Rich tidal pools, a shoreline full of life, and fantastic geological features attract visitors to Botanical Beach, offering one of the best opportunities to view intertidal marine creatures and plants on Vancouver Island.

Located near Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island, Botanical Beach is one of the most amazing places on the entire West Coast of British Columbia, particularly at low tide, when visitors can walk a long way out across flat sandstone and granite outcroppings to view tide pools filled like jewelry boxes with brightly coloured marine animals.

Purple, red and orange starfish and sea urchins, blue mussel shells, white gooseneck barnacles, and green sea anemones and sea cucumbers only begin to hint at the spectrum of intertidal life that thrives here. So significant is this location that a research station was first established here in 1900 by a team from the University of Minnesota.

The organisms that live here must be able to handle a wide range of conditions. When the tide is out, there are significant changes in temperature, predators, food sources and salinity, and each creature has adapted to contend with these variable conditions.

Organisms that cannot cope with drying out will survive in the tide pools or in shaded crevices. There you will find congregations of seastars, chitons and anemones; the seastars often piled together to reduce moisture loss. Barnacles, snails and mussels are able to survive by closing up tightly with a small amount of water inside their shells. Purple sea urchins have established a particular niche in the soft sandstone. Their sharp, hard spines help to wear away the indentations in which they live.

Botanical Beach in Juan de Fuca Provincial Park has 251 hectares of upland habitat, but it is best known for its abundance of intertidal life.

1. More information on Botanical Beach.
2. More information on Juan de Fuca Provincial Park

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigners and Ken Wu of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance have identified what may very well be one of Canada’s most spectacular old-growth forests near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island, in the unceded territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation band: the magnificent “Mossome Grove” (short for “Mossy and Awesome” Grove).

This 13-hectare grove is a unique combination of towering Sitka spruce trees, as tall and straight as Roman pillars, and massive bigleaf maples, draped in mosses and ferns and resembling prehistoric monsters. Not even Hollywood could create a grove more stunning and picturesque than this one!

Several of Mossome Grove’s largest trees are near-record size, including two Sitka spruce trees that would rank in the top 10 Sitka spruce on the BC Big Tree Registry, as well as a ginormous bigleaf maple, nicknamed the ‘Woolly Giant,’ that would rank the ninth widest on the registry (at 2.29m or 7 feet, 6 inches in diameter), with a massive, shaggy, moss-covered branch measuring 23.1 meters (76 feet) long!

Bigleaf Maple Tree in in Mossome Grove, Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Mossome Grove is located on Crown lands in the operating area of BC Timber Sales (BCTS), with some 3 to 4 hectares protected in an Old-Growth Management Area and riparian reserve, a portion (3 to 4 hectares) unprotected within a woodlot licence, and the rest unprotected, falling under the regulatory authority of BCTS, the notorious BC government logging agency that has come under fire across the province for auctioning off old-growth forests to be clearcut in places such as the Nahmint Valley.

While there are no logging plans for Mossome Grove at this time, large parts of this awe-inspiring rainforest could be logged if left unprotected. To ensure Mossome Grove and other ancient forests remain intact, the NDP government must take immediate steps to protect BC’s biggest trees, grandest groves, and most endangered old-growth forest ecosystems, and develop a comprehensive, science-based plan to protect old-growth forests, while supporting First Nations’ rights, economies, and communities.

Read the Ancient Forest Alliance’s media release and view photo galleries of spectacular ‘Mossome Grove’ on our website or Facebook page.

Ancient Forest Alliance
Street Address: Central Building, #303-620 View Street, Victoria, BC
Mailing Address: Victoria Main PO, PO Box 8459, Victoria, BC V8W 3S1
Phone: 250-896-4007
Email: info@ancientforestalliance.org
Website: www.ancientforestalliance.org

Giant Sitka Spruce in Mossome Grove, Port Renfrew, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Featured Image
The Ancient Forest Alliance’s campaigner and photographer TJ Watt at BC’s ninth-widest Bigleaf Maple, the Woolly Giant, completely draped in hanging moss and ferns, in the Mossome Grove near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.

Mossome Grove in the news
– CHEK News: Canada’s ‘most magnificent old-growth forest’ located near Port Renfrew
– CTV News: Old-growth forest near Port Renfrew needs protect, group says
– CBC News: B.C. ancient tree lovers unveil ‘Mossome’ grove as part of bid for new protections
– Sooke News Mirror: Conservation groups locate ancient old-growth forest near Port Renfrew: Grove home to record-size Sitka spruce and bigleaf maple trees
– My Campbell River Now: Push is on to protect Mossome Grove
– Times Colonist: Mossome Grove: ‘one of the most beautiful’ forests on Earth.

Several monumental Western Red Cedars are located in Jurassic Grove

The Ancient Forest Alliance has located an impressive grove of unprotected, monumental old-growth trees growing only a 90-minute drive west of Victoria, between Jordan River and Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island.

Spanning a 3-kilometer stretch alongside a portion of the 48-kilometre Juan de Fuca Marine Trail Provincial Park, it lies mainly on Crown lands adjacent to the provincial park and its popular coastal hiking trail not far from Highway 14 in the traditional unceded territory of the Pacheedaht band. The Ancient Forest Alliance’s TJ Watt had explored and identified the area as an old-growth forest of high conservation significance in recent years, but came across a particularly accessible grove of giant trees while bushwhacking a few weeks ago.

“Lowland old-growth groves on southern Vancouver Island with the classic giants like this are about as rare as finding a Sasquatch these days – over 95% of the forests like this have been logged on the South Island. This is one of the most magnificent unprotected groves in the world, and it’s even easier than the Avatar Grove to get to. It will help to bolster the public’s interest to see the BC government enact legislation to protect the remaining old-growth forests on Vancouver Island”, stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director. “For now we’ve nicknamed this tract of old-growth forest as the ‘Jurassic Grove’, which could become ‘Jurassic Park’ one day if it is protected. Of course there may be more traditional names for the area, which we’ll be happy to use”.

“This area is like another Avatar Grove – it’s easy to get to, it includes some parts with gentle terrain, and is filled with amazing trees – but it’s even closer to Victoria! When we are able to disclose the exact location when it’s appropriate for wider public access, the Jurassic Grove will undoubtedly become a major source of inspiration and environmental awareness for thousands of people”, stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer. “It’s hard to fathom that at one time the highway between Victoria to Port Renfrew could’ve been lined with ancient forests like this. Now it remains in just a few patches, like the Jurassic Grove, underscoring the need to protect what’s left of our old-growth forests.”

The Ancient Forest Alliance has requested meetings with the Ministry of Forests, BC Parks, and Pacheedaht council to discuss conservation and access issues regarding the area. Until then, the organization is not yet encouraging the public to try visiting the grove, most of which has no trails, has an extremely dense understory, and which is punctuated with very steep ravines.

While most of Jurassic Grove’s 130 hectares of old-growth is protected within a Marbled Murelet Wildlife Habitat Area that is off-limits to logging, about 40 hectares is on unprotected Crown lands without any type of regulatory or legislated protection.

There are no approved or proposed logging plans on these lands, according to Ministry of Forests data on the BC government’s iMAPBC website.

As it abuts against a popular provincial park for hiking, it would be a natural addition to the park and as a buffer to the Juan de Fuca trail – and ultimately as a star attraction for visitors around the world.

“We should make it clear that we did not ‘discover’ this forest, in the sense of being the first humans to see it, of course. People have lived in the area for thousands of years, and hikers mushroom pickers, hunters, surfers, biologists, and loggers (who logged to the edge of this forest several decades ago … and of course who would’ve surveyed it as well) have all traversed the area. What we’ve done is located and identified the old-growth grove here for its high conservation and recreation value”, stated TJ Watt, AFA campaigner and photographer. “However, the days of identifying such unprotected monumental groves are coming to an end, because in a few short years these forests will either be in protected areas, or gone. This area needs legislated protection”.

Jurassic Grove’s easy-to-access location makes it a potential first rate ancient forest attraction that can help to raise the awareness of all endangered old-growth forests, and bolster the regional eco-tourism industry. Port Renfrew, historically a logging town that now promotes eco-tourism and has been dubbed the “Tall Trees Capital of Canada” in recent years due to its proximity to the Avatar Grove, Central Walbran Valley, Big Lonely Doug (Canada’s second largest Douglas-fir), Eden Grove, Red Creek Fir (the world’s largest Douglas-fir), Harris Creek Spruce (an enormous Sitka spruce), and San Juan Spruce (previously Canada’s largest spruce until the top broke off last year), now has the Jurassic Grove as another first rate addition to its roster of big tree attractions. Thousands of tourists from around the world now come to visit the old-growth trees around Port Renfrew, hugely bolstering the regional economy of southern Vancouver Island.

The Ancient Forest Alliance is encouraging people who visit the area to stay in local accommodations, buy food and groceries in local stores, and camp in the Pacheedaht campground to help boost the local economy with eco-tourism dollars.

To the south, the BC government has just bought up the 7 parcels of second-growth private forest lands, totalling 180 hectares, from a developer and intends to increase the width of the provincial park to buffer the trail along its first several kilometres, while lands outside the buffer will go to the Pacheedaht First Nation band in Port Renfrew as part of the treaty settlement process. To the north, the Crown land old-growth forests of the Jurassic Grove could also be a natural addition to buffer the trail, whether as an extension of the existing park or as a tribal park/conservancy.

More Information on Old-Growth Forests
Over the past year, the voices for old-growth protection have been quickly expanding, including numerous Chambers of Commerce, mayors and city councils, forestry unions, and conservation groups across BC who have have been calling on the provincial government to expand protection for BC’s remaining old-growth forests.

BC’s premier business lobby, the BC Chamber of Commerce, representing 36,000 businesses, passed a resolution last May calling on the province to expand protection for BC’s old-growth forests to support the economy, after a series of similar resolutions passed by the Port Renfrew, Sooke, and Westshore Chambers of Commerce. See: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1010

Both the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), representing the mayors, city and town councils, and regional districts across BC, and Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC), representing Vancouver Island local governments, passed a resolution last year calling on the province to protect the Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth forests by amending the 1994 land use plan. See: http://www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1057

The Private and Public Workers of Canada (PPWC), formerly the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada, representing thousands of sawmill and pulp mill workers across BC, recently passed a resolution calling for an end to old-growth logging on Vancouver Island. See: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1100

The Ahousaht First Nation band north of Tofino in Clayoquot Sound recently announced that 82% of their territory will be off-limits to commercial logging. They now need provincial legislation and funding to help make their vision a reality. See: www.desmog.ca/2017/01/27/first-nation-just-banned-industrial-logging-and-mining-vancouver-island-territory

The Ancient Forest Alliance calling on the BC government to implement a comprehensive science-based plan to protect all of BC’s remaining endangered old-growth forests, and to also ensure a sustainable, value-added second-growth forest industry.

Old-growth forests are vital to sustain unique endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations. On BC’s southern coast, satellite photos show that at least 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only about 8% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas. Old-growth forests – with trees that can be 2,000 years old – are a non-renewable resource under BC’s system of forestry, where second-growth forests are re-logged every 50 to 100 years, never to become old-growth again.

See maps and stats on the remaining old-growth forests on BC’s southern coast at: www.ancientforestalliance.org/old-growth-maps.php

In order to placate public fears about the loss of BC’s endangered old-growth forests, the BC government’s PR-spin typically over-inflates the amount of remaining old-growth forests by including hundreds of thousands of hectares of marginal, low productivity forests growing in bogs and at high elevations with smaller, stunted trees, lumped in with the productive old-growth forests, where the large trees grow (and where most logging takes place). See a rebuttal to some of the BC government’s PR-spin and stats about old-growth forests towards the bottom of the webpage: www.ancientforestalliance.org/news-item.php?ID=1052

By the Ancient Forest Alliance
Website: www.ancientforestalliance.org
Source Article, May 6, 2017.

Photo Credit
TJ Watt – Ancient Forest Alliance
One of several monumental western red cedars located in Jurassic Grove, on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

A new Sierra Club map of B.C.’s southern coastal rainforest shows why the Walbran rainforest on Vancouver Island matters, and what we stand to lose for species, carbon and beauty, if the proposed logging goes ahead.

A few weeks ago, the B.C. government issued the first of eight logging permits for the Walbran requested by logging company Teal Jones, despite a public outcry and opposition from many environmental groups.

In the last few days, activists have reported on social media about road crew and helicopter activity near cutblock 4424, indicating that Teal Jones could start logging any day.

To defend the issuing of the permit, the B.C. government has stated that a large portion of the Walbran remains protected in a park. This is correct. But to allow further logging of the remaining old-growth in this area is inexcusable considering that the Walbran is literally the last place on Southern Vancouver Island with old-growth rainforest of this type, size, and intactness.

The state of the awe-inspiring, “big tree” old-growth rainforest ecosystems on Vancouver Island reflects what author J. B. MacKinnon has described as our 10 percent world. Globally, there are now countless examples which show that we have reduced the original biological richness of our lands, oceans, ecosystems, plants and animals by about 90 percent.

The same happened to the biggest ancient trees in the rainforest valleys in the southern portion of the B.C. coast. About 90 percent of the most productive forests with the capacity to grow the largest trees have been logged and converted to young forests. Today, there remain very few old-growth areas that are big enough to support healthy populations of salmon and endangered species like the marbled murrelet.

Map of the Central Walbran Valley showing recently approved cutblock and Black Diamond Grove.
Geoff Senichenko, Wilderness Committee.

In fact, our analysis shows that the Walbran Valley is the most urgent opportunity to increase protection of contiguous, old-growth rainforest and habitat on Vancouver Island.

We examined 155 landscape units on Vancouver Island and B.C.’s south coast (landscape units are areas of land used for long-term planning of resource management and usually 50,000 to 100,000 hectares in size).

Only three percent (five landscape units), including the Walbran, remain primarily covered by “big-tree” old-growth rainforest with the highest level of intactness (with over 70 percent old-growth). Vancouver Island is home to four of these five remaining “big tree” old growth landscape units. Three of them are mostly protected, but almost 40 percent of the Walbran landscape unit with 4,500 hectares of the remaining old-growth remains unprotected.

Our analysis focused on the remaining percentage of good and medium productivity old-growth forest, i.e. types of forests that are characterized by towering trees and high bio mass and carbon storage per hectare. Of these types of forest, combined, less than 30 percent remain as old-growth on Vancouver Island and the South Coast, and only about six percent of the original old-growth has been set aside in protected areas.

North of Vancouver Island, the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements are expected to protect the ecological integrity of one of the largest mostly intact temperate rainforest regions of the world. In Clayoquot Sound, northwest of the Walbran, the Ahousaht First Nation announced in October an end to industrial logging in their territory, which spans most of the intact rainforest valleys in this region.

But we must not allow these important refuge areas for species that depend on ancient rainforests to become isolated from other old-growth areas. With its outstanding intactness, the Walbran represents the only remaining opportunity in the southern half of the island to save a more contiguous area of productive old-growth rainforest, create connectivity and allow species like the marbled murrelet to find quality habitat between Clayoquot Sound and the Olympic Peninsula.

A larger protected area would give species that depend on this rainforest at least a fighting chance to survive, considering the level of degradation and fragmentation of rainforest on Vancouver Island. And only larger areas are resilient enough to withstand increasing climate change impacts like stronger droughts, stronger storms and other extreme weather events.

In addition, old-growth coastal rainforest store record high amounts of carbon per hectare, accumulated over thousands of years, and steadily sequester more carbon from the atmosphere. Clearcutting old-growth releases enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

A recent Sierra Club B.C. report revealed that, over the past decade, B.C.’s forests as a whole have shifted to being net emitters of carbon. This contrasts starkly to their historic role capturing huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. While the mountain pine beetle and more wildfires have tipped the balance, our analysis shows that destructive logging practices have been, and remain, the biggest factor contributing to B.C.’s forest carbon emissions.

Lastly, B.C.’s coastal temperate old-growth forests are a global treasure and spectacularly beautiful. Parks and protected areas offer immeasurable recreational joy for visitors and tourists from near and far and support our billion-dollar tourism industry.

Many are shocked to see the sea of clearcuts they must traverse to access the remaining larger, less developed rainforest wilderness areas on Vancouver Island. The Walbran with its unique intact ecological rainforest values is one of the fantastic areas people on Vancouver Island care about and want to see fully protected.

Sierra Club and Wilderness Committee activists explored the area slated for logging in September and found monumental cedars, massive Sitka spruce, hemlock, amabalis fir, and Douglas fir trees. They named the area Black Diamond Grove for its steep slope. The crown jewel of the Black Diamond Grove is the Leaning Tower Cedar, a cedar approximately three metres wide at its base and probably as old as 1,000 years.

The Leaning Tower Cedar. Photo Torrance Coste, Wilderness Committee.

With so little left, how can our society allow logging the last of the endangered old-growth on the island, instead of protecting it for our children, for example my friend Leonie (11 years). She wrote a letter to the Times Colonist and asked the B.C. government to protect the endangered rainforest in the Walbran. I am standing with Leonie: we should protect all of the Walbran.

Sierra Club B.C. is calling for a provincial government action plan to protect and restore B.C.’s forests in light of climate change impacts. Protection of rare and endangered old-growth rainforest ecosystems on Vancouver Island and the south coast is particularly urgent, because once cut, old-growth as we know it will not grow back. B.C.’s forest industry must shift to harvesting sustainable levels of second-growth forest and value-added manufacturing. The transition will not be easy, but in a 10-percent world, denial is no viable option. The logging permit for the Walbran should be our wake-up call.

By Jens Wieting
Jens Wieting is the forest and climate campaigner for Sierra Club B.C. He will speak about conservation and connectivity from the Great Bear Rainforest to Vancouver Island on November 17 at the University of Victoria. Reproduced with the kind permission of Jens Wieting – Source Article on The Georgia Strait

Photo Credit
Featured Photo: Worksite in the Walbran Valley. Photo by Torrance Coste, Wilderness Committee, BC.

The Ancient Forest Alliance on Vancouver Island is building a boardwalk at the Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew in British Columbia. Significant progress was made in the Lower Avatar Grove in September and October, with close to 25 metres of new boardwalk and bridges constructed over the area that is prone to flooding – just in time for the heavy winter rains!

The Ancient Forest Alliance’s TJ Watt was generously assisted by two dozen volunteers, including students from Pearson College in Metchosin, who also added traction to stairs and portions of the boardwalk, restored parts of the trail that were showing signs of wear, and helped mark the route more clearly. There are still several key sets of stairs and bridges to be built and signs to erect, particularly along the lower loop trail, but they are making great headway and aim to finish the boardwalk by early summer 2016.

Avatar Grove has become one of BC’s most popular hiking trails, and is perhaps the second most heavily-hiked old-growth forest in BC, after Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park. The boardwalk is vital to protect the delicate understory, to enhance visitor safety, and to improve access to this majestic grove.

Avatar Grove is located near the community of Port Renfrew on southern Vancouver Island, accessed by a paved road from Lake Cowichan, or from Victoria along West Coast Highway 14, passing through Sooke and Jordan River.

Ancient Forest Alliance
The Ancient Forest Alliance is a British Columbian organization working to protect the endangered old-growth forests of BC and to ensure sustainable forestry jobs in the province.
Website: Ancient Forest Alliance

Photo Credits
Top Image: BritishColumbia.com
All other Images: Ancient Forest Alliance
Additional Images: Ancient Forest Alliance on Facebook

Central Walbran Valley Logging Conflict Escalates

A logging permit for the first of eight proposed cutblocks in the Central Walbran Valley was issued in September by the government of British Columbia to logging company Teal-Jones. The Central Walbran Valley, near Port Renfrew, is Canada’s most spectacular old-growth forest, and one of the largest unprotected old-growth forests left on southern Vancouver Island in BC.

Conservationists are preparing for an escalation in the conflict, and are employing remotely-piloted drones, a new tool in the battle to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests. The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) is using a small drone equipped with a GoPro camera to monitor and document the endangered old-growth forests of the Central Walbran Valley. This has allowed the organization to capture aerial video footage of old-growth forests threatened by logging on steep, rugged terrain that otherwise would take hours to hike to.

Helicopter-based logging, or heli-logging, is expected for several of the eight proposed cutblocks in the Central Walbran Valley, including the first approved Cutblock 4424, due to the difficulty of road access in the mountains.

View Video of the Central Walbran Ancient Forest that includes recent HD Drone Footage.

“Drones are a new tool in the tool box that are helping us raise the environmental awareness about remote endangered areas that are normally out of the public spotlight, where companies believe they can log with little scrutiny. Plus it allows us to get some spectacular footage of our magnificent but endangered old-growth forests from vantage points rarely seen”, stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance photographer and campaigner who shot the Walbran videos.

“Teal-Jones and the BC government have committed themselves to an intense battle by aggressively moving to log southern Vancouver Island’s most contentious ancient forest. The logging companies have already clearcut the vast majority of the richest and grandest old-growth forests on Vancouver Island – over 90% – and now they’re complaining that they’re running out of options. They’ve boxed themselves into a corner through their own unsustainable history of overcutting the biggest and best old-growth stands – and now they’re contending that it’s the conservationists’ fault and that they must log the last unprotected lowland ancient forests to survive. The one thing the BC government must not do is to reward unsustainable practices with more unsustainable practices – but that’s just what they’ve done by granting the first cutting permit to Teal-Jones in the Central Walbran Valley. It’s a myopic government facilitating the demise of an ecosystem for a company intent to go just about to the very end. Instead they need a quick transition or exit strategy to get completely out of our last ancient forests and into a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance executive director.

A 14-foot Stump in the Upper Walbran Valley, with Castle Grove in the distant background.

The 500-hectare Central Walbran Valley is one of the largest contiguous tracts of unprotected old-growth forest left on southern Vancouver Island (south of Barkley Sound) where about 90% of the original, productive old-growth forests have already been logged. It is home to the Castle Grove, perhaps the most extensive and densely-packed monumental western redcedar groves in Canada. The upper reach of the Castle Grove is threatened by several of the proposed Teal-Jones cutblocks. Species at risk include Queen Charlotte Goshawks, marbled murrelets, screech owls, and red-legged frogs, while coho salmon and steelhead trout spawn in the rivers.

The Central Walbran is popular for hikers, campers, anglers, hunters, and mushroom pickers, and is located on public (Crown) lands in Tree Farm Licence 46 near Port Renfrew in Pacheedaht Nuu-chah-Nulth territory. About 5,500 hectares of the Lower Walbran Valley were included in the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park in 1994, while about 7,500 hectares in the Central and Upper Walbran Valleys were left unprotected.

Conservationists are escalating pressure on the BC government and the company through protests and public awareness campaigns, calling on the company to back off and the BC government to protect the two ancient forests. Teal-Jones Group is a Surrey-based company that logs and sells endangered old-growth forests – including ancient redcedar trees – for pulp, paper, and solid wood products.

Environmentalists are calling on the BC government to protect these areas from logging through expanded Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMA’s), core Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHA’s), and Land Use Orders (LUO’s).

On BC’s southern coast (Vancouver Island and SW Mainland), satellite photos show that about 75% of the original, productive (moderate to fast growth rates, forests of commercial value) old-growth forests have been logged, including over 91% of the valley bottoms and high-productivity, lowland forests where the largest trees grow. Only 8% of the original, productive old-growth forests on BC’s southern coast are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas.

In a recent Vancouver Sun and Province article, the Teal-Jones spokesperson was quoted as claiming that “only 11,080 hectares of