The Tsitika Valley is home to beautiful ancient trees and countless animal kin. Along its beaches, where streams from the Tsitika watershed meet the sea, lies one of the only places on Earth where killer whales are known to rub their bodies along the shoreline pebbles.
This is a rare place where land and sea are profoundly intertwined.
Marbled murrelets, though seabirds, spend much of their lives commuting daily up to 50km at break-neck speeds between the open ocean and their forest homes. Rather than building nests, they rely on the thick moss of old-growth conifers to keep their eggs safe and warm. Sadly, both this watershed and these murrelet nurseries are now under imminent threat.
This ancient forest home which has stood for thousands of years, is on the brink of being clear cut. Every tree felled. Every nest lost. Every stream disturbed.
B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS)—the government agency responsible for managing about 17% of all unprotected forest and roughly 20% of “crown land” logging in B.C.– is preparing to auction off a section of the Tsitika watershed that provides habitat for at least 300 marbled murrelets.
The proposed 34-hectare cut block is scheduled for auction by September 30.
Read the recent Canadian Press article by Brenna Owen here.
Timber Sale License TA1375 is home to the Oldgrowth Specklebelly lichen, a blue-listed species that BCTS had previously pledged to protect. Lichenologist Trevor Goward explained that while the slow-growing lichen is a species at risk in its own right, it is also an indicator of forests that are “the oldest of the old.”
A quarter of the proposed cut block is covered in Big Tree Old Growth, and 76% is classified as Ancient Forest (over 400 years old).
This area was marked for priority deferral in 2021, but in 2023, BCTS quietly rolled back its promise not to log deferral areas—and is now moving to liquidate one of the last remaining ancient forests under their control.
Auctioning off TA1375 would result in 74 acres of clearcutting right next to the Tsitika Mountain Ecological Reserve.
We need a public outcry to stop the auction of TA1375 this week.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY
- Call BC Timber Sales at: 250-356-1918
- Email BC Timber Sales at: Forests.BCTimberSalesHQOffice@gov.bc.ca
Tell them to CANCEL the auction of Timber Sale License TA1375 because:
- It is home to marbled murrelets and Old-growth Specklebelly lichen, both at-risk species that depend on old growth for its survival.
- It was identified for logging deferral by the government’s own advisory panel. B.C. Timber Sales promised not to log deferral areas, and is now breaking that promise.
- Local Kwakwaka’wakw leaders have called for this area to be protected.
Pacific Wild has sent a letter of concern to BC Timber Sales, but one letter is not enough. We need you to send yours today.
Oldgrowth Specklebelly lichen (Pseudocyphellaria rainierensis) photographed in the Tsitika by Joshua Wright.
You can also support by donating to Pacific Wild.
We are raising money to buy Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) to use in ongoing research in Vancouver Island old-growth forests.
$2500 will purchase 4-5 critically needed ARUs for proactive cutblock monitoring to protect endangered species – before any trees are cut.
These devices have already detected 300 Marbled Murrelets in the Tsitika—thanks to our friends at Old-growth Birders and Bioblitzers and Vancouver Island Forest Focus—but there are many more watersheds to monitor and species to save.
*Please leave a note stating “for ARUs” in the donation comment box to help us track your gift.