Blog Archive Layout

Old-growth forests could bring tourists

Mar 1 2010/in Announcements

The Feb. 20 Raeside cartoon is a perfect representation of the Liberal government’s stance on the fate of our world-class ancient forests. The cartoon depicts Gordon Campbell promoting the province to Olympic tourists by showing off our spectacular old-growth forests. The tourists, upon returning next summer to take photos, find a field of giant stumps.

This continues to be the fate of many of our last stands of giant trees in southern B.C. and shows a lack of understanding of what draws many people to the best place on Earth.

Vancouver Island has the potential to be the Costa Rica of the north, with a thriving eco-tourism market that brings in tourists from all over the globe to see our amazing temperate rainforests. These dynamic ecosystems clean our water, fight climate change and contain mammoth 1,000-year-old trees with trunks more than six metres wide and 90 metres tall.

The government is complacently allowing the clearcutting of these rare gems and their subsequent conversion to much smaller and ecologically simpler second-growth tree plantations.

People are not travelling from across the world to see plantations and clearcuts. The government needs to say enough is enough in regard to logging our natural old-growth heritage and protect what little we do have left, while ensuring a sustainable second-growth, value-added industry.

A ship loaded with raw logs leaves the Alberni Inlet on Vancouver Island.

It’s time for the BC government to curb raw log exports and boost value-added forestry jobs, say unions and environmental groups

Feb 27 2010/in Media Release

Vancouver – Between 2013 and 2016, more raw logs were shipped from BC than during any other four-year period in the province’s history, prompting two forest industry unions and three leading environmental groups to call for a ban on raw log exports from old-growth forests and a bold government action to plan to stimulate BC’s flagging forest sector. See the Canadian Centre for Policy Alterniatives Press Release with communications info for intereviews.

The call follows new research released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ BC Office (CCPA-BC) that shows how exports of raw, unprocessed logs are surging. If these logs were processed in some of BC’s hardest hit forestry communities, at least 3,600 new jobs could be generated.

“This carnage has to stop,” says Arnold Bercov, president of the Public and Private Workers of Canada (PPWC), one of two unions representing BC pulp and paper mill workers.

“Last year, BC forest companies exported enough raw logs to frame nearly 134,000 homes, which equals roughly half of Vancouver’s standing single-family homes. Thousands of good-paying jobs in rural communities are at risk every day that the government fails to act,” he added.

The PPWC, along with Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, the Ancient Forests Alliance, Sierra Club of BC and the Wilderness Committee, say the Province should enact a bold three-point plan to curb exports and stimulate jobs.

1. Place an immediate ban on all exports of raw logs from old-growth forests.

2. Immediately impose progressively higher taxes on log exports from second-growth forests to encourage investment in domestic mills.

3. Introduce new policies to increase value-added forest manufacturing and jobs in rural and First Nations communities.

“We are extremely troubled by present trends. BC’s biggest log exporters are decimating old-growth forests and exporting huge numbers of raw logs, while the industry continues to bleed manufacturing jobs,” says Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island campaigner for the Wilderness Committee. “Worse, the industry is on the same dangerous path in younger, second-growth forests which are our only hope for the future. ”

Four years of log export data analyzed by CCPA-BC researcher and resource policy analyst Ben Parfitt uncovered a number of disturbing trends in log exports from BC.

• Between 2013 and 2016, nearly 26 million cubic meters of raw logs, with a combined sales value of more than $3 billion, were shipped from BC – more than any other four-year period since record keeping began.

• More than one in three logs exported in the past five years came from centuries-old old-growth forests, including from the Great Bear Rainforest.

• Most log exports in the past five years came from public lands under direct provincial control, not from private lands where the BC government has no jurisdiction, which is a sharp reversal from previous norms.

• Nearly half of all export applications in 2016 were by member companies of the Coast Forest Products Association, one of BC’s most powerful lobbies for continued raw log exports.

“One huge concern for forest industry workers and environmental organizations alike is that the door appears to be wide open for companies to close sawmills and simply increase their log exports. That is a recipe for disaster for our environment, our economy and rural and First Nation communities,” Parfitt says.

World’s largest Douglas fir at risk, fearful environmentalists charge

Feb 26 2010/in Media Release

The world’s largest Douglas fir could be at risk, say Vancouver Island environmentalists.

The 74-metre-tall tree towers over the surrounding forest in the Red Creek area east of west coast town of Port Renfrew, about 100 km northwest of Victoria.

But new logging tape marks an area about 50 metres away from the giant tree and environmentalists fear the tourist attraction will shortly be surrounded by a clearcut, making it susceptible to being blown down.

“The San Juan Valley is like a giant wind tunnel and this increases its exposure,” said Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance, a Vancouver Island-based environmental organization.

“This is the biggest Douglas fir on earth and it should be a first-class tourist attraction, but people will be walking through a clearcut to get to it. It is totally myopic.”

In Port Renfrew, tourists often ask how to find the Red Creek fir, said Chamber of Commerce president John Cash.

Chamber members, who want to see big trees preserved as tourist attractions, recently put up directional signs to the fir so visitors would not get lost on logging roads.

Wu said it appears the area comes under B.C. timber sales designation, meaning the province considers it a cut-block for small businesses.

But Forests Ministry spokeswoman Vivian Thomas said there are no immediate plans to harvest in the Red Creek fir area.

“In fact they helped improve the road access so people could go view the tree,” she said.

“Also, the tree itself is part of a public recreation site, so the immediate area is protected from logging.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance is supporting a proposal by Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca Liberal MP Keith Martin to extend Pacific Rim National Park down the west coast of Vancouver Island, with an expanded park to include the Red Creek fir.

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