News Coverage

“Time is running out for our endangered old-growth forests and B.C.’s coastal forestry jobs. Salt Spring Island is famous as a hub of environmental consciousness — it may very well have the highest density of tree-huggers in North America. It’s a key place for us to build support and expand our strong campaign to protect our ancient forests, ensure sustainable second-growth forestry and to ban raw log exports to foreign mills,”

Link to video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXIcjHP8knE Tweet

AFA members spent the last year hunting the south Island for old-growth stands to document and photograph. It’s trying to put pressure on the B.C. government to protect old-growth stands for future generations.

The valuable contribution intact forests make in conserving natural carbon stores to help in the fight against climate change has been largely overlooked in BC. Like a bank account that can store carbon away for hundreds of years, the service of keeping carbon in the ground and out of the atmosphere, is provided free of charge by our intact forests.

The Cowichan Citizens’ Coalition will screen the documentaries Stump To Dump, and Raw Log Exports made by Lake Cowichan Secondary School students. Discussion will involve Youbou Timberless Society members, plus Ken Wu and T.J. Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

The Youbou TimberLess Society (YTS) will be hosting a film screening of their documentary videos Stump to Dump, and Log Exports, produced by Lake Cowichan Secondary School students, at the Duncan United Church Hall, Jan 20, at 7 p.m.

We are joined by Ken Wu and T.J.Watt from The Ancient Forest Alliance, along with some great images of this magnificent old growth forest. We also talk about 'the big picture' of saving what is left of BC's old growth forests, and the threats still facing it today.

"My work focus’s mainly on the threats to BC’s endangered old-growth forests and often times I am taking photos where less than and a handful of people have stood, if any at all. The dense rainforests of Vancouver Island are largely unexplored so it’s amazing to share images from these virtually unknown places. If you can’t bring the 4 million plus citizens of British Columbia to the woods then you need to bring the woods to them and now, with the power of GPS mapping and Google Earth, you can extend that concept to the entire world."

The carbon from coastal rainforests, much of which comes from Vancouver Island, is not counted in BC's official emissions tally as, at the international level, Canada and the provinces decided against including forests. If they were included, emissions numbers for BC would increase by 24 per cent.