Help AFA raise $250,000 by December 31st – we’re over halfway there!
Support the protection of old-growth forests in BC through Indigenous-led conservation, science, and public action. Donate to help safeguard ancient forests.
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TJ Watt2025-12-15 15:20:282025-12-15 17:55:17Help AFA raise $250,000 by December 31st – we’re over halfway there!
Chek News: Document reveals approval to harvest remnant old-growth in B.C.’s northwest
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.
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TJ Watt2025-12-08 13:49:362025-12-08 13:49:36Chek News: Document reveals approval to harvest remnant old-growth in B.C.’s northwest
Thank You to Our Silent Auction business Donors!
Thank you to these local businesses for generously donating items and experiences to our first-ever online Silent Auction!
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TJ Watt2025-12-08 13:17:322025-12-08 13:50:51Thank You to Our Silent Auction business Donors!
Statement on the Provincial Forest Advisory Council’s Interim Report – AFA & EEA
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).
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TJ Watt2025-11-21 10:13:452025-11-21 10:15:43Statement on the Provincial Forest Advisory Council’s Interim Report – AFA & EEA
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2012 Predictions – Environment – Ken Wu
/in News CoverageWhile the strength of environmental campaigns vary each year, 2012 should be major. Here are five predictions:
The Climate Change Movement will Heat Up
The massive momentum in 2006 from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth took a beating by a global recession, Copenhagen’s let-down and a huge climate denial industry that still wins over the uninformed and myopic. However, the latest UN climate summit in Durban created a new climate treaty framework that under massive pressure can be turned into something useful and vitally important. The movement is now supercharged with fury over Canada’s withdrawl from Kyoto, and will only grow. This time businesses, unions, and faith groups must be enlisted. The positive attributes of a sustainable, low carbon society should be emphasized, including expanded green businesses and jobs, more liveable cities, a healthier and happier quality of life, greater stability and world peace, and sustaining Earth’s tremendous diversity of life. We must also get a lot more political, working to toss out climate-sabotaging Conservative MP’s.
Slick Oil Industry PR will Spread to Pipelines
While the Keystone Pipeline to the U.S. and the Enbridge Pipeline to Kitimat from Alberta’s tar sands had setbacks in 2011, next year will be different. The dirty energy barons are sure to sink millions more into sophisticated, large-scale PR campaigns. Attacks on environmentalists as being foreigner-controlled, fear-mongering about job losses, and efforts to buy rural and working-class support to pit against “urban cappuccino-sucking tree huggers” are the common tactics of corporate anti-environmentalists.
The new spin also includes the “Ethical Oil” argument conjured up by a former tobacco industry lobbyist, which states that Alberta’s dirtiest tar sands oil is somehow more ethical and environmental than conventional oil from Saudi Arabia because of their human rights abuses. It’s like promoting child labour in Canada, due to lower standards in other nations. Meanwhile, opposition will grow against Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline from Alberta to Burrard Inlet, which aims to expand oil tanker traffic along Canada’s most populated coastline, including by Victoria.
Ancient Forest Campaign will Target both B.C. Lib’s and NDP
The Ancient Forest Alliance’s growing strength, several large environmental groups moving to ramp-up their campaigns, and a provincial election in 2013 will drive a push for the B.C. Liberals and the NDP to commit to stronger old-growth policies. The B.C. Liberals still defend the destructive status quo, while the NDP who are likely to form the next government have made positive but vague promises with much wiggle room. Dix’s environmental platform during his NDP leadership bid committed to, “Develop a long term strategy for old growth forests in the province, including protection of specific areas that are facing immediate logging plans, such as Avatar Grove,” but fell short of calling for an end to old-growth logging in any major region.
The Fight against Fish Farms will go Viral
Viral in the sense that a salmon-killing virus, Infectious Salmon Anemia, has now been found by researchers in B.C.’s wild sockeye. It was first found in Norwegian fish farms and has wiped out salmon stocks in Europe and Chile. Investigations continue on the virus’ role in massive declines of Fraser sockeye runs. Combined with concerns about sea lice, waste, overharvesting smaller fish to feed farmed salmon, and the large-scale killing of sea lions by fish farmers, this new threat will make protests against open net-cage fish farms go viral.
Raw Logs on a Slow Boat to China will be Protested
The B.C. government has spent millions of taxpayer dollars to open up Chinese markets for B.C. wood. “Lumber, not logs” to China was the assurance of former Forests Minister Pat Bell in 2008 when questioned about the potential loss of B.C. milling jobs. However, in 2009 Bell allowed the first B.C. raw logs to be exported to China. With the flood-gates opened, raw log exports to China increased over 10-fold in 2010, to over a million cubic meters. In a nation where large-scale manufacturing capacity springs up seemingly overnight, it’s only a matter of time now before China shifts its imports of B.C. lumber to mainly raw logs to feed their own mills. Ten years from now, we’ll be able to thank the B.C. Liberals for the migration of the province’s wood manufacturing capacity to China. Protests will ramp-up in 2012.
Ken Wu is the executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance and MASS (Majority for A Sustainable Society).
Link to Monday Magazine article: https://www.mondaymag.com/news/136700133.html
Logging of pristine BC island forest to begin in January by Brookfield Asset Management
/in News CoverageIsland Timberlands will start logging on Cortes Island this January, according to Wayne French, Operations Planner for IT. Cortes Islanders are seeking signatories to a petition to prevent the logging.
Cortes Island is known for its balance of remoteness and accessibility. Serviced by ferries, float planes and water taxis, getting there still takes effort. People stay long enough for the island to take hold in their imaginations. Many come for inspiration at the Hollyhock Conference Centre, for practical farming guidance at the Linnaea Farm Ecological Gardening Programme, or to rent beach and lake side vacation houses. The year round community of about 1000 people is known for its warmth, creativity and deep civic engagement.
The island’s extensive trails lead to rich lagoons, hidden lakes, ridgeline vistas and the few stately old growth stands that earlier generations of loggers graciously left to live. Bush walkers quickly find the sense of belonging within nature’s integrity which emanates from undisturbed places. Wolves, red legged frogs and other rare and endangered species rely on these rarely visited places.
The island’s best forests are privately managed by a company called Island Timberlands (IT). IT’s parcels encompass swaths of woods that bisect the island from east to west. They hold the healthiest forests, the biggest trees and the island’s central water recharge area.
The eastern IT parcels abut the Klahoose First Nation reserve and contain significant old growth remnants that are slated as the first area of IT’s planned operations. The IT parcels at the center of the island hold the Blue Jay Lake watershed, where water flows slowly past ancient trees into a giant swamp at the island’s epicenter.
IT has announced plans to clear a two hectare swathe directly through this area to “build a road.” The western parcel edges Carrington Lagoon, a favorite of hikers and picnickers and the destination of an annual pilgrimage for hundreds of twenty somethings. Local organizers call this parcel the Children’s Forest and are fundraising to add it to the Carrington Lagoon Park. IT also owns Whaletown Commons, another beloved parcel for which the community and Regional District have raised enough funds to purchase at an independently appraised fair market value. IT has refused to sell for less than twice the appraised value.
Cortes Island in the witness box
“It’s Cortes Island’s turn in the witness box,” biologist and resident Sabina Leader Mense told the Vancouver Observer during a recent interview. “Industrial logging of private managed forest lands in the face of community opposition has occurred all over Vancouver Island and neighbouring Islands. Now it’s our turn to provide testimony to the true corporate ownership of these lands and the inadequate forest practices for environmental protection.”
The privately managed forest lands on Cortes Island have been considered “socially inoperable” for decades, due to staunch local opposition in the form of blockades and the community’s hard work on solutions that would protect ecosystems and provide much needed forest-based employment for the long term. For example, the Cortes Initiative of 2001 was a joint proposal by the Klahoose First Nation, Weyerhaeuser and the Cortes Ecoforestry Society for joint sustainable management of the Island’s private and Crown forest lands. The new yet long sought Cortes Community Forest Co-Operative could offer a solution along similar lines.
Three factors have contributed to the threat to Cortes Island forests and the transformation of other treasured forests into exported logs and ravaged landscapes targeted for residential development. First, huge multinational corporations use BC’s privately managed forest lands for premium shareholder return. Second, the BC Liberals have left private forest lands virtually unregulated. Third, raw log (and job) export are radically increasing.
BC forest and Brookfield Asset Management
Brascan, which became Brookfield Asset Management, bought 635,000 acres of fee simple timberlands in BC from Weyerhaeuser in 2005 for management by its subsidiary, Island Timberlands. Weyerhaeuser bought those lands from MacMillan Bloedel in 1999. MacMillan Bloedel originally bought the Cortes Island lands from a local logger for under $30,000.
In the sale of MacMillan Bloedel to Weyerhaeuser, the provincial government imposed the condition that Weyerhaeuser negotiate in good faith with the Cortes Island community for a satisfactory solution for the island’s private forest lands. This requirement has not been met by IT.
BAM has corporate offices all over the world and a board of directors that includes Jim Pattison and a tar sands CEO. It has $110 billion in assets under management and delivered an annual return of 23% from 2000 to 2010. Following the purchase of Weyerhaeuser, BAM divided the private and public forest land assets, closed the mills, and restructured the management of private forest lands for faster harvest and more export of raw logs.
BAM touts IT as the second largest private timber lands holding in BC and the second most valuable private timberland estate in Canada. That value is not just trees. BAM is known as a real estate management company and when IT talks to Cortes Islanders, it is often Chris Dawes, the real estate manager, who shows up.
According to naturalist and journalist Briony Penn, it is no surprise BC has become the target of global capital:
“Who could resist British Columbia, a great little banana republic on the doorstep of America that meets all those great investment criteria? Safe? For sure, there are no Zapatistas here. And cheap? Once you’ve creamed the forest off the top, you have free real estate that can be sold. Moreover, we have a provincial government that seems easily swayed by corporate investors,” Penn told VO.
In fact, IT and other BC timber companies are major contributors to the Liberal Party of BC which, under Gordon Campbell, obligingly removed what little protection existed for privately managed forest lands.
Friends with benefits: multinationals and BC’s Liberal government
The Provincial Government deregulated privately managed forest lands at the behest of the multinational corporations which provide huge campaign contributions. Prior to 2002, the Assessment Act and Forest Land Reserve Act helped to reduce the impact of urban development and rural settlement on privately managed forest land. The BC Liberals repealed the FLR Act in 2002 and replaced it with the Private Managed Forest Land Act (PMFLA ) in 2004. Douglas Harris of the UBC Faculty of Law has described the act as “a highly flexible, industry‐friendly Act, which does not prohibit activity on forest land, but provides incentives to forest land owners who comply with its provisions.”
PMFLA sets out very general “objectives” for soil conservation, water quality, fish habitat, critical wildlife habitat and reforestation with no compliance review by provincial government foresters. Oversight is provided by a Council which has been criticized as too closely connected to the logging industry owners, resulting in a form of self-regulation.
Research by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, shows forest liquidation rates that have resulted in:
The liquidation of private forest lands means that communities lose essential wildlife habitat and vital ecological services that include drinking water, carbon absorption, erosion and flood control, micro climate stability, and salmonid protection. The present rate of forest liquidation also ignores the long term value of the high end market for BC’s legendary wood by favouring quantity over quality.
Cutting BC’s forests: faster, faster, faster
In 2010, BC log exports increased by more than 50%. More logs were shipped to China than during the previous 20 years combined. In the first three months of 2011 alone, BC’s coast exported 40% or 1.3 million cubic metres of logs, a 300% from the same period in 2009.
Liquidating BC forests to sell lumber to China
With such huge powers at play, it seems possible that all of BC’s private forest lands will be liquidated and sent to China. We clearly need a new paradigm for privately managed forest land. Many communities have protested mightily against the depredation against their water sheds and favourite places: Port Alberni, Cowichan Valley, Port McNeil, Cathedral Grove, and Nanaimo, to name a few. Such protest can seem more like art than strategy, giving expression to communities’ aspirations moments before they are bulldozed under.
But BC’s forests have no political voice other than ours. We need to converge for more effective advocacy both for our home forests and for a new paradigm for private forest land management. Our tools include: protests (in January, Cortes Island will be a good place to stand up for forests); fierce opposition to the rezoning of forest land for real estate development; strategic voting through organizations such as the Conservation Voters of BC; complaints to the Association of BC Professional Foresters for unethical conduct; letters to government and corporate officers (see below) and public advocacy journalism that holds individuals responsible for their corporate actions.
Oh, yes, and signing by the thousands on petitions to protect locally and ecologically significant forests.
Email Addresses:
Protect Cortes Forests:
Reform private forest land management:
[Original Vancouver Observer article no longer available]
Mr. Arboretum lives on
/in News CoverageIt’s only fitting Henry Kock will be remembered with a new species of lichen.
Not only was the Sarnia native a renowned horticulturalist, his beard — a bushy mass of grey — looked oddly like the new species, known as the horsehair lichen, that he will be named after.
“At the time, I hadn’t paid much attention to what the lichen actually looked like, so I bought it sight unseen,” his widow Anne Hansen laughed Wednesday. “Then people said to me, ‘Oh my God, that lichen looks like Henry’s beard.'”
Hansen recently won the naming rights to one of two newly discovered lichen species in an online fundraising auction. Trevor Goward, curator of lichens at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia, donated the naming rights to support the Ancient Forest Alliance.
Goward was inspired to make the donation in part by a viewing of Google Maps.
“I was looking at this part of British Columbia and I saw it looked like a battlefield,” he said Friday. “We’ve gone so far with the logging here that the area is out of proportion. There’s very little old growth left and this (lichen) is a species that does best in an old growth forest.”
When Hansen, who has since moved to British Columbia, heard of the auction, she wasn’t initially motivated to buy the naming rights. Her attitude, however, changed when she heard a CBC interview with Goward.
She remembers the curator suggesting the auction may not be as popular as expected because society is not collectively interested in nature.
“When he said that, it really struck a deep chord in me,” Hansen said. “I just thought Henry’s whole life was dedicated to getting people interested in nature. He was always kind of battling the collective apathy towards nature, so it took me a few seconds to decide that I’m going to name that lichen after Henry.”
Kock, dubbed with the nickname Mr. Arboretum, worked at the University of Guelph for 20 years. He crisscrossed across southwestern Ontario, speaking about habitat restoration, plant propagation and shelterbelt agriculture.
The Sarnia native had an early love for nature. Growing up, his family ran Huronview Nurseries outside of Bright’s Grove.
While Goward had never met Kock, who died from complications of a brain tumor in 2005, he is pleased that a champion of the environment will be remembered in the new species name.
“I thought more likely we’d get some very wealthy person who has made a living accumulating money, but it didn’t work out that way,” Goward said. “It’s just ordinary people who have a very, very strong sense of how things should be and who have lost a loved one and want to see it recognized.”
The species of lichen will be called Bryoria kockiana.
“I just want to make everyone aware that I couldn’t be happier that this British Columbia lichen ended up named after a son of Sarnia,” Goward added.
Direct link to The Sarnia Obsever article: https://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3415802