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Great News! BC Government Backs Down from Tree Farm Licence Expansion Plans for Now – THANK YOU for Speaking Up!

Sep 8 2014/in Announcements

Recently, just before the Labour Day weekend, the BC government quickly mentioned that they have no immediate plans to introduce any legislation to expand Tree Farm Licences across British Columbia in 2014 or in the spring. This proposal has been a recurring scheme by the BC Liberal government – proposed before the 2013 BC election and then again this year until now – to give exclusive logging rights to major logging companies on vast areas of BC’s public forest lands. Each time, a massive public uproar has played an important role in preventing this “forest giveaway scheme” from being implemented!

THANK YOU to the many thousands of our supporters who formed the numeric bulk of the opposition speaking up against this proposal (see www.BCForestMovement.com), to the many First Nations who voiced their concerns and especially to the Tsilhqot’in First Nation who recently won the land title case in the Supreme Court, which was a fundamental reason for the BC government backing down. We must stay vigilant in case the relentless BC Liberal government tries again to attempt such a plan in the future.

[Original article in Clearwater Times no longer available]

SRD buys valuable piece of real estate

Sep 6 2014/in News Coverage

The Strathcona Regional District has agreed to purchase a hotly debated piece of property for nearly $1 million.

After five years of negotiations with Island Timberlands, the owner of the 70-acre greenspace on Cortes Island, the property is expected to soon belong to the regional district.

Island Timberlands accepted an offer of $839,000 for the property, known as Whaletown Commons, which is appraised at $826,000 ($475,000 for the timber and $351,000 for the land).

The Whaletown Commons Society, a non-profit which has been trying to secure the land for more than 20 years, is partnering with the regional district and has agreed to chip in roughly $73,000 towards the purchase with its share raised through local donations.

Cortes Director Noba Anderson told her constituents in a newsletter in June that the regional district has more than $571,000 in community parks reserve funds that it’s prepared to contribute towards the purchase.

Anderson said she’s pleased the regional district was able to secure the land for Cortes residents to enjoy for years to come.

“I am beyond delighted that this long-standing community park priority has finally become a reality,” Anderson said in a news release. “The purchase of Whaletown Commons is a rare opportunity to secure 70 acres of green-space in the centre of a neighbourhood, and I am honoured to be part of making this happen.”

The Whaletown Commons Society, which was formed with the sole purpose of keeping the greenspace as parkland, wants to use the property to create a community park in Whaletown and to provide a spot for potential re-location of some of the community’s public assembly buildings.

The greenspace is a valuable piece of land because of its high forest and riparian values, salmon-bearing Burnside Creek, and it provides a natural habitat for wolves and other animals.

It also connects three Whaletown sub-neighbourhoods and is set to become the first formal and permanent park in the Whaletown/Gorge area.

Anderson assured Cortes Islanders last month that the regional district has no interest in developing the property.

“It is important to underline that this park would be purchased as a green space – and a green space only,” Anderson wrote on Cortes’ online site, Tideline, in June. “What becomes of it in the future will be up to the community and the limitations of the covenant (on the land).”

Mossy maple grove

Sep 6 2014/in News Coverage

When most of us think of British Columbia’s old-growth forest we imagine towering ancient cedars, spruces, and firs. But along a salmon-bearing creek southwest of Vancouver Island’s Lake Cowichan there’s an enchanting rainforest of an entirely different sort—featuring centuries-old deciduous bigleaf maples. Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance, came across the rare grove, which extends in a corridor at least four kilometres long, on a scouting mission two years ago and is advocating for its protection. This is Canada’s mossiest rainforest, he says. The trees are enveloped by hanging gardens of mosses, ferns, and lichens that thrive on the calcium-rich bark of the trees. The maples are an estimated 300 years old and are “exceptionally large,” with diameters up to two metres. “This is the most photogenic ecosystem in the entire country,” says Wu. “I’ve been through so many types of forest and landscapes and this one takes the cake. Hollywood couldn’t have created a more rainforesty rainforest.” Bigleaf maples are native to southwestern B.C. but old-growth stands are scarce—the aged wood of the species has high commercial value and is sometimes targeted by wood poachers. Wu suspects that these particular trees—a few dozen giants mixed with some second growth and other species—have been spared because they have hollowed out with age. The Mossy Maple Grove (also nicknamed Fangorn Forest after J.R.R Tolkien’s forest of animated tree-like beings) is primarily on Crown land. AFA runs occasional public hikes there but discourages independent visitation to avoid damaging the delicate understory and spooking the elk that rely on this riparian area. (The grove is also frequented by deer, cougars, black bears, and sometimes wolves.)

Info: Visit the Ancient Forest Alliance website for scheduled hikes (ancientforestalliance.org). Watch a video on the Mossy Maple Grove (youtube.com/watch?v=FzOefJnAENI).

Announcements

Help AFA raise $250,000 by December 31st – we’re over halfway there!

Dec 15 2025

Support the protection of old-growth forests in BC through Indigenous-led conservation, science, and public action. Donate to help safeguard ancient forests.

Announcements

An aerial of a BCTS cutblock in the Nahmint Valley

News Coverage

Chek News: Document reveals approval to harvest remnant old-growth in B.C.’s northwest

Dec 8 2025

BC Timber Sales has ended a policy protecting remnant old-growth in northwest B.C., citing First Nations’ positions, sparking concerns from ecologists and residents.

News Coverage

Announcements

Thank You to Our Silent Auction business Donors!

Dec 8 2025

Thank you to these local businesses for generously donating items and experiences to our first-ever online Silent Auction!

Announcements

Ancient Forest Alliance photographer and campaign director TJ Watt stands beside the fallen remains of an ancient western redcedar approximately 9 feet (3 metres) wide, cut down by BC Timber Sales in the Nahmint Valley near Port Alberni in Hupačasath, Tseshaht, and Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ First Nation territory. (2024)

Announcements

Statement on the Provincial Forest Advisory Council’s Interim Report – AFA & EEA

Nov 21 2025

The Provincial Forest Advisory Council’s (PFAC) interim report falls short of addressing the root causes of BC’s forestry crisis or outlining the bold, decisive actions needed to reverse it, warn the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and Endangered Ecosystem Alliance (EEA).

Announcements