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Recently, survey tape for logging was discovered in the Upper Castle Grove in the Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island – that is, in Canada’s finest stand of monumental old-growth red cedar trees.  The Castle Grove is an extensive stand of densely-packed enormous cedars which includes the “Castle Giant”, a 16 foot (5 meter) diameter cedar in the Lower Castle Grove that is one of the largest trees in Canada. The flagging tape for the potential logging comes to within 50 meters of the Castle Giant.

These days, visitors to Port Renfrew can pick up a map to the area's largest trees and set out to explore what's been coined the Big Tree Capital of Canada. While some of Canada's largest trees are out of reach of a typical rental car, there are still plenty of accessible giants - aided by the recent paving of the Pacific Marine Circle Route, which allows travellers to drive across the interior of the island and pop out on the east coast near Duncan, rather than doubling back along the same route to Victoria.

As many of you are aware, the AFA has been planning for several months to build a boardwalk in the Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew. Our goal is to ensure the ecological integrity of this recently protected area, and to enhance visitor safety by building boardwalk on the more sensitive parts of the existing trail. So far we have been steadily working to complete the requisite applications and numerous studies, reviews and stakeholder consultations in order to obtain approval from the BC government for the boardwalk's construction.

Re: Kieran Report, Aug. 23-29

In his attempt to blame the NDP government of the 1990s for the pine beetle epidemic in B.C.'s forests, Brian Kieran claims that the "infestation was first detected in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park and could have been contained there if forest companies had been permitted to go into the park and selectively log infested areas” — an argument that has been roundly refuted by everyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of the issue.

“These recommendations will not support sustainable change,” said MLA Bob Simpson. “What I see in this report are politicians on both sides passing the buck to local communities with no long-term strategy for success. They’re willing to let communities decide whether to log their protected forests, but what happens when those are gone? The politicians will have moved on, leaving affected communities holding the bag.”

The Vancouver Island old-growth forest that, over the decades, has sparked bitter confrontations over logging is again in the spotlight after survey tape was found near a grove of massive western red cedars.

Members of the Ancient Forest Alliance found the tape in the Upper Walbran Valley, near Castle Grove, which contains the Castle Giant, a western red cedar with a five-metre diameter. The tree is listed in the provincial big tree registry as one of the widest in Canada.

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is bracing for a potential, major escalation in BC’s “War in the Woods” as survey tape marking the “falling boundary” for logging has been recently discovered in the finest, unprotected stand of monumental old-growth western redcedar trees in Canada:the "Castle Grove" in the unprotected Upper Walbran Valley west of Lake Cowichan on southern Vancouver Island. The Castle Grove is an extensive stand of densely-packed enormous redcedars, including the “Castle Giant”, a 16 foot (5 meter) diameter cedar that is one of the largest trees in Canada.