The Walbran Valley's Castle Grove - Canada's Finest Old-Growth Cedar Forest
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The endangered Castle Grove is the finest stand of unprotected monumental ancient redcedars in Canada - it is the largest, densest, and most intact of such remaining stands. The Lower Castle Grove includes the Castle Giant, an enormous, 16 foot (5 meter) diameter western redcedar that is one of the largest trees in Canada, and both the Lower and Upper Castle Grove are jam-packed with a high density of enormous trees. Marbled murrelets, screech owls, Queen Charlotte goshawks, red- legged frogs, cougars, black bears, and black-tailed deer all live in the Upper Castle Grove, while steelhead and coho salmon spawn in the Walbran River below. Most of western Vancouver Island including the Walbran Valley is within the territory of the Nuu-cha-nulth First Nations people.
In the summer of 2012 survey tape for logging was discovered in the Upper Castle Grove. However, after a large-scale public awareness and mobilization campaign led by the Ancient Forest Alliance, the BC government announced in November that the company, Teal-Jones, had rescinded its plans to log the grove. Now, follow-up legal protection is needed for this incredible forest.
The Castle Grove has been featured in numerous media reports on BC's old-growth forests for over two decades, including the front pages of the Victoria Times Colonist and in the Vancouver Sun. The Walbran Valley was the focus of early protests against old-growth logging in 1991 and 1992, playing an important role in the build-up towards the massive Clayoquot Sound protests near Tofino on Vancouver Island in 1993.
In the spring of 2011, the BC Liberal government promised to implement a new legal tool to protect the province's largest trees and monumental groves. Of all places where such a designation would make most sense, it would be in the Castle Grove. However, more importantly, more comprehensive ecosystem-level protection for our old-growth forests on a much larger scale is fundamentally needed. The Ancient Forest Alliance is calling on the BC Liberal government and the NDP Opposition to commit to implementing a BC Old-Growth Strategy that will inventory and protect old-growth forests wherever they are scarce (such as on Vancouver Island, in the Lower Mainland, in the BC Interior, etc.). The AFA is also calling on the BC Liberal government to ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which constitute most of the forests in southern BC, and to ensure a guaranteed log supply for BC mills and value-added wood manufacturers by ending the export of raw logs to foreign mills.
Filmed and edited by TJ Watt. Camera - Canon 5D MKII.
Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw (
carmanah valley
this is the north entrance to carmanah walbran provincial park. i am pretty sure we were on the right road, but it was really over grown.
CARMANAH VALLEY ,OLD GROWTH FOREST HIKE
THE CARMANAH VALLEY WAS SAVED FROM LOGGING IN THE 1990'S , THANK GOODNESS , YOU TOO CAN MAKE CHANGE .. FOLLOW YER HEART , JOIN US AS WE HIKE THROW THIS DIVERSE RAIN FOREST
Camping in the Carmanah Valley
Join Sheena and her friend Janine as they explore the beautiful and remote Carmanah Valley on Vancouver Island. This camping and hiking adventure required courage and determination. The rough logging road was well worth the effort to see some of the most beautiful old growth temperate rainforest in the world.
Check out Sheena's book on hiking on Salt Spring Island: for more fun and adventure.
The Troubled Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island | Protect Old-Growth Rain-Forests
This video was filmed on the traditional unceded nuu-Chah-Nulth territories of the Pacheedaht First nation whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
Take action to protect the Walbran Valley by writing to Premier John Horgan.
Further readings and some of the resources used to create this video.
Thanks for caring.
Walbran Valley Update
The Ancient Forest Alliance is raising awareness about the old growth forest on Vancouver Island. This story focuses on the Walbran Valley which is still in need of protection for the ancient trees, species at risk and pristine water.
Carmanah Valley Hiking Trip - Outdoor Adventures
The hiking trip to Carmaneh Valley Provincial Park by the Outdoor Adventure group at Pearson College UWC January 18th, 2014. Carmaneh Valley is an ancient rain forest on Vancouver Island with some trees as tall as 90m and over 1000 years old.
CHEK News - The Fight For Our Ancient Forests, BC Parks, and the Carmanah Valley
May, 18th, 2011 - Local news station CHEK TV's Island 30 featured environmentalist Vicky Husband and Ancient Forest Alliance's Ken Wu speaking on the state of BC's parks during their 100 year anniversary.
The story focuses on the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park and highlights the need to increase parks funding and maintenence in these spectacular places as well as the need to expand protected areas to include the remaining endangered old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and southern BC and shift instead to logging second-growth forests sustainably.
Carmanah Walbran Ancient Forest
A hike through ancient rainforest on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. For personal guided tours through Vancouver Islands largest and oldest trees, contact
carmanah
west coast trail
walking through carmanah valley
Carmanah Lightstation 1
Carmanah Lightstation, West Coast of Vancouver Island
Carmanah beach on WCT, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
beach at carmanah on the west coast trail, bc
2015 07 21 Saving the Central Walbran Valley
The Wilderness Committee's Torrance Coste explains how logging company Teal Jones has plans to cut down some of Earth's most spectacular ancient forests in the Central Walbran Valley on southwest Vancouver Island -- and he issues a call to action to help save the Walbran!.
Carmanah pano on WCT, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
view from carmanah lighthouse on the west coast trail, bc
Hike and lunch in Carmanah
Me, Jeff and Kevin went on an adventure
Searching for the tallest tree in Canada
We take a day trip from Victoria BC to travel to the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park, Vancouver Island BC, to search for the tallest tree tree in Canada aka: the Carmanah giant
music:
* Solar Flares - Silent Partner
* Johnny Rock - Flare
* Elevator music No copyright -
* Sad Piano Music - Isolation by Lucas King
Carmanah Valley, 2017
I created this video with the YouTube Video Editor (
Searching for the tallest tree in Canada Part 2
We documented another attempt to reach the Carmanah Giant which is the tallest tree in Canada and the tallest Sitka Spruce in the world at 95+ meters high. Located at the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park on the Pacific West Coast of Vancouver Island. We have found it to be an extremely difficult hike.
Save the Central Walbran Valley! (Drone Footage) - Canada's Grandest Ancient Forest at Risk
Send a message to the BC government at
To learn more, please see our media release here:
Video & editing by TJ Watt: DJI Phantom 2 w/ H3-3D gimbal and GoPro Hero 4 Black. Canon 5D MKII for ground shots.
Music courtesy of: Gidge - Fauna, pt 1
Ancient Forest Alliance
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Conservationists are employing a new tool in the battle to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests – remotely-piloted drones. The Ancient Forest Alliance is using a small drone equipped with a GoPro camera to monitor and document the endangered old-growth forests of the Central Walbran Valley on Vancouver Island. This has allowed the organization to capture aerial video footage of old-growth forests threatened by logging on steep, rugged terrain that otherwise would take hours to hike to. Helicopter-based logging, or heli-logging, is expected for several of the eight proposed cutblocks in the Central Walbran Valley, including the first approved Cutblock 4424 (approved last Friday by the BC Forest Service), due to the difficulty of road access in the mountains.