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Slideshow to protect Island’s ancient forests

Dec 4 2010/in Announcements

The Comox Valley Naturalists Society will be hosting a slideshow presentation 7-9 p.m. on Dec. 8 by Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance to raise awareness of and support for the need to protect BCs endangered old growth forests. The presentation will be at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Ave., Courtenay. Admission is by donation.

The AFA is calling on the BC government to inventory BC’s ancient forests and protect them where they are scarce, such as on Vancouver Island, to ban raw log exports to foreign mills, and to ensure the establishment of a sustainable second-growth forest industry in BC.

A 40-minute Power Point presentation will highlight the current status of Vancouver Island’s forests and what citizens can do to protect old-growth forests, watersheds, and related ecosystems. The presentation includes Watt’s superb photos of some of the most magnificent forests in the country, including Clayoquot Sound, the Walbran Valley, Red Creek Fir, and Avatar Grove.

“Our diminishing old-growth forests are important for wildlife, tourism, the climate, water quality, and for many First Nations cultures,” stated Wu. “How many jurisdictions on Earth still have trees that grow trunks wider than a car’s length and as tall as downtown skyscrapers? We need a plan to protect our endangered old-growth forests and to sustainably log the second-growth stands that constitute most of the landbase on Vancouver Island now.”

According to satellite photos, 75% of the original productive old growth forests of Vancouver Island have been logged. This includes 90% of the original productive old growth forests in valley-bottoms, where the largest trees grow and most biodiversity resides.

Please come out and join us for this important topic. To learn more about the Comox Valley Naturalists please visit the website at www.comoxvalleynaturalist.bc.ca

For more information contact:

Dave Lacelle, lacelle1@telus.net , Comox Valley Naturalists Society or Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance ancientforestalliance@gmail.com

Large scale clearcutting of second-growth forests near Shirley in 2011.

Letter to the Editor: Governments failing forest industry

Nov 21 2010/in News Coverage

As you may be well aware, our successive B.C. governments have had no interest in delaying or stopping logging of old growth trees. Their record is abysmal plus disgraceful in this regard.

The exporting of B.C timber in the round, is tantamount to cutting one’s nose off to spite one’s face.

Our once-vibrant forestry industry is so emasculated it is now a ghost of its former self. Yet we still export raw logs!

This misguided conduct by foresters, abetted by our government, yea, even encouraged by them, has all the indication of a policy that is out of touch with reality.

Plywood, furniture, pre-assembled units, these are non-existent today.

Sawmills have gone the way of the dodo, because of the lack of upgrading or the offer of financial backing at reasonable rates.

To see the province’s infrastructure go down the tube is not my idea of a sustainable economy.

Mr. Premier, please take your head out of the sand soon.

G. Manners

Cowichan Bay

SAVE OUR CLIMATE AND ANCIENT FORESTS!

Nov 18 2010/in Announcements

The ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE’s Special INFO NIGHT, CELEBRATION, and FUNDRAISER!

Please support the new organization in its crucial, formative first year! See great speakers, have a drink, meet other supporters, and make a donation if you can!

Elizabeth May, John Horgan, Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Adriane Carr, Jens Wieting, and other speakers…

TUESDAY, NOV. 30, 2010
Ambrosia Centre,
638 Fisgard St.,
VICTORIA, BC
7:00- 8:00 pm Presentations and Slideshows! (FREE)
8:00-9:00 pm Fundraiser, Drink, and Socialize! (Donations during the pledge auction…)

Confirm and invite others on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143700762345115&index=1

BC’s old-growth forests are vital for mitigating climate change by storing far more carbon per hectare than the second-growth tree plantations that replace them.

Conversely, climate change is destroying our old-growth forests by killing more trees through intensified winter storms, droughts, and disease.

With Stephen Harper recently killing Canada’s only climate change legislation through the unelected Conservative Senate just before the UN Climate Summit begins in Mexico (the follow-up to last year’s Copenhagen summit) and with the BC Liberal government still contending with a straight face that “we have more old-growth forests today than we did historically” (Forest Minister Pat Bell on the “Voice of BC” in September), we SERIOUSLY must expand the movement for our forests and climate!

The Ancient Forest Alliance, a new organization launched in January of this year, has grown by leaps and bounds with thousands of supporters. We‘re almost 1 year old and if we are to sustain and expand our campaign into a more powerful provincial force, we need YOUR support!

We’ve organized numerous hikes, expeditions (including finding the Avatar Grove), slideshows, rallies, and petition drives, brought on board many new allies, and garnered a huge amount of provincial and national media coverage on our campaigns. See some of what we’ve done at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news.php

But we need YOUR help to keep going and growing!

PLEASE COME OUT and INVITE FRIENDS and FAMILY to JOIN US!

So…

In the 1^st Hour: Hear some of Canada’s MOST ACCOMPLISHED long-time forest activists and see a truly SPECTACULAR SLIDESHOW

In the 2^nd Hour: We hope you stay for this, to donate during the PLEDGE AUCTION, along with having a drink or two (if you stay you get a FREE drink ticket for the bar if you’re 19 or older) and SOCIALIZING with the other supporters and AFA activists from Victoria and Vancouver.

Here is a list of the evening’s presentations. Each will be quite brief:

“Ecology and Politics of BC’s Ancient Forests, the spectacular Avatar Grove, and the First Year of the Ancient Forest Alliance,” spectacular slideshow by TJ Watt and Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance

“The UN Climate Summit in Cancun, Stephen Harper’s sabotage of Canada’s Climate Bill, and Prospects for Climate Progress,” by Elizabeth May, Author of “At the Cutting Edge: The Crisis in Canada’s Forests” and co-author of “Climate Change for Dummies”, former executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, and current national leader of the Green Party of Canada

“BC’s Climate and Forests Campaign: The push for forest protection and climate conservation areas in BC”, by Jens Wieting, Sierra Club of BC coastal forest coordinator.

NDP MLA John Horgan with also speak on his support for saving the ancient forests of the Avatar Grove!

“Grassroots movements and environmental activism: Some lessons from the 1980’s and ‘90’s”, by Adriane Carr, former Wilderness Committee executive team member and Clayoquot Sound campaigner and deputy Green leader of Canada

Adriane will also be the Pledge Auctioneer to help us raise funds that night! (she’ll explain how a Pledge Auction works)

For more info contact the Ancient Forest Alliance at info@ancientforestalliance.org