Our last big old-growth trees
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- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
Sign the petition to put pressure on the politicians who can save these trees.
While British Columbia's government says that “old forests” still fill out the province's landscape, less than 1% of BC forests still have big, old-growth trees. The majority of BC's old-growth forests are still open to logging, and don’t recover once they're chopped down.
The good news is, right now there’s a critical opportunity to pressure decision makers where it matters – in some of the last old-growth ecosystems on the planet.
With the BC election quickly approaching, we need concerned people across the country to add their names to the petition asking the next government to immediately ban logging in the most at-risk old-growth forests.
SIGN NOW
A recent government announcement claimed that a large swath of BC forests are being deferred from logging. This sounds nice on paper, but in reality, these deferrals encompassed second-growth and areas already off limits to logging – only a tiny fraction of at risk old-growth... forests were included.
This is not good enough. BC’s own independent panel recently recommended that the government take immediate action to ban logging in the most endangered old-growth forests, so why are they misleading us? We’re also calling on the BC government to fully involve and work with Indigenous Nations to implement forest use policies on their territories – and in the longer term, restore land to the rightful title holders.
To protect the last standing giants, it’s literally now or never. Without immediate changes, most of the productive old-growth forests could be gone in the next few years, giving the next provincial government a narrow window to change course for these forests. And it’s clear that to combat climate change, every old tree is worth saving.
Next week we’ll be delivering this petition to politicians. To prove just how important this issue is, it’s critical we have thousands of signatures from coast to coast to coast.
Working towards large-scale protection of majestic forested areas is just the work Stand.earth was created to take on. We were founded more than 20 years ago as ForestEthics out of a collective passion to safeguard irreplaceable old-growth forests. Since then, the Stand.earth community has protected millions of acres from logging in the Great Bear Rainforest, Northern Boreal forest and Chile. Together, I know we can do it again.
Our team is fewer than 50 people, but this community is more than 430,000 people strong and growing. With this much people power, I’m confident that we can protect these trees which are a part of so many people’s identity in the Pacific Northwest, and the lifeblood of our global climate.
Thank you for taking a stand for these ancient forests,
Tegan Hansen
Forest Campaigner
Stand.earth
Stand.earth challenges corporations, industries, and governments to prioritize the well-being of people, our environment, and our climate by creating long-term, effective solutions. None of this work is possible without your support. DONATE $5 San Francisco office: 650 California Street, 7th Floor, San Francisco CA 94108 On traditional Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone Lands
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