British Columbia Ancient Forests News

• Vehicle Donation Needed
  

  Do you or a family member have a vehicle that you no longer need? One that you would be willing to donate to the Ancient Forest Alliance?  If so, the AFA is looking for a safe and reliable vehicle for our door canvass to build support in communities throughout Victoria and Vancouver Island.

  
   
• Join the Friends of McLaughlin Ridge on Facebook!
  

  Port Alberni residents led by local activist Jane Morden are standing up to protect the endangered McLaughlin Ridge, a 500 hectare tract of ancient Douglas-fir forest near the town that biologists have classified as both critical habitat for wintering deer and endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks

  
   
• UVic Slideshow Featuring BC's Most Spectacular Old-Growth Rainforests!
  

  Date: Tuesday, February 7
  Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
  Location: Clearihue Building Rm A202, UVic.
  FREE!
  Facebook event page:  www.facebook.com/events/319365198106776/

  
   
• NEW PHOTO GALLERY featuring Cortes Island's endangered forests!
  

  See new photos by AFA's TJ Watt from the Squirrel Cove Ancient Forest in the headwaters of Basil Creek and from the Children's Forest along James Creek, both areas of which are slated to be logged by Island Timberlands.

  
   
• Save Cortes Island's Endangered Forests!
  

  Please WRITE A QUICK EMAIL as soon as possible to BC's Minister of Environment, Hon. Terry Lake at: terry.lake.mla@leg.bc.ca . Ask that the BC government help fund the purchase of endangered old-growth stands, sensitive ecosystems, and other high priority lands for conservation currently owned by Island Timberlands. ***BE SURE to include your FULL NAME and ADDRESS so they know you are a real person!

  
   
• Salt Spring Island a 'model' for Cortes Island advocates to prevent logging of pristine B.C. forests.
  

  As deadline looms for Island Timberlands to begin logging on Cortes Island, advocates are hoping for a re-enactment of an earlier success story to protect the area's pristine forests.

  
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance confirms vital old growth in threatened Cortes Island woods
  

  Forest conservation experts say documenting old growth trees in BC island forests could help secure provincial support, in order to buy endangered land from logging company Island Timberlands.

  
   
• Environmental group balances jobs with old-growth protection
  

  Protecting the environment and retaining forestry jobs seemed to be something that could never happen.

  The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) came up with a new goal which is to retain forestry jobs through sustainable logging practices while saving old-growth forests for future generations.

  
   
• Logging of pristine BC island forest to begin in January by Brookfield Asset Management
  

  Island Timberlands will start logging on Cortes Island this January, according to Wayne French, Operations Planner for IT.  Cortes Islanders are seeking signatories to a petition to prevent the logging.

  
   
• 2012 Predictions - Environment - Ken Wu
  

  While the strength of environmental campaigns vary each year, 2012 should be major. Here are five predictions: 1. The Climate Change Movement will Heat Up 2. Slick Oil Industry PR will Spread to Pipelines 3. Ancient Forest Campaign will Target both B.C. Lib's and NDP 4. The Fight against Fish Farms will go Viral 5. Raw Logs on a Slow Boat to China will be Protested.

  
   
• Employment Opportunity: Canvass Director for the Ancient Forest Alliance
  

  The Ancient Forest Alliance (www.AncientForestAlliance.org) is hiring a full-time canvass director to run a door canvass and potentially a street canvass in Victoria and to assist in additional fundraising initiatives. Application Deadline: January 23, 2012

  
   
• Mr. Arboretum lives on
  

  "At the time, I hadn't paid much attention to what the lichen actually looked like, so I bought it sight unseen," his widow Anne Hansen laughed Wednesday. "Then people said to me, 'Oh my God, that lichen looks like Henry's beard.'" 

  
   
• Shaw TV: The campaign for "Fangorn Forest" or the Mossy Maple Rainforest
  

  Conservationists identify and seek to protect Canada's mossiest maple rain forest on Vancouver Island.

  
   
• A name to remember him by
  

  It began with a story written by Sun reporter Larry Pynn. In the June 17 edition, Pynn told the story of how Trevor Goward, curator of lichens at UBC, discovered two new species of lichen: one in the Hazel-ton area and one in the Clear-water Valley near Wells Gray Provincial Park.

  
   
• NEW Posters, Winner of Lichen Auction, Canada’s Mossiest Rainforest TV Clip!
  

  Please support the AFA during the last stretch of 2011 – your donation will go furthest with us, we are about the leanest environmental organization in BC with the largest impact! Donate securely online as a Gift, In Memory, or regular donation

  
   
• Final week to visit AFA store for Holiday Gifts!
  
  The Ancient Forest Alliance has new, eco-friendly greeting cards, big-tree posters, post cards, photo prints, stickers, and more at our shared office space located at 827 Broughton Street in Victoria (Click here for Google Map) 
  We are open everyday this week from 12:00 - 6:30 pm. We close Friday, Dec.23rd at 6:30pm! Come by during your lunch break or after work!
  
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance thanks the Mountain Equipment Co-op
  

  MEC's generous Advocacy and Education Grant from 2010-11 that has helped us round up 20,000 supporters through our petition-drive, hikes, slideshows, and rally to protect BC's endangered old-growth forests and forestry jobs!

  
   
• Lichen legacy
  

  Last week, Hansen found a fitting way to memorialize her late husband. For $4,000, she bought  the scientific naming rights to a newly-discovered lichen. The horsehair lichen – which Hansen says resembles Kock's beard – will be known as Bryoria kockiana.

  
   
• New lichen species named for U of G tree guru Henry Kock
  

  GUELPH – A newly-discovered species of lichen will be named in honour of renowned University of Guelph horticulturist Henry Kock, who passed away on Christmas Day 2005.
  
  Kock’s wife, Anne Hansen, purchased the scientific naming rights in an online auction earlier this month.  The lichen will be scientifically known as Bryoria Kockiana.
   

  
   
• Thumbs Up!
  

  Thumbs Up To Oystercatcher Girl - a.k.a. Victoria artist Anne Hansen - for a winning $4,000 bid that will give her the right to name a new species of lichen discovered by University of B.C. researcher Trevor Goward, with proceeds to the Ancient Forest Alliance.

  
   
• Scientists' names live on in lichens
  

  An auction for the right to name the lichens raised $17,900 for The Land Conservancy and $4,000 for the Ancient Forest Alliance. Artist Anne Hansen, of Victoria, made the winning bid on the hairlike bryoria lichen, which will be known as Bryoria kockiana in memory of her husband, Henry Kock. "Henry was a tireless champion of biodiversity and inconspicuous species like toads, lichens and sedges," Hansen said.

  
   
• New Species Conservation Auction” closes with renowned BC artist Anne Hansen (aka “Oystercatcher Girl”) making winning bid of $4000, with proceeds to the Ancient Forest Alliance.
  

  Hansen won the naming rights to a newly discovered species of lichen from BC’s inland rainforest, which she plans to name in honour of her late husband. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Ancient Forest Alliance, a new non-profit organization working to protect BC’s old-growth forests and forestry jobs.

  
   
• Santa Claus, Conservation Groups Benefit from 'Tree Beard' Lichen Named for Late U of G Plantsman
  

  The new species of horsehair lichen will be called Bryoria kockiana for Henry Kock, former interpretive horticulturist at the U of G Arboretum and a leading authority on native woody plants. He died in 2005 of brain cancer. His wife, Anne Hansen, purchased the scientific naming rights to the lichen this week.

  
   
• Lichenologist Trevor Goward: Statement on the Close on the New Species Conservation Auction
  

  As a taxonomist, I'm also delighted if my work can in some way help to preserve critical habitats for the organisms I study. As this is a first trial run of taxonomic tithing in Canada, I accept that it will take time for Canadians really to get behind this new method of conservation fund raising.

  
   
• Anne Hansen: A Likin' For Lichen
  

  She will name the lichen after her deceased husband, Henry Kock, horticulturist and author of Growing Trees from Seed (Firefly Books Ltd, 2008).  The book was completed by his botanical colleagues after his death.  Kock (pronounced “Coke”) was the public face of the Arboretum at the University of Guelph for 20 years.  He died of brain cancer on December 25, 2005.  Hansen moved from Ontario to BC in 2007.

  
   
• Lichen-naming auction can be your path to immortality
  

  "I can't help but think it would be the perfect Christmas present," said MacKinnon, coauthor of The Plants of Coastal B.C., which has sold 300,000 copies and is described as the Bible of B.C. botany.

  "I'm sure you've heard the phrase 'A lichen is forever,' " he said.
   

  
   
• Scientific American: Designate a species with your name or your pooch's
  

  There are species named after famous people: Strigiphilus garylarsoni is a louse named after the cartoonist Gary Larson.

  
   
• British Columbia Magazine: Lichen auction closes soon
  

  Time is running out to have a treasured name live on in a lichen species. The contest to name two new species of lichen found in British Columbia’s rainforests closes December 15, so get brainstorming and start bidding!

  
   
• Mossiest forest in Canada creating buzz in Lake Cowichan
  

  Diverse mosses, licorice ferns and lobaria “lettuce” lichens and more fauna grows on the trees in Mossy Maple. According to Wu, Mossy Maple hosts more plants growing on trees than any other trees in North America. The area is also home to bears, cougars, elk and a host of other wildlife.

  
   
• TONIGHT! Chief treaty negotiator Robert Morales speaks on the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group's fight for their forests and human rights!
  

  Join the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group's (HTG) Robert Morales for a presentation about the Hul'qumi'num's fight to sustain their culture, their land and their human rights against the large scale clearcutting and development on their unceded territories.
  Time: 7:00-8:30 PM
  Date: TONIGHT! Tuesday, Dec.13 th
  Location: Garry Oak Room - Fairfield Community Association

  
   
• “New Species Conservation Auction” - Unique Conservation Fundraiser to help counter the Biodiversity Crisis, closes this Thursday
  

  A public auction for the naming rights to a recently discovered species of lichen in British Columbia’s  temperate rainforest will close at 3 pm EST on Thursday, December 15.  The new species was discovered by botanical researcher Trevor Goward, the curator of lichens at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia. Funds from the highest bidder will benefit the Ancient Forest Alliance!

  
   
• Lichen auction closes Dec. 15
  

  Two "name that lichen" auctions organized by Upper Clearwater naturalist Trevor Goward will end on Thursday, Dec. 15.  "It's been almost three centuries since Carolus Linnaeus invented the modern biological classification system; and even now the names of the people he honored in the name of various plants and animals are still with us," said Goward. "With any luck, your name will last at least as long as Canada does."

  
   
• Taxonomy - The name of the lichen
  

  The Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance, which is dedicated to protecting and advocating for the province’s old-growth forests, is soliciting bids for Bryoria, a “horsehair lichen” that cascades over tree branches in long, black strands.

  
   
• “Name that Lichen” auction closes 15 December!
  

  “Name that Lichen” auction closes 15 December. Researcher challenges Canadians to give something back to Canada and at the same time honour a loved one – or favourite hockey team – in the name of a native species: the perfect Canadian Christmas gift.

  
   
• Monday, Dec.5th: SEE BC’s MOST UNIQUE OLD-GROWTH FOREST! AFA Photo Journey & Fundraiser
  

  MON., DEC.5: VICTORIA
  7:00-8:30 pm
  Ambrosia Center, 638 Fisgard St. near Douglas St.

  We are excited to finally share with you the latest, incredible old-growth stand that we’ve come across: the “MOSSY MAPLE RAINFOREST”!

  
   
• 'Canada's mossiest rainforest' needs protection, Island groups say
  

  The Alliance and Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group have earmarked two stands near Cowichan Lake of giant old-growth bigleaf maple trees, which they're describing as "Canada's mossiest rainforest," and want the provincial government to buy the stands from TimberWest.
   

  
   
• Lichen names up for auction
  

  After discovering two new lichen species in the southern Interior, lichenoligist Trevor Goward decided to donate the naming rights to raise money for conservation causes.

  
   
• “Canada’s Mossiest Rainforest” Found on Vancouver Island
  

  Unlike other spotlighted old-growth forests in British Columbia that have all been “coniferous” or needle-leaf trees (fir, cedar, spruce, etc.), this is an old-growth “deciduous” or broad-leaf forest. The “Mossy Maple Rainforest” is found near Cowichan Lake on southern Vancouver Island in Hul’qumi’num First Nations territory.

  
   
• New Species Conservation Auction - Name That Lichen!
  

  Your name would be enshrined as a legacy that could endure as long as our civilization lasts!

  Having your name - or that of a loved one, your favourite celebrity, role model, hero, sports team - linked to a living species is a legacy that lasts a long time. It has been almost three centuries since the modern system of biological classification was developed by Carolus Linnaeus; and even now the names of people after whom he christened various plants and animals are still with us.

  
   
• Ancient Forest Photo Exhibit & Sale - Ends this Friday at 5pm!
  

  Seeing the Forest for the Trees is a stunning photographic exhibit that brings art and conservation under one roof. Art aficionados, nature lovers, and early holiday shoppers - this is your chance to pick up the perfect eco-friendly gift for yourself or a loved one in time for the holidays and help protect our ancient forests at the same time!

  
   
• Til' The Last Tree - Slideshow of Cross Canada Bike Tour
  

  The pair will be sharing stories and an incredible slideshow highlighting the amazing adventures, diverse birds and wildlife, spectacular landscapes and ecosystems that they encountered during their 11,000 kilometer cycling ...and bird-watching journey! Monday, Nov.14th, 7-8:30PM, Garry Oak Room - Fairfield Community Association. 1335 Thurlow Rd, Victoria. Map: http://g.co/maps/hskn7, by donation. 

  
   
• Protect McLaughlin Ridge YouTube Clip (1min)
  

  The McLaughlin Ridge is a 500 hectare tract of ancient Douglas-fir forest near Port Alberni that biologists have classified as both critical habitat for wintering deer and nesting endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks. Conservationists would like the BC government to protect the old-growth forest on private land on McLaughlin Ridge by purchasing it from Island Timberlands.

  
   
• Chainsaw buzz stirs up once-protected old growth
  

  Environmentalists want the province to buy a tract of previously protected oldgrowth forest near Port Alberni that is now being logged by Island Timberlands. McLaughlin Ridge was classified as critical habitat for wintering deer and endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks until 2004, when the province allowed it to be removed from a tree farm licence
   

  
   
• Protect McLaughlin Ridge! Please take 5 minutes to write a quick email!
  

  PLEASE take 5 minutes and WRITE a Letter to Minister of Forests Steve Thomson at: steve.thomson.mla@leg.bc.ca and Minister of the Environment Terry Lake at: terry.lake.mla@leg.bc.ca

  
   
• Critics insist logging harms wildlife
  

  In 2004, the B.C. government removed 88,000 hectares of land now owned by Island Timberlands from their Tree Farm Licenses.  Critics say this removed most of the environmental protections formerly acknowledged on those lands.

  
   
• Old-Growth Logging of Deregulated Forest Lands on Vancouver Island Threatens Deer Winter Range and Endangered Goshawk Habitat
  

  Conservationists are calling on the BC government to protect a 500 hectare tract of old-growth forest near Port Alberni that biologists have classified as both critical habitat for wintering deer and nesting endangered Queen Charlotte goshawks. Conservationists would like the BC government to purchase the forest on private land on McLaughlin Ridge from Island Timberlands.

  
   
• Deadline to Submit Avatar Grove Protection Comments this Wednesday, Nov. 9th!
  

  After almost two years of intense public pressure led by the Ancient Forest Alliance and the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce, the BC government is looking to officially declare Avatar Grove off-limits to logging. They are proposing to include the Avatar Grove within 59 hectares of new Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s), pending the completion of public input that closes this Wednesday, November 9.
   

  
   
• Welcome to Avatar forest in B.C.
  

  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.

  
   
• Cross-Canada Bicycle Trip for BC’s Old-Growth Forests nears Completion
  

  Musician Jaime Hall and wildlife biologist Nigel Jackett are now nearing completion of their meandering, 11,000 kilometer cycling and bird-watching journey across Canada supporting BC's ancient forest.

  
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance hosts rally to protect old growth
  

  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.

  
   
• Thank You PosterLoop Media!
  

  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!  http://posterloop.com/index.php

  
   
• Thank You Metropol Printshop!
  

  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! Check our their eco-friendly print options online at: http://print.imetropol.com/   read more...

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

  Join the Ancient Forest Alliance's Ken Wu and TJ Watt for a hike to the Avatar Grove this coming Saturday.

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

  
   
• 1 & 1/2 Annual Tree Huggers Ball - 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.

  An awesome night full of groovy MUSIC, ridiculous contests, PRIZES, and foot stomping good times

  
   
• Conservationists fearful of DND land sale
  

  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.

  
   
• CTV News - Endangered DND Lands Need Protection
  

  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.

  
   
• Ancient forests in B.C. - Canadian Geographic Blog
  

  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.

  
   
• Conservationists call for the Protection of Endangered Ecosystems on Department of National Defence (DND) Lands
  

  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.

  
   
• Human rights groups and Indigenous peoples’ organizations will closely monitor landmark international hearing into Canadian land rights case
  

  On Friday, October 28, the Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States (OAS) will hold its first ever hearings into the violation of Indigenous land rights in Canada.

  
   
• Conservationists Call for the Protection of Endangered Ecosystems on Department of National Defence 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. 

   

  
   
• Big trees boost tourism in West Coast town
  

  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.

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

  
   
• Big trees boost tourism in West Coast town
  

  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. 

  
   
• THANK YOU to all those involved with the ancient forest rally!
  

  The Ancient Forest Alliance would like to extend a HUGE THANKS to all of our volunteers, supporters, speakers, performers, and the small businesses that made this event possible!

  
   
• RALLY for ANCIENT FORESTS and BC FORESTRY JOBS! Thursday, Oct. 20th
  

  Date:          Thursday, October 20, 2011
  Time:          7:00-8:30 pm
  Location:    Alix Goolden Hall, 907 Pandora St., Victoria  (click here for map)
  YOUR participation will send an undeniable message to Christy Clark’s BC Liberal government that they MUST act during the next 18 months before a BC election to protect British Columbia’s ancient forests and ensure sustainable forestry jobs!

  
   
• Slideshow: Saving our Spectacular Ancient Forests! Wed, Oct. 12th
  

  WEDNESDAY, October 12th from 7pm-8:30pm at the SFU Harbour Centre (515 W Hastings, Vancouver) in Room 7000

  
   
• Move by Liberals to amend Forest Act draws criticism
  

  The provincial government has introduced legislation to allow woodlot owners the right to remove their lands from forest management requirements and sell them while retaining their tenure on Crown lands, similar to a controversial move four years ago that allowed large forest companies the same right on Vancouver Island.

  
   
• Forest brews, mighty tasty
  More good news for our friends at the Ancient Forest Alliance, who just won Phillips Beer’s “Benefit Brew” competition. Full proceeds (about $10,000) go to the AFA.
   
• CTV News - Ancient Forest Alliance wins "Benefit Brew" contest
  CTV News video of the Ancient Forest Alliance's win in the Phillips Beer "Benefit Brew" contest. The AFA will receive the sales proceeds from a custom, microbrewed beer called the "Ancient Brown Ale".
   
• And the benefit brew winner is: Ancient Forest Alliance
  The alliance, a two yearold Victoria-based non-profit organization that works to protect old-growth forest in the province, was the clear winner of the competition that over a two-week period had the public vote for their charity of choice online.
   
• 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.
   
• Ancient Forest Photo Show - Fundraiser! Wed, Sept. 28th
  On display will be nearly a dozen 24”x36” prints, a range of smaller prints, and a few select framed works. Featured images will range from Canada’s biggest trees, to coastal landscape views and lush forest scenes, as well as new UNRELEASED images from one of the most stunning and unique forests on Vancouver Island!
   
• Avatar Grove closer to being protected
  The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations has drafted a proposal for an amendment that would add 49 hectares in the Avatar Grove area as an old growth management area (OGMA), and an additional 10.4 hectares in nearby Axe Creek, making them both off-limits to logging.
   
• Facebook game lets you solve anagrams to save Canada's forests
  True to its name, in order to play Donate2Play Media's first new game, Wordraiser, you're going to have to pony up some change. Wordraiser is an anagram game that has players make as many words as possible out of one word.
   
• Ban Raw Log Exports March and Rally
  Stop the Export of Our Future, Our Jobs - Sponsored by the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, supported by the Ancient Forest Alliance.
   
• ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT! The AFA NEEDS YOUR VOTES in the Phillips Benefit Brew contest!
  For the winning group, Phillips will design and produce a short-run specially-crafted beer complete with a custom label (imagine a Gnarly Tree beer!). The campaign is aimed at both raising awareness, and providing financial support by donating the full proceeds of the benefit brew to the chosen cause. Vote at: phillipsbeer.com/benefitbrew
   
• On National Tree Day the Ancient Forest Alliance calls for a “Provincial Heritage Trees Designation” to Protect Canada’s Largest and Oldest Trees
  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.
   
• Earthdance Vancouver 2011 - Celebrating the Forests!
  Date: Saturday, September 24th, 12:00pm - 7:00pm Location: Prospect Point Picnic Area - Stanley Park Cost: By Donation (50% of proceeds will be donated to the Ancient Forest Alliance!)
   
• Local band Quioa new album Wildside to support ancient trees
  Local band Quoia is about to release an album titled Wildside with 10% of the proceeds to be donated to Ancient Forest Alliance.
   
• Public HIKE to the AVATAR GROVE - Sunday, Sept. 25th
  Meet in Port Renfrew at the Tourist Info Centre at 1:30 pm (The Info Centre is on the right-hand side of the road beside the Real Goods Market about 1km into town) ***When you arrive PLEASE watch to see where parking is being directed to a gravel overflow parking area on the opposite side of the road as there will be many people participating in this trip and we need to leave spaces open for the local businesses. Thank you!
   
• Port Renfrew: Gateway to the West Coast Trail
  After settling into our cabin, we meet up with our hiking guide TJ Watt, the passionate founder of Ancient Forest Alliance. We head out on a rough, windy road to Avatar Grove, home to 'Canada's Gnarliest Tree'. What a treat to stand beside a 150-foot tall cedar tree that dwarfs anyone and everything around it.
   
• Eco-cyclists on cross-country trek
  Jaime Hall and Nigel Jackett are so committed to supporting the Ancient Forest Alliance, they’ve dedicated six months of their lives and $10,000 of personal funds to cycle 7,500 kilometres across Canada to raise awareness for the AFA’s Vancouver Island cause.
   
• ’Til the Last Tree duo going the extra mile for B.C.’s old growth forest
  On a mission to sight as many bird species as possible in their travels as way to raise money and awareness for The Ancient Forest Alliance, they expect to travel 11,000 kilometres before they’re finished
   
• Saanich company launches online game that aids ancient forests
  A Saanich-based company has set out to revolutionize non-profit fundraising, and they’ve turned to Facebook to do it. On Sept. 8, Donate2Play Media launched its first social media game, a collaboration with local protectors of old growth forests, the Ancient Forest Alliance
   
• Victoria firm taps into social gaming for fundraising
  Determined to remove or at least reduce the cap-in-hand approach to fundraising used by charities and notfor-profit organizations, a new Victoria company is taking the fundraising campaign to social games on Facebook.
   
• New Company Develops Online Games for a Better World
  Fuelled by a desire to make a difference, a Victoria, B.C. company is out to create a new way for charities and non-profit organizations to raise funds. Donate2Play Media creates fun social games for charities. Through the incorporation of fun facts, compelling imagery and the viral nature of social media, Donate2Play provides a novel and lucrative fundraising channel for charities of all varieties.
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance welcomes proposed interim protection for Avatar Grove
  Today the BC government officially proposed to designate the entire Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew as an Old-Growth Management Area (OGMA), pending completion of a 60 day public review period.
   
• Forest campaigner lauds Avatar Grove protection, criticizes trade-off
  Ken Wu welcomed the British Columbia government's plans to protect a forest grove his Ancient Forest Alliance has campaigned to save, but criticized the government's intention to open another old growth area to logging.
   
• THANK YOU to Victoria Skafest for their Generous Donation!
  A big thanks goes out to the Victoria Skafest organizers who made a generous donation to the Ancient Forest Alliance as part of their carbon offset program.
   
• THANK YOU to Bikram Yoga Saanich
  THANK YOU to Bikram Yoga Saanich and Abbey and David Boon for their generous support from holding Karma classes to benefit the Ancient Forest Alliance.
   
• Justifying environmental destruction
  The company’s internet website is nothing more than a cutting and pasting of whatever out-of-context facts can be best used to justify the damage they continue to do to the environment.
   
• Avatar Grove: the Extraordinary and the Ordinary
  A scant 10 minute walk off a logging road near the BC's West Coast town of Port Renfrew is Avatar Grove, a stand of old cedars so majestic, powerful and gnarled that T. F. Watt said he and his colleagues from the Ancient Forest Alliance "were running around like kids in a candy story" when they found it in 2009.
   
• AVATAR GROVE HIKE - Thursday, Aug. 25th
  Meet 12:00 pm at the Coastal Kitchen Cafe in Port Renfrew ***NOTE - please park on the side street across from the Cafe to save the limited parking spaces for customers***. Hike will finish at 3pm
   
• Sat. Aug 27: Nature Walk and Fundraiser at GREATER VICTORIA’S FINEST ANCIENT FOREST
  Nature Walk and Fundraiser with Victoria Natural History Society president Darren Copley and Royal BC Museum curator and entomologist Claudia Copley, and with the Ancient Forest Alliance’s Ken Wu and TJ Watt through the Spectacular ROYAL ROADS ANCIENT FOREST
   
• Sun. Aug 28: LOWER MAINLAND Ancient Forest WALK and FUNDRAISER in Manning Park’s Magnificent SUMALLO GROVE
  Join Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners Ken Wu and TJ Watt and lichenologist Stu Crawford (tentative) on an easy nature walk and talk through one of the most incredible old-growth forests left in the Lower Mainland, the Sumallo Grove in Manning Provincial Park, through a grove that is one of the most diverse ancient forests in the province
   
• THANK YOU to the Tall Trees Society for their generous donation!
  The 2011 Tall Tree Music Festival hosted in Port Renfrew was an amazing time and great success. Proceeds from the festival were generously donated to the Ancient Forest Alliance and local community projects.
   
• Old growth trees cut down in the Caycuse Valley
  The old growth forest that was logged was conveniently located in an unprotected tract of old growth, surrounded by the protected Ungulate Wintering Range and an Old Growth Management Area. The Ungulate Wintering Range was designated by the Ministry of Forests to sustain black-tailed deer populations, while the Old Growth Management Area prohibits logging.
   
• Ancient Forest & Nature Photography Workshop with the AFA’s TJ Watt!
  Join the Ancient Forest Alliance’s award-winning photographer TJ Watt for a fun, hands-on photography workshop intended for novices and amateurs in the incredible old-growth forests of Goldstream Park!
   
• Clearcutting threatens black-tailed deer, activist says
  A dwindling black-tailed deer population on the Island is further at risk after clearcutting near Caycuse Valley, according to Ken Wu, president of the Ancient Forest Alliance, who has called on the province to protect more old-growth forests.
   
• Recent Old-Growth Clearcutting of Deer Wintering Habitat on Vancouver Island Documented and Posted on Youtube
  The Ancient Forest Alliance has released a video clip documenting the recent clearcutting of an extremely rare old-growth Douglas fir forest on Vancouver Island that served as vital wintering habitat for the Island’s diminishing black-tailed deer population.
   
• Shaw TV: Avatar Grove & Eco-Tourism in Port Renfrew
  The Shaw Daily television program heads out to visit the popular Avatar Grove with the AFA and takes a look at how business owners in Port Renfrew are starting to embrace eco-tourism as a new economic driver.
   
• AVATAR GROVE EXTRAVAGANZA: Biodiversity Hike and Fundraiser! Sunday, August 7th
  Meet 1:00 pm in Port Renfrew at the new Tourist Info Center (right side of the road upon entering town), after which time we’ll drive in a convoy to the Avatar Grove. Hike 1:30 – 3:30 pm. Cost: sliding scale - $25 to $100 per individual (children are free)
   
• Award-winning Canadian poet Don McKay takes lichen-naming bid to $3,500
  McKay is the author of twelve books of poetry and has been publishing since 1973. His poems are ecologically centred, inspired by the conflict between inspiration and spiritual, instinct and knowledge and he sees his writing as “nature poetry in a time of environmental crisis.”
   
• Canada’s biggest tree
  Canada’s largest tree, a western redcedar named the “Cheewhat Giant” stands in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake west of Lake Cowichan. The tree is over six meters (20 feet) in trunk diameter, 56 meters (182 feet) in height and 450 cubic meters in timber volume (or 450 regular telephone poles’ worth of wood).
   
• B.C.'s Avatar Grove needs park status, say environmentalists
  The move to protect the grove has the support of the local chamber of commerce and the logging company that has the cutting rights to the area, but Wu says without park status, there is no guarantee the grove will not be logged in the future.
   
• Province takes step towards protecting 'Avatar Grove'
  Speaking on CFAX 1070 with Adam Stirling Tuesday afternoon, the group's spokesperson Ken Wu says the government made the commitment on Saturday
   
• BC Government Takes Important Step towards Protecting Vancouver Island’s “Avatar Grove”
  On Saturday, the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations publicly stated their commitment to designate the entire Avatar Grove off limits to logging through an Old-Growth Management Area (OGMA).
   
• Hunt for trophy trees yields a treasure trove on Vancouver Island
  The popularity of Avatar Grove, as it was named in a brilliant branding move, has convinced the British Columbia government to protect the area – and it may yet lead to a rethinking of how the province manages its oldest forests.
   
• Wade Davis and Andy MacKinnon, BC’s Best Known Botanists, Make Bids for Naming Rights for New Species of Old-Growth Forest Lichens as part of Conservation Fundraiser
  “We’re lucky to have BC’s Rock Star botanists, Wade Davis and Andy MacKinnon, support this ground-breaking conservation fundraiser,” stated Ken Wu, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “Wade has a long history as a great conservationist and ethnobotanist, working for decades to protect BC’s wilderness as well as tropical ecosystems and cultures. Andy co-authored ‘Plants of Coastal BC’, which many think of as the ‘Bible of BC Botany’. He is also the foremost authority on old-growth forest ecology in this province.”
   
• Likin’ a lichen? Why not put your name on it forever?
  National Geographic explorer Wade Davis, who lives in the Stikine Valley in northern B.C., has made a $3,000 bid. And Andy MacKinnon, a noted author who works as a forest ecologist for the B.C. government, has offered $3,200.
   
• Naming rights to new lichen species up for sale
  The money will go to two conservation projects — to help the Ancient Forest Alliance protect B.C.'s old growth forests, and help the Land Conservancy buy private lands in the Clearwater Valley to expand Wells Gray Provincial park.
   
• Like lichen? Name of species up for grabs in fundraiser
  Normally, the person who makes the discovery gets the right to name a newly discovered species but Goward decided to auction off that right to raise funds for the Ancient Forest Alliance and The Land Conservancy of British Columbia.
   
• The Week - We've Still Got Wood
  To celebrate Parks Day this past week, the AFA captured a YouTube video of Canada’s largest tree, a western red cedar named the Cheewhat Giant, growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake, north of Port Renfrew and west of Lake Cowichan. The tree remains the country’s biggest with a trunk diametre over six metres (20 feet).
   
• Eco-tourism in Port Renfrew
  The Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the Ancient Forest Alliance, the advocacy group that leads tours of the majestic ‘Avatar Grove’, to funnel more tourists into the area and feed the local economy.
   
• Camping in Port Renfrew? Try the Pacheedaht Campground and RV park!
  To get to the campground from Victoria take West Coast HWY #14 and turn RIGHT onto Deering rd immediately upon reaching Port Renfrew. Cross the single lane bridge over the San Juan River and once on the other side there is camp parking on both the left and right hand side of the road.
   
• Meet Cheewhat, Canada’s largest tree — and help the alliance keep giants like it safe
  The giant western red cedar reaches 56 metres high and spans six metres around, containing enough wood to make 450 telephone poles. It’s accessible by a logging road and by hiking in.
   
• Parks Day Alert: Video clip of “Canada’s Largest Tree” and old-growth logging by Pacific Rim National Park Reserve released today
  The clip features Canada’s largest tree, a western redcedar named the Cheewhat Giant growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve north of Port Renfrew and west of Lake Cowichan. It also features new clearcuts and giant stumps of redcedar trees, some over 4 meters (14 feet) in diameter in the Klanawa Valley adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and also near the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park (in the Nitinat Lake/Rosander Main region) logged in 2010 and 2011.
   
• Canada's Largest Tree - The Cheewhat Giant!
  Click to see Canada's largest tree, a western redcedar named the Cheewhat Giant growing in a remote location near Cheewhat Lake within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on southerwestern Vancouver Island! The clip also features new clearcuts and giant stumps of redcedar trees, some over 4 meters (14 feet) in diameter in the nearby Klanawa Valley and Nitinat Lake/Rosander Main region.
   
• In Port Renfrew, a ‘new world’ is built on ancient trees
  "We used to depend on logging to sustain Port Renfrew. Now the tables have turned and we're looking at the tall trees as our future," said Betsworth as the two groups cemented their partnership Thursday with the opening of a new tourist information centre, where visitors can pick up a map of the area's massive old-growth trees.
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance and Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce cooperate to Protect Old-Growth Forests and Avatar Grove through new Chamber Info Centre
  The info centre will play host to a media press conference today, Thursday, July 14 at 12:00 noon, followed by a tour of the nearby unprotected Avatar Grove. Port Renfrew Chamber President Rosie Betsworth and Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer TJ Watt will discuss their cooperative efforts to promote and protect the Avatar Grove and other nearby old-growth forests.
   
• CHEK TV News clip featuring Port Renfrew's new Tourist Information Centre and the Avatar Grove
  The Ancient Forest Alliance along with the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce launched the new Tourist Information Centre today which will serve to funnel thousands of visitors into the town's surrounding old-growth forests, raise awareness of the need to protect them, and help create a vibrant eco-tourism based economy.
   
• Thank you to Mountain Equipment Co-op for supporting the Ancient Forest Alliance!
  A big thanks goes out to Victoria's MEC for helping fund the Ancient Forest Alliance's BC slideshow tour as well as our public hikes to the Avatar Grove which will continue into the fall!
   
• Name that lichen
  Naming rights for two recently discovered species of lichen are up for grabs to the highest bidder. It's all part of a fundraiser for The Land Conservancy of B.C., a non-profit habitat protection group, and the Ancient Forest Alliance, which focuses on saving B.C.'s old-growth forests.
   
• Victoria's 12th Annual Ska Festival July 5th-9th
  A big thanks goes out to the Victoria Ska Fest organizers for inviting the Ancient Forest Alliance to be a part of the event as well as donating a portion of the proceeds towards us! Read more to find out show times and locations!
   
• Canadian Student Takes Top Prize in International Environmental Journalism Competition with an Article on Avatar Grove
  International winner Liz Welliver, whose article “Making a Stand for Avatar” captures the attempts to preserve a newfound swath of ancient old growth forests in BC, was among three youth to take home a prize in the Canadian leg of the competition.
   
• Lichen: the new immortalization
  The undiscovered species was found in B.C. by botanical researcher and taxonomist Trevor Goward, and has been supported by two teams of molecular researchers working in Finland and Spain. According to scientific protocol, the right to give a new species its scientific name goes to the person who describes it, but Goward has donated those rights to whoever scores highest bidder. For the TLC, that money will wind up serving a land conservation project in the Clear Water Valley, and the AFA will put it toward old-growth environmental education.
   
• Naming rights for new species up for auction online
  Trevor Goward, curator of lichens at the University of British Columbia and author of several books, said in an interview Friday he discovered a new species of horsehair lichen in the mid-1990s in the Hazelton-Kispiox area and a new species of crottle lichen in the Clearwater Valley two years ago, both of them in old-growth B.C. forests.
   
• If you take a lichen to them, name them
  While new lichens are discovered on an almost monthly basis, most of those are in the “dime-a-dozen” category of crust lichens, said Mr. Goward. The two lichens up for auction are from the much more prestigious “macrolichens” category.
   
• Your name could go on a lichen
  A botanist from the University of B.C. has donated the naming rights to two species of lichen he's discovered to two environmental groups. The Ancient Forest Alliance and The Land Conservancy are auctioning off the right to name the species to the highest bidders.
   
• New Species Name to be Auctioned-off as Fundraiser for the Ancient Forest Alliance!
  

  “Having your name linked to a living species is a legacy that lasts,” says botanist and taxonomist Goward. "With any luck your name will endure as long as our civilization does. Not even Shakespeare could hope for more than that.”

  
   
• June 14th - Rally to support Hul'quimi'num people's fight against takeover of TimberWest
  First Nations people of Eastern Vancouver Island will rally tomorrow against the sale of TimberWest due to lack of consultation within their traditional territories.
   
• B.C. isn't doing enough to preserve its forests
  The science on forest conservation recommends much greater amounts of forest be protected, and I have confidence that B.C. can meet the challenge. We can produce more jobs and value per cubic metre of forest cut while conserving much more of the forests themselves.
   
• World's Largest Douglas-fir Tree - The Red Creek Fir!
  The tree and a small surrounding stand of trees currently receive "soft" protection through an Old-Growth Management Area, but legislated "hard" protection is needed in the form of a conservancy, park, or ecological reserve that also encompasses a much larger buffer area.
   
• Translation needed in raw-log export debate
  A letter writer does an excellent job of de-bunking industry spin regarding raw log exports point by point in this hard-hitting article.
   
• Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group opposes TimberWest sale to pension funds
  The Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group representing First Nation bands from north of Shawnigan lake to Nanaimo on eastern Vancouver Island is opposing the sale of TimberWest to two pension funds because of a lack of consultation and accommodation of First Nations rights and title interests in the transaction.
   
• CHEK News: The Fight For Our Ancient Forests, BC Parks, and the Carmanah Valley
  The story focuses on the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park and highlights the need to increase parks funding and maintenence in these spectacular places as well as the need to expand protected areas to include the remaining endangered old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and southern BC and shift instead to logging second-growth forests sustainably.
   
• Cross Canada Bike Tour Aims to Raise Funds to Protect BC's Ancient Forests!
  Wildlife biologist Nigel Jackett, and environmentalist-musician Jaime Hall have begun a cross Canada bicycle expedition to raise awareness for one of Canada’s most unique but threatened environments: the Pacific temperate rainforest of coastal British Columbia. The two will be raising funds for the Ancient Forest Alliance based on the total number of bird species found during their ride. Make a PLEDGE TODAY!
   
• Local environmental advocates celebrate Earth Day
  Ken Wu with the Ancient Forest Alliance, spoke on behalf of old growth forests.
   
• Forests for the Future: Community Gathering & Letter-Writing Evening at the Rhizome Cafe
  Join in on a grassroots community gathering to celebrate the legacy of BC's endangered ancient forests and to voice support for their protection. Featuring forest trivia, letter-writing, and a slideshow of images of BC's ancient temperate rainforests!
   
• Port Renfrew Chamber News
  I would like to thank the Sooke Harbour House, The Ancient Forest Alliance and Adriane Carr for making the event all possible. We raised $6,100 in pledges and cash donations, and made new friends who own companies who are able to give a hand in other areas.
   
• Avatar Grove - Making a Stand
  Four bright and dedicated students from Pearson College put together an excellent 7 minute documentary on the Avatar Grove and Vancouver Island’s threatened old-growth forests.
   
• Avatar Grove must get saved
  A recent Forest Practices Board report notes that just one per cent of the Gordon Valley landscape unit consists of protected monumental trees over 400 years old. In addition, only about one-fourth or 4,000 hectares of the Gordon River’s 17,000 hectares is still old-growth, of which only half or 2,000 hectares are protected in Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s).
   
• Old trees find new value in historic logging town
  Nestled on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, the town’s livelihood and identity grew out of logging old-growth forests for most of the 20th century. Mechanization of the logging industry in the 1980s led to significant job loss, which forced the town to find new ways to thrive.
   
• Secrets of Clayoquot Event - Tuesday, April 5th, 7:30-9:00pm, Ambrosia Event Centre, Victoria, BC.
  Learn about the ecology of the region’s globally significant ancient rainforests, and how industrial activity threatens this UNESCO Biosphere reserve.
   
• New INCREDIBLE High-Definition (HD) Video Shot in the Avatar Grove!
  Shooting with the Canon 5D MK II, the Canon 7D, and using a pocket dolly to roll smooth shots, Darryl has captured some of the most stunning, Planet Earth-like video of these incredible yet threatened forests.
   
• Port Renfrew aided by donations
  At a fundraiser on March 17 at the Sooke Harbour House, local area business people and interested conservationists came together to raise funds for an information centre in Port Renfrew.
   
• A South Vancouver Island National Park Reserve
  The solution: that the lands of Mary Hill, Race Rocks, and the undeveloped portions of William Head and Rocky Point be designated a National Conservation Area. This should be part of a larger canvas— a South Vancouver Island National Park Reserve—which would include parks in East Sooke, Albert Head, and Fort Rodd Hill connected to the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail system and an expanded Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
   
• Sooke fundraiser aims to raise awareness of Island's ancient trees
  The aim of the free-drink-and-free-appetizer event at Sooke Harbour House is to increase tourism to monumental trees around Port Renfrew.
   
• Avatar Grove profile on the rise
  The environmental advocates with the AFA have worked steadily at publicizing the site of old growth trees they became aware of in late 2009. Some of the cedar and spruce trees located there are reportedly among the oldest and largest on the continent.
   
• Al Jazeera Reports on Ancient Forest Alliance’s Campaign to Save Old-Growth Forests and the Avatar Grove
  Watch the news clip from Al Jazeera, one of the largest TV news networks on Earth that reaches 220 million homes in over 100 countries, who have just featured the Ancient Forest Alliance’s campaign to protect British Columbia’s endangered old-growth forests and the Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island.
   
• In B.C., Al Jazeera finds a new war to cover
  "We're always interested in environmental stories," said al Jazeera producer Jet Belgraver, on the phone from Toronto. The story, which will air Saturday, aims to give global viewers "a bit of a reality check" about B.C. logging practices.
   
• B.C.'s ancient forests draw Al Jazeera's gaze
  Al Jazeera English is actually available to 220 million homes in more than 100 countries around the world, which is what has local environmentalists excited.
   
• ACTION ALERT! TOMORROW: Al-Jazeera Reports on BC’s Ancient Forests and Avatar Grove
  The campaign to protect BC’s old-growth forests is about to get an unprecedented level of global exposure! Al Jazeera, one of the largest TV news networks on Earth that reaches 220 million homes in over 100 countries, will feature a news piece tomorrow (Saturday) about the Ancient Forest Alliance’s campaign to protect British Columbia’s endangered old-growth forests and the Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island.
   
• Al Jazeera Covers Ancient Forest Alliance’s Campaign to Save British Columbia’s Endangered Old-Growth Forests and the Avatar Grove
  An Al-Jazeera news crew toured the endangered Avatar Grove, the San Juan Spruce (Canada’s largest spruce tree), and clearcuts near the town of Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island last week with Ancient Forest Alliance activists Ken Wu and TJ Watt, and subsequently interviewed BC’s Forests Minister Pat Bell.
   
• Al Jazeera to report from front lines of B.C.'s old-growth logging issue
  "This will be the biggest international news hit for the old-growth campaign in a long time," Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance said Thursday. "There is a strong international market for environmental issues, particularly one that is very charismatic."
   
• Avatar Grove to be featured on Al Jazeera News Network
  Speaking on CFAX 1070 with Dave Dickson Thursday, the Alliance's spokesperson Ken Wu explains how the network found out about Avatar Grove
   
• Old-growth group helping push forest policy changes
  Bell’s announcement came on the heels of a similar recommendation released by the Forest Practices Board, an independent advisory group for the B.C. government.
   
• Metchosin photographer earns national recognition
  Watt earned first place in Outdoor Photography Canada magazine’s “human impact on the environment” photo contest. The image is of a lone man standing on the stump of an ancient tree in the middle of a clear cut in Gordon River valley, near Port Renfrew.
   
• No Paradigm Shift in BC Government, But New Recognition of Public Mood for Protecting Avatar Grove and Expanding Old-Growth Protection
  “Somehow a century of industrial logging has actually increased the amount of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, according to the BC government. Maybe the Ancient Forest Alliance should take up logging to increase the amount of old-growth forests in BC!” joked Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) executive director.
   
• BREAKING NEWS: AVATAR GROVE might get SAVED – Please WRITE a LETTER now!!
  Yesterday BC’s Forests Minister Pat Bell announced that he is considering protecting the endangered Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew, and is also looking at developing new legal tools to increase protection of exceptional ancient trees and old-growth stands in BC. This would be an important step forward!
   
• Forest Practices Board Report - BC's Ancient Forests Need More Protection
  In response to a complaint filed about ancient redcedars up to 16ft in diameter being logged near Port Renfrew, BC, the Forest Practices Board, a third party government-appointed watchdog, has concluded that there is 'strong public interest' in seeing giant trees and unique stands of old-growth forest protected and that the BC government has the tools to do so.
   
• B.C. looking for new ways to protect ancient trees
  Bell, who has previously emphasized that B.C. has ample protection for old-growth trees, said the change is driven by the public mood.
   
• Grove Saved?
  “Certainly we have been hearing the message . . . that we should be considering some tools, perhaps new tools that we could use when particularly unique trees are identified. They may be individual trees or small areas like the Avatar Grove that provide incremental value over and above the timber resource value,” Bell told media.
   
• B.C. needs endangered species legislation
  Super, natural British Columbia is awesome, with more than 4,373 known forms of life. At more than double the size of the state of California, B.C. is breathtaking.
   
• BC Government considers protecting "Avatar Grove"
  "Certainly we have been hearing the message for some time from different organizations that we should be considering some tools, perhaps new tools that we could use when particularly unique trees are identified. They may be individual tees or small areas like the Avatar Grove that provide incremental value over and above the timber resource value," Bell said.
   
• Times Colonist - Thumbs Up To the Forest Practices Board
  Voluntary efforts by forest companies answerable to shareholders aren't enough, but the report is a start toward real protection for trees with historic significance every bit as real as ancient ruins.
   
• Group Optimistic About Government Considering Protection of Old Growth Forests
  The forest practices board made a recommendation that BC should find creative ways to protect monumental trees and ancient forest stands. This is the government's watchdog. They appointed the body to review forestry in BC and now their own watchdog is saying we need to move farther to save our old growth forests
   
• BC Government considers protecting the Avatar Grove and Ancient Trees
  Forests Minister Pat Bell’s statements comes on the heels of a new Forest Practices Board report released on Thursday that calls on the BC government and industry to seek “creative ways” to save ancient trees, that the land-use policy framework exists for the BC government to readily protect the Avatar Grove
   
• Naturalists set to meet Island forests
  This spectacular and informative slide show and talk by TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance will be at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 15, at the Freshwater EcoCentre in Duncan.
   
• Call for Port Renfrew Foresters not to chop down ancient trees
  The Forest Practices Board (FCB) said the trees in question, cut by logging company Teal-Jones, were between 500 and 1,000 years old. Logging the trees was legal, but the board in a report released Thursday called for foresters and land managers to get “creative” about conserving trees of exceptional size, form, age or historical significance.
   
• Companies urged to conserve ancient trees
  "This complaint highlights the strong public interest in seeing more ancient trees and forest stands preserved to live out their natural lives and functions, and managed as a social, economic and ecological asset to the public and surrounding communities," said board chair Al Gorley.
   
• Watchdog wants big trees protected
  The watchdog board investigated a complaint about massive old-growth trees being cut near Port Renfrew and concluded that, although the forest company -Teal Cedar Products Ltd. -did nothing wrong, government and forest companies should pay more attention to trees of exceptional size, form, age or historical significance.
   
• Forests minister to protect ancient trees
  The minister's acknowledgment that more needs to be done to protect monumental trees is not exactly a revelation. Environmental groups, particularly the Ancient Forest Alliance and the Wilderness Committee have been pushing for it for years.
   
• Forestry Watchdog Concludes "Strong Public Interest" for Saving Ancient Forests and that BC Government can Readily Protect Avatar Grove
  This report brings the welcome conclusions that there is 'strong public interest' in protecting our extremely rare, monumental stands of coastal ancient forests like the Avatar Grove, and that the BC government has the legal mechanisms to quickly protect them – if they have the political will
   
• Photo of Old-Growth Clearcut on Vancouver Island Takes Top Prize
  “As a photographer working for a cause you’re always looking for that elusive shot that truly captures both the emotional and the factual aspects of the issue in one image. It’s difficult to get both together but this picture is quickly proving to have done just that. Of the hundreds of thousands of photos I have taken, as sad as it is, this is the one I am most proud of,” notes Watt.
   
• Photograph of Vancouver Island clearcut wins national competition
  Ancient Forest Alliance photographer T.J. Watt took first place in Outdoor Photography Canada magazine's "Human Impact" photo contest with an image taken in the Gordon River Valley near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.
   
• B.C.'s Best Old-Growth Forest Slideshow Visits Salt Spring
  “Time is running out for our endangered old-growth forests and B.C.’s coastal forestry jobs. Salt Spring Island is famous as a hub of environmental consciousness — it may very well have the highest density of tree-huggers in North America. It’s a key place for us to build support and expand our strong campaign to protect our ancient forests, ensure sustainable second-growth forestry and to ban raw log exports to foreign mills,”
   
• CFAX Radio Interview (on Youtube): Climate and Old-Growth Forests with Sierra Club of BC's Jens Wieting
   
• Ancient forest group continues push for old-growth
  AFA members spent the last year hunting the south Island for old-growth stands to document and photograph. It’s trying to put pressure on the B.C. government to protect old-growth stands for future generations.
   
• Canada's Gnarliest Tree - Save the Avatar Grove
  The 50 hectare stand of lush old-growth temperate rainforest on public (Crown) lands near Port Renfrew has become a major attraction due to the ease of access to its giant, alien shaped redcedars and enormous Douglas-firs. Yet, despite requests for protection from all corners, the BC government has not stepped up to the plate to ensure that the area is spared from logging by the Surrey-based Teal-Jones Group.
   
• Searching for the 'sweet spot' in the carbon debate
  The valuable contribution intact forests make in conserving natural carbon stores to help in the fight against climate change has been largely overlooked in BC. Like a bank account that can store carbon away for hundreds of years, the service of keeping carbon in the ground and out of the atmosphere, is provided free of charge by our intact forests.
   
• Film series turns eye to Youbou closure
  Its goals from 10 years ago remain strong today, according to group stalwart Ken James. "With over 200 paid up members we continue to work with other groups, often behind the scenes now, to promote our ideas of sustainable, profitable, forestry that will leave a standing forest behind for future generations," he said this week.
   
• The Death Of A Sawmill
  The Cowichan Citizens’ Coalition will screen the documentaries Stump To Dump, and Raw Log Exports made by Lake Cowichan Secondary School students. Discussion will involve Youbou Timberless Society members, plus Ken Wu and T.J. Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance.
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance’s One Year Anniversary, Organization Prepares for Province Wide Tour
  Since then the non-profit environmental organization has become perhaps the fastest growing environmental group in BC, snowballing to 18,000 supporters through Facebook and by email, and garnering hundreds of news stories in the media on its campaigns.
   
• The closure of the Youbou Sawmill, 10 years later
  The Youbou TimberLess Society (YTS) will be hosting a film screening of their documentary videos Stump to Dump, and Log Exports, produced by Lake Cowichan Secondary School students, at the Duncan United Church Hall, Jan 20, at 7 p.m.
   
• Interview with TJ Watt - Photographer and Environmentalist
  "My work focus’s mainly on the threats to BC’s endangered old-growth forests and often times I am taking photos where less than and a handful of people have stood, if any at all. The dense rainforests of Vancouver Island are largely unexplored so it’s amazing to share images from these virtually unknown places. If you can’t bring the 4 million plus citizens of British Columbia to the woods then you need to bring the woods to them and now, with the power of GPS mapping and Google Earth, you can extend that concept to the entire world."
   
• VIDEO: Victoria Community TV Presents: Face to Face with Avatar Grove
  We are joined by Ken Wu and T.J.Watt from The Ancient Forest Alliance, along with some great images of this magnificent old growth forest. We also talk about 'the big picture' of saving what is left of BC's old growth forests, and the threats still facing it today.
   
• Tree-Huggers and Tree-Cutters Celebrate 10 Year Alliance
  The Youbou TimberLess Society (YTS) will be hosting a film screening of their documentary videos “Stump to Dump”, and “Log Exports” produced by Lake Cowichan Secondary students, at the Duncan United Church Hall on Jan 20th at 7pm. A discussion with YTS members and Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance will follow.
   
• Poor B.C. Logging Practices "add to gas emissions"
  The carbon from coastal rainforests, much of which comes from Vancouver Island, is not counted in B.C.'s official emissions tally as, at the international level, Canada and the provinces decided against including forests. If they were included, emissions numbers for B.C. would increase by 24 per cent.
   
• 2 MOST IMPORTANT LETTERS to WRITE for ANCIENT FORESTS
  1) First Rate Opportunity with leaderless BC Liberal and BC NDP parties – WRITE your MLA!
  2) Flores Island, perhaps the most beautiful place in Canada and the largest island in Clayoquot Sound by Tofino, is at risk of being logged. WRITE to the BC Liberal government!
   
• Certification fails to protect B.C. forests
  In response to increasing public outcries over his complete mismanagement of forests in the public interest, Forest Minister Pat Bell is frequently taking refuge behind forest certification programs. But are third-party stamps of approval really, as Bell claims, a guarantee that our forests -- a trillion-dollar publicly owned asset -- are being managed sustainably?
   
• Radio Show Raises Support and Awareness for BC's Endangered Old-Growth Forests
   
• No Charlie Brown Tree
  O’ Christmas tree! O’ Christmas tree! Thy status is so precarious—at least if you’re the gnarly old beauty celebrating your one-year birthday in Avatar Grove. But this season isn’t just a time to celebrate: it’s time to get serious about conservation efforts, according to the Ancient Forest Alliance.
   
• Avatar hopes high in Port Renfrew chamber
  To mark the first anniversary of the discovery of the groves by the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce is adding its voice to the chorus calling for the grove’s long-term preservation.
   
• Port Renfrew's 'Avatar Grove' To Become Eco-Tourism Site
  The Ancient Forest Alliance is planning monthly public hikes to the Grove which features 50 hectares of old growth trees, located in an area just discovered by the Alliance a year ago.
   
• Island's own Avatar Grove to open near Port Renfrew
  In hopes of increasing public interest in saving the area from logging, the group is planning monthly public hikes to the grove, starting in January. Meanwhile, the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce has repeated its call for protection of the old-growth stand.
   
• Endangered Avatar Grove Celebrates One Year Anniversary
  To mark the one year anniversary since the discovery of the spectacular but endangered Avatar Grove the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce is repeating its request to the provincial government to protect the Grove while the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is planning to organize monthly public hikes to the Grove until it is saved.
   
• Endangered Avatar Grove
  Between Port Renfrew and Cowichan Lake, above the banks of Gordon River, a small pocket of old-growth western redcedars (Thuja plicata) and Douglas-firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii) was discovered earlier this year. It represents a rare remnant of valley-bottom primary forest on southern Vancouver Island, where 96% of the original forest has been logged. This place was dubbed Avatar Grove, after this year’s box office blockbuster Avatar, the story line of which is a cautionary tale warning against the unsustainable use of our planet’s resources.
   
• Slideshow to protect Island's ancient forests
  The Comox Valley Naturalists Society will be hosting a slideshow presentation 7-9 p.m. on Dec. 8 by Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the Ancient Forest Alliance to raise awareness of and support for the need to protect BCs endangered old growth forests. The presentation will be at the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Ave., Courtenay. Admission is by donation.
   
• Letter to the Editor: Governments failing forest industry
  As you may be well aware, our successive B.C. governments have had no interest in delaying or stopping logging of old growth trees. Their record is abysmal plus disgraceful in this regard.
   
• Scientists Urge Canada to Protect Its Northern Rainforests as Climate Change Insurance
  A new book released this week highlights the urgent need to protect Canada’s more than 20 million hectares of pristine temperate and boreal rainforests. Found in British Columbia, Newfoundland, Quebec, and New Brunswick, these globally important rainforests absorb and store vast amounts of carbon. Scientists argue that protecting these rainforests is a critical insurance against climate change and are calling on the Canadian government to take this message to the upcoming global conference on climate change.
   
• SAVE OUR CLIMATE AND ANCIENT FORESTS!
  See great speakers, have a drink, meet other supporters, and make a donation if you can! Elizabeth May, Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Adriane Carr, Jens Wieting, and other speakers... TUESDAY, NOV. 30, 2010 Ambrosia Centre, 638 Fisgard St., VICTORIA, BC 7:00-9:00pm
   
• Avatar Grove: Don’t Miss It
  Some of you may have heard that we have our own 'Avatar Grove' on southern Vancouver Island. Located just 15 minutes from Port Renfrew, the Grove is a magnificent place populated with oldgrowth red cedars including 'Canada's Gnarliest Tree,' a giant tree with a 12 foot wide, contorted burl. MLA John Horgan shares his views.
   
• Log exports a thorn in the side of communities
  While some business owners argue that raw log exports keep lumber companies solvent while they wait for the industry to turn around, others point out that tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in the lumber industry and raw log exports discourage creating new ones.
   
• Minister says more log shipping capacity needed in B.C.
  The future of exporting logs from both Prince Rupert and Vancouver looks bright as Forest Minister Pat Bell announced on November 2 that Canada has surpassed Russia to become China’s largest trading partner when it comes to softwood lumber, but notes that now is not the time for B.C. to rest on its laurels.
   
• B.C. minister denies selling out lumber industry in China
  Selling lumber, not logs, is the focus of a B.C. sales blitz in China, provincial Forests Minister Pat Bell said Monday. Bell, speaking from China, lashed out at criticism of his government’s sales efforts and emphasized a just-completed deal for Vernon-based Tolko Industries Ltd. to sell about 364 million board feet of lumber to Chinese companies, including studs made of wood damaged by pine beetles.
   
• Lumber sales to China criticized
  The province is making a mistake by trying to increase lumber exports to China, says the founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. As Forests Minister Pat Bell heads to China on a trade mission, Ken Wu is calling on the government to ban the export of raw logs and old-growth wood to China before it starts doing so.
   
• Ban Old-Growth Wood and Raw Log Exports to China, Ancient Forest Alliance tells BC Liberal government on the Eve of Trade Mission
  The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government to ban old-growth wood and raw log exports to China on the eve of the BC Liberal government’s trade mission to China. Starting tomorrow, from October 28 to November 8, Pat Bell, BC’s new Minister of Forests, Mines, and Lands (formerly the Minister of Forests and Range) will be embarking with industry reps on the BC government’s largest trade mission to China so far.
   
• ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE CALLING FOR BAN ON EXPORT OF RAW LOGS TO CHINA
  B.C.'s new Minister of Forests, Mines, and Lands, Pat Bell, leaves tomorrow for a trip to China to talk lumber. Not everyone though sees the potential business as good for our province. Co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, Ken Wu, sees problems ahead.
   
• Canada's Largest Spruce Tree - The San Juan Spruce!
  Seen here is the San Juan Spruce tree. It is Canada's largest spruce tree and the second largest in the world! It grows on Vancouver Island alongside the San Juan River about 35 minutes from Port Renfrew, BC. The towering tree measures 38.3' in circumference, reaches 205' tall, and has an incredible wood volume of 333 telephone poles! Despite all of this the tree and surrounding forest has not been afforded any legislated protection from the BC Liberal government. We are calling on the province to protect the area of forest, both old-growth and second growth, from the San Juan Spruce to the nearby Red Creek fir.
   
• Losing legacies in the cut block
  “They aren’t logging old-growth anymore, are they?” This is one of the most common questions I hear when I talk to people about protecting B.C.’s endangered ancient forests. The sad reality is that here in B.C., we are still cutting down trees that started growing at the time of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and were already 500 years old when Columbus “discovered” North America. B.C.’s ancient forests — on crown, or public land, and in the most critical ecosystem types and wildlife habitat — are still being devastated by logging.
   
• Clearcuts blamed in First Nation flooding
  Clearcut logging and a receding glacier were pinpointed Tuesday as probable contributors to a devastating flood which swept through the remote First Nations community of Kingcome Inlet last month.
   
• Common Ground: Newsbytes
  On September 16, in a seemingly unlikely event, the Ancient Forest Alliance stood in solidarity with members of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada and the United Steelworkers union in Nanaimo as part of the ongoing fight to ban raw log exports in BC. AFA forest campaigner TJ Watt spoke alongside union officials Nanaimo MLA Leonard Krog and Nanaimo-North Cowichan MLA Doug Routley to the hundreds of workers in attendance, denouncing the export of raw logs and calling for the protection of BC’s threatened forestry jobs.
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance seeks support
  “Time is running out for our endangered old-growth forests and B.C.’s coastal forestry jobs,” said AFA campaign director Wu in a press release.
   
• Activists make “Avatar” pitch
  Ken Wu and TJ Watt are committed to preserving as much of the natural environment as they can. The two colleagues are key members of an outfit called the Ancient Forest Alliance.
   
• The battle to save Avatar Grove
  The Ancient Forest Alliance wants the Ministry to make Avatar Grove and the surrounding 90 hectares off-limits to logging. "The Avatar Grove presents the finest opportunity for the public to easily gain access world class old-growth forest, in a wilderness setting on flat gentle terrain," says Watt. "It contains dozens of giant alien-shaped red cedars, some measuring up to 13 feet across, as well as rare old-growth Douglas fir — and it's already becoming the Cathedral Grove of Port Renfrew."
   
• CHEK News: Avatar Grove Sees Visit From Provincial NDP Politician and Regional Representitives
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) Launches the “100,000 Strong for Ancient Forests and BC Forestry Jobs” Campaign
  The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) launched a campaign today to get 100,000 British Columbians to sign a petition (see www.ancientforestpetition.com) calling on the BC government to protect the province’s endangered old-growth forests and forestry jobs. The “100,000 Strong for Ancient Forests and BC Forestry Jobs” public education and mobilization campaign will be the largest grassroots mobilization effort undertaken by BC’s ancient forest movement since the Clayoquot Sound campaign of the early 1990’s.
   
• Week of Action for Ancient Forests - MLA Office Pickets This Week!
  As part of a Week of Action for Ancient Forests, and the launch of the ‘100,000 Strong for Ancient Forests and BC Jobs’ campaign, Ancient Forest Committees (AFCs) around Greater Vancouver, paired with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), are picketing at three Liberal MLA offices, starting at Gordon Campbell’s office tomorrow (Monday, October 4th), calling for an end to old-growth logging in southern BC and a move toward sustainable forestry and forestry jobs.
   
• Avatar Grove Featured in Westworld Magazine
  Westworld, the most highly circulated magazine in Western Canada, just published an article and photo (taken by the AFA’s TJ Watt) on the Avatar Grove and Ancient Forest Alliance in their most recent issue. With a press run of 540,000 copies, it will help to raise major public awareness about this spectacular but endangered forest near Port Renfrew. Find it on page 50 of the online version of Westworld at:
   
• Old-Growth Forest Slideshow Comes to Saltspring Island on Wednesday, October 6th
  Co-founders of the newly formed Ancient Forest Alliance Ken Wu and TJ Watt will host an informative and inspiring slideshow featuring spectacular photographs of Canada's largest trees, including the Red Creek Fir, San Juan Spruce, Cheewhat Cedar, and the newly-discovered, threatened Avatar Grove. The presentation will include discussion of the stunning ecology and complex politics surrounding BC's old-growth forests and forestry jobs. It will be held at Central Hall on Fulford-Ganges Road from 7:00-8:30 pm on Wednesday, October 6th, 2010.
   
• VIDEO - Elected officials tour Avatar Grove
  Malahat-Juan de Fuca MLA John Horgan, CRD Director for the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area Mike Hicks, and Sooke Regional Tourism Association member Jon Cash joined the Ancient Forest Alliance’s TJ Watt and Ken Wu for a visit to the threatened Avatar Grove, San Juan Spruce, and nearby clearcuts. The provincial and regional representatives have expressed an interest in the protection of these world-class old-growth stands.
   
• Horgan, Hicks, and Cash Join Ancient Forest Alliance on Tour of Avatar Grove and to Canada's Biggest Trees and Stumps
  Port Renfrew, BC- Malahat-Juan de Fuca MLA John Horgan, CRD Director for the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area Mike Hicks, and Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce member Jon Cash joined the Ancient Forest Alliance’s TJ Watt and Ken Wu for a visit to the threatened Avatar Grove, San Juan Spruce (Canada’s largest spruce tree), and a nearby clearcut with giant stumps this past Tuesday, September 28. The provincial and regional representatives have expressed an interest in the protection of these world-class old-growth stands.
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance Stands in Solidarity with Forestry Workers
  In a seemingly unlikely event, the Ancient Forest Alliance stood in solidarity with members of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada and the United Steelworkers Union in Nanaimo yesterday as part of the ongoing fight to ban raw log exports in BC. AFA forest campaigner TJ Watt spoke alongside union officials, Nanaimo MLA Leonard Krog, and Nanaimo-North Cowichan MLA Doug Routley to the hundreds of workers in attendance, denouncing the export of raw logs and calling for the protection of BC's threatened forestry jobs.
   
• Cantelon Worker Deflects Heat
  Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners took issue after a Cantelon's constituency assistant included an AFA website hyperlink in an e-mail to a Nanoose Bay woman asking government to save coastal Douglas fir forests.
   
• AFA denounces MLA office
  An environmental group working to protect old-growth forests in B.C. is condemning local MLA Ron Cantelon’s office for insinuating they support the logging of a parcel of Coastal Douglas Fir forest in Nanoose Bay. “It’s a sleazy tactic to try and link us in their responses to concerend citizens when they write letters back as somehow insinuating that we are supporting the Nanoose Bay ancient forest logging,” said Ken Wu, one of the founders of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) in Victoria.
   
• AFA Condemns Cantelon's Endorsement of Old-Growth Logging
  I read with dismay that BC Liberal MLA Ron Cantelon's office has been invoking the Ancient Forest Alliance's name to insinuate that we somehow support logging of the Nanoose Bay old-growth forest (block DL-33) because we support their decision to keep 1600 hectares of Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem off-limits to logging through a new Land Use Order. That's like saying "because you like the new rain jacket I got you, you'll like me dumping this bucket of cold water on your head, too."
   
• Shaw Daily: Avatar Grove and "Canada's Gnarliest Tree"
  The Shaw Daily local news program ran a great feature on the popular Avatar Grove in August 2010. Watch the video to see the giant gnarly redcedars the grove is now famous for and to hear some excellent commentary from Liberal MP Keith Martin on the need for more old-growth forest protection in BC!
   
• Logging near the largest Douglas fir in the world angers environmentalists
  Active logging operations are creeping closer to the largest Douglas fir in the world and environmentalists fear the 1,000-year-old tree will be left vulnerable to blowdown and its value as a tourist attraction will be degraded.
   
• Vancouver Sun: BC's Biggest Trees and Stumps photogallery
  The Ancient Forest Alliance published photos of some of the biggest trees still standing in B.C. The newly formed organization is seeking to inform the public of the deteriorating existence of old-growth forests over the past century.
   
• Thanks to UsedVictoria.com founder Don Barthel for a data projector!
   
• Donate Monthly or One Time to the Ancient Forest Alliance!
  Perhaps the most effective way you can support the Ancient Forest Alliance financially is through our new monthly giving program, involving automatic deductions each month from your bank account (provide us with a cheque marked “void” and fill-in the form) or through a credit card. Your monthly support will provide our new organization with the stable funding base needed for budgeting and sustaining a viable campaign over the long-term that can continue to broaden public support to the massive levels needed to successfully protect our remaining endangered old-growth forests and forestry jobs.
   
• PLEASE WRITE a THANK YOU LETTER!
  BC Government Expands Protections to 39,000 hectares of old-growth forests on northern and central Vancouver Island, and 1600 hectares of rare Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystems
   
• Member of Parliament (MP) Keith Martin's Excellent Article to Protect the Avatar Grove and Expand Pacific Rim National Park Reserve
  Following a trip to visit Avatar Grove and nearby clearcuts in the Gordon River Valley with Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners TJ Watt and Brendan Harry, Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca federal Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin wrote to the Times Colonist to express his ardent support for the protection of the old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island. Martin has proposed the expansion of the boundaries of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to include much of the remaining unprotected old growth stands on the South Island.
   
• The Week, August 12-18
  Despite the presence of ancient Red cedars and evidence of karst formations under the forest floor, the provincial forest ministry appears to see no need to protect the stand of trees north of Port Renfrew dubbed Avatar Grove. The ministry recently rejected a proposal by the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce and the Sooke Regional Tourism Association to protect the grove in its entirety, arguing that 24 percent of the grove is in an old-growth management area, and that is sufficient protection.
   
• NEW and SPECTACULAR Photo Gallery of AVATAR GROVE
  To see photographs of the spectacular Avatar Grove for yourself, please visit the photo gallery at: http://www.ancientforestalliance.org/photos.php?gID=6
   
• B.C. environmentalists fight to preserve Avatar Grove
  When two forest activists were rooting around for ancient trees along southwest Vancouver Island’s logging roads in December, the pair made an unexpected discovery. Just a five-minute walk from the road, centuries-old hemlocks, red cedars, firs and an identified evergreen that’s been dubbed Canada’s “gnarliest tree,” stood untouched in a 10-hectare setting, about a 15-minute drive from the village of Port Renfrew.
   
• VIDEO: MTV and "Avatars" follow Zoe Miles to Brookfield Asset Management
  A flash mob of mostly young women inspired by Cortes Island resident Zoe Miles gathered in front of Brookfield Asset Management on Bay Street in Toronoto today to try to stop logging in one of the islands most beautiful and wild forests. The company owns 2,700 acres of the area around Carrington Bay, at centre of Cortes. Miles told the Vancouver Observer she came to Toronto "to have a conversation with Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield Asset Management, who own 2700 acres of old growth on Cortes Island, threatened by clearcut logging."
   
• Zoe Miles comes to Toronto to save B.C.'s 'Avatar Woods'
  This protest by Cortes Island activist Zoe Miles and MTV's Buried Life in downtown Toronto had an Avatar theme, and their focus was on saving the old-growth forests of BC with a particular emphasis on the old-growth Douglas fir stands of Cortes Island (which they dubbed the "Avatar Woods", not to be confused with the "Avatar Grove" near Port Renfrew). We thank them for doing this! - Ancient Forest Alliance
   
• Ahimsa Yoga Sooke Fundraisers contribute $200 to the Ancient Forest Alliance
  After hosting fundraisers in May and June in support of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), Ahimsa Yoga Sooke mailed a cheque to the AFA for $200! THANK YOU so much to Paula and all the staff at Ahimsa Yoga Sooke. We are so appreciative of this support, especially at this formative stage of the organisation.
   
• Old Forests Get Protection
  While the provincial government has sectioned off thousands of hectares to protect old-growth forests, none are located in the Alberni Valley. The government sectioned off two types of old-growth forest on Crown land to preserve the natural trees and forestation. On the east side of the Island, about five kilometres were sectioned off to preserve the Coastal Douglas Fir Ecosystem, which is a rare type of ecosystem that only covers a small portion of the Island. Other parts of the Island in the northern central area and southern areas were also protected from future logging and land management.
   
• Sending a message to Brookfield Asset Management on Bay Street, "Hands off BC's last old growth trees."
  The message is simple "Hands off the last of the Coastal Old Growth in BC". On Friday morning, Young "Avatars" (giant blue folk - like in the recent movie) will storm Bay Street in a flash mob protest against the logging of the last of the coastal old growth in BC. The protest has caught the eye of MTV and will be featured in an upcoming documentary on the hit show The Buried Life.
   
• VIDEO: Fight to save local landmark going international
  It's the best, worst-kept secret on Vancouver Island. A 100-hectare forest wonderland: pristine, untouched and about a thousand years old. But there are real and imminent fears this space may not be long for this world. It is de facto owned by logging company Teal Jones. The firm hasn't applied to the provincial government for a logging permit yet, but activists with the Ancient Forest Alliance claims the company is making plans to cut.
   
• Thumbs up/ thumbs down
  To the provincial government, which says enough old-growth trees have been protected in the area between Sooke and Port Renfrew. That does not bode well for the trees in an area near Port Renfrew, nicknamed Avatar Grove, which are under threat of a harvest. The Forests Ministry says 24 per cent of the grove will be protected, and that is enough.
   
• Old-growth grove could be under the axe
  It appears imminent that another round of protests will likely come out of the provincial government's July 30th announcement of the protection of 39,000 hectares of old-growth forest on Vancouver Island. Already environmental activists, such as the Ancient Forest Alliance and the Forest Action Network, are calling for further protection for the area known as 'Avatar Grove,' named for the biggest and gnarliest trees in a grove at Baird Creek. Baird Creek lies just inside the western boundary of the Capital Regional District on the traditional territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation at Port Renfrew.
   
• Avatar Grove, the "Cathedral Grove" of Port Renfrew, under increasing threat due to BC Government intransigence
  The BC Ministry of Forests and Range recent rejection of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce's and the Sooke Regional Tourism Association's request that the Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew be spared from logging has the Ancient Forest Alliance preparing for a ramped-up battle. The organization already has over 2000 members on its “Save the Avatar Grove” Facebook Group and 7000 members on its main Facebook Groups, and will be working to ramp-up membership in the Avatar Grove Group in preparation for a future “Ancient Forest Week of Action” of protests, events, and rallies (dates to be announced) at various BC government offices in numerous communities.
   
• B.C. chops down bid to protect 'Avatar Grove'
  Big trees would bring more money into Sooke and Port Renfrew than logging a unique, old-growth grove, community groups have told the provincial government. But the province is refusing to budge from its position that sufficient old growth has already been protected in that area.
   
• BC Government Commended for Protecting 1600 Hectares of Extremely Endangered Coastal Douglas Fir Ecosystem
  The Ancient Forest Alliance is thanking the Ministry of Forests and Range, the Integrated Land Management Bureau, and Forest Minister Pat Bell for protecting 1600 hectares of public (Crown) lands within the Coastal Douglas Fir biogeoclimatic zone on southeastern Vancouver Island.
   
• Old-growth protection boosted
  The province is almost doubling the amount of Vancouver Island old-growth forest protected from logging and development. More than 38,700 hectares on northern and north-central Vancouver Island will be designated as old-growth management areas, meaning the trees cannot be cut.
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance commends the BC Government and Forests Minister Pat Bell for taking a step forward to protect some of Vancouver Island's Old-Growth Forests
  Yesterday the BC government announced the protection of 38,000 hectares of old-growth forests on central and northern Vancouver Island in a series of Old-Growth Management Areas. On Vancouver Island there are 400,000 hectares of productive old-growth forests outside of protected areas, with another 200,000 hectares in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas.
   
• Saving Our Forest Giants
  Port Renfrew is the furthest outpost of my riding. It is a land of extraordinary beauty with mountains that hug a rugged coastline, rivers that run through deep valleys, and a land that harbours significant biodiversity. This area also contains some of the oldest and most majestic living things on our planet. In the area of the Gordon River Valley and further north in the upper Walbran Valley are some of the largest trees on the planet. A few weeks ago, I went into this remote area with a small team from the Ancient Forest Alliance to document these giant Western Red Cedars, Sitka Spruce and Douglas Fir that jut out of the surrounding valley floors like spires from cathedrals.
   
• Seymour Valley Old-Growth Forest Hike
  Join the Ancient Forest Alliance and Ancient Forest Committees to see an amazing stand of old-growth forests (including massive Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and redcedar), next to the Seymour River in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve!
   
• Avatar Grove Hike - Sunday July 25
  On Sunday, July 25, join the Ancient Forest Alliance's forest campaigner + photographer TJ Watt and communications director Brendan Harry to visit the magnificent but endangered “Avatar Grove”. The grove is home to dozens of ancient redcedar trees, many of which are at least 13 feet across, centuries old, and covered in massive alien-shaped burls! Rare old-growth Douglas fir trees, of which 99% of have been logged, are also found in the grove. Avatar Grove is currently flagged for logging despite its potential to become a major tourism destination, the “Cathedral Grove of Port Renfrew”, and important ecological value.
   
• New Images of Massive Trees and Giant Stumps on Google Earth
  Ancient forest campaigner and photographer TJ Watt has been steadily uploading new shots of BC's biggest trees and most massive stumps to Google Earth, a popular global satellite-imaging program. This allows users around the world to view ancient forest photographs on both Google Earth and Google Maps.
   
• Organise a Fundraiser for the Ancient Forest Alliance
  July has arrived and we are just two weeks away from our $30,000 July 31 fundraising deadline. The recent slew of highly successful community-organised benefits events has gone a long way toward our target, and it would be wonderful to maintain this level of momentum.
   
• MP Keith Martin wants to expand Pacific Rim park
  The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is supporting Member of Parliament (Esquimalt- Juan de Fuca) Keith Martin’s proposal to extend Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s boundaries to protect adjacent endangered forests, including the grandest stands of old-growth trees in Canada.
   
• Saving Our Ancient Forests- Slideshow and Talk
  Join TJ Watt, Hannah Carpendale and Michelle Connolly from the Ancient Forest Alliance to learn about the ecology and politics of BC's ancient forests and find out how YOU can get involved in the growing movement to save them! Thursday July 29th 7pm-8:30pm Burnaby Public Library, McGill Branch 4595 Albert St. (near Hastings & Willingdon)
   
• Endangered forest turns into Island battleground
  The fate of a small patch of endangered Vancouver Island forest has put local residents and politicians at odds with the province and a First Nations band. The Snaw-naw-as First Nation has been issued a one-time forest licence by the province to cut 15,000 cubic metres of wood west of Nanoose Bay to raise much-needed cash -- even though the rare remnant of endangered coastal Douglas fir forest contains endangered plants and animals.
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance supports MP Keith Martin’s proposal to expand Pacific Rim National Park Reserve to include Canada’s grandest old-growth forests
  Port Renfrew, BC – The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is supporting Member of Parliament (Esquimalt- Juan de Fuca) Keith Martin’s proposal to extend Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s boundaries to protect adjacent endangered forests, including the grandest stands of old-growth trees in Canada. Last week Martin joined Ancient Forest Alliance activists TJ Watt and Brendan Harry on a guided tour through the spectacular Avatar Grove and a nearby clearcut filled with giant stumps near the national park reserve.
   
• MP Martin Continues Push To Expand Park
  A federal Liberal member of Parliament is continuing his drive to expand the boundaries of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Dr. Keith Martin, MP for Esquimalt – Juan de Fuca, toured a section of old-growth forest and some clear cuts near Port Renfrew last week with members of the Ancient Forest Alliance.
   
• Inaugural Tall Trees Music Festival grows deep roots
  The streets of Toronto were lit up by burning police cars on the weekend of June 26. But back on the Island, music fans were lighting other things as they danced to the music of Jon and Roy, Current Swell, the Racoons, DJ Tedder, Listening Party and other local acts at the first ever Tall Trees Music Festival.
   
• Tall Tree Festival in Port Renfrew
  The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to everyone at Radio Contact Productions, Bigfish Lodge, Wild Coast Cottages, and Sitka Surfboards for organising such a successful event and so generously supporting the AFA. Thanks, as well, to all the volunteers, the event sponsors, the amazing musicians, and everyone who attended in support of the AFA!
   
• Saanich Bikram’s “Karma Classes” contributes nearly $1000 to the Ancient Forest Alliance
  After hosting 7 “Karma Classes” in support of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), Bikram’s Yoga in Saanich (http://www.bikramyogasaanich.com/) mailed a cheque to the AFA for nearly $1000!
   
• Belly dancing, Beer, and Burger night nets almost $600 for the Ancient Forest Alliance
  Another massive THANK YOU is owed to Cindy Bernicot, who organised a very successful night of belly dancing, beer, and burgers in Fort Langley on June 5th. Almost 50 dinner tickets sold for the event and, all told, it raised nearly $600 for the Ancient Forest Alliance. We are extremely grateful for all this support at this crucial early stage of the organisation.
   
• Organize a fundraiser for the Ancient Forest Alliance
  July has arrived and we are just weeks away from our $30,000 July 31 fundraising deadline. The recent slew of highly successful community-organised benefit events has gone a long way toward our target, and it would be wonderful to maintain this level of momentum.
   
• Forestry agency has no guidance on conflict over Douglas fir stand
  The provincial forestry watchdog agency agrees the province should allow a mature coastal Douglas fir forest in Nanoose to be logged, but stops short of saying how it can be done. The Forest Practices Board investigated a complaint against the B.C. Forests Ministry for issuing a woodlot licence for District Lot 33, a 64-hectare property containing rare coastal Douglas fir forest in Nanoose Bay.
   
• Tall Tree Fest highlights Island talent
  IN CONCERT What: Tall Tree Music Festival When: Friday and Saturday (camping is available) Where: Wild Coast Cottages, 6574 Baird Rd., Port Renfrew Tickets: $70 (weekend pass) at Sitka Surf Shop, McPherson box office, and www.rmts.com Information: talltreefestival.com
   
• Ancient forests and new advocates
  Canada is among the last of the developed nations that logs its old-growth forests. In the US, the vast majority of logging takes place in second-growth stands, while Europeans log second- and third-growth forests. Southwestern Australia halted the logging of its old-growth forests six years ago, as did New Zealand in the year 2000.
   
• Trees and Bikes: The Big Tree Tour
  The Big Tree Tour is a fundraising ride started by four friends who happen to be very passionate about the work the Ancient Forest Alliance is doing. “We also like riding bikes,” said Big Tree Tour organizer and rider Leroy Nixon. The purpose of the tour is to raise awareness about the preservation of our ancient forests through ecotourism and human-powered travel.
   
• Big Trees Pedal Powered Tour Completed!
  On Sunday, June 6, the numerous cyclists participating in the Big Trees Pedal Powered Tour successfully completed the final leg of their 4 day, 260 kilometre self-propelled journey to see some of the stunning old growth forests of southern Vancouver Island. The trip was organised as a fundraiser and to raise awareness of the pressing need for protection of BC’s endangered forests. As part of their trip, the riders visited many of the biggest trees in Canada, including those found in the spectacular Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew. In recent months, freshly logged stumps measuring 45 feet in circumference have been found in the Gordon River Valley, just over a kilometre from Avatar Grove.
   
• NEW, CONVENIENT PHONE-IN credit card DONATIONS
  As a new grassroots organization and with our June 21 deadline to raise $20,000 fast approaching, we are in GREAT need of funding. Per dollar, your support will go farther with us than with virtually any other major environmental organization in the country, allowing us to build a most effective movement for our ancient forests and forestry jobs!
   
• Hunting the ancient giants
  They don’t have much in the way of money, equipment or people, but Ken Wu says big tree hunting is drawing critical attention to the plight of old growth forests.
   
• BIG TREES PEDAL POWERED TOUR
  From June 3 to 6, a team of cyclists organized by Victoria resident Tom Fortington will be riding 260 kilometers to the biggest trees in Canada near Port Renfrew to raise funds and awareness for the Ancient Forest Alliance!
   
• Tall Tree Music Festival in Port Renfrew, Friday June 25 - Sunday June 27
  This weekend festival in Port Renfrew is being hosted by various local businesses, including the Bigfish Lodge, Wild Coast Cottages, Sitka Surfboards, and Radio Contact Productions, in support of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA). The festival will feature bands and DJs from across Canada playing in a coastal venue with views over the West Coast Trail and the Port San Juan. Proceeds from the ticket sales will be donated to the AFA. For more information, please visit http://www.radiocontact.ca/
   
• Ahimsa Yoga in Sooke Hosts Fundraiser for the Ancient Forest Alliance
  Ahimsa Yoga in Sooke is hosting a special Karma Yoga class with all proceeds donated to the AFA!
   
• Reinventing Renfrew
  When members of the Ancient Forest Alliance asked Port Renfrew restaurant owner Jessica Hicks to host a public meeting about a stand of old growth trees dubbed Avatar Grove, Hicks thought she might use the event as a fundraiser for the fledgeling environmental group. Then, reflecting on her Coastal Kitchen Cafe’s place in the community and the smouldering tension between environmentalists and B.C.’s logging towns, Hicks decided a simple information session might ruffle fewer feathers.
   
• Discover Sooke Blog - Avatar Grove in Port Renfrew
  From the Discover Sooke tourism website: "Over the long weekend, Mrs. Discover Sooke and I, made the trek west from Sooke to Port Renfrew to visit the much talked about piece of land with a few remaining first growth forest trees standing on it. This piece of land has been dubbed “Avatar Grove”, after the movie, for its large and gnarly trees."
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance Avatar Grove Trip March 2010
  On March 28th 2010, the Ancient Forest Alliance lead its first public hike to help save the Avatar Grove and to raise awareness about Vancouver Island's rapidly vanishing old-growth ecosystems. 80 people made the trip in the wet weather to see the spectacular forest. Filmed and edited by Nic Vandergugten.
   
• CRD Parks Public Input Process Presents Golden Opportunity to Protect Canada's Most Magnificent Old-Growth Forests
  A first rate opportunity for saving Canada’s largest trees and some of its most magnificent ancient forests is currently being presented through the Capital Regional District – CRD (on southern Vancouver Island), which is soliciting public input on where new regional parks should be located as part of their Strategic Plan for the next 10 years.
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance Applauds CRD Parks for Considering Public Input
  A group who's mission is to save the island's old growth forests is giving CRD Parks a pat on the back, this for hosting a number of public input meetinsg over the past two weeks.
   
• Peace in the forest an elusive goal in B.C.
  Across northern Canada, environmentalists are high-fiving one another over Tuesday's landmark declaration of peace in the woods. No more logging in an Italy-sized swath of boreal forest stretching from coast to coast. The war is over. Hooray. Meanwhile, Wu watches Vancouver Island's old growth disappear like Gordon Campbell during the HST debate.
   
• Old-Growth Forest Slideshow Comes to Saltspring Island on Thursday, May 27
  An informative and spectacular slideshow presentation of the largest trees in Canada including the Red Creek Fir, San Juan Spruce, Cheewhat Cedar and the newly-discovered Avatar Grove, and the politics and ecology of BC's old-growth forests and forestry jobs, will be presented on Thursday, May 27 (7:00-8:30 pm, Central Hall on Fulford-Ganges Rd., by donation) by Ken Wu and TJ Watt of the newly formed Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA).
   
• CRD Parks Public Input Process Presents Golden Opportunity to Protect Canada’s Most Magnificent Old-Growth Forests
  A first rate opportunity towards ending the war in the woods on southern Vancouver Island is currently being presented through the Capital Regional District Parks public input process. The public input process involves a series of Community Engagement Sessions held in a variety of CRD communities between May 6 through 19 and online written feedback until an unspecified date (see http://www.crd.bc.ca/parks/planning/strategicplan.htm). The public input will be used by the CRD Parks Committee to determine the strategic direction of the regional parks and trails in the area on southern Vancouver Island.
   
• Old-growth forest activists turn to Facebook
  Some Vancouver Island environmentalists who say they discovered tree stumps as wide as a living room are turning to Facebook for help raising awareness of what’s being lost through old-growth logging.
   
• Massive Port Renfrew tree stumps raise logging suspicions
  Massive stumps found on Crown land near Port Renfrew are arousing fears that logging companies are taking the biggest and best old-growth trees even though the local chamber of commerce wants to promote giant tree tourism.
   
• Old-growth forest 'a sea of stumps'
  Massive stumps found on Crown land near Port Renfrew are arousing fears that logging companies are taking the biggest and best old-growth trees -- at the same time as the local chamber of commerce is trying to promote giant-tree tourism.
   
• Noon Hour Protest Against Old-Growth Logging Targets MLA Ida Chong
   
• “Canada's Biggest Stumps Competition” Launched
  Discovery of numerous 12 to 15 feet (3.7 to 4.6 meters) wide old-growth stumps recently logged near the Avatar Grove on Vancouver Island prompts creation of a new Facebook group where members can upload their largest stump photos.
   
• Celebration of Nature, Music and Dance brings artists together to protect forests
  "Celebration of Nature, Music and Dance" took place in a unique setting at Tzvi's Place, 1823 E 2nd Ave in Vancouver. Music and dance started last night, Saturday, May 8, 2010 at 7:30pm and ran through Sunday, May 9, 2010 at 2:00am. The event was described as "honoring our Ancient Forests with incredibly talented musicians, dancers and artists." The event was partially a fundraiser for the Ancient Forest Alliance, which is a new British Columbian organization working to protect the endangered old-growth forests of BC and to ensure sustainable forestry jobs in the province. It was founded in January of 2010 by former Western Canada Wilderness Committee activists Ken Wu, TJ Watt, and others, and by Vancouver old-growth activist Michelle Connolly. I spoke with Michelle Connolly about the groups mission to be a grassroots environmental organisation working to foster knowledge and connection to these forests, as well as to advocate politically for their protection.
   
• Fundraising Update
  So far 200 supporters have contributed $8854 since we launched our funding drive on March 22, with a minimum goal of raising $20,000 by June 21.
   
• Bikram Yoga Fundraisers for the Ancient Forest Alliance
  Bikram’s Yoga (Saanich) is holding a fundraising yoga session for the Ancient Forest Alliance tonight (and the next two Fridays in May)! Many thanks to them! 7:45 pm, #100 – 1620 Garnet Road
   
• PROTEST/ Gift Giving Ceremony for the AVATAR GROVE and BC’s ANCIENT FORESTS at MLA Ida Chong’s Oak Bay Office!
  12:00 – 12:30 PM Come to a brief petition drive, protest and gift giving ceremony at BC Liberal MLA Ida Chong's office in Oak Bay, Victoria.
   
• Big Trees Pedal Powered Tour
  10 cyclists will be riding 260 kilometers to the biggest trees in Canada by Port Renfrew, the Red Creek Fir and the San Juan Spruce and to the spectacular Avatar Grove, from June 3 to 6 to raise funds and awareness for the Ancient Forest Alliance!
   
• Celebration of Nature, Music and Dance - Ancient Forests and Sound
  Old-growth forests are our natural heritage, and BC's south coast holds one of the last such ecosystems on Earth. Our ancient forests support a complex network of which we are all part, yet these forests continue to be logged at a rate that will soon lead to their extinction if we do not make a change. The Ancient Forest Alliance is a grassroots environmental organization that works to foster knowledge and connection to these forests, as well as to advocate politically for their protection.
   
• Prospect of logging in Douglas fir ecosystem above Nanoose Bay worries neighbouring municipalities
  To the Nanoose First Nation, District Lot No. 33 is a prime piece of forest in the middle of its traditional territory, rich with towering old-growth Douglas firs over which the band holds legal timber harvesting rights. To neighbours, environmentalists and municipal officials throughout the region, DL 33 is a pristine example of the endangered coastal Douglas fir ecosystem found only in B.C.’s Georgia Basin and Washington State’s San Juan Islands.
   
• Victoria Natural History Society article
  A new organization has recently emerged in the world of BC’s non-profit environmental community: the Ancient Forest Alliance. Founded in January 2010 by former Wilderness Committee activists, the new organization seeks to continue the grassroots education and mobilization campaigns to protect old-growth forests, but with a new twist: without charitable status, which will enable the organization to get more political in its criticisms or endorsements of politicians. This will become a great motivator for the BC government and all political parties to embrace a conservation agenda to protect the disappearing ancient forests of Vancouver Island and southern British Columbia. In addition, the organization will be building broad-based support among First Nations, businesses, faith groups, scientists, and members of naturalist clubs for ancient forest protection.
   
• Upcoming AFA Events and Hikes!
  Sunday, April 25 - Nature/ Old-Growth Walk in Mount Douglas Park: Oak Bay-Gordon Heads’ Old Growth in its Own Backyard Thursday, April 29 – Vancouver Island’s Biggest Trees and Biggest Stumps – Launch Presentation of the new Oak Bay – Gordon Head Ancient Forest Committee Saturday, May 1st – Lower Mainland Old-Growth Hike up Sumas Mountain (near Abbotsford at Whatcom Road Exit)
   
• Fundraising Update - Please support the Ancient Forest Alliance!
  The Ancient Forest Alliance – BC’s newest major grassroots environmental group founded just 3 months ago – needs your support GREATLY. We launched a fundraising campaign on March 22, with a goal of raising $20,000 by June 21. So far, over 120 generous individuals have contributed over $7000. THANK YOU for your generous support!
   
• Earth Day Media Release: Avatar’s James Cameron Invited by Environmental Group to Visit the Endangered “Avatar Grove” of Ancient Trees
  British Columbian environmentalists with the new environmental group, the Ancient Forest Alliance, are inviting James Cameron, director of the blockbuster film Avatar, to visit a spectacular but endangered old-growth forest on Vancouver Island nicknamed the “Avatar Grove” and to endorse its protection. Today, the film Avatar is being released on DVD and blue ray disc to coincide with Earth Day, a release date chosen by Cameron in order to raise environmental awareness. Avatar is the highest grossing film at the box office in world history, generating $2.7 billion (US) in sales internationally (the next highest was the Titanic, also directed by Cameron, which grossed $1.8 billion US).
   
• Protect Haro Woods
  Haro Woods is a 9 hectare urban forest in the municipality of Saanich, near the University of Victoria. In this second-growth stand of Douglas firs, western redcedars, shore pine, and arbutus trees are substantial numbers of deer, threatened red-legged frogs, raptors, and owls. It is heavily used as a recreation area by local residents, who have also been lobbying for its protection as a park for several decades.
   
• Forest industry pays for many services
  NOTE: The following letter to the editor by Dave Lewis of the Truck Loggers Association, who support raw log exports and apparently the demise of union jobs in the forest service, fails to mention that the long-term decline in the coastal forest industry over the span of 20 years is due to the depletion of the old-growth resource (the biggest, best, and most accessible trees in the lower elevations), that ancient forests are worth more standing economically when factoring in tourism, hunting, angling, non-timber forest products, and carbon storage (according to a 2007 SFU study on the Fraser TSA), and that the government's elimination of processing requirements without any incentives to stimulate investment in second-growth processing and value-added manufacturing has contributed greatly to the demise of a huge section of the industry and the workforce (ie. manufacturing - which Dave Lewis cares little about it seems...) - Ken Wu
   
• TOMORROW Slideshow of the Avatar Grove, San Juan Spruce and Red Creek Fir
  Slideshow of the Avatar Grove, San Juan Spruce, and Red Creek Fir Wednesday April 21 2:00 pm Coastal Kitchen Cafe (17245 Parkinson Rd.), Port Renfrew
   
• Stand up for Avator Grove
  I recently visited Avatar Grove, a spectacular area of old-growth forest near Port Renfrew. This area is not only devastatingly beautiful but also provides important wildlife habitat and is prime location for eco-tourism...
   
• Upcoming AFA Events
  1. SAVE the NANOOSE BAY FOREST! Logging imminent... 2. Wed.,Apr.21 - Slideshow in Port Renfrew (Coastal Kitchen Cafe, 2 pm): Avatar Grove, Red Creek Fir, San Juan Spruce 3. FUNDRAISING DRIVE - $4000 raised so far – help us sustain our NEW organization! We really need YOUR help to reach our fundraising target of $10,000 by Earth Day! (April 22)
   
• Expected layoffs in B.C. government's Ministry of Forests bad timing says NDP
  On the heels of issuing layoff notices to 294 public service workers Monday, the B.C. government is planning for another round of cuts in the Ministry of Forests by early summer. At a time when lumber prices are booming but the industry is far from recovering, it's either the worst time to slash jobs -- according to the leader of the Opposition -- or an opportune time to cut, according to an industry leader.
   
• Environmental activist targets Oak Bay-Gordon Head riding to launch tree campaign
  You don't have to drive hours out of Victoria to find old-growth trees or, for that matter, politicians who are hanging onto their seats by a thread.
   
• Avatar Rally for B.C.'s Ancient Forests, 27 March 2010
  This video was made by Langara journalism students Linnaea and Jackie of the Avatar Rally to Save BC's Ancient Forests and Forestry Jobs hosted by the Ancient Forest Alliance and Point Grey Ancient Forest Committee on Saturday March 27, 2010.
   
• New Old-Growth Activist Teams to be Launched in BC Swing Ridings to take the Ancient Forest Campaign to a Whole New Level
  Without the handcuffs of charitable status which forbids organizations from condemning or endorsing politicians and political parties, BC’s new Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA - visit www.ancientforestalliance.org ) is now positioned to organize hard-hitting campaigns in key provincial swing ridings. In particular, the AFA will be working to systematically train and guide activists to establish “Ancient Forest Committees” (AFC’s), or forest activist teams, in 8 to 10 provincial swing ridings over the next year. The AFC’s will be technically autonomous from the AFA, but will be trained and guided by the AFA particularly in their formative stages.
   
• Avatar worth exploring
  I had the pleasure March 28 of joining 80 other members of the Ancient Forest Alliance to experience the small grove of old growth trees near Port Renfrew known (informally) as Avatar Grove.
   
• Avatar worth saving
  As one of the 80 hikers who visited Avatar Grove on March 28 with the Ancient Forest Alliance, I find it somewhat ironic that the Vancouver Olympics showcased the natural beauty of B.C.'s old-growth forests.
   
• Monday Hits The Road To See Avatar Grove
  Last weekend, Monday hit the road with environmentalist Ken Wu and the Ancient Forest Alliance (along with 80 other curious community members) to pay a visit to what the AFA is calling "Canada's gnarliest tree".
   
• Earthly Na'vi
  It didn't take long for environmentalists to tap into James Cameron's massively successful Avatar for a creative boost to their rallies.
   
• Science Matters: It's getting harder and harder to spot the spotted owl
  If the northern spotted owl is healthy, it's a good sign that the old-growth forests where it lives are healthy. Unfortunately, the spotted owl is not doing well in British Columbia, the only place it lives in Canada. Only six of the beautiful brown-eyed birds remain here.
   
• Old growth forest for sale in Cape Scott Provincial Park
  For just over $1.8 million, you can own 60 hectares of old growth forest and white sand shoreline within the boundaries of Cape Scott Provincial Park, just three kilometres off the world-famous Cape Scott Trail. If a more sheltered retreat is more your thing, $349,000 will buy about 16 hectares of old growth forest bordering the salmon-bearing Fisherman River – which is even closer to the Trail.
   
• Old-growth forest worth preserving
  I had the pleasure last Sunday to experience the small grove of old-growth trees near Port Renfrew known informally as the Avatar Grove
   
• Avatar's beauty exists in our world, too
  So I finally went to see Avatar in 3-D. It was breathtaking, of course. But what struck me the most was at the end; I realized that I had viewed this epic story of environmental degradation through plastic 3-D glasses made in China.
   
• B.C.'s old-growth forests have support of the Na'vi
  Downtown Vancouver was visited by Na'vi from the extraterrestrial moon Pandora at a small rally for B.C.'s ancient rainforests Saturday afternoon. Led by a carnival band in green costumes, about 100 supporters of the Ancient Forest Alliance borrowed from images from the blockbuster hit Avatar in their protest against the logging of old-growth forests and marched to the Vancouver Art Gallery with its message that the provincial government needs to take more action to protect those scarce landscapes
   
• TOMORROW Saturday, March 27 - RALLY for Ancient Forests and Forestry Jobs!
  Send a message to the BC Liberal government that they need to protect our ancient forests, ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, and ban raw log exports to protect forestry jobs! Vancouver, BC 12:00 NOON - Meet at Canada Place (closest Skytrain is Waterfront Station) 12:30pm - Begin march to Vancouver Art Gallery with the lively "Carnival Band". 1:00 pm - Arrive at Vancouver Art Gallery-Georgia Street side: Speeches by Judith Sayers (former Chief of the Hupacasath First Nation), Ken Wu (Ancient Forest Alliance Co-founder), Jens Wieting (Sierra Club of BC Forest Campaigner), and Stephanie Goodwin (Greenpeace)!
   
• Hollywood spin for old-growth forest
  The Avatar Grove -- a stunning stand of old-growth trees on Vancouver Island -- is slated for destruction but local "Na'vis" hope to save it. In reference to the James Cameron blockbuster film Avatar, the Ancient Forest Alliance will dress in blue like the indigenous Na'vis in the movie, at a demonstration Saturday in Vancouver.
   
• “Canada’s Gnarliest Tree” Discovered in the Endangered “Avatar Grove” of Enormous Old-Growth Trees on Vancouver Island, Canada
  A new Canadian environmental organization, the Ancient Forest Alliance (www.ancientforestalliance.org), is claiming to have found what may be the “gnarliest tree in Canada” in the endangered “Avatar Grove” on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
   
• Vancouver Island’s own Avatar world under threat
  Get ready to visit the world of Avatar — for real. On Sunday, March 28, the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is taking volunteers, community members, media and anyone interested to visit Vancouver Island’s own “Avatar Grove,” a special old-growth forest located near Port Renfrew.
   
• Deformed cedar puts new face on old-growth protection on Vancouver Island
  Gnarly, dude. Environmentalists are exploiting a grotesquely shaped western red cedar to highlight the need to protect a grove of old-growth trees near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.
   
• Island’s own Avatar world under threat
  Get ready to visit the world of Avatar — for real. On Sunday, March 28, the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is taking volunteers, community members, media and anyone interested to visit Vancouver Island’s own “Avatar Grove,” a special old-growth forest located near Port Renfrew.
   
• Please Support the Ancient Forest Alliance!
   
• Alliance Protects Ancient Forests
   
• Teetering on the brink of extinction
  A March gale hissed through the treetops, spinning sudden flurries of an early spring snow into the canopy 10 storeys above our heads. The wind sounded like surf on a distant beach but down on the mossy forest floor of what the province's forestry maps officially designate as DL33, the world was as still as a cemetery.
   
• Threatened B.C. forest dubbed the “Avatar Grove”
  Its storytelling may have left the critics—and the Academy—cold. But there’s no denying James Cameron’s digital extravaganza Avatar has inspired tree-huggers the world round, rooted as it is on themes of conserving ancient ecosystems in all their majesty.
   
• Pandora fans feeling blue over the Earth
  What’s 12 feet tall and blue all over? If you’ve seen the movie Avatar — and who hasn’t? — you’ll know the answer to that question is the Na’vi, the incredibly cool, nearly naked aliens with cornrows and braids who live on the incredibly cool, beautiful planet known as Pandora, all threatened by the techno-military-industrial (and little) bad guys from Earth, who lust for a metaphorical mineral called “unobtanium.” That’s us, folks.
   
• Old-growth logging blamed for Island wasteland
  A patch of the Tahsish River Valley on western Vancouver Island is the new poster child for the ecological impact of old-growth logging — this time on limestone karst, perhaps the world’s most fragile landscape.
   
• Koksilah River Old-Growth In Jeopardy
  The Cowichan Valley Regional District will write to provincial Forests Minister Pat Bell and TimberWest, asking that any timber harvesting within the vicinity of the Koksilah Ancient Forest and the upper Koksilah River corridor be held in abeyance while consideration be given to other potential interests in these lands.
   
• Ken Wu Wants to Save 'the Avatar Grove'
  Ken Wu knows how to get attention for ancient forests. When we met at the Bread Garden Café on Broadway in Vancouver just after the news broke a few weeks ago that he and several other tree-hugging stalwarts from Vancouver Island had splintered from the Western Canada Wilderness Committee to form the Ancient Forest Alliance, the former Victoria campaign director for WCWC mentioned how much he enjoyed the movie Avatar.
   
• No logging plans near giant fir: TimberWest
  Flagging tape in the immediate vicinity of the world's largest Douglas fir does not mean the area will be logged in the near future, according to forest company TimberWest. The marked cutblock, less than 100 metres from the Red Creek Fir, was found by members of the Ancient Forest Alliance who say that if surrounding trees are cut, the 74-metre tall tree will be in danger of blow-down.
   
• Protect old grove before it's too late
  The provincial government should not let the mostly undisturbed grove in the Gordon River Valley, nicknamed Avatar Grove, be logged. It is a gem of an ecosystem and with so little of our old-growth forests left, it is not something we can afford to lose. With its proximity to Port Renfrew, it will be very beneficial for bringing in tourists, which will support local economies.
   
• World’s Largest Douglas fir Threatened by Proposed Logging in Adjacent Old-Growth Forest
  A new proposed logging cutblock near the world’s largest Douglas fir tree, the Red Creek Fir, has been identified as that of TimberWest, a BC-based logging company. The Red Creek Fir, located 15 kilometers east of Port Renfrew, is recognized as the largest Douglas Fir Tree on Earth, with enough wood to make 349 telephone poles (ie. 349 cubic meters in total timber volume – see http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hre/bigtrees/docs/BigTreeRegistry.pdf). It is 73.8 meters in height and has a trunk 4.2 meters wide (Diameter-at-Breast-Height or DBH).
   
• World’s Largest Douglas Fir Under Threat
  The world’s largest Douglas fir tree, the famous Red Creek Fir tree, located in Port Renfrew at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, remains vulnerable to the effects of logging in an adjacent old-growth forest, claim environmentalists.
   
• Old-growth forests could bring tourists
  Becoming a field of giant stumps continues to be the fate of many of our last stands of giant trees in southern B.C. and shows a lack of understanding of what draws many people to the best place on Earth.
   
• The Avatar blues
  When you stop and think about it, post-Avatar depression isn't as bizarre a phenomenon as it seems. If news reports and postings on fansites such as Naviblue and Avatar Forums are to be believed, many filmgoers are feeling as blue as those tall, peace-loving Na'vi aliens after watching James Cameron's stunning 3-D sci-fi epic.
   
• World's largest Douglas fir at risk, fearful environmentalists charge
  The world's largest Douglas fir could be at risk, say Vancouver Island environmentalists.
   
• A Channel News - Giant Fir Threatened
  Conservationists say the BC government is putting the future of the World's tallest Douglas fir tree in jeopardy.
   
• Largest Douglas fir in the world at risk say environmentalists
  New logging tape marks an area about 50 metres away from the largest Douglas fir in the world in the Red Creek area east of Port Renfrew.
   
• Rare stand of old-growth trees near Port Renfrew only partly protected says eco-group
  Logging is already prohibited in part of a stand of massive old-growth trees near Port Renfrew that the community and environmentalists want protected, but it's not nearly enough, say members of the Ancient Forest Alliance. A section of the stand, nicknamed Avatar Grove, is in an old-growth management area, meaning no cutting is allowed, Forests Ministry spokeswoman Vivian Thomas said yesterday.
   
• James Cameron: Fox didn't want Avatar's 'treehugging crap'
  Filmmaker James Cameron has spoken before about how his Avatar is a cautionary environmental tale. In a MTV interview this week, he says Fox wanted to remove its "treehugging crap," but environmentalists now want to create a curriculum based on it.
   
• British Columbia: Clearcutting the "Avatar Forest"
  An exceptionally spectacular and accessible stand of newly discovered old growth redcedars and Douglas firs near Port Renfrew has recently been marked for logging. The unprotected forest on Crown lands about 10 kilometers north of Port Renfrew, nicknamed the “Avatar Grove” after the hit movie for its awe-inspiring beauty and alien-shaped, enormous trees covered in burls, was discovered in early December last year by Vancouver Island photographer and “big tree hunter” TJ Watt and a friend.
   
• Environmental group: Protect rare forest giants marked for logging near Port Renfrew
  Some of the giants stretch straight to the sky for 80 metres, while others are bulbous and misshapen, the knots and gnarls betraying their age. The old-growth Douglas firs and red cedars have stood in the valley beside the Gordon River for centuries, but now, in the almost undisturbed grove, the end is spelled out in spray paint and logging tape.
   
• Exceptional Old-Growth Stand, the “Avatar Grove” Slated for Destruction
  An exceptionally spectacular and accessible stand of newly discovered old growth redcedars and Douglas firs near Port Renfrew has recently been marked for logging.
   
• Environmental Organization Establishes 3 Step Program to Cure “Post-Avatar Depression Syndrome”
  A Canadian environmental organization has established a 3 Step Program designed to cure thousands of movie-goers who complain about sinking into a depression in their drab, Earthly lives after watching scenes of spectacular alien rainforests and wildlife in James Cameron’s hugely popular film, “Avatar”.
   
• Ancient Forest Alliance - Launch Event!
  Enough is Enough! Saving our Last Ancient Forests and Ending Raw Log Exports - Find out about the new organization and its campaign!
   
• TJ Watt Exclusive Interview Canadian Landscape Environmental Photographer
  TJ Watt is a professional photographer living in the city of Victoria on Vancouver Island, BC. Born and raised in the rural town of Metchosin, he carries with him a strong passion for the outdoors, the environment, and life itself.
   
• Old Forests, New Twist
  Tis the season, it would seem, for turmoil in the environmental movement. With run-of-the-river power projects testing the solidarity of green-minded British Columbians, and last summer’s high-profile battle for the leadership of The Land Conservancy, we now have the Western Canada Wilderness Committee announcing the closure of its Victoria storefront and shifting the focus of its Island campaigner to marine issues from old-growth forest protection.
   
• Island forest group strikes out on its own
  Veteran activists with the Victoria branch of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee are splitting from the group's Vancouver headquarters and forming a new organization dedicated to fighting for old-growth forests.
   
• Old-growth forest activists launch new group
  Prolific environmental activists have formed a fledgling old-growth forest watchdog group after parting ways with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.
   
• Local Environmental Activist Takes New Role in Protecting Old Growth Forests
  Ken Wu --- The former campaign director for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee --- and the new head of the Ancient Forest Alliance says there are a million hectares of unprotected old growth forests at risk on BC's south coast.
   
• Wu in the Wild
  When last we heard from Ken Wu, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee's Victoria campaign director had announced he would be stepping aside to travel the world. But those plans have been put on hold, with Mr. Wu launching a new environmental group in response to a wilderness committee decision he says will downsize the campaign against old growth logging on Vancouver Island.
   
• New BC Organization "Ancient Forest Alliance" Launched to Protect BC's Old-Growth Forests and Forestry Jobs
  A new organization working to protect BC's old-growth forests and forestry jobs, the "Ancient Forest Alliance" (AFA), is being launched today by Victoria environmentalist and former Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) campaign director Ken Wu, former WCWC forest and marine campaigner Tara Sawatsky, and Metchosin photographer TJ Watt.
   
• VOTE for the ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE in the Phillips Benefit Brew contest!
  TODAY is the LAST DAY to VOTE for the ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE to receive up to $10,000 from local Victoria beer company Phillips Beer. $10,000 would be a HUGE sum for us - worth about 25% of our entire funding so far this year! http://phillipsbeer.com/benefitbrew
   

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