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.
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/yakoun-river-old-growth-spruce-grove-662.jpg
1366
2048
TJ Watt
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png
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.
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/namhint-valley-logging-bcts-2024-29.jpg
1365
2048
TJ Watt
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png
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!
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Artlish-River-Spruce-Issy.jpg
1366
2048
TJ Watt
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png
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).
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/3-Giant-Cedar-Log-Nahmint-Valley.jpg
1365
2048
TJ Watt
https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/cropped-AFA-Logo-1000px.png
TJ Watt2025-11-21 10:13:452025-11-21 10:15:43Statement on the Provincial Forest Advisory Council’s Interim Report – AFA & EEA
Donate
Send a Message
Environmental group: Protect rare forest giants marked for logging near Port Renfrew
/in News CoverageSome of the giants stretch straight to the sky for 80 metres, while others are bulbous and misshapen, the knots and gnarls betraying their age.
The old-growth Douglas firs and red cedars have stood in the valley beside the Gordon River for centuries, but now, in the almost undisturbed grove, the end is spelled out in spray paint and logging tape.
The approximately 10-hectare stand of trees on Crown land, 15 minutes outside Port Renfrew, is marked for logging, although a Forests Ministry spokeswoman says no cutting permit has yet been issued.
If the newly formed environmental group Ancient Forest Alliance has its way, logging plans for the area would be scrapped.
“This area is just about the most accessible and finest stand of ancient trees left in a wilderness setting on the south Island,” said co-founder Ken Wu. “This is potentially a first-rate ecotourism gem and it’s so close to Port Renfrew.”
The stand, nicknamed Avatar Grove after the movie because of the twisted shapes, giant sword ferns and hanging mosses, was located by self-styled big-tree hunter TJ Watt in November. But when he and Wu returned this month, the biggest trees were surrounded by falling-boundary logging tape and marked with blue spray paint.
What make the grove different from other fragments of south Island old growth is the relatively flat terrain, nearby areas of protected old-growth such as the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park, and its proximity to Port Renfrew, a community attempting to attract eco-tourists.
“All other unprotected old-growth stands near Victoria are either on steep, rugged terrain, far along bumpy logging roads or are small isolated stands surrounded by clearcuts and second-growth and near human settlements,” Wu said. “This is one of the last of the old-growth valley bottoms.”
On Monday, the Ancient Forest Alliance will deliver a letter to Forests Minister Pat Bell asking that the stand be protected immediately by a Land Use Order, similar to the process being used to protect areas of Haida Gwaii and 1,600 hectares of coastal Douglas fir zones on the east side of Vancouver Island.
Watt is desperately hoping the province will step in.
“This is my passion. This is what gets me excited,” he said, staring at the crazily twisted trees. “You can’t help but develop a natural attachment to this area when you see it.”
Getting up close and personal with the Avatar Grove is not a walk in the park. There is no defined trail, massive rotting trees litter the ground and unexpected holes are covered by moss.
But it’s worth it, said Watt, hoisting himself up onto a giant burl.
“It would be a huge tragedy to lose something like this,” he said.
“Tourists come from all over the world to visit the ancient forests of B.C. and Avatar Grove stands out as a first-rate potential destination if the B.C. Liberals don’t let it fall.”
Bell could not be contacted yesterday afternoon and there is uncertainty about which company is planning to log the area.
Surrey-based Teal-Jones Group is cutting in the area and Forests Ministry spokeswoman Vivian Thomas said the Pacheedaht First Nation has a licence to remove wind-throw nearby.
“But we haven’t received a cutting-permit application in that area and you need an approved cutting permit before you can start logging,” she said.
T.J. Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance stands by a stand of old growth forest just outside of Port Renfrew that is designated for logging
Photograph by: Debra Brash, Times Colonist
An exceptionally spectacular and accessible stand of newly located old growth redcedars and Douglas firs near Port Renfrew has recently been marked for logging.
/in Media ReleaseAn exceptionally spectacular and accessible stand of newly located old growth redcedars and Douglas-firs near Port Renfrew has recently been marked for logging. The unprotected forest on Crown lands about 10 kilometers north of Port Renfrew, nicknamed the “Avatar Grove” after the hit movie for its awe-inspiring beauty and alien-shaped, enormous trees covered in burls, was located in early December last year by Vancouver Island photographer and “big tree hunter” TJ Watt and a friend. In a return visit made last week by Watt and environmentalist Ken Wu, both co-founders of the new Ancient Forest Alliance (www.ancientforestalliance.org), Avatar Grove was found to be slated for logging, with many of its trees spray painted and bearing falling-boundary flagging tape.
“This area is just about the most accessible and finest stand of ancient trees left in a wilderness setting on the South Island,” stated Ken Wu. “All other unprotected old growth stands near Victoria are either on steep, rugged terrain far along bumpy logging roads, or are small isolated stands surrounded by clearcuts and second-growth and near human settlements. This area is a wild region on vast Crown lands, in a complex of perhaps 1500 hectares of old-growth in the Gordon River Valley – only 5 minutes off the paved road, right beside the main logging road, and on relatively flat terrain. This could become a first rate eco-tourism gem if the BC government had the foresight to spare it. We’ll be putting in a formal request that they enact a Land Use Order to protect it quickly before it falls.”
Avatar Grove is in Tree Farm License (TFL) 46. TLF 46 is being logged by Surrey-based Teal Jones and through the BC government’s BC Timber Sales program involving smaller companies. The Grove is home to dozens of some of the South Island’s largest redcedars and Douglas firs, including several trees with trunks that are over 12 feet in diameter. Moreover, several of the cedars have incredible, alien shapes. With giant bulbous burls ballooning out from their trunks, winding, snake-like roots of hemlock trees growing up their sides, and giant limbs draped in mosses and hanging ferns, many of the trees seem to be from the rainforests of the fictional planet of “Pandora” in James Cameron’s hit movie, “Avatar”. Yet despite its magnificence and easy access, the Grove is slated for logging any day now.
Old-growth forests are important for sustaining species at risk, tourism, clean water, and First Nations traditional cultures. Avatar Grove is in close proximity to the Gordon River, home to steelhead and salmon runs, and evidence of cougars and elk were apparent in the Grove.
Based upon an analysis of satellite photographs, about 88% of the original, productive old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island (south of Barkley Sound and Port Alberni) have already been logged, including 95% of the productive old-growth on low, flat terrain. Across the Island as a whole, about 75% of the original productive old-growth forests have been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Avatar Grove is one of the very few flat, valley-bottom old-growth forests left on the entire South Island.
With so little of our ancient forests remaining, the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government to:
“Tourists come from all over the world to visit the ancient forests of BC and Avatar Grove stands out as a first rate potential destination if the BC Liberals don’t let it fall. But if the government chooses to allow this rare and impressive area to be logged, they will need to re-write the tourism business plan for the area to say ‘ideal location for world class Provincial Park … in 500 years time’,” stated TJ Watt.
Environmental organization launches VIRY REAL (Vancouver Island Rainforest therapy – Real Earth Appreciation Lessons) for distraught Avatar film-goers
/in News CoverageVictoria, Canada – A Canadian environmental organization has established a 3 Step Program designed to cure thousands of movie-goers who complain about sinking into a depression in their drab, Earthly lives after watching scenes of spectacular alien rainforests and wildlife in James Cameron’s hugely popular film, “Avatar” (see article www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html ), which is now history’s highest grossing film at the box office.
“To treat the thousands of deprived souls who don’t get out into nature enough, and who therefore believe that the Earth’s ecosystems are boring and unspectacular unlike those of the alien world ‘Pandora’, we will be offering a simple, yet effective 3 step program to heal their souls of their Post-Avatar Depression,” states environmentalist Ken Wu, co-founder of the newly formed Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA). The AFA is a new non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of British Columbia’s old-growth temperate rainforests (see www.ancientforestalliance.org and the Facebook group and photos at www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=267708511607)
The program, known as VIRY REAL (Vancouver Island Rainforest therapy – Real Earth Appreciation Lessons) consists of 3 simple, yet effective steps to cure Post-Avatar Depression:
This includes the old-growth forests of Vancouver Island, the tropical rainforests of Indonesia, the savannahs of Africa, the cypress swamps of Louisiana, the prairie grasslands of Alberta, the deciduous forests of eastern North America and Europe, or going to your own neighbourhood forest, field or wetland – that is, experiencing nature anywhere on this incredible planet, Earth.
This entails putting pressure on governments through letters, petitions, and protests to implement environmental laws and policies, pressuring corporations to change their practices, and simplifying one’s consumptive wants.
Join environmental groups, donate, and recruit friends, family, classmates, and co-workers to hike, write, petition, and protest just like you!
“We guarantee that once you’ve successfully completed our simple, yet effective 3 step program, you will be cured of your Post-Avatar Depression,” states Wu. “We will guide you through each step of the way: from joining hikes in the endangered ancient forests of Vancouver Island, to writing and protesting to protect these forests, to undertaking outreach to get thousands of people to do the same.”
The Ancient Forest Alliance was launched in January of 2010 to organize grassroots support to protect the remaining old-growth forests in British Columbia, where trees can grow trunks over 20 feet (6 meters) wide, reach heights over 300 feet (95 meters) tall, and live to be almost 2000 years old (see spectacular photos on the Facebook page of the Ancient Forest Alliance).
75% of the productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have already been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Unfortunately, only 6% of Vancouver Island’s productive forests are protected in parks. Meanwhile logging companies are clearcutting the unprotected old-growth forests at breakneck speeds for pulp, toilet paper, phone books, newsprint, and lumber, while the British Columbian government contends that there is no need to protect the remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island. The Ancient Forest Alliance advocates the protection of our endangered old-growth forests, sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and a ban on the export of raw, unprocessed logs to foreign mills in order to protect Canadian jobs.
“James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ is a landmark film that is helping to propel forward the values of environmental and cultural appreciation across much of the world, including the need to protect nature and old-growth forests – that is, as long as the viewers make the connection to things that are actually here on Earth!” states Wu.
“Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests are the Real Pandora, here on Earth. We have giant, moss and fern-draped ancient trees almost as large as Home Tree in Avatar, spectacular creatures like bears, wolves, mountain lions, wolverine, and elk in our forests, and giant blue whales, killer whales, elephant seals, and huge Stellar sea lions along our Wild Coast,” notes Wu. “And when you look across this planet –with its enormous baobab, banyen, and sequoia trees, its elephants, rhinos, hyenas, oranguatans, Siberian tigers, wood bison, Kodiak bears, tapirs, whale sharks, manatees, leopard seals, walruses, California condors, and giant, shaggy Bactrian camels, and our incredible cultural diversity, you realize that we inhabit a place as spectacular – and a lot more real – than Pandora. But just like on Pandora, we have a real fight to defend it as the forces of greed, disconnect, and short-sightedness move at breakneck speeds to destroy the beauty and diversity on Earth.”