Entries by TJ Watt

NDP Full Platform Released Today – Old-Growth Protection Mentioned and $1 million/year Allocated to Protect Endangered Species and Habitat

/in

The Environment Platform states the party will “Protect significant ecological areas like wetlands, estuaries and valuable old-growth forests.” The recognition of the importance of protecting old-growth forests is a step forward for the party, which made no mention of old-growth or the environment in their previously released Forestry Platform, to the chagrin of conservationists. However, the critical details of “how much”, “where”, and “when” are not mentioned in today's platform.

 

Earth Day forms backdrop to B.C. election campaign

/in

“We need the NDP to commit to a science-based plan to fully protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests on Crown lands, to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry, and to commit to a B.C. park acquisition fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands.”

NDP Environmental Platform is like a "Blurry Sasquatch Video” on Old-Growth Forest Protection and Park Creation – Details Needed

/in

Today on Earth Day BC NDP leader Adrian Dix announced the party’s environment platform, stating that an NDP government would “reinvest in BC’s parks” and “protect  endangered species and habitats”. A version of the media release (not posted online) also stated the party would work to “acquire” “wetlands” and “old-growth forests”.

5 Canadians to salute on Earth Day

/in

Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island is a protected forest of towering trees that have survived on the planet for centuries, and in some cases millennia. TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance has been integral in promoting sustainable practices that will ensure Avatar Grove’s existence. An activist and photographer, Watt has so far managed to help preserve 59 hectares of forest near Port Renfrew from logging.

A provincial NDP government would kill Pacific Carbon Trust

/in

The Climate Action Secretariat would take over from the trust, with carbon-tax revenues used to fund transit and other green projects, he said. Levies paid by hospitals, Crown corporations and post-secondary schools would fund energy-efficiency upgrades for those institutions.

EARTH DAY events in VICTORIA and VANCOUVER with the AFA THIS WEEKEND

/in

VICTORIA:

Creatively United for the Planet

FRI-SUN APRIL 19-21, 2013
St. Ann’s Academy, 835 Humboldt St., Victoria

VANCOUVER:

Earth Day Parade & Celebration

SAT APRIL 20, 2013
11:00am: Parade starting at Commercial and 8th Ave, Vancouver
12:00-3:00pm: Celebration at Grandview Park (Commercial Drive and Charles St., Vancouver)
 

Conservationists Launch Petition for BC’s Endangered Mountain Caribou, Call on BC’s Politicians to Protect Ecologically Vital Forests

/in

Clearcuts adjacent to Mountain Caribou habitat support increased moose and deer, and so bolster predator populations that also prey on caribou. Mountain Caribou are the world’s most southerly reindeer and Canada’s largest old-growth dependent animal. Resident almost exclusively in British Columbia, their population has declined precipitously in recent decades.

NDP Forestry Platform Fails Ecologically and Continues the Unsustainable Status Quo of Old-Growth Depletion and Overcutting

/in

 “This is a disappointing flop of a forestry platform, ecologically-speaking. It continues the unsustainable status quo of resource depletion in this province that is causing the collapse of species, ecosystems, and human communities. Nowhere does it mention the need to protect endangered old-growth forests and to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry, the central forestry land-use conflicts.  All it says is to plant more trees. Tree farms do not replicate ancient forests for supporting endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, or wild salmon,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director.