Clayoquot – Biggest Old-Growth Protected Areas Victory in Decades

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For Immediate Release
June 19, 2024

Biggest Old-Growth Protected Areas Victory in Years: Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and BC NDP Government Declare Protection of 76,000 hectares in Conservancies in Clayoquot Sound.

Conservationists are applauding the leadership of the Ahousaht, Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and BC NDP government for yesterday declaring the protection of 76,000 hectares of land – an area about the size of Manning Provincial Park – in new conservancies in Clayoquot Sound near Tofino. Most of the lands committed for protection are comprised of some of the grandest and most intact coastal old-growth temperate rainforests on Earth, and the new protected areas will represent the largest old-growth forest protected areas victory in BC since the Great Bear Rainforest conservancies were announced in 2006. The historic milestone also includes major support from provincial, federal and conservation sources to facilitate sustainable economic development opportunities for the communities to facilitate their economic and social well-being.

Ahousaht Hereditary Representative Tyson Atleo looks toward an ancient redcedar deemed the “most impressive tree in Canada” on Flores Island in Clayoquot Sound.

“This is truly a historic and great day – it warms my heart and makes me feel a deep contentment inside to see this vision finally come to fruition. This is a huge old-growth victory for the people and ecosystems in Clayoquot Sound, and for the people of BC and for the world. We greatly applaud the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht leadership for moving forward with their visions to protect the old-growth ecosystems in their territories, while working to build sustainable economies, and we give great thanks to the BC NDP government, the federal Liberal government and organizations like Nature United for supporting their initiatives. I expect the Clayoquot conservancies will further inspire many other communities across BC and Canada to undertake increased protection of the ecosystems in their territories to support their cultures and their people’s well-being, while working to build sustainable economies”, stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director.

“I extend my deepest gratitude to the leadership and people of the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation for bringing their incredible conservation visions to life in Clayoquot Sound. The embattled coastal rainforests of Clayoquot are famed for having some of the most impressive old-growth forests and trees on the planet, and it fills me with the greatest joy to know that the majority are now finally safe. The BC NDP government and the federal Liberal government also deserve credit for supporting this amazing initiative and bringing significant conservation dollars to the table. As we face the global climate and biodiversity crisis, conservation victories like these, which protect some of the grandest ecosystems on Earth while supporting the creation of more sustainable, conservation-based economies for local Indigenous people, are an inspiring model for other communities who may still be considering alternative paths forward and help buoy the heart. Today is a fantastic day”, stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance photographer and campaigner.

More work remains to be done regarding potential mines in the remaining unprotected portions of Clayoquot Sound, while funding is needed for the long-term management of the protected areas.

An aerial view over the ancient forests of Meares Island in Tla’o’qui’aht territory, the site of the first blockades against old-growth logging in 1984 in Clayoquot Sound.

BC Old-Growth Policy Update Adds Little To Current Commitments

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Conservationists note the latest BC government plan doesn’t include much action beyond its previous commitments, with the updated plan lacking specificity and objectives around old-growth protection. Key deferral funding and ecosystem-based targets are still missing. However, the mention of a science advisory group is much welcomed. Existing commitments to protect 30% of BC by 2030 with over $1 billion in provincial-federal funding are moving protected areas progress forward, as the province has been in discussions with dozens of First Nations across BC on their Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA) proposals.

The BC government released an old-growth policy update yesterday outlining its roadmap for forest management and old-growth conservation in BC. The document titled “From Review to Action,” is the province’s official implementation plan thus far for the recommendations laid out by the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel (OGSR), which was tasked in 2020 to evaluate how old-growth forests are managed in BC.

The OGSR found that the status quo was ecologically and economically unsustainable and that a “paradigm shift” was urgently needed in forest management in BC, echoing what environmental groups had been arguing for decades. The BC government accepted all of the OGSR recommendations and pledged to implement them, representing a major shift from the government’s previous stances on the old-growth issue.

This plan builds on the steps already taken by the BC government including:

  • A commitment to incrementally protect 30% of BC by 2030 (currently, 15% of BC is in legislated protected areas).
  • Securing over $1 billion to enable this expansion, which includes a dedicated $300-million conservation financing fund and a joint $100 million+ in a federal/provincial old-growth conservation fund.
  • Floating a promising draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) that has the potential to direct protected areas establishment correctly via “ecosystem-based targets”, which would ensure that science-based targets span all ecosystems, including the most endangered and least represented ones.
  • Establishing the Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship (MWLRS) as a necessary coordinating agency in land and resource management.
  • Supporting several Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA) plans, including the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht conservancies recently announced in Clayoquot Sound and protecting the Incomappleux Valley last year.

These historic milestones in old-growth conservation are significant and deserve to be celebrated. But conservationists are pointing out that critical gaps remain in government policy, that if not addressed will mean that the protection of the most at-risk old-growth ecosystems will fall short. Except for a promising mention that they will bring together a science advisory committee to help guide their forthcoming biodiversity-related policies, the newly released plan does not directly address the remaining policy gaps. The most important of these gaps include a lack of funding for First Nations’ lost revenues when they consent to old-growth logging deferrals (without such “solutions space” funding, the BC government won’t be able to secure logging deferrals on the full 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk old-growth stands in BC – and they know this…) and the lack of ecosystem-based protection targets (protected areas targets for every ecosystem based on science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge that “aim” protection correctly to also include the most endangered ecosystems, like big-tree old-growth ecosystems, rather than skirting around them as is typically the case with government policies) which may yet come in via the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework due in 2025.

Despite these critical shortcomings in the BC government’s old-growth policies thus far, conservationists are drawing a sharp contrast between the positions of the NDP government and those of the ascendant BC Conservative Party, currently among the opposition parties. BC Conservative Party leader John Rustad recently stated that he would scrap BC’s 30% by 2030 protected areas commitment, making false claims that the commitment would result in 30% less agriculture and 30% less forestry in BC. The reality is that the protected areas expansion would happen almost exclusively on Crown/unceded First Nations lands where farming is already illegal (farming happens on private lands, and private lands are only purchased for conservation purposes from willing sellers and focused on native ecosystems, not farmlands). Forestry would not be reduced by anywhere close to 30% as the added protections would amount to 15% more protected areas at most (given that 15% of BC is already protected) and would include vast areas of alpine, subalpine, wetlands, grassland, bogs, lake and rivers without trees or timber value.

The BC Conservative’s platform states that forestry in BC is already “100% Sustainable” despite the independent findings of the OGSR that the massive clearcutting and old-growth liquidation that define current forest policy represent a model that is diametrically opposed to sustainability. The Conservative platform also pledges to mobilize the government to persecute activists (typically First Nations and environmentalists) who disrupt resource industries. In general, the Conservative platform promotes the classic destructive status quo economics of massive industrial resource depletion that has resulted throughout history in the collapse of both rural employment and ecosystems — think of the Atlantic cod fisheries or the 30-year decline of forestry in BC due to the massive overcutting of the valley bottoms and lower elevations where the biggest, best trees once stood, leaving behind smaller trees on steep slopes that are expensive to reach, resulting in mill closures — instead of the modernization of the BC economy towards smart, diversified, and sustainable industries and policies.

EEA's Ken Wu, wearing a blue jacket and grey pants, stands beside a massive Douglas-fir tree surrounded by the lush green foliage of the unprotected Eden Grove.

Endangered Ecosystem Alliance’s Ken Wu with a giant Douglas-fir tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

Quotes:

Ken Wu – Executive Director, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance:

“The BC NDP government has objectively taken us farther along than any previous government in bringing the key policy pieces together needed to protect old-growth and endangered ecosystems. Under their leadership and First Nations, we are on the brink of the largest expansion of protected areas in BC’s history as dozens of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area plans are now underway. However, they are still missing several critical policies, the most important of which is the lack of ecosystem-based protection targets — because just one province-wide target is insufficient to capture all ecosystems and will potentially allow new protected areas to skirt around the many productive forests with the biggest trees — based on science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. They also have thus far failed to allocate the needed funding to cover the lost forestry revenues of First Nations if they agree to implement old-growth logging deferrals – hence resulting in only half of the priority, most at-risk old-growth being deferred from logging — a frustrating and consistent failing on the BC NDP government’s shoulders for which they deserve full blame and that they must remedy ASAP.

Right now, the rise in the polls of the BC Conservative Party with their extremist anti-environmental stance to kill BC’s protected areas commitment and who state against all evidence that ‘forestry in BC is already 100% sustainable’, is undoubtedly creating great caution within the BC NDP government against moving forward quickly with ambitious environmental action. It is essential for BC environmentalists to expose and tackle the giant Conservative cave troll in the room – Rustad’s radical anti-environmental agenda- as in 5 months they may be ruling the province and undertaking a backwards reversal to 1980’s resource policies that kill most of the forthcoming protected areas expansion, as is their plan.

The old-growth update released by the Ministry of Forests yesterday is a fairly lacklustre plan with few objectives and little action. It’s mostly about processes regarding shared decision-making with First Nations and more planning tables. The one bright light is the mention of an expert advisory panel to implement biodiversity-related measures — a much-needed and welcome precursor to potential ecosystem-based targets. The actual action from the BC government has been largely outside the Ministry of Forests, via the new Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship which has been mandated to protect 30% of the province’s land area by 2030, is in charge of over $1 billion in provincial-federal funding to make it happen, and is now moving forward with discussions on dozens of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA) projects of First Nations across BC, totalling millions of hectares that will help protect ecosystems and indigenous cultures.

My overall assessment of Eby and old growth is that he has taken unprecedented leaps forward in developing the enabling policies to expand protected areas in BC via First Nations, which is how protected areas are now done in BC, and he should be thanked for this — but there are still critical gaps in conservation policies that have to be fixed. Eby needs to show leadership and get this done.”

TJ Watt – Photographer & Campaigner, Ancient Forest Alliance:

“The BC government’s latest old-growth update notes some significant strides that have been made toward enacting a paradigm shift in the conservation and management of forests in BC, however, it lacks specificity and objectives on the action front – namely, how the government will address the fact that thousand-year-old trees with trunks the size of living rooms are still being cut down today. British Columbians are rightfully angry and dismayed by the fact that they still must advocate for this destructive practice to stop. Ecological emergencies such as the biodiversity and climate crisis that old-growth logging massively contribute to call for a modern version of wartime efforts. The BC government must show leadership and pull out all stops to remove well-known barriers to old-growth protection such as providing at least $100 million in deferral or ‘solutions space’ funding and ensuring that new protected areas are aimed at preserving the most at-risk areas through ecosystem-based targets. This calls on them to become true advocates for protecting the best old-growth forests instead of being content with landing only part-way there.”

Ian Thomas – Research & Engagement Officer, Ancient Forest Alliance:

“We are heartened by the progress made by the provincial government on conservation financing and their commitments to vastly expand protected areas. But without directing that funding towards the most threatened old-growth ecosystems we will continue to lose large tracts of our most magnificent ancient forests. This plan was a missed opportunity to identify the gaps and own up to the stalled progress on TAP deferrals. The actual results of this ongoing refusal to tackle this issue will be the loss of irreplaceable forests and the further degradation of threatened biodiversity in BC. The NDP can and must do better to ensure the TAP deferrals are implemented in their entirety, and ecosystem-based protection targets guide land-use decisions across the province, but let’s not kid ourselves and assume the NDP’s failures are remotely comparable to the stated goals of the BC Conservatives. The Conservative platform is quite simply terrifying. We are in an ecological catastrophe with compounding biodiversity and climate crises that threaten human well-being on an unprecedented scale. The NDP government, despite moving far too slowly in many ways, has at least accepted that we are at a moment when the ship needs to be swerved away from the iceberg. The Conservative platform is about aiming right at the iceberg and leaning on the throttle. The wildfire crisis bearing down on the province this summer is a result (globally and locally) of the same destructive policies of unsustainable resource extraction that John Rustad is promising to intensify. Furthermore, Rustad has pledged to use the legal system to target, intimidate and persecute anyone who threatens the profits of resource corporations, pledging to side with large corporate development over the voices of local community members. The environmental movement needs to hold the NDP to account for their failings, but also not make a false equivalency between current policy and the extreme anti-environmental agenda that the conservatives are promising to implement.”

AFA's Ian Thomas, wearing a blue jacket and grey pants, stands beside an old-growth cedar in a forest under imminent threat, as seen by the bright orange felling tape wrapped around the massive tree.

Ancient Forest Alliance’s Ian Thomas beside an old-growth cedar in a forest under imminent threat on northern Vancouver Island in Quatsino territory.

More information:

Our main concerns with regards to the BC government’s latest old-growth update include:

  1. There is little mention of old-growth protection and no mention of ecosystem-based targets. It mainly hides behind better consultations and forest planning tables but lacks many actual objectives. The beginning of the document does mention the importance of the BC Nature Agreement and the BC Conservation Financing mechanism, both funds that are designed to expand the protected areas system – but then doesn’t incorporate them in the body of their old-growth policies.
  2. The Ministry of Forests has failed to secure old-growth logging deferrals for half of the priority most at-risk Technical Advisory Panel old-growth categories (i.e. 1.3 million of the 2.6 million hectares are secured). There is no great mystery why this is so – the BC government has still yet to provide deferral or “solutions space” funding for the lost revenues of First Nations who have an economic dependency on old-growth logging and who are contemplating deferrals but who have not committed yet to IPCAs. This has been an ever-present failing of this government and we emphasize the importance of deferral or “solutions space” funding.
  3. There is no BC Protected Areas Strategy (unlike with the NDP government in the 1990s) to develop plans, centralize resources, undertake needed assessments like gap analyses, and systematically prioritize areas via science-based targets. The current approach is ad hoc based on a first-come, first-serve scenario from First Nations who have previously developed IPCA proposals largely driven by previous federal funding.
  4. The local Forest Landscape Planning tables can include the establishment of new protected areas, but it certainly isn’t being emphasized by the Ministry of Forests. There is no substitute for a coordinated provincial strategy to get to 30% by 2030 entailing ecosystem-based targets.
  5. The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) when implemented could create the targets needed to guide new protected areas expansion (e.g. Provincial Conservancies and Parks) — as it must — but the response of the civil servants, when questioned, seems to indicate it will more likely just update targets for the weaker Biodiversity Guidebook conservation reserve system. i.e. It will only guide the weaker and smaller old-growth reserves in the “working landscape” like Old-Growth Management Areas and Wildlife Habitat Areas — both of which are tenuous designations full of logging loopholes — but not necessarily the major protected areas system like Conservancies and Parks. Instead, the protected areas with strong protections need to aim for the “good stuff” too and not largely emphasize alpine and subalpine landscapes. Strong ecosystem-based targets from the BEHF that form the foundation of a BC Protected Areas Strategy and that guide the expenditure of the BC Nature Agreement and Conservation Financing funds, in terms of priority areas and expenditures, are vital. Otherwise, BC will end up with a protected areas system that still largely skirts around the valley bottoms and emphasizes protecting a lot of alpine and subalpine areas of low timber values.
  6. We have concerns that the timber industry may be involved in creating the conservation targets of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework – this is an absolute no-go for conservation. Independent science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees, similar to the Coast Information Team struck up during the Great Bear Rainforest process, are needed, and the proposed BC Biodiversity Office would be the natural one to convene such a panel of experts in consultation with First Nations. We are concerned that no funding is provided to First Nations in the Forest Landscape Planning tables to establish conservation areas like Old-Growth Management Areas, Ungulate Winter Ranges, Wildlife Habitat Areas, etc. The funding thus far is only where First Nations want to create IPCAs. Without funding directed to First Nations right now for old-growth conservation at the FLP tables, these FLP tables may end up “baking in” forestry plans that are pre-paradigm shift — and this is what the MoF seems to be aiming for.
  7. The MoF has stated that they will be reviewing OGMA rules — and we hope it means that boundaries cannot be changed to allow logging of choice stands.
  8. The BC government currently only allows for incorrectly identified at-risk old-growth forests to be subtracted from rather than added to the priority TAP logging deferral areas. This constitutes a significant timber bias and conservation loophole that must be closed.
  9. Most importantly, the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) due in early 2025 will need to devise ecosystem-based targets that are:
    • Legally binding and not merely aspirational guidelines.
    • Guide the expansion of both the protected areas system like Provincial Conservancies and Parks and the biodiversity/conservation reserve system like OGMAs.
    • Are fine filter enough to represent all BEC zones, subzones, variants, ecological communities, and, most critically, *Forest Productivity Distinctions* (i.e. areas that grow large vs medium vs small trees).
    • Scale-up protection by incorporating the latest conservation biology science, based on independent scientists and Traditional Ecological Knowledge holders, not industry reps.
AFA's Ian Thomas, wearing a blue jacket and dark grey pants, stands beside a freshly cut old-growth cedar. The tree's stump dwarfs Thomas, who is 6"5', amongst a sea of more clearcut stumps and debris.

Ancient Forest Alliance’s Ian Thomas beside an ancient redcedar tree felled in 2022 on northern Vancouver Island in Quatsino territory.

See our information explaining the central importance of ecosystem-based targets and forest productivity distinctions.

In short, we believe what is needed is:

  1. An action plan that brings a goal of old-growth protection as the first cornerstone of old-growth management, both in terms of the real protected areas and biodiversity conservation reserves. It should emphasize the centrality of the BC Nature Agreement, BC Old-Growth Fund, and Conservation Financing mechanism to achieve these goals in its policies.
  2. A commitment to ecosystem-based targets to guide protected areas, conservation areas, and resource decisions – all based on independent science teams and Traditional Ecological Knowledge without industry.
  3. Recognizing the importance of forest productivity distinctions in protection and conservation targets.
  4. Developing a BC Protected Areas Strategy like the NDP of the 1990s to develop targets, analyses, and plans and to deploy resources and action to systematically expand the protected areas system based on science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
  5. A clear statement that the province still has a goal of achieving deferrals on the 2.6 million hectares of the TAP priority most-at-risk recommended deferral old-growth areas.
  6. Allocating deferral or “solutions space” funding for First Nations to implement deferrals even where they haven’t decided on IPCAs.
  7. Allocating funding for First Nations at the Forest Landscape Planning tables for potential lost revenues should they move forward with conservation reserves like OGMAs, WHAs, and UWRs.
  8. Moving to close the loopholes in OGMAs that allow moveable boundaries to enable logging and in WHAs and other such conservation designations that allow logging to take place.
  9. Ensure the addition of misidentified at-risk old-growth forests to the priority list of deferrals where identified by scientists, citizens, and industry.

From ground level, we are looking up at an ancient western redcedar, of which is marked with falling tape and is in danger of being logged.

 

Conservationists locate and climb the largest Sitka spruce tree in BC’s famed Carmanah Valley

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Spectacular drone footage and photos reveal climbers more than 20 stories in the air in the “hydra-like” canopy of an old-growth Sitka spruce, highlighting the incredible grandeur of old-growth forests in British Columbia during Earth Week.

Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) have located, climbed, and measured the largest spruce tree in the famed Carmanah Valley. The record-sized tree — whose mammoth trunk forks into multiple stems reminiscent of the multi-headed hydra of Greek mythology — grows protected within the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park in Ditidaht territory on Vancouver Island. The tree was identified by AFA’s TJ Watt and Ian Thomas while exploring the valley in the spring of 2022 and climbed later in the fall with the help of professional arborists. The images and videos are being released for the first time today to celebrate Earth Week.

See an incredible video of the climb and the full photo gallery.

The towering tree measures 12.9 ft (3.89 m) wide near its base, 233 ft (71 m) tall, and has an average crown spread of 72 ft (22 m). According to the BC Big Tree Registry, this makes it the largest tree in the Carmanah Valley (despite the famed “Carmanah Giant” being taller), and the fourth-largest Sitka spruce on record in BC. Two blue whales laid end-to-end would still not equal the height of this immense tree, which is one of the largest living organisms on Earth. Its immense, multi-stemmed crown has garnered it the nickname the “Hydra Spruce.”

Through a fisheye lens, a man wearing neon ascends the largest Sitka spruce tree in Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park, with many other trees surrounding it.

Climber Will Clayton of Bartlett Tree Experts begins his ascent up the towering trunk of the largest spruce tree in the Carmanah Valley in Ditidaht territory on Vancouver Island, BC.

“This giant is by far the most spectacular Sitka spruce tree that we’ve come across during our decades-long search for big trees in BC,” noted AFA campaigner and photographer TJ Watt. “We had been big tree hunting in the valley for two days as part of my work as a National Geographic Explorer, when, just before dark, a massive crown caught our eye in the distance. Right away, we knew we had found something special. Most Sitkas are tall and straight like a Roman pillar, but this one had an enormous trunk that forked into five major stems, creating a sprawling canopy like the head of a hydra. Near the base, it would have taken seven or eight of us to wrap our arms around the trunk. Seeing it from the ground was one thing, but we knew that to truly highlight the tree’s grandeur, we would need to climb to the top.”

AFA later teamed up with professional arborists from Bartlett Tree Experts to ascend, document, and measure the ancient tree. Using a 12-foot “Big Shot” slingshot, the team fired a line over a large branch high up into the canopy. Then, using low-impact techniques where climbers ascend the ropes themselves rather than the tree’s trunk, they could reach within a few meters of the top of the tree. Lowering down a giant tape measure, they calculated a height measurement of 233 feet or 71 meters tall — as tall as a 21-story building.

“I’ve climbed thousands of trees in my life, but this one was like none other,” said arborist and climber Matthew Beatty with Bartlett Tree Experts. “Even within the Carmanah Valley, where we have climbed numerous trees for scientific research projects, this is a giant among giants. The feeling of being within an ancient canopy is an immersive, humbling, and awe-inspiring experience. I hope that by highlighting the magnificence of these rainforest ecosystems, we inspire people about the need to protect those forests still at risk outside the park boundaries.”

Climber Finn Rowlands dangles among the massive canopy of the Hydra Spruce during golden hour. All five trunks visible in this image are part of the same tree.

The Carmanah Valley has long been famous as one of the most superlative old-growth Sitka spruce forests left in Canada. Beyond the Hydra Spruce, it is home to Canada’s tallest known tree, the Carmanah Giant, which towers 315 feet (96 metres) in the sky. The Carmanah Valley was the focus of intense conservation efforts in the early 1990s when it was imminently threatened by logging. Big-tree hunter and conservationist, the late Randy Stoltmann, was a particular champion of protecting this exceptional valley. After intense public pressure, the entire watershed was eventually protected as a provincial park alongside sections of the nearby Walbran Valley. The Carmanah is now celebrated as one of the most magnificent old-growth forests on Earth, with visitors coming from across the world to walk through its vast pillars of enormous trees.

Pioneering research in the canopies of tall trees in the Carmanah Valley in the early 1990s also revealed thousands of invertebrates living in the lush jungle of epiphytic ferns, mosses, and lichens. Many of these species were entirely new to science and are believed to only live in the crowns of old-growth trees and nowhere else on Earth. Other inhabitants of these unique “sky gardens” include wandering salamanders, which recent research suggests may “glide” from branch to branch like flying squirrels, and the endangered marbled murrelet. This tiny seabird nests on the mossy cushions found on the immense branches of old-growth trees.

“When we walk among trees at ground level, huge as they seem, we are often only seeing one third of the tree, which can extend hundreds of more feet into the air,” said Watt. “Climbing into the canopy of a giant old-growth tree is like entering a lost world seen by very few people. Their branches can be as big as regular-sized trees and are often adorned with suspended gardens, overflowing with mosses, ferns, lichens, and shrubs. In those moments, you realize the vast ecological value of even a single old-growth giant. They are worlds unto themselves, with creatures that might live their entire lives in the canopy without ever touching solid ground. These ancient giants are like huge, living apartment buildings that have grown over centuries, housing uncountable numbers of individual creatures and species. These trees are irreplaceable in our lifetimes. I hope the images and videos we’ve captured here inspire reverence and awe in those who see them and inspire people to engage and speak up for protecting old-growth forests across BC.”

 

Research has shown that in addition to their immense ecological value in providing habitat for wildlife, supporting biodiversity, maintaining clean water, sequestering carbon, and buffering against climate change, standing old-growth forests and protected areas provide greater economic benefits to communities in the longer term when compared to logging them. Factoring in ecotourism, recreation, non-timber forest products, carbon credits, and enhanced real estate values, among other industries, standing old-growth forests have been shown to provide greater economic benefits over time than the one-time economic benefits gained from cutting them down.

“Carmanah is a perfect example of what society gains when we set aside large areas for nature. Thirty years after it was saved from logging, Carmanah still has vast stands of the giant trees that have been decimated elsewhere in BC. It still harbours threatened species such as marbled murrelets and western screech owls, and, it’s still a place of hidden natural wonders, where we can seek out and document some of the largest and oldest living beings on Earth,” stated Watt. “Conservationists 30 years ago gave us this gift; without them, the valley and its skyscraper trees would be another stump field transitioning to an industrial tree farm. We must give that same gift — healthy ecosystems and protected old-growth forests — to future generations.”

Climber Matthew Beatty near the top of the tree, which measures 233 feet (71 m) tall – as tall as a 21-story building.

As the BC government develops its new Old-Growth Strategy as part of a larger mandate to expand protection to 30% of BC by 2030, it must commit to legally binding ecosystem-based protection targets. These must factor in “forest productivity distinctions” (differentiating between sites that grow large trees vs. sites that typically grow small trees in cold, rocky, or boggy sites) set by science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees. These critical distinctions are vital to ensure the most at-risk and least-protected ecosystems are prioritized — otherwise, protection will still be largely focused on alpine and subalpine areas with low to no timber values.

Old-growth forests have unique characteristics not found in the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they are being replaced with. These forests are typically re-logged every 50 to 60 years on BC’s coast, never to become old-growth again. Old-growth forests support endangered species, the multi-billion dollar tourism industry, carbon storage, clean water, wild salmon, and First Nations cultures. Well over 90% of the high-productivity old-growth forests with the biggest trees and over 80% of the medium-productivity old-growth forests have been logged in BC.

This climbing project was part of AFA campaigner and photographer TJ Watt’s work as a National Geographic and Royal Canadian Geographical Society Explorer, supported by the Trebek Initiative. This grant supports emerging Canadian explorers, scientists, photographers, geographers, and educators with the goal of using storytelling to ignite “a passion to preserve” in all Canadians. Watt was among the first round of recipients in 2021.

All tree climbing and drone filming was done with permission from local governments.

The Carmanah Valley at dusk, with shades of green and blue in the valley and pink along the mountain outline.

The Carmanah Valley

International Day of Forests: Conservation groups alarmed that BC is backsliding on Old-Growth Forest Policy Progress

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In light of International Day of Forests on March 21, the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) are expressing serious concerns that the British Columbian government is backsliding on its previous policy progress to ensure an ecological paradigm shift regarding its management of old-growth forests across BC.

“Despite significant conservation policy progress over the past year since Premier Eby came in, including his commitment to essentially double the protected areas system by 2030 and his allocation of major funding to enable this to happen, we’re concerned by what appears to be recent backsliding by the BC government on old-growth conservation,” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director.

“This includes all manner of sophistry by the Ministry of Forests to sustain the destructive status quo of old-growth liquidation, including having ‘deliberate bad aim’ to miss critical protection targets — that is, having an emphasis on saving smaller trees while the big trees continue to get logged; returning to the old dishonest ways of statistical PR-spin to mask their failures; promoting weak protection standards full of logging loopholes; facilitating the increased economic dependency of First Nations communities on old-growth logging; and doing a ‘slow walk’ in working with First Nations to implement old-growth logging deferrals in order to see the status quo further entrenched before any potential paradigm shift can occur.

“The forces of the old guard within government are working strategically to contain change and limit any paradigm shift to minimize the impacts of new conservation policies on the available timber supply — that is, enabling industry to ‘log until extinction.’ Eby is in charge, and he needs to do a selective harvest or controlled burn to cleanse the politics, policies and bureaucracy in BC of these old, unsustainable logging mindsets ASAP. I know he has the backbone for this, should he choose to do so. And we expect this now.”

Old-growth logging in Quatsino territory on northern Vancouver Island.

AFA and EEA acknowledge the genuine historic progress for old-growth protection that has been implemented under this BC government in recent times and are thankful for several significant leaps forward in conservation policy that Premier David Eby and Minister Nathan Cullen have implemented.

Positive steps toward increased old-growth protection:

  • A commitment to incrementally protect 30% of BC by 2030 (currently, 15% of BC is in legislated protected areas). 
  • Securing over $1 billion to enable this expansion, which includes a dedicated $300-million conservation financing fund and a joint $100 million+ in a federal/provincial old-growth conservation fund.
  • Floating a promising draft Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) that has the potential to direct protected areas establishment correctly via “ecosystem-based targets”, which would ensure that science-based targets span all ecosystems, including the most endangered and least represented ones.
  • Establishing the Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship (MWLRS) as a necessary coordinating agency in land and resource management.
  • Supporting several Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA) plans, including the Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht conservancies recently announced in Clayoquot Sound and protecting the In​​comappleux Valley last year.

However, key issues threaten this progress, including:

  1. The failure to secure old-growth logging deferrals for half of the priority most at-risk old-growth forests (the grandest, oldest, and rarest) as identified by the province’s appointed science team, the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP). After over two years, only 1.23 million of the 2.6 million hectares are secured. This is primarily due to the BC government’s unwillingness to provide deferral or “solutions space” funding to cover the lost revenues of First Nations who have an economic dependency on old-growth logging in their territories. This has been an ever-present failure of this government.
  2. The BC government’s refusal to proactively identify and add incorrectly categorized old-growth forests that, in truth, meet the criteria for priority deferrals but were missed in the initial TAP mapping exercise. Currently, the province is providing guidance to industry on how to subtract incorrectly identified at-risk old-growth forests from the TAP maps. This “subtract, don’t add” policy for incorrectly categorized old growth that should be deferred from logging demonstrates an egregious bias toward the timber industry and a conservation loophole that must be closed.
  3. The alarming way in which the province is using misleading statistics to cover its failure to secure logging deferrals in the most at-risk TAP priority old-growth stands by lumping together vast tracts of much smaller trees/less at-risk old growth secured through unrelated deferrals. While all old-growth logging deferrals are welcome and needed (the separate set of deferrals are forests that First Nations have identified as important for cultural values or are included in Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) proposals are important areas too), but not identical to the grandest, rarest or oldest stands identified by the TAP which must always remain a conservation priority), lumping the smaller trees together with the biggest and most at-risk old-growth categories to produce an aggregated number of 2.4 million hectares serves to sow public confusion and enables the BC government to shirk its responsibility to secure the full 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk categories. In truth, 1.23 million hectares of the 2.6 million hectares of priority, most at-risk categories are currently deferred. In addition, the Ministry of Forests is also lumping together the TAP priority deferral areas with forests already protected in provincial parks and conservancies to get credit for “deferring” forests that had been protected for decades. These disingenuous and misleading statistics sow confusion and create mistrust. Fundamentally, these communication strategies suggest that the province is not prioritizing the full implementation of the 2.6 million hectares of TAP priority deferrals, and instead is trying to escape its commitment to preserve the most at-risk, big-tree forests by substituting protection for less threatened areas with smaller trees and lower timber values.

Other major problems with BC’s old-growth policies thus far include a lack of ecosystem-based protection targets to guide the protected areas expansion (which may yet come via the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework) as well as the weak protection standards of conservation reserves such as Old-Growth Management Areas, which has boundaries that can be moved around due to the influence of the timber industry lobby, and Wildlife Habitat Areas, which can be logged.

Additional issues include the province facilitating an increase in the economic dependency in many First Nations communities on old-growth logging, a lack of proactive advocacy by the province to foster new protected areas at planning tables and in general (rather, new protected areas are solely based on the will of First Nations, with the province doing nothing to actively identify and champion additional potential protected areas based on their high conservation values, subject to First Nations consent) and a lack of sufficient scale economic transition policies to move the timber industry away from old-growth toward second-growth stands.

 

“We’re in a global biodiversity and climate crisis, with the planet just experiencing its hottest year on record,” said TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer. “Endangered old-growth forests in British Columbia, which store vast amounts of carbon and are havens for diverse species, are the antidote for what ails our world. On International Day of Forests, Premier David Eby and the BC government must renew their commitment to ensuring the old-growth forests identified as most at-risk are protected. At least $100 million in ‘solutions space’ funding that helps offset lost logging revenues for First Nations who are being asked to defer the most valuable and at-risk forests in their territories, along with the implementation of ecosystem-based targets that prioritize the protection of rare, big-tree old-growth forests and other highly endangered ecosystems, are a necessity. 1.3 million hectares (roughly half) of the old-growth forests identified by the old-growth science panel as being most at-risk remain undeferred and open to logging. Will Premier Eby oversee these endangered forests persist into the future or risk their permanent destruction? The BC government has a global responsibility to do the right thing.”

To turn this around, the province must:

  1. Truly commit to the mapping and the spirit of the TAP methodology, which prioritizes protecting the threatened big-tree old-growth forests. This means identifying barriers to protection and creating a credible, transparent strategy to overcoming those barriers, such as committing $120 million in “solutions space” funding to allow First Nations to accept these deferrals without facing financial hardship from lost logging revenues, as well as pursuing the continued addition of forests that were missed in the initial mapping exercise through ground-truthing and improved inventory data.
  2. Develop a rigorous and binding Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework that mandates fine-filter ecosystem-based protection targets incorporating forest productivity distinctions, for all ecosystems across BC. This framework must scale up protection by incorporating the latest conservation biology science and be developed by independent scientists and Traditional Ecological Knowledge holders, not representatives from industry.
  3. Close loopholes in current landscape reserves such as Old Growth Management Areas and Wildlife Habitat Areas to ensure they can’t be moved to facilitate logging or to allow logging within their boundaries. Until then, they must not be included in BC’s accounting of how much territory is protected as part of its 30% by 2030 goal.
  4. Create a BC Protected Areas Strategy informed by the forthcoming BEHF that identifies the priority areas for protection and that guides the expenditure of the BC Nature Agreement and Conservation Financing funds as BC expands its protected area system to achieve 30% protection by 2030.
  5. Ensure that the BC government is taking an active hand in regional planning, especially at the Forest Landscape Planning tables, by advocating for the protection of key old-growth ecosystems and making conservation financing funding available to enable First Nations to reasonably choose protection instead of timber extraction without major financial loss.
  6. Undertake a much greater economic transition policy of incentives and regulations to move the timber industry from an old-growth industry toward a modernized, value-added, sustainable second-growth industry, and to incentivize the development of a larger conservation-based green economy associated with an expanded protected areas system.

Without following these steps, BC will inevitably end up with a protected areas system that will continue to largely skirt around the rich valley bottoms and focus protection on predominantly alpine and subalpine areas with low timber values while the biggest trees continue to fall and BC’s 50-year “War in the Woods” will continue to flare up and rage on.

“The vast resources now available from the federal and provincial government for conservation must be laser-focused toward protecting the most biodiverse and threatened ecosystems, providing whatever resources First Nations need to offset lost revenues and allowing them to choose protection without taking significant financial losses,” stated Ian Thomas of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“The forests that TAP recommended for deferral are endangered because they are also the most lucrative forests to log, and therefore, successive governments have largely avoided protecting them. That must change. Whenever the government uses misleading statistics to obscure the stubborn fact that 50% of the most threatened forests remain open for logging, they signal a wavering commitment to protecting the irreplaceable. The province, which has driven the liquidation of the oldest and most magnificent forests in BC for over a century, cannot just shrug its shoulders and walk away while the last of these threatened forests are destroyed. There are consequences for all with this approach — including for the government.”

“In short, the BC government is at a crossroads,” said Watt. “It can choose to bolster the significant strides it has taken toward protecting old-growth forests by closing the funding and policy gaps, helping to save endangered ecosystems while supporting conservation-based economies. Or, it can slink back to its old ways of fudging statistics to imply old-growth forests are not at risk while facilitating the destruction of the best of what little remains, leaving behind impoverished landscapes and communities.”

Wu said, “We have hope that Premier Eby will ensure that his old-growth policy progress doesn’t ultimately end up as a sinking ship due to the old-growth timber lobby and its friends. The forthcoming Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework, still under development, holds the greatest promise of all. The single largest game-changer in BC’s conservation policies will be if the BEHF mandates legally-binding, ecosystem-based targets that include forest productivity distinctions to ensure that the most at-risk, least represented ecosystems are protected based on science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Premier Eby must see this done.”

View these infographics that explain the central importance of “ecosystem-based targets” and a strong Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework here.

And see an explanation of why “forest productivity distinctions” must be included in ecosystem-based targets here.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director, Ken Wu, stands in a blue jacket amongst the spectacular yet unprotected ancient forests of the Mossome Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

BC Opens the Door for a Potential Paradigm Shift in Conservation

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For Immediate Release
November 15, 2023

BC Opens the Door for a Potential Paradigm Shift in Conservation: Prioritizing Saving the Most Endangered Ecosystems via Ecosystem-Based Targets.

If done right, conservationists say the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) could ensure a major paradigm shift to safeguard the most endangered and least protected ecosystems, such as big-treed old-growth forests (“high productivity” old-growth forests with the classic forest giants) and diverse valley bottom and low elevation ecosystems — rather than the status quo of primarily protecting areas of low timber values. Conservationists commend the vision in the draft framework for being a potentially revolutionary game-changer in conservation, but the devil will be in the details when the framework is completed in the spring.

The Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) and Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) are commending the BC government for developing a draft policy framework that intends to guide all new protection, conservation, and land-use activities in BC to ensure ecosystem integrity.

“We commend Premier David Eby and Minister Nathan Cullen for launching this potentially revolutionary game-changer in conservation, falling on the heels of their $1 billion-plus funding agreements to expand protected areas, announced earlier this month,” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director. “If this framework results in science-based targets to protect the full diversity of ecosystems in BC, including factoring in ‘forest productivity distinctions’ to protect the classic old-growth stands that spawned the ‘War in the Woods’, then it would up-end the traditional conservation model in BC and across much of the world which seeks to minimize impacts of conservation on industry. In BC, the dominant paradigm has long focused on minimizing the impacts of conservation on the available timber supply for logging, thus emphasizing the protection of alpine, subalpine, far north, and bog landscapes with low to no timber values. Ecosystem-based targets mean that you aim protected areas establishment towards the most endangered and least protected ecosystems. Without ecosystem-based targets, it’s like sending in a fire brigade to hose down the non-burning homes, while those on fire are largely ignored. Or a surgeon who makes no distinction between organs, and simply has a target in kilograms to remove. While much greater specificity is still needed as the BEHF moves toward policy and legislation, so far the province is largely signaling the right approach — and British Columbians will need to keep speaking up to make sure this policy lands right and is not a squandered opportunity.”

In BC, typically the ecosystems least coveted by industry are the most protected, in particular those with low to no timber values, such as alpine, subalpine, far north, and bog landscapes. These are native ecosystems that deserve protection. However, to immediately tackle the urgent extinction and climate crises, a far greater emphasis needs to be placed on saving those ecosystems most at risk and coveted for development by resource industries (particularly logging in BC). These at-risk ecosystems (with the big, valuable timber) tend to be more concentrated at lower elevations in southern BC.

“This document represents a potentially profound and necessary change in BC’s approach to nature conservation,” stated TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance. “For over a century in BC, the government has prioritized industrial extraction at the expense of ecosystems. Finally, we are seeing that focus change. This transformation cannot come soon enough as many of our richest and most biodiverse ecosystems have been pushed right to the brink. The framework, however, must adhere to the centrality of legislated protected areas as foundational to prioritizing ecosystem-based health. Overemphasis on developing ever more stringent methods to practice industrial extraction in threatened ecosystems instead of identifying the areas most in need of full protection will continue to see the erosion of BC’s irreplaceable ecosystems. As this framework is further defined, we will need to see ecosystem protection targets focussed on the most biodiverse and threatened ecosystems such as productive old-growth forests. Without ecosystem-based protection targets to safeguard areas from industrial extraction, we will continue to see these ecosystems further chipped away at and degraded.”

A man in a red jacket stands beside an enormous old-growth Sitka spruce among a sea of green ferns and other old-growth fauna growing unprotected west of Lake Cowichan in Ditidaht territory.

Ancient Forest Alliance photographer & campaigner, TJ Watt, beside an enormous old-growth Sitka spruce growing unprotected west of Lake Cowichan in Ditidaht territory.

Key tenets of this agreement include a commitment to the creation of a “Provincial Biodiversity Officer” who would have responsibility for implementing the intentions of the framework, the development of updated guidance for the management of specific ecosystems, the acknowledgment of the need for protection of the most threatened ecosystems, and the acknowledgment of the need to maintain the natural range of variation in native ecosystems. Each of these represents key policy commitments that the EEA and AFA have advocated for and are critical tenets of ensuring a true paradigm shift in the management and protection of ecosystems in BC, particularly if targets include forest productivity distinctions (likely the largest uphill battle at this point). Despite these extremely positive signals, conservationists are cautioning that this framework must also recognize the critical role of legislated protected areas for at-risk ecosystems, not merely updated standards for exploitation.

To be an effective framework, the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF) must include the following components:

  1. Ecosystem-based protection targets that are legally binding and “fine filter” enough (including Biogeoclimatic subzones and variants, plant communities, seral stages of old-growth within their natural range of variability, and forest productivity distinctions) and that ensure sufficient scale of protection to support the long-term persistence of these ecosystems, based on the latest insights from conservation biology and landscape ecology from designated independent science teams, and from Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees of First Nations.
  2. It must emphasize protected areas and uphold protected areas integrity; that is, the standards and permanency of protected areas to exclude commercial logging, mining, and oil and gas activities, and without moveable boundaries. There are concerns that the province is emphasizing weaker conservation reserves, such as Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMAs) (where boundaries can be moved under timber industry lobby efforts) and Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHAs) (where logging in some areas can occur), rather than the stronger protected areas, like Provincial Conservancies and various PA (Protected Area) designations. In contrast, these stronger protected areas are permanent and exclude commercial logging, mining, and oil and gas development, all while protecting First Nations subsistence rights, co-management authority and rights and title. OGMA and WHA loopholes must be closed, as they are vital parts of the conservation reserve system to pick up the pieces of remaining old-growth and vital habitat. There are also concerns that the province is developing a new protected area designation that will have flexitarian minimum standards that still allow for commercial logging. Our organizations strongly advocate against these minimum standards that are easily shapable.
  3. The BEHF when completed in a few months must guide the deployment of funds from the BC Nature Agreement and BC Conservation Financing Mechanism to ensure protection is most heavily funded for the most at-risk and least protected ecosystems. It must also guide the Forest Landscape Planning tables, where conservation reserves (eg. OGMAs, WHAs, Visual Quality Objectives, Riparian Management Areas, etc.), forestry and resource use activities with First Nations, the province, and stakeholders.

“The province under Premier David Eby’s leadership and the federal government has provided half of the equation to protect ecosystems on a major scale in BC — the major funding to fuel protected areas expansion by supporting First Nations conservation initiatives. We have just heard from First Nations we’re working with to establish Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) that those funds are already being committed to move their old-growth protected areas initiatives along, which is excellent. Now the other vital half of the equation: to aim protected areas establishment towards the most endangered ecosystems. Premier Eby and Minister Cullen, with their new draft BEHF, are signaling that the province may very well be headed there. To make it simple, this whole thing must scale up the protection of the most endangered and least represented ecosystems in BC. If it doesn’t do that, it’s a flop. Let’s see where this goes and keep speaking up to make it happen,” stated Wu.

See a new EEA video series from a week ago on the status of BC old-growth and protected areas policies here.

Ancient Forest Alliance photographer & campaigner, TJ Watt, beside an enormous old-growth Sitka spruce growing unprotected west of Lake Cowichan in Ditidaht territory.

Billion-dollar BC Nature Agreement will Supercharge Protected Areas Expansion across the Province

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For Immediate Release
November 3rd, 2023

Conservationists thank the BC and federal governments for the $1.1 billion launch of the BC Nature Agreement. The federal government has provided $500 million and BC is providing $563 million from diverse funding sources — now purposed toward achieving BC’s 30% by 2030 nature protection, conservation, and restoration goals via First Nations conservation agreements.

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) are greatly applauding the BC and federal governments and the First Nations Leadership Council for launching the BC Nature Agreement, with $1.1 billion in funding to start, to help achieve BC’s minimum protected areas target of protecting 30% by 2030 of its land area. The tripartite agreement, negotiated between the BC government, the federal government, and the First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC), comes with a $563 million contribution from the province and a $500 million federal contribution. The fund will continue to grow with major contributions from the philanthropic community and potentially from future government budgets over time.

Funds will be used for supporting First Nations to establish Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) and conservation initiatives, endangered species recovery, compensation of resource licensees, and habitat restoration, with a central mandate to achieve the 30% by 2030 protection target of BC in line with Canada’s national protection target.

“This is the largest provincial funding package in Canada’s history for nature conservation, and we understand it will continue to grow beyond the initial sum of $1.1 billion,” stated Ken Wu, Executive Director for EEA. “Our central campaign focus for years has been on the necessity of government funding for First Nations to establish new protected areas to save old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems in BC. Today, Premier Eby, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, and the First Nations Leadership Council delivered, and we thank them greatly. The funds will be critically important as the ‘fuel’ to enable Indigenous conservation initiatives to help BC reach its minimum protection target of 30% by 2030. Now we need ecosystem-based protection targets connected to these conservation funds to prioritize the most endangered and least protected ecosystems in BC. Without ecosystem-based targets to aim protection priorities wisely, it’ll be like a fire brigade hosing down all the non-burning houses while the houses on fire are largely ignored. Or a surgeon who doesn’t make distinctions between organs, instead just aiming to reach an overall target of removing a couple of kilograms.”

“Because First Nations are legally in the driver’s seat in BC when it comes to on-the-ground protection of their unceded territories, a major fund such as the one announced today is vital to support them and to deal with all the various costs of establishing new protected areas, particularly in contested landscapes,” stated TJ Watt, Campaigner for AFA. “It would be impossible to essentially double the protected areas in BC from 15% now to 30% over the next seven years without it. The major funding that Eby and Guilbeault have just put forward is a big deal. Step by step, the province is moving forward with support from the federal government to create the policy vehicle and funding streams that will enable First Nations to drive where we all need to go: the protection of native ecosystems and old-growth forests in BC. Funding for First Nations-led deferrals in the most at-risk old-growth stands is still outstanding, and we will keep working to see that these vital ‘solutions space’ funds are provided.”

In BC, the province cannot unilaterally establish protected areas and “just save the old growth” on Crown/ unceded First Nations lands — the support and shared decision-making of local First Nations governments is a legal necessity in their territories. Protected areas establishment and logging deferrals move at the speed of the local First Nations whose territories it is — the BC government’s policies and funding can facilitate or hinder, help speed up or slow down, the abilities of First Nations to protect ecosystems. Conservation financing, included in this funding package, is a vital enabling condition that can greatly facilitate and speed up the protection of old-growth forests.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director, Ken Wu, stands beside a monumental old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director, Ken Wu, stands beside a monumental old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

Today’s BC Nature Agreement funds come from four federal funding pots (Enhanced Nature Legacy, Nature Smart Solutions Fund, BC Old-Growth Fund, and 2 Billion Trees program) and most of the funding was, until now, largely inaccessible for BC protected areas. The provincial funds also come from diverse sources — disparate funds that are now newly tasked to fulfill the mandate of the BC Nature Agreement’s 30% by 2030 goal to protect, conserve and restore ecosystems via First Nations’ shared decision-making initiatives. These include the $150 million in provincial contributions to BC’s Conservation Financing Mechanism announced last week, another $100 million from the Watershed Security Fund and $200 million from the Northeast Restoration Fund, and a host of other smaller funding pots.

In addition, the BC Old-Growth Fund, worth $50 million from federal funds and which must be matched by a $50 million provincial contribution (ie. $100 million), comes into force (and will grow by an additional $32 million in federal funds committed earlier, or $64 million in matching total funds), and is mandated to protect the most at-risk old-growth forests (ie. grandest, rarest and oldest stands) in the Coastal and Inland Rainforests, and the Coastal Douglas-Fir biogeoclimatic zone. These are among the most endangered ecosystems in BC, which evolved to naturally exist with high proportions of their landscapes in an old-growth condition, with greater levels of biodiversity adapted to old-growth forests than most other ecosystems (hence, the prioritization of funds for these ecosystems is sensible from a conservation perspective — the other $1 billion is available to protect forests including old-growth in other ecosystems).

While a minor subset of the overall BC Nature Agreement, the BC Old-Growth Fund is indispensable to help protect the “biggest and best” remaining old-growth stands in BC, with a mandate akin to ecosystem-based targets to protect 400,000 hectares to 1.3 million hectares of old-growth and mature forests in the most at-risk old-growth forest types by supporting First Nations conservation initiatives. Some of these hectares might come from the finalization of the ecosystem-based management reserves negotiated years earlier in the Great Bear Rainforest final agreement. Hopefully, with support from the greater BC Nature Agreement funds, most of the remaining tracts of the at-risk old-growth forests in the Coastal and Inland Rainforests and Coastal Douglas-Fir ecosystems are picked up for protection with this fund.

TJ Watt said, “We want to flag that provincial leadership is now vital to fulfilling the mandate of the BC Old-Growth Fund, to identify the key sites, which have already been largely mapped by the province’s appointed Technical Advisory Panel, and to pro-actively approach and work with First Nations and to bring them the resources and support needed to work on protecting these most important at-risk stands. BC bureaucrats sitting on their haunches and waiting to be approached won’t get the job done.”

The BC Nature Agreement fund comes on the heels of the $300 million Conservation Financing Mechanism and in fact, includes the $150 million provincial contribution to that fund. The BC Nature Agreement fund can also be used to augment the Conservation Financing Mechanism, which, unlike the BC Nature Agreement itself, can be used to support First Nations economic development initiatives linked to new protected areas.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director, Ken Wu, stands beside a monumental old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director, Ken Wu, stands beside a monumental old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

EEA and AFA are now focused on closing several additional gaps in BC’s old-growth and protected-areas policies, which include:

  • Ecosystem-based protection targets, ie. legally-binding targets set for all ecosystems that factor in “forest productivity distinctions” (sites that grow large trees in warm, rich soils typically at lower elevations and more southerly latitudes, vs. sites that typically grow small trees in cold, rocky, or boggy sites) set by science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees. These targets are vital to ensure that the most at-risk and least protected ecosystems are prioritized — otherwise, protection will still be largely focused on alpine and subalpine areas with low to no timber values, with the exception of the old-growth that the BC Old-Growth Fund protects.
  • Deferral or “solutions-space” funding for First Nations to forgo logging in the most at-risk old-growth priority areas as defined by the province’s appointed Technical Advisory Panel (TAP). This is a critical stepping stone to at least get the full remaining 1.4 million hectares of TAP’s priority areas deferred. First Nations with logging interests in these areas need compensation for their lost revenues for two years while deferrals are enacted, during which time they can potentially undertake protected areas and land-use planning.
  • Upholding protected areas standards. A provincial Protected Areas Strategy with goals, objectives, strategies, and resources must be developed, and must emphasize Provincial Conservancies, Ecological Reserves, and Protected Areas (PAs), and other real protected areas. Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMAs) have moveable boundaries upon request by logging companies, and many types of Wildlife Habitat Areas allow logging — these loopholes must be closed, and until then, they must not be included in BC’s 30% by 2030 accounting. In addition, the province is developing a new IPCA designation that is considering “flexitarian” standards that might allow for commercial logging (cultural cedar harvesting for First Nations community use, of course, should be safeguarded and is different in scale and purpose than commercial logging). Weak and/or moveable conservation designations are akin to the “cryptocurrency of protected areas,” and BC must focus on real protected areas and close the moveable boundary loophole with OGMAs in particular, as OGMAs are a needed designation to save the labyrinth of remaining old-growth fragments.
Ancient Forest Alliance photographer & campaigner, TJ Watt, stands between two enormous old-growth Sitka spruce growing unprotected near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

Ancient Forest Alliance photographer & campaigner, TJ Watt, stands between two enormous old-growth Sitka spruce growing unprotected near Port Renfrew, BC in Pacheedaht territory.

EEA and AFA are also noting that much of the funding agreement, with the exception of the conservation financing component ($150 million from BC, and $150 million from the BC Parks Foundation), is narrowly defined so as not to fund First Nations’ owned businesses as alternatives to the nations’ old-growth logging dependencies. The lack of funding to support economic alternatives in First Nations communities, which keeps these communities dependent on old-growth logging revenues and jobs, is the single greatest barrier to the protection of old-growth forests across BC. This barrier is not lost upon many of the key timber-centric senior provincial bureaucrats who continue to marginalize the availability of such funds for First Nations’ economic development, along with the lack of deferral funding. This will also be an issue that our organizations will also be watching and working on.

More Background Info

  • Conservation financing is key to meeting First Nations’ needs for sustainable economic development alternatives to their old-growth logging dependencies. Many or most BC First Nations have an economic dependency fostered by successive BC governments on forestry, including old-growth logging, and require support to develop sustainable alternatives in ecotourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products like wild mushrooms, and other businesses if they are to forgo their old-growth logging interests to establish new protected areas and to not lose major jobs and revenues. Nations also need funding to develop the capacity to undertake land-use planning, mapping, engagement of community members, stakeholders, and resource licensees, and for stewardship and management jobs in new protected areas.
  • On BC’s Central and North Coasts (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest), $120 million in conservation financing from the province, federal government, and conservation groups in 2007 resulted in the protection of almost 1.8 million hectares of land (about 2/3rds the size of Vancouver Island), the creation of over 100 businesses and 1000 permanent jobs in First Nations communities, and significantly raised the average household income in numerous communities.
  • BC’s old-growth forests have spawned one of the most passionate and pervasive ecosystem-protection movements in world history, and for good reason. They contain some of the largest and oldest living organisms that have ever existed in Earth’s history — forest giants that can live to 2000 years old and grow wider than a living room. Old-growth forests are vital to support unique and endangered species, climate stability, clean water, wild salmon, First Nations cultures, and BC’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry. These forests have unique characteristics that are not replicated by the ensuing second-growth tree plantations they’re being replaced with. In fact, second-growth forests in BC are logged every 50-to-80 years on BC’s coast, never to become old growth again.
  • Well over 80% of the original, productive old-growth forests (sites where most big trees and timber values reside) have already been logged, and over 5 million hectares of big treed, rare (by ecosystem type), and very oldest old-growth forests remain unprotected in BC, with 2.6 million hectares identified as the top priorities for logging deferrals by the province’s appointed science panel or Technical Advisory Panel.
Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director, Ken Wu, stands beside a giant Sitka spruce tree in an old-growth forest west of Lake Cowichan in Ditidaht territory.

BC Launches Vital Conservation Financing Mechanism to Protect Old-Growth Forests and Ecosystems

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For Immediate Release
October 26, 2023

Starting with an initial $300 million of provincial and philanthropic funding, the indispensable fund that will “fuel” or power the creation of new protected areas by supporting First Nations protected areas initiatives will continue to grow with additional federal, provincial, and private funds. Conservationists give thanks to Premier Eby for fulfilling a key commitment.

Today, the BC government made good on a vital conservation commitment made last December by Premier David Eby to develop a conservation financing mechanism to fund Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) by funding First Nations’ economic, capacity, stewardship, and management needs linked to protecting ecosystems. The new fund consists of a $150 million provincial contribution and $150 million to be raised by the BC Parks Foundation, the official charitable fund of the province’s BC Parks agency, for a total of $300 million to start. The fund is likely to grow quickly with major federal protected areas funding soon, additional provincial protected areas funds (conjoined with the federal funds via the BC Nature Fund and BC Old-Growth Funds, two additional funds currently under negotiation), funds from the international philanthropic community, and contributions from private citizens over time.

“This is a vital step forward to protect nature in British Columbia on a major scale — Premier Eby should be thanked for this. Conservation financing is the indispensable ‘fuel’ to power along the establishment of new protected areas in BC — without it, the large-scale protection of the most endangered and contested ecosystems, such as those with the largest trees and greatest timber values, would be largely impossible,” stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance. “Since 2017 my colleagues and I have been calling on the province to undertake conservation financing, and three years ago we launched the main campaign with diverse allies calling for federal and provincial conservation funding to protect old-growth forests and endangered ecosystems – and today Premier Eby has delivered. This is a huge conservation victory for the many thousands of people who’ve spoken up for years for this.”

“This conservation financing mechanism puts major wind in the sails for the protection of old-growth forests in BC. After we’ve spent years relentlessly focusing on the centrality of conservation financing to support First Nations’ protected areas initiatives, Premier Eby has delivered on one of his three big commitments now. His other major commitments include doubling the protected areas in BC from 15% now to 30% by 2030 — this funding will make it possible as the fund grows — and targeting protection for biodiverse areas, which we interpret to mean the potential development of ecosystem-based protection targets which haven’t happened yet. We will continue working to ensure these commitments come to fruition,” stated TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance.

Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner & Photographer, TJ Watt, stands beside an unprotected old-growth redcedar tree in the Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

Ancient Forest Alliance Campaigner & Photographer, TJ Watt, stands beside an unprotected old-growth redcedar tree in the Jurassic Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

In BC, it’s important to note that the province cannot unilaterally establish protected areas and “just save the old-growth” on Crown lands — the support of local First Nations governments is a legal necessity in their unceded territories. Protected areas establishment and logging deferrals move at the speed of the local First Nations whose territories it is. The BC government’s policies and funding can facilitate or hinder, help speed up or slow down, the abilities of First Nations to protect ecosystems. Conservation financing is a vital enabling condition that can speed up the protection of old-growth forests.

Across BC, First Nations have an economic dependency on forestry jobs and revenues, including in old-growth logging — a dependency fostered and facilitated by successive BC governments. Many First Nations also have an economic dependency on other resource industries, including mining and oil and gas. Hence, conservation financing to fund First Nations’ sustainable economic alternatives in ecotourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood, non-timber forest products (eg. wild mushrooms), and other industries, linked to the establishment of new protected areas, is vital for First Nations to be able to transition from their dependency on old-growth logging revenues and jobs and other resource industries in endangered ecosystems. Without conservation financing, the establishment of new protected areas in areas with high timber values would be like asking First Nations to simply jettison their main source of revenues and jobs — something that no major human population would do without economic alternatives and support.

On BC’s Central and North Coasts (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest), a conservation financing investment of $120 million in 2006 ($30 million from the province, $30 million from the federal government, $60 million from conservation groups) for First Nations sustainable economic development and stewardship needs, resulted in the protection of about one third of the region, about 1.8 million hectares. The initial investment, as a result of interest and carbon offsets, has ended up providing over $300 million in investments to First Nations’ owned businesses and stewardship initiatives, supporting over 100 First Nations-owned businesses, funding over 1000 jobs, and raising the average per household income substantially in First Nations communities.

Several loopholes or gaps remain in the BC government’s protected areas and conservation financing initiatives that the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance and Ancient Forest Alliance will continue to work to close.

  1. Just as conservation financing was linked to protection targets (specific valleys and ecosystem retention targets) in the Great Bear Rainforest, the new conservation financing mechanism needs to be tied to “ecosystem-based targets”, that is, protection targets developed for each ecosystem that ensure that all ecosystems, including the most endangered and contested landscapes such as “high productivity” old-growth forests with the greatest timber values, are protected based on science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. These targets should be developed by a Chief Ecologist (similar to BC’s Chief Forester, but with an ecological lens) and various science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees – new positions that are currently under consideration as the province develops a Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework. The province already has mapped the most at-risk old-growth forest types via their Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) and it’s vital that these conservation financing funds are linked to those deferral targets as priority, potential protected areas. Linking the conservation financing mechanism to the development of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework (BEHF), (in particular should it develop ecosystem-based protection targets) is vital once the initiative is finalized.
  2. The province’s conservation funds (and/or other provincial funds currently under development) should also be used to immediately provide funding for First Nations to help offset lost logging revenues when being asked to accept logging deferrals in their unceded territories as identified by the government’s old-growth science panel, the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP). This “solutions-space” funding, as was used successfully in Clayoquot Sound, will be critical in helping ensure the deferral of the roughly 1.4 million hectares (more than half) of priority old-growth deferrals that remain outstanding from the original 2.6 million hectares.
  3. Ensuring that conservation financing supports only protected areas that meet the standards and permanency of true protected areas – meaning supporting designations that exclude commercial logging (while protecting First Nations cultural harvesting of individual trees, such as monumental cedars for dugout canoes and totem poles), mining, and oil and gas developments, and whose boundaries cannot be readily shifted. Provincial Conservancies and a few other provincial designations termed “Protected Areas” are designations that exclude commercial logging, mining, and oil and gas development, but that protect First Nations subsistence and cultural rights (hunting, fishing, gathering, cultural cedar harvest), co-management authority, and rights and title, and would have the standards and permanency of real protected areas. Conservation regulations such as Old-Growth Management Areas (which allow moveable boundaries to let companies log the biggest trees, to be replaced by “protecting” areas with smaller trees) and Wildlife Habitat Areas (which can still allow commercial logging, for example in Spotted Owl and Northern Goshawk ‘buffer’ areas) would not meet the threshold of real protected areas unless their loopholes are closed.

“We’re watching with great concern as the province might be looking to establish new ‘flexitarian’ designations – tenuous or fake ‘protected areas’ that still allow logging or boundary shifts to occur. These types of loopholes can easily result in the high-grade logging within such ‘protected areas’ of the very geographically limited monumental old-growth stands and the most endangered ecosystems, which can often constitute one or two percent or less of any major landscape area,” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director, Ken Wu, beside an old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

Endangered Ecosystems Alliance Executive Director, Ken Wu, beside an old-growth redcedar tree in the unprotected Eden Grove near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht territory.

“The big campaign now will be for ecosystem-based protection targets — without them, we’ll see a massive number of hectares of new protected areas in alpine and subalpine areas with little to no timber value, and that skirt around saving the big timber that will still get logged. Without ecosystem-based targets, it’s like calling in fire trucks to hose down all the houses that are not burning, while the houses on fire get ignored. Ecosystem-based targets means you aim protected areas establishment right, to save the most endangered and least represented ecosystems”, stated Ken Wu, EEA executive director.

“Premier Eby has done something great today and we thank him. We still have to close several gaps and loopholes, related to linking conservation financing to ecosystem-based targets and the most at-risk old-growth, to ensure protected areas integrity moving forward, and to ensure deferral funding comes from various government sources. But make no mistake, this is a very good day,” stated TJ Watt, AFA campaigner.

Old-growth forests are vital to support unique and endangered species, climate stability, clean water, wild salmon, First Nations cultures, and BC’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry. They have unique characteristics that are not replicated by the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they are being replaced with and that are logged every 50 to 70 years on BC’s coast, never to become old-growth again. Well over 80% of the original, productive old-growth forests (medium to high productivity sites where most big trees and timber values reside) have already been logged, and over 5 million hectares of big tree, rare (by ecosystem type), and very ancient old-growth forests remain unprotected in BC.

Watch this small video series by the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance’s Ken Wu explaining conservation financing, BC’s old-growth policy progress and remaining loopholes, and ecosystem-based targets.

See the news article and the media release that launched the campaign in 2020 for conservation financing from the provincial and federal governments.

Ancient Forests Under Threat After Being Missed for Logging Deferral Due to Government Data Errors

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For Immediate Release
October 23, 2023

“You can only subtract; you can’t add”: BC government currently only allows for incorrectly identified at-risk old-growth forests to be subtracted from rather than added to logging deferral areas. This constitutes a significant conservation loophole that must be closed while the BC government progresses with major policy progress.

Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) are highlighting the urgent need for the BC government to proactively identify what are likely thousands of hectares of at-risk old-growth forests that were missed during the deferral process due to forest inventory errors. These areas were thus left open for logging, and the AFA is calling on the BC government to ensure the addition of these forests for deferral where identified by scientists, citizens, and industry. New photos and drone footage taken by the AFA photographer and campaigner TJ Watt have once again revealed the ongoing destruction of rare, “big-tree” old-growth forests on northern Vancouver Island in Quatsino territory.

In the Summer of 2023, Ancient Forest Alliance members TJ Watt and Ian Thomas documented road construction, giant stumps from recently felled trees, and ancient forests flagged for imminent logging in a remote area of Quatsino Sound where Western Forest Products (WFP) has approval to cut 36.5 hectares (roughly 68 football fields) worth of endangered old-growth forest. This threatened area, located on Crown/public lands within Tree Farm Licence 6, is just a few kilometers away from where the pair captured shocking images and videos of old-growth logging in 2022, sparking outrage and garnering international media coverage.

A fresh cedar stump measuring over 10 feet wide.

The inability to add misidentified at-risk old-growth stands to priority logging deferral areas constitutes one of the major gaps in the BC government’s old-growth policy as it moves forward to overhaul the conservation and management of these iconic forests.

Under relentless pressure from the Ancient Forest Alliance and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, the BC government has made a number of commitments toward expanding the protection of old growth in BC, including protecting 30% of land area by 2030, developing a conservation financing mechanism to support Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, and creating a BC Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework that potentially could include the office of a Chief Ecologist who develops science-based protection targets for all ecosystems with Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees — major commitments that we commend.

However, critical policy and funding gaps still remain, including the government only allowing the subtraction and not the addition of incorrectly identified at-risk old-growth stands (like the recently cut stands in Quatsino territory highlighted here) to deferral areas, and other key issues.

“It was a shock but sadly not a surprise to see more logging underway just across from where we’d documented the destruction of hundreds of giant trees only a year before,” stated AFA photographer and campaigner, TJ Watt. “We arrived to find roads being blasted into a highly productive ancient forest filled with massive cedar trees, the stump of one measuring more than 10 feet (3 meters) across. A simple on-the-ground assessment would have likely determined that this is an old-growth forest that meets the criteria for priority logging deferral, however, there is currently no government policy in place to ensure this happens despite repeated requests to the ministry from our organization. If the BC government cares about truly protecting these forests wherever they occur on the landscape, they must address this gap immediately.”

Home to scores of giant trees, many of which are likely 500+ years old, this particular grove — and surely hundreds of others — was not recommended for logging deferral by the government’s independent old-growth science panel, the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) due to the forest being incorrectly labelled as 212 years old in the province’s forest inventory database (38 years younger than the province’s 250-year-old threshold for being considered old growth on the coast and to be included in deferral mapping).

A giant redcedar tree under threat of logging by Western Forest Products.

“When it comes to verifying forests for logging deferral, the BC government is currently playing a game of old-growth subtraction in favour of the timber industry, facilitating more old-growth logging rather than less,” stated Watt. “Instead, it should be working hard to identify at-risk old-growth forests that have been missed for deferral, such as this one, so they have a chance at being left standing and protected. To help identify these at-risk stands, forest engineers should be legally bound to field-verify planned logging cutblocks against the TAP deferral criteria and report any discrepancies to the BC government so adjustments can be made. Citizens and scientists should also be able to submit the locations of key old-growth stands they’ve identified. Government data gaps, such as simple age misclassifications, are leading to the loss of irreplaceable ancient forests vital to support endangered species, First Nations cultures, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and tourism.”

To date, about 1.2 million hectares, or 46%, of the 2.6 million hectares of recommended priority deferral areas have been agreed upon by First Nations (whose consent and support are necessary for any new deferrals or protected areas). This leaves more than half of the forests identified as most at-risk forests open to logging, not including areas such as this one that were missed entirely. To close this gap, conservationists argue that the BC government must become advocates for protecting the most endangered old-growth forests and ensure that conservation funding for First Nations links the deferral and protection of these stands to sustainable economic alternatives to old-growth logging.

“Ultimately, the final decision around whether a forest gets deferred or not lies in the hands of First Nations, which is why immediate funding is needed from the province in the short-term to help nations offset any potential lost revenues from forgoing logging in the high-value, big-tree stands they’re being asked to defer,” explained Watt. “After more than a century of colonial exploitation, the province has an opportunity and obligation to ensure the much-anticipated conservation financing streams include long-term economic funding for Indigenous-owned sustainable businesses, such as tourism, sustainable seafood, clean energy, non-timber forest products, value-added second-growth forestry, etc., linked to new protected areas, as alternatives to an economic dependency on old-growth timber revenues and jobs.”

Old-growth fragmentation. The forest in the background of this image is now on the ground.

Conservationists underscore the urgency of securing logging deferrals by pointing to the staggering loss of productive old-growth forests in BC. The San Josef Landscape Unit on Vancouver Island (where this recently documented logging is taking place) has been hit extremely hard by industrial logging in recent decades, with less than 25% of its productive, “big-tree” old-growth forests remaining. Conservation biologists agree that when ecosystems fall below 30% of their original extent, they become at high risk of irreversible biodiversity loss.

“The BC government, under the leadership of Premier David Eby, has set the stage to vastly expand the protection of old-growth forests, for which he should be thanked. After decades of mismanagement, we may finally be on the verge of real transformation,” noted Watt. “However, it’s still possible that the BC government’s promised “paradigm shift” could fall short of its full potential as certain old-school timber bureaucrats and politicians within the Ministry of Forests try to constrain change in favour of the destructive status quo. Eby needs to pick up the pace and close the gaps as the yardstick of success will ultimately be measured by the survival of the endangered forests themselves. As we’ve seen here on northern Vancouver Island, any loopholes left open will allow for further destruction of many of the biggest and best stands that remain, never to be seen again.”

An incredible trio of ancient cedars in an at-risk old-growth forest on northern Vancouver Island, BC.

Background information:

In November 2021, the BC government agreed to, in consultation with First Nations, implement temporary logging deferrals in 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk old-growth forests (big-tree, ancient, remnant) in BC to prevent irreversible biodiversity loss while long-term land use plans are developed. These priority deferral areas were identified and mapped by the BC government’s independent old-growth science panel, the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP).

The TAP specifically mentioned the issue of inventory errors in its report (see pages 9, 10, & 13), making clear recommendations to the BC government that on-the-ground assessments should be used to identify and defer big-tree old-growth forests that were missed in its preliminary analysis. Thus far, the BC government has only used field verification to remove deferral areas that don’t meet the TAP criteria (which are then supposed to be replaced with those that do, when possible) in order to facilitate logging — a blatant and outrageous bias toward the old-growth logging industry.

Progress is being made toward the protection of old-growth forests, however, major policy and funding gaps still remain, including funding for First Nations sustainable economic development linked to new protected areas, developing protection targets for all ecosystems that include forest productivity distinctions, maintaining strong protected areas standards, and allowing for the addition of unmapped old-growth stands into deferral consideration that meet the Technical Advisory Panel’s criteria for at-risk old-growth.

Major funding for old-growth protection is expected to arrive in the near future as well, including the province’s conservation financing mechanism and the BC Nature Fund (a potential $1.2 billion in federal-provincial funding) and BC Old-Growth Fund ($164 of federal-provincial funding) currently under development and negotiation (between the federal, provincial, and First Nations governments). So far the BC government has indicated they will fund the needs of First Nations regarding community capacity (eg. land-use planning), stewardship jobs, data collection, monitoring, and enforcement regarding old-growth protection, but has not said yet whether the funding will support Indigenous sustainable businesses that are necessary to provide the long-term revenues to permanently supplant income from old-growth logging — the fundamental barrier for many First Nations protecting old-growth forests.

Conservation financing is an approach that was successfully used on BC’s Central and North Coasts, where $120 million was committed by the provincial and federal governments and conservation groups to support First Nations business development and economic alternatives to old-growth logging. The result was a globally significant conservation achievement, with 80% of what is now known as the Great Bear Rainforest being reserved from logging.

Old-growth forests support endangered species, First Nations cultures, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and tourism. Under BC’s current system of forestry, second-growth tree plantations are typically re-logged every 50–60 years, never to become old-growth again.

Conservation Groups Urge BC Government to Hurry Up and Close Gaps in Old-Growth Protection

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For Immediate Release
Monday, Sept 11th, 2023

Today on the three-year anniversary of the BC government’s September 2020 acceptance of the Old-Growth Strategic Review Panel’s 14 recommendations to ensure a “paradigm shift” in the conservation and management of old-growth forests in the province, the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) and Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) are urging the BC government to hurry up and close the gaps in old-growth protection in BC.

The McKelvie Valley near Tahsis in Mowachaht/Muchalaht territory where 2231 hectares (1852 hectares of old-growth) are now deferred from logging.

“The BC government under Premier Eby has taken some great steps forward in policy commitments: pledging to double protected areas from 15% to 30% of BC’s land area over the next seven years (it took over a century to protect the first 15%), bring major conservation financing support for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, and to target protection for biodiverse areas, which would naturally include the productive old-growth forests with big trees. Premier Eby started off strong nine months ago with these commitments, and now he needs to pick it up and close the remaining gaps to secure old-growth logging deferrals in all of the most at-risk old-growth forests and to ensure that funding and protection go to the right areas,” stated Ken Wu, Endangered Ecosystems Alliance executive director.

Those gaps include:

  • Providing critical funding to First Nations to offset any lost revenues (from their own logging operations and from revenue-sharing agreements with companies) to enable them to implement old-growth logging deferrals with the province in the most at-risk old-growth stands. The lack of funding from the province for a “solutions space” related to old-growth logging deferrals for First Nations has so far been their greatest failure in the development of effective old-growth policies in BC. This lack of funding has resulted in less than half of the 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk unprotected old-growth stands recommended for deferral by the government’s own Technical Advisory Panel being accepted for deferral by First Nations.
  • Ensuring that the forthcoming conservation financing mechanism and the BC Nature Fund (a potential $1.2 billion in federal-provincial funding) and BC Old-Growth Fund ($164 of federal-provincial funding) currently under development and negotiation (between the federal, provincial, and First Nations governments) includes economic funding for Indigenous-owned sustainable businesses (eg. in tourism, sustainable seafood, clean energy, non-timber forest products like wild mushrooms, value-added second-growth forestry, etc) linked to new protected areas, as alternatives to economic dependency on old-growth timber revenues and jobs. So far the BC government has indicated they will fund the needs of First Nations regarding community capacity (eg. land-use planning), stewardship jobs, data collection, monitoring, and enforcement regarding old-growth protection, but has not said yet whether the funding will support Indigenous sustainable businesses that are necessary to provide the long-term revenues to permanently supplant income from old-growth logging — the fundamental barrier for many First Nations protecting old-growth forests.
  • Ensuring “ecosystem-based protection targets” for all types of ecosystems (not just an overall target of 30% by 2030 for BC’s total land area) that includes forest productivity distinctions (ie. the sites that produce large old-growth trees like well-drained valley-bottoms and lower elevations, versus small old-growth trees, like in bogs, on steep rock faces and at subalpine landscapes). Without ecosystem-based protection targets that include forest productivity distinctions, the BC government will continue to protect the sparsely treed alpine and subalpine ecosystems, while the larger old-growth stands continue to fall.
  • Closing the protection gaps in the “forest reserve system”, that is, remove the ability of the Ministry of Forests to readily shift boundaries of and/or log in Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s) and Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHA’s) and other such regulatory conservation designations, that, along with legislated protected areas such as Provincial Conservancies, are vital for the forthcoming protection of old-growth forests.
  • Allowing for the addition of unmapped old-growth stands into deferral consideration that meet the Technical Advisory Panel’s criteria for at-risk old-growth, but were missed in the initial mapping exercise due to data errors. Currently, misidentified stands can be removed from deferral if they do not meet the criteria, but there is no mechanism to identify stands that were missed — a blatant and outrageous bias toward the old-growth logging industry. The actual deferral of any stands will always be contingent on First Nations acceptance.
  • Include greater information transparency on where, how much, and in what categories old-growth logging deferrals and cutblocks are taking place.

Old-growth recommended for priority deferral in the Klanawa Valley currently under thread from road construction and logging.

In BC, successive court rulings regarding the government authority of First Nations on land use changes in their territory mean that the provincial government cannot unilaterally “just protect the old-growth forests” without the support of the local First Nations. First Nations have to consent to old-growth forest protection in their unceded territories if the province is going to establish any legislated protected areas. The province has also taken a position that First Nations support is necessary for any temporary deferrals on logging in their territories. Our organizations have heard from several First Nations that this is an important step to creating the goodwill needed for future negotiations over subsequent potential legislated protected areas in their territories.

However, many or most First Nations have an economic dependency on timber industry jobs and revenues in their territories, including in old-growth logging — a dependency facilitated and fostered by successive BC governments. Hence, government and private funding is vital to help finance First Nations’ sustainable economic alternatives (in industries such as eco-tourism, sustainable seafood, clean energy, non-timber forest products, etc.) to this old-growth logging dependency. Such “conservation financing” initiatives have resulted in the protection of major tracts of old-growth forests in the Great Bear Rainforest (Central and North Coast), Haida Gwaii, and increasingly in Clayoquot Sound. Recently alongside our partners, the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation and the Endangered Ecosyems Alliance, the Ancient Forest Alliance has begun working to bring conservation financing directly to the Kanaka Bar Indian Band and other First Nations to support their Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) initiatives.

Under relentless pressure from the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance, Ancient Forest Alliance, and various First Nations, the BC government since David Eby came to power has agreed to develop a provincial conservation financing mechanism to fund Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), and several major funding agreements are currently being negotiated with the federal government and First Nations that will result in likely several billion dollars or more to expand the protected areas system in BC soon.

“It’s critical that the BC government expedites conservation funding — both in the short and long term — for the deferral and protection of old-growth forests and other endangered ecosystems,” notes TJ Watt, campaigner and photographer with the Ancient Forest Alliance. “In the immediate term, ‘solution space’ funding is needed to help facilitate logging deferrals by ensuring that First Nations communities aren’t forced to choose between setting aside at-risk old growth and generating revenue for their communities. In the longer term, large-scale funding is necessary to support First Nations’ sustainable economic development, stewardship jobs, and creation of new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) linked to protecting the most at-risk old-growth forests and ecosystems. This can include new land-use planning, Indigenous guardians programs, and, most importantly, the development of sustainable economic alternatives to old-growth logging such as tourism, clean energy, sustainable seafood harvesting, non-timber forest products, and value-added, second-growth forestry. We continue to find scores of old-growth stumps from freshly fallen trees, some measuring more than 10ft/3m wide, on our field expeditions, underscoring the permanent impacts these funding gaps have on the landscape.”

AFA’s TJ Watt sits a top a giant redcedar stump in a recommended deferral area logged by Teal Jones in the Caycuse Valley, Ditidaht territory.

Eby has also committed to doubling the protected areas system from 15% now to 30% by 2030 of the province’s land area, that is, to do in seven years what took about 100 years to do to reach the first 15%. He has also committed to targeting ‘biodiverse areas’ for protection, launching a Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework that potentially could include the office of a Chief Ecologist who develops science-based protection targets for all ecosystems with Traditional Ecological Knowledge committees.

A month ago, EEA developed a small video series outlining the situation with old-growth forests in BC:

  1. Summary of BC’s Old-Growth Policy Development — Overview in early August 2023
  2. Why is Conservation Financing Vital? Video #1 and Video #2.
  3. Why are Ecosystem-Based Protection Targets Vital?

Many of these gaps in old-growth protection are elaborated upon in the EEA’s submission to the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework.

“The public is losing patience — and rightly so — over a lack of on-the-ground protection thus far, and the only way to speed this up is for the BC government to provide the enabling conditions — the critical funding for deferrals and protected areas, and the needed policy framework including ecosystem-based targets — to enable First Nations whose unceded lands these are to move forward more readily with logging deferrals and protected areas initiatives,” stated Ken Wu, EEA executive director.

Canada’s Most Impressive Tree Located by Conservationists in Clayoquot Sound, BC

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For Immediate Release
July 26, 2023

Conservationists on Vancouver Island with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) have identified what may very well be Canada’s most impressive tree in a remote location in Ahousaht First Nation territory near Tofino in Clayoquot Sound. While the gargantuan ancient western redcedar tree, located by AFA Photographer and Campaigner TJ Watt on Flores Island, measures over 17 feet (5 metres) wide near its base, its trunk gets even wider going upwards over dozens of meters — as opposed to tapering like virtually all other trees. The widening trunk eventually becomes a sprawling, fortress-like crown of wooden spires, creating a most impressive spectacle akin to a massive wooden wall of an ancient castle. The tree stands 151 feet (46 metres) tall and is almost certainly well over a thousand years old given its size.

See incredible video footage here.
See the full photo gallery here.

This giant could very well have the largest or near largest wood volume of any tree in Canada for about the first 50 feet of its trunk – the part you see and experience from the ground (since humans don’t fly or swing through the canopies at the tops of trees). This means that, experientially, it’s perhaps the most impressive tree in Canada, despite other cedars being taller or ranking higher based on the American Forestry Association points system (based on a tree’s height, diameter at breast height at 1.37 meters, and crown spread).

Ancient Forest Alliance photographer TJ Watt beside the gargantuan redcedar on the day he first came across it.

“After nearly two decades of photographing, exploring, and searching for big trees in old-growth forests across BC, no tree has blown me away more than this one,” stated Ancient Forest Alliance Photographer & Campaigner TJ Watt, who first located and photographed the tree while exploring with his friend Nathaniel Glickman. “It’s a literal wall of wood. Your brain can’t compute the scale when you stand below it. The first time I arrived, from a distance I thought it had to be two trees because of how wide the trunk and limbs are. It defies words. As an avid big tree hunter, it’s a highlight of my life to find something as spectacular as this.”

The record-sized tree has so far garnered the nickname ‘The Wall’, or ‘ʔiiḥaq ḥumiis’, meaning ‘big redcedar’ in the Nuu-chah-nulth language. It grows on unprotected Crown/public lands in the unceded territory of the Ahousaht First Nation, who have asked to keep the exact location of the tree private at this time. No logging plans exist for the area and thankfully, the Ahousaht First Nation’s Land Use Vision, currently in the late stages of negotiations with the BC government, includes the protection of the forest where this tree is found. Their Land Use Vision calls for the protection of 80% of Ahousaht territory through the creation of new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs), encompassing most of the old-growth forests in their territory, to be legislated as Provincial Conservancies by the province. Watt re-visited the giant tree in spring with members of the Ahousaht Nation and Stewardship Guardian Program, the Maaqutusiis Hahoutlhee Stewardship Society (MHSS).

“Old-growth forests with their monumental redcedar trees have been of great cultural importance for the Ahousaht Nation since time immemorial,” stated Tyson Atleo, a Hereditary Representative of the Ahousaht Nation and the Natural Climate Solutions Program Director of Nature United. “A tree as large and ancient as this supports an incredible web of life both above and below ground while also storing huge amounts of carbon. Large, intact old-growth ecosystems are critical in combating the global biodiversity and climate crisis, and the Ahousaht Nation’s Land Use Vision will ensure they remain standing for generations to come.”

According to the BC Big Tree Registry, the tree would currently rank as the 6th largest known redcedar in the country. That it doesn’t rank at the top is in large part due to the limitations in how a tree’s overall score is calculated using a formula that factors in the diameter at breast height (1.37 meters from the ground), height, and average crown spread. This method is fairly effective for depicting the size of trees that have a typical cone shape. However, since this tree gets wider as it goes up, it harbours an incredible volume of wood that’s difficult to calculate. If one was able to factor in the tree’s full scale, it would likely rank right near the top of the list.

“Having visited most of the top 10 old-growth redcedar trees on record in Canada, including the Cheewhat Giant near Nitinat Lake that currently ranks as the largest cedar on Earth, to me, this one still feels the most impressive in person,” adds Watt. “That this unique tree is not the grandest tree in Canada is largely an artifact of the methodology used to measure trees under the points system of the American Forestry Association. Its towering presence is all-encompassing. Of the few people who’ve come to see it with me since, more than one thought that they were approaching not a tree but a rock wall. It goes to show that some of the most spectacular living organisms on all of Planet Earth grow right here in BC, and the provincial government should be fully funding and supporting the Indigenous-led protection of old-growth forests, including the remaining monumental old-growth stands.”

Ancient Forest Alliance photographer TJ Watt and Ahousaht Hereditary Representative Tyson Atleo stand beside an ancient western redcedar tree thought to be the most impressive tree in Canada.

The BC government is currently developing a number of different policies and initiatives that have the potential to vastly expand the protection of old-growth forests across BC if done right, including creating a new conservation financing fund by early fall to help protect old-growth forests through the creation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs). This funding, if directed wisely, will help to supplant the lost revenues and jobs for First Nations communities from forgoing old-growth logging opportunities through the creation of economic alternatives such as eco-tourism, sustainable aquaculture, non-timber forest products, renewable energy, and sustainable, value-added second-growth forestry. It should also provide the funding needed by First Nations for guardian and stewardship programs.

Conservation financing has already played a pivotal role in helping the Ahousaht Nation propose protection for the majority of the old-growth in their territory while supporting the creation of new sustainable business opportunities such as Ahous Adventures, an Ahousaht-owned and operated eco-cultural tour company in Tofino.

Tyson Atleo, Ahousaht Nation.

“We encourage those who are interested in learning more about Ahousaht culture and viewing the incredible natural beauty found in our territory to take a trip with Ahous Adventures next time they’re in Tofino,” notes Atleo. “Supporting conservation-based economies is integral to protecting old-growth ecosystems while still providing good jobs for members of our community that connect them with the land. We hope our story can be an example for other Indigenous communities who might be considering how to leave old-growth forests standing while building a more prosperous, sustainable economy.”

When visiting Ahousaht territory, visitors are encouraged to participate in their voluntary Stewardship Fee. Revenues from the Stewardship Fee directly fund the MHSS Stewardship Guardian Program which works on restoration, monitoring, infrastructure maintenance, and visitor engagement for the Ahousaht. Stewardship Fees can be paid online or at their office at 9-368 Main Street in Tofino.

“I extend my gratitude to the Ahousaht Nation for continuing to be amazing stewards of their lands in Clayoquot Sound, which harbour some of the most magnificent ancient forests, trees, and wildlife on Earth,” notes Watt. “Across BC, over a century of industrial logging has vastly decimated the productive old-growth forests with the giants like this one. Only a tiny, tiny fraction of the grandest temperate rainforest stands remain today. The BC government has a chance and an obligation to support First Nations communities to both protect these ecosystems while funding sustainable economic development alternatives. Creating conservation economies that allow new, sustainable jobs and businesses to flourish while preserving imperiled ecosystems is a win-win for humans and nature.”

The photos and exploration for this project were made possible in part by support from the Trebek Initiative, a grantmaking partnership between the National Geographic Society and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society that supports emerging Canadian explorers, scientists, photographers, geographers, and educators with a goal of using storytelling to ignite “a passion to preserve” in all Canadians. Watt was among the first round of grant recipients in 2021 and was named a National Geographic Explorer and Royal Canadian Geographical Society Explorer.

Aerial view over the ancient forests of Flores Island in Ahousaht territory in Clayoqout Sound, BC.

Background Info on Endangered Old-Growth Forests in BC

Old-growth forests have unique characteristics not found in the ensuing second-growth tree plantations that they are being replaced with and which are re-logged every 50 to 60 years on BC’s coast – never to become old-growth again. Old-growth forests are vital to support endangered species, the multi-billion dollar tourism industry, carbon storage, clean water, wild salmon, and First Nations cultures. Well over 90% of the high-productivity old-growth forests with the biggest trees and over 80% of the medium-productivity old-growth forests have been logged in BC.