Red Bulletin UK 5/21

The unkindest cut:
Watt’s photo
project perfectly
illustrates the
devastation of the
old-growth forests
TJ WATT LOU BOYD
came back months later, I had a
GPS tracker showing where I’d
hiked.” The project has captured
worldwide attention. “The
photos hit home because what
you’re looking at is the loss of
trees upwards of a thousand
years old. When a forest like that
is cut down, it’s gone for ever.”
The harvesting of British
Columbia’s ancient forests is an
urgent environmental moment.
Less than 10 per cent of
Vancouver’s original old-growth
woodland is currently protected,
and an area of untouched forest
equivalent to more than 10,000
football fields is cut down each
year. A co-founder of non-profit
organisation Ancient Forest
Alliance, Watt is not only
documenting this devastation
but successfully fighting against
it. The alliance famously saved
another forest, Avatar Grove,
which was marked to be cut down
in 2010. “That area has become
an international old-growth
destination, with hundreds of
thousands of people visiting
every year,” says Watt. “The
community has shifted towards
a green economy based on bigtree
tourism. It shows that oldgrowth
forests are worth more
standing than they are on the
back of a logging truck.”
All hope is not lost for those
forests that do remain. In the
lead-up to last October’s local
election, the BC government
promised to implement a new
era of protection for the most
endangered old-growth trees.
Now the election has been
won, Watt is calling on everyone
moved by his photo series to
hold them accountable to their
pledge. “I encourage everyone
to write to and phone the
politicians in BC, regardless
of where you live. This is a
global issue and these are
some of the finest temperate
rainforests left on our planet.
Although we lost this forest,
we may be able to save many
others because of it.”
ancientforestalliance.org;
tjwatt.com
THE RED BULLETIN 21