British Columbia is logging its last old growth. Protesters are sleeping in the road to stop it
About 20 activists and Indigenous land defenders are sleeping in the road as they try to stop logging of rare old-growth forests.
- About 20 forest defenders blocked a logging road in southwest Vancouver Island on August 4, stopping old-growth harvesting as a logging truck approached and turned around.
- The conflict has flared for decades; more than 850 people were arrested during the 1993 "War in the Woods" at Clayoquot Sound, and nearly 30 years later, more than 1,100 were arrested at Fairy Creek, where protections expire in September.
- While the province claims more than 11 million hectares of old-growth remain, scientists note only about 415,000 hectares of productive old-growth exist. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber now top 45%.
- First Nations Pacheedaht elder Bill Jones said "There is no dispute about what happened to our land," while Steven Shambu Daniluk, a longtime blockader, described the fight as "This is our ivory trade."
- Coastal temperate rainforests store more carbon per hectare than nearly any other ecosystem, according to the Sierra Club. Forest ecologist Andy MacKinnon noted old-growth requires millennia to recover its function after logging.
23 Articles
23 Articles
2 sentenced for blocking logging in Vancouver Island’s Walbran Valley
Two protesters from the Walbran Valley blockade were sentenced Tuesday, after pleading guilty to breaching an injunction order in November 2025. The order barred protestors from blocking access to the Tsawak-qin Forestry logging site. Twelve protesters were arrested in total.
British Columbia is logging its last old growth and protesters are sleeping in the road to stop it
The five-car caravan crept down a gravel logging road as the day’s last beams of golden light filtered through the trees. About 20 forest defenders were making a stand in southwest Vancouver Island, at a spot where a logging company was expected to cut old-growth trees the following morning. They made camp in tents and the backs of cars. One truck parked sideways across the road. They awoke at 3 a.m., their headlamps tracing the ground, as they …
Associated Press News
British Columbia is logging its last old growth. Protesters are sleeping in the road to stop it
Activists on Vancouver Island are once again trying to stop the logging of old growth forests, some of the rarest and most carbon rich ecosystems on Earth.
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