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Yogis in support of the Ancient Forest Alliance!

Apr 30 2012/in Announcements

For the month of May, Feel Good Yoga has chosen the Ancient Forest Alliance as the recipient of their monthly Karma Yoga fund!

Karma Classes are Hatha Yoga and great for beginners.
Held Sunday evenings from 5:15 – 6:30, and are by donation.
Dates for May are the 6th, 13th, and 27th. No class on May 20th due to the stat holiday.

The address is: Reflections Building, 127-2745 Veterans Memorial parkway, in Langford

For more information:
Tel: 250-474-6935
https://www.feelgoodyogavictoria.com/
Email: info@feelgoodyogavictoria.com
www.facebook.com/feelgoodyogapilates

Gratitude and thanks to Jenny and Feel Good Yoga for your kind support!

Crown lands belong to the public, not government

Apr 30 2012/in News Coverage

British Columbians are once again being treated to increased controversy about the management of our Crown land forests – whether it is the decreased role of the chief forester, new threats to remove land from forest reserves or the privatization of the forests themselves.

It is important to remember that the notion of Crown land and not selling off the forest-land base goes back to the very beginnings of land allocation in British Columbia.

The principle of public ownership of B.C.’s forest was firmly established by the House of Assembly before B.C. became a province. We find the view presented and adopted that the selling and granting of large tracts of timberland to companies or individuals should not be entertained, as it is socially injurious and detrimental to settlement.

When land grants were proposed to attract investment in sawmilling, the response was: We will offer licences to cut timber only on unsold and unpreempted land. Thus, leases and licences became the predominant forest tenure.

As a result of this farreaching notion, 94 per cent of British Columbia remains public Crown land. The province, by retaining the land base in public ownership nearly 150 years ago, kept its options open for other public purposes to be met concomitant with timber production.

Citizens of B.C. could continue to enjoy the land, recreate on the trails, raft down the rivers, pick huckleberries and mushrooms, hunt wildlife and fish for salmon, while the revenues generated from these leases and licences would stay within government to build hospitals in our communities, provide education to our children and grandchildren and support art projects and theatre productions.

What a grand model – the government stewards the land for the benefit of the people.

The notion of managing B.C. with a mind to the future, rather than selling the land or moving its responsibility to the private sector, is a vision worthy of continued public support.

However, the current trends are disturbing and leave many people wondering whether the government of today has abandoned this notion of stewarding the land for the future.

Today, B.C.’s Crown lands are being treated more as “government land” that the province can do with what it wants, with seemingly little respect for public ownership, economic sustainability and the Crown’s obligation to honour the claims of First Nations.

The auditor general recently rapped the government’s knuckles: “These forests contribute to employment, tourism and recreational opportunities, as well as generate significant revenue for government to finance public services. However, trends indicate that the future availability of timber will be smaller and less diverse, putting future revenue opportunities at risk.”

Beyond that, a recent report by four retired professionals indicates the budget for resource-related ministries has decreased by 52 per cent in the last 10 years: “There is growing concern, and some evidence, that government and industry are not devoting the level of funding and staffing to renewable resource management that is needed to meet those expectations and responsibilities. Many wonder if the province’s magnificent natural resource legacy is receiving the attention it should.”
In addition, the Forest Practices Board has outlined its concerns about the cumulative effects of resource use on Crown land by the forest industry, mining, oil and gas, and wind power: “What seems to be missing is a well-structured, transparent process for deciding what to do and specifying how to do it.”

The provincial government needs to better manage our lands, biodiversity, forests, and water resources. It needs to develop a strategy that not only addresses employment, tourism and public recreation, but also focuses the government’s financial and staff resources to foster ecological health, economic stability and quality of life for British Columbians now and into the future.

We don’t want to be the generation that fetters the future of our Crown land by selling it and mismanaging its resources. We don’t want to be the generation that “divests” the historic patrimony of our forests, salmon, rivers and wildlife to the degree that successive generations won’t be able to benefit from our Crown lands as envisaged in 1866.

Instead, we must be the generation that identifies what is wrong with the current trends and identifies solutions so that the future management of B.C.’s Crown land is focused on a return to its citizens and its communities.

These changes have been slowly occurring for a long time, seem to have sped up over the last decade and have happened largely without public knowledge.

Indeed, few British Columbians are likely even aware that nearly all the lands and water in the province are publicly owned. There is an urgent need to change our ways and build on this Crown land legacy in a manner that will ensure a healthy economy, a healthy environment and sustainable communities.

Bob Peart is a biologist who has been involved in land use planning, First Nation consultation and park planning and management for more than 30 years.

Local Port Alberni resident and Watershed-Forest Alliance coordinator Jane Morden (red shirt) hikes amongst some of the giant old-growth Douglas-fir trees found in the endangered Cameron Valley Firebreak.

Island Timberlands Begins Logging Old-Growth in Area Formerly Intended as Protected Elk Winter Range in the Cameron Valley near Port Alberni

Apr 27 2012/in Media Release

Media Release

April 27, 2012

Island Timberlands Begins Logging Old-Growth in Area Formerly Intended as Protected Old-Growth Elk Winter Range in the Cameron Valley near Port Alberni

Port Alberni, BC – Island Timberlands has begun logging an area formerly intended for protection as Roosevelt elk and black-tailed deer winter range earlier this week in the Cameron Valley “Firebreak” on Vancouver Island. The Cameron Valley Firebreak is an extremely rare, 150 hectare section of old-growth forest that spans the distance from the valley bottom to mountain top that is a 30 minute drive from the town of Port Alberni and lies several kilometres upstream from the world-famous Cathedral Grove.

See beautiful new photos of the imminently endangered Cameron Valley Firebreak Forest and the beginnings of the logging incursion by Island Timberlands at: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/cameron-valley-firebreak/

Local activists with the Port Alberni-based Watershed-Forest Alliance and the Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance were dismayed to come across a logging crew on Monday that had begun to fall along the edge of the grove, including scores of huge and extremely rare old-growth Douglas fir trees. In the grove are also large numbers of Culturally Modified Trees stripped for their cedar bark.

The forest was formerly planned for protection by the provincial government as an Ungulate Winter Range (UWR) for Roosevelt elk and black-tailed deer until the land was largely deregulated in 2004 due to its removal from Tree Farm License 44. Conservationists are calling on Island Timberlands to halt their logging of the grove until funds can be secured for the purchase of Island Timberlands’ high conservation value forests, including the Cameron Valley Firebreak.

“This old growth forest that stretches from mountain top to valley bottom is of monumental importance to deer and elk and is incredibly beautiful to wander through. The loss of any of this precious wildlife habitat seems unjustifiable for the amount of job hours it will create,” stated Jane Morden, coordinator of the Watershed-Forest Alliance based in Port Alberni.

Island Timberlands employs few people in Port Alberni and is one of BC’s largest exporters of raw logs to foreign mills.

In 2004 the BC Liberal government removed 88,000 hectares of Weyerhaeuser’s forest lands, now owned by Island Timberlands, from their Tree Farm Licenses (TFL’s), thus removing many existing environmental protections as well as provincial restrictions on raw log exports on those lands, and not implementing other planned protections – including intended Ungulate Winter Ranges (UWR’s) in areas such as the Cameron Valley.

“The Cameron Valley Firebreak is clearly an exceptional place. The grove is just jam-packed with elk sign and ancient coastal Douglas Firs, 99% of which have already been logged. Who can argue against the fact that these extremely scarce ancient coastal Douglas fir forests should be protected?” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder and photographer. “Why are we still being forced to fight over the last 1%? Once it’s gone it’s gone and we could be just days away from that being the case.”

The Cameron Valley Firebreak was left unlogged for decades by previous companies who owned the land to slow the spread of forest fires moving through the parched clearcuts and tree plantations. Fires would be stifled by the giant, water-saturated fallen logs and woody debris kept cool and moist in the shade, underneath the canopy of the ancient forest.

The original logging rights on public (Crown) lands on Vancouver Island were granted to logging companies for free earlier last century on condition that the companies allowed their adjacent private forest lands to be placed into regulatory designations known as Tree Farm Licenses (TFL’s), in order to control the rate of cut, ensure their logs went to local mills, and to ensure environmental standards on those private lands. In recent times the companies (Weyerhaeuser in 2004 and Western Forest Products in 2006) greatly benefitted from the removal of their private lands from their TFL’s as it allowed them to log previously protected forests, to export raw logs, and to sell-off forest lands to developers – but meanwhile were still allowed to retain their Crown land logging rights (despite no longer upholding the conditions of the original agreement on their private lands). This failure to uphold the original agreement is considered by many to be a breach of the public interest. Weyerhaeuser has since moved off the coast, with the company’s former private lands now owned by Island Timberlands and its Crown land logging rights held by Western Forest Products.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the provincial government to establish a BC Park Acquisition Fund of at least $40 million per year, raising $400 million over 10 years, to purchase old-growth forests and other endangered ecosystems on private lands across the province, such as the Cameron Valley Firebreak. The fund would be similar to the park acquisition funds of various regional districts in BC which are augmented by the fundraising efforts of private citizens and land trusts.

“Christy Clark’s BC Liberal government must step forward with a funding solution, a BC Park Acquisition Fund similar to those of many regional districts, to purchase old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems on private lands for protection – particularly Island Timberlands’ contentious lands,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “At the same time, Island Timberlands absolutely must put the brakes on their plans to log the last old-growth stands like the Cameron Valley Firebreak until those lands can be purchased for protection.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance and local conservationists are calling for the protection of old-growth forests, sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and an end to the export of raw logs to foreign mills in order to ensure a guaranteed log supply for BC mills. The provincial government’s new BC Forest Strategy emphasizes the export of BC wood products – in large part BC raw logs – to China.