There Goes The Last Dodo

 

A big tree is not just a big tree. It is an entire neighbourhood. The human equivalent would be a residential skyscraper. 

Imagine if someone cut one of them down just because harvesting big buildings was profitable.

Where would the people that live there go? Or the people that work there?

When we see a big tree, or any tree, going down the highway on the back of a truck we should say,

"There goes the neighbourhood".

Each old growth tree is a community of millions of different organisms large and small.

Some can't live anywhere else.

Where are they to go?

A recent photo taken on Vancouver Island of a single, large sitka spruce trunk on a logging truck went viral. 

The large tree looks like it could be about 800 years old, give or take 200 years. 

Many people that saw the photo were shocked that we still do this kind of thing when so much of the ancient forest is gone. 

Over 90% of the oldest and best stands have already been logged in BC. It makes one think they will not be satisfied until they get as close to 100% of the big trees as possible. 

As soon as possible.

One day we will view decimating entire ancient forest communities that have thrived harmoniously for 10,000 years as barbaric and tragically old fashioned. 

We will look into how they got away with replacing the great mass of 10,000 year old forest with tree farms on 80 year rotations, with the big trees never to be seen again outside of small parks and areas they haven't ruthlessly exploited yet.

That day of reckoning may be coming sooner than they think if the reaction to the viral photo of that formerly beautiful spruce tree on the back of a logging truck is any indication.

It can't come soon enough for a great many, and growing, number of us.

Save BC's Old-Growth Forests

More government lies in order to gift Canada's largest, irreplaceable trees to logging interests.

When I started this blog 10 years ago it was born out of my love for BC's big trees, and my desire to see them all protected. A decade later and they are as imperilled as ever, regardless of which government party is "managing" them. 

Today the NDP government talks of "sustainable harvesting in old growth forests. I assume, therefore, that they have a viable 1,000 year plan for these trees, because that is the only way you could do a sustainable harvest in ancient forests.

Currently cut areas in BC's forests are slated for being re-logged in a 30 to 80 year cycle. How does this sustain the old growth? It does not.

Trees and forests aren't even recognized as old growth until they are at least 250 years old. The oldest old growth forests in BC date from the end of the last ice age 10,000 years old. 

So, Minister Donaldson, show us your comprehensive 1,000 year plan for the sustainable harvest of old growth.

The following is from Save BC's Old-Growth Forests on Facebook:

Evolving over millennia, BC's old-growth forests are a non-renewable resource under BC's current system of forestry, where second-growth forests are typically re-logged every 30-80 years, never to become old-growth again. 

And with close to 80% of productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island having already been cut, the BC NDP need to wake up and realize there's NO SUCH THING as "sustainable" logging of endangered old-growth forests. 😡 

TAKE ACTION TODAY BY:⏩ 1) Sending a message to the BC government demanding protection for BC's ancient forests and a shift to a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry: www.ancientforestalliance.org/send-a-message 

⏩ 2) Contacting your local MLA and asking them to stand up for ancient forests: www.ancientforestalliance.org/contact-your-mla  

Rainbows and Clear Cuts

A recent open letter to the Vancouver Island community from the World Rainbow Family had something to say about the ongoing desecration and destruction of ancient forests on the north island.

In part, the letter stated:

"A main reason sounded for why we shouldn’t be able to gather on Raft Cove was the environmental impact on this place of significant natural beauty. What our family saw on our journeys around the North Island deeply shocked us, and we would like to share with the local community and the world the horrific level of deforestation of ancient and sacred trees occurring now on the North Island.  

 The Hopi prophecy that forms the ideology of our family is that a tribe, from all corners of the world, with multiple colours, will rise up from the midst of destruction and heal the earth. Given that we are a deeply environmentally conscious group, these environmental concerns were hard to comprehend. Historically, we have been involved in local environmental matters, such as the 1993 protection of the Clayoquot Sound forests."

Clear cuts are harmful to the forest, soil, water quality,
and animal life, but are profitable for corporations.

Cortes Island Ancient Forest Defenders Force Island Timberlands To Table

"Cutting these ancient, threatened Douglas-fir is like shooting a black rino."

Cortes Island ancient forest defenders, led by the community alliance Wildstands, have successfully forced Island Timberlands back to the table in the ongoing struggle to protect the island's last remaining old growth forests.

The original Coastal Douglas-fir forest ecozone, small to begin with, has withstood 100 years of industrial exploitation to the point that only 1% remains. A small part of that 1% resides on beautiful Cortes Island.

The government of BC refuses to meaningfully protect this dwindling resource, and in some cases encourages its destruction through investments in the corporations that are slaughtering the last big trees. Responsibility for protection inevitably falls on the caring shoulders of regular folks in the communities being degraded by continued old growth liquidation.

The people gathered together on Cortes as human shields protecting the last veteran trees (250-500 years old) are often those most affected by the degraded conditions left in the wake of industrial clear cut logging.

Zoe Miles, a member of Wildstands, says, “For more than four years, community members have attempted to work with the company to develop an ecosystem-based approach to forestry.  As road-building equipment moves in, the community is now left with no choice but to stand in its path to defend these ecologically significant forests.”

The group aims to "protect the ancient bio-diversity of Cortes Island, and serves as a forum for discussion of the protection, legislation and conservation of this fragile eco-system".

Wildstands blockaded logging equipment in recent days rather than submit its old-growth temperate rainforest to unsustainable logging practices by Island Timberlands, the second largest private timberlands holding in British Columbia.

The first stage of the blockade has been successful, and IT has agreed not to ask for an injunction against the group for at least one week.

Send Island Timberlands an email if you support old growth protection on Cortes Island. Click here.

Our government should know of your wishes as well. Click here.

"People are here because they want to make it known that the industrial forestry model doesn’t work for local communities and it doesn’t work for the province. Island Timberlands will destroy ecologically sensitive ecosystems and leave nothing beneficial in its wake. We will be left with devastated ecosystems, a contaminated water supply and no long term jobs. All the benefit is going to people who live far away and who aren’t aware of the cost of their profits to our community and our province."  - Leah Seltzer

Stopping Island Timberlands, Saving Cortes Island

 Will logging of ancient forest be halted before it can begin?

November 28, 2012 (Cortes Island, BC) — Residents of Cortes Island have formed a blockade to stop the BC based timber company, Island Timberlands (I.T.), from beginning logging operations in one of BC’s last stands of old growth coastal Douglas-fir forest.  For over four years, community members have attempted to work with the company to develop an ecosystem-based approach to forestry.  As road-building equipment moves in, the community is now left with no choice but to stand in it’s path to defend these ecologically significant forests.

Yesterday, Island Timberlands trucks were stopped at a logging road gate by two protesters lying on the ground. Company personnel filmed the protesters, likely in preparation for an application for a civil injunction. The protesters did not respond to their questions and community members remained on the site until the end of the day.

Adjacent landowners were among the community members present. One couple explained that they have a water license on Basil Creek which runs through Island Timberlands’ property.  I.T. plans to log in the riparian area and within 30 feet of the wetland that feeds the salmon-bearing creek. They wrote to Morgan Kennah, Island Timberland’s Manager for Community Affairs, stating their concerns about water supply and contamination. “I thought I would get a letter from Morgan assuring me that my water supply would be safe,” the landowner stated, “but that never happened. I got no response.”  Another community member showed up with Christmas decorations and a Christmas tree to lighten the protesters’ spirits.

Leah Seltzer explained the situation in this way, “People are here because they want to make it known that the industrial forestry model doesn’t work for local communities and it doesn’t work for province. Island Timberlands will destroy ecologically sensitive ecosystems and leave nothing beneficial in its wake. We will be left with devastated ecosystems, a contaminated water supply and no long-term jobs. All the benefit is going to people who live far away and who aren’t aware of the cost of their profits to our community and our province.”

The threatened lands contain some of the last 1% of old-growth Coastal Douglas-fir forests, and, according to Ken Wu of the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA), are some of the most extensive stands remaining in the endangered "Dry Maritime" forests along BC's southern coast.  The forests also contain a number of documented threatened species and sensitive ecosystems.

At this time, I.T. has contracted several local workers but these jobs will only provide short-term employment.  More than 60% of I.T.’s raw logs are shipped out of the province to be processed overseas.  Standing exclusively to profit are I.T.’s corporate shareholders, which include Brookfield Asset Management and the BC Investment Management Corporation, the pension fund for provincial employees.

While I.T. claims to use sustainable forestry practices, long-time forest activist and Cortes Island land-owner, Tzeporah Berman, warns us not to be fooled: “The majority of their logging is traditional clearcut logging with devastating ecological implications that result in either a change of land use or a dramatically weakened and simplified ecosystem. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) that Island Timberlands touts does not ensure strong environmental standards and has little support from First Nations or environmental organizations.”

Cortes resident and Greenpeace co-founder Rex Weyler agrees.  “There’s no excuse for industrial-scale logging in these times,” he says. “Forward-looking and economically-viable alternatives exist that are based on community health and ecosystem health. Island Timberlands’ plans are a step backwards. Cortes Island is moving forward.”  Residents have sought Island Timberland’s participation in this kind of forestry model but have been met with disregard.

Community members hope that the situation will not escalate, and that I.T. will recognize that Cortes holds a rare opportunity to work with a willing community to create a forestry model that benefits everyone.  Until then, islanders will be standing in the way of the equipment, and keeping a close eye on any further signs of I.T. activity on the island.

Several participants are available for comment.

Photo credits: WildStands, Facebook

For Immediate Release

For more information, please contact:

(Please be advised, there is limited cell phone service on the island but we will respond to your calls as soon as possible.)

Media Liasons: 

Leah Seltzer, Educator, Cortes resident 

Zoe Miles, Cortes-raised activist 

50% of World's Forests Logged

With 50% of the world's forests already affected by logging, it is important that we take responsibility for caring for what is left. There are things that each of us can do to help save our forests.

Saving for all the other living things that depend on it, for future generations of humans to use and enjoy, and for the simple fact that forests as 'super-organisms' have the right to exist unimpeded by greed and mismanagement.

Each of us can do things to help save the world's forests:

• be conscious of how we are using paper and other wood products - don't waste, recycle
• buy wood products to last - a good wood cutting board could last generations if cared for properly
• only buy certified wood products
• refuse to use single use paper products
• go paperless - printers cost a lot to maintain. We got rid of ours, and if we really need to print something out we go to the public library.
• if you own a forest, practice good stewardship - you are only borrowing it from future generations
• lobby politicians for an end to old growth logging - some countries have already put a moratorium on old growth logging, such as Japan and New Zealand.
• consider alternatives to wood as a building material - steel, concrete, straw bale...
• get out and visit big trees and old growth areas - let people know you value these special places

Trees Give Free Hugs

Hug a tree today

If A Tree Falls, Does Anybody Hear?

"Felling A BC Fir Tree", 1920. Photo: University of British Columbia

Written in 1988, the hit single "If A Tree Falls" from the album Big Circumstance raised awareness of the destruction under way in the world's rain forests. Now, over 20 years later, the destruction continues.

If A Tree Falls, Bruce Cockburn (1988)

Rain forest
Mist and mystery
Teeming green
Green brain facing labotomy
Climate control centre for the world
Ancient cord of coexistence
Hacked by parasitic greedhead scam -
From Sarawak to Amazonas
Costa Rica to mangy B.C. hills -
Cortege rhythm of falling timber.

What kind of currency grows in these new deserts,
These brand new flood plains?

If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?

Cut and move on
Cut and move on
Take out trees
Take out wildlife at a rate of species every single day
Take out people who've lived with this for 100,000 years -
Inject a billion burgers worth of beef -
Grain eaters - methane dispensers.

Through thinning ozone,
Waves fall on wrinkled earth -
Gravity, light, ancient refuse of stars,
Speak of a drowning -
But this, this is something other.
Busy monster eats dark holes in the spirit world
Where wild things have to go
To disappear
Forever

If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?
Anybody hear the forest fall?

Quotes by Bruce Cockburn about his song If A Tree Falls:

"When I wrote that song they were cutting down the Amazon rain forest to put in cattle. But that didn’t work out, and the next thing you know they’re planting soybeans. But they’re still cutting down the forests, and they’re still displacing the natives. Corn for the biodiesel trade, that’s the new big thing. You can’t win. You create all this awareness about one aspect of the problem, but as soon as you think you have a foot on top of that, it squeezes out from under and morphs into something else." (2010)

"My exposure to rain forest, with the except on one brief day in Australia, has been in the Northwest, the western coast of North America, which is as much rain forest as anything else. It's just not tropical. So a lot of the time when people talk about the rain forest, they don't realize that they are also talking about the large groves that grow on the west coast of Canada and North America." (1997) 

"A lot of critics didn't like that song. They felt it was too pedantic and I was being too literal and I was 'stretching my metaphors too far'. I have a two-word response for those people." (1989) - source

2012 - The Year We End The Old Growth Slaughter

There are people who want to destroy all of the earth's original forests for short term profit. I, like Bruce Cockburn, have a two-word response for them. 

Actually I have several two-word answers, the nicest being, "Hell, NO!". 

Let's make 2012 the year that we stop the ongoing greedy, senseless, selfish, slaughter of our old growth forests.

Renfrew's Avatar Grove Moves Closer To Protected Status

Lower Avatar Grove, Port Renfrew, BC

It is rare to find large sections of old growth forest on southern Vancouver Island - 90% of the original forest has been logged, and ancient trees continue to fall. Forested areas with trees over 500 years old are rare.

But old growth forest is what Victoria resident TJ Watt found when he noticed the grey, weathered spires of ancient Western red-cedars from a well-traveled logging road near Port Renfrew, a former logging town. The big trees were dubbed Avatar Grove. With the help of Watt and the Ancient Forest Alliance, we learned that the grove was surveyed and flagged for cutting.

Avatar Grove ancient candelabra cedars

After a very successful campaign, Ancient Forest Alliance is reporting that the BC government is making moves to protect the grove of mind-blowing trees, some of which are over 1000 years old.

"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." - Globe and Mail

Thousands of visitors to the grove are witnessing the grandeur of accessible old growth, a rarity on southern Vancouver Island.

With your support, we can push for fully protected status for Avatar Grove and other areas of precious old growth ecosystems.

Ancient forests are far more valuable standing than when cut to fuel our short-term, insatiable demands for more.

Natural Capital: Save A Forest, Fight Climate Change, Get Paid

"Canadians are coming to understand that the national environmental agenda can no longer be separated from the national economic agenda. Sustainable development, therefore, demands that we integrate social, economic and environmental considerations into decision-making in a way that enhances productivity and prosperity without compromising the integrity of the environment." - Natural Resources Canada

Intact, pristine, natural systems contribute over $33 trillion dollars of 'value' to our economy every year, as calculated in 1997. Traditional economics does not take these contributions into account, even though all life (and the economy) depends on them. The current biodiversity crisis, rapid deforestation, and global climate change is beginning to change that.

'Natural capital' is increasingly being acknowledged and  taken into account, and conservation, restoration, and sustainability are concepts that we are likely to hear a lot more about in the near future. This bodes well for all our forest lands including the precious, and dwindling, old growth.

Forests are one of the Earth's great atmospheric regulators, and they store more carbon than any other biome on the planet. In most cases our forests, especially pristine, untouched areas, are more valuable standing than cut for lumber or other uses.

Forest carbon projects recognize the value of the carbon-storage capacity of forests, and pay out credits to keep trees growing and sequestering to help mitigate industrial greenhouse gases.

The largest  to date in North America, and the first deal of its kind in Canada, was launched recently in Vancouver, BC. The Nature Conservancy Of Canada (NCC) signed a deal that saw them receive carbon credits worth $4 million dollars that mitigates 700,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

A forest is worth far more standing than it is when cut down to make stuff

The NCC is receiving the cash for its 55,000-hectare piece of land known as Darkwoods. The area, which has extensive virgin forest including trees over 500 years old, is on Kootenay Lake near Nelson, BC. The deal represents the beginning of a process that promises great benefits for the environment, biodiversity, trees, and forests.

The concept of natural capital is just beginning to take off, and there will be bumps in the road as it progresses. One complaint is that it is difficult to measure the value of nature's systems without some agreement on methods of valuating and auditing at least the global forms of natural capital (e.g. value of air, water, soil). We have not yet arrived at such agreement.

But we are moving in the right direction as we change how we think about, and value, nature. It may very well save what is left of our once vast forests, and reclaim and restore degraded forest lands so they may thrive again.

Preserving Our Forests, Protecting Our Future

"It was strangely like war. They attacked the forest as if it were an enemy to be pushed back from the beachheads, driven into the hills, broken into patches, and wiped out. Many operators thought they were not only making lumber but liberating the land from the trees..."
[On the first logging of the U.S. Olympic Peninsula, Washington]

- Murray Morgan

June 5 - 11 is Environment Week in Canada, and the week's theme is of interest to tree lovers and the general public alike. Preserving Our Forests, Protecting Our Future is a theme that dovetails nicely with the UN's 2011 International Year of Forests. It gives a much-needed nod to the importance or trees and forests in meeting many basic human needs.

This is a step in the right direction considering the gravity of the situation in Canada, and globally. If we don't protect our forests, the future will be bleak.

Celebrate The Trees

You can take part in a tree-planting campaign during Environment Week. GreenWave is a multi-year global campaign that enables children and youth to make a difference - one school, one tree, one step at a time. Plant a tree and register it at www.greenwave.cbd.int.

Or go for a hike on a local nature trail and revel in the beauty and serenity we are trying to preserve for future generations. Visit a favourite tree or forested area.

Write a letter or email to our elected officials to tell them trees and forest are important to you, and you would like to see real action toward protecting our ancient forests for future generations.

"There can be neither civilization nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe, if the climate is harsh and severe, if people are also harsh and severe. ... What a terrible future!" — Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Can Hemp Help Save Our Forests?

Save a Tree: Stop Hemp Prohibition

Can hemp save our forests? The short answer is probably "No", but it definitely could take pressure off of trees and forests harvested unnecessarily for paper and cardboard products. Growing hemp as a fibre alternative to wood would also give struggling farmers an excellent crop to produce, thus keeping farms running and development of farmland at bay.

Hemp has been used for a variety of purposes in China for 10,000 years. The first paper made from hemp fiber was made there 2000 years ago. Today, China is stockpiling B.C. trees in vast whole log storage facilities. They also happen to be the world largest producers of hemp fiber.

Using virgin forests for paper, single use products, and cardboard production is ecological insanity. Especially when there is a completely viable alternative fibre source available now.

It makes no sense to cut trees with lifespans measured in the hundreds of  years to make paper and single use convenience items. Even second growth trees require decades of growth before they are ready for harvest. It is time to try something different. Something better.

Hemp fiber is stronger than tree fiber

Interesting Hemp Facts

• Hemp fibers are stronger than tree fiber. Therefore any hemp cardboard or paper can be recycled four times more.
  
  
• Hemp requires no chlorine bleaching...this making the waste usable as compost...unlike bleached paper products which are toxic waste, producers of dioxin, one of the 12 worst industrial pollutants.
   
• Hemp can produce many spin-off industries...such as paper, cardboard, building paneling, soaps, foods, livestock feed, plastics (non toxic), insulation, fabrics, oils, fuel and so forth. No tree can match this usefulness.
   
• Hemp requires no pesticides, thus reducing pollution everywhere.
   
• Hemp agriculture can save farmlands from sprawl by making them economically viable.
  
  
• Hemp restores soils damaged by modern pesticide intensive etc farming techniques.
   
• Hemp needs very little water...unlike cotton (which also happens to be one of the top pesticide using crops).
   
• Logging workers MUST be educated about the alternative of hemp jobs...that will not poison or kill them or destroy forever parts of their and their children's own ecosystem.

Cartoon and Hemp Facts from: John Jonik

BC Government Considers Protecting Avatar Grove's Ancient Trees

Avatar Grove is just past the bridge, both sides of the road

I can't think of any group currently doing more for old growth protection in BC than the Ancient Forest Alliance. For over a year now the AFA has been fighting the good fight for Port Renfrew's Avatar Grove. It is time to join them, and help protect the amazing Avatar Grove.

The people of the Middle East are currently showing us the power of the people. They are showing us that we can do this thing. Governments must respect the will of the people. But they have to know what our will is. We have to write letters, send emails, make phone calls, and talk to friends and neighbours.

AFA recently posted the following urgent (and optimistic) information on their website:

"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!

Click here for the Vancouver Sun article
The Avatar Grove is a truly exceptional and easy to access stand of ancient trees which the Ancient Forest Alliance has been campaigning hard to protect for over a year – and we may get there soon if you SPEAK UP NOW!
See our new Youtube clip (1 minute) on the Avatar Grove at:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_uPkAWsvVw

We need progress for saving endangered ancient forests at all spatial scales - monumental trees, whole stands (like the Avatar Grove), and landscape level old-growth protections like valleys and regions. Starting with trees and stands is certainly a welcome beginning. Let’s make this happen!!

This will take just 5 MINUTES! Your letter counts!

PLEASE WRITE to Pat Bell, Minister of Forests, Lands, and Mines at pat.bell.mla@leg.bc.ca

Let him know that you:

- Support him moving forward to protect the Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew. Let him know if you have visited the area.
- Support the protection of monumental ancient trees and stands of ancient trees.
- Want all old-growth protections to be legally-binding, not voluntary.
- Encourage him to also undertake a much larger Provincial Old-Growth Strategy to protect endangered old-growth forests across regions where they are scarce, such as on Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland, southern Interior, etc. and to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry instead. 

Be sure to include your home mailing address so he knows you are a real person!

Also please SIGN our PETITION and get as many of your friends and family to as well at:
http://www.ancientforestpetition.com/index.php#sign "


The AFA adds this additional information (see more here):

Forests Minister Pat Bell’s statements comes on the heels of a new Forest Practices Board (FPB) 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, and that there is a “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.” 

Forest Primeval: The natural history of an ancient forest

What is the next best thing to hanging out in the trees? Reading about trees, of course. In between excursions to the forest I like to absorb as much information about trees as I can. And there is a lot of great information out there.

I just finished reading Chris Maser's fantastic book Forest Primeval: The Natural History of an Ancient Forest. In it he describes a small patch of forest in the Pacific Northwest as it grows from its birth (after a lightning strike fire) in 988 to the beautiful old growth forest that he has known and loved since childhood.

Over the thousand years of this small grove, Maser describes many of the creatures and processes that work together to create one of the most diverse and majestic ecosystems in the world.

The author knows the forest in intricate detail, and we are introduced to a long list of characters, each one of them performing a small, but necessary task in the web of life.

Threatened Avatar Grove big trees

From fungus in the soil that grows on the roots of Douglas-fir, to voles, cougar, wildflowers and massive 900 year old trees, the author makes the small grove he is describing leap off the page with a green fecundity. But catastrophic changes are coming to the ancient grove.

Along with describing the characters and changes in the forest, the book also describes the characters and changes in the human world. In the 17th century, as the small grove grows into old age, one thing is certain - invaders are coming, and they view the earth and its resources quite differently than the native people that lived with the forest for about as long as it existed.

Of his own people, Chief Seattle said, "Every part of all this soil is sacred to my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove has been hollowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished." He warned that what we do to the earth, we do to ourselves.

The prescient Chief had the newcomers pegged, and was saddened by what he saw. "We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy - and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his fathers' graves, and his children's birthright is forgotten."

Forest Primeval is written equally as much from the viewpoints of a poet, an artist, a philosopher, and a scientist. Maser knows the ancient forest and its denizens well, and he has a deep respect and love for each and every one of them.

He invites us to consider, and says, "As we journey through the forest of a thousand years, keep in mind that as the forest is growing and changing, so is humanity, and they will ultimately converge at a time and in a way that will forever change them both."

Maser concludes by asking whether we can overcome our inherited myth of human superiority over Nature in time to halt the destruction, and begin the healing.

We haven't been able to so far, and time is running out. The primeval forest is almost gone.

Save Mary Lake Campaign Nears Deadline

Riparian habitat in the Mary Lake forest, photo: Savemarylake

Bob McMinn, one time mayor of the Highlands District outside of Victoria, BC, knew he was taking on a huge challenge when he launched the Save Mary Lake Campaign back in October of 2010. At stake - 107 acres of a globally significant, endangered wild forest slated to be sold for upscale housing estates. But Bob is a determined, tech savy elder that is willing to go the extra mile to save a special place he knows and loves.

$4.5 million dollars needs to be raised, including $1 million of it by a February 1, 2011 deadline. As of January 19th $199,000 had been raised with the deadline looming. Please consider helping Bob save the Highland's Mary Lake forest... soon!

Donate here.

Only 6% of the tiny Coastal Douglas-fir Eco-zone is protected.

Even the BC government should agree that Bob's quest is a good one. A brochure they published states that:

"though it is one of the smallest of British Columbia’s 14 ecological zones, the Coastal Douglas-fir Zone is home to some of the province’s most interesting and diverse ecosystems. A mild climate has also given this area some of the province’s rarest vegetation, which is seriously threatened by growing human settlement".

Although the government should step in and provide funding for preserving what it says is endangered forest, we can not count on them. It is up to the people.

Of course, contacting Pat Bell, Minister of Forest, Mines, and Lands can't hurt either. Find his contact information here. Tell him you would like Mary Lake and other old growth remnants in the devastated CDF eco-zone protected before they are all converted into mansionettes on mini-estates.

The Chipko Movement: Hugging And Saving India's Trees Since 1730

Villagers surround tree to protect it from the axe

"We have arisen, we are awake

No longer will thieves rule our destiny

It is our home, our forests

No longer will the others decide for us"

- Chipko protest chant 

The Himalayan region of northern India is a stunning land rich in natural resources. A wide diversity of forests cover regions from flat, low plains to the tree line in alpine areas of the highest mountain range in the world. This is also the land of the original tree huggers, the brave women of the Chipko Movement.

In India, as here in B.C., the forests have been under assault for a long time. The Chipko Movement is a decades old initiative of the people to address the serious problems of deforestation and corporate control. Chipko means 'to stick' or 'to hug' in Hindi.

Although the first recorded use of tree hugging to protect forests in India was in 1730, the movement took its modern form in the 1970's. At that time the state of Uttarakhand was experiencing heavy logging pressure from outside corporations after new roads made previously remote forests accessible. 

The people that lived in, or near the forests were suffering the consequences of the greedy industrial practices. The women, who were closest to the forest resources, suffered the most when they began to disappear.

Villagers had to walk farther to gather fire wood and fodder for their livestock. Water sources were drying up affecting availability of water for drinking and irrigation. Erosion on deforested areas during the monsoon was scaring the land and creating devastating floods. 

All the profit from the deforestation was taken away, rather than benefiting the local economy. The people were increasingly dissatisfied with commercial logging and government forest policy.

Artwork by Notnarayan

1973 saw the first confrontation over the looming ecological disaster. Tired of inaction on the part of the government, the women of the Chipko Movement decided to protest the destruction of their forest directly. 100 activists banged drums and shouted slogans where the logging activity was taking place. The loggers retreated, and eventually their contract was canceled and given to the villagers.

More protests took place in different areas. Where the people were threatened and ignored the protesters embraced the trees to protect them from being cut. They would often maintain their vigils for days at a time before the loggers retreated.

When news of the growing movement reached the state capital a commission was called which eventually ruled in favour of the Chipko activists and the people most affected by the environmental collapse. For them it was an issue of life or death.

In 1980 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government banned the cutting of trees in the Himalayan regions for 15 years to allow forests to recover.

The Chipko Movement is still going strong as a major socio-ecological movement, and has served as a model for similar groups across the world. The movement has been successful in returning forests to community control for the sustainable benefit of local communities. 

Fortunately they did not have to sacrifice their lives for the trees as did the 363 slain tree huggers in the original 1730 Chipko protest.