For more than 80 years, the annual TLA Convention + Trade Show has been the premier gathering place for forestry’s top decision-makers. Whether you choose to sponsor the convention or exhibit at the trade show, your participation offers unmatched opportunities to connect, showcase, and grow your business. Unparalleled Networking: The TLA Convention + Trade Show brings together the leaders who shape the future of BC’s forest industry. As a sponsor or exhibitor, you’ll gain direct access to influential professionals—contractors, suppliers, government representatives, and business owners—all in one place. …Premium Brand Exposure: Visibility at the TLA Convention & Trade Show extends well beyond the event.
Sponsors enjoy high-profile recognition before, during, and after the convention, ensuring your brand stays top of mind among key industry players. Tracey Russell, Vice President-Equipment, Inland Truck & Equipment Ltd. is a regular at the Convention, “We sponsor the TLA Convention + Trade Show every year because it’s one of the best opportunities for exposure and relationship building – connections that have made a lasting impact on our business and our brand.”
The looming closure of a lumber mill in central BC is highlighting the forestry industry’s challenges in accessing an economically viable timber supply — with one academic urging an “emergency response” to deal with it. West Fraser Timber announced it would shut its mill in 100 Mile House by the end of the year. BC’s forestry industry has taken major hits over the last few years, as escalating US duties on softwood lumber imports have piled atop challenges like a major beetle infestation and wildfires, leading to thousands of jobs lost. …UBC professor Gary Bull explained that to have an “economically viable fibre supply,” it needs to make sense financially for a company to transport logs from a forest to its mill. And the viability is complicated by the fluctuating price of lumber. …Bull estimated that insect outbreaks and wildfires have contributed to a 50 to 60 per cent reduction in available fibre near 100 Mile House.
“The BCIT School of Construction and the Environment offers two Associate Certificate programs designed to support workforce development in the North American lumber and sawmill sector: 
VANCOUVER, BC — A large fire broke out on the banks of the Fraser River in Delta on Thursday morning. Fire crews from Delta and Surrey were called between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. to the former sawmill under demolition north of the Alex Fraser Bridge on Alaska Way. The land is owned by the Port of Vancouver and the organization confirmed the fire is at the site of the former mill. There are currently no impacts to port operations. …The fire broke out on the site of the former Acorn mill, which stopped operations after a blaze in April 2024. The sawmill was built in 1963 and was acquired by forestry giant Interfor in 2001. It was used primarily to cut specialty timber for traditional Japanese home construction. In 2022, 
The BC NDP’s new 
Delegates from B.C.’s largest forestry trade mission to Asia have returned home, bringing back business deals, signed agreements and deeper ties with key trading partners in Japan and South Korea, driving growth and investment for B.C.
The audience of dedicated urbanists at Vancouver’s Robson Square Theatre was startled earlier this year when the first speaker at a debate about mass timber—which B.C. has been promoting vigorously—said it isn’t the for-sure climate-change silver bullet that everyone likes to think it is. Adam Rysanek, a UBC professor of environmental systems who specializes in energy efficiency, poked hard at the assumption that, because everyone thinks of mass timber as just wood—a plant! that comes out of the ground!—it must be natural and environmentally friendly and surely better than concrete. But Rysanek kept making the point at the Urbanarium debate that those ideas are not fully proven. A study he cited, which aimed to factor in all the uncertainties of carbon emissions in different types of building materials, found there is not a clear answer yet about the differences between mass timber and concrete.
B.C. has invited stakeholders, experts, Indigenous partners and government representatives from throughout the country to a wildfire symposium in Vancouver on Dec. 5, 2025. The focus will be the 2025 wildfire season, wildfire technology, active forest management and national readiness for future wildfires. The symposium includes advancing discussions on a national leadership strategy and stronger collaboration that will shape the framework of wildfire resiliency in Canada. Enhancing a national framework for wildfire resilience, including the challenges and opportunities people and communities are facing, is one intended outcome for the upcoming symposium on wildfires to be hosted in B.C. After the second-worst wildfire season nationally, B.C. is leading the symposium to bring together national and international experts, provincial, federal and territorial governments, as well as key industry and Indigenous partners, with the goal of sharing best practices and considering mitigation and preparation steps for 2026.
A proactive new tool that can help preserve old forests in British Columbia has been developed by University of Alberta researchers. A new study gives crucial insight into where to focus conservation measures, by identifying areas of old-growth forest in areas predicted to be stable in the face of climate change. The approach shifts the focus toward what can still be protected, says Nick Pochailo, who led the study…. “Old-growth forests located in areas of potential climatic stability offer exceptional long-term conservation value. By identifying these places, land managers can prioritize and plan conservation efforts more effectively.” …old-growth forests account for about 25 per cent of BC’s forested areas. They’ve shrunk from 25 million hectares to about half that due to logging, wildfires, and pests like the mountain pine beetle… computer models predict how these ecosystems might shift by the 2050s, then mapped the changes to geographically pinpoint areas most likely to survive. 
A First Nation in north-central B.C. says it is banning the use of herbicides across all of its territory, which includes Prince George and the Robson Valley. The Lheidli T’enneh First Nation says the ban is being put into place because of the negative impacts herbicides, and glyphosate in particular, have had on the environment and wildlife for which they are stewards. “It is our duty to disallow toxic chemicals in our territory that reduce biodiversity and have negative impacts on our members’ health, wellbeing and the environment where we exercise our living rights and traditions,” Lheidli T’enneh Elected Chief Dolleen Logan said in a statement. She also says the nation expects both government and private industry workers operating in the region to adhere to the ban. It was not immediately clear if the ban would also apply to private and municipal property. More details coming Tuesday morning.
The new allowable annual cut (AAC) for Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 49 near Vernon has been chopped. The cut, which is the maximum amount of timber that can be harvested each year, is now 150,500 cubic metres, and takes effect immediately. That’s a 26.2% reduction from the previous AAC. “That decision reflects a return to sustainable harvest levels following wildfire impacts in 2021 and 2023,” said the 
The return of cold and snow at the close of the year typically signal the end of the wildfire season. …Zombie fires, sometimes betrayed by a plume of steam emerging from the bubbling ground in the frozen forest, were once a rare occurrence in the boreal regions that stretch across the far north through Siberia, Canada and Alaska. But in a rapidly heating world, they are becoming increasingly common. The overwintering burns are small – and often hard to detect – but they are transforming fires into multi-year events. …“It is a massive problem,” says Lori Daniels, a professor at the University of BC. Current estimates show that only about 15% of the northern hemisphere is underlain by permafrost, yet these frozen soils contain roughly twice as much carbon than is now in the atmosphere. By burning slowly and at a lower temperature, they release vastly more particulate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions than flaming fires.
The crowd stretched from the doors of City Hall to the Ward Street sidewalk in Nelson to hear guest speaker David Suzuki and other forest ecology advocates at a rally held Nov. 18 in Nelson. …The Broken Promises rally was held simultaneously in Nelson, Victoria, Vernon, Revelstoke, Smithers, Courtenay, Parksville, and Powell River to protest what is seen as provincial government backtracking on the protection of old growth forests, biodiversity and watersheds, and continuing with timber volume as the only priority. …Speaker Suzanne Simard said failure to use that foresight, to respect all life and give back more than we receive, has resulted in climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation. …She said the province should stop clearcutting and creating tree plantations that are flammable and subject to erosion. …Slocan Valley ecologist and forester Herb Hammond spoke about secondary forests… That’s where we should get our wood and our employment…
Nanaimo city council Coun. Paul Manly tabled a motion that asked staff to prepare a report with options for a zoning amendment for industrial lands that would exclude emissions-intense heavy industry such as “waste energy, incinerators, chemical plants, thermal electrical generators, petroleum refineries and [liquefied] natural gas export facilities” from existing industrial zones in order to require site-specific zoning. …Ryan Prontack, a manager for Harmac Pacific, Nanaimo Forest Products, also appeared as a delegation. He said Harmac is looking to diversify its operations and has about 61 hectares of industrial-zoned land ready to develop. “While this motion represents many different activities we currently do, it also represent many that we have plans to diversify in the future,” Protack said. Manly said the motion does not affect Harmac’s current operations and is not about “blocking industry uses in perpetuity” but is about ensuring the city has a democratic process to evaluate project proposals.
WorkSafeBC is holding a virtual public hearing on 
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