Ancient Forest Alliance Hike to Avatar Grove, March 27, 2011

Last Sunday I joined a hike to Avatar Grove to see some of the last old-growth trees on Southern Vancouver Island. The 2 hectare stand of old-growth was found by T.J. Watt and a friend and is located in an active logging area. The stand is quite accessible from a logging road just 20 mins. from Port Renfrew. Juan de Fuca Provincial Marine Park is located at the other end of town. (For an awesome HD video of the Avatar Grove with T.J. check out: http://vimeo.com/20910822)

The hike was attended by over 30 people and hosted by T.J., who is part of the Ancient Forest Alliance, www.ancientforestalliance.orga non-profit set up to lobby government to protect the last remaining old-growth stands, and to promote sustainable forestry.

The hike itself is "off-trail" as AFA doesn't have permission to build trails in an active logging area, but the landscape is spectacular. We were lucky that the sun appeared for most of the time.

The old-growth trees are mostly cedars, which were left by previous logging operations as it was not a commercially viable species to cut down last time the forest was clearcut.

There are a few old-growth Douglas Fir left amongst the Western Hemlock that has grown up since logging took place. (We live in Coastal Western Hemlock and Coastal Douglas Fir Biogeoclimatic Zones).

However, as soon as Western Hemlock and Cedar become commercially profitable to harvest, there is a good possibility that these magnificent trees will be gone for good.

Help to save these trees by signing the petition on the Ancient Forest Alliance website!