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!

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

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)

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.

Na'vi characters rally for BC's old-growth forests on the streets and sidewalks of Vancouver.

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.

The highly endangered Spotted owl. An estimated 5 individuals are thought to exist still in the wild.

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.

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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)!

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.

Photographer TJ Watt is dwarfed by one of the huge alien shaped Red Cedar's in the threatened Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew

Threatened BC 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.

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.