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Victoria, BC – Conservationists are calling on the BC government to establish a Natural Lands Acquisition Fund. In a new report (https://www.elc.uvic.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/FindingMoneyForParks-2015-02-08-web.pdf) prepared for the Ancient Forest Alliance, the UVic Environmental Law Centre (ELC) is calling on the Province to establish an annual $40 million Natural Lands Acquisition Fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands.

Friday, December 11th, 4-7pm (**drop in anytime; special presentation by Ken & TJ at 6pm)
AFA Victoria office (620 View St, 3rd floor #306)

You're invited to the Ancient Forest Alliance's Holiday Season Open House! Come by the AFA office to enjoy some drinks and snacks (including Sea Cider and Tugwell Creek Mead), meet and socialize with other supporters, watch a brief fun presentation by the AFA's Ken Wu and TJ Watt as well as some short film clips from this year, and check out the AFA's holiday gifts!

We greatly appreciate your support and look forward to celebrating with you!

Thursday, December 10, 2015
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Patagonia Vancouver store, 1994 W. 4th Avenue, Kitsilano

Join members of the Ancient Forest Alliance and their hosts from Patagonia Vancouver for a screening of Darryl Augustine's 17 minute film "The Ancient Forest Alliance", some smaller videos including "Climbing Big Lonely Doug" and "Save the Central Walbran Valley (with drone footage)", and a new slideshow presentation by Ancient Forest Alliance activists Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Hannah Carpendale, and Mike Grant on "Exploring and Protecting our Biggest Trees and Old-Growth Forests".

Admission: by donation
For more info contact: info@staging.ancientforestalliance.org

Join and invite others on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1689628047987222/

After a 10-year "climate action pause," Canada is back at the international table. Though expectations are high that the new government will work to end our dependence on fossil fuels and speed up the transition to renewable energy, there has been little discussion about the importance of and threats to our forests in the fight against global warming.

"Conservationists who want the government to take action on climate change by protecting B.C.'s old-growth forests say they've measured a near-record-size red cedar in Vancouver Island's central Walbran Valley.
The Ancient Forest Alliance said the tree that it calls the Tolkien Giant is the ninth-widest western red cedar in the province, according to a list compiled by the University of B.C.'s forestry faculty.
It said the tree has a circumference of 14.4 metres, or 47 feet, stands 42 metres high and lies within a protected reserve.
However, logging is proposed for an area 200 metres away that includes another huge tree the alliance calls the Karst Giant, executive director Ken Wu said Friday.
"Outside the central Walbran, the rest of the upper Walbran is tattered like Swiss cheese. So it means that the little remnants of old-growth are surrounded by clearcuts.
"The issue is large-scale industrial logging throughout the central Walbran valley and for this particular tree, they've already cut the other side of the river so they want to ring this area with clearcuts."

See this article in GlobalNews about the call from conservationists for the BC government to act on climate change by protecting giant trees and surrounding old-growth forest in the Central Walbran Valley!

Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance have located and measured two huge western redcedar trees, one of which makes it into the top 10 widest redcedars in BC, in the endangered Central Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island. The “Tolkien Giant” comes in as the 9th widest western redcedar in BC, according to the BC Big Tree Registry.

The two largest tracts of ancient forest left on southern Vancouver Island, the Central Walbran Valley (500 hectares) and Edinburgh Mountain Ancient Forest (1500 hectares), both near Port Renfrew, are threatened by the Teal-Jones Group. Please take 30 seconds and send a message to BC politicians through our website at: www.BCForestMovement.com Thank you!

SFU Environmental Studies student Charly Caproff, the Sierra Club of BC's Mark Worthing, and bat and cave specialist Martin Davis, are working to highlight the risk to the limestone karst systems by proposed old-growth logging in the Central Walbran Ancient Forest. Here's an article in the Globe and Mail:
"Mr. Davis is skeptical about the government’s commitment to ensure significant karst features are kept intact. He produced a detailed list for the caving community two years ago of karst sites damaged by logging. 'The B.C. Speleological Federation had brought these complaints forward to the provincial government, but no action was taken at that level, despite these practises violating provincial standards,' he said."