Feb 23 2014

Kwakiutl First Nation protests BC government’s attempts to shirk responsibilities

"Last June, the nation went to court to seek a judicial review of decisions made by the Provincial Crown in granting land tenures to logging company Western Forest Products. Under the provisions of an 1851 treaty between the Crown and the Kwakiutl First Nation, the Kwakiutl argued the province should have consulted meaningfully with them before allowing Western Forest Products to remove more than 14,000 hectares of private land from the area covered by Tree Farm Licence 6. The licence also covers roughly half of traditional Kwakiutl territory. The province filed its appeal several weeks ago, and members of the Kwakiutl have been protesting on their traditional territory ever since, and they have no plans to stop any time soon."

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Feb 23 2014

Oldies but goodies: The oldest establishments in B.C., and a couple of people as well

Oldest Tree: "If you were expecting Canada's longest-lived tree to be a towering monolith, you're in for a disappointment. B.C.'s oldest tree is a 1,835-year-old yellow cedar stump in the Caren Range of the Sunshine Coast. Oldest Tree Protector: "Victoria resident Al Carder, 103, has been working to identify and protect the province's tallest trees for close to 97 years. His devotion to big trees grew from a child's sense of self-preservation in Cloverdale in 1917, when his father suggested he accompany him to measure a nearby Douglas fir felled by loggers...Carder is an inspiration to young environmentalists. Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance, points out that Carder has outlasted B.C.'s 80-year-old second-growth forests, which replaced its felled old-growth giants."

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Feb 23 2014

Conservation and industry reach agreement on protecting old growth in the Great Bear

The agreement -- which will preserve another 500,000 hectares of old growth -- increases forest protection to nearly 70 per cent in the mid-coast region from the 50 per cent level already protected by 2009. The addition pushes the amount of old-growth forest preserved to more than three million hectares, an area larger than Metro Vancouver.

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Feb 23 2014

Arbutus RV Island Adventures Ep.1 – Avatar Grove

Shaw TV's Sucheta Singh takes us just north of Port Renfrew to Avatar Grove. A magical place full of old growth forest the size of skyscrapers.

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Jan 29 2014

How Many Old Growth Trees Make a Forest?

"They also wondered if TimberWest had tailored a definition of old growth that allowed them to search out and cut the last remaining stands of old forest by calling them second growth. 'How did TimberWest pull that off?' asked Valerie Langer of Forest Ethics Solutions. 'By using a bizarre, technically unheard of, definition they made up.' ...[the local residents] found a recent cut-block full of tall, straight, giant trees dominated by Douglas fir over 500 years old and equally impressive stands of western red cedar. Unfortunately, they claim, the trees were already felled and lying on the ground."

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Avatar Grove
Jan 17 2014

Carbon emissions from BC forests alarming: environmental group

“We’re concerned this has become a long-term problem,” said Jens Wieting from environmental advocacy group the Sierra Club. Ideally, a healthy forest will absorb more carbon in the soil and trees than it releases, for example through burning, decomposition and logging. This is sometimes called a carbon sink. Due to a number of factors — including pine beetle infestation, slash fires, wood waste and clear cutting — B.C.’s forests have not done this since 2003, and are emitting carbon dioxide at alarming rates, the group said.

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Jan 15 2014

Trees accelerate growth as they get older and bigger, study finds

Most living things reach a certain age and then stop growing, but trees accelerate their growth as they get older and bigger, a global study has found. "This finding contradicts the usual assumption that tree growth eventually declines as trees get older and bigger," said Nate Stephenson, the study's lead author and a forest ecologist with the US Geological Survey (USGS). "It also means that big, old trees are better at absorbing carbon from the atmosphere than has been commonly assumed."

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Dec 5 2013

No sale for Dakota Bowl cutblocks

Good news near Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast! All of the proposed clearcuts in the old-growth cedars of Dakota Bowl have now been dropped by BC Timber Sales. Thanks to Elphinstone Logging Focus for their work in this area, including finding the widest hemlock in BC!

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Nov 20 2013

VIDEO: Cathedral Grove under threat?

In this coverage of the Cathedral Grove controversy, take note that only 1% of old-growth Coastal Douglas-fir trees remain in all ecosystem types across the coast (i.e. they are not only scarce in the "Coastal Douglas Fir" biogeoclimatic zone which Island Timberlands seems to imply, but in the Dry Maritime subzone of the Coastal Western Hemlock zone where Cathedral Grove lies and in other forest types...) and that the planned protection as Ungulate Winter Range for black-tailed deer in the areas now being logged or roaded by Island Timberlands was supposed to be followed up by provincial legislation - but the lands were removed from the TFL and the company and BC government failed to follow-up with an agreement to ensure these areas' protection.

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Nov 19 2013

Logging Around Cathedral Grove Highlights Need For Forestry Engagement

MLA Andrew Weaver speaks up for Cathedral Grove's protection: "The decision to log the stand owned by Island Timberlands, adjacent to Cathedral Grove, goes against the idea of using a scientific approach to managing our forests. Identified previously as important Black-tailed Deer wintering habitat, the fracturing of this habitat will have adverse effects. Furthermore, Cathedral Grove is an iconic tourist attraction on Vancouver Island – it is unsurprising that there has been such a public backlash against logging activity so close by. This is an example of the current conflict driven model of forestry management – and the negative impacts it has on everyone involved."

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