Logging irony: Unsustainable logging practices, unfair trade arguments threaten Alberta caribou

By Kirby Smith, retired Alberta wildlife biologist
Alberta Daily Herald Tribune
April 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Irony is one of Alberta’s most sustainable products. A current example is Weyerhaeuser, an American timber giant, with significant questions about environmental conservation and trade fairness. This company, alongside other American timber enterprises, have fervently lobbied the US Government to impose tariffs on softwood lumber imported from Canada. …Wearing its faux-Canadian hat, Weyerhaeuser, a Forest Management Agreement Holder, is now proposing to clear-cut log the remaining core forested winter range of the Redrock-Prairie Creek and Narraway southern mountain caribou populations. This proposal endangers the future of these already threatened caribou, which rely on these forests for their survival during winter. …Why should Albertans allow the future of these caribou populations to be jeopardized for the sake of supporting a US company? This same company has argued that Canadian softwood lumber is unfairly subsidized, yet it sees no issue with exploiting provincial lands in Alberta at fire-sale prices.

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