A rare photo of a cougar captured in the endangered Walbran Valley through the front window of AFA photographer TJ Watt's car.

Rare cougar sighting – Mother and juvenile filmed and photographed in the Walbran Valley’s endangered old-growth forest

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For Immediate Release
August 4, 2016
 
Rare cougar sighting – Mother and juvenile filmed and photographed in the Walbran Valley’s endangered old-growth forest
 
At a rare encounter earlier this week, Ancient Forest Alliance photographer TJ Watt filmed and photographed two cougars, a mother and a juvenile, in the endangered old-growth forest of the Walbran Valley on southwestern Vancouver Island. Activists continue to push for the valley’s full protection.
 
See the photograph of the large cougar here: https://16.52.162.165/pic.php?pID=122
 
See the video of the juvenile cougar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7QbQHE6Nv0
 
 
Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island – This past weekend in the Walbran Valley’s endangered old-growth forest, conservation photographer TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance captured a photograph and video of a rare cougar encounter – two cougars in fact, a large and smaller one, likely a mother with her juvenile offspring. In the brief encounter, the large adult cougar casually bounded across the road, pausing in one instant long enough for Watt to get a somewhat blurry photo through his front window, while the juvenile meandered for about 20 seconds along the road, allowing Watt to capture several seconds of shaky video. Watt had been returning in his van with a group of volunteers after giving a workshop at the Walbran Valley Convergence, a celebration organized by the Friends of Carmanah-Walbran of the 1991 environmental protests in the valley. He was driving through a section of old-growth forest near a steep canyon in the endangered “Special Management Zone”, an area that is still being logged by licensee Teal-Jones.
 
“I’ve always dreamed of seeing a cougar, let alone photograph and film one! I’ve spent over a decade exploring the old-growth forests of Vancouver Island several times a week, and I grew up here – but I never saw a cougar until this past weekend. It was a very brief encounter, which explains the shaky photo and video – but certainly breathtaking and magnificent all the same! To see these elusive large carnivores is rare – few people, including those who spend a lifetime working in or exploring the woods on Vancouver Island, get to see them, let alone photograph or film them! I feel lucky, but the sighting underscores the great need for the BC government to protect the remaining old-growth forests of the Walbran Valley – and across the province – before it is turned into a sea of stumps,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer.
 
Research of cougars on Vancouver Island show they tend to avoid clearcuts, while old-growth forests provide cover for them and wintering habitat for their main prey, black-tailed deer.  Estimates for cougars on Vancouver Island have ranged from roughly 300 to 800 individuals. The Walbran and adjacent Carmanah Valley’s old-growth forests are also home to wolves, black bears, Roosevelt elk, and spawning coho, chum and steelhead in the river, as well as species at risk that are associated with old-growth forests, like the marbled murrelet, northern goshawk, Vaux’s swift, long-eared bats, and hundreds of new species of arthropods (insects, spiders, mites) found in the mossy old-growth canopy.
 
“The old-growth forests in the endangered Central Walbran Valley are the grandest in the country, akin to being the ‘Redwoods of Canada’! Not only are they home to gargantuan red cedars, Sitka spruce, and Douglas-fir trees 500 to a thousand years old, they sustain charismatic large carnivores, herbivores, and many old-growth dependent species. Industrial encroachment into Vancouver Island’s last old-growth forests like the Walbran Valley is jeopardizing the wildlife,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “It’s time the BC Liberal government update the 22 year old Vancouver Island Land Use Plan to protect the remaining old-growth forests, and to ensure a sustainable second-growth forest industry instead.”
 
More Background Info:
 
40% of the Walbran, the Lower Valley, was protected in 1994 in the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park, while the other 60% in the Central and Upper Valley was left outside of the park and is the centre of much environmental concern and controversy about the old-growth logging taking place there. The total Walbran watershed is 13,000 hectares, while the protected Lower Walbran Valley is about 5500 hectares, the Central Valley is 500 hectares and the Upper Valley is 7000 hectares. 2600 hectares including the Central Valley and part of the Upper Valley is a “Special Management Zone” – which still allows for major old-growth logging and fragmentation through smaller but more numerous clearcuts. The cougar was spotted in the Special Management Zone, an area which has seen environmental protests and blockades over the past year. The most intact portion of the Special Management Zone is the 500 hectare Central Walbran, which includes the largest tracts of contiguous old-growth forests and many of the largest trees and groves, including the Castle Grove, Castle Giant, Tolkien Giant, and Karst Giant.
 
Logging licensee Teal-Jones has 8 cutblocks planned for the Central Walbran Valley, of which one, Cutblock 4424, has been granted a cutting permit by the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations. The company has stated that they are not pursuing logging plans in the Central Walbran Valley for now, a positive step forward at this time. The company has been logging in other parts of the Special Management Zone, an activity condemned by the conservationists. The Walbran Valley is in the unceded territory of the Pacheedaht band in Tree Farm Licences 44 and 46 on Crown lands.
 
Over the past few months, resolutions for the protection of the Walbran Valley and/or the old-growth forests of Vancouver Island have been passed or supported by major business associations and local governments, including the BC Chamber of Commerce, representing 36,000 BC businesses; local Chambers of Commerce in Port Renfrew, Sooke, and the WestShore (Langford, Colwood, Metchosin, Highlands, View Royal); the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC), representing 53 municipal, town, and regional district councils; the district councils of Victoria, Metchosin, and Tofino; and by Federation of BC Naturalists (BC Nature), representing 53 naturalist clubs with over 6000 members.  See a media release: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1010   and an article: www.timescolonist.com/news/local/b-c-chamber-of-commerce-hugs-old-growth-trees-1.2267701
 
Port Renfrew, formerly a logging town, has been transformed in recent years into a big tree tourism destination as hundreds of thousands of tourists have come from around the world to visit some of Canada’s largest trees in the nearby Avatar Grove, the Red Creek Fir (the world’s largest Douglas-fir tree), Big Lonely Doug (Canada’s 2nd largest Douglas-fir tree), San Juan Spruce (until recently Canada’s largest Sitka spruce tree – its top broke off in a recent storm unfortunately), the Harris Creek spruce (one of the largest Sitka spruce trees in Canada), and the Central Walbran Valley.
 
On BC’s southern coast (Vancouver Island and the southwest mainland), 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. 3.3 million hectares of productive old-growth forests once stood on the southern coast, and today 860,000 hectares remain, while only 260,000 hectares are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. Second-growth forests now dominate 75% of Vancouver Island's productive forest lands, including 90% of southern Vancouver Island, and can be sustainably logged to support the forest industry. See maps and stats at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php 

Rare sighting of mother cougar and juvenile on Vancouver Island as activists push for forest conservation

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Conservation photographer TJ Watt had mere seconds to take a photo of a mother cougar before it disappeared into the forest last weekend in Vancouver Island’s Walbran Valley.

He says the encounter reminded him how important it was to conserve the region’s old-growth forest.

Watt had just returned to his car when a large couger bounded out onto the road in front of him and paused before crossed onto the other side, into the forest. A smaller, juvenile cougar followed and Watt managed to capture a video of it.

“I’ve always dreamed of seeing a cougar,” said Watt, who explores the old growth forest in the area several times a week.

This was his first time encountering a cougar, he said in a written release from the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“The sighting underscores the great need for the B.C. govenrment to protect the remaining old-growth forests of the Walbran Valley and of cross the province, before it is turned into a sea of stumps.”

Walbran Valley is located in the southwest part of Vancouver Island and is home to some of the oldest and largest trees in Canada. About 40 per cent of the valley is protected from logging while the rest is still subject to old-growth logging.

[Original Metro News article no longer available]

 

What Do You Get When Forestry Workers, First Nations, Environmentalists and a Politician Meet Up At A 7-Eleven In Port Alberni?

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Here's a new article by Alicia LaRue about the recent sustainable forestry rally, organized by the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC) union, supported by the Ancient Forest Alliance, WCWC, and Unifor, calling for the protection of old-growth forests, an end to raw log exports, and regulations and incentives for a value-added, sustainable second-growth forest industry.

*****

A rally of people dumbfounded at the management of B.C.’s forestry industry…while the corporations are logging all the way to the bank!

As a recent resident to Port Alberni one thing that I can say is that the forestry industry is huge part of the fabric of the city…from the good old days of MacMillan Bloedel to a waterfront inlet almost completely dedicated to the forest industry. Most of the buildings you see while walking through the South Port and upper Third Avenue area offer a sense of the historical roots of Port Alberni. Buildings that were built on the backs of past generations brought to this community for the wood industry are now sitting dormant, swallowed by time with rust, graffiti, neglect and one can't help but wonder what the future is for this little town.

When receiving a Facebook invite to a local protest of raw log exports from Ken Wu (founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance), I was hesitant to accept the offer. I had no idea what to expect, plus I wondered if attending the protest would cause some to shun me in our small community built on logging.

I arrived expecting a lot of hippies (not that there is anything wrong with hippies), but was shocked to see dozens of middle aged white men!! (Not that there is anything wrong with middle aged white men). This is a segment of the population I would not expect to be protesting… and on top of it, protesting the logging industry. Most of the protesters (around 100) have been affected first-hand by the mismanagement of our natural resources. These protesters have lived through the evolution of crappy political decisions, big corporate greed, and dwindling local jobs. The second-growth trees are being shipped off to Asian markets faster than we can even breathe the air that they produce. With all these factors, these protesters were pissed!! And rightly so…

Marching down Johnson Street to Victoria Quay, cars driving by honked their horns with excitement and support. The issue of raw logs affects everyone in the area in some way or another. I think we can all agree that we (as Island folks) are all in some way passionate about our beautiful trees and the future of them. One man who worked in the industry mentioned to me that “If we cannot profit in some way off the trees, I would rather them stay in the ground then see them being shipped off!” We were all on ground zero. Marching past the Arlington Hotel (now the Blue Marlin Inn), it was like ghosts from the past Port Alberni marched with us in support.

The speakers, Arnold Bercov, President of Public and Private Workers of Canada, and Alberni-Pacific Rim MLA Scott Fraser, both spoke of the obvious profit of big corporations while rural areas suffer. Also, those Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance) and Torrance Coste (Wilderness Committee) spoke of respect and unity with the logging industry. Of course, Ken and Torrance are inspirational, level-headed leaders who are passionate and speak on behalf of what many people are experiencing. They are anything but crazy or radical. The First Nation speaker Brad Young (Executive Director of the National Aboriginal Forestry Association) mentioned how the tides have turned. First Nations in the past were bombarded with a system imposed to take advantage of them. Currently, that system is turning and taking advantage of all people. Young mentioned that First Nations know how it feels and are excited about taking back what is ours to manage it the “right way”.

Something that I personally gathered from this protest is that we all want a better future: one of community, jobs and sustainability for future generations. Our natural resource industry is what makes us Canadian. Our resources are valuable and to see them being profited by a select few is completely unacceptable!! This is a key issue in the upcoming provincial election. We need to all make it a high priority to give the power back to the people and not just business, industry and corporations. I hope protests like this will keep happening in Port Alberni and will grow in the future. Let the voices be heard from those who have been through the highs and lows of poor forestry management to take back our beautiful home. Please, get involved however you can!! Write to your local government. Lets take our Canada back!!

Here are some more key facts around raw log exports (curtsy Ken Wu, AFA)

– About 6 to 7 million cubic metres a year are exported from B.C.'s coastal forests, which is about 60% of the coastal second-growth that is cut.

– This is worth thousands of potential milling jobs that are lost when those logs are exported to China, Korea, Japan, and the USA

– If we are to create a sustainable forest industry we need to save the last old-growth forests (of which about 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including more than 90% of the valley bottoms) and manufacture the second-growth logs that are harvested here to increase the employment-to-harvest ratio. Instead, we are going the other way, exporting more raw logs and having fewer jobs.

– The main reason for the decline of coastal forestry employment over the past 20 years is because they have logged the biggest, best old-growth trees in the valley bottoms and at the lower elevations, resulting in diminishing returns as the remaining old-growth trees get smaller, more expensive to reach, and with lower returns. As the second-growth forests have matured, the B.C. government has deregulated much of the industry and provided no incentives or regulations to facilitate a value-added second-growth forest industry.

– The reason that there is a surplus of logs which can be exported, compared to the milling capacity on the coast is because the B.C. government allowed vast numbers of old-growth mills to shut down by removing the local milling requirement in 2003. The old-growth forests have been depleted instead of mandating that those mills retool to handle second-growth logs as the second-growth forests mature.

Read more: https://www.albernithrive.com/#!What-Do-You-Get-When-Forestry-Workers-First-Nations-Environmentalists-and-a-Politician-Meet-Up-At-A-7Eleven-In-Port-Alberni/cjds/579fd3640cf233f0ee8e7985

Please SEND A MESSAGE to Protect Echo Lake Ancient Forest! www.ProtectEchoLake.com

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Hi friends, please take 1 MINUTE to send a new message to the BC government to protect the imminently endangered old-growth redcedars at Echo Lake – some of which are 12 feet wide! Echo Lake is an extremely rare, lowland old-growth forest about 2 hours east of Vancouver between Mission and Agassiz, in Sts’ailes First Nation territory. The area is home to numerous species at risk, is part of the drinking watershed for local people, and is also the world’s largest night-roosting site for bald eagles, with 700+ eagles seen roosting in the old-growth trees around the lake on some evenings during the fall salmon run. The construction of a new logging road is imminent, while initial surveying of the giant cedars for logging has already begun. See the recent media release at https://16.52.162.165/news-item.php?ID=1023 and SEND A MESSAGE to protect this unique area at www.ProtectEchoLake.com

Ralliers hold a large sign reading "Ban Raw Log Exports" in Port Alberni

Photo Gallery: Timber Workers/ Environmentalists Rally in Port Alberni

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On Friday, July 22, forestry workers from various sawmills and pulpmills from two major unions, the PPWC (Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada) and Unifor, were joined by community members, politicians,first nations, and environmentalists in Port Alberni in a rally for sustainable forest policy in BC. The speakers called for an end to raw log exports, the protection of old-growth forests, support for First Nations sustainable economic development, and for incentives and regulations to support a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry. Thanks to Cam Shiell and Arnold Bercov of the PPWC for organizing the rally! 

See photo gallery here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1081148121979774.1073741906.823970554364200&type=1&l=13dba1db8e

Sierra Club calls for a moratorium on old growth logging

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High rates of logging old growth rainforest on Vancouver Island will lead to an ecological and economic collapse in a generation unless provincial government policy changes, warns a new Sierra Club study.

And B.C.’s Forest Practices Board also says the province, which acknowledges the critical ecological importance of old growth forest, needs to improve protection.

Using advanced digital mapping technology and government harvest data, the Sierra Club review of logging practices found that between 2004 and 2015 logging stripped 243,000 hectares of rainforest on Vancouver Island, and 100,000 hectares of that was old growth.

Indeed, rummage through reports that so often gather dust on legislature library shelves and you find a six-year-old forest ministry report admitting that in our remaining ancient coastal rainforests, only 21 per cent of stands over 250 years old are even nominally protected. It’s far worse on Vancouver Island, where only 11 per cent of the coastal Douglas fir rainforest with trees over 250 years old is protected.

Forest scientists like Jim Pojar say this forest should be considered the remnant of a dwindling non-renewable resource because the life cycle of these forests is so long that it will take 40 to 50 human generations before they recover to their original state.

Even then, he says, they won’t be anything like the forests that exist today, nor will the communities of plants, insects, birds and animals — about 400 species — that rely upon them.

Meanwhile, the Sierra Club study points out, even as the remaining rainforest vanishes under the chainsaw, the rate at which it’s being cut has increased by 12 per cent. And, it says, re-planted forests that won’t mature for another 250 years are already being logged after only 50 or 80 years as immature second and third growth.

Pojar, a forest ecologist who wrote the well-regarded guide, Plants of Coastal British Columbia, was an ecologist and researcher with the B.C. Forest Service for years. He recently authored a major study for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society on climate change and its implications for biodiversity and conservation policy.

“Given the amount and pace of climate change, all B.C. forest stands older than 150 years are non-renewable resources, and some of them should be removed from the timber harvesting land base,” says Pojar. “If logged they will not be replaced either naturally or artificially by mature and old stands with similar structure and function, even if they are allowed to grow old.

“Even if allowed to grow old they will not recover to the primary condition,” he says, “which is why I maintain that recovery of old growth forest is now an inappropriate, anachronistic concept, given rapid climate change, system unpredictability and scientific uncertainty.”

The giant trees found in B.C.’s ravaged and fragmented rainforest take up to 1,000 years to grow. Some cedar species are thought to exceed 2,000 years in maximum age. Yet only about 10 per cent of the biggest trees on Vancouver Island remain unlogged, according to the Sierra Club inventory. Pojar argues that B.C. still has the most extensive and impressive example of temperate rainforest in the world.

In other words, as this remaining old growth is sacrificed to private commercial interests, the public, which owns most of the remaining resource, will see nothing like it again until about the year 3016 — and possibly 4016 in the case of the very oldest trees.

But isn’t enough forest already protected? “No, there isn’t enough of the old growth in protected areas,” Pojar says, “especially where it used to be the dominant land cover. The Protected Areas Strategy and land use plans of the 1990s and 2000s made good progress, but old growth coast forest and some wet interior and high elevations forest is under-represented.”

What about all those replanted forests? “Young forests are still forests but they are very different from old growth structurally, functional and as habitat,” Pojar says. “Widespread conversion of old growth forests to young production forests on a 60 to 80-year rotation has major impacts.”

Which raises a rather simple question: Why are we still mowing down the last remnants of the rarest, most biologically significant forests on the planet when we’ve already profited handsomely from liquidating 90 per cent of it? When you’re down to the last 10 per cent of what’s essentially a non-renewable resource, doesn’t prudent common sense suggest stepping back from the brink and putting a moratorium on its destruction?

Read more: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/stephen-hume-sierra-club-calls-for-a-moratorium-on-old-growth-logging

Forest industry in danger, say BC mayors

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More than a decade after the provincial government made policy changes to BC’s forest industry, optimism about its future is waning, according to Truck Loggers Association (TLA), a forest contractor lobby group.

That is the view of mayors from 27 coastal communities surveyed by TLA for its community perspectives report on the BC coastal forest industry.

City of Powell River mayor Dave Formosa participated in the survey and said that when local forest contractors fold it has a ripple effect throughout communities.

“We’ve seen contractors go out of business in Powell River,” said Formosa. “First, you see job loss. These contractors are huge, great community supporters. It leaves a big hole.”

TLA represents more than 450 independent sawmills, logging contractors, small-tenure harvesters, road builders, trucking firms, log brokers, value-added wood re-manufacturers and industry suppliers in BC coastal forest communities. The lobby group last surveyed the mayors in 2004, just as the BC Liberals launched its forestry restructuring strategy.

It was a plan that consolidated forest tenures, deregulated management practices and did away with harvest allocations that historically required BC companies to supply provincial sawmills and pulp and paper mills.

“Many coastal communities that were once heavily reliant on the forest industry are still reeling from the impacts of tenure consolidation and mill closures,” TLA stated in the report.

TLA director Howie McKamey, former owner of Goat Lake Forest Products, said Powell River has not been spared from any of the transitional pain.

“Powell River has definitely had some challenges,” said McKamey. “Powell River has been hit hard by changes in logging over the past 10 years.”

Those tough times were not just the result of changing government policy, but also a holdover from the global economic collapse of 2008, he said.

“The forest industry went through a real tough period from 2008 to 2012,” said McKamey. “Not only did log and lumber values go quite low, but we all had to buckle up because contract rates dropped down to just allow survival in the whole industry.”

Contractors who had taken on debt for retooling prior to the collapse found themselves seeking creditor protection or going out of business, said McKamey. “It’s been a tough go,” he added.

Recently, the issue for TLA has been for those contractors who survived. The price for logs and lumber has come up, but contractor rates have not, said McKamey.

“Markets have improved substantially and licensees’ profits and margins have come up, but it’s been a real struggle to get any improvement in contract rates,” he said.

While the forestry companies in the province operate through tenure agreements with the government, purchasing trees through auction or by harvesting private land, the actual logging, hauling, sorting and trucking itself is completed by contractors.

Low rates have made it even more difficult for companies to invest in new equipment.

“There’s a lot of pretty good contractors electing to get out of the business because for the investment and risk, the return is just not there,” said McKamey.

This trend is fuelling job losses that are having an effect on communities that once relied heavily on forest industry jobs.

In 2004, 88 per cent of community leaders surveyed said they felt positive about forestry’s future in their community, but in the recent survey that number has dropped down to 56 per cent.

In the latest survey, 62 per cent of community leaders said they think the forest industry is in worse shape today.

During the last decade, an estimated 70 sawmills have closed and 30,000 forestry jobs in the province have been lost.

Log-export critics say the BC Liberals’ changes to the forest practices code and creation of private-managed forest lands have only made the problem worse.

“The key issue is the structure of the forest industry,” said Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “It’s dominated by a few giant corporations and there aren’t any incentives or government regulations to stop the massive export of raw logs.”

Since 2009, provincial statistics for the export of whole, unprocessed timber has tripled in volume.

According to TLA, since the restructuring more than 25 forestry contractors have sought bankruptcy protection, including some in Powell River.

“Policy changes in 2003 have not yielded as much positive impact as expected,” stated the report.

There is consensus that more needs to be done. People in coastal communities, both rural and urban, need to have a better understanding of the sustainability of the coastal forest industry, stewardship practices and the benefits it offers to all British Columbians, the TLA report concluded.

According to Wu, the problem is not that the government went ahead with changes 12 years ago; the forest industry had already been in steady decline since the 1980s.

While he said he has sympathy for the small operators and contractors, the blame for the current situation rests on the shortsightedness of an industry that has depleted old-growth forests and has not reinvested in mill infrastructure to handle second-growth wood, said Wu.

According to Wu, even the provincial business lobby and local governments around the region have supported the idea of protecting what is left of BC’s old growth.

“What we need to do is do more with less, and focus on the second growth,” said Wu.

He added that instead of trying to market BC old growth and raw logs in China, the industry needs to find markets for value-added, sustainable, second-growth products.

That is an idea mayor Formosa likes the sound of. “I always have been a huge proponent, seeker and researcher of that,” said Formosa.

While optimism about logging on the coast might be flagging right now, Formosa is not one of the mayors who is gloomy about forestry’s future.

“I don’t see it as a sunset industry,” he said. “It’ll always be here and it’s a part of what and who we are.”

Read more: https://www.prpeak.com/news/forest-industry-in-danger-say-bc-mayors-1.2305619

Environmentalists rally for forests and jobs in Alberni

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Representatives from major forest industry unions and environmental organizations along with local elected officials and First Nations marched today, July 22, in Port Alberni to rally for sustainable forestry.

The Public and Private Workers of Canada (PPWC), Unifor, Wilderness Committee and Ancient Forest Alliance are calling on the BC government to end raw-log exports and to prioritize the transition to sustainable second-growth forestry

Scott Fraser, MLA for Alberni-Pacific Rim, as well as local First Nations representatives spoke at the rally at Victoria Quay.

“Raw log exports and other unsustainable practices have resulted in thousands of lost jobs in the coastal forest industry, and it’s got to stop,” said Arnold Bercov, President of the PPWC in a July 22 press release. “If we don’t turn this around these policies will be a death knell for the workers we represent.”

Annually, the BC government permits over six million cubic metres of raw logs to be exported without processing – enough logs to fill over 200,000 logging trucks or when milled to build more than 100,000 homes, states the press release.

The BC coast has lost more than half its mills since the 90’s and has the worst jobs-per-unit-of-timber-harvested ratio in Canada.

The labour and environmental groups plan to work together to advocate for improved policies that protect local jobs and endangered forest ecosystems.

Read more: https://www.albernivalleynews.com/news/environmentalists-rally-for-forests-and-jobs-in-alberni/

Protesting Raw Log Exports

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A collaboration of forestry workers and environmentalists took to the streets today in an effort to fight back against provincial raw log exports. Organized by the Public and Private Workers of Canada (PPWC) and the Ancient Forest Alliance, the rally attracted a number of supporters both for the walk up Johnston Road and by honks from those driving by.

Organizers hope the rally keeps the momentum going since the last one in Duncan a few months ago.

“We want to bring attention to the government,” said PPWC president Arnie Bercov. “They are exporting 60 per cent of second growth logs and exporting the future of young people.”

Bercov said Port Alberni is the epicenter of the industry, was built on forestry and is now threatened because of mismanagement.

“I blame the provincial government,” Bercov said. “We will run out of old growth and have no second growth. We need to find a way to integrate First Nations. They need to ban the exporting of logs, it’s as simple as that.”

Vince Lukacs, national representative with Unifor 592, agrees.

“We are exporting six to seven million cubic metres of wood fibre a year to foreign mills,” Lukacs said. “That is enough to run several mills. There has been a significant reduction in the number of mills operating in BC and this province was built on the forest industry. We’re exporting instead of doing it ourselves.”

In his position for the past 12 years, Alberni-Pacific Rim MLA Scott Fraser has been to many similar rallies.

“Even though a lot of mills have closed down, this is still one of the largest industries in the province,” Fraser said. “LNG is a wonderful thing but it’s a dream for the future. The jobs are here and we need to protect them.”

Fraser said it is not a coincidence that there has been a ten-fold increase in raw log exports in the last ten years and a dozen mills shut down. He said it is a concern for laid off workers.

Representatives from the Wilderness Committee were at the rally, stating the forest industry in BC exports the most raw logs out of all the provinces, while creating “less jobs and revenue for every tree cut than any other province.”

Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee said on Facebook, “Raw log exports in BC have gone far enough. It’s time to put an end to this job killing practice.”

The rally culminated with speakers and a barbeque at Victoria Quay.

Read more: https://www.alberni.ca/valley-heartbeat/protesting-raw-log-exports

Ecological emergency: call to save remaining West Coast old growth forest

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Environmental groups are sounding an urgent alarm over logging of ancient trees, the “old growth” forest, throughout Canada’s Pacific coast province of British Columbia.

The Sierra Club of B.C., in a press release said, 2,430 sq.km of rainforest were logged on Vancouver Island between 2004 and 2015, and of that 1,000 sq km. were “old growth” forests.

The Sierra club says even as the amount of remaining old growth forest is cut down, the logging process is speeding up.

The environmental group says from 2007 to 2011, about 76 sq km of ancient trees were cut annually, but that increased in the following years to 90 sq.km being cut every year.

Richard Hebda, the Royal B.C. Museum’s curator of botany and earth history says the old forests weave together a complex interconnected system of hydrology, soil formation, nutrient cycling and so on.

Loggin removes not only the trees, but also breaks up the living fabric holding those systems together.

Quoted in the Globe and Mail news, he says, ““We need a hard-nosed investigation of what we want these forests to be doing: Do we want to protect biodiversity? Do we want them to be very good at storing carbon? Then we can decide how much forest we actually need”. He adds, “I think the answer will be a much higher percentage than we now have.”

Heading for collapse

Jens Weiting, Sierra Club BC’s forest and climate campaigner, says,

“It is only a matter of time before the logging industry runs out of old-growth trees and fully transitions to second-growth,” said Wieting. “But despite shrinking revenue and jobs from logging, and despite the increasing value of endangered old-growth for species, a diverse economy, climate action, and clean air and water, thousands of hectares of old-growth rainforest are still being cut every year.”

He adds, ““We are urging the B.C. government to take immediate action to protect and restore the coastal rainforests on Vancouver Island”.

The environmentalists say, to continue to log old growth forest will irreparably damage existing ecosystems, and the economy of towns and cities dependent on logging.

They urge a move away from old growth, to second growth forests.

A deal for protection and limited sustainable logging on the mainland in the Great Bear Rainforest among logging companies, the B.C government, and First Nations aboriginal groups shows solutions are possible, according to the Sierra Club.

They quickly add that south of the agreement area overcutting and lack of protection has resulted in rain forest areas along the coast in “a state of ecological emergency”.

Old growth, big trees are good for business. it makes more sense to bring the tourists in than to take the logs out”.

Preserving the old growth forests with their giant trees, and natural surrounding has caught the attention of the BC Chamber of Commerce.

They have begun to realize there is more economic value in promoting the area as an ecological tourist destination, than a logging resource.

Dan Hager, president of the Port Renfrew BC Chamber of Commerce quoted in the CBC says, “People love history and people love this idea of environmental tourism. Old growth, big trees are good for business. it makes more sense to bring the tourists in than to take the logs out”.

Weiting and others say logging infrastructure is currently geared towards logging the ancient trees. A government official noted that 70 percent of logging on Vancouver Island is old growth.

Weiting again points out that if the will is there on all parts, solutions like the Great Bear Rainforest deal are possible to transition the logging industry to second growth forest, respect First Nations interests, save the diverse ecosystems flourishing in the old growth forests, develop new industry like tourism, and all the while reduce carbon emissions.

Read more: https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2016/07/19/ecological-emergency-call-to-save-remaining-west-coast-old-growth-forest/