Help Create a Sizeable Inland Rainforest Protected Area east of Prince George! (Nov. 2nd, 4:00 pm deadline!)

The Province of BC is looking at establishing a new protected area in the “northern wetbelt” rainforest east of Prince George next to Slim Creek Provincial Park, and is soliciting feedback on a plan to protect the unique ecosystems of the beloved Ancient Forest (where thousands of people have now hiked the trails among the giant cedars)

The proposed protected area includes unlogged temperate rainforest with trees over 1,000 years old, as well as rare plants and lichens.

Local conservationists with the Northern Wetbelt Working Group are proposing that protections be significantly expanded, based on scientific recommendations that sustaining biodiversity and the ecological integrity of the area over the long-run requires a larger area.

PLEASE sign-on to a letter supporting a new protected area, including on an expanded scale based on science, at: [Link not available].

The province is also accepting email comments on the plan; send your feedback to ancientforest@gov.bc.ca before Nov. 2, 4 p.m.

Thank you!

Recent boardwalk additions in the lower grove which span the area prone to Winter flooding.

Photo Gallery of Avatar Grove Boardwalk Construction! October 2015

 

Photo Galleryhttps://on.fb.me/1LCZVtCA

A big show of gratitude and thanks to the over 20 volunteers who came out to build boardwalk at Avatar Grove last weekend and to the many of you who have donated towards this project so far! We made significant progress in the lower grove, constructing close to 80ft (25 m) of new boardwalk and bridges over the area prone to flooding. These vital improvements come just in time before the heavy winter rains begin. Volunteers also worked to add traction to many metres of boardwalk, restore parts of the trail which were showing signs of wear, and helped make the route more clear to follow. There’s still a few key sets of stairs and bridges to get built but we’re making great headway on what has become one of the island’s most popular hiking trails! Thanks to Matt, Ron, Vincent, Nickey, Jessica, Nimai, Eagle, Will, Marc, Heath, Kristin, Chris, Jeremy, Shannon, Pearson College students Navo, Kevin, Will, Lauren, Michael, Matilde, Connor, and AFA boardwalk coordinator TJ Watt.

BC Sustainable Forestry March & Rally!

DATE: Friday, October 30, 2015
LOCATION: Duncan, BC
TIME & PLACE: Begins at 12 noon at Trunk Rd and Highway 1, then march down to Charles Hoey Park (by the train station)

** Invite others and coordinate rides on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1693082370937511/ **

Join forestry workers, environmentalists, unions, politicians, and diverse community members for a march and rally to end the export of raw logs and to support a sustainable, second-growth forest industry in BC.

Since the BC Liberals came to power, they have undertaken unsustainable, job-killing policies in the forest industry, including:

  • Allowing over 6 million cubic metres of raw, unprocessed logs to leave the province each year to foreign mills in the US and Asia, while BC mills are often starved for fibre and dozens have shut down in recent years.
  • Failing to implement any fundamental incentives or regulations to ensure the conversion or retooling of old-growth mills to process second-growth logs as the old-growth stands are cut-over and second-growth stands mature. This has set the stage for major old-growth mill closures over the past decade and increased second-growth and old-growth raw log exports.
  • Deregulating vast areas of timber on the southern coast by allowing companies to remove their private forest lands from their Tree Farm Licences, thus removing the restrictions on raw log exports and most environmental laws on those lands.
  • Allowing huge amounts of wood waste.
  • Using stumpage fees to fund marketing schemes in China that have paved the way for a massive increase in raw logs and old-growth wood exports to Asia.
  • Allowing the unsustainable overcutting of forests in many regions of BC, endangering the long-term future of forestry dependent communities.

Show your solidarity with workers and environmentalists for a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry! Bring your friends and family!

Organized by the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC – see: www.PPWC.ca) with the support of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA – see www.AncientForestAlliance.org).

For more info contact Cam Shiel at camshiell78@gmail.com

Forest Dance Film ‘Verge: Dancing a Scarred and Sacred Landscape’ Screening at Planet in Focus Film Fest (Toronto, Oct 21-25, 2015)

Later this week, the short film ‘Verge: Dancing a Scarred and Sacred Landscape’ will be screening at the Planet in Focus Film Festival (https://planetinfocus.org) in Toronto. ‘Verge’ is a collaboration between filmmaker Leslie Kennah, choreographer Anna Kraulis, and the AFA’s Hannah Carpendale, and features dancers moving through the magnificent Avatar Grove and the devastated clearcut landscape surrounding Big Lonely Doug, near Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island. The festival, which runs from Oct 21-25th, will feature a diversity of environmental films, workshops and other activities. ‘Verge’ will be screening alongside feature length film ‘Puffin Patrol’ on Sunday Oct 25.

**TICKET CONTEST: 2 free festival tickets are available for AFA supporters – for a chance to win one, please contact info@16.52.162.165 **

How B.C.’s anti-logging activists are using drones to fight the ‘information war’

The famous Zen saying asks, ‘If a tree falls in the forest with no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?’ It basically means what is out of sight, is out of mind.

B.C. environmentalists — seeking to raise awareness against logging plans in Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests — think they have a solution for the issue posed in the saying.

“If we can’t bring B.C.’s four million people to the forests, we’re going to bring the forests to the people,” activist TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance told The Province.

Watt and other activists are using drone technology to shoot compelling, high-definition videos of “Canada’s grandest old-growth” rain forest near Port Renfrew.

They say the area is endangered because in mid-September the B.C. Forest Service granted the Surrey-based Teal-Jones Group a permit for helicopter logging in one of the eight “cutblock” areas the company wants to log in the area.

Capturing drone footage is part of a new “information war,” activists say, that is reigniting a decades-old battle in Vancouver Island’s Central Walbran Valley.

This is the “birthplace” of B.C.’s eco-resistance movement, an area where activists used tactics including blockades and high-publicity arrests to win a public relations battle against Victoria and forestry companies in the 1990s. Activists won concessions that established a conservation area and spread their anti-logging protests to other areas in B.C.

Watt says his new remote-controlled, GoPro-camera-equipped drone, which costs about $1,000, allows him to shoot images of massive trees in the Walbran Valley that were previously inaccessible because of steep, “brutal terrain.”

“Drones are a new tool in our tool box because for many people these trees might as well be on the moon,” Watt said.

“They were out of sight and mind for most. But the drones let us raise environmental awareness about these remote endangered areas where companies believe they can log with little scrutiny.”

The activists say that, despite the 16,000 hectares of forest conserved in the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park in 1993, new logging plans from Teal-Jones in the area go too far.

“This is the grandest forest in Canada, all the record-breaking trees are in this area,” said Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance.

“Over 90 per cent of these forests in southern Vancouver Island have been logged, so the conservation victories of the 1990s are just a drop in the bucket of what was originally there.”

The Teal Jones Group, which specializes in global sales of timber and lumber products, successfully applied for a logging permit in cutblock 4424, one of the eight areas that activists want to protect.

Cutblock 4424 covers an area of about three hectares, and all eight cutblocks that the company wants to log cover about 20 hectares.

In efforts to document trees that stand to be lost, last week activists with the Wilderness Committee and Sierra Club B.C. claimed to have discovered a “remarkable old-growth forest grove,” within cutblock 4424.

“We knew there were impressive old-growth trees in this area, but we were really blown away once we got in and explored,” Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee said.

They say the “crown jewel” of the area is a western red cedar about three metres wide at the base, and possibly about 1,000 years old.

Watt says the hope is that the government will rescind the logging permit already granted to Teal Jones, or that the company will bow to public pressure and agree to withdraw its plans to log in the area.

If that doesn’t happen soon, activists warn some of the groups involved in the Walbran Valley protection campaign are prepared to use civil disobedience. One group, including one of the original 1990s Carmanah Walbran protesters, has already set up an “observation camp” in the area.

“I think the hope is that we don’t have to go there,” Watts said, when asked if activists’ threat of “escalation” and “intense battle” could mean protesters standing in the way of Teal Jones heli-logging crews.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Forests said the 3.2-hectare cutblock already approved for heli-logging would not be clear-cut, and in the other seven potential Teal Jones cutblocks the government is considering “Old Growth Management” areas that would protect “significant trees” and some of the recreational features and hiking trails in the area.

The Teal Jones Group did not respond to requests for comments for this story. In previous reports, Teal Jones managers said more than 7,000 hectares already has been conceded to environmentalists for parkland in the area now owned by the forestry company.

Read more: https://www.theprovince.com/technology/anti+logging+activists+using+drones+fight+information/11394855/story.html

Environmental group hopes new tech will help halt old-growth logging

A remotely piloted aircraft has shone new light on an old-growth forest near Port Renfrew that has been approved for logging by the B.C. government.

The advent of technology has given photographer TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance, a grassroots environmental organization headquartered in Victoria, a wealth of insight into the scope of the Central Walbran ancient forest.

“It allows us to explore and document areas that were essentially impossible to reach before,” Watt said.

“There is a whole other world within the forest that, when you’re stuck on the ground, you don’t get a chance to view. But using the drone to fly upward in the canopy, we’re able to provide a new perspective on the scale of these massive trees.”

Watt released a video on YouTube this week to protest a recent decision by the provincial government that gives Teal-Jones Group, a Surrey-based logging company, permission to log a 32-hectare area for pulp, paper and solid wood products.

Rick Jeffery, president and CEO of Coast Forest Products, an industry association and advocate for the coastal forest industry, said there is no reason for the public to think the area captured on video will disappear entirely.

“[The Ancient Forest Alliance] is in there flying a drone around, and that’s lovely,” Jeffrey said.

“We’re in there with boots on the ground for hours and hours and days and days, spending the time to make sure that the development is consistent with the land-use plan and isn’t risking or threatening the values that our friends in the Forest Alliance are saying they are trying to protect.”

In fact, the Walbran “really isn’t at risk,” Jeffery said. “The development there will be small clearcuts that mimic the range of natural variation that you would find in an old-growth forest. Areas get blown over, slides happen and the new forest grows up in that small patch. That’s essentially what [Teal-Jones] is doing.”

Watt captured the video on a GoPro Hero 4 camera affixed to a drone aircraft flown remotely. He was able to capture in a few hours footage that would have taken him days to acquire had he hiked around on foot. That “new tool in the toolbox” will be an important asset of environmental organizations hoping to stop further logging the area, Watt said.

“Any footage of the canopy within the forest before would have had to be done with tree climbers and pulleys. It would be a really complicated process. Outside of the forest, when you’re separated from a hillside at risk of logging by a 500-foot ravine, you’re now able fly to the other side no problem and be back and packed in our vehicle in under 30 minutes.”

His video shows an impressive western red cedar that has been named Leaning Tower Cedar, for its similarity to Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa. The tree is located in the Black Diamond Grove area of the valley near Port Renfrew, a contested parcel of land that was approved for logging by the B.C. government. It is the first of eight proposed cutblocks.

Teal-Jones is legally required to manage at-risk species in wildlife habitat areas that crews come across, Jeffery said, so the plan doesn’t pose a risk to the ecosystems in the Upper Walbran or the Walbran Valley itself.

“There is absolutely nothing aggressive about these plans. We don’t just willy-nilly draw lines on a map and say we are going to go harvesting there.”

Watt is aware that video images may not change provincial government policy. However, he remains hopeful they can sway the public.

“The greatest use is to get thousands of people interested in the cause. But social media and whatnot could pressure the government, who makes the ultimate decision of whether the forest and the Walbran stand or fall.”

Read more: https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/environmental-group-hopes-new-tech-will-help-halt-old-growth-logging-1.2069792

Thank You to Patagonia & Patagonia Vancouver!

The Ancient Forest Alliance would like to thank Patagonia and Patagonia Vancouver for their significant support through their grassroots environmental grant program, helping us to build an ancient forest movement across BC’s Lower Mainland!  See Patagonia’s website at: https://www.patagonia.com/ca and visit the Patagonia Vancouver store online.

B.C. suspends sale of ancient forest on Sunshine Coast identified as hot spot for bear dens

Environmentalists who blocked construction of a forestry road on the Sunshine Coast for more than five weeks have won a temporary victory in their bid to stop logging of an old-growth forest identified as a prime spot for black bear dens.

B.C. Timber Sales won’t put the forest up for sale as planned on Oct. 1 and instead is “going to consider its options over the winter,” said Vivian Thomas, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations. The road builder, K & D Contracting, “had other jobs, so moved (their) equipment out,” she added. RCMP attended the logging site but no one obtained a court injunction to end the blockade.

“When there’s a blockade and you can’t get past it and you’re sitting there, you have to move,” said Doug Grant, a manager with K & D in Campbell River. “It cost about six weeks of productivity.” The company had barged in its heavy equipment.

A July 2014 report by consulting biologist Wayne McCrory found “very high-quality old-growth den habitat” in the Dakota Valley near Sechelt. Based on field work within two of four cutblocks proposed for sale, he extrapolated that logging of the overall 64 hectares would impact about 32 active bear dens.

The dens he investigated were within the trunk or cavity of cedar trees at elevations of 700 to 920 metres. Three-quarters of the best old-growth den habitat has already been logged in the area, McCrory observed, adding it is important to protect what little remains.

Ross Muirhead and Hans Penner, environmental campaigners with Elphinstone Logging Focus, said in an interview that they hope suspension of the sale will give the province time to consider the ecological and cultural values of the Dakota Valley — and not just timber values.

“Any delay in issuing the cutblock is good news,” Muirhead said. “It gives both sides more time to study the other features.”

Research commissioned by the province showed one old-growth yellow cedar to be 1,100 years old — a date calculated only after cutting the tree and others down rather than using less-invasive core samples, Penner said. “We find that appalling, an outrage. They killed the trees to count their age.”

Thomas said a few trees were cut to better determine if they were culturally modified, suggesting the “decay and healing” were more likely the result of “biogeoclimatic conditions.”

Thomas said BCTS discovered two cedar trees that appeared to have been recently used by bears as dens just outside the boundary of a cutblock and excluded them from the planned harvest area. She noted that black bear populations in B.C. are healthy and not a conservation concern and that nearby Tetrahedron Provincial Park provides an abundance of bear habitat.

Penner noted that a study of the logging site by consulting archeologist Jim Stafford found 33 trees thought to be culturally modified, suggesting long-term aboriginal use such as stripping off cedar bark. The province disputes the claim. Cultural modified trees that pre-date 1846 are protected under the Heritage Conservation Act.

Read more: https://www.vancouversun.com/technology/suspends+sale+ancient+forest+sunshine+coast+identified+spot+bear+dens/11385733/story.html?__lsa=fa03-0d9c

Logging protestors win temporary victory on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast

Protesters fighting plans to log an old-growth forest on the Sunshine Coast are celebrating a temporary victory after construction of a logging road was halted temporarily.

The protesters, who have set up camp near Roberts Creek, say the area is an important bear habitat that will be destroyed if the trees come down.

Hans Penner has been taking turns blocking access to a service road in the Dakota Creek area of Mount Elphinstone, where the government has plans to auction off 53 hectares of old-growth timber, including ancient balsam, hemlock and yellow cedar.

“This is some of the last old growth forest in the world,” Penner said. “So really, the natural history, the cultural history is actually irreplaceable. It doesn't exist anywhere else.”

Penner said the area has become a sanctuary for bears. He hired biologist Wayne McCrory who identified seven likely bear dens in the one day.

Bears pushed out by logging

Penner said there are so many bears here because they've been pushed out of other areas by logging. That is why the government needs to protect what little old-growth forest remains in the province, he added.

He said he's been trying to persuade the government for years, compiling evidence, but eventually resorted to the protest in the woods.

“Blocking a road was a last resort,” he said. “We had spent over two years already doing our own studies, like the bear den report, the archaeological report, biodiversity reports, trying to convince the government that this area should not be logged.”

The protest appears to have made an impact.

Earlier this week, contractors stopped building roads and preparing the land for logging. On Saturday, the government confirmed that the road building has stopped, and the company will review its options over the winter.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/logging-protest-sunshine-coast-1.3235878

Screenshot from the new video clip which used drones to helped capture footage in the Central Walbran Valley

Drones used in BC’s Old-Growth Forest Campaigns – Walbran Valley conflict escalates

For Immediate Release
September 22, 2015
Conservationists use Drones as BC’s Old-Growth Forest Conflict Escalates: New Technology enables Surveillance and Aerial Video Footage in Remote areas as Logging Threat Encroaches on Canada’s Grandest Old-Growth Forest, the Central Walbran Valley
SEE a new VIDEO CLIP of the Central Walbran Ancient Forest that includes recent HD DRONE FOOTAGE here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyMPXHOjlK0
A logging permit for the first of eight proposed cutblocks in the Central Walbran Valley was issued last Friday by the BC government to Surrey-based logging company Teal-Jones. The Central Walbran is Canada’s most spectacular old-growth forest, near Port Renfrew, and one of the largest unprotected old-growth forests left on southern Vancouver Island. Conservationists prepare for an escalation in the conflict.
Port Renfrew –  Conservationists are employing a new tool in the battle to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests – remotely-piloted drones. The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is using a small drone equipped with a GoPro camera to monitor and document the endangered old-growth forests of the Central Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island. This has allowed the organization to capture aerial video footage of old-growth forests threatened by logging on steep, rugged terrain that otherwise would take hours to hike to. Helicopter-based logging, or heli-logging, is expected for several of the eight proposed cutblocks in the Central Walbran Valley, including the first approved Cutblock 4424 (approved last Friday by the BC Forest Service), due to the difficulty of road access in the mountains.
“Drones are a new tool in the tool box that are helping us raise the environmental awareness about remote endangered areas that are normally out of the public spotlight, where companies believe they can log with little scrutiny. Plus it allows us to get some spectacular footage of our magnificent but endangered old-growth forests from vantage points rarely seen”, stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance photographer and campaigner who shot the Walbran videos.
The AFA’s drone cost just over one thousand dollars and has been used by Watt half a dozen times to explore and document ancient forests since he purchased it late last year. Other conservationists are also starting to use them to help document endangered areas.
“Teal-Jones and the BC government have committed themselves to an intense battle by aggressively moving to log southern Vancouver Island’s most contentious ancient forest. The logging companies have already clearcut the vast majority of the richest and grandest old-growth forests on Vancouver Island – over 90% – and now they’re complaining that they’re running out of options. They’ve boxed themselves into a corner through their own unsustainable history of overcutting the biggest and best old-growth stands – and now they’re contending that it’s the conservationists’ fault and that they must log the last unprotected lowland ancient forests to survive. The one thing the BC government must not do is to reward unsustainable practices with more unsustainable practices – but that’s just what they’ve done by granting the first cutting permit to Teal-Jones in the Central Walbran Valley. It’s a myopic government facilitating the demise of an ecosystem for a company intent to go just about to the very end. Instead they need a quick transition or exit strategy to get completely out of our last ancient forests and into a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director.
The 500 hectare Central Walbran Valley is one of the largest contiguous tracts of unprotected old-growth forest left on southern Vancouver Island (south of Barkley Sound) where about 90% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged. It is home to the Castle Grove, perhaps the most extensive and densely-packed monumental western redcedar groves in Canada. The upper reach of the Castle Grove is threatened by several of the proposed Teal-Jones cutblocks. Species at risk include Queen Charlotte Goshawks, marbled murrelets (several of which were recorded by AFA campaigners near the Castle Grove in June: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=906), screech owls, and red-legged frogs, while coho salmon and steelhead trout spawn in the rivers.
The Central Walbran is popular for hikers, campers, anglers, hunters, and mushroom pickers, and is located on public (Crown) lands in Tree Farm Licence 46 near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht Nuu-chah-Nulth territory. About 5500 hectares of the Lower Walbran Valley were included in the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park in 1994, while about 7500 hectares in the Central and Upper Walbran Valleys were left unprotected.
Conservationists are escalating pressure on the BC government and the company through protests and public awareness campaigns, calling on the company to back off and the BC government to protect the two ancient forests. Teal-Jones Group is a Surrey-based company that logs and sells endangered old-growth forests – including ancient redcedar trees – for pulp, paper, and solid wood products.
Environmentalists are calling on the BC government to protect these areas from logging through expanded Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMAs), core Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHAs), and Land Use Orders (LUOs).
On BC’s southern coast (Vancouver Island and SW Mainland), satellite photos show that about 75% of the original, productive (moderate to fast growth rates, forests of commercial value) old-growth forests have been logged, including over 91% of the valley bottoms and high-productivity, lowland forests where the largest trees grow. Only 8% of the original, productive old-growth forests on BC’s southern coast are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. See maps and stats on the remaining old-growth forests on BC’s southern coast at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php
In a recent Vancouver Sun and Province article (see www.theprovince.com/news/walbran+logging+permit+could+rekindle+woods+vancouver+island/11377140/story.html) the Teal-Jones spokesperson was quoted as claiming that “only 11,080 hectares of [the] 59,884-hectare tree farm licence…can be logged” – while failing to mention that tens of thousands of hectares have already been logged and thousands more are on low productivity sites (small trees) of little to no commercial value or inoperable conditions. In addition, the article stated that “…the company gave up more than 7,000 hectares to create the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park”. In fact, the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park was established in 1994, while it wasn’t until 2004 that Teal-Jones acquired Tree Farm Licence 46 (where the park is) from TimberWest – 10 years after the park’s creation and for a price that already reflected the deduction of timber from the park. In addition, the province has stated that the 500 hectares in the Central Walbran is small compared to the 16,000 hectares within the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park – failing to provide the context (a common PR-spin technique) that about 670,000 hectares of about 760,000 hectares of the original, productive old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island (south of Barkley Sound) have already been logged.
In addition, the BC government itself, in order to placate public fears about the loss of BC’s endangered old-growth forests, typically over-inflates the amount of remaining old-growth forests in its PR-spin by including hundreds of thousands of hectares of marginal, low productivity forests growing in bogs and at high elevations with smaller, stunted trees, lumped in with the productive old-growth forests, where the large trees grow (and where most logging takes place). “It’s like including your Monopoly money with your real money and then claiming to be a millionaire, so why curtail spending?” stated the Ancient Forest Alliance’s Ken Wu.
“The Walbran Valley was the birthplace of the ancient forest protest movement in Victoria decades ago. Logging there has repeatedly triggered protests, beginning in 1991 and flaring up regularly for more than a decade thereafter. Thousands of British Columbians love the ancient forests of the Castle Grove, Emerald Pool, Bridge Camp, Summer Crossing, and Fletcher Falls in the Central Walbran Valley,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “Both the province and the company will be held accountable for what happens in these areas.”
“Because of the ideal growing conditions in the region, Canada’s temperate rainforests reach their most magnificent proportions in region of the Walbran Valley. It’s Canada’s version of the American redwoods. Given this fact – and that virtually all of the unprotected ancient forests are either clearcut or fragmented by logging today on southern Vancouver Island – it should be a no-brainer that the grandest and one of the largest contiguous tracts here, the Central Walbran, should be immediately protected”, stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer.
Old-growth forests are vital to sustain endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations.
The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC government to implement a comprehensive science-based plan to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests, and to also ensure a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry.
MORE BACKGROUND INFO
The Walbran Valley is about 13,000 hectares in size, with about 5500 hectares of the Lower Walbran Valley protected within the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park and about 7500 hectares of the Upper Walbran Valley remaining unprotected. The unprotected Upper Walbran Valley is divided into two “Tree Farm Licences” (TFLs): TFL 46, held by Teal Jones, and TFL 44, held by Western Forest Products, on Crown lands in the unceded territory of the Pacheedaht Nuu-Cha-Nulth people.
The Central Walbran’s old-growth western redcedar, Sitka spruce, and hemlock forests have long been proposed for protection by the environmental movement since the early 1990’s, when the valley was “ground zero” for protests by southern Vancouver Island’s environmental movement. The early Walbran protests played an important role in supporting the build-up towards the massive Clayoquot Sound protests near Tofino on Vancouver Island in 1993.
While most of the Upper Walbran Valley has been heavily fragmented by old-growth logging, two major tracts of ancient forest remain largely unlogged there: The Castle Grove (Canada’s finest ancient redcedar forest) and the greater Central Walbran Ancient Forest (currently under potential logging threat) which abuts against the boundary Carmanah/Walbran Provincial Park, spanning about 500 hectares in extent.
While small sections of the Central Walbran Ancient Forest are protected within Riparian Reserves, an Ungulate Winter Range, and Old-Growth Management Areas, the vast majority of the area is open for logging. The Central Walbran Ancient Forest is a popular and heavily used area by recreationalists, where the main boardwalk trails for hiking, riverside camping area, Emerald Pool swimming area, and the spectacular Fletcher Falls are found.
The Central Walbran Ancient Forest, Castle Grove, and adjacent unprotected forests were designated as a “Special Management Zone” (SMZ) by the BC government in 1994. The SMZ is supposed to be managed to maintain its environmental and biodiversity values – however, numerous destructive clearcuts have tattered much of the SMZ over the past 20 years.