatar Grove. Port Renfrew Chamber President Rosie Betsworth and Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt will discuss their cooperative efforts to promote and protect the Avatar Grove and other nearby old-growth forests.

Since the locating of Avatar Grove on Crown lands near Port Renfrew by Watt in late 2009 and shortly afterwards its demarcation with survey tape for logging, “Avatar Grove Fever” has hit Port Renfrew, drawing in thousands of new visitors from far and wide who have come to the see the Grove’s gigantic, burl-covered redcedar trees and rare old-growth Douglas-firs. The Grove has also attracted national and international media including Al-Jazeera TV last March.

In the coming weeks the AFA will continue to pump up the number of visitors to Port Renfrew by telling thousands of its supporters to visit the new info centre and to spend their dollars in town to ensure that the financial benefits of old-growth forest recreation and their eventual protection are reflected in the local economy.

“This is a new, revolutionary approach to conservation for an environmental group to forge a cooperative relationship with a Chamber of Commerce and the small business community to protect the environment and bolster the local economy at the same time,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner.

“Port Renfrew’s economy will greatly benefit from the promotion and protection of the Avatar Grove and local old-growth forests. We are positioned to attract tourists from across Canada, the US, Europe and elsewhere who will come to see some of the largest, most magnificent trees in the world here. Our new info center will be a central hub to direct tourists where to go once they arrive,” stated Rosie Betsworth, Chamber of Commerce president. “Our cooperation with the Ancient Forest Alliance has already resulted in thousands of new visitors to our town over the past year.”

In March of 2011 the AFA helped raise over $5,000 for the Port Renfrew Chamber to help cover staffing costs at the new centre. The fundraiser, held at the Sooke Harbour House, drew a crowd of mostly business owners from the Sooke and Port Renfrew region who recognize the economic and environmental benefits of promoting and protecting BC’s world renowned ancient forests.

Port Renfrew has bragging rights as the “big trees capital of Canada”. The world’s largest Douglas-fir tree, the Red Creek Fir, Canada’s largest Sitka spruce, the San Juan Spruce, and the giant, gnarly trees of the Avatar Grove all grow right on its door step. Just a couple of hours drive north grows Canada’s largest tree, the Cheewhat Giant. A “Tall Trees Tour” map of the Port Renfrew area which features photos, driving directions and background information is now available to hand out to tourists.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC government to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests, ensure sustainable second-growth forestry, ban raw log exports, and assist in the retooling and development of second-growth mills and value-added facilities.

According to satellite photos, about 90% of the original, productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged south of Barkley Sound, including about 96% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only about 6% of the Island’s original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks.

See “before” and “after” old-growth forest maps at: https://16.52.162.165/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/  

See the Ancient Forest Alliance’s Youtube Clips of Port Renfrew’s (Canada’s) largest trees at:

– World’s Largest Douglas Fir – the Red Creek Fir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfBWLVj-Xjg  

– Canada’s Largest Spruce – the San Juan Spruce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lql9_hWuFLA&NR=1  

– Canada’s Gnarliest Tree – Save the Avatar Grove: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_uPkAWsvVw  

See spectacular photogalleries of the Avatar Grove and Canada’s largest trees at:

https://16.52.162.165/photos-media/  
 

Ancient Forest Alliance

CHEK TV News clip featuring Port Renfrew’s new Tourist Information Centre and the Avatar Grove

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The Ancient Forest Alliance along with the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce launched the new Tourist Information Centre today which will serve to funnel thousands of visitors into the town’s surrounding old-growth forests, raise awareness of the need to protect them, and help create a vibrant eco-tourism based economy.

Direct link to video: https://bcove.me/p0rti00i

A large group of hikers crowd around the massive redcedar dubbed "Canada's Gnarliest Tree" during an Ancient Forest Alliance led public hike to the Avatar Grove in summer 2010.

Thank you to Mountain Equipment Co-op for supporting the Ancient Forest Alliance!

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The Ancient Forest Alliance would like to sincerely thank the Mountain Equipment Co-op for helping fund our BC slideshow tour as well as many of our public hikes to the Avatar Grove which will continue to run into the fall. This contribution has allowed us to inform and involve thousands of British Columbians around the state of our province’s endangered old-growth forests and to also get them out and experience their magnificence first hand.

The AFA runs on a fraction of many larger NGO’s budgets and is very thankful for the generosity of MEC and our public supporters.

The next time you’re in need of any outdoor supplies be sure to drop by the local MEC located at 1450 Government Street in Victoria. You can also visit them online.

Naming rights for this new species of Bryoria or “Horsehair Lichen”

Name that lichen

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If you have ever dreamed of a lichen species with your namesake, now’s your chance to achieve immortality. Naming rights for two recently discovered species of lichen are up for grabs to the highest bidder. It’s all part of a fundraiser for The Land Conservancy of B.C., a non-profit habitat protection group, and the Ancient Forest Alliance, which focuses on saving B.C.’s old-growth forests.

Botanical researcher Trevor Goward discovered the two species of lichen in recent years. The organizations have auctions running on their websites, and as of press time, the going bid for TLC’s lichen was $3,000.

Lichens are often mistaken for plants, but they are actually small organisms born of a symbiotic relationship between alga and fungus. They usually grow on trees and rocks. The Ancient Forest Alliance is auctioning off a horsehair lichen, which (according to a rather poetic press release) “forms elegant black tresses on the branches of old growth forests,” while The Land Conservancy is selling a type of crottle lichen, which consists of “strap-like lobes, pale grayish above and black below.”

As Goward points out, the modern system of classification has been around for three centuries, and the names of those attached to plants are still with us today.

“With any luck, your name will endure as long as our civilization does. Not even Shakespeare could hope for more than that,” says the internationally acclaimed lichenologist.

To make a bid, call the TLC office at 1-877-485-2422 or visit the Ancient Forest Alliance website at www.ancientforestalliance.org.

The auction closes on Sept. 10, 2011. Let’s hope some botanical enthusiasts win, so these lichens are not left with names like Exxon helveticum or Microsoftus sulcata for all eternity.

Link to original article not currently available.

Victoria’s 12th Annual Ska Festival July 5th-9th

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The 12th annual Victoria Ska Festival is here! Beginning Tuesday July-5th with a free for all kick off concert at Ships Point in the Inner Harbour  from 5pm-10pm (doors at 4:30pm). Come down and join the fun and be sure to drop by the Ancient Forest Alliance booth!

To see the full list of performing artists click here: https://victoriaskafest.ca/#/bands

 

For ticket information click here: https://victoriaskafest.ca/#/tickets