Direct Action for the last Ancient Rainforests
Donation protected
You are supporting the efforts to protect some the world’s last ancient rainforests! Thank you!
This is a volunteer driven, grassroots, direct-action movement to protect the last remaining ancient temperate rainforests on Vancouver Island. We’re committed to keeping our eyes on as many stands of intact old growth as we can, to challenge the outdated and irresponsible forestry practices that must be immediately changed and to halt the destruction of these globally important forests.
We’re currently supporting efforts on unceded Pacheedaht territory, holding down blockade positions on logging roads where there is active road building or that access approved and impending clearcuts.
One camp leads into the unlogged Fairy Creek watershed, the last intact watershed in the San Juan river system, others are in surrounding areas where road building and clearcutting of ancient rainforest is quickly pushing ahead.
We call for an immediate moratorium on ALL destruction of old growth forests now and forever and for a viable transition to an ecologically and economically responsible forest economy.
Old-Growth forests are almost gone!
Due to decades of British Columbia government policies along with logging companies’ unwillingness to alter their practices of irresponsible clearcut logging, old-growth forests including the extreme biodiversity that they house, face near-total eradication. These forest ecosystems hold stands of trees that are 100’s of years old and they CAN NOT regenerate.
EVERY DAY, on Vancouver Island alone, 32 soccer fields (~ 85 acres) of old-growth temperate rainforest – representing the last 1% of these rare, irreplaceable and internationally significant forests – are logged.
In a downward spiraling climate and biodiversity crisis, which threatens the future of all life on Earth, this situation calls for widespread and immediate change.
We are organized by 100% volunteer labor and spontaneous, community-driven mobilization
We seek mutually respectful alliances between Indigenous and non-Indigenous forest defenders to protect lands which have never been ceded or surrendered. Sovereign Nations have stewarded this land since time immemorial but much of this land has been destroyed by generations of colonial/capitalist resource exploitation and abuse.
Your help is needed!
While camps and blockades are currently operating as enclosed units, locked down in accordance with COVID-19 protocols, these folks need support and will be welcoming tourists and visitors again when it is safe to do so.
In addition to this GoFundMe, donations of material objects are welcomed, there is running list of needs at hand - send us a message if you feel like helping in that way.
Every contribution helps to ensure our frontline forest defenders are looked after. Donations are directed towards a wide range of uses including outfitting camps with accommodations to stay warm and dry and with supplies to stay safe and able to communicate with the outside world, for transportation, and for various other initiatives such as promotional material.
With your support, we have and will continue to build on:
Base Camp -
Maintaining a safe base camp that can act as a visitors’ centre when it is safe to travel again. Base camp operates under a strict COVID-19 safety plan and has:
- a furnished elder’s tent, to support visits from First Nations elders (when it is safe to do so)
- state of the art satellite communications technology that enable activists to be safe and to information to media and supporters in real time
Eyes on the old growth -
We’re able to maintain active tabs on as many impending clearcuts and road building projects as we can manage. Using real time satellite imagery and by accessing publicly available resources we’re keeping our eyes on the old growth. We actively encourage that forestry work happen only outside of ancient forest ecosystems in areas where 2nd or 3rd growth timber can be harvested.
Additional camps -
We’re able to mobilize safely and quickly in order to put an immediate halt to active destruction of old growth.
Also -
We have a legal team to challenge a potential court injunction that would have forest protectors arrested. With your donations we’re actively building a legal fund that we hope to never use. If we succeed in halting these outdated practices we will pass our legal fund on to another worthy cause.
We're also planning for the future, our goal with this fundraiser is to not only maintain monthly operations but also to ensure we can continue and expand.
Budget:
Your donations are being managed with a high degree of fiscal responsibility. We keep a few months of operating costs set aside in the event that they are needed and we're now putting aside 70% of all donations towards a legal defense fund, just in case it is needed.
Chronology of Events - the 1st month (expanded chronology is in each update)
- August 1: Discovery of Stone Pacific (subcontractor to Teal Jones) road construction cresting the ridge into the unlogged Fairy Creek watershed.
- August 9: Grassroots activists from across Vancouver Island meet at Lizard Lake. To prevent the cutting, bulldozing and blasting activity into Fairy Creek headwater planned for the very next day, they decide to mount an emergency logging road blockade. This is set up at the end of Reid Mainline, on a high ridge on the western side of Fairy Creek. Notice is sent to Pacheedhat First Nation Chief and Council and Elder Bill Jones of primarily settler-activist intentions to block road-building operations on their unceded territory.
- August 10: Ridge Camp blockade turns away Stone Pacific road and falling crews. A call-out goes to the public to join the camp and defend against logging road construction
into this last unlogged watershed in the San Juan River system.
- August 17: A second blockade is established at another road access point into Fairy Creek, at River Camp, along Granite Mainline in the Renfrew Creek watershed, on the east side of Fairy Creek.
- August 24th: A temporary, pop-up blockade is set up on Truck Road 11. It is aimed at halting road-building and logging of old-growth forests on Edinburgh Mountain, across from Fairy Creek in the San Juan river basin.
- August 31: Ridge Camp blockade is moved 7kms down the road to a new blockade location. This one is aimed at halting road-construction into Fairy Creek and logging of contiguous old-growth forest adjacent to the Fairy Creek watershed.
- September 4-6: Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones releases an official letter of invitation to Indigenous and non-Indigenous forest defenders to unite on the Territory as his guests to defend the old-growth rainforests on his ancestral lands. A delegation of Indigenous youth and Elders from many territories visit the blockades to further advise on appropriate respect protocols for forest defenders taking action on the land. An Elder's tent is built at River Camp and structural work begins to center decolonial values.
- See updates for more!
Links for more information:
Fairy Creek Info Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBnhktwJIo4&t=7s
Scientific American Article about old growth and climate change
This is a volunteer driven, grassroots, direct-action movement to protect the last remaining ancient temperate rainforests on Vancouver Island. We’re committed to keeping our eyes on as many stands of intact old growth as we can, to challenge the outdated and irresponsible forestry practices that must be immediately changed and to halt the destruction of these globally important forests.
We’re currently supporting efforts on unceded Pacheedaht territory, holding down blockade positions on logging roads where there is active road building or that access approved and impending clearcuts.
One camp leads into the unlogged Fairy Creek watershed, the last intact watershed in the San Juan river system, others are in surrounding areas where road building and clearcutting of ancient rainforest is quickly pushing ahead.
We call for an immediate moratorium on ALL destruction of old growth forests now and forever and for a viable transition to an ecologically and economically responsible forest economy.
Old-Growth forests are almost gone!
Due to decades of British Columbia government policies along with logging companies’ unwillingness to alter their practices of irresponsible clearcut logging, old-growth forests including the extreme biodiversity that they house, face near-total eradication. These forest ecosystems hold stands of trees that are 100’s of years old and they CAN NOT regenerate.
EVERY DAY, on Vancouver Island alone, 32 soccer fields (~ 85 acres) of old-growth temperate rainforest – representing the last 1% of these rare, irreplaceable and internationally significant forests – are logged.
In a downward spiraling climate and biodiversity crisis, which threatens the future of all life on Earth, this situation calls for widespread and immediate change.
We are organized by 100% volunteer labor and spontaneous, community-driven mobilization
We seek mutually respectful alliances between Indigenous and non-Indigenous forest defenders to protect lands which have never been ceded or surrendered. Sovereign Nations have stewarded this land since time immemorial but much of this land has been destroyed by generations of colonial/capitalist resource exploitation and abuse.
Your help is needed!
While camps and blockades are currently operating as enclosed units, locked down in accordance with COVID-19 protocols, these folks need support and will be welcoming tourists and visitors again when it is safe to do so.
In addition to this GoFundMe, donations of material objects are welcomed, there is running list of needs at hand - send us a message if you feel like helping in that way.
Every contribution helps to ensure our frontline forest defenders are looked after. Donations are directed towards a wide range of uses including outfitting camps with accommodations to stay warm and dry and with supplies to stay safe and able to communicate with the outside world, for transportation, and for various other initiatives such as promotional material.
With your support, we have and will continue to build on:
Base Camp -
Maintaining a safe base camp that can act as a visitors’ centre when it is safe to travel again. Base camp operates under a strict COVID-19 safety plan and has:
- a furnished elder’s tent, to support visits from First Nations elders (when it is safe to do so)
- state of the art satellite communications technology that enable activists to be safe and to information to media and supporters in real time
Eyes on the old growth -
We’re able to maintain active tabs on as many impending clearcuts and road building projects as we can manage. Using real time satellite imagery and by accessing publicly available resources we’re keeping our eyes on the old growth. We actively encourage that forestry work happen only outside of ancient forest ecosystems in areas where 2nd or 3rd growth timber can be harvested.
Additional camps -
We’re able to mobilize safely and quickly in order to put an immediate halt to active destruction of old growth.
Also -
We have a legal team to challenge a potential court injunction that would have forest protectors arrested. With your donations we’re actively building a legal fund that we hope to never use. If we succeed in halting these outdated practices we will pass our legal fund on to another worthy cause.
We're also planning for the future, our goal with this fundraiser is to not only maintain monthly operations but also to ensure we can continue and expand.
Budget:
Your donations are being managed with a high degree of fiscal responsibility. We keep a few months of operating costs set aside in the event that they are needed and we're now putting aside 70% of all donations towards a legal defense fund, just in case it is needed.
Chronology of Events - the 1st month (expanded chronology is in each update)
- August 1: Discovery of Stone Pacific (subcontractor to Teal Jones) road construction cresting the ridge into the unlogged Fairy Creek watershed.
- August 9: Grassroots activists from across Vancouver Island meet at Lizard Lake. To prevent the cutting, bulldozing and blasting activity into Fairy Creek headwater planned for the very next day, they decide to mount an emergency logging road blockade. This is set up at the end of Reid Mainline, on a high ridge on the western side of Fairy Creek. Notice is sent to Pacheedhat First Nation Chief and Council and Elder Bill Jones of primarily settler-activist intentions to block road-building operations on their unceded territory.
- August 10: Ridge Camp blockade turns away Stone Pacific road and falling crews. A call-out goes to the public to join the camp and defend against logging road construction
into this last unlogged watershed in the San Juan River system.
- August 17: A second blockade is established at another road access point into Fairy Creek, at River Camp, along Granite Mainline in the Renfrew Creek watershed, on the east side of Fairy Creek.
- August 24th: A temporary, pop-up blockade is set up on Truck Road 11. It is aimed at halting road-building and logging of old-growth forests on Edinburgh Mountain, across from Fairy Creek in the San Juan river basin.
- August 31: Ridge Camp blockade is moved 7kms down the road to a new blockade location. This one is aimed at halting road-construction into Fairy Creek and logging of contiguous old-growth forest adjacent to the Fairy Creek watershed.
- September 4-6: Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones releases an official letter of invitation to Indigenous and non-Indigenous forest defenders to unite on the Territory as his guests to defend the old-growth rainforests on his ancestral lands. A delegation of Indigenous youth and Elders from many territories visit the blockades to further advise on appropriate respect protocols for forest defenders taking action on the land. An Elder's tent is built at River Camp and structural work begins to center decolonial values.
- See updates for more!
Links for more information:
Fairy Creek Info Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBnhktwJIo4&t=7s
Scientific American Article about old growth and climate change
Organizer
The Last Stand
Organizer
Victoria, BC