News Coverage

Here's an amazing article by Tla-o-qui-aht band members Tsimka and Gisele Martin, speaking on behalf of the Tla-o-qui-aht Initiative for Interconnected Community Health, calling for the protection of the remaining old-growth forests in Tla-o-qui-aht territory in Clayoquot Sound and focused on concerns about logging at the Kennedy Flats (near the highway on the way to Tofino) and potentially at Tofino Creek.  Their territory also includes the famous Meares Island, home to some of the largest trees on Earth, the Clayoquot Valley, Kennedy Lake, and Kennedy Valley.

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Nuu-chah-nulth people, since time immemorial, have always maintained respectful relationships with ancestral lands and waters. These relationships are the foundation of Nuu-chah-nulth cultural life — ways carefully nurtured according to ancient teachings, for the benefit of all generations and all forms of life.

The forest ecosystem was tended as a garden. It still is recognized as a living entity, with its own set of complex relationships among its many inhabitants, including people who continue to rely upon it for life.

Countless generations of Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations people have maintained abundant economies and ecosystems, until this way of life was interrupted by Canada’s colonialism, which introduced unrestrained resource extraction, commodification and exploitation of nature. This was accompanied by cultural genocide, widespread environmental devastation and severe impacts to First Nation economies that continue today.

British Columbia’s forestry policies and practices are founded on a colonial worldview that assumes there will always be more trees to cut and more profits to be made.

In 1984, the conflict between Nuu-chah-nulth people and the timber industry supported by the Canadian government reached a dramatic climax when the ancient cedar forests of Meares Island were threatened with clearcut logging.

Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht were not consulted about plans to log within ancestral territories. At that time, Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht became determined to uphold ancestral values and teachings of care, and to defend ancestral lands and waters.

In response to the planned logging, the Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht First Nations sought an injunction from the court, which eventually worked its way to the B.C. Court of Appeal. The court recognized the logging plans’ interference with aboriginal rights and title, and placed an injunction on the island that would halt the logging until land-claim issues were resolved between Canada and the Nations.

In 1984, the Nuu-chah-nulth Nations Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht declared Meares Island a Tribal Park. The island represents a mere fraction of the unceded territories. First Nations played a pivotal role in the 1980s movement to protect the forests. In the summer of 1993 the Clayoquot Blockades became known as the largest peaceful civil disobedience event in Canadian history.

Following the Clayoquot blockades of 1993, the Clayoquot Sound Science Panel was convened to develop recommendations for more sustainable forestry practices in Clayoquot Sound. While the recommendations are an improvement to the previous clearcut logging, they do not measure up to the practices of Nuu-chah-nulth ancestors in terms of sustainable forestry.

Following the 1993 protests, a joint venture involving five First Nations in the Clayoquot and Barkley Sound regions assumed control of the tree farm licences in Clayoquot Sound. The venture formed into a logging company with the stated intent of implementing the scientific panel recommendations.

B.C. law requires logging companies to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual fees to maintain a logging licence. The pressure to pay these fees means that a company holding a tree farm licence must cut large volumes of trees to maintain financial solvency and retain the required logging licences.

The Canadian government continues to allow the timber industry to threaten and impact ancient forest ecosystems, cultural lifeways and Nuu-chah-nulth people’s existence.

Old growth within Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation territory is now under serious threat. This September, damaging logging practices in the Kennedy Flats area were observed and documented by Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation citizens.

A petition is circulating asking elected and hereditary leaders to do what they can to stop any industrial logging of old-growth forests in Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation territory. Recent interviews and forums confirm that the majority of Tla-o-qui-aht members (interviewed to date) want all our existing old-growth forests protected.

Nuu-chah-nulth jurisdiction supersedes the colonial laws of British Columbia and Canada. Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation members have not been properly consulted and have not given consent for the current logging plans in Tla-o-qui-aht territory.

We, as Tla-o-qui-aht members, are committed to upholding our responsibilities to protect and defend the forests of our ancestral home to ensure that the sacred relationship with life-giving nature continues. There is grave concern within the Tla-o-qui-aht community that logging in the Tofino Creek area is beginning.

All remaining old-growth forest in Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation territory must be permanently protected from any industrial logging.

Read more: https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-tla-o-qui-aht-demand-protection-of-ancient-forest-1.2660515

Winter storm damage has closed a portion of Port Renfrew’s famed Avatar Grove and delayed the opening of a recently completed boardwalk.

Hurricane-force winds ripped through the area on Oct. 15 resulting in 30 trees crashing down over the Avatar Grove Trail in the lower grove area, damaging sections of the boardwalk.

None of the grove’s famed ancient Western redcedars or Douglas fir fell during the storm.

The Ancient Forest Alliance completed the boardwalk a week before the storm, in a project that took three years and involved hundreds of volunteers.

“After anticipating the launch of the boardwalk’s completion, this is undoubtedly a bit of a disappointment and set back, but it’s only temporary,” said TJ Watt, the Ancient Forest Alliance’s coordinator of the boardwalk project.

The Ancient Forest Alliance began construction of the Avatar Grove Boardwalk in 2013 to protect the tree roots and understory vegetation from excessive trampling, enhance visitor access and safety, and support the local eco-tourism economy.

Volunteers will work on the boardwalk over the fall and winter with an eye to reopening next spring.

The entrance to the lower Avatar Grove has been cordoned with no public access while the upper grove boardwalk remains open and in “decent condition,” Watt said.

A 20-minute drive from Port Renfrew, the Avatar Grove is one of the most spectacular and easily accessible stands of monumental old-growth trees in B.C., protected in 2012. Thousands of tourists from around the world now come to visit the Avatar Grove, hugely bolstering the regional economy with so-called Tall Tree Tourism.

“The Avatar Grove boardwalk’s real significance is to serve as an example for other communities that protecting old-growth forests is good for the economy, hugely supporting local businesses and jobs,” said Ken Wu, the Ancient Forest Alliance’s executive director.

“The Avatar Grove has been the most important catalyst in the movement to B.C.’s endangered old-growth forests in recent times.”

Here's a new Canadian Press article about our Chinese-language Ancient Forest Tours, which aims to engage the half a million Chinese speakers in the Vancouver region to diversify and broaden the movement to protect old-growth forests, which in recent times now also includes businesses and chambers of commerce, unions and forestry workers, local governments in the UBCM and AVICC, and naturalist clubs across the province calling for old-growth protection.

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VANCOUVER — Conservationists have their eyes on a demographic that hasn't been tapped into before in terms of educating people about British Columbia's old growth forests.

About half a million people in B.C.'s Lower Mainland are Chinese-language speakers, yet most environmental programs and tours are offered in English only, said Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

The group is partnering with the Stanley Park Ecology Society and Hua Foundation to train volunteers to give tours of Stanley Park in Mandarin and Cantonese.

“The goal here will be to increase the level of conservation awareness,” Wu said.

Old growth forests that exist in Stanley Park and other areas across the province are vital to the broader ecosystem and climate, Wu said.

There has been a growing movement in recent years as diverse groups including businesses and municipalities push for the protection of these areas from logging and development.

But the movement to preserve these forests hadn't made a concerted effort until now to include the local Chinese-speaking population, Wu said.

“One of the most important ways we can protect old growth forests is to engage a massive part of the population which we haven't engaged in the past.”

Wu led about a dozen volunteers through Stanley Park on Saturday to train them on becoming ecological tour guides.

The first training day was conducted in English to cover the basics, but subsequent trainings will incorporate more language translation.

The tour will not be a verbatim translation of existing English-language forest tours in Stanley Park, but will incorporate expert and crowd-sourced translation.

“It's important for us to be able to fill in the knowledge gaps that are often lost in translation,” said Kevin Huang, who works with the Hua Foundation.

Getting experts and the general public to weigh in on terms that refer to conservationism, the environment and specific species of animals and plant life will help create a more engaging tour that uses common Chinese terms.

“We really try to engage audiences and empower them from their own community angle instead of using straight translations,” Huang said.

The tour is designed for all ages but volunteers said they see the greatest potential in connecting with adults and seniors who didn't grow up in a culture of environmentalism.

Volunteer Joy Peng said she hopes she can encourage Vancouver's large Mandarin-speaking population to take an interest in protecting forests for future generations.

“It would be really great to inspire them because all together, everyone could make a big difference in preserving old growth trees and nature in general,” she said.

Organizers expect Chinese-language tours to begin before the end of the year and will run by donation.

Read more: https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/forest-tours-offered-in-chinese-to-promote-conservation-in-b-c-1.3127551