VIDEO: Before and After Old-Growth Logging – Caycuse Watershed 2022

This shocking before and after video exposes the ongoing impacts of old-growth logging on Vancouver Island, BC. Captured between 2020-2022 in the Caycuse watershed in Ditidaht territory by Ancient Forest Alliance Photographer & Campaigner, TJ Watt, the scenes feature centuries-old redcedar trees standing and then cut down with the approval of the BC government.

? Please speak up!! Send an instant message to the BC government calling for funding for old-growth protection as well as a shift to a more sustainable, value-added second-growth forestry industry.

Background: In 2020, the BC government made a promise to protect BC’s most endangered old-growth forests. In 2021, they accepted, in principle, a recommendation from their appointed independent science panel, the Technical Advisory Panel, to defer logging on 2.6 million hectares of the most at-risk old-growth forests in BC, pending approval from local First Nations.

However, more than a year on, less than half of these areas have been secured for deferral and some recommended areas, such as the forests pictured here, continue to be logged, as the province has failed to provide the requisite financing for First Nations needed to enable the full suite of deferrals.

Many of the trees and groves pictured in this latest series were identified as priority ‘big-tree’ old-growth forests that met the criteria for temporary deferral by the Technical Advisory Panel. In some locations, the forests were logged just months before the recommendations came into effect, while in others, deferrals were not secured in time before logging took place.

Old-growth forests are vital to sustaining unique endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations. According to independent scientists, the government’s own data shows that over 97% of BC’s highest productivity forests with the biggest trees have been logged. Second-growth tree plantations, which are typically re-logged 50-60 years later, do not adequately replicate the old-growth ecosystems they are replacing.

The Ancient Forest Alliance continues to call on the BC NPD to establish a dedicated fund of at least $300 million to support Indigenous-led old-growth logging deferrals, land-use plans, and protected areas alone. This would include funding for Indigenous Guardians programs, offsetting the lost revenues for logging deferrals, and supporting the sustainable economic diversification of First Nations communities in lieu of old-growth logging & linked to the establishment of Indigenous Protected Areas.

This photo series is part of work Watt has created with support from the Trebek Initiative, a grantmaking partnership between the National Geographic Society and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society that supports emerging Canadian explorers, scientists, photographers, geographers, and educators with the goal of using storytelling to ignite “a passion to preserve” in all Canadians.