Conservationists and Port Renfrew Business Community Welcome Postponement of Old-Growth Logging Plans near Juan de Fuca Provincial Park

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An aerial overview of the old-growth forests where BC Timber Sales proposed to log seven cutblocks totalling 109 hectares. The Juan de Fuca Provincial Park is along the coastline and the town of Port Renfrew in the background.

Victoria, BC – Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance and members of the Port Renfrew business community are welcoming the postponement of BC Timber Sales’ plans to auction off 109 hectares of old-growth forest for logging next to Juan de Fuca Provincial Park in Pacheedaht territory on Vancouver Island.

The timber sale auction, which was scheduled to end this Friday, would have seen seven cutblocks, totalling 55,346 cubic metres of old-growth forest, logged next to one of the most spectacular sections of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail with two cutblocks coming to within 50 metres of the park boundary.

BC Timber Sales, the BC government’s logging agency, advised members of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce yesterday that the timber sale auction had been removed. While there is currently no indication that the BC government are adding any additional protections for the area, the news was welcomed by conservationists and local business representatives alike.

“We appreciate this positive shift and thank Premier John Horgan, the MLA for Langford-Juan de Fuca, and Forests Minister Doug Donaldson for listening to the Port Renfrew business community and the thousands of British Columbians who have spoken up for the protection of this important area,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness. “But there is still a lot of uncertainty around the fate of this ancient forest. We hope to see the BC government cancel the timber sale outright and protect the forest in an Old Growth Management Area or, ideally, as an addition to the provincial park.”

“The Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce is very encouraged by the news that the province has postponed the auction of the 109 hectares which border our community and the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail,” stated Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce President Dan Hager. “We remain hopeful that the absence of notice of a future auction date will mean this old-growth forest will be allowed to remain standing for the foreseeable future.”

“We are mindful there are members of our business community and communities of Port Renfrew and the Pacheedaht Nation who could’ve potentially benefited from the short-term economic activity of this timber sale. However, we have learned from our Avatar Grove experience that the long-term economic benefits of tall tree tourism are substantially greater than the comparatively brief economic activity created by old-growth logging.”

Jon Cash, the owner of Soule Creek Lodge, was particularly concerned due to expected adverse impacts of the proposal which included the construction of 10 kilometres of new road and logging to within 500 metres of his property. Cash is staunchly opposed to the clearcutting of old-growth forests next to his business and Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, one of the region’s biggest tourist draws, and has been outspoken in his opposition to the logging plans due to potential damage to Renfrew’s reputation as eco-tourism destination.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt stands beside a massive redcedar measuring 10’9″ in diameter in one of the cutblocks that was proposed by BC Timber Sales near Port Renfrew.

“Over 79% of the original productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow.” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner TJ Watt. “Some of the finest, endangered old-growth stands that still remain are found in the Port Renfrew region, and, if protected, will continue to draw visitors in from around the globe, helping the environment and bolstering the local economy for generations to come.”

“As former resource-based communities like Port Renfrew work to diversity their economies toward more sustainable approaches, the BC government should be supporting and facilitating these efforts and ensuring the benefits of old-growth forest protection are reaped by all community members,” stated Inness.

“To this end, we’re calling on the BC government to support the sustainable development and economic diversification of rural and First Nations communities and to legally recognize, support, and help finance the creation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas like Tribal Parks.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance, along with other conservation groups, are also calling on the BC government to develop a comprehensive, science-based plan protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and ensure a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry. While such long-term solutions for old-growth forests are developed, the BC government must place and immediate halt on logging in old-growth ‘hotspots’ of high conservation and recreational value to ensure the best of what remains of BC’s ancient forests are protected.

Background information:

Old growth forests are integral to British Columbia for ensuring the protection of endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations. Only about 8% of Vancouver Island’s original productive old growth forests are protected in parks and Old Growth Management Areas.

Due to the popularity of nearby old-growth forests for large numbers of visitors from across the world, the former logging town of Port Renfrew has rebranded itself in recent years as the “Tall Trees Capital of Canada.” Port Renfrew boasts access not only to the popular West Coast and Juan de Fuca trails, but also some of BC’s most popular ancient forest destinations including Avatar Grove, the Central Walbran Valley, Big Lonely Doug (Canada’s 2nd largest Douglas-fir), the Red Creek Fir (the world’s largest Douglas-fir), the San Juan Spruce (previously Canada’s largest Sitka spruce until the top broke off in 2017), Eden Grove, and Jurassic Grove. These ancient forests and trees attract hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world, strengthening the economy of southern Vancouver Island.

Port Renfrew chamber decries logging plan

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Times Colonist
May 4, 2019

An aerial photo of the old-growth forests where B.C. Timber Sales has seven pending cutblocks totalling 109 hectares. Juan de Fuca Provincial Park is along the coast and the town of Port Renfrew in the background. Photograph By TJ WATT

Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce has joined a growing outcry against B.C. government plans to log old-growth forests near Juan de Fuca Provincial Park.

President Dan Hager said Friday that clearcutting the ancient trees will hurt tourism and damage a regional economy already hard hit by chinook fishing restrictions.

“Right now, we tell everybody that Port Renfrew is Canada’s tall tree capital,” he said in an interview. “It’s on our website. It works.

“I’m in the accommodation business in Renfrew. People ask about it. I’m the one that responds to all the inquiries that come in off the chamber email and people are asking about the trees.”

Hager said that will be put in jeopardy if B.C. Timber Sales proceeds with plans to sell off 109 hectares of the region’s old-growth forest in seven cutblocks — including two that come within 50 metres of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park.

“If I was an editor of a newspaper, I would say: ‘Canada’s tall tree capital is now Canada’s clearcut capital,’ ” Hager said.

“What kind of damage is that going to do our reputation in the long term?”

Forests Minister Doug Donaldson said this week that B.C. Timber Sales, which is a government agency, was not aware of any direct impacts from logging on ecotourism in the area.

But he said the timber auction has been delayed two weeks so officials can investigate concerns raised by conservationists and others.

Environmental groups have launched a campaign to protect the trees, arguing that they’re more valuable as a tourist attraction and a buffer against climate change and the loss of endangered species.

The Port Renfrew chamber, meanwhile, has appealed directly to the office of Premier John Horgan, who represents the Langford-Juan de Fuca constituency.

“He’s familiar with Renfrew,” Hager said. “He knows that it’s a community recovering and that our economy revolves around trees and revolves around the fish.

“So we’re optimistic that we’re going to get good results here.”

Horgan was unavailable for comment Friday, but Hager said the chamber was encouraged that the government has delayed the timber sale and hopes it eventually will decide to protect the ancient trees.

Hager said the main message the chamber hopes to get across is that the trees are worth more standing — as demonstrated by the global appeal of Avatar Grove about 20 minutes from Port Renfrew.

“We know from the Avatar experience that old-growth forests attract tourists — not just locally but from all over the world,” he said. “And those tourists have money. They bring money and the more of it that we have in the immediate driving area of Renfrew, the better it is for our local economy.

“It’s a lot better than cutting them down, because you cut them down once, you run them through the sawmill, they build somebody’s deck and that’s it. But, if you leave them standing, people come over and over again to look.”

Al Jones, one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail in the 1990s, said he, too, contacted Horgan’s office to complain about the logging plans.

“Yesterday, I was on the phone all day, phoning people that I don’t even know to help us out and speak out against it,” he said Friday. “It’s just a beautiful spot. Renfrew’s a beautiful area and I just think the logging should be over with.”

Jones said he’d like to see the old growth preserved for future generations, as opposed to clearcutting the trees to turn a quick profit.

“Mostly, that cedar is going to be sent to China,” he said. “There’s not going to be the jobs that they say that there is.

“I have been a logging superintendent and they could go in there for three or four months and log the whole thing and be in and out of there. So it’s a short-term [gain] for a big expense on such a beautiful spot.”

lkines@timescolonist.com

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B.C. delays timber auction near Juan de Fuca park

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Times Colonist
May 3, 2019

New deadline is May 10 after environmental groups’ concerns prompt reassessment

View of the old-growth forest slated for logging by B.C. Timber Sales adjacent to a section of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail. Photograph By TJ WATT

 

A backlash against plans to log old-growth forests near Port Renfrew has prompted the B.C. government to push back the timber sale by two weeks.

Forests Minister Doug Donaldson said the delay will allow the government to investigate concerns raised by environmental groups.

The groups reacted angrily after B.C. Timber Sales advertised plans to auction 109 hectares of old-growth forest in seven cutblocks — two of which come within 50 metres of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park.

The Ancient Forest Alliance says logging will damage forests that buffer the park and harm ecotourism in an area that has branded itself Canada’s Big Tree Capital.

The group adds that the proposed cutblocks contain large “legacy trees” that qualify for protection under provincial rules.

Donaldson said B.C. Timber Sales has extended the auction deadline to May 10 in response to the outcry.

“It gives us more time to investigate the information that’s been provided by environmental organizations about legacy trees being in some of the areas that [are] planned for logging,” he said, adding: “It’s part of best practices under B.C. Timber Sales to provide protection for those legacy trees.”

Donaldson said the government agency, which auctions off about 20 per cent of the provincial allowable cut each year, has already made adjustments for rare plant species in the area.

“They’re not aware of impacts directly for ecotourism operations within this licence area,” he said.

But environmentalists and local businesses say logging intact old-growth forests in the region will deal another blow to Port Renfrew’s economy, which is already reeling from new federal restrictions on chinook fishing.

“Today, the vast majority of business is related to tourism and leaving trees standing,” said TJ Watt, a campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“They’re moving into a more modern and sustainable economy based on big-tree tourism, and the Juan de Fuca trail draws thousands of visitors in every year.”

He noted that one section of the trail is already closed for repairs. “If logging were to proceed, at the north end you could be hiking the trail and hear the sound of chainsaws and road-blasting all day long.”
Randal Pickelein, whose Mystic Beach Adventures company leads hikes on the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail, said logging near park boundaries detracts from the beauty that draws people to a region in the first place.

“I think it’s just an embarrassment,” he said. “[Logging] should be not be more important than all of the tourism industries that are employing more people. “And for future generations, it’s horrible what we’re leaving them.”

Environmental groups welcomed the government’s decision to extend the sale deadline, but they want the auction cancelled outright and the forests protected.

“They should be dropped indefinitely because of their very high ecological value,” said Jens Wieting, senior forest and climate campaigner with Sierra Club B.C.

“Overall, southern Vancouver Island has very little old growth left and we have to understand that climate change means even greater pressure on the unique plants and animals that depend on old growth.”

Donaldson said the government values the biodiversity provided by old-growth forests. “That’s why there’s 520,000 hectares of old growth already that won’t be logged on Vancouver Island.”

But he said the government also has to consider the impact on communities and forest workers of shifting away from old-growth logging.

“There has to be consideration of a fair transition for workers, as well,” he said.

To that end, Donaldson said the government is working on a “new old-growth strategy” for the province and expects to announce a public engagement process in the coming weeks.

Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee said conservationists recognize that it will take time to phase out old-growth logging.

“We realize that it’s not going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “But we argue that it needs to be phased out rapidly.”

And he said government could start by reining in its own agency.

“We’ve said that’s a place to start — start with B.C. Timber Sales,” he said. “And since this government’s been in, they’ve just ramped up, really, the amount of cutting that’s happening under BCTS. So that’s a huge concern.”

Coste said the government should put a halt to logging old-growth forests until it has a strategy in place.

“We need to see a proper plan from this government that lays out the adequate management and the survival of some of these ecosystems before we’re going to be OK with a government agency clear-cutting some of what we think is the last of it,” he said.

lkines@timescolonist.com

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Photos: 35-Year Anniversary of the Meares Island Tribal Park.

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Here are photos from the April 17th event celebrating the 35-year anniversary of the Meares Island Tribal Park, Wah’nah’juss Hilth’hooiss! In April of 1984, the Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht First Nations and local environmentalists came together in an historic show of solidarity to protest the logging of some of Canada’s finest ancient forests by MacMillan Bloedel on Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound. The blockade marked the first protest against old-growth logging in Canadian history as well as the creation of BC’s first Tribal Park with the declaration of the Meares Island Tribal Park by Tla-o-qui-aht Chief Moses Martin.

Thanks to this collaborative effort, Meares Island’s extraordinary natural and cultural heritage remains intact to this day. It also inspired the expansion of the Tribal Park model throughout Tla-o-qui-aht territory and beyond with the establishment of Tribal Parks and other Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas expanding across Canada.

For more info see: https://www.iisaakolam.ca/
Photos by TJ Watt

‘They’re going to have a fight’: local businesses and activists promise to stand against old-growth logging near Juan de Fuca park

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There is a call from conservationists tonight to halt plans to log an old-growth forest near Port Renfrew. The province says ecology and aesthetics are taken into consideration when crown-owned timber is auctioned off. But critics say the damage outweighs the benefits, Kori Sidaway reports.

WATCH the CHEK News story here.

These gentle giants have stood for millennia.

But the towering trees are becoming increasingly rare.

“This is what makes Port Renfrew unique!” said TJ Watt, a campaigner with Ancient Forest Alliance.

“People will travel from across the world to see these ancient cathedrals, but once they’re gone they’re gone.”

And that’s just what’s set to happen.

One hundred and nine hectares of old growth forests, sitting on crown land on the border of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, is up for auction off to logging companies at the end of the month.

“This would result in giant clear cuts, and actually the wood volume is equivalent to about 1300 logging trucks worth of old growth,” said Watt.

Old growth forests aren’t fully protected in B.C., and activists say that’s endangering tourism in the area.

“Port Renfrew has successfully rebranded itself as the tall tree capital of Canada in recent years and they’re seeing a boom because of that,” said Watt.

“They’re adapting a more sustainable economy based in the 21st century whereas the B.C. government is trying to hold it in the past.”

It’s something places like Soule Creek Lodge, with its 270-degree views of the rainforest, agree with.

“They’re worth much more standing than lying down,” said Jon Cash who owns Soule Creek Lodge.

“Whichever private forestry company is successful in getting this bid, they’re going to have a fight.”

Both businesses and activists are calling on the government to end the auction and to stop issuing permits for old-growth forests throughout the province.

Something, the government isn’t prepared to do.

“Immediately ending logging in old-growth forests would affect over 24,000 people employed in the coastal forest sector,” said the Ministry of Forestry in a statement.

The ministry does say, however working on a new old-growth strategy, and those discussions are ongoing with stakeholders.

The auction for the land ends on April 27th.

See the original story here.

Plans to clear-cut old-growth near Port Renfrew causes an environmental outcry

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Sooke News Mirror
April 18, 2019

Note: Two of the seven proposed cutblocks fall within 50 metres of the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park boundary, not 37 metres as stated in the article.

Groups call logging a provincial government ‘blind spot’

A map depicting the old-growth cutblocks adjacent to the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park and town of Port Renfrew that are currently up for auction by BC Timber Sales

Plans to auction off 109 hectares of old-growth forest adjacent to the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park have outraged conservationists and tourism operators.

The seven planned cutblocks, two of which come to within 37 metres of the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park boundary near Port Renfrew, would see an estimated 55,346 cubic metres of old-growth – the equivalent of over 1,300 loaded logging trucks – leave the region known as the Tall Tree Capital of Canada.

Opponents charge the B.C. government and Forests Minister Doug Donaldson have demonstrated a lack of political will to preserve the endangered forests.

“The provincial government has a blind spot that they are not willing to address,” said Andrea Inness, a representative of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“They won’t even acknowledge that there’s a problem and keep hiding behind misleading statistics that paint a very rosy, and very false, picture for old-growth forests. But if you dig down you can see they just don’t get it.”

Inness said the government will say that 55 per cent of the old growth on Vancouver Island is protected, but they fail to acknowledge that some forest types have already been devastated by logging.

“If you look at the coastal Douglas-fir forests, for example, less than one per cent of those forests remain,” she said.

Inness added that the 55 per cent figure is also misleading as it includes already protected areas like the Great Bear Rainforest and other forest types like the sub-alpine and bog forests that have no commercial value and were never threatened.

The government’s move to auction off the current cutblocks came with no public consultation, said Inness and were discovered when environmental groups studied the 2019 schedule of work published by the B.C. government’s logging agency, B.C. Timber Sales.

B.C. Timber Sales is the B.C. government logging agency that manages 20 per cent of the province’s allowable annual cut. It recently came under fire from a host of environmental agencies for what Jens Weiling of the Sierra Club has described as “flying blind into terminating the old-growth web of life.”

In a review of B.C. Timber Sales’ sales schedule, environmental organizations Elphinstone Logging Focus and Sierra Club B.C. found the provincial government agency is proposing 2019 cutblocks across the last intact old-growth rainforest areas on Vancouver Island adding up to more than 1,300 hectares–an area equivalent to the size of more than three Stanley Parks.

The move to cut down old-growth forests is also of concern to tourist business operators in the region who contend that the standing trees have a far greater value than the clear cut lumber they will provide.

“Port Renfrew, a former logging town, has successfully re-branded itself in recent years as the Tall Tree Capital of Canada and is seeing a huge increase in eco-tourism, greatly benefiting local businesses,” said TJ Watt, a photographer and advocate for old growth forests.

“This logging will impact Port Renfrew’s reputation as an eco-tourism destination, not to mention the impacts on the environment.”

Soule Creek Lodge owner John Cash said he is deeply concerned and disappointed with the planned logging in an area adjacent to his tourist attraction.

“My business relies on tourists who come to admire the big trees and old-growth forests. My business doubled after Avatar Grove was discovered,” he said.

“Instead of old-growth clearcutting right up to a provincial park boundary, the B.C. government should be helping rural communities like Port Renfrew transition to more diverse and sustainable economies. People don’t come here from all around the world to hear the sounds of old-growth being cut down.”

Cash said despite the NDP’s promise that they would make forest conservation a priority, their actions have not reflected that commitment.

“It’s business as usual,” said Cash.

Both Cash and Inness have called upon Forests Minister Doug Donaldson to cancel the old-growth timber sales before the closing date for bids on April 26. They say that, instead, the minister should move to protect the area and consider incorporating it into the boundaries of the provincial park.

A spokesman for the Forest Ministry responded with a statement that confirmed the sale of the cutblocks, reiterated the government position that 55 per cent of old growth forests are protected and said that ending logging in old growth forests would affect people engaged in the logging industry.

See the original article here

Eco-activists urge halt to logging plans near Juan de Fuca park

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Times Colonist
April 18, 2019

NOTE: While old-growth logging would not occur within Juan de Fuca Provincial Park boundaries, the old-growth forests adjacent to the park that are slated for logging provide a valuable buffer that protects the park’s outstanding ecological and recreational values. Clearcutting the proposed cutblocks would fragment and degrade this important buffer and compromise the park’s tourism and recreational values. Additionally, while the BC government states that ‘55% of coastal old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and the B.C. coast, have already been protected’, the vast majority of these protected forests are located in the Great Bear Rainforest, not on Vancouver Island. That figure also excludes largely cut-over private lands and includes vast areas of low productivity forest with little to no commercial value. In actual fact, only about 6% of Vancouver Island and 8% of the Southwest Mainland’s productive forests are protected in parks.

Finally, it’s important to remember that BC’s forest industry will be forced to shift to second-growth eventually, when all the unprotected old-growth is gone. In order to maintain forestry jobs and protect BC’s endangered ancient forests, the BC government must facilitate this shift sooner rather than later by curbing raw log exports and encouraging value-added second-growth manufacturing.

An aerial photo of the old-growth forests where B.C. Timber Sales has seven pending cutblocks totalling 109 hectares. Juan de Fuca Provincial Park is along the coast and the town of Port Renfrew in the background. Photograph By TJ WATT

Plans to log old-growth forests near Port Renfrew have conservationists accusing the B.C. Ministry of Forests of endangering tourism in the area.

The Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance says government-run B.C. Timber Sales is preparing to auction 109 hectares of forest in seven cutblocks. Two of those planned cutblocks will see trees falling within 37 metres and 50 metres of the boundary of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, known as a gentler, more accessible version of the West Coast Trail.

“Port Renfrew is changing toward a more sustainable economy based on leaving trees standing rather than cutting them down,” said T.J. Watt, campaigner with the Ancient Forest Alliance. “We are calling on B.C. Timber Sales to cancel these auctions.”

A spokeswoman for the B.C. Forests Ministry confirmed B.C. Timber Sales has advertised the timber sale identified by Ancient Forest Alliance. The sale closes on April 26. The successful buyer will have 2 1/2 years to conduct the logging.

But the spokeswoman also said when cutblocks are surveyed and positioned, considerations are always made for the ecology of the site and the esthetics of nearby views. And logging is not occurring in the park.

Meanwhile, significant areas, 55 per cent of coastal old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and the B.C. coast, have already been protected, the spokeswoman said.

B.C. Timber Sales was formed in 2003 to inject market-based pricing to Crown-owned timber as opposed to other land-based tenure systems.

The provincial agency monitors economic conditions to determine an appropriate price for the timber. About 20 per cent of the province’s total, annual allowable cut is now sold through auction.

The Ancient Forest Alliance’s objections to the B.C. Timber Sales auction received little enthusiasm from Mike Hicks, Capital Regional District director for the Juan de Fuca district.

Hicks, the closest thing the unincorporated community of Port Renfrew has to an elected local government, agreed that tourism, including environmental tourism, has taken off in recent years. But he said that logging, while diminished, remains a significant economic generator and shouldn’t be frozen out.

Hicks said Port Renfrew is reeling from Tuesday’s federal announcement of tough restrictions on fishing for chinook salmon: a catch-and-release fishery until mid-July, followed by catch limits of one to two per day depending on time of year and location.

He said he thinks the fishing closures have made economics in Port Renfrew, including its tourism, too fragile to put more obstacles in the path of business.

“Logging is a very important part of our economic survival and so is eco-tourism,” Hicks said. “They should both be able to get along.”

But John Cash, owner and founder of Soule Creek Lodge near Port Renfrew, operating wilderness huts and cabins near the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, is concerned about the effects of nearby logging.

The noise of blasting during the building of logging roads along with chainsaws and other machinery during falling will only take away from the wilderness experience, he said. “It would be pretty unpleasant. It’s not what you want to hear when you are camping or hiking, the blasting and tree-falling.”

rwatts@timescolonist.com

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Conservationists condemn BC NDP Government’s plans to log old-growth forest adjacent to Juan de Fuca Provincial Park

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Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island – Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) are outraged that the BC government’s logging agency, BC Timber Sales, is currently auctioning off 109 hectares of old-growth forest adjacent to Juan de Fuca Provincial Park on Vancouver Island. The area, located northeast of Botanical Beach and south of Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht First Nation territory, borders one of the most spectacular sections of the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail with impressive old-growth forests and stunning waterfalls.

The seven planned cutblocks, of which two come to within 50 metres of the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park boundary, would see an estimated 55,346 cubic metres of old-growth – the equivalent of over 1,300 logging trucks – leave the region known as the “Tall Tree Capital of Canada.”

 

An aerial photo of the old-growth forests where B.C. Timber Sales has seven pending cutblocks totalling 109 hectares. Juan de Fuca Provincial Park is along the coast and the town of Port Renfrew in the background.
Photograph By TJ WATT[/caption]

“It’s outrageous that BC Timber Sales has approved the clearcutting of an area more than two Avatar Groves in size so close to one of Vancouver Island’s most popular provincial parks,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness. “People come from all over the world to hike the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail. The clearcutting will further degrade and fragment the forest that buffers the park which helps protect the park’s outstanding ecological and recreational values. This is a clear-cut example that BC Timber Sales cannot be trusted to maintain, or even consider, the ecological importance of BC’s ancient forests in its planning.”

BC Timber Sales (BCTS) is the notorious BC government logging agency which manages 20% of the province’s allowable annual cut and which has come under fire across the province for auctioning off old-growth forests to be clearcut in such places as the Nahmint Valley and Schmidt Creek on Vancouver Island and in Manning Provincial Park’s “donut hole.” Earlier this month, Sierra Club BC and Sunshine Coast-based environmental organization Elphinstone Logging Focus revealed that BCTS plans to auction off more than 1,300 hectares of cutblocks in old-growth forests across Vancouver Island in 2019. (See their joint press release)

“BC Timber Sales is going after some of the most significant tracts of the province’s remaining ancient forests despite the fact that, today, they are worth more standing than they are on logging trucks,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt. “Port Renfrew, a former logging town, has successfully re-branded itself in recent years as the “Tall Tree Capital of Canada” and is seeing a huge increase in eco-tourism, greatly benefiting local businesses. We’re concerned about the impact the logging would have on Port Renfrew’s reputation as an eco-tourism destination in addition to the impact on the environment.”

Falling-boundary tape in one of the seven old-growth cutblocks that were proposed by B.C. Timber Sales near Juan de Fuca Provincial Park.
Photograph By TJ WATT

There are also concerns that logging and the construction of over 10 kilometres of new road could impact nearby businesses, such as Soule Creek Lodge, located just 500 metres from one of the cutblocks.

“My business relies heavily on tourists coming to Port Renfrew to admire big trees and old-growth forests and to visit Botanical Beach and other parts of Juan de Fuca Provincial Park,” stated Soule Creek Lodge owner John Cash. “I’m deeply concerned that all the noise from months of logging operations is going to drive customers away. People come here for peace and quiet and to connect with nature, not to listen to blasting, chainsaws, and trees crashing in the distance.”

“Instead of facilitating old-growth clearcutting right up to a provincial park boundary, the BC government should be helping rural communities like Port Renfrew transition to more diverse and sustainable economies. In this case, the government needs to use its control over BCTS to cancel the old-growth timber sales before the closing date of April 26th and expand the protected area system to buffer the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park,” stated Watt.

“We need to see leadership and vision from Forests Minister Doug Donaldson, not more status quo old-growth clearcutting. He and the BC government must stop using misleading statistics that hide the fact that old-growth forests are endangered on Vancouver Island and start implementing a science-based plan to protect them where they’re endangered across the province,” stated Watt.

Watt recently explored the old-growth forest within one of the proposed cutblocks and found old-growth redcedar trees measuring six to seven feet in diameter with one cedar measuring ten feet, nine inches in diameter, making it eligible for protection under BC Timber Sales’ Coastal Legacy Tree Policy which aims to retain ‘legacy trees’ that exceed certain size thresholds. However, a BCTS representative stated in an email that the agency had conducted a review of the proposed cutblocks and that “no legacy trees were identified.”

 

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt stands beside a massive redcedar measuring 10’9″ in diameter in one of the cutblocks that was proposed by BC Timber Sales near Port Renfrew.

“BCTS’ Legacy Tree Policy failed to prevent the ninth widest Douglas-fir tree in Canada from being felled in the Nahmint Valley last year,” stated Inness. “Not only does the policy leave big trees standing alone in clearcuts with no buffer zones, BCTS clearly can’t be trusted to fully implement it. The BC government needs to quickly implement its long-overdue Big Tree Protection Order originally meant to protect BC’s biggest trees with buffer zones and which the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development has been working to develop since 2012.”

Background information:
Old growth forests are integral to British Columbia for ensuring the protection of endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations. At present, over 79% of the original productive old-growth forests on BC’s southern coast have been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only about 8% of Vancouver Island’s original productive old growth forests are protected in parks and Old Growth Management Areas.

Due to the popularity of nearby old-growth forests for large numbers of visitors from across the world, the former logging town of Port Renfrew has rebranded itself in recent years as the “Tall Trees Capital of Canada.” Port Renfrew boasts access not only to the popular West Coast and Juan de Fuca trails, but also some of BC’s most popular ancient forest destinations including Avatar Grove, the Central Walbran Valley, Big Lonely Doug (Canada’s 2nd largest Douglas-fir), the Red Creek Fir (the world’s largest Douglas-fir), the San Juan Spruce (previously Canada’s largest Sitka spruce until the top broke off in 2017), Eden Grove, and Jurassic Grove. These ancient forests and trees attract hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world, strengthening the economy of southern Vancouver Island.

In 2016, The Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce signed a resolution calling on the BC government to increase protection for old-growth forests to benefit the economy. The Sooke and WestShore Chambers of Commerce have also spoken up for the protection of the old-growth forests in the Walbran Valley, while the BC Chamber of Commerce has passed a resolution calling for the increased protection of old-growth forests in BC to support the economy. The Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC), the Wilderness Tourism Association of BC (WTABC) and the councils of Victoria, Metchosin, and Tofino have all passed resolutions for the protection of remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island or across BC.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC government to implement a series of policy changes to protect endangered old-growth forests, including an interim halt to logging in old-growth “hotspots” – areas of high conservation value, such as the Nahmint Valley – to ensure the largest and best stands of remaining old-growth forests are kept intact; a comprehensive, science-based plan to protect endangered old-growth forests across the province; conservation financing support for First Nations communities in lieu of old-growth logging; and a provincial land acquisition fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands.

New IMAX Film by Renowned Canadian Video Artist to Highlight Vancouver Island’s Endangered Old-Growth Forests

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The magnificent but endangered old-growth forests of Vancouver Island are about to get a large-scale national audience on IMAX screens across Canada as the film Embers and the Giants premieres at the Images Festival in Toronto this week (Thursday, April 18) and later this fall in IMAX cinemas across Canada in Victoria, Sudbury, Edmonton and Montreal.

The film is part of a program of work entitled Outer Worlds, a series of five IMAX commissions from leading Canadian media artists, each of whom have created films in a cinematic genre typical of IMAX films: larger-than-life landscapes. Two of the films will feature the endangered old-growth forests of Vancouver Island near the town of Port Renfrew, in the unceded territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation band:

Embers and the Giants, by internationally renowned Canadian artist Kelly Richardson, a professor of Visual Arts at the University of Victoria and on the board of advisors of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, presents an endangered old-growth forest during last light, articulated by thousands of floating embers of light. Initial impressions may be that we are witnessing a rare, exceptionally beautiful display of fireflies. Then again, human intervention may be at play, suggesting a time when we’ll need to amplify the spectacle of nature in order to convince the public of its worth.

An endangered old-growth forest during last light in Kelly Richardson’s IMAX art film, Embers and the Giants

Richardson is known for creating hyper-real digital films of rich and complex landscapes that have been manipulated using CGI, animation and sound. Her projects have received major international acclaim, having been featured in the National Gallery of Canada, in galleries around the world, in an official Canada 150 exhibition, and in the upcoming IMAX film series.

Her most recent project and work has previously been highlighted in various news media:
See: : https://www.timescolonist.com/islander/capturing-the-art-of-nature-and-change-1.23144042
and https://www.sookenewsmirror.com/news/port-renfrews-avatar-grove-featured-in-national-imax-series/
and https://www.cheknews.ca/victoria-artist-showcase-port-renfrew-old-growth-forests-imax-project-405493

Forest, by Leila Sujir, Chair of the Studio Arts Department in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University, is another feature of the project. Her subject will be the Central Walbran Valley, an area on Vancouver Island that is scheduled for clear-cut logging. Over the past decade, Sujir has been experimenting with stereoscopic 3D video, extending the viewer into the space of the moving image.

Over the years, Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests have drawn considerable attention from the artistic community, including Emily Carr who produced pieces depicting the old-growth trees, giant stumps, and forests of the region in the first half of the 20th century; scores of renowned artists who contributed to the best-selling art book “Carmanah: Visions of an Ancient Forest” (300,000 copies sold) in 1990; and increasing numbers of artists and filmmakers in recent years featuring the ancient forests around Port Renfrew, including Richardson and Sujir.

“I relocated to Victoria in 2017 after living and working in England for 14 years in order to be closer to the magnificent old-growth forests. After visiting Avatar Grove during a work trip in the fall of 2016, I was overwhelmed by my experience of those ancient stands, which was a huge influence in my decision to apply for a professorship at the University of Victoria where I now work. My most recent project, Embers and the Giants, features the old-growth forests in this region. Through my partners with the Outer Worlds IMAX project, I hope I can contribute to efforts to raise awareness about their outstanding beauty and the plight to protect what remains.”

“We’re excited that such high-caliber artists and film producers will feature the endangered old-growth forests of Vancouver Island through the most spectacular medium – IMAX technology – on a national scale,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance. “The old-growth forests around Port Renfrew, still largely endangered, are clearly continuing to impress increasing numbers of people -not only tourists, but acclaimed artists as well.”

Internationally renowned Canadian artist, Kelly Richardson, working on IMAX art film near Port Renfrew.

“The old-growth forests around Port Renfrew, referred to these days as Canada’s ‘Tall Trees Capital’ that attracts thousands of tourists from around the world, are an international treasure with some of the largest and oldest living organisms on the planet. Sadly, most are on the verge of being turned into giant stumps. All large-scale exposure and awareness raising, including through creative media, are greatly welcome!” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer.

The campaign to protect the old-growth forests around Port Renfrew, in the Avatar Grove, Central Walbran Valley, Jurassic Grove, Eden Grove (adjacent to “Big Lonely Doug”), Edinburgh Mountain, and Mossome Grove, has enlisted a ground-breaking alliance of environmental activists and diverse allies involving numerous businesses, labour unions, city and town councils, artists, conservation groups, and others, calling on the British Columbian provincial government to protect old-growth forests and to ensure a sustainable, second-growth forest industry.

More BACKGROUND Information on BC’s Old-Growth Forests

Old-growth forests are vital to sustaining unique endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations. On BC’s southern coast, satellite photos show that at least 79% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only about 8% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas (see maps and stats at: https://16.52.162.165/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/). Old-growth forests – with trees that can be 2000 years old – are a non-renewable resource under BC’s system of forestry, where second-growth forests are re-logged every 50 to 100 years, never to become old-growth again.

The BC government regularly spins the statistics on how much old-growth remains on Vancouver Island by:

  • Including vast tracts of marginal, low-productivity bog and subalpine forests with small stunted trees of low to no timber value; failing to include contextual stats on how much used to originally exist (ie. How much has already been logged…ie.80%) of the productive old-growth forests
  • Removing vast tracts of cut-over private corporate forest lands (still under provincial management) from their logging stats
  • Combining stats of Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth forests of the milder, southern coast with the old-growth forests of the colder, northern coast (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest) which are different (eg’s. they lack most of the really big trees and some of the biodiversity and ecosystem types found farther south; are far more extensive due to a more recent history of logging and more rugged terrain; and have largely been protected in recent times as a result of massive international forest products boycotts by Greenpeace in the 1990’s followed by almost 2 decades of negotiations, which has not occurred for most of Vancouver Island’s forests).

In recent times, the voices for old-growth protection have been quickly expanding, including numerous Chambers of Commerce, mayors and city councils, forestry unions, conservation groups, and First Nations across BC who have been calling on the provincial government to expand protection for BC’s remaining old-growth forests.

The Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, Ancient Forest Alliance, and BC conservation groups are calling on the BC government to develop science-based legislation to protect old-growth forests, to enact regulations and incentives to ensure a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry, and to support First Nations land use plans and the sustainable economic development and diversification of the communities as an alternative to old-growth logging.

Join us for the 35th Anniversary Celebration of the Meares Island Tribal Park!

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What: A fun and historic event to celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Meares Island Tribal Park Declaration of 1984, hosted by the Iisaak Olam Foundation
When: Wednesday, April 17th, from 6pm-9pm
Where: White Eagle Hall , Victoria B.C.
Tickets: General Admission- $35, Student |Low-income- $20

35 years ago, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Chief Moses Martin declared Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound a “Tribal Park” during a blockade to stop logging by MacMillan Bloedel in the island’s spectacular ancient forests. This was the first protest against old-growth logging in Canadian history and a remarkable display of solidarity between the Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht First Nations and local environmentalists. As a result of this historic event, Meares Island’s extraordinary natural and cultural heritage remains safeguarded to this day and the Tribal Park has also provided a model that has inspired a movement to establish new Tribal Parks and Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas in Canada and increasingly around the world.

Join us in celebrating this monumental event on Wednesday April 17th at the White Eagle Polish Hall from 6pm until 9pm. Guest speakers include: Tla-o-qui-aht Chief Moses Martin, Dr. David Suzuki, and Mr. Miles Richardson from the Haida Nation.

The event is co-hosted by the Iisaak Olam Foundation, T’souke Nation Chief Gordon Planes, and Melissa Quesnelle of Kainai Nation with musical performances by Art Napoleon, award-winner Indigenous singer/songwriter and host of the international food show “Moosemeat & Marmalade,” and Tom van Deursen from Kalso BC band Small Town Artillery!

To learn more about the declaration of Meares Island Tribal Park, check out this video featuring Iisaak Olam Foundation founder Eli Enns.

Full event details here
Get your tickets here