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.
A recent shakeup in Victoria’s activist community may signify a new chapter in our long history of environmental action. The longtime coordinator for the Victoria branch of BC’s Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC), Ken Wu, has recently left that organization to start the fledgling Ancient Forest Alliance with co-founder TJ Watt. At recent info session […]
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Conservationists say the BC government is putting the future of the World's tallest Douglas fir tree in jeopardy.
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.
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