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NEW Old-Growth Protection Act! SEND a MESSAGE to the NDP-Government-in-Waiting

**Please FORWARD far and wide!**ACTION ALERT! April 14, 2013

Proposed BC “Old-Growth Protection Act”

LETTERS NEEDED NOW to the NDP Government-in-Waiting!

There are only TWO days left until the official 28 day campaign period begins (ie. when the “writ drops”) in the lead-up to the May 14 BC Election.

NOW is the MOST important time for YOU to SPEAK UP for our Ancient Forests and Sustainable Forestry Jobs!

A proposed BC “Old-Growth Protection Act” has just been released by the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria. The science-based plan would incorporate timelines to immediately end or quickly phase-out old-growth logging in endangered regions of BC. See more info on the proposed act at:

CTV News Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb09Z0-4rmE

Media Release: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-protection-act-needed-to-preserve-bcs-natural-heritage/

The BC Liberals are in all likelihood going to lose power in May. This is a necessity, given their long, unapologetic, anti-environmental history of large-scale old-growth forest liquidation, massive overcutting, environmental deregulation, and overseeing the demise of tens of thousands of BC forestry jobs while tens of millions of raw logs were exported to foreign mills. It’s important to remember this while at the ballot box on May 14.

Now, with an NDP government in all likelihood about to take power, we are asking that the NDP COMMIT to the key tenets of the proposed Old-Growth Protection Act and to not continue the disastrous, unsustainable status quo in BC’s forests. [SEE “Where Do the Parties Currently Stand” down BELOW]

**** PLEASE take just a couple MINUTES to WRITE a QUICK EMAIL to the NDP! ****

Let BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix (adrian.dix@bcndp.ca), NDP Forestry Critic Norm MacDonald (norm.macdonald.mla@leg.bc.ca), NDP Environment Critic Rob Fleming (rob.fleming@bcndp.ca), and your own NDP Candidate (find at: https://www.bcndp.ca/team) know that you expect them to:

Commit to the “Old-Growth Protection Act”, or a similar plan, that establishes science-based targets and timelines to quickly end old-growth logging in endangered regions of BC.
Ensure a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry to sustain BC’s forestry jobs, instead of allowing massive raw log exports to foreign mills.
Reduce the unsustainable rate of overcutting in BC’s forests that is causing the collapse of ecosystems and rural communities.

* Be sure to include your full mailing address so they know which riding you live in and that you’re a real person.

* Be sure to let them know if you are a member of the NDP party!!

*** NOTE: In addition, you can SEND a MESSAGE (but also please write your own email, above, which is most effective) to the BC NDP and also Premier Christy Clark through our website: www.BCForestMovement.com (IMPORTANT: If you’ve used this website before, note that it sends a DIFFERENT message now with important changes, and YES, you can and should send this NEW message).

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WHERE DO THE PARTIES CURRENTLY STAND on OLD-GROWTH PROTECTION?

The BC Liberals have not changed their unscientific, anti-environmental stance that old-growth forests are not endangered and that they’ve managed them well. They will likely lose power, and deserve to, unless they radically change their stance.

The BC Green Party recently committed to the key parts of the Old-Growth Protection Act. See: [Original article no longer available]

The NDP seem to support scientific conservation assessments for our old-growth forests, as indicated by yesterday’s comments of the NDP’s Environment Critic Rob Fleming about the Old-Growth Protection Act (see: www.timescolonist.com/news/world/ancient-forest-alliance-calls-for-science-based-forest-plan-1.109973). This is a recent step forward. However, they have not committed yet to the plan’s actual protection scheme that would end old-growth logging in endangered regions – this is the central part of the plan.

In mid-March, a Global TV piece aired about old-growth forests and the NDP’s forestry platform. Nowhere was old-growth protection mentioned as being part of the NDP’s forest policies (rather, their main policy was to “plant more trees”) and the Council Of Forest Industry (COFI) president commented that there was nothing of concern to the timber companies with the NDP’s forest policies. Let’s hope the party’s forest policies have evolved since! See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOz232HDx3Y

NDP Leader Adrian Dix, during his 2011 campaign to become party leader, promised to: “Develop a long term strategy for old growth forests in the Province, including protection of specific areas that are facing immediate logging plans.” While several NDP MLA’s have championed protecting specific old-growth forests while in Opposition, at this time Dix and the NDP party as a whole have not followed up, developed any specifics, re-mentioned, or even officially adopted Dix’s earlier leadership promise for a province-wide old-growth plan. DIX MUST BE MADE to KEEP HIS PROMISE. See Dix’s 2011 promise (#4 Ecosystem Management) at: [Original article no longer available]

See the Ancient Forest Alliance’s new Youtube Clip on Saving BC’s Endangered Forests and Forestry Jobs at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YTizBF-jE

Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act
Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada

Ancient Forest Alliance calls for science-based forest plan

*Note: The Green Party has adopted the key recommendations of the Environmental Law Clinic’s proposed Old-Growth Protection Act. It appears that the NDP support the scientific assessment component of the proposal, however they have not yet committed to the calls for protection and fully ending old-growth logging in endangered regions.

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Up-to-date science and legislation without massive loopholes is needed to protect B.C.’s remaining old-growth forests, says the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Clinic.

The proposed Old-Growth Protection Act was produced by the clinic at the request of the Ancient Forest Alliance. The group’s executive director, Ken Wu, hopes it will spur the government to action.

“It’s time for a new, science-based plan,” he said.

An industry transition to second-growth trees is inevitable as the last unprotected old-growth stands are logged, Wu said.

“We simply want the B.C. government to ensure the transition is completed sooner, while these ancient forests still stand.”

The proposal, which is similar to a plan released Friday by the Green Party of B.C., is based on immediately stopping old-growth logging in critically endangered forests and phasing out old-growth logging where there’s a high risk to biodiversity and the ecosystem.

Major elements of the plan include appointing a science panel to carry out inventories and forest risk assessments, establishing different harvest rates for old-growth and second-growth, and legally designating old-growth reserves so there are consistent, enforceable rules.

Calvin Sandborn, the clinic’s legal director, said the plan is practical, science-based and politically doable.

“We wanted something that would fix the flaws in the current system, and the flaws are numerous,” he said.

Protection now offered by old-growth management areas is limited, Sandborn said.

Boundaries are adjusted to move protected areas away from valuable old-growth stands, logging is conducted under the guise of protecting forest health, small, stunted old-growth trees are protected, rather than big stands, and areas protected under forest rules can still be harvested by the oil and gas industry, Sandborn said.

If science and current mapping were used to establish which areas should be protected, much of the political heat would disappear, especially as protecting ancient trees produces more jobs over the long term than cutting them down, he said.

“These trees are our equivalent of the ancient cathedrals of Europe,” he said.

Forests Minister Steve Thomson could not be reached Friday.

NDP environment critic Rob Fleming said the proposed legislation “speaks to the urgency of the issue.”

“The idea of a science panel to assess the inventory of old growth on the Island is a good one, and I think it’s supportable,” he said. “It echoes an earlier call from the Forest Practices Board.”

The Green party is also calling for more science-based assessments and a provincial inventory of remaining old-growth forests.

“Given the scarcity of remaining productive old growth in much of our province, it is clear that we need to head in a new science-based direction to manage our forests,” said Green leader Jane Sterk.

The party also wants to see incentives for companies to retool mills so they can handle second-growth trees, and emergency protection for endangered ecosystems, such as the eastern Vancouver Island coastal Douglas fir zone.

Comment: 1993’s Clayoquot Summer was a game-changer

Twenty years ago today, about 30 residents of Tofino were driving up and down the highway by Long Beach, communicating via handheld radios, tracking a helicopter carrying B.C.’s premier of the day and select media.

A local guy listening in on emergency, aviation and boat communications was transmitting the play-by-play, while the helicopter sought a quiet landing spot where the premier could make a “contained” statement about the fate of Clayoquot Sound’s forests.

Nothing that followed, however, in what was to become the Clayoquot Summer of 1993, could be construed as “contained.”

The Clayoquot land-use decision of April 13, 1993, sparked a mass protest that put Clayoquot Sound’s ancient temperate rainforests on the international map. Over a period of six months, the region became an icon for an environmental awakening.

Clayoquot symbolized all that was wrong with industrial logging and was a touchstone for people’s hope for change. It shook the province, inspired people to action and hatched a marketplace-oriented strategy that has been utilized in environmental campaigns from the farthest corner of Vancouver Island to the Great Bear Rainforest to Indonesia, the Amazon and beyond.

The conflict, in fact, began in the previous decade with a group of volunteers from the Friends of Clayoquot Sound and First Nations leaders who rose to protect their traditional territories. Reaction to the 1993 Clayoquot decision transformed the local conflict into a movement with reverberations to this day.

Clayoquot Summer ’93 was triggered because the decision left two-thirds of the region, including many intact rainforest valleys, open to industrial logging. Public outrage about this decision funnelled into the largest act of non-violent civil disobedience in Canadian history, culminating in the arrest of 856 of the 12,000-plus protesters, who were tried in mass trials and jailed.

By October 1993, when the protests wrapped up, it had spilled into years known as the “War in the Woods.” Environmental groups targeted corporate customers of B.C. wood and paper products around the world, causing the province grief and the industry millions in lumber and paper sales.

In response to the non-violent but highly energized uprising, the political ground in B.C. shifted. Clayoquot marked a renaissance in First Nations land-rights discussions, and environmental groups became powerful intermediaries, both in the wood-supply chain and in the political discourse. Importantly, the public became defiant over what they saw to be legal but wrong — the destruction of the environment — and began to stir.

Out of the controversy, the First Nations in Clayoquot Sound, who hadn’t been consulted on the land-use plan, were chosen to be first in the province’s new treaty process, and a groundbreaking pre-treaty agreement was signed.

By August, then-premier Mike Harcourt established the Clayoquot Sound Scientific Panel for Sustainable Forest Practices. The outcry against wanton clearcut logging broke through barriers, sparking the province to initiate B.C.’s first forest-practices code. The logging industry circled its wagons in an attempt to defend its tarnished reputation in the marketplace, but change was apace.

The fight for Clayoquot was a polarizing issue. Wedges were driven between communities as we grappled with the biggest issues of our day with nowhere but the public forum to play them out. And yet, we all crept, agonizingly, toward breakthroughs that British Columbians can be proud of.

What happened in Clayoquot Sound, beginning in April 1993, has had a major influence on global environmental movements, the Great Bear Rainforest campaign and even the oilsands and pipeline campaigns of today — as well as on conservation of Clayoquot’s forests.

It has been 20 years. Just over half of Clayoquot’s rainforests are now off-limits to logging. But many of the region’s intact rainforest valleys are still unprotected, and the region’s First Nations communities still struggle economically.

As the anniversaries of the Clayoquot Sound land-use decision and subsequent uprising of the Summer of ’93 are marked, we see new opportunities for conservation and human well-being growing again in Clayoquot Sound. A lasting solution may soon be at hand that honours the movements for environmental and social justice begun those 20 years ago, in the magnificent, inspiring place that is Clayoquot Sound.

There are many more stories to tell about those times. There are more in the making there now.

Valerie Langer is with ForestEthics Solutions. Eduardo Sousa is with Greenpeace. Maryjka Mychajlowycz is a member of Friends of Clayoquot Sound. Torrance Coste is a campaigner for the Wilderness Committee.

CTV – Environmental Law Centre Proposes BC Old-Growth Act

CTV News – The Environmental Law Centre of the University of Victoria is proposing a science-based Old Growth Protection Act for British Columbia with timelines to immediately protect critically endangered old-growth forests and to quickly phase out old growth logging in highly endangered forests. Direct Link to video: https://youtu.be/wb09Z0-4rmE

See the full press release and report here: www.staging.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=624

Old Growth Protection Proposal by the Environmental Law Centre of the University of Victoria

The UVic Environmental Law Centre is proposing a science-based Old Growth Protection Act for British Columbia with timelines to immediately protect critically endangered old-growth forests and to quickly phase out old-growth logging in highly endangered forests.

See the details of the report.

Here’s a link to the Environmental Law Centre’s website.

Upper Walbran Valley - Giant redcedar stump. Vancouver Island

“Old Growth Protection Act” needed to preserve BC’s Natural Heritage

A legislative proposal for an “Old Growth Protection Act” by the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre (ELC) would ensure better protection for BC’s ancient forest heritage if adopted by the provincial government. The science-based plan would incorporate timelines to immediately end old-growth logging in “critically endangered” forests, and quickly phase out old-growth logging where there is a “high risk” to biological diversity and ecosystem integrity.

Specifically, the Old Growth Protection Act would require:

Appointment of a Science Panel to carry out inventories and assessments that identify the degree of ecological risk associated with varying levels of remaining old-growth forests.
Partitioning of the Allowable Annual Cut (AAC), the allowable harvest levels for tree farm licences and timber supply areas, to legally differentiate between old-growth and second-growth logging, so different rates of harvest may be applied.
Phasing-out the old-growth cut in areas where forests are endangered, through scientifically-informed timelines ranging from immediate bans to phase-outs over time to allow the forest industry to retool for second-growth, depending on the scarcity of old-growth forests in each region.
Improving the legal protection for old-growth reserves, so that they are mapped, legally designated and consistent rules are applied across resource extraction industries.

“The Forest Practices Board has pointed out some of these problems in the past,” stated Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the UVic Environmental Law Centre. “The Ancient Forest Alliance asked us what could be done to address known deficiencies in old-growth protection laws. While some legal mechanisms are available today under various statutes, we feel there is a need for new legislation and planning that is based on science, governed by timelines, and plugs existing loopholes or inconsistencies.”

Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director stated: “Considering that the timber industry has logged the vast majority of the biggest, best old-growth stands in the lowlands, driving several species towards extinction in this province, it’s time for a new science-based plan that protects our endangered old-growth forests as the timber industry continues its second-growth transition. A complete transition to a second-growth forest industry is inevitable when the last of the unprotected old-growth stands are logged. We simply want the BC government to ensure the transition is completed sooner, while these ancient forests still stand, instead of after they’re all logged outside the limited and often tenuous protections that exist.”

The ELC Report may be viewed at this link: https://elc.uvic.ca/2013-oldgrowthprotectionact/

Ancient Forest Alliance Media Backgrounder

The proposed Old Growth Protection Act would resolve the inadequacies of BC’s current old-growth management system, which include:

– Insufficient protection levels, as is evident from the decline of old-growth dependent species like the spotted owl (only 10 individuals left in BC’s wilds), mountain caribou (40% decline since the 1990’s, from 2500 animals in 1995 to 1500 today), and marbled murrelet (considered to be declining by the BC Conservation Data Center).

– An insufficient scientific basis in establishing old-growth protection target levels and site selection, currently skewed towards minimizing timber supply impacts in the richest stands.

– A failure to distinguish between marginal versus productive old-growth stands, thus allowing non-commercial stands of stunted, small old-growth trees to be substituted in the place of protecting the stands with large trees and greatest biodiversity.

– A failure to distinguish between old-growth and second-growth harvest levels in the Allowable Annual Cut, thus allowing companies to “chase value” by high-grading the highest value old-growth stands first.

– Insufficient firmness in protection standards due to loopholes that allow theoretically protected old-growth forests to be destroyed. These loopholes include an ability to move old-growth protections away from higher value stands into lower value stands, to log under the guise of maintaining forest health, and a lack of protection against mining, oil and gas development, and hydro projects that also destroy forests.

The plan would exclude the Central and North Coast (ie. the Great Bear Rainforest) and Haida Gwaii, where comprehensive old-growth protections and more advanced, science-based land use planning processes are already underway and have partly been implemented.

In areas where the remaining old-growth forests are below targeted protection levels, second-growth forests must also be allowed to age to become old-growth forests again. The establishment of “recruitment reserves” for this purpose as well as the reduction of the second-growth AAC (allowable second-growth cut) will be necessary in endangered regions.

BC’s old-growth forests sustain endangered species, the climate, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and many First Nations cultures.

Most old-growth forests have been logged in southern BC, ranging from 65% to 99% logged in various regions. Valley bottoms and low elevation ecosystems where the largest trees grow and most biodiversity lives have been particularly hard hit. BC government statistics regularly inflate the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including vast tracts of low productivity “bonsai” forests of small, stunted trees growing at high elevations, on steep rocky mountainsides and in bogs of little to no commercial timber value and that are generally lower conservation priorities, while failing to providing a context on how much productive old-growth forests once stood.

See photos of BC’s old-growth forests at: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/photos-media/

See a new YouTube campaign video of BC’s old-growth forests at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6YTizBF-jE

Authorized by the Ancient Forest Alliance, registered sponsor under the Election Act
Ancient Forest, Alliance, Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC, V8W 3S1 Canada

Pre-Election Info Night and Rally for Ancient Forests is happening this Wednesday April 10th from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at Alix Goolden Hall!

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.

Julianne Skai Arbor hugs the San Juan spruce

The naked tree-hugger makes her way to Port Renfrew

*See her website at www.treegirl.org

The rain barely let up in Port Renfrew Friday morning, but that didn’t stop Julianne Skai Arbor from stripping off her clothes and closely embracing the mossy trunk of the massive San Juan spruce.

“It’s my first time on Vancouver Island and there was a downpour, but it’s still beautiful,” said Arbor, the ultimate tree hugger, as she warmed up after the photo shoot.

Arbor, a 43-year-old California college professor who teaches environmental conservation, travels around the world photographing herself naked with old or endangered trees. She is lending her support to the Ancient Forest Alliance’s efforts to push the B.C. government into coming up with a strategy to protect big trees and remaining patches of old-growth forest.

“The most fragile ecosystems that are still intact should be put aside,” said Arbor, who posts photos of her tree travels on her treegirl.org website and is writing a book about her love of big trees. “It’s amazing for me to see the forests on this Island and I wonder how the people who live here can watch the cutting of the forest. There is only so much you can do before it’s gone.”

The peaceful feeling of being surrounded by nature’s lifeforce in an old forest is very different from feelings generated by a clearcut or tree farm, she said.

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and founder TJ Watt, who photographed Arbor with the San Juan spruce, said the photos are a new way of highlighting the grandeur of B.C.’s old-growth forests so they can be protected. “When people see these images, they strike a chord.”

Jon Cash, owner of Soule Creek Lodge and vice-president of Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, is hoping the photos promote tourism.

“When you see these pictures, it’s hard to know where to focus. She’s a beautiful woman and it’s a beautiful tree,” he said.

Big trees and especially Avatar Grove — a patch of majestic old-growth discovered by the Ancient Forest Alliance and given provincial protection when it started drawing thousands of visitors — have become a major economic driver in the Port Renfrew area, Cash said. They’re one of three top draws to the area, along with Botanical Beach and fishing.

“At the Information Centre in Sooke, one of the top three questions is: ‘Where is Avatar Grove?’ ” he said. “The big trees have drawn hundreds of thousands of dollars of business.”

The San Juan spruce, which stands in a forest recreation site beside the San Juan River, is the largest spruce tree in Canada at 62 metres tall, with a crown that spreads over 23 metres. It does not have any official protection.

Meanwhile, Arbor, who is a certified arborist, is planning to come back to Port Renfrew in the summer to pose with other big trees.

“My goal is to capture a moment of intimacy in these wild places.”

Link to Times Colonist article: www.timescolonist.com/news/the-naked-tree-hugger-makes-her-way-to-port-renfrew-1.105165

THANK YOU’s! Tree Huggers Ball Success, Amanda’s T-Shirt Sales, PosterLoop, and Metropol

A huge THANK YOU to Nathaniel Glickman and members of the UVic Ancient Forest Committee for organizing a fun and successful fundraising night with a first rate line-up of local musicians (Moonshine Gang Victoria Chapter, (as the) Crow Flies, Redwood Green, Co-Captain, and DJ Rough Child) on Saturday’s 3rd Annual “Tree Huggers Ball”! The event raised a total of $4800 for our young organization that depends on grassroots support to stay afloat! Big thanks as well to Amanda Cook for donating nearly $400 in proceeds from sales of her “Stand up for the Coast” t-shirts!

In addition a great THANK YOU to Metropol Printshop (www.imetropol.com) for donating their time in placing our rally posters on all the downtown poles and to PosterLoop (www.posterloop.com) for contributing space on their electronic displays to promote the event as well!

Some of the red cedars here are estimated to be over 1000 years old.

UNBC Study Recommends Northern BC’s “Ancient Forest” be named a World Heritage Site

New research led by the University of Northern British Columbia is recommending that the area surrounding the “Ancient Forest Trail,” about 130 kilometers east of Prince George, be named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Citing the fact that these cedars have been reduced to less than four percent of the more than 130 thousand square hectare bioclimatic zone east of Prince George, the research indicates that these stands of ancient red cedars and surrounding biodiversity are “globally significant” and require the protection and status afforded other rich areas of scientific and cultural value deemed World Heritage Sites.

The comprehensive study, published in the BC Journal of Ecosystems and Management, went through extensive peer review, including by forest industry professionals. The article also points out the benefits such classification would bring, such as diversification of the regional economy by building upon a regional tourist attraction, which has already developed at the area.

“Having this published in a leading forestry journal sends a strong message of support, and should provide critical guidance to the provincial government,” says the article’s lead author, UNBC Ecosystem Science and Management Professor Darwyn Coxson. “There is much precedence to point to of ancient coastal rainforests being named World Heritage Sites, such as Haida Gwaii in BC, and Olympic National Park in Washington State, but in many scientific and cultural respects, the Ancient Forest is of even more value due to its extremely rare location so far north and so far inland.”

The Ancient Forest, accessible by trail from Highway 16, is a rainforest featuring massive western red cedars, some estimated to be over 1000 years old and home to an internationally significant diversity of lichen and fungi. The area, known for generations to First Nations and other local communities, was flagged for harvesting in 2006. UNBC students and researchers played a role in ensuring the public was notified of the cultural and scientific value of the area and the Forest was later declared off-limits to logging. Since then, multiple UNBC researchers and classes have visited the Ancient Forest Trail site to study the region’s biological systems, and their value for recreation, biodiversity, and economics.

“Many people in BC still do not realize the social and cultural value of this forest,” says Dr. Coxson, who co-wrote the study with UNBC Environmental Planning professor David Connell, and Trevor Goward of the University of British Columbia. “Becoming a Provincial Park and then a World Heritage Site will ensure the long-term protection of the ancient cedar stands, which to date, have been cared for by local community groups.”

To be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the site must first be named a provincial park. The Government of Canada must then recommend the site to UNESCO. The report recommends the BC Government extend the boundary of nearby Slim Creek Provincial Park to include the area surrounding the Ancient Forest Trail.

“UNESCO states that, for a site to be considered for World Heritage status, the area must ‘represent significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals,’” says Dr. Coxson. “We suggest that the immense cultural and biological values represented by this area meet these criteria.”