Recent News

For Immediate Release
October 1, 2011

Ancient Forest Alliance wins “Benefit Brew” competition of Phillips Beer

The Ancient Forest Alliance is the winner of an online voting competition to become the recipient of a new benefit microbrew beer made by local Victoria company, Phillips Beer. “Ancient Brown Ale” will be the new microbrew beer to be released next month into select private liquor stores, with full sales proceeds going to the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“We’re very pleased to win the Benefit Brew competition. $10,000 is huge for us, equivalent to about 25% of our funding this year. We’re a new organization with very limited funds, but we’ve been working extremely hard to save ancient forests – and we promise proceeds from the Benefit Brew will go far with us,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner. “I’m also sure that among the Ancient Forest Alliance’s beer drinking supporters there are a lot of Phillips Beer fans, which is a local company that is renowned for its tastiness and quality.”

The Benefit Brew competition was narrowed down to 10 applicant charities and non-profit organizations on September 9, followed by a two-week online vote on Phillips Beer’s website which ended on September 23. It’s expected the sales proceeds will total up to $10,000 for the Ancient Forest Alliance.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is a Victoria-based, registered charitable environmental organization founded in 2010, working to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and forestry jobs. The organization organizes hikes, slideshows, rallies, and public education campaigns, calling on the BC government to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and ensure sustainable second-growth forestry. The organization’s campaign to protect the Avatar Grove near the town of Port Renfrew has had a particularly high profile with the public and in the media. See the organization’s spectacular photo and video gallery here.

Phillips Beer was founded by Victoria brewer, Matthew Phillips, over a decade ago. From the company’s humble beginnings, originally financed on Phillip’s multiple credit cards with deliveries made from his 1985 Subaru station wagon, Phillips Beer has become recognized as one of the foremost brewing companies in Canada, winning numerous provincial and national awards for their diverse, quality microbrews.

“The Ancient Forest Alliance is grateful for the great amount of support we’ve received from the small business community of Victoria and Vancouver Island. Phillips Beer’s Benefit Brew will be a major infusion of support that will help us build a stellar ancient forest campaign this fall,” stated Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “Not only will the funds be extremely helpful, but the beautiful and informative labels on the bottles themselves will help to raise awareness about the need to protect old-growth forests! We want to thank thousands of our supporters for voting for us and Phillips Beer for supporting the non-profit and charitable community of BC.”

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Today, September 21 has been declared “National Tree Day” in Canada and the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is calling on the British Columbian government to establish a Provincial Heritage Trees and Heritage Groves designation. Such a designation would protect the largest, oldest, and most unique trees of each species, as well as the most magnificent monumental stands of old-growth trees in the province.

*TODAY from 11:00-11:30 am media are invited to join Ancient Forest Alliance cofounders Ken Wu and TJ Watt at the largest Douglas-fir tree (3 meters or 10 feet wide in trunk diameter) in Greater Victoria in Francis King Regional Park’s Heritage Grove for a brief press conference and tour. Please meet in the parking lot by the park’s nature centre off of Munn Rd. Click here for Google Map.

“British Columbia is world renowned for having Canada’s largest trees and some of the most magnificent forests on Earth – how many jurisdictions still have trees with trunks as wide as living rooms and that tower as tall as downtown skyscrapers? What better way to celebrate the trees of Canada than to protect Canada’s largest trees, here on Vancouver Island?” stated Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt. “Just as we have laws to protect 100 year old heritage buildings, we need laws to protect 1,000 year old heritage trees and groves.”

See images of Canada’s largest trees on the Ancient Forest Alliance’s online photo galleries (Media are free to reprint any photos. Credit TJ Watt if possible.)

The province keeps a list of the 10 largest trees of each species through the Big Tree Registry but the list does not confer any legal protection for the trees, and many are unprotected.

Former BC Minister of Forests and Range Pat Bell mentioned in February 2011 that the province would look into creating a new legal tool to protect BC’s largest trees and monumental groves but the BC government has since not mentioned of any progress on this initiative.

Several BC municipalities such as Victoria and Oak Bay already have tree protection bylaws that prohibit the cutting of large trees over a certain trunk diameter, as well as the cutting of rare native species like Garry oak and Arbutus trees without a special permit.

“Not only do we need to protect our largest trees and monumental groves, most importantly the BC Liberal government must protect our endangered old-growth ecosystems on a much larger scale through a Provincial Old-Growth Strategy to sustain our biodiversity, climate, wild salmon, and tourism industry,” stated AFA co-founder Ken Wu. “Most of the world is logging second, third, and fourth growth forests now, and the BC government must ensure the same here instead of facilitating the collapse of our last old-growth ecosystems.”

Already 75% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the biggest trees grow and richest biodiversity is found. For satellite maps visit: https://16.52.162.165/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/