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Old Growth Protection Proposal by the Environmental Law Centre of the University of Victoria

Apr 11 2013/in Media Release

The UVic Environmental Law Centre is proposing a science-based Old Growth Protection Act for British Columbia with timelines to immediately protect critically endangered old-growth forests and to quickly phase out old-growth logging in highly endangered forests.

See the details of the report.

Here’s a link to the Environmental Law Centre’s website.

Pre-Election Info Night and Rally for Ancient Forests is happening this Wednesday April 10th from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at Alix Goolden Hall!

Pre-Election Info Night and Rally for Ancient Forests this Wednesday April 10th

Apr 10 2013/in Announcements

Hello AFA Supporters!

Looking forward to seeing you all at the upcoming AFA event!

SAVE our ANCIENT FORESTS and BC FORESTRY JOBS! Pre-Election RALLY and INFO NIGHT!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

7-9 pm

Alix Goolden Hall, 907 Pandora Ave. (by Quadra St), Victoria

Facebook event page (invite friends!)

YOUR ATTENDANCE is needed to SEND A STRONG MESSAGE to BC’s politicians one month before the BC election that it’s their MORAL OBLIGATION to commit to saving our endangered ancient forests and ensuring sustainable forestry! We will:

– See a NEW LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL from UVic’s Environmental Law Clinic on how to protect BC’s old-growth forests.

– See NEW MAPS for Vancouver Island and BC’s Southwest Mainland that debunk the BC Liberal government’s PR-spin

– See the ELECTION REPORT CARD on old-growth forests from the Ancient Forest Alliance

– Hear about the SWING RIDING CAMPAIGN for Sustainable Forestry and how YOU can help!

SPEAKERS will include:

– Robert Morales (Chief Treaty Negotiator, Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group)

– Calvin Sandborn (Legal Director, University of Victoria Environmental Law Clinic)

– Vicky Husband (Victoria conservationist, Order of BC and Canada recipient)

– Scott Fraser (NDP MLA for Alberni-Pacific)

– Dr. Andrew Weaver (Deputy Leader, Green Party of BC, and climate scientist)

– Arnold Bercov (President, Pulp, and Woodworkers of Canada – Local 8

– TJ Watt (Campaigner and Photographer, Ancient Forest Alliance)

– Ken Wu (Executive Director, Ancient Forest Alliance)

Background info:

Ancient forests are vital to sustain endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures. See VIDEOS at: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/videos/ and PHOTOS at: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/

A century of unsustainable logging has eliminated the vast majority of the biggest, best old-growth trees in the valley bottoms and lower elevations that historically built BC’s forest industry. This has resulted in diminishing returns as the trees get smaller, more expensive to reach higher up, and lower in value.

As second-growth forests mature and now dominate the forested land base, the BC government has done little to stimulate investment in second-growth sawmills and value-added facilities to process the logs. Instead, they’ve allowed vast quantities to be exported raw to foreign mills in China, the US, and elsewhere.

Much of BC’s remaining old-growth forests now consist of marginal or “low-productivity” trees growing on poor sites at high elevations, on steep, rocky mountainsides, and in bogs. The BC government’s statistics deliberately overinflate the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including these stunted “bonsai” forests – mainly uneconomic to log – in their public relations figures, as well as failing to provide context on how much old-growth forests once stood.

Our remaining “productive” old-growth forests where the large trees grow, or “ancient forests”, today consist of only a small fraction of their original extent. This is particularly true on Vancouver Island, the southern mainland coast, and in the BC interior.

On Vancouver Island, 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow.

The history of unsustainable resource extraction around the world is replete with examples where the biggest and best stocks have been depleted one after another, resulting in the loss of resource industry jobs
along the way.

BC’s politicians must not allow this familiar pattern of high-grade resource depletion, ecosystem collapse, and the impoverishment of rural communities to continue in BC’s forests under their watch – or through
their active support. A major change in the status quo of unsustainable forestry in the province is vital. Politicians who fail to understand this fundamental concept must not have power.

By Donation.

Organized by the Ancient Forest Alliance www.AncientForestAlliance.org

For more information call 250-896-4007.

Julianne Skai Arbor hugs the San Juan spruce

The naked tree-hugger makes her way to Port Renfrew

Apr 6 2013/in News Coverage

*See her website at www.treegirl.org

The rain barely let up in Port Renfrew Friday morning, but that didn’t stop Julianne Skai Arbor from stripping off her clothes and closely embracing the mossy trunk of the massive San Juan spruce.

“It’s my first time on Vancouver Island and there was a downpour, but it’s still beautiful,” said Arbor, the ultimate tree hugger, as she warmed up after the photo shoot.

Arbor, a 43-year-old California college professor who teaches environmental conservation, travels around the world photographing herself naked with old or endangered trees. She is lending her support to the Ancient Forest Alliance’s efforts to push the B.C. government into coming up with a strategy to protect big trees and remaining patches of old-growth forest.

“The most fragile ecosystems that are still intact should be put aside,” said Arbor, who posts photos of her tree travels on her treegirl.org website and is writing a book about her love of big trees. “It’s amazing for me to see the forests on this Island and I wonder how the people who live here can watch the cutting of the forest. There is only so much you can do before it’s gone.”

The peaceful feeling of being surrounded by nature’s lifeforce in an old forest is very different from feelings generated by a clearcut or tree farm, she said.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and founder TJ Watt, who photographed Arbor with the San Juan spruce, said the photos are a new way of highlighting the grandeur of B.C.’s old-growth forests so they can be protected. “When people see these images, they strike a chord.”

Jon Cash, owner of Soule Creek Lodge and vice-president of Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, is hoping the photos promote tourism.

“When you see these pictures, it’s hard to know where to focus. She’s a beautiful woman and it’s a beautiful tree,” he said.

Big trees and especially Avatar Grove — a patch of majestic old-growth discovered by the Ancient Forest Alliance and given provincial protection when it started drawing thousands of visitors — have become a major economic driver in the Port Renfrew area, Cash said. They’re one of three top draws to the area, along with Botanical Beach and fishing.

“At the Information Centre in Sooke, one of the top three questions is: ‘Where is Avatar Grove?’ ” he said. “The big trees have drawn hundreds of thousands of dollars of business.”

The San Juan spruce, which stands in a forest recreation site beside the San Juan River, is the largest spruce tree in Canada at 62 metres tall, with a crown that spreads over 23 metres. It does not have any official protection.

Meanwhile, Arbor, who is a certified arborist, is planning to come back to Port Renfrew in the summer to pose with other big trees.

“My goal is to capture a moment of intimacy in these wild places.”

Link to Times Colonist article: www.timescolonist.com/news/the-naked-tree-hugger-makes-her-way-to-port-renfrew-1.105165