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Welcome, Zeinab, our new Vancouver Canvass Director!

Feb 20 2026/in Announcements

We’re excited to welcome Zeinab Salenhiankia, our new Vancouver Canvass Director, to the Ancient Forest Alliance team!

Zeinab was born and raised in Tehran, Iran, where her love for nature began during weekends spent in villages outside the city, climbing fruit trees, playing outdoors, and forming a deep connection with the land. That early curiosity led her to study Biology and pursue a lifelong path in environmental protection.

Zeinab later lived in Naples, Italy, exploring southern coastlines and learning from different cultures and landscapes. She went on to earn a Master’s degree in Environmental Science in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, where her work focused on GIS mapping and nature-based solutions to address climate change. Living on the eastern edge of North America deepened her appreciation for rugged ecosystems and community-led environmental action. During this time, she learned from Indigenous cultures, including the Mi’kmaq people, and contributed to leading Canadian environmental non-profits, strengthening community engagement and supporting just transitions to clean energy.

Now based in Vancouver, BC, Zeinab is the Vancouver Canvass Director with the AFA. A people-person at heart, she believes strong, grassroots movements are essential to protecting old-growth forests and safeguarding our shared natural heritage.

In her free time, she enjoys exploring forests, hiking local trails, and listening to people’s stories.

Sky Gardens

Feb 19 2026/in Educational

High in the canopy of the old-growth temperate rainforests of BC, one can find “sky gardens”: a collection of epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants) growing on the enormous limbs of ancient trees.

These complex, little-understood reservoirs of biodiversity can host creatures found nowhere else on Earth. Researchers have identified more than 1,000 distinct species of invertebrates living in the canopies of old-growth forests. This includes hundreds of species entirely new to science, found in suspended soils that can be over a foot deep, as they develop over centuries through the decomposition of organic matter such as leaves and twigs.

Sprouting from the thick moss mats, you will often see licorice ferns, various shrubs, and even small trees, creating layered ecosystems high above the forest floor.

Other unique inhabitants of the old-growth canopy include marbled murrelets, which are tiny seabirds that nest only on the moss mats of old-growth trees.

Next time you’re walking through an ancient forest, be sure to look up and watch for these gardens in the sky.

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In Photos: Keith River Sitka Spruce Grove

Feb 12 2026/in Photo Gallery

Tucked away on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island, just above the Brooks Peninsula in Quatsino territory, lies a superlative grove of enormous Sitka spruce trees. This forest grows along the Keith River and is an oasis of ancient forest in a region that has been hit hard by old-growth logging.

Here, ancient Sitka spruces soar into the air from park-like glades of sword ferns, their huge, pillar-like trunks up to 10 feet (3 metres) in diameter. Along the fertile banks of the creek, vast thickets of salmonberry and stink currant provide excellent habitat for a wide range of forest creatures, from tiny songbirds to berry-loving bears. It’s a window back in time.

In the late 1980s and early 90s, this region experienced some of the most destructive old-growth logging, with nearly entire watersheds clearcut from riverside to mountaintop. Aerial imagery from that era reveals this grove standing as an island of green in a landscape laid tragically bare.

Today, the spruce grove along the Keith River offers a glimpse into the once-grand forests that would have stood as far as the eye could see. Thankfully, what little remains here is now protected as a wildlife habitat area for the endangered marbled murrelet, providing sanctuary for a rich diversity of coastal creatures, now and for years to come.

Speak up! Send an instant message calling for the protection of endangered ancient forests in BC.