See this article in Explore Magazine which features an interview with AFA’s TJ Watt and covers the history of the Avatar Grove campaign, the economic value of standing old-growth forests, and debunks the BC government’s claim that these forests are not endangered. Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce President, Dan Hager, and Spirit of the West co-owner, Rick Snowdon, share their personal experiences as tourism operators as well.
Ancient forest friends: To ensure the health and safety of our staff and supporters, we’ve decided to postpone our 10-year anniversary celebration on April 3rd in light of COVID-19.
We will reschedule the event once the situation changes and we are confident that there’s no health risk. Anyone who has already purchased a ticket will receive a full refund.
Thank you for your understanding and support.
CBC News British Columbia
March 8th, 2020
Conservationists on Vancouver Island have renewed a demand that the province set aside money to buy private lands to stop the logging of old growth trees.
The call came this week after the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance drew attention to logging happening close to one of the most-visited stands of protected old growth trees in the province — Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park.
Since late 2019 Mosaic Forest Management has been logging on Mt. Horne, which is uphill from the park known for its ancient Douglas firs, some of which are up to 800 years old.
Conservationists say that old growth trees in dense forests support biodiversity and are important areas to protect in the fight against climate change. They are also prized by loggers for their value.
Campaigners against the logging on Mt. Horne argue that that by cutting close to the park, and deforesting the hillside above it, Cathedral Grove will become more at risk to windstorms, erosion and the loss of habitat.
In 1997, a severe windstorm toppled hundreds of trees and destroyed sections of the trail in Cathedral Grove.
“Its ecological integrity continues to be undermined as the B.C. government allows clear cut logging to encroach closer and closer to the MacMillan Provincial Park boundary,” said TJ Watt, with the AFA in a release.
Watt and others have, for years, asked that the province create a natural lands acquisition fund to identify critical areas for biodiversity or with First Nations cultural value and purchase them from private owners.
Vancouver Island’s Capital Regional District has a Land Acquisition Fund, which collects a $20 a year levy from households. Since its creation in 2000, it has purchased and protected around 5,000 hectares of land on southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.
Conservationists argue, in this case of Mt. Horne, acquiring land near the park through a similar provincial fund would allow it to expand and protect more old growth areas.
The province says there is no plan to do so however. Its latest budget, with a surplus of more than $200 million, set aside $13 million to help revitalize the forestry sector in lock-step with First Nations, but that does not include money for buying private lands.
The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD) says the area being logged on Mt. Horne is managed by the Private Managed Forests Lands Act and is subject to dozens of regulations including provisions for protecting critical fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, soil conservation and reforestation.
Mosaic said in 2019, prior to cutting trees in the area, registered professional biologists surveyed the area and did not identify any species at risk or endangered ecosystems.
It also said that, in the past, it has donated or sold more than 44,000 hectares of private land for conservation on Vancouver Island.
“Most of this area represents the highest ecological quality forest areas in our land base,” said Karen Brandt, director of government relations and strategic engagement with Mosaic.
“In our working forest, registered professional biologists identify and set aside additional reserve areas for high-quality habitat for ungulates [deer] and threatened species like marbled murrelet.”
The province is currently undergoing an old growth strategic review. Many groups, including the AFA, recommended during public engagement that a land acquisition fund be included in future policies.
Legislative amendments based on that feedback is expected this spring, with regulations in force by 2021.
Read the original article
NOTE:
The BC government’s weak regulations on private managed forest lands and sales of Mosaic private lands for conservation are inadequate measures and have failed to stem the large-scale destruction of BC’s globally rare, coastal old-growth forests.
According to BC government data and satellite imagery, only 8% of original productive old-growth forests are protected in parks and Old Growth Management Areas on BC’s south coast.
UPDATE: To ensure the health and safety of our staff and supporters, we’ve decided to postpone our 10-year anniversary celebration on April 3rd in light of COVID-19. We will reschedule the event once the situation changes and we are confident that there’s no health risk. Anyone who has already purchased a ticket will receive a full refund. Thank you for your understanding and support.
You are cordially invited to join the Ancient Forest Alliance for a very special evening to celebrate our 10-year anniversary, our wonderful community of supporters, and the many accomplishments you’ve helped us achieve over the last decade.
Enjoy house-made appetizers and refreshments from Trees Restaurant (one drink included with each ticket), a mini silent auction with a selection of fabulous items and experiences, and of course, mingling with the AFA staff, volunteers, and supporters!
The past 10 years have flown by quickly, so let’s pause for an evening of fun and celebrate how far we’ve come.
Event Details
When: Friday, April 3, from 6:30pm to 9:30pm. Doors at 6:15pm.
Where: Trees Restaurant (537 Johnson St. in Victoria) in Lekwungen territory
Tickets: $50. Limited spaces available.
Trees Restaurant is wheelchair accessible with gender neutral washrooms.
Global News
March 5th, 2020
Environmental groups are calling for government action to protect the forests surrounding one of B.C.’s most famous old-growth forests, Cathedral Grove. Linda Aylesworth reports.
Watch the original news piece
Port Alberni, Vancouver Island – Old-growth logging on private lands owned by Mosaic Forest Management (formerly Island Timberlands) on the mountainside above Cathedral Grove has put Canada’s most famous old-growth forest at risk and illustrated the urgent need for provincial funding to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands.
Conservationists with the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance were alarmed to discover logging of intact old-growth on the mountainside late last year and were joined by members of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) to assess and document the logging, which is now complete.
Located east of Port Alberni in territories of the K’ómoks and Tseshaht First Nations and the Te’mexw Treaty Association, the large cutblock lies on the southwest facing slope of Mt. Horne roughly 300 metres from the MacMillan Provincial Park boundary where over half a million tourists visit annually to see Cathedral Grove’s extremely rare, ancient Douglas-fir trees, of which less than 1% remain on BC’s south coast.
“Cathedral Grove is Canada’s most famous old-growth forest,” stated AFA campaigner and photographer TJ Watt. “And yet its ecological integrity continues to be undermined as the BC government allows clearcut logging to encroach closer and closer to the MacMillan Provincial Park boundary. The BC government needs to step in and purchase these and other private lands to protect endangered ecosystems and reduce impacts to this world-famous grove.”
The logging on Mt Horne, which conservationists consider to be an old-growth forest “hotspot” of high conservation and recreational value, will likely have numerous adverse impacts, including destroying some of BC’s last remaining endangered old-growth Douglas-fir stands; fragmenting the continuous forest cover and wildlife habitat on the slope above Cathedral Grove; reducing critical wintering habitat for black-tailed deer; and increasing siltation of the Cameron River (which runs through Cathedral Grove) during the heavy winter rains as soil washes down from the new clearcut and logging road.
The clearcut has also already destroyed part of the Mount Horne Loop Trail, a popular hiking and mushroom-picking trail, which Mosaic has closed public access to.
“Mt. Horne has outstanding scenic and recreational value and should never have been logged,” stated Jane Morden, coordinator of the Port Alberni Watershed-Forest Alliance. “Even if the loop trail is re-opened, it will now lead through a clearcut, totally degrading the trail’s scenic values. It’s also hard to imagine that logging on Mt. Horne’s steep slopes won’t negatively impact the health and longevity of Cathedral Grove.”
Mt Horne was formerly intended as an Ungulate Winter Range to protect the old-growth winter habitat of black-tailed deer. The mountainside is part in the 88,000 hectares of privately held land that the provincial government allowed to be removed from Tree Farm License 44 in 2004 — with the agreement that critical winter habitats be protected. Both Island Timberlands (now Mosaic) and the BC government have failed to follow through on this promise.
“This is important wildlife habitat that was once designated for protection,” stated local wildlife expert Mike Stini. “Unless the BC government steps in and protects more old-growth forests and improves forestry regulations on private lands, iconic wildlife species like elk, deer, bears, and cougars – as well as threatened species like marbled murrelet and northern goshawk – will be left with smaller and increasingly fragmented patches of old-growth habitat.”
In 2013, numerous conservation groups campaigned for the protection of Mt. Horne and the expansion of protected areas around Cathedral Grove to maintain tourism opportunities and wildlife habitat values. Their efforts garnered a massive public outcry, resulting in Island Timberlands placing a halt on their logging plans. However, due to a lack of political will and a dedicated provincial funding mechanism for the Province to purchase and protect the land, Mt. Horne remained vulnerable to future logging.
“For years, the Ancient Forest Alliance has been calling on the BC government to re-establish a provincial Natural Lands Acquisition Fund for the purchase and protection of private lands,” stated Watt.
“Such a fund would allow for the expansion of the MacMillan Provincial Park boundaries to fully encompass the forests above and adjacent to the world-famous Cathedral Grove. This includes the old-growth forests on Mount Horne and along the Alberni Summit Highway as well as the scenic Cameron Lake and the Cameron River Canyon. With the logging on Mt. Horne now complete, we’ve lost a critical opportunity to safeguard the integrity of this world-renowned ancient forest.”
The Ancient Forest Alliance is also calling for provincial support and funding for the creation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) to protect places of high conservation and First Nations cultural value, including old-growth forests.
“The federal government has committed $1.3 billion to meet international protected area targets by the end of 2020, which includes funding for the private land acquisition and the creation of new IPCAs, but BC needs to come to the table with matching funding,” stated AFA forest campaigner Andrea Inness. “We were extremely disappointed that, once again, the Province failed to provide even modest funding for land acquisition and protected area expansion in its 2020 budget, despite a projected $227 million surplus and the growing urgency to protect endangered native ecosystems.”
“Vancouver Island’s Capital Regional District recently approved a 10-year extension on its hugely popular Land Acquisition Fund, which relies on a $20 annual household levy and has protected nearly 5,000 hectares since the fund’s creation in 2000. The BC government needs to start showing the same kind of commitment to protecting BC’s lands and waters for future generations.”
Last fall, the BC government commenced a provincial Old Growth Strategic Review and established an independent panel to solicit feedback from British Columbians on how old-growth management could be improved. The panel is expected to submit recommendations to the BC government by the end of April, but the Province plans to delay public release of the report by up to six months.
“The BC NDP’s action on old-growth thus far is totally inadequate and now they’re delaying action even further,” stated Inness. “Not only is there no commitment or timeframe around the implementation of any new old-growth policies, the Forest Minister said recently he intends to consult old-growth logging proponents once again, before any recommendations from the panel are implemented.”
“Given the overwhelming public feedback calling for increased old-growth forest protection in Spring 2020 amendments to the Forest and Range Practices Act and the government’s proposed Old Growth Strategy, there is no valid excuse for this delay. British Columbians want and expect action on old-growth now.”
Background Information:
In 2004, the BC government removed 88,000 hectares of Weyerhaeuser’s private forest lands (now owned by Mosaic Forest Management) from their Tree Farm Licences, thereby deregulating vast sections of forest lands including Mount Horne, McLaughlin Ridge and Cameron Firebreak in Hupacasath territory, and Katlum Creek. A follow-up agreement with the corporate landowners was supposed to ensure protection of many of the deregulated old-growth forests (i.e. previously proposed Ungulate Winter Ranges for elk and deer and Wildlife Habitat Areas for species-at-risk), but this agreement was abandoned when the lands were transferred to Island Timberlands.
The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC government to establish an annual $40 million provincial land acquisition fund to purchase and protect private lands in BC. The proposed fund would rise to an annual $100 million by 2024 through $10 million increases each year and would enable the timely purchase of significant tracts of endangered private lands of high conservation, scenic, and recreation value to add to BC’s parks and protected areas system.
BC’s old-growth forests are vital to support endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures whose unceded lands these are. About 79% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged on BC’s southern coast, including well over 90% of the valley-bottom ancient forests where the largest trees grow, and 99% of the old-growth Douglas fir trees on BC’s coast. See maps and stats at: https://16.52.162.165/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/
Today is the 10-year anniversary of the Ancient Forest Alliance and we’re celebrating a decade of accomplishments made possible by YOU, our supporters!
With your help over the past 10 years, we’ve secured the protection of Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory (2012) and 60% of Echo Lake near Mission in Sts’ailes territory (2013). We also built a boardwalk through Avatar Grove, which now attracts thousands of tourists from around the world each year, massively bolstering the local economy.
We defeated the BC government’s proposal to expand tree farm licenses (2013/2014) in BC and have averted logging so far in ancient forest hotspots like the Central Walbran Valley in Pacheedaht territory.
We’ve built alliances with non-traditional allies resulting in numerous resolutions being passed in support for old-growth forest protection, including by the BC Chamber of Commerce in 2016 and the Public and Private Workers of Canada millworkers’ union in 2017.
We’ve brought attention to BC’s ancient forests on local, national, and international levels and, most importantly, we pushed the current BC government to potentially undertake new provincial old-growth management policies, for the first time in decades, including convening a Old-Growth Strategic Review panel to gather public input on old-growth management and commencing the protection of some of BC’s biggest old-growth trees (limited in scope thus far).
There’s still much work to be done, but we know with your support, there’s hope for the future of BC’s magnificent old-growth forests. Your passion, dedication, and generosity is the engine that keeps us going and we won’t stop until the province’s ancient forests get the protection they deserve. Thank you for standing with us on this journey.
– The Ancient Forest Alliance Team
Victoria, BC – The Ancient Forest Alliance is disappointed the NDP government’s third provincial budget, released yesterday, once again fails to allocate even modest funding for the protection of endangered old-growth forests and other ecosystems.
“Despite the ecological and climate crisis engulfing BC’s ancient forests, the NDP government’s 2020 budget is bereft of meaningful solutions that would protect forest ecosystems while supporting communities,” stated forest campaigner Andrea Inness. “For example, there is still no funding for a desperately-needed provincial land acquisition fund to protect endangered ecosystems on private lands or to support new and existing (but unrecognized) Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas in BC.”
“The province also failed to increase funding for land-use planning modernization (an inadequate $16 million over three years was committed in 2018), support the economic diversification of First Nations communities, and to read and align with the environmental concerns of the times.”
The Ancient Forest Alliance, other conservation groups, and approximately a hundred thousand concerned BC residents have called on the province to take swift and meaningful action to protect old-growth forests in recent years. In addition, a recent Sierra Club BC opinion poll shows that 92% of British Columbians support increased protection of old-growth forests.
With respect to private lands in BC, last year, 17 conservation and recreation groups and hundreds of British Columbians sent submissions to the BC government’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, calling for dedicated funding for the purchase and protection of private lands of high conservation, scenic, and recreational value in Budget 2020.
“Apparently the wishes of the majority of British Columbians have fallen on deaf ears,” stated campaigner TJ Watt. “The NDP government is playing it safe in this budget and is catering to single-use special interest groups despite the urgent need for bold action on climate change, biodiversity protection, and truly sustainable economic development that upholds Indigenous rights and title.”
In its budget, the BC government allocates $13 million over three years for the revitalization of the forest sector, including new and better forest inventory activities, improving forest management planning and stewardship in collaboration with First Nations, investing in bioenergy, and expanding economic opportunities. It falls short of a commitment to support the expedited transition to a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry in BC, which is urgently needed to maintain forestry jobs, support communities, and allow for the protection of old-growth forests.
It also states that the forests ministry will be improving forest practices while providing more predictability to industry and that the government’s focus is on planting more trees and utilizing more fibre. There is no mention in the budget of any intention to increase protected areas or invest in environmental conservation in BC.
“Making minor legislative adjustments and planting trees isn’t good enough,” stated Watt. “These measures equate to maintaining the status quo liquidation of old-growth forests and the continued loss of species and endangered ecosystems.”
“That the BC government failed to fund old-growth protection and sustainable economic development in Clayoquot Sound is particularly disappointing, especially after the federal government last year committed matching funds for the implementation of the Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht land-use visions, which set the vast majority of those Nations’ territories in Clayoquot Sound aside from industrial development,” stated Inness.
“The NDP government has a unique opportunity right now to obtain matching funds from the federal government’s $1.3 billion investment in conservation partnerships and protected area expansion. They’re missing a golden opportunity to purchase and protect private lands and support Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.”
“The province is projecting a $227 million surplus this fiscal year. Why isn’t any of this money being used to protect natural lands while also diversifying First Nations economies?”
Background information
The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC government to implement a series of policy changes to protect endangered old-growth forests, including a comprehensive, science-based plan similar to the ecosystem-based management approach used in the Great Bear Rainforest; a dedicated provincial land acquisition fund to protect private lands of high conservation, scenic, and recreation value, including old-growth forests; conservation financing support for First Nations communities in lieu of old-growth logging; support for new and existing Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas; and regulations and incentives to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry in BC.
The Tyee, OPINION- Joe Martin
January 28, 2020
Joe Martin is a master canoe carver and artist from the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation, a tribe of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth First Nations, located in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island.
The B.C. government is reviewing its policies to manage the province’s old growth forests and seeking public input.
This should be the opportunity for the government to start righting the mistakes of the past.
This new approach must obey the law of nature, under which we all live. This means we must understand Earth’s ecological limits and learn to respect them and live within them.
In Nuu-chah-nulth culture, the teachings of responsibility and respect for the land are passed down by our Elders as soon as our lives are conceived, and they continue until we die. These teachings are cornerstones of our culture, but they are foreign concepts to the provincial government and industry, who view our old growth forests as limitless resources to be plundered.
In my 12 years as a logger in Clayoquot Sound, I witnessed the destruction of some of the biggest trees and finest old growth forests I had ever seen. I witnessed the decimation of salmon streams, once teeming with steelhead, chum and coho, due to the clearcutting of entire valleys and landslides on the steep mountain slopes.
Although there have been significant conservation achievements in Clayoquot Sound through Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks, the destruction of old growth forests continues throughout much of B.C., and the province has continually failed to acknowledge how much has already been lost.
I was eventually fired from my job as a logger for refusing to haul two big logs across a salmon-bearing stream, knowing the logs would destroy key salmon habitat. I felt as though a weight had been lifted. I had become increasingly bothered by how horrible it was, what was happening to the land, so I joined in the effort to save the forest ecosystems I had once been paid to log.
I also took up fishing with my father, who worked as a fisherman, hunter, trapper and canoe builder. Throughout my life he taught me those skills and about how to respect the land, how to avoid disturbing the creeks in the forest to protect the coho, and the protocol to follow when selecting a cedar to cut for our cultural items — spending time in the forest, observing the birds and wildlife and avoiding trees with eagle’s nests or bear or cougar dens close by.
Our people practised for abundance rather than “sustainability.” To me, sustainability means keeping our natural resources on a lifeline until they’re eventually gone or until industry has finally had enough and moved on. Practising for abundance is making sure that your grandchildren won’t have to work as hard as you did. It’s ensuring that when we leave this garden for them, they will have everything they need.
This abundance is what allowed the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples to develop such a rich culture, which depends heavily on the availability of old growth red cedar in particular. We use cedar bark and wood for many cultural items such as woven hats, dugout canoes, totems, bentwood boxes and regalia. Our relationship and respect for these trees, the land and wildlife is represented and reinforced when we create and use these items, and we continue to rely on healthy forest ecosystems to maintain our culture.
The destruction of old growth forests, for Nuu-chah-nulth peoples, equates to a loss of identity. The loss of connection to the land and of our languages threatens our survival and is the cause of many of the social problems in our communities.
Many communities, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, are struggling due to the destruction of forests caused by provincial government mismanagement. On Vancouver Island, about 80 per cent of big-tree forests have been cut and replaced with tree plantations. Much of what remains are bogs or scrub.
Yet companies are still clearcut logging across most of B.C., destroying rivers and streams and harming salmon and other wildlife. Jobs have been lost due to the failure of the province to stop industry from cleaning out the best old growth in the valleys and support slower, careful forestry and processing second-growth timber instead. With so little old growth forest remaining, now is the time for the province to act.
We must listen to what Indigenous wisdom and science tells us, which is that we need to protect more forests to ensure their integrity and our own survival. The B.C. government needs to heed this wisdom and science in its old growth strategy. That means deciding what must be protected before deciding what can or can’t be logged. It means prioritizing biodiversity, fisheries, monumental trees, carbon storage, Indigenous culture, recreation and clean water over timber.
This must be coupled with support for Indigenous communities and economies. Without economic alternatives, many nations do not have the option of refusing logging in their territories.
We must all make a living, and if there are few employment alternatives to destructive resource extraction, what choice is there? None. And so our lands and our culture are sacrificed. The government must provide funding for First Nations’ economic diversification to create jobs while allowing remaining old-growth forests and culturally important areas to be protected.
The Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks in Clayoquot Sound are a good example. Tourism and recreation are big economic drivers here, and there is much work to be done in the tribal parks like building and maintaining infrastructure, which could lead a lot of our people away from jobs in logging and fish farming. I believe this would make the whole community much happier and it would be a great investment for future generations.
The province must recognize the cultural significance of the old growth forests that play such an important role in our lives. They must legally recognize and support Indigenous protected areas like tribal parks, starting in Clayoquot Sound, but also across B.C., and work with nations to support Indigenous-led land-use planning. It’s an important part of our peoples governing ourselves.
We have a responsibility to our future generations, and to uphold the teachings of our ancestors. We have to learn how to live together, how to listen to each other, and how to manage our remaining old-growth forests for abundance for the sake of our children and grandchildren.
The B.C. government is accepting public feedback on its proposed provincial Old Growth Strategy until Friday. For more details and to provide input, go here.
Original opinion piece here
The Globe and Mail
January 7th, 2020
San Juan Valley, Vancouver Island
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/CPL3BAEPMBAORDK3ZODTSHEVYU.JPG)
On a foggy day in November in the heart of a primeval forest, conservationist Ken Wu and biology graduate student Ian Thomas were standing at the base of a Sitka spruce, looking way up.
“Gaston!” Mr. Wu pronounced, pointing out the thick branches in the upper reaches of the 500-year-old tree, in which he sees the bicep-flexing character of his young daughter’s favourite Disney animation, Beauty and the Beast.
More than 80 years ago, in his collection of poems, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, T.S. Eliot provided exacting instructions for the naming of cats. The conventions around the naming of ancient trees is a less complicated affair.
Mr. Wu, who heads the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, hunts big trees and gives them nicknames, hoping to build public support for protecting some of the last remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island. His nicknames aim to be as catchy as an advertising jingle. “We don’t have the luxury to be boring,” he explains.
“It’s just a fun way to draw attention – in a viral way, hopefully – to a magnificent, endangered grove.” He named Big Lonely Doug, a Douglas fir that has been identified as the second-largest in Canada, which stands alone in the middle of a clear-cut. He helped win protection for nearby Avatar Grove so its trees would be spared the same fate.
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/U5CCKIUETZD2REP7ETDXNPFAIU.JPG)
These groves, spread out over roughly 500 hectares of the San Juan Valley floodplain, are largely unprotected. Two-thirds of the known old-growth forests here are on private forestry land, and one-third are on Crown land, within the operating area of BC Timber Sales.
The province has approved sections of land in the valley for logging, and Mr. Wu and Mr. Thomas are racing to catalog what they hope to save before the logging trucks roll in.
Forestry remains a major economic driver in British Columbia for many communities, and the provincial government is under pressure to protect the industry, which depends on a steady supply of both old- and second-growth logs to feed the province’s sawmills.
The tree Mr. Wu dubbed Gaston stands in a rugged section of Vancouver Island’s west coast. Sitka spruce are the largest in the world, and have been found reaching close to 100 metres in height next door in the Carmanah Valley. In these wet valleys on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, the trees thrive in a foggy, boggy micro-climate that incites fast growth.
Together, the pair have charted 22 similar groves on this floodplain that features trees no less than 250 years of age. Mr. Thomas, who ought to be finishing his thesis on bird song, has been distracted for weeks, scouring hectares of the valley bottom.
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/5GAIJB7U5ZGNLEPAFOHJ4GBKWY.JPG)
To visit some of these groves, we drive past the town of Port Renfrew (which bills itself as the Tall Tree Capital of Canada), eventually turning onto a rough and narrow gravel road. Then, on foot, we pick our way through a forest floor thick with giant sword ferns and lichen-draped salmonberries.
“I love these ecosystems, but it’s a hellish sort of bushwhack through a lot of it,” Mr. Wu warns.
This is what Mr. Wu refers to as the Serengeti of Vancouver Island’s rainforest: It is home to Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, wolves, cougars and black bears.
The easiest part of the hike is where the elk have broken a trail; their fresh hoofprints after the recent rain suggest we are following a busy thoroughfare.
The forest understory is quite unlike what is found in the region’s second-growth forests – there is a luscious disorder here, with branches draped in solid curtains of moss, trees growing out of the decay of fallen nurse logs. In one grove, a young hemlock tree grows up and into the side of a massive spruce. Perhaps one day it will take over the space.
It is not a wilderness – the Pacheedaht First Nation people have occupied these lands for thousands of years, and their ancient villages and campsites have been recorded up and down the San Juan river, an important spawning ground for chinook salmon and green sturgeon.
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/TBGWW7UOJREUNIQKZWTQQ3FJ7Q.JPG)
“Gaston” is growing about two kilometres east of a former summer fish camp near Fairy Lake. In these forests, the Pacheedaht have harvested red cedar to make long-houses, masks and canoes. Spruce roots were used to make rope, fishing line and thread.
Yet as we hack our way further into the forest, any hint of human intervention disappears. The vibe is very lost-in-time.
“This feels like a dinosaur should be stomping around,” Mr. Wu says.
These floodplains that nurture both old-growth Sitka spruce and salmonberries are rare, classified by the Ministry of Environment as “red-listed” ecosystems – endangered or threatened.
However, these trees could be up on the auction block at any moment. A large cedar here can be worth $50,000 to a logging company. The old giant Gaston would likely be destined for two-by-fours, if it ends up in a sawmill.
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/45B3RND34RBNZA6BMD2XY555BQ.JPG)
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/G3YYGGXO6BC43HFWSNAVB56JEE.JPG)
Today, B.C.’s provincial government, the New Democratic Party, is poised to make some critical decisions about the future of old growth.
Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, appointed an independent panel last summer to consult with British Columbians about how to manage old-growth forests.
The deadline for public response to a questionnaire is Jan. 31, and the panel’s recommendations are due back in the spring of 2020. When he announced the panel, Mr. Donaldson said in a statement that he is “committed to developing a new thoughtful and measured approach to managing this resource for the benefit of all British Columbians.”
Mr. Donaldson has also promised what he describes as significant amendments to the Forest and Range Practices Act, after his initial consultations showed strong public support to protect old growth forests.
But B.C. has yet to say how it will assist Canada in its commitment to meet its targets in a global effort to stem the tide of biodiversity loss.
The government is under intense pressure to keep logging. The B.C. forest sector is in crisis. Mills are closing as the timber supply shrinks and trade disputes drive up costs. The labour-friendly provincial government, now 2½ years into its current mandate, is wary of measures to curb logging and to date has offered few, and small, victories to conservationists.
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/DFCX3Z5TUBGFLJL37BIIOIBWSM.JPG)
In December, forest industry workers gathered on the front steps of the B.C. Legislature in Victoria to demand the government intervene in a months-long strike by 3,000 Western Forest Products employees on Vancouver Island.
Ron Tucker was among the protesters. A second generation logger who now owns his own small logging outfit, Mr. Tucker represents the dilemma for the government.
These workers come from NDP-held ridings. While ecologists such as Mr. Wu say the industry needs help to adapt to second-growth logging and more secondary manufacturing, the protesters say B.C. has already created enough protected areas.
“It would shut the forest industry down if you took old-growth logging out of the program,” Mr. Tucker said in an interview. He works in a tree farm licence on the north end of Vancouver Island where the harvest is one-fifth second growth, and four-fifths old growth.
“This industry is far too important for this province to lose. It is still the biggest economic driver in B.C. I mean, they’ve got new hospitals planned, and new schools planned, and all these big expenditures,” he said. “Without forestry, there’s no way that they can can do what they say they’re gonna do.”
The image of Big Lonely Doug does not sway Mr. Tucker and his colleagues, who just want to get back to work and meet their mortgage payments.
“I’m not gonna deny clearcuts are ugly. They are. And [conservationists] take pictures of this ugly clearcut and then basically go back to the general public and say this is what logging is. It’s so far from the truth. I’ve been in logging my whole life. I’m actually almost falling timber that was planted when I first started hauling logs.”
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/M226CQDEZNANNDASDT6RTHMHXQ.JPG)
Mr. Wu argues there is far more to be gained by leaving these forests intact. Old-growth forests can foster tourism and recreation jobs, while supporting endangered species, clean water, wild salmon and carbon sequestration to contribute to the battle against climate change.
His Endangered Ecosystems Alliance has called for a moratorium on logging of the most intact old-growth tracts. They want funding to establish Indigenous Protected Areas – tribal parks – that would allow local First Nations to manage the lands. And they want government to offer incentives and regulations to encourage the development of a value-added, second-growth forest industry so that people such as Mr. Tucker can still make a living, without threatening the biodiversity that depends on old-growth forests.
The Indigenous component would be critical to this, as many First Nations communities rely on forestry partnerships to build their own economies. That includes the Pacheedaht First Nation. In September, B.C.’s chief forester increased the amount of timber available to be harvested in this region, through Tree Farm Licence 61, because the forests are growing faster than estimated in the previous timber supply review. The Pacheedaht First Nation has a joint venture to log in TFL61, which includes 2,900 hectares of forests that are older than 240 years. Any new protected areas here will have to provide for the human well-being of the people who have traditionally occupied these lands.
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/V5DFQQ427ZEVPAJ3OB5QXIGUEU.JPG)
/arc-anglerfish-tgam-prod-tgam.s3.amazonaws.com/public/RFDLRSKNMNHIVATJ7ZOZEPTZKQ.JPG)
Mr. Wu’s quest for big trees along the San Juan river started eight years ago, when he was running the Avatar Grove campaign in the next valley over. He suspected there were some stands of old growth hidden in the mature second-growth forests, but he didn’t have time to explore.
It was Mr. Thomas, who happened to take a tour of old growth with Mr. Wu, who sparked the hunt. “I was blown away. It’s incredible this still exists,” Mr. Thomas said as we explored the valley. He started studying satellite maps of the San Juan Valley bottom to plan his next visit. “I wanted to check out all these groves when I should have been writing my thesis.”
For a biologist, the San Juan Valley floodplain is a gold mine of eco-diversity. Standing at the base of a 300-year-old tree, Mr. Thomas sees a natural sculpture that is impossible to replicate in a second-growth tree plantation. He points out where bats can roost, and how the massive roots that grew over a long-decayed nurse log have left an opening for a black bear’s den. A pine marten has retreated up the trunk to safety while we invade its turf. The diversity of form and function makes space for them all.
“We hit the big-tree jackpot here,” Mr. Wu says.
This year, the provincial government will decide whether it is a jackpot to be protected, or harvested.
Some of Vancouver Island’s last old-growth forests can be found in the San Juan Valley floodplain, the traditional territory of the Pacheedaht people. Sitka spruce can grow to gigantic size there. But two-thirds of these forests are on private forestry land, and the rest on Crown land. Across B.C., Old Growth Management Areas protect ancient forests from development, but the province’s plan for safeguarding old-growth trees is now under review by an independent panel.
Read the original article
