The 2015 Canada Day edition of MacLean's included a Guide to Being an Awesome Canadian and one of the things they featured was my photo and some words from our epic tree climb up Big Lonely Doug, Canada's second largest Douglas-fir tree. You can spot tree climbers Matthew Beatty (at the base) and Will Koomjian (near the top) for scale. See out a photo gallery with more pictures from the climb here: www.tjwatt.com/big-lonely-doug-climb/ Ascending Big Lonely Doug was an unforgettable experience - both inspiring and heartbreaking. I can now only hope that the awareness he's helped raise across so many media platforms about the threat to BC's ancient forests will help to keep the remaining adjacent forests alive.
Logging
Exploration: Central Walbran - Proposed Cutblock 4403
in Exploration, Forests, Logging
Here is a gallery of new images featuring part of the endangered Central Walbran Ancient Forest. The area in focus is the proposed '4403' cutblock, flagged by logging company Teal-Jones for cutting just a few hundred metres from where people camp and swim along the Walbran River. This section of forest contains some absolutely incredible old-growth redcedar trees as well as sensitive limestone karst features. Volunteers from the Friends of Carmanah Walbran have snipped and flagged a Witness Route into the area with yellow flagging tape, making access easier now. It rained pretty good on us (one of the only rains this July!) but it added to the mystical feel. To me, the dense old-growth forests of BC's coast are one of the last frontiers of exploration on this planet. Very few venture into their deepest depths but the rewards are overwhelming. The fact that their fate is also uncertain makes it all the more important to be there on the ground, capturing what secrets lie within. The fight to protect the Walbran Valley continues, one of Earth's greatest remaining natural treasures.
Canon 5D MKII, Canon 24-70mm f4 IS, wet wet gear. Camera took a full day to de-fog.
Press: Environmentalists fight to save tract of old-growth Vancouver Island trees
Thrilled to wake up and see one of my photos featuring the spectacular ancient forests of the Walbran Valley on the front page of the Times Colonist. If you can't bring everyone to the forest, bring the forest to everyone! Now we just need the headline to read: Walbran Giants Protected!!
- See the article in TC here: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/environmentalists-fight-to-save-tract-of-old-growth-island-trees-1.2007073
- And in the Vancouver Sun here: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Environmentalists+fight+save+tract+growth+Vancouver+Island/11231394/story.html
I also had the fortunate opportunity to present a host of new images and information on the Walbran Valley to a full house forum in Victoria last night. A lot of great work is being done right now by citizens and organizations committed to protecting this global ecological treasure. I will be posting a link to a send-a-message site with a call to action soon!
Press: Central Walbran & Edinburgh Mt. Ancient Forest Threatened
We've already picked up some big news coverage on the logging threat facing the endangered Central Walbran and Edinburgh Mountain Ancient Forests on southern Vancouver Island! Be sure to watch the Global TV interview with the Ancient Forest Alliance's Ken Wu below. Really happy to see that the included a lot of my photos and video footage of the areas alongside it as well! Video: http://globalnews.ca/video/2102896/vancouver-island-ancient-forests-at-risk
Exploration: Central Walbran Ancient Forest - Vancouver Island, BC
in Forests, Logging, Exploration
This past weekend, my partner Jackie and I took time to explore and document the endangered old-growth forests of the Central Walbran Ancient Forest on southern Vancouver Island, BC. It was pretty extreme terrain in most sections along the hillside and the heat and relentless mosquitoes only added to the challenge. But the forests here are some of the most rare and beautiful on Earth. Trees of monstrous shapes and sizes, growing largely undisturbed for millennia. However, they're currently under threat as a Surrey-based forestry company, the Teal-Jones Group, is aggressively moving forward with plans for eight new cutblocks (clearcuts) and a new road in the heart of this magnificent rainforest. The photos in this gallery are from the 4412, 4410, and 4424 proposed cutblocks shown on the map. The Walbran Valley is home to perhaps Canada’s finest stands of old-growth redcedars. Stepping into the forest here is like getting into a real-life time machine. It allows one to travel backwards in time and experience the magnificence of our corner of the world as it once was. If you haven't visited the Walbran Valley before, do try to. It changed my life and many others too. More news to come as we ramp up our efforts to protect this incredible natural treasure.
From Above: Nitinat Lake Region, Klanawa Valley, & Lake Cowichan
Exploring and documenting BC’s old-growth forests and the impacts of industrial logging on the ground is a monumental task, especially in more remote areas. One can spend days, weeks, months, driving logging roads in search of the next giant tree - or giant clearcut - and you still wouldn't be able to see it all. So when Nick Temos of the Pacific Northwest Collective approached me to with the idea to have the Ancient Forest Alliance collaborate with his group on conservation issues - which included the amazing opportunity to fly over these landscapes - I jumped at it. After meeting for coffee and discussing potential endangered areas to focus on over summer, Nick suggested we get up in the air that afternoon to practice shooting some photos and communicating ideas. Our route took us from Victoria over Duncan, up the Cowichan Valley and over the Nitinat Lake region, including the Nitinat Triangle, Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, Cheewhat Lake, Oyees Lake, and Doobah Lake. We also spent some time over the Klanawa Valley, documenting the devastating impacts of old-growth logging by Western Forest Products. I'm hugely grateful for Nick and the Pacific Northwest Collective's interest in furthering conservation efforts from a birds-eye-view. Expect to see the results of many more flights in the near future!
Exposed: Logging in the Walbran Valley - Vancouver Island
I've been a little absent from posting on here over the last while but I've been out in the field shooting a lot and gathering new work. I'll be playing catch up over the next few weeks, sharing with you images of the large-scale old-growth logging that still continues here on Vancouver Island. About 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged on BC’s southern coast, including over 90% of the valley-bottom ancient forests where the largest trees grow - we have very little time left to save what remains. By continuing to capture and share these photos and maps, I hope to put a tangible face to these remote but incredible valleys and groves. Today's post features old-growth logging by Western Forest Products up road W730 in the Walbran Valley.
Press: Mountain Life Magazine Feature
Mountain Life Magazine has published a little feature on the new Ancient Forest Alliance documentary along with some questions and answers from friend and filmmaker Darryl Augustine. You can check out the article and view the short film (which highlights some of the conservation photography work I do) here: http://www.mountainlifemag.ca/2015/01/saving-giants-ancient-forest-alliance/ It was great to work with Darryl on this - especially with the RED Epic camera - and I highly recommend him for any of your video needs! Very professional, kind, and talented individual.
Looking towards Big Lonely Doug from the top of a giant redcedar stump clearcut in the Gordon River Valley near Port Renfrew in 2012.