Til the Last Tree

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To make a pledge of any amount to Hall and Jackett’s ride to benefit the Ancient Forest Alliance, please go to: https://www.tilthelasttree.com/p/donate.html

Two cyclists on a cross-Canada bicycle trip to raise funds and awareness to protect BC’s old-growth forests are now nearing completion of their meandering, 11,000 kilometer cycling and bird-watching journey – almost 6 months after commencing their tour that they’ve dubbed “‘til the last tree” (see  https://www.tilthelasttree.com/ ).Musician Jaime Hall and wildlife biologist Nigel Jackett began their tour from Newfoundland in May, taking sponsorship pledges for the Victoria-based environmental organization, the Ancient Forest Alliance (https://16.52.162.165/),as they’ve progressed. The couple, now in BC, are due to arrive in Victoria around November 10.

Pledges are based on the number of bird species spotted by Jackett and Hall, and the couple have now seen more than 300 species. Individuals can also make a donation to down load Hall’s songs or simply make a straight donation to the Ancient Forest Alliance. They have now raised almost $4000 in donations and sponsorship pledges for the Ancient Forest Alliance, which so far has run on a budget of about $45,000 in 2011.

“What a phenomenal experience it has been to see the diversity of my own country with the detail that comes from traveling by bicycle. We’re glad to have had the opportunity to undertake such an epic journey, and to raise funds and awareness for a cause we truly believe in,” stated Jaime Hall. “As it turns out, cycling the distance of one and a half times Canada’s length has also got us into the best shape of our lives!”

“I’m amazed at the diversity of ecosystems in Canada –from the Carolinian deciduous forests of southern Ontario to the prairie grass lands of southern Saskatchewan to the temperate rainforests of British Columbia. I’m thrilled that such a great experience will contribute to the protection of Canada’s natural heritage and biodiversity,” stated Nigel Jackett.

Jaime Hall grew up in the Okanagan, was trained as a classical pianist, and is a song-writer and musician with a passion for nature and conservation. Nigel Jackett is an Australian-born biologist who worked for the BC government surveying for species-at-risk in 2007 and 2008.

Highlights of their trip have included:

– Newfoundland. The people are friendly and the starkly beautiful landscapes are unique in Canada

– Secretly camping in a Toronto waterfront park, and going unnoticed.

– Experiencing the spectacle of spring and fall bird migration.

– An 82 year-old retired coastguard taking them in his boat to look for puffins off the southern tip of Nova Scotia.

– Communicating, or rather trying to communicate, in their broken French in Quebec and New Brunswick: “Nous traverson le Canada en bicyk!”

– Arriving at the gates to BC: the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta!!

The Ancient Forest Alliance is a new, Victoria-based non-profit environmental organization working for the protection of BC’s old-growth forests, to ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and to end the export of raw, unprocessed logs from BC to foreign mills. The organization was founded in January, 2010, and works within the law through rallies, hiking trips, slideshows, photography, letter-writing campaigns, petition drives, and media campaigns to inform and mobilize citizens to push the BC government to protect ancient forests and BC forestry jobs. See the organization’s photo gallery of Canada’s largest trees and stumps at:  https://16.52.162.165/photos-media/

“We’re most grateful to Hall and Jackett for their great support in promoting our cause. As a new organization with very limited funds, the completion of their tour will greatly bolster our organization at a critical time,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “We’re looking forward to celebrate their arrival after 6 months!”

To make a pledge of any amount to Hall and Jackett’s ride to benefit the Ancient Forest Alliance, please go to:  https://www.tilthelasttree.com/p/donate.html

The Ancient Forest Alliance will host a welcoming event and slideshow on Monday, November 14 by Hall and Jackett where they will present photos of the highlights of their tour from 7:00-8:30 pm at the Garry Oak Room in the Fairfield Community Center at 1335 Thurlow Road by Moss St.

Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance stops to look at Canada's Gnarliest tree in the Avatar Old Growth Forest near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island

Welcome to Avatar forest in B.C.

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PORT RENFREW, B.C.—Pink ribbons knotted to tree branches at the side of a gravel logging road mark the entry to an amazing earthly experience, something so different from anything most people have experienced it might be on another world.

The air is cool, damp and even smells green. Look up and there is no blue sky, just scraggy branches and the tops of 60-metre trees, that allow sunlight to hit the mossy ground only in broken beams of light.

This is Avatar Grove, a 50-hectare piece of untouched old-growth forest, about 110 kilometres northwest of Victoria.

Through a karma-like convergence, natural-born enemies, environmentalists, business leaders and politicians are joining hands to protect it from logging and create a nature-lover’s paradise.

It’s as if the happy-ending script is writing itself at Avatar Grove — a sequel of sorts to the Hollywood blockbuster, unfolding in the few remaining dark, moody and ancient big-tree forests on southern Vancouver Island.

“When we came across the area, it was at the same time the movie ‘Avatar’ was released,” said Ken Wu, co-founder of the Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance. “‘Avatar’ was about saving old-growth forests, albeit on an alien moon.

“We wanted people to make the connection that here on earth we have real spectacular old growth (forests) that are endangered and that need protecting,” he said, standing near a huge cedar marked in spray paint with the number five, signifying that it once faced a chainsaw death.

Wu said choosing the name Avatar Grove, courting the business community in nearby struggling Port Renfrew and getting the ear of the B.C. government has sparked a groundswell to declare the rugged coastal area the Big Trees Capital of Canada.

The Ancient Forest Alliance spent the summer taking busloads of tourists into Avatar Grove to see the mysterious forest, especially the alien-shaped western red cedar, nicknamed Canada’s gnarliest tree for is Volkswagen-sized burl that makes it look like something out of one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels.

“Port Renfrew really is the biggest trees capital of Canada,” said Wu. “The fact is the largest Douglas fir tree on earth is near town. The biggest spruce tree in Canada is also near town. The biggest tree in Canada, the Cheewaht cedar, is also north of town.

“And we’ve got the gnarliest tree at the Avatar Grove,” he said. “It’s an exceptional place for big-tree tourism and I think this is the year people are starting to recognize that and are coming to see them.”

Rosie Betsworth, Port Renfrew’s Chamber of Commerce president, agrees with Wu and the Ancient Forest Alliance that the big trees are something to see. It’s also offering a tourism boost to the community that, until recently, considered logging and fishing its lifeblood.

“The majority (here) can see the value of tourism dollars,” she said. “And now that there’s probably a handful of loggers left in this community, it is no longer a logging town.”

Betsworth said environmentalists like Wu and photographer T.J. Watt, who discovered Avatar Grove in 2009 while scouting the area’s few remaining old-growth stands, convinced locals that there is money in saving trees as opposed to cutting them down.

“For a small group of very broke guys, my God, they’ve made so much movement,” she said.

Steve Thomson, B.C.’s minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources, said the government halted planned logging of Avatar Grove and is awaiting the results of a public consultation process on the area’s future.

But he suggested it already appears logging is no longer a viable option.

“The province has published its intent to adjust the old-growth management area to protect that grove,” he said.

Watt said Avatar Grove and the other huge trees in the Port Renfrew area, where many hillsides are scarred from clear-cut logging, are living examples of Mother Nature’s majesty that are located steps from easily accessible roads.

“Right away we knew we had something special because I couldn’t think of anywhere else where you could see trees of this size and get there in something like a Honda Civic.”

Direct lin to article: https://www.thestar.com/travel/northamerica/article/1080406–welcome-to-avatar-forest-in-b-c

Thank You Metropol Printshop!

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A big thanks goes out to Victoria based Metropol Printshop for volunteer their postering service time by putting up our recent ancient forest rally posters on all the downtown poles! This is a tremendous help and time saver when you’re organizing a large event!

Metropol offers many printing services for things such as posters, postcards, handbills, business cards, stickers, and other eco-friendly printing along with postering services around town!

Check Metropol out online.

 

Thank You PosterLoop Media!

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The Ancient Forest Alliance would like to thank James at PosterLoop Media for helping spread the word about our recent Rally for Ancient Forests by donating space on their rotating digital sign displays around downtown Victoria!

Visit PosterLoop’s website to check out the creative services they offer!  https://posterloop.com/index.php

Hul’qumi’num Treaty group Chief Treaty Negotiator Robert Morales

Ancient Forest Alliance hosts rally to protect old growth

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More than four hundred people showed up to support the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) last Thursday at Alix Goolden hall. The goal of the rally was to gather support from the community in a call to the provincial government to revamp forest policies. Protection of old growth forests, transition to a sustainable second-growth forestry economy, and a ban on exportation of raw logs were some of the main talking points from a diverse group of keynote speakers.

Representatives from First Nations bands, forestry workers from the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada Union (PPWC), the Sierra Club, and the NDP’s forestry critic, Norm MacDonald, all spoke on the topics of old growth and forestry jobs.

Robert Morales, Chief Treaty Negotiator of the Hul’qumi’num Treaty group discussed new land use plans calling for protection of old growth in First Nations territory across the province, as well as an increase in protected endangered forests. Morales is part of a group heading to Washington, D.C. to discuss with the Inter-American Commission the possible human rights violations in taking privately owned land off the table for negotiations. He states that in addition to hurting old growth forests, deforestation also affects Indigenous communities. The loss of trees, plants and animals hinders cultural teachings. Morales wants to push for a change in Canadian domestic policy; the goal is not to displace people, but preserve forest jobs as well as the environment. The treaty group represents the largest grouping of First Nations on Vancouver Island from Shawnigan Lake to Nanaimo.
 

Arnold Bercov, President of the PPWC, called for an end to raw log exports. Ken Wu of the AFA stated 1.1 million cubic metres of raw logs were exported to China in 2010, which represents the potential of 1 000 mill jobs if processed in B.C. A decline in coastal forestry employment can be attributed to a decline in old-growth stands, resulting in trees becoming increasingly expensive to reach.

The importance of the forest to First Nations culture was driven home by Gisele Martin, Clayoquot Nuu-Cha-Nulth (Tlaoquiaht) Cultural Educator and tour operator. She stated that the forest is a pharmacy, grocery store, a home, and important for the continuation of cultural education. To know the bark is ready on a tree for basket making one must literally hug the tree, and it is important to use all that you take.

With old-growth forest on the decline, and mills having to switch procedures from old growth to second growth anyway, the AFA is calling for a switch as soon as possible.

With the provincial election next year, Wu said that there is a minority of British Columbians that want the old growth finished off.

“This is the ideal time to be pushing the B.C. government to develop comprehensive new policies because firstly, there is time to do it,” he says. “Secondly, we have time to build a broad-based movement to toss them out if they don’t.”
 

The first of many public mobilizations, Wu states that AFA are going from the woods to the streets over the next year.
 

1 & 1/2 Annual Tree Huggers Ball – Dance Party Extravaganza!

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This Friday, students with the University of Victoria Ancient Forest Committee have again organized an awesome night full of groovy MUSIC, ridiculous contests, PRIZES, and foot stomping good times, all in support of our endangered ancient forests! Come on out and enjoy this dance party extravaganza!

Date: Friday, Nov. 4th
Time: 8:00 pm – 1:00 am
Location: Felicita’s Pub @ UVic
Tickets: $10 – Available in the UVSS booth in the Student Union Building (SUB) and at the door.

All proceeds from the event will go to the Ancient Forest Alliance. Last year the club packed the pub with over 300 people and raised roughly $5200 for AFA! This year they’re aiming to top that mark!

 

AFA Photographer TJ Watt relaxes in a giant redcedar the day he and a friend discovered the now endangered Avatar Grove.

Public Hike to the Avatar Grove – Saturday, Nov.5th.

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*** Note – New meeting place for the fall/winter hikes!

Join the Ancient Forest Alliance’s Ken Wu and TJ Watt for a hike to the Avatar Grove this coming Saturday. Come out and learn about the ecology and politics surrounding BC’s endangered old-growth forests and experience the grove’s gnarly redcedars and giant Douglas-firs first hand!

Itinerary:

– Meet at 1:00pm in Port Renfrew at the Port Renfrew Hotel/Pub (It is located in town on the right-hand side of the road a short distance after passing the Coastal Kitchen Cafe). Upon arrival, please watch to see how parking is being organized to keep space open for general business costumers.
– Leave in a convoy to the Avatar Grove.
– Hike the Avatar Grove and finish by 4:00pm

IMPORTANT – MUST READ!

***THIS IS A WILDERNESS AREA***

Only those with a moderate hiking ability and comfortable hiking on rugged terrain with fallen logs, steep slopes, and no official trail, and with a firm sense of balance, can come on the hike. All participants will be required to sign a waiver form.

*No dogs. They can disturb wildlife including bears, elk, deer, cougars, wolves, raccoons, and Sasquatch in the area.

*Participants must bring their own snacks, water, proper clothing and footwear for all weather conditions, medical requirements, and wonderful attitude!

*Be sure to support the local community by buying food and other items in town!

*Directions and a Google map to the Avatar Grove from Port Renfrew can be found at: https://16.52.162.165/ancient-forests/directions-to-avatar-grove/

Please let us know if you’re coming and how many people you’ll be bringing, so we can get a sense of our numbers.
You can email us at: info@16.52.162.165

AFA's Ken Wu stands beside a giant Arbutus tree on unused DND lands along Ocean Boulevard near Fort Rodd National Historic Park

Conservationists fearful of DND land sale

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Environmental protection should be the first consideration if the military decides to sell surplus land around Greater Victoria, conservation groups say.

Some of Canada’s most endangered ecosystems are found on Department of National Defence land in the capital region, the groups say.

DND, which controls more than 4,000 hectares of land around Greater Victoria, is looking at selling surplus land. The Ancient Forest Alliance has called on the federal government to create protected areas or turn parcels over to agencies which can protect ecosystems.

“It might be surprising to most Canadians, but, in many cases, ecosystems in the best condition in Canada are on DND lands,” said Ken Wu of the AFA.

“The occasional bullets and bombs still often have lower impacts than the large-scale industrial resource extraction, clearcutting, strip-mining, oil drilling, agriculture and suburban sprawl that impact other lands.”

Old-growth coastal Douglas fir forests and Garry oak meadows are among ecosystems represented in DND-owned areas such as Rocky Point and Mary Hill in Metchosin, the area next to Fort Rodd National Historic Park and Royal Roads University, which leases land from DND. 

Ancient Forest Alliance

CTV News – Endangered DND Lands Need Protection

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Direct link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAP6tUGN2YQ

 

Ancient Forest Alliance worries about potential sell-off of unused DND lands for real estate development and calls for federal government to let Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada, the provinces, regional districts, and First Nations protect unused DND lands.

The potential sell-off of Department of National Defence (DND) lands reported by the Ottawa Citizen and the Canadian media recently is causing concern for conservationists who fear some of Canada’s most endangered ecosystems could be jeopardized by real estate development.

Instead the Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the federal government to protect the endangered ecosystems and exceptional natural areas on unused DND lands through:

– the Canadian Wildlife Service as new National Wildlife Areas

– Parks Canada as new National Parks

– transferring unused DND lands to the provinces for new Provincial Parks, Provincial Conservancies (in BC), or Ecological Reserves

– to Regional Districts in BC as new Regional Parks

– to First Nations as treaty settlement lands under agreement to become new First Nations protected areas where subsistence, cultural, and spiritual uses will continue

The Department of National Defence controls 800 parcels of federal public lands totalling 2.25 million hectares (about two-thirds the size of Vancouver Island) in Canada for military use, although vast areas are unused and remain in excellent ecological condition. From endangered coastal old-growth forests to prairie grasslands to Carolinian deciduous forests in southern Ontario to large intact boreal forests, Canada’s least disturbed ecosystems are often in the unused portions of the DND’s lands.

“It might be surprising to most Canadians, but in many cases the ecosystems in the best ecological condition in Canada are on DND lands. Much DND land is unused, and in other areas the occasional bullets and bombs still often have lower impacts than the large-scale industrial resource extraction, clearcutting, strip-mining, oil drilling, agriculture, and suburban sprawl that impact other lands in Canada,” stated Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “We’re demanding that the federal government show environmental leadership by protecting the endangered ecosystems and key natural areas on DND lands through new National and Provincial Parks, National Wildlife Areas, and Ecological Reserves rather than selling them off for suburban sprawl.”

In the Capital Regional District around Victoria, the DND controls over 4000 hectares of public lands, which include the very finest old-growth Coastal Douglas Fir forests and Garry oak ecosystems left in Canada in places like Rocky Point and Mary Hill in Metchosin, and DND lands behind the Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre, adjacent to Fort Rodd National Historic Park, and at Royal Roads University (which leases their lands from the DND) in Colwood.

“40% of the Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem is now underneath the pavement of Victoria, Nanaimo, and Duncan, or converted to agriculture, and 99% of its old-growth forests are already logged. The finest remnants of the Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem are here on the DND lands,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer.  “It’s the Department of National Defence’s duty to protect our Country when it’s under threat and here is the perfect opportunity to protect one of the most threatened places in Canada on their very own lands.” 

Ancient Forest Alliance

Ancient forests in B.C. – Canadian Geographic Blog

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Direct link to video: https://youtu.be/t5Z8NVbOiGY

On the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, just 15 minutes north of the historic logging town of Port Renfrew, an ancient old-growth forest named Avatar Grove gives visitors a glimpse of how the island’s trees may have looked 1,000 years ago.

Discovered in 2009 by photographer TJ Watt, cofounder of the Victoria-based environmental group the Ancient Forest Alliance, this 40-hectare old-growth forest is home to western red cedars and Douglas fir trees that stretch up to four metres in width.

Vancouver Island has lost 73 percent of its productive old-growth forest to logging, so Watt immediately recognized the significance of stumbling upon the pristine parcel of land.

The AFA has taken thousands of visitors on educational hikes through Avatar Grove to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the islands’ remaining ancient forests.

“To work to save an area, wherever you are in the world, if you experience a place yourself it gives you a greater resolve to protect it,” says Watt. “If you can experience that in real life you have a much greater and deeper appreciation.”

The AFA’s campaigning efforts and partnership with the local Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce has generated significant media attention and sparked a public conversation about whether the provincial government is doing enough to protect B.C.‘s old-growth forests.

The value of old trees

British Columbia is home to one of the largest coastal temperate rainforests left the world.

Saturated by an average annual precipitation of 3,671 mm — that’s three times more rain than Vancouver gets in a year — trees in Port Renfrew absorb enough water to resist pests and forest fires, enabling them to live and grow for as long as 1,000 years.

Their slow growth produces tighter growth rings and a high quality of wood less susceptible to bending and twisting with age. This makes them attractive targets of the logging industry: Ancient logs can be worth thousands of dollars.

The business of cutting down trees in B.C. has developed a symbiotic venture with tree planting. Since 1987, reforestation laws in B.C. require companies to replant areas that they harvest.

Forty million seedlings have been planted in B.C. since 2005, according to Pat Bell, former Minister of Forests and Range.

But a recent study by Anthony Britneff, who worked for the B.C. Forest Service for 39 years, found that harvested areas are not always replanted adequately, meaning seedlings do not grow productively.

Britneff states that “not satisfactorily restocked,” or NSR, forests are estimated to be larger than they were 25 years ago and cover an area nearly three times the size of Vancouver Island. These NSR statistics help determine the annual allowable cut and can potentially limit the amount of land that can be harvested for lumber.

A 90 percent funding cut to B.C.’s reforestation program in 2002 has made ensuring the accuracy of NSR statistics difficult, leading Britneff to argue that B.C. has an “unprecedented reforestation challenge” on its hands.

The value of old forests

Author Charlotte Gill, who spent 20 years working as a tree planter in Canada, experienced firsthand the challenges of trying to turn a clearcut into a forest.

In her new book, Eating Dirt, she questions whether the intricate relationships between species that have developed over centuries in old-growth forests can be replaced through the efforts of an army of shovels.

“Human hands can replace the trees but not necessarily the forest,” she writes.

Regrowing a forest can take up to 400 years, according to Gill’s research. Yet achieving the soil makeup necessary to sustain such a forest is a “millenial and geologic” process.

“You can’t build a forest floor in a nursery or manufacture topsoil in a mill.”

A “third-hand” forest, she writes, would be more brittle than the one it replaced. The next one would be leaner still. In the logging industry, this is known as falldown.

Gill describes our need for maintaining undisturbed forests as they store precious fresh water, absorb tonnes of carbon and guard against the otherwise inevitability of soil erosion. Keeping old forests intact also does more to mitigate climate change than planting new trees, as more carbon can be stored in the soil of an undisturbed ancient forest.

Provincial protection

Mark Haddock, an attorney with the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, says B.C. has historically viewed old-growth forests as a resource for lumber extraction, often overlooking the connection between the ecosystems that depend on them.

Species such as Roosevelt elk and northern spotted owls rely on the mix of new, old and decaying trees found in old-growth forests for food and shelter. The logging of B.C.’s pristine forests endangers these species as clear cutting continues.

“I think the conservation biology is pretty sound,” Haddock said. “I think it makes a pretty persuasive case to me as a British Columbian that there’s real merit in protecting old-growth forests. Now that we are aware of these ecological values, how do we act?”

Current provincial protection for old-growth forests is a matter of discretion by the government, Haddock said.

“There are rules that can and do protect old-growth,” Haddock said. “It’s just that the amount of old-growth that is protected is not stated in any mandatory way. It’s a discretionary decision by the government.”

Environmentalists like Watt question how long the logging of old-growth forests can continue as the AFA pushes the provincial government to grant Avatar Grove provincial park status.

“If they don’t have a plan and it’s not considered, what are they going to do in a couple decades when they finish it?” he said.

“It’s not if, it’s when.” 

Direct link to Canadian Geographic article:  https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/blog/posting.asp?ID=475