Shocking photos and drone footage reveal the destruction of rare, big-tree old-growth forests on northern Vancouver Island in Quatsino Sound, highlighting the urgent need for dedicated funding to enable both temporary logging deferrals and permanent, Indigenous-led protected areas initiatives.
• Read our full media release here: www.ancientfor...
• SPEAK UP! Send an instant message to the BC government calling for funding to protect old-growth forests here: ancientforesta...
Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) members TJ Watt and Ian Thomas came across the fallen remains of a grove of enormous western redcedars - some measuring upwards of 10 feet (3 metres) wide, on a field expedition in 2022. The 25-hectare old-growth cutblock, an area equivalent to over 50 football fields, is located on public lands in Tree Farm Licence 6, which is held by logging company Western Forest Products in Quatsino territory.
We were floored by the sheer number of monumental redcedars cut down - the most shocking example of industrial old-growth logging we've witnessed since the logging in the Caycuse and Nahmint Valleys.
Despite being home to scores of giant trees, this particular grove - and likely hundreds of others - was not included in the BC government's independent science panel, the Technical Advisory Panel’s (TAP) original logging deferral recommendations due to the forest being incorrectly labeled as 210 years old in the province’s forest inventory database (40 years younger than the province’s 250-year-old threshold for being considered old-growth on the coast).
The TAP made clear recommendations to the BC government that on-the-ground assessments should be used to identify and defer big-tree old-growth forests that were missed in their preliminary analysis. So far, that has not been happening.
Citizens and scientists should be able to submit the locations of old-growth forests that have been missed and forest companies should also be obligated to field-verify planned cutblocks against the TAP deferral criteria as well.
The BC government has committed to protect 30% of BC's land area by 2030, to develop a conservation financing mechanism to support Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas by the end of June, and to target protection for the most biodiverse areas - major commitments that the Ancient Forest Alliance commends. However, missing still is the immediate funding to facilitate deferrals among First Nations, provincial funding for conservation financing (not just a commitment to seek philanthropic funds), and ecosystem-based protected areas targets that include forest productivity distinctions.
This series of images and video is part of work Watt has created with support from the Trebek Initiative, a grantmaking partnership between the National Geographic Society and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society that supports emerging Canadian explorers, scientists, photographers, geographers, and educators with a goal of using storytelling to ignite “a passion to preserve” in all Canadians. Watt was among the first round of grant recipients in 2021 and was named a National Geographic Explorer and Royal Canadian Geographical Society Explorer.
Негізгі бет Grove of Giant Cedars Clearcut on Northern Vancouver Island
Пікірлер: 24