The Money Huggers Want All The Old Growth

How much of Canada's old growth forests do the money huggers want to cut down? 

All of it. Each and every massive, ancient, beautiful tree, wherever it may be. 

Where we see dendrological miracles, they see only bags of cash. They want to convert all the old growth to those bags that they clutch to their chests as they chuckle maniacally in the wreckage.

And they will get all of it, if we don't stop them. And we can, if we want to bad enough, stop them. They are, after all, our trees.

A recent example of our power to save the old growth concerns the sale of remnant old growth forests near Port Renfrew. No one, other than the money huggers, thought it was a good idea, and said as much quite loudly.

The NDP/Green government, that never should have put the old growth up for sale in the first place, have relented, and the auction never took place. For now.

The cashoterrorists will be back, though. They will keep on coming until all the old growth is gone, or until we get up off our couches and stop them.

What happened in the Port Renfrew forest shows that more of us are up and ready to fight for what is left.

Tree hugging, good. Money hugging, not so much.

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  

Ahousaht First Nation Saving Their Big Trees on Vancouver Island

"Environmentalists are applauding a move by the Ahousaht First Nation to ban mining and clear cutting in favour of sustainable development and conservation.

Under the first phase of the plan, announced Thursday, there will be no mining or industrial logging in Ahousaht traditional territory and about 80 per cent of almost 171,000 hectares will be set aside as cultural and natural areas “to conserve biological diversity, natural landscapes and wilderness and to provide to Ahousaht continued spiritual, cultural and sustenance use.”

The remote Ahousaht First Nation, near Tofino, has more old growth forests in its traditional territory than any other First Nation on the B.C. South Coast.

Ahousaht Band leaders have decided it needs to be protected and they took steps to do just that this week to preserve those forests for the future.

Under the first phase of the plan, there will no mining or industrial logging allowed in Ahoushat traditional territory.

About 80 per cent of the territory , that’s more than 170,000 hectares, will be set aside as cultural and natural areas.

The goal is to conserve natural landscapes and biological diversity. The Ancient Forest Alliance says it’s the largest leap in old-growth conservation in the last two decades on Vancouver Island.

The Nature Conservancy is calling it a blueprint for a sustainable future. Environmentalists say only about 20 per cent of old-growth forests are still standing on Vancouver Island."

- source

Green Forestry Jobs Now

Creating a green economy, including a green forestry sector, is going to be essential for BC as it heads into a rapidly changing world.

British Columbia's current government is intent on the status quo, and is even recommending increasing the export of whole logs harvested in the province's public forests. That is not sustainable, not green, and not in the best interests of the forests, or the people of BC.

Forward thinkers are outlining alternatives that will restore our forests at the same time as thousands of new jobs are created.

If the BC Forest Service was restored to pre-2001 levels it alone would add 1000 new jobs. It would also ensure that no government could plead ignorance while making crucial forestry decisions.

In a 2012 report the BC Auditor General warned that, "existing management practices are insufficient to offset a trend toward future forests having a lower timber supply and less species diversity."

It is time for the greening of BC's forestry industry. Read more at Green Jobs BC.

Nanaimo Mill Workers Lose To WFP

The  first sawmill in BC, 1848. Sawmill is on the right,
and a grist mill is shown on the other side of Millstream, near Victoria.

British Columbia's old growth forests are not the only victims of years of mayhem in the woods - forestry workers are suffering as well.

Based on data from the BC Ministry of Forests and Range, from 1991 - 2000, the average rate of closure was 3 mills per year. From 2001 - 2009 it rose to 6 mill closures per year. The closures account for the loss of thousands of jobs, and takes millions of dollars out of forestry-based communities.

The following article is a recent example of how forestry workers are suffering from bad policies and corporations looking out for #1 and the bottom line.

Mill workers lose court battle

Labour arbitrator sides with WFP in longstanding fight

By Robert Barron, Daily News April 16, 2012

Hundreds of laid-off workers at Nanaimo's two Western Forest products' sawmills won't receive severance packages after labour arbitrator David McPhillips recently ruled in favour in the forest company in a longstanding dispute.

Darrel Wong, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 which represents workers at the two mills, said the union sees no point in appealing McPhillips' decision even though it feels many of its arguments in the case are still valid.

WFP spokeswoman MacKenzie Leine said she's not surprised by the arbitrator's decision.

The union began court action against WFP over their concerns that the forest company may have reopened its two sawmills in Nanaimo with skeleton crews in 2010 to avoid having to pay severance packages, totalling more than $6 million, that the company would be mandated to pay if the mills remained closed.

Read full article here.

With old growth forests being rapidly depleted, raw log shipments, lack of government oversight in the woods, and logging companies using questionable business practices to avoid their responsibility to workers, it is hard to see how the citizens of this province are benefiting from the harvesting of our forestry resources.

Vancouver Island's Forest Defender, Merv Wilkinson, Dead At 97

Merv Wilkinson - environmental hero

Merv Wilkinson, eco-forestry advocate and staunch defender of the forest, passed recently on Vancouver Island. Surrounded by the Wildwood, his 137 acre patch of dry coastal douglas-fir forest near Nanaimo, Wilkinson moved on to that great forest in the sky. He leaves behind a lifetime of good work, and a legacy that will affect forest practices for generations.

When he bought his property in 1938, Merv's neighbours considered him unusual for his decision not to clear cut the land, and make it 'productive'. But he knew it was productive just the way it was, and that it could continue to be productive in perpetuity if cared for respectfully with sustainability in mind.



"You don't have to destroy the forest to harvest trees" was his guiding principle, and he proved it a valid idea over 70 years of managed logging in his old growth forest. Merv became interested in eco-forestry early, learning about the Scandinavian logging practice of single tree selection. Because of that, today Merv's forest remains an intact ecosystem, and contains as much or more wood than when he started logging it 7 decades ago.

"Back when Wilkinson purchased Wildwood, it had 1.3 million board feet of standing timber and, after 70 years of selective logging, he has pulled out some 2 million board feet of lumber—with an astounding 1.6 million board feet of timber still standing. Compare that to B.C.’s traditional industrial logging methods: it took 25,000 years for Vancouver Island’s forests to grow and, according to 2004 satellite imagery, we’ve cut down 73 percent of our productive old growth in about 100 years." - Tall Timber Tales, Monday Magazine

Wilkinson's forest, Wildwood, in Nanaimo area

Wilkinson not only practiced forest preservation on his own land, he also became involved in local protests and campaigns to save Vancouver Island old growth. He joined the largest peaceful act of civil disobedience in Canadian history at the Clayoquot Sound protests in 1993. He was arrested along with his wife as they stood  in defense of the 12,000 year old primeval rainforest. 


Merv was instrumental in influencing environmentalists of the day to make an important shift from "no logging" to "no clear cut logging". He knew that we must cut trees, but also knew that modern industrial methods of clear cut, burn, and run were not the responsible way to go - big industry gets the profits, and communities are left to deal with the environmental wasteland left behind.


Another campaign that Wilkinson was involved in was for the preservation of the old growth wonder, Cathedral Grove, outside of Port Alberni. This grove of ancient Douglas-fir draws one million visitors per year from all over the globe. It contains trees over 800 years old, and 9 meters in circumference, and is now managed by the The Land Concervancy. 


Merv Wilkinson's life work is proof that our government is going about managing our forests in a very damaging manner. He showed us that there is an alternative to big business and clear cuts. His land is the proof. Even after the continuous selective logging of 2 million board feet of lumber, the Wildwood remains a complete forest with many large old growth trees still standing.

Merv's is an alternative that supplies us with the lumber we need without destroying the forest and everything that lives there in the process. May he, and the old style corporate clear cut forestry that he rebelled against, rest in peace.


Where is Wildwood?