Former cabinet minister George Abbott says BC is unprepared and under-resourced for future wildfire threats and he recommends more prescribed burns. Forest Minister Donaldson says 19 of Abbott’s 108 recommendations are already being implemented. In related news: Governor Brown signs an order to reduce wildfire danger in California.

In Forestry news: Fort St. John’s AAC is affirmed; a hard limit on cedar logging is coming to Haida Gwaii; the oil sands development is having a profound impact on Alberta’s forest fauna; and using fibre for electricity in Europe is harming forests in the US South.

In other news: the US homebuilders association seeks to reverse softwood tariffs;  a broker says the lumber market has “all the hallmarks of an unsustainable bubble“; and the Concrete Association is “flaming the fires” on wood construction in Denver.

Finally, BC protestors fail to convince a judge that civil disobedience is a necessity; while a new documentary blames Greenpeace for the Inuit’s high suicide rate.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News