VICTORIA, BC

Today, members of Friends of Carmanah/Walbran, many involved in protests in the early 90s and current volunteer efforts to provide recreational access to the unprotected old-growth rainforests along the borders of Carmanah/Walbran Provincial Park, will be joining in solidarity with the Wilderness Committee on the Legislature grounds at 10 am, for a presentation of thousands of postcards signed by citizens calling for the protection of the Central Walbran Ancient Forest, the Walbran Valley’s 485 hectare area of endangered temperate rainforest, imminently threatened by Teal Jones logging.

For months, volunteers of the Friends of Carmanah/Walbran (FOCW) have been working on providing safe public trail access into one of Canada’s most ecologically significant and threatened old-growth forests, an area left out of the Carmanah/Walbran Provincial Park, when it was created in 1995.

“Friends of Carmanah Walbran are doing the job that should be done by
government, in providing public trail access to a provincial park and in seeking the protection of a rare and non-renewable natural resource that should have been protected when the park was established. We expect the Ministry to step up and extend protection to this irreplaceable natural wonder,” said group spokesperson Erika Heyrman.

FOCW has recently established a Witness Camp in the popular wilderness
recreation area of the Walbran Valley. Volunteers have constructed outhouses, a kitchen shelter with sink and cooking facilities and a communal seating area for people to camp comfortably in all weather. For members of the public who wish to witness the beauty of the forest at risk, the camp provides wilderness camping facilities and weekly guided hikes of the area slated to be heli-logged.

The group has emphasized that opposition to logging in the Black Diamond
Grove is the first stage in a broader campaign to oppose all logging plans for the pristine old growth area. Eight cutblocks in total are being proposed, with 4424 being the first to attain permit. Included in the Teal Jones logging plan for the area are proposals for further road-building and clearcut logging close to the fabled Castle Grove, arguably Canada’s most spectacular remaining old-growth cedar forest.

“To destroy a rare, world-class ecological heritage for short-term profit is pure folly. The industry must transition immediately to renew itself on the second growth wood-base and leave these last jewels of wild nature alone,” said Bobby Arbess, FOCW campaigner.

FOCW cites the significance these last remnants of old-growth rainforest play in stimulating the tourism industry on Vancouver Island, providing economic spinoffs for small rural communities like Cowichan Lake, Honeymoon Bay, Jordan River and Port Renfrew.

“Every time someone travels through one of these small towns en route to the Walbran valley and stops for a bite at a local restaurant, that is an example of the truly sustainable old-growth forest economy. This explains the noticeable shift in support for the Walbran that we have seen in these towns compared to two decades ago” added Arbess.

“I have seen first-hand the economic benefits of Tall Trees Tourism in my
community. People travel from all over the world to come here. The logging of thousand year old trees is not a sustainable economy and has little benefit locally once they are cut. They are worth so much more standing,” said Jon Cash of Port Renfrew.

Friends of Carmanah/Walbran
Press contacts:

Erika Heyrman, Campaign co-ordinator-
(250) 686-1924

Jon Cash
Old-Growth Forest Tourism Co-ordinator
(250) 886-3723

Hey, friends, here’s a wonderful video that TJ Watt put together (and this is in high definition too; use your full screen for this one!).  Well done, TJ!  It’s unfortunate the ending is such a downer, I hope together we can re-write that..

We are setting up a Witness Camp in Walbran Valley to establish a permanent presence in the valley and monitor the logging situation.  This requires a strong volunteer effort both in Walbran valley and at home.

If you are interested in volunteering with Friends of Carmanah & Walbran, please fill out our volunteer form.  If you have already contacted us regarding participation, we will be contacting you shortly.

As I’m sure you have heard CUTBLOCK 4424 HAS BEEN APPROVED IN WALBRAN VALLEY BY THE BC GOVERNMENT. This is not all together surprising, but still profoundly disapointing.

Thank you so much to everybody who has replied with offers
to volunteer in various capacities. We are overwhelmed with all the generous offers and are sorting through them now.

We will be meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23rd at 7:00 pm, 1241 Balmoral Rd. Community Room​ ​to discuss our presence in the Walbran.​

Permanent Presence in Walbran

On September 26th, Friends of Carmanah/ Walbran will establish a continuous presence at a community witness camp in the Central Walbran valley in response to the recent BC government approval of Teal Jones’ logging permits for cutblock 4424 in the Central Walbran Valley ancient forest, given despite enormous public pressure to halt logging in the ecologically significant heart of the Walbran valley watershed.

Cutblock 4424 is located 1 km away from the Castle Giant, Canada’s oldest Western redcedar, in a highly contentious area of ancient trees, with outstanding biodiversity, recreational and old- growth forest values, omitted from Carmannah/ Walbran Provincial Park in 1995, due to it’s high volumes of ancient redcedar, sold on the U.S shake and shingle market, under company claims of “sustainable” harvesting practises.

The Walbran Valley Witness Camp, established near the bridge over Walbran river, will act as a public gathering location from which to monitor logging activities in the area, carry out scientific research and as a haven for concerned citizens who wish to work together to protest further old- growth logging and assert their democratic rights to defend this rare and irreplaceable ancient forest, in Pacheedaht traditional territory, from further industrial destruction.

The Friends of Carmanah/ Walbran support the rights of individual citizens to exercise their freedom of conscience and to peacefully engage in acts of non- violent civil disobedience.

A code of conduct, guiding activities of camp participants, encourages peacefulness, respectful and co- operative self- discipline in an environment free of racist, sexist or queer and transphobic behaviour; and eschews the use of all forms of property damage and tree- spiking as a means to halt logging operations.

Concerned citizens, with time in their schedules and a commitment to peaceful actions ( both lawful and those risking arrest) are invited to participate in this camp in the magnificient Walbran valley rainforest. Camp duties include cooking, cleaning, fire-making, building shelters, trail work. meetings and offering transportation and various forms of support to those choosing to participate in arrestable protest. Individuals and/ or affinity groups are encouraged to come self- sufficient in food, tents and camping gear required for a safe stay in a rainforest wilderness environment and to self-organize their own action plans in defense of the rainforest.

Please let us know if and when you could join the Friends of Carmanah/Walbran Witness Camp. We view the on-going destruction of native ecosystems as a continuation of the process of colonization we seek to end, in favour of a society in balance with the natural world and a truly sustainable future for all. Together, we can protect this amazing world-class heritage. For climate justice, for biodiversity, for clean air and water, for a healthy intact ancient forest web of life, join the Walbran Valley Witness Camp!!!!

Donations

We are gratefully receiving cash (https://www.gofundme.com/savewalbran) or material donations to adequately supply our Witness Camp in the Walbran Valley and ensure the comfort of long-term protectors (Please message me for drop-off location).

Our needs, specifically, are:
-Satellite phone
-Small camping trailer
-“Carport”/ pop-up tents
-Large tarps and rope
-Rock climbing gear ( Ropes, carabiners, jumars, bosun seats)
-Non-perishable food items
-Dry clothes
-Rain gear
-Dry Firewood
-First aid supplies
-Cook stoves
-Building materials

Thank you so much for everybody who has already contributed to our cause. Our deepest gratitude.

​Call for Volunteer

Seeking:

-Reliable, able-bodied and emotionally stable individual(s) to help establish a continuous presence at a wilderness-based witness camp in a contentious area of the Walbran valley.
-Must have solid backcountry camping, campcraft, social and leadership skills, ability to communicate effectively in groups, work in a team, facilitate meetings and deal confidently with conflict situations.
-Must possess the ability to enjoy being in a wilderness environment for extended periods of time.
-Must have their own vehicle.
-Will be supplied with room and board in the form of food support, dry wilderness lodging , video camera and satellite phone and communicate and report regularly to support people outside of the valley.

All interested applicants please respond ASAP​.​

​Thank you to everybody who has responded, written letters, donated, and visited the Walbran.​ We appreciate your dedication and love for this beautiful, threatened forest. Please keep spreading the word on social media and face-to-face, with your friends, co-workers, and loved ones.

The BC Government has made the devastating decision to approve logging plans in Walbran Valley. Please see details from Wilderness Committee press release:

https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/victoria/press_release/bc_government_approves_logging_central_walbran_valley

One of BC’s premiere labour and civil rights lawyers, Leo McGrady, provided an information session detailing your rights in a variety of protest situations, the laws around civil disobedience in B.C. and how to prepare for a potentially arrestable situation.

Mr.McGrady has ten years experience giving these workshops and has recently traveled by request to give workshops in First Nations and northern communities in the right of way of the proposed Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines.

This event was co-sponsored by the Friends of Carmanah/Walbran and Anarchist Bookfair.

Here is a primer prepared by Leo McGrady, QC, for the workshop this Sunday: GUIDE_FOCW Workshop (Sept 13, 2015)

For many travelling to Walbran this Saturday, it is your first time to this valley, perhaps even your first time to ancient forest wilderness of such an expanse that you can walk into it for a whole day without emerging out the other side.  You will spend much of your journey getting there passing industrial logging operations until finally arriving at Walbran, a shocking contrast.  Try to imagine, on the way home, what you would have seen in relatively recent years when those valleys were entirely ancient forest.

Here are a couple of quotations I found very thought-provoking and inspiring:

Hear the roaring vastness of a great valley, or the sigh of wind in the treetops, or the eternal thunder of breakers on the shore. Then go back and speak to the world from your heart.  Randy Stoltmann (1962-1994), Written by the Wind

…what the forest industry calls a forest is not a forest at all.  It is simply an illusion that a grotesquely simplified collection of commercially useful tress planted like a field of tomatoes can be regarded as a forest.  There is so much that we don’t know about all the factors that comprise a forest – the soil, water, air, plants, soil microorganisms, insects and so on.  Only nature and time have grown a forest in the fullest sense, and the forest industry’s claims that it can grow high-quality trees as crops with “rotation cycles” of seventy or eighty years are either fantastic hallucinations or deliberate deceptions.  David Suzuki, Rainforest, Ancient Realm of the Pacific Northwest

It’s beginning to look like it will be a very fun day in the Walbran Valley on August 22nd, and quite a number of people have already signed up to join the expedition.  If you would like to take part in the organized transportation and haven’t already requested to be put onto the list of participants, please let us know; we will be communicating more details back to you all through an email.  You can reach the Friends at friendsofcarmanahwalbran@gmail.com, or use the links on our contact page.  Of course you are very welcome to simply make your own way to the valley on Aug 22nd, but if you can drop us a line to let us know you are doing so, you would be welcome to join us for snacks and all organized activities.  We would also love it if you could participate in the carpool – we are always in need of more drivers.

Thank you to everybody who came out to last night’s community forum at the Fernwood Community Centre!  It was a great success and we were so happy to see so many people passionately opposed to the logging plans in the central Walbran valley.

An immediate action you can take is to write to the government using the Wilderness Committee’s handy letter writing tool.  Tell the BC Premier and MLAs why you are opposed to the logging plans and ask them to deny Teal Jones their logging permit application!