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Cameron Canyon Map

The Wilderness Committee is Canada's largest membership-based citizen-funded wilderness preservation organization. We work for the preservation of Canadian and international wilderness through research and grassroots education. The Wilderness Committee works on the ground to achieve ecologically sustainable communities. We work only through lawful means.

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Press Release
Monday, February 16, 2008 - for immediate release -
City Councillor and Son Narrowly Escape Island Timberlands’ Helicopter Logging Adjacent to Englishman River Provincial Park

Parksville, BC – Parksville City Councillor, Chris Burger, his eight-year old son and two local filmmakers had to run for their lives and dive under logs in the thick waste-high understory of what was once a pristine oldgrowth forest on a small island in the Englishman River upstream of Rathtrevor Provincial Park. On Sunday afternoon an Island Timberlands’ skycrane helicopter suddenly appeared and began removing the massive 300 – 500 year old giant Douglas-fir trees from this tiny island in the Englishman River, where the group had been hiking.

“Councillor Burger, his son and two well-known local filmmakers, Richard Boyce and Phil Carson, were hiking on the island, located approximately 1 km from the provincial park, explains Annette Tanner, Wilderness Committee spokesperson. “They were assessing and documenting the damage to the oldgrowth forest on the island, located in the middle of the Englishman River just a brief 15 minute walk from Englishman River Provincial Park. Over $2 million has been spent on salmon habitat restoration in this officially designated community drinking watershed for the city of Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Nanoose, French Creek and surrounding communities.”

“The island’s oldgrowth Coastal Douglas-fir forest was one of the best examples of the most endangered forest ecosystem in the province,” continues Tanner. “Only 110 hectares of this oldgrowth forest ecosystem type, which occurs along the east coast of Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast, have been protected in the entire province.”

“Past generations of logging companies have respected this rare island ecosystem and surrounding river riparian zone by not harvesting within these buffer zones. Island Timberlands clearly has little or no respect for community values such as community drinking watersheds or fishery habitat protection,” concludes Tanner.

Photo Credit: Scott Tanner – felled 350 year-old Douglas-fir in foreground, standing Douglas-fir, skycrane- ready with undercuts at stump level and felled 500-year old habitat tree in background.

- for more information, photos, or video footage, contact Annette Tanner 250 752-6585 or cell 250 240-7470 –

Boyce was able to capture Island Timberlands’ helicopter logging video footage while trying to escape and can be contacted at Island Bound Media Works, 250 248-3682
To view background video of the Island before Sunday’s helicopter incident, please see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxddTtoXxrs
 

Wilderness Committee, Mid-Island
Box 442, Qualicum Beach, BC, V9K lS9,
ph. 250 752-6585, fax: 250 752-7085 email: wcwcqb@shaw.ca
www.cathedralgrovecanyon.com

2700 People Rally in Victoria - click here

Press Release
Thursday, October 23, 2008 - for immediate release –
Cathedral Grove Supporters Head to Ancient Forests and BC Jobs Rally in Victoria this Saturday

Qualicum Beach,  British Columbia – Many Cathedral Grove supporters in several  Mid Island communities will be heading to Victoria for the Ancient Forests and BC Jobs rally this Saturday, after witnessing Island Timberland’s waste and destruction left behind in the Grove during a group hike sponsored by the Wilderness Committee, Mid Island this weekend at Labour Day Lake.

“Beautiful, bountiful and pristine, Labour Day Lake which supplies the Town of Qualicum Beach and other communities with its clean, clear drinking water is also the headwaters of the Cathedral Grove watershed where Island Timberland’s clearcuts surround the lake’s ancient forest with many of its waterfalls and streams flagged with logging tape, explains Annette Tanner,  Wilderness Committee, Mid Island spokesperson. 

“It is time to stop cutting the last of the ancient forest in Cathedral Grove and insist that Island Timberlands clean up their mess and provide local jobs for local communities instead of cutting the ancient trees in Canada’s most famous forest and international tourist destination,” Tanner continues.
 
Saturday’s ralliers will be calling on Premier Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberal government to:
 -         Enact legislated timelines to quickly end old-growth logging on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland (ie. the south coast) where old-growth forests are now scarce.

-         Ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests which now constitute 75% of the productive forests on BC’s south coast.

-         Ban the export of raw, unprocessed logs to foreign countries in order ensure a steady supply of logs for BC’s saw mills and pulp mills.

-         Assist in the retooling and development of second-growth mills and value-added wood processing facilities.
 
Speakers at the rally include BC Opposition leader Carole James of the New Democratic Party (NDP), NDP forestry critic Bob Simpson, BC Green Party leader Dr. Jane Sterk, Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada union (PPWC) forestry officer Arnold Bercov, Hupacasath First Nations Chief Councillor Dr. Judith Sayers, Friends of Clayoquot Sound board member and ForestEthics campaign director Valerie Langer, Sierra Club of BC campaign director Susan Howatt, Alberni-Qualicum Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Scott Fraser, and Wilderness Committee campaigners Annette Tanner and Ken Wu.
 
Recent satellite photos show that about 75% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow and 99% of the old-growth coastal Douglas fir forests on eastern Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. While 13% of Vancouver Island’s land base is protected in parks, this only includes 6% of its original, productive old-growth forests. This is because much of the land in parks include treeless alpine terrain, stunted bog forests along the west coast of the Island, and high altitude snow forests with scrubby trees (ie. marginal or low-productivity old-growth forests with small trees that generally can’t be profitably logged). For maps, photos, and stats visit www.viforest.org
 
Old-growth forests are important for many reasons:  they provide habitat for many species at risk like spotted owls and marbled murrelets that need older forests; they sequester two to three times more atmospheric carbon per hectare than second-growth forests do; they are important parts of many First Nations cultures; and they are fundamental pillars of BC’s multi-billion dollar coastal tourism industry, as millions of tourists visit old-growth forests each year in such places as Cathedral Grove, Clayoquot Sound by Tofino, the West Coast Trail, the Carmanah and Walbran Valleys, Goldstream, Cape Scott, Juan de Fuca Trail, Chilliwack Lake, and the Nootka Trail.
  
The Wilderness Committee (www.wcwcvictoria.org), Canada’s largest membership-based wilderness protection group, is aiming for 3000 participants at their “Rally for Ancient Forests and BC Jobs” this Saturday, October 25 in the provincial capital of Victoria (11:30 am Crowd meets at Centennial Square, then marches to arrive at 12:00 noon at the Legislative Buildings for speeches, 12:45 pm Crowd joins hands and encircles Legislative Buildings several times around).

For more information contact:
Annette Tanner, 250 752-6585, cell 250 240-7470 

PORT ALBERNI -- Island Timberlands has put plans on hold to log 7,500 cubic metres of old-growth forest near the border of Cathedral Grove park.

The forestry firm says, however, there are no guarantees the area won't be harvested in the future.

Protesters concerned about the logging of the old-growth forest threatened to interfere with the harvesting and had held two protests, one at Cathedral Grove park last weekend and another outside the company office in Nanoose.

Protesters representing several groups, including the Friends of Cathedral Grove, announced they would use non-violent means to protest and slow down the harvesting.

Timberlands spokeswoman Makenzie Leine confirmed the planned harvesting of the section of old-growth timber is on hold.

"We are not going to be harvesting it right now, but the area is prepared if we do harvest in the future," Leine said.

She added the decision to hold off on the logging is not related to the protests, but instead is a reaction to market volatility. "We will log some time in the future when the markets improve," Leine said.

Trees that have been felled are only those that needed to be cut to construct a road into the area, she said.

While environmentalists are relieved the harvesting is on hold, they are calling on the provincial government to step in with a firm strategy to protect the old growth forest remaining in the province.

Annette Tanner of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee wants to meet with representatives from Island Timberlands to forward talks with the aim of preserving some of the old growth stands the company owns.

Those opposed to the logging say Cathedral Grove boasts some of the largest trees remaining on Vancouver Island, habitat for Roosevelt elk and other rare species, and that logging in the area leaves trees vulnerable to blowdown and erosion.

Tanner agrees with the sentiments of Alberni/Qualicum MLA Scott Fraser, who recently said the provincial government must step in and enact legislation that protects old growth forest in B.C.

"We are going to wake up when everything's gone and say, 'what happened?' " she said. "It's not unreasonable to ask that companies like Island Timberlands log what they've grown. They are a forest company, they grow trees and they must develop a sustainable practice in which they don't have to cut into old growth."

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008

Press Release
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - for immediate release -
Cathedral Grove Protest Rally in front of Island Timberlands’ offices in Nanoose met with broad public support

Nanoose, BC­Today, citizens rallying to protect Cathedral Grove, one of Canada’s most famous forests came from Victoria, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Parksville, Qualicum Beach and beyond to demand that Island Timberlands cease logging in world famous Cathedral Grove.

“There was a huge upwelling of public support at the rally today, outside Island Timberlands’ Northwest Bay Division in Nanoose,” recounts Annette Tanner, Wilderness Committee, Mid- Island spokesperson. “The honking from the highway was so encouraging. People were waving and offering support. I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised, because we know that most people on Vancouver Island and throughout Canada, and even tourists from around the world assume that a sacred place like Cathedral Grove was preserved long ago, and are shocked and outraged that such a place could be logged.”

“What I want to know is which one of our political leaders has the power and the courage to step up, and do what the citizens of this province and this country so obviously want: preservation of all of Cathedral Grove,” said Tanner.

“The great response that we witnessed at our rally today has given us all renewed energy to fight with the tenacity of a mountain lion defending her cubs, even in the face of Island Timberlands' current push to chainsaw down the giant old-growth trees,” concluded Tanner.

For more information contact Annette Tanner, 250-752-6585, cell 250-240-7470

Photos can be downloaded at http://wildernesscommittee.org
 

Cathedral Grove being logged by Island Timberlands!! Speak up!

Island Timberlands starts to log giant trees in
Cathedral Grove

Wilderness Committee launches public protest rallies

Qualicum Beach, British Columbia This weekend, visitors to Cathedral Grove, Canada’s most famous old-growth forest, will be dismayed to hear the sound of Island Timberlands’ chainsaws cutting down the towering giants in the world famous Grove.

“News that visitors will be able to hear and possibly see Island Timberlands logging just outside MacMillan Provincial Park boundaries this weekend, came as a shock to the community. People have been working to preserve the forests within the Cathedral Grove watershed for over a century,” explained Annette Tanner from the Wilderness Committee’s Mid-Island Chapter.

“MacMillan Park is one of BC’s most beloved and most visited provincial parks,” Tanner continued. “In the past when logging companies like MacMillan Bloedel owned the cutting rights they worked with land trusts and the provincial government to contribute towards expanding the park so that future generations could experience one of the rarest and most accessible old-growth forests left in the world.

“But now that Island Timberlands owns the logging rights to Cathedral Grove, instead of working with the community to improve protection, they are actively cutting down this national treasure. This is a national disgrace,” said Tanner.

“These trees have survived innumerable challenges including the 1997 winter storms which flooded tree roots and undermined these ancient giants until they were blown down by strong seasonal winds blowing through the steep Cameron Valley mountains,” Tanner added. “More logging in the Grove will put more of the park at risk of flooding and ‘blow-down’. The time to stop logging the Cathedral Grove watershed is now.”

There will be two rallies to protect Cathedral Grove:
1) this Sunday, October 5^th at 11 AM in the Cathedral Grove parking lot and
2) this Monday, at 11 AM at the Island Timberlands Nanoose office, at 1420 Island Hwy E., Nanoose Bay, BC Inland Island Highway at the top of the Nanoose Hill.

“We want the Premier of BC to step in and put a stop to this. We want the Prime Minister to step in too, after all this is Canada's most famous forest. We’ll be there to let Island Timberlands know that, with so little old-growth remaining, it is absolutely unacceptable for them to chop down these trees that are hundreds of years old simply for short-term profit,” Tanner concluded.
 

• Yesterday, logging began by Island Timberlands in Canada's most
  famous old-growth forest, Cathedral Grove, near Port Alberni.
  Millions of tourists from around the world have visited Cathedral
  Grove within the 300 hectare MacMillan Provincial Park while
  driving along the highway on the way to Port Alberni and Tofino.
  However, significant stands of giant Douglas firs and redcedars
  remain outside the park boundaries on lands owned by Island
  Timberlands. Incredibly, the company began greedily logging in
  these unprotected parts of the Grove yesterday and plans to
  continue until it logs 7500 cubic meters - over 200 logging truck
  loads - of old-growth forests in the Grove. The logging will even
  be visible from the highway.
  
  Island Timberlands is a logging company owned by a Bermuda-based
  corporation, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, which was
  created recently by its parent company Brookfield Asset
  Management as an offshore investment firm that would be exempt
  from Canadian taxes and the enforcement of Canadian civil
  judgements.
  
  
  Where is Premier Gordon Campbell in all of this? Where is the
  federal Harper government and the other politicians when it comes
  to logging in the most famous ancient forest in Canada?
  
  Please speak up! Write and phone your opinion to:
  
  Premier Gordon Campbell
  Email: premier@gov.bc.ca
  Phone: 250-387-1715
  
  Prime Minister Stephen Harper
  Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, ONT K1A 0A7
  Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
  Phone: 613-992-4211
  
  Other federal politicians -
  NDP Leader Jack Layton: layton.j@parl.gc.ca
  Green Party Leader Elizabeth May: leader@greenparty.ca
  Liberal Leader Stephan Dion: dion.s@parl.gc.ca
  
  Also let Brookfield Asset Management know what you think about
  their plans at:
  Leigh Tang - Brookfield Timber Portfolio Manager
  Email: ltang@brookfield.com
  Phone: 604-661-9143

The Ministry of Environment
Honourable Barry Penner
PO BOX 9047 STN PROV GOVT
VICTORIA BC V8W 9E2
Telephone: 250 387-1187
Fax: 250 387-1356
E-mail: env.minister@gov.bc.ca

and send us a copy too!

For more information on the campaign contact:
Wilderness Committee, Mid-Island at
wcwcqb@shaw.ca or phone (250)752-6585
Check out http://www.cathedralgrovecanyon.com/ for Times-Colonist and Alberni Valley Times stories.

TODAY ISLAND TIMBERLANDS CUT DOWN TREES IN CATHEDRAL GROVE

While the logging company claims that there is a buffer of 300 metres between the falling area and the internationally renowned park, the reality is that the buffer is actually the Cameron River which meanders along the bottom of the Valley at that point just before flowing into Cameron Lake. This water then flows into the Little Qualicum River which is the source of drinking water for thousands of residents of Whiskey Creek and the Town of Qualicum Beach.

Dear Supporters of Cathedral Grove.

Friends of Cathedral Grove will be coordinating gatherings of those interested in showing there is great concern for an imminent logging program by Island Timberlands in Cathedral Grove. The logging will occur near the boundary of MacMillan Park but still within what is considered the ancient, old-growth forest. Deforestation near the park is changing the hydrology and putting all remaining forest in the valley-bottom at risk. Several organizations have expressed interest in acquiring more of the Cameron River valley, including the Nature Trust of B.C, preferably with the ancient trees intact. Below are two articles for your information, 1 local & 1 International

We seek your support by attending these events. Please bring friends and help show the media that people still care about Cathedral Grove.

--------------------------------------------

Please bring signs with these suggested exhortations

• SAVE OLD GROWTH
• TREE CUTTING = BLOWDOWN
• PROTECT CATHEDRAL GROVE
• PROTECT DRINKING WATER
• DON'T CUT ANCIENT TREES

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND OR WANT TO DO A LITTLE MORE PLEASE CONTACT THE FOLLOWING WITH ANY CONCERNS

Brooksfield Timber Division Leigh Tang Telephone: (604) 661-9143 E-mail:ltang@brookfield.com

Makenzie Leine, Island Timberlands manager of sustainability and community affairs - Telephone: (250) 755-3500 mleine@islandtimberlands.com

Darshan Sihota, Island Timberlands President - Telephone: (250) 755-3531
?Email: dsihota@islandtimberlands.com

Island Timberlands Woodlands Office 5th Floor, 65 Front Street Nanaimo, BC Canada V9R 5H9 Fax: (250) 755-3540

LET THE MEDIA and ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT KNOW YOU WANT LOGGING IN CATHEDRAL GROVE STOPPED NOW!

REMEMBER THIS IS A GLOBAL COMPANY DESTROYING A LOCAL GEM! 

Profitable Island Timberlands to become part of Bermuda-based partnership, a "global, pure-play public issuer"

Timberlands to log near Cathedral Grove - Nature Trust wants to purchase sensitive parcels from company - Julia Caranci, Alberni Valley Times Published: Thursday, October 02, 2008

Timber company to log on border of Cathedral Grove - Victoria Times Colonist.

Press Release
Thursday, June 19, 2008

AVICC Resolution Applauded by WCWC

Cathedral Grove work on trees draws protests
Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Dynamiting and using chainsaws on trees in a provincial park during nesting season is an undertaking that will scare birds at the worst possible time of the year, says the Western Canada Wilderness Committee Mid-Island Chapter.

Next week, the Environment Ministry is planning to treat nine trees in MacMillan Provincial Park that have been assessed as hazardous. Cathedral Grove, with one of the most accessible stands of giant Douglas fir trees on Vancouver Island, is within the park.

Depending on the state of the trees, they could be pruned, topped or cut down and small charges of dynamite are sometimes used for trees that are difficult to reach.

"I can't understand why they would be dynamiting during nesting season," said WCWC spokeswoman Annette Tanner. But Environment Minister Barry Penner said a professional biologist will be on hand to give advice.

Safety is the primary concern, he said. In December 2003, two Alberta residents were killed in Cathedral Grove parking lot when a fir tree toppled under the weight of snow and fell across their car.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008

TAKE ACTION

See Port Alberni Times Article

Ancient giants of an Island canyon face the faller's saw Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun

Published: Monday, December 03, 2007

CAMERON RIVER - The first real winter weather had bedevilled the evening commute with an evil sleet. Overnight, temperatures dropped below freezing.

When I rose before dawn, I had doubts about whether to even try for my meeting with Phil Carson, Scott Tanner and Gary Murdock in the cold shadow of Mount Arrowsmith, the craggy Vancouver Island peak between Nanaimo and Port Alberni.

But some days you just get lucky. The cold front moved through, the thermometer nudged up a couple of degrees, and instead of black ice I found clear, wet roads, a cloudless sky and the molten amber of a stunning sunrise.

Murdock, a retired forestry technician, Tanner, a property manager who spent six years in municipal politics at Qualicum, and Carson, a filmmaker, had invited me to see something unique, a remnant of the primeval forest that once covered the Island.

We left our truck at a pullout on Highway 4 near Summit Lake and started hiking. It was mid-morning and one of those splendid days you never forget. Ghostly pockets of mist hung in the mountain hollows. The snowfields on Arrowsmith glittered in the sunshine. The air was clean and crisp.

The night's fast-moving storm had left about a foot of fluffy white powder on the ground and the trees were laden. Everywhere the forest rippled with the thump of snow clumps tumbling from the canopy, frequently down our necks.

We turned down a disused logging road, then on to an even less-used spur, following it uphill for a couple of kilometres, then down again until it petered out in the underbrush. Now we continued by easing our way over deadfalls and through tangles of salal.

The trail stopped abruptly. Before us was a precipice. In the slippery conditions, I stayed well back from the edge but I got close enough to look into the abyss. Far below, maybe the height of a 50-storey building down, I glimpsed the icy river roaring among a grove of immense trees.

"That's it," Tanner said. "Cameron River Canyon. Old growth doesn't get any older than that. This is about as pristine as pristine can be."

Then he turned to follow Murdock through a notch in the rock and down a narrow, barely defined path. Footing was treacherous but I managed to traverse the slopes hanging onto saplings and exposed roots.

After half an hour the path brought us back to the cliff face. We worked our way aslant down the steeply inclined piles of mossy rubble, past cave openings and undercuts until we came to one of the wonders we were looking for.

A massive western yew, its ancient, slow-growing trunk bigger around than my arm span, twisted away from the cliff. I pushed on to where the river raced past.

Here some of the biggest red cedars and Douglas fir I've seen soared up toward the thin ribbon of sky. They were huge, magnificent, probably 800, perhaps 1,000 years old.

 Imagine that, trees already growing when Ethelred the Unready was king of England. I paused and listened to the wind shaking snow from the branches, the white noise of the river strangely muffled by the forest.

Then my three guides showed me the blue paint, the fluorescent pink marking tape. Incredibly, all these trees are marked for cutting, some within a stride of the river's edge.

"This remnant of the old forest survived because they couldn't get the timber out if they cut it," Murdock told me. "Not any more. These are all planned for helicopter logging."

Each one of these trees, its life measured in close to a millennium, perhaps more, might make an hour's work for some logger's chainsaw.

Nope. It ain't right.

This shoot the last elephant, harpoon the last whale, cut the last big tree insanity has got to stop.

This bit of ancient forest doesn't need to be turned into more toilet paper and two-by-fours. Somebody get on the phone to our premier. Tell him we want it saved.

Make the Cameron River Canyon part of Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park, which is right next door.

Preservation sought for canyon

By Fred Davies - Parksville Qualicum Beach News - December 14, 2007

Efforts to prevent logging in an area containing some of the last remaining old growth forest on east Vancouver Island has received a boost in wake of a recent Vancouver newspaper article.

Annette Tanner, mid-island representative for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, said the Dec. 3 article written by environmentalist and journalist Stephen Hume after a hike into Cameron Canyon near Cathedral Grove, has galvanized support for the area. Concerned comments, she said, have been coming in from as far away as France.

The News first published an article regarding the possible plight of the ancient old growth stand more than a year ago. Today, telltale markings indicating trees selected for heli-logging remain — hopefully, said Tanner, those plans can change.

“Now it’s in the public eye,” she said of a roughly 3.5 hectare riverbank area that forms a portion of the watershed serving residents of the Qualicum Beach/Dashwood area. “The government has read the article, let’s put it that way.”

A website with photos and a transcript of Hume’s story can be found at www.cameroncanyon.com

Tanner said she plans to invite provincial environment Minster Barry Penner to the site and added she’s garnered interest on the issue from politicians at the Regional District of Nanaimo as well.

“We believe this, some of the last of what’s left of our ancient forests, should be protected and part of Cathedral Grove,” said Tanner.