Thank you to 9 year old Gavin Wright, who collected donations at his lemonaide stand for the Ancient Forest Alliance! He showed up to present his batch of donations to us after the film screening of Hadwin's Judgement. We're most grateful to Gavin for his initiative to help our organization and campaigns!
Last night almost 600 people showed up for the benefit screenings in Victoria of Hadwin's Judgement, based on John Vaillant's book The Golden Spruce, for the Ancient Forest Alliance! Thanks to all of you who came out and to producer Elizabeth Yake, author John Vaillant, the Cinecenta theatre, and the volunteers who made such a successful night for our organization and cause!
WHEN: Thursday September 29th, showings at 7pm and 9:15pm WHERE: UVic Cinecenta Theatre (UVic Student Union Building, 3800 Finnerty Rd. – see MAP) TICKETS: $15 (or $9 for students) - purchase tickets in advance here or at the door (box office opens 40 min before each showtime)
Check out the website of the Sunshine Coast (Roberts Creek area) based conservation group the Elphinstone Logging Focus who are working to achieve a 2000 hectare expansion to the protected area on Mount Elphinstone. BC Timber Sales has given the go ahead to log the 'Twist and Shout' forest within the proposal, which includes numerous veteran old-growth Douglas-firs and redcedars, and local activists have been non-violently protesting there for weeks. See a comprehensive list of updates and coverage and events and how to take action on the "Twist and Shout" section of their website at: https://www.loggingfocus.org/campaigns/protect-the-twist-and-shout-forest/ And check out some great photos of the forest there by Shel Neufeld: https://www.facebook.com/shel.n.neufeld/posts/10154336717750155?pnref=story
From now until August 31st, you can support the AFA by purchasing a scarf through the Scarves for Sustainability initiative at https://scarvesforsustainability.com! Scarves for Sustainability is a project that emerged from the Royal Roads University BCom program with the mission of helping to protect old-growth forests in BC. Scarves for Sustainability sells light, high quality custom silk scarves printed with images of BC’s protected old-growth forests, visible on both sides of the scarf. Through this initiative, they will be donating 100% of the profit from the sale of the scarves to the Ancient Forest Alliance to support our work to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests! Thank you to Angeline Arsenault, Darren Chan, Maria Fadda, Myles Cook and Nicole Melanson, the creators of the Scarves for Sustainability initiative, for your generous vision and creative support!
Here are some photos of this past weekend’s boardwalk construction at Avatar Grove! Thanks to the hard work of many volunteers and the generous support from Sitka (who've raised the funds for the last 2 rounds of wood - amazing!!) we've managed to finish a few more key pieces in our push to launch the trail by the end of September! The popularity of Avatar Grove continues to grow exponentially (at times there were 30 cars there over the weekend!) making the boardwalk even more necessary to help protect the area's ecological integrity and improve visitor access and safety. There are still some key areas to finish before the launch but we’re making great headway thanks to YOUR support! We’d like to send our greatest thanks to all the incredible volunteers that came out and made the weekend possible as well as to Sitka for hosting events to raise money for the boardwalk! If you'd like to help out, please contact AFA boardwalk coordinator TJ Watt: tj@15.222.255.145 Construction or trail building experience is an asset but not required. To donate to the boardwalk construction, please visit: https://ancientforestalliance.org/avatar-grove-boardwalk-now-completed-and-open/
Thank you to Awaken Apparel, www.awakenapparel.ca, a new company designing and producing organic cotton and bamboo clothing in Canada with a mission to protect the Earth and empower people to live a more fulfilling life. They will be donating 10% of all their market and online sales to non-profit groups including the Ancient Forest Alliance.
If you're in Calgary, come out on Aug 22 to see a spectacular and informative slideshow by the Ancient Forest Alliance's executive director Ken Wu at the Patagonia store (downtown Calgary at Stephen Avenue) about "Exploring and Protecting the Old-Growth Forests of Coastal BC". https://www.facebook.com/events/1058597564218224/
Here's a Vancouver Sun article by Stephen Hume also based on the new Sierra Club mapping on how much old-growth remains: Forest scientists like Jim Pojar say this forest should be considered the remnant of a dwindling non-renewable resource because the life cycle of these forests is so long that it will take 40 to 50 human generations before they recover to their original state. Even then, he says, they won’t be anything like the forests that exist today, nor will the communities of plants, insects, birds and animals — about 400 species — that rely upon them. Meanwhile, the Sierra Club study points out, even as the remaining rainforest vanishes under the chainsaw, the rate at which it’s being cut has increased by 12 per cent. And, it says, re-planted forests that won’t mature for another 250 years are already being logged after only 50 or 80 years as immature second and third growth. Pojar, a forest ecologist who wrote the well-regarded guide, Plants of Coastal British Columbia, was an ecologist and researcher with the B.C. Forest Service for years. He recently authored a major study for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society on climate change and its implications for biodiversity and conservation policy. “Given the amount and pace of climate change, all B.C. forest stands older than 150 years are non-renewable resources, and some of them should be removed from the timber harvesting land base,” says Pojar. “If logged they will not be replaced either naturally or artificially by mature and old stands with similar structure and function, even if they are allowed to grow old. “Even if allowed to grow old they will not recover to the primary condition,” he says, “which is why I maintain that recovery of old growth forest is now an inappropriate, anachronistic concept, given rapid climate change, system unpredictability and scientific uncertainty.”
The Ancient Forest Alliance will be supporting the forestry workers with the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (now the Public and Private Workers of Canada) at a rally they are organizing in Port Alberni on July 22. Please come out if you can in solidarity with them and local Port Alberni activists to support a sustainable, second-growth forest industry and to end the export of raw, unprocessed logs out of Canada! https://www.facebook.com/events/1342362639111734/
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