Three years ago, the BC government responded to the pressure you and I have built over decades and ordered a review of this province’s broken forest policies. That review culminated in an independent expert report, A New Future for Old Forests, released in September 2020. The report is clear: BC’s current status quo is unsustainable and a full paradigm shift in the way forests are managed is needed — key messages of the Wilderness Committee.
This report represents a race against time. We need to hit pause on logging while we work on a plan to ensure permanent protection for BC's remaining old growth forests. It’s time to reimagine our relationship with forests and commit to understanding and treating them as complex ecosystems with hundreds of important values, not just sources of profit.
Industry and government push back on calls for old-growth protection and say conservation must be balanced with economic needs. In reality, the chance to achieve this balance passed decades ago. The majority of old-growth has been clear-cut, logging companies have trampled Indigenous rights time after time, and several forest-dependent species like the marbled murrelet and southern mountain caribou have been pushed to the brink of extinction.
What’s needed is fundamental change to the way the government approaches forests. We have a plan to ensure they do.
Will you consider a donation today to ensure we protect remaining forest ecosystems before it’s too late?
Here's my gift for Ancient Forests
The time of talking about protecting old-growth is over — actually doing it is the only thing that’s acceptable now.
What will we do?
The BC government’s old-growth review has proposed a 36-month strategy paradigm shift in management with 14 recommendations and a series of actions. That time period expires in September 2023. The Wilderness Committee will work in lockstep during this period to engage and mobilize the public to ensure the government not only implements the panel’s recommendations, but initiates the paradigm shift required for these ancient forest ecosystems to survive.
Over the past three years the Wilderness Committee has been working constantly to escalate public pressure and policy demands to:
- Highlight what’s at stake: mapping and on-the-ground photo and video documentation.
- Support First Nations and communities: amplifying Indigenous voices.
- Mobilize: letter writing, calls to legislators and other actions.
- Show the connection between habitats and species: spotted owls, marbled murrelets, southern mountain caribou urgently need permanent protection where they live.
- Speak truth to the government: no more plans and no more talk while ancient trees vanish forever.
How much will it cost?
The Wilderness Committee is truly people powered — funded nearly 100% by individual donors like you and I. From events and rallies, community meetings, and door-to-door canvassing, we engage tens of thousands of people at a grassroots level each year on critical environmental issues facing us all and supporters give what they can, when they can.
Three years ago we estimated it would cost $600,000 to do what we need to do. You stepped up and made sure the Fund for Ancient Forests had the resources we needed. Thank you! Your support allows us to be bolder, more creative and more effective at getting remaining old-growth forests protected before they vanish forever.
Due to the interest of some new donors, we increased our goal and our plan. We have an estimated budget of $1,000,000 for the Fund to continue through to 2024 — a pivotal time for old-growth in BC as the provincial government enters an election year. They have a responsibility to protect the remaining old-growth once and for all. And we won't let them forget it.
So far, we've raised more than $700,000 — key donors stepped up with initial donations and many others joined them with gift commitments — we're less than $300,000 away from our new goal! Your gift matters. Your contribution today sustains our work so we can meet the challenges ahead. Any gift received beyond our goal we'll allocate to our forest work.
Will you join us in investing in the Wilderness Committee's Fund for Ancient Forests today?
Here's my gift for Ancient Forests
Thank you for considering making a gift. With your help, we can carry on our accountable, grassroots tradition of action for the ancient forests in British Columbia and across Canada.
