Pre-Election Info Night and Rally for Ancient Forests this Wednesday April 10th

Hello AFA Supporters!

Looking forward to seeing you all at the upcoming AFA event!

SAVE our ANCIENT FORESTS and BC FORESTRY JOBS!  Pre-Election RALLY and INFO NIGHT!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

7-9 pm

Alix Goolden Hall, 907 Pandora Ave. (by Quadra St), Victoria

Facebook event page (invite friends!)

YOUR ATTENDANCE is needed to SEND A STRONG MESSAGE to BC’s politicians one month before the BC election that it’s their MORAL OBLIGATION to commit to saving our endangered ancient forests and ensuring sustainable forestry! We will:

– See a NEW LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL from UVic’s Environmental Law Clinic on how to protect BC’s old-growth forests.

– See NEW MAPS for Vancouver Island and BC’s Southwest Mainland that debunk the BC Liberal government’s PR-spin

– See the ELECTION REPORT CARD on old-growth forests from the Ancient Forest Alliance

– Hear about the SWING RIDING CAMPAIGN for Sustainable Forestry and how YOU can help!

SPEAKERS will include:

– Robert Morales (Chief Treaty Negotiator, Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group)

– Calvin Sandborn (Legal Director, University of Victoria Environmental Law Clinic)

– Vicky Husband (Victoria conservationist, Order of BC and Canada recipient)

– Scott Fraser (NDP MLA for Alberni-Pacific)

– Dr. Andrew Weaver (Deputy Leader, Green Party of BC, and climate scientist)

– Arnold Bercov (President, Pulp, and Woodworkers of Canada – Local 8

– TJ Watt (Campaigner and Photographer, Ancient Forest Alliance)

– Ken Wu (Executive Director, Ancient Forest Alliance)

Background info:

Ancient forests are vital to sustain endangered species, tourism, the climate, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures. See VIDEOS at: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/videos/ and PHOTOS at: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/

A century of unsustainable logging has eliminated the vast majority of the biggest, best old-growth trees in the valley bottoms and lower elevations that historically built BC’s forest industry. This has resulted in diminishing returns as the trees get smaller, more expensive to reach higher up, and lower in value.

As second-growth forests mature and now dominate the forested land base, the BC government has done little to stimulate investment in second-growth sawmills and value-added facilities to process the logs. Instead, they’ve allowed vast quantities to be exported raw to foreign mills in China, the US, and elsewhere.

Much of BC’s remaining old-growth forests now consist of marginal or “low-productivity” trees growing on poor sites at high elevations, on steep, rocky mountainsides, and in bogs. The BC government’s statistics deliberately overinflate the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including these stunted “bonsai” forests – mainly uneconomic to log – in their public relations figures, as well as failing to provide context on how much old-growth forests once stood.

Our remaining “productive” old-growth forests where the large trees grow, or “ancient forests”, today consist of only a small fraction of their original extent. This is particularly true on Vancouver Island, the southern mainland coast, and in the BC interior.

On Vancouver Island, 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow.

The history of unsustainable resource extraction around the world is replete with examples where the biggest and best stocks have been depleted one after another, resulting in the loss of resource industry jobs
along the way.

BC’s politicians must not allow this familiar pattern of high-grade resource depletion, ecosystem collapse, and the impoverishment of rural communities to continue in BC’s forests under their watch – or through
their active support. A major change in the status quo of unsustainable forestry in the province is vital. Politicians who fail to understand this fundamental concept must not have power.

By Donation.

Organized by the Ancient Forest Alliance www.AncientForestAlliance.org

For more information call 250-896-4007.