British Columbia, Canada is home to some of the Earth's most spectacular, ancient temperate forests, including the world's largest Douglas fir tree (the Red Creek Fir) and second-largest western red cedar tree (the Cheewhat Cedar).
These old-growth forests are diverse: from wet rainforests with towering, mossy Sitka spruce trees and gnarly red cedars with trunks wider than a car's length; to dry forests with contorted Garry oak and arbutus trees and massive Douglas firs; to high elevation, slow-growing yellow cedars and mountain hemlocks covered in beard lichens.
These ancient forests provide essential habitat for endangered wildlife such as the spotted owl and marbled murrelet.
The Wilderness Committee is calling on the BC government to protect the ancient forests of BC by immediately banning logging in the most endangered old-growth forest types and phasing-out old-growth logging from the rest by 2015. Second-growth forests should be logged at a slower, more sustainable rate.
Other jurisdictions, including New Zealand, have banned old-growth logging in recent years. BC can feasibly do the same as most of the richest valley bottom forests (where logging is most profitable) have already been converted into second growth forests where logging can occur at a reduced pace, while freeing-up the remaining ancient forests for protection.
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More about protecting the forests spotted owls need to survive
