Blog Archives

Froggy Foibles

Smell something fishy? It may be this invasive tree that’s blooming in Ohio

By Ava Boldizar
WDTN.com
April 2, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States, US East

An invasive tree species that is illegal to plant in Ohio has begun to bloom, and will soon fill the air with a distinctive odor that many liken to rotting fish. Callery pear trees – which come in multiple varieties including “Bradford” pear, “Autumn Blaze” and “Cleveland Select” – typically begin to bloom in the state in late March to early April, according the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The species was brought to North America from Asia in the 1900s with the goal of combatting fire blight, a bacterial disease among common pear trees. The tree quickly become popular in landscaping due to its adaptability, white flowers and shape. It has also since become well-known for another one of its qualities – its odor. The tree’s blooms typically have a strong aroma, which has been likened to a variety of unpleasant scents, including rotting fish, puke and animal waste.

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Business & Politics

Democrats push vote on tariffs targeting Canada as Trump calls for Republican support

By Kelly Geraldine Malone
Business in Vancouver
April 2, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Democrats in the U.S. Senate are moving forward on a resolution to block sweeping tariffs targeting Canada as President Donald Trump presses Republican lawmakers to continue backing his trade agenda. Sen. Tim Kaine plans to force a vote on Trump’s use of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, also called IEEPA, to declare an emergency over fentanyl trafficking to hit Canada with devastating duties. “The president has justified the imposition of these tariffs on, in my view, a made-up emergency,” Kaine said Tuesday. U.S. government data shows the volume of fentanyl seized at the northern border is tiny. The Annual Threat Assessment report, released last week, does not mention Canada in its section on illicit drugs and fentanyl. The vote will test whether Republican senators continue to back Trump’s tariffs on Canada — tariffs that, according to polling, are not supported by most Americans.

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Premier’s statement on meeting with the prime minister

BC Office of the Premier
April 7, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Mark Carney and David Eby

“Our conversation focused on solutions for many of the issues facing the people we serve: from U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s attacks on our softwood lumber industry, to a national transportation corridor for goods and services, to expediting major projects and affordable housing. It is clear B.C.’s interests support Canada as a whole. “The prime minister and I spoke about building more housing with B.C. mass timber. At a time when Canadian forestry exports are facing an escalation in an ongoing trade war, we welcome an opportunity to meet the growing domestic and international demand for value-added wood products. “The American president’s renewed assault on our forestry sector needs the same Team Canada response as the manufacturing and auto industry jobs in Ontario and Quebec. The prime minister confirmed his understanding of the seriousness of the softwood issue and his commitment to work with us to address it proactively.

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What additional tariffs could mean for Canada’s softwood lumber

CBC News
April 2, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Liz Kovach, president of Supply-Build Canada, which represents lumber retailers, says tariffs are already impacting demand in the United States and inflating costs for consumers. Kovach says that a lot of lumber providers across Canada are family-owned and are an important part of their communities.

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National Wood Pallet and Container Association Announces 2025/2026 Board of Directors and Executive Committee

National Wood Pallet & Container Association
April 2, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

The National Wooden Pallet & Container Association (NWPCA) announced its 2025/2026 Board of Directors during its Annual Leadership Conference, held March 26-28, 2025, in Napa, California. Newly appointed Chair Hinton Howell, Hinton Lumber Products, expressed his gratitude for NWPCA members and past leaders, including Immediate Past Chair Jeff Lewis, Atlanta Pallets and Services, for his tremendous service the previous year. “I am grateful for our members and past leaders whose dedication has shaped the NWPCA. Their vision and leadership inspire me, and I look forward to what we will accomplish together.” As a leader in a family business with over 50 years in the industry, Howell emphasized the sector’s resilience and ongoing transformation.

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Tariffs Will Hurt Wood Products Industry In Vermont

By Ed Barber
Newport Vermont Daily Express
April 2, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

President Donald Trump is prepared to impose tariffs on many Canadian products that are shipped to the United States. Included on the list of tariffs are the wood products industry, which is facing a 25 percent tariff on products shipped south of the border. In response to the President’s actions, the Vermont House Committee on Agriculture and Forestry took testimony from two employees at the Agency of Natural Resources last week… In the past two years Vermont has lost two sawmills, becoming more reliant on Canada. Vermont imported $52 million in sawmill and wood products from Canada in 2024. Pierson said some of the wood was shipped from Vermont to Canada where it was processed and shipped south.

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Finance & Economics

Bill restores wildland homeowners’ insurance

April 2, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics

The Arizona House of Representatives recently passed out of the House, a wildfire insurance risk modeling bill, designed to reduce homeowner insurance cancellations, and help residents in wildfire prone regions to obtain homeowners’ insurance. Sponsored by District 7 Representative Dave Marshal, the bill would reduce the insurance companies practice of “blanket” cancellations of homeowner insurance. The key element of the legislation would cause the insurance companies to apply a wildfire risk modeling assessment on “individual” properties rather than the “blanket” assessments practice of entire neighborhoods… Property owners who want a cozy home in a small canyon surrounded by dense brush and low-level trees are at great risk of losing insurance coverage and losing their home to fire.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Canadian Wood Council releases new Environmental Product Declarations for 5 Canadian manufactured wood products

Canadian Wood Council
April 2, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada

The Canadian Wood Council (CWC) is pleased to announce the release of five new Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for Canadian softwood lumber, oriented strand board (OSB), plywood, trusses, and prefabricated wood I-joists. These EPDs provide comprehensive, transparent environmental data on the potential impacts associated with the cradle-to-gate life cycle stages of these essential wood products. Developed as regionalized, industry-wide business-to-business (B2B) Type III declarations, the EPDs comply with the highest international standards, including ISO 21930, ISO 14025, ISO 14040, ISO 14044, the governing product category rules, and ASTM General Program Instructions for Type III EPDs. This ensures credible, third-party verified environmental impact data, supporting designers, builders, and policymakers in making informed, sustainable material choices. The EPDs are available for download from the Canadian Wood Council’s digital resource hub.

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Heating with waste wood fibre is good for the city, council hears

By Colin Slark
Prince George Citizen
April 7, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Prince George city council took the first step in renewing its contract with Lakeland Mills Ltd. to supply fibre for the Downtown Renewable Energy System through 2026 with options to extend it through 2027 and 2028 at its Monday, April 7 meeting. From a central location near the intersection of Second Avenue and George Street, the system uses wood waste to power boilers that pump heated water to buildings across downtown Prince George like city hall, the Prince George Public Library, the Canfor Leisure Pool, the Ramada Hotel and more. The original contract with Lakeland Mills to supply the products used to power the boilers ran from 2012 to 2022. If the bylaw creating the new agreement eventually passes fourth reading, the new agreement would stretch retroactively from July 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2026 with options to extend it through 2027 and 2028.

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Forestry

New documentary highlights Indigenous forestry practices in Westbank

By Brittany Webster
Penticton Western News
April 9, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Indigenous Resource Network is releasing a new short documentary highlighting the story of Ntiyix Resources LP in Westbank.  ‘tmixʷ: A Holistic Commitment to Our Forests’ explores the connections between Indigenous forestry professionals and the land. “We are beyond excited to release ‘tmix’,” said John Desjarlais, executive director at IRN. “This project represents the IRN’s commitment to telling a meaningful story of the many examples of what ‘good’ looks like in natural resource development.” The film showcases the blend of traditional knowledge and modern forestry practices, while also addressing Okanagan wildfires and Indigenous-led management practices in forest restoration. ‘tmixʷ: A Holistic Commitment to Our Forests’ was released on April 9 and is available to watch on IRN’s YouTube channel here.

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West Vancouver dedicates another 262 acres of forest as park

By Nick Laba
North Shore News
April 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

On Monday, members of council, dignitaries, developers and elementary students gathered under rain-soaked tent tops to witness 262 acres of forest be dedicated as park. “This is a true milestone for our community,” Mayor Mark Sager said, reflecting back on the work of previous councils and activists to put the park dedication project – known as the Upper Lands – into motion. “Combining this parkland with the other areas [of previously dedicated park], we’re now creating 3,400 acres of continuous parkland, and I’m told it’s one of the largest urban parks in the world,” Sager said. Last May, the district dedicated 1,932 acres in the Upper Lands region as park.

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Protecting B.C. old-growth forests could yield $10.9B in benefits, report finds

By Stefan Labbe
Coast Reporter
April 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Protecting the most at-risk old growth forests in two B.C. timber supply areas would lead to $10.9 billion in economic benefits over the next century, a new report has found.  However, those gains would be wiped out if logging were to carry on as it is today across the Prince George and Okanagan timber supply areas, concluded the environmental consulting firm ESSA Technologies in a report published Monday. Together, the two timber supply areas (TSA) contain about 10 per cent of B.C.’s total old-growth forests mapped in 2021. If they were fully protected, modelling in the report found the two regions’ old-growth forests could generate up to $43.1 billion in net economic benefits over the next 100 years. That accounts for $4.1 billion in losses in timber production across the two supply area.

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Why does Alberta have an annual elm pruning ban?

By Harrison O’Nyons
High River Online
April 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Crews finished up the last of the tree pruning activity in Okotoks last week, giving way to the annual elm pruning ban. The ban is in place from April 1 to Sept. 30 of each year to prevent the spread of Dutch Elm Disease. Tree pruning is done in the ‘dormant season’ to target certain harmful species and diseases, as bark beetles rest during the winter months, and cuts aren’t likely to attract them. The beetles spread the disease by carrying the Ophiostoma ulmi fungus from tree to tree… Thanks largely to those efforts, Alberta has the largest Dutch elm disease-free American elm in the world.

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Landslide closes the only direct road between Vernon and West Kelowna

CBC News
April 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A debris slide in the central Okanagan has closed off the only direct road running between Vernon and West Kelowna. As Brady Strachan reports, it happened along steep slopes where a wildfire burned trees and vegetation two years ago. 

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Island broom busters call for volunteers as cutting season approaches

By Robert Barron
Comox Valley Record
April 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The wildfires that rampaged through and around Los Angeles at the beginning of the year prompted 120 new volunteers to join the Broombusters Invasive Plant Society in an effort to prevent the same catastrophe from happening here. Joanne Sales, executive director said that there’s been an increase in wildfires globally, and the primary culprit is climate change. She said on Vancouver Island, the main invasive species is Scotch broom and that FireSmart has listed the invasive plant as one of the highest-risk flammable plants in the region… those who are looking to stop its spread have said that allowing it to grow densely over the extensive network of B.C. Hydro’s transmission lines from Campbell River to Victoria creates a dangerous pathway for wildfires to spread quickly across the Island.

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Weir at Cowichan Lake to go into operation this month

My Cowichan Valley Now
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Cowichan Lake weir will be put into operation this month to regulate the water flow out of Cowichan Lake into the river. Crofton Pulp Mill Owner, Domtar, says it will be done to ensure an adequate flow can be maintained during the summer. Once the weir is mechanically and electrically confirmed to be ready for another control season, the boat lock gates will be lowered, and boaters will need assistance from Boat Lock operator to pass through. While the weir lock is operated 24 hours per day during control season, passage through the locks is intended to be a daylight activity… Paper Excellence, owner of the Crofton Mill, rebranded itself as Domtar after acquiring Domtar Corporation and Resolute Forest Products last year.

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New forestry partnership aims for sustainability, stewardship

By Don Urquhart
The Times Chronicle
April 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) and American forestry company Weyerhaeuser have struck what they describe as a “landmark partnership” to manage a tree farm licence (TFL) east of OIB reserve land near Oliver. The OIB said stewardship of their traditional territory “is both a responsibility and an opportunity”. Through this partnership, OIB says it has taken a co-leadership role in managing TFL 59, an area of “profound cultural, ecological, and economic significance”. The two aim to raise the benchmark for sustainable forestry by balancing modern forestry practices with traditional knowledge… The tenure has a broad and ambitious set of management objectives, including reducing wildfire risk, protecting water resources, enhancing wildlife habitat, increasing forest resiliency and rehabilitating areas impacted by the devastating 2021 wildfires.

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There are ways to support the forestry industry though tariffs, duties

By Curtis Galbraith
EverythingGP
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The senior vice president of the Alberta Forest Products Association says there are a few things people in the Peace can do to support an industry dealing with tariffs and duties. Brock Mulligan says there is “a huge opportunity to build more with our wood.” “We see a growing demand for recreation centres. We think that a lot of them should look like the Philip J. Currie (Dinosaur) Museum out in the County of Grande Prairie. Amazing, beautiful wood building.” “We also see increasing urbanization and folks living in increasingly taller apartment buildings and those should be built with resources that are made here in Grande Prairie.” Mulligan says there are 2500 forestry jobs in or near Grande Prairie between the Canfor, International Paper, Weyerhaeuser and West Fraser mills.

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Caribou herds will be destroyed under Alberta government draft plan, say conservation groups

By Peter Shokeir
Rocky Mountain Outlook
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Conservation groups are warning that a proposed Alberta government plan for a sub-region in west-central Alberta would wipe out two caribou populations if implemented. The draft plan for the Upper Smoky sub-region would enable the U.S.-based timber company Weyerhaeuser to entirely clearcut the last winter range forests… A Caribou Task Force, made up of Indigenous groups, industry, municipalities, various user groups and interest groups, had been established to advise the Alberta government on Upper Smoky sub-regional planning. These multi-stakeholder conversations were held from 2019 to 2021; however, none of the task force’s recommendations related to caribou conservation and recovery were reflected in the report. Public engagement runs until June 25 and can be completed online.

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First Nation-led innovation in forestry uses cultural burns and thinning to bring back food and wildlife

Bulkley Valley Research Centre
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jordan Gabriel

The Silviculture Innovation Program (SIP) of the Bulkley Valley Research Centre (BVRC), recently launched its first episode of a new series titled ‘Out On A Limb’. The goal of the series is to uplift voices of trailblazers in B.C. communities who are leading innovative management practices for the betterment of the forests of tomorrow. “The series helps tell stories to inspire and motivate practitioners who are carrying out innovative forestry practices by celebrating creative solutions to complex problems” shared Gillian Chow-Fraser, Extension Specialist for the SIP, a program created following the government-led Old Growth Strategic Review (2020) focused on increasing the uses of alternative forestry practices in B.C. The inaugural episode, released on March 31, features Líl̓wat Forestry Ventures (LFV) and highlights their unique holistic approach to forest management.

[Watch the first episode of this series on YouTube here]

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‘No one is investing’: Nova Scotia woodland owners concerned tariffs will negatively impact industry’s future

By Emma Convey
CTV Atlantic
April 3, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Julia and David MacMillan own 1,000 acres of woodland in West Tatamagouche, N.S. They currently grow around a million trees annually, consisting of around 35 to 37 commercial tree species, including spruce, maple, hemlock, ironwood, and balsam fir… The MacMillan family sells their product to roughly 15 companies. Some of the big ones include Irving, Ledwidge Lumber, Elmsdale Lumber and a paper mill in Port Hawkesbury, N.S. “If the sawmills and other mills in Nova Scotia that use the product, the other materials that we use from the woodlot, if those mills have to slow down or shut down as a result of the tariffs, then ultimately there is no market for the product that we make,” says David. The woodlot employs six full-time staff and 20 seasonal workers. Julia and David’s biggest fear when it comes to tariffs is the impact on their workers and their families.

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Caring for Trees After Ice Storms: Forests Canada Offers Guidance to Care for your trees

By Forests Canada
Wawa-news.com
April 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

In the wake of the recent ice storm in parts of Ontario and Southwestern Quebec, home and landowners should assess and care for damaged trees on their property. A loss of branches and foliage, split trunks, and even uprooted trees may need immediate attention to minimize any long-term impacts the damage may cause. Damage from ice storms can impact the ability of a tree to grow and make trees more susceptible to insects, disease, and additional damage in the event of future storms. Recovery depends largely on the initial health of the tree and the extent of damage incurred. Healthy trees with minimal crown loss (upper branches) should recover, and over time, the crown may even appear normal.

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Forest fire season begins today

By Jeff Turl
The Bay Today
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

There is still plenty of snow around, but today, April 1, marks the first day of the fire season. That means Ontario’s Outdoor Burning Regulations are now in effect for the Northeast Fire Region. There are currently no active wildland fires in the Northeast Region. If you live in Northwestern, Northeastern or North-Central Ontario, you must follow certain rules to have an outdoor fire. Also, check with your local municipality for any rules it may have. By law, you need a fire permit to burn wood, brush, leaves and grass outside during the fire season of April 1 – October 31.

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Economic realities cut into Trump timber plans

By Marc Heller
E&E News by Politico
April 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The Trump administration’s drive to harvest more timber from national forests will lead to a “thriving wood products economy” that doesn’t rely on imports, a top Forest Service official told the agency’s top brass in a memo last week. But the timber goal acting Associate Chief Chris French pinpointed — a 25 percent increase from current levels offered for sale — would fall short of the first Trump administration’s ambitions and barely make a dent in U.S. timber supplies, data shows. The chasm between the new administration’s rhetoric — cut more trees on national forests to reduce the country’s reliance on wood imports and rejuvenate the economy — and the math behind French’s memo reflect the hurdles to returning to the timber industry’s prosperous times around national forests… Timber industry representatives and others familiar with the Forest Service’s timber program point to several flaws in the administration’s timber-boom narrative, although the industry welcomes the Forest Service’s moves to step up production.

Related content:

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A notorious, tree-chewing pest could be making a comeback in Colorado

By Sam Brasch
CPR News
April 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

An insect known for turning entire mountainsides the color of rust could be making a resurgence in Colorado.  The pest is none other than the mountain pine beetle. After a roughly decade-long period of relatively lower populations, the bugs are rebuilding their numbers along the Front Range and in southwest Colorado, according to an annual forest health report published by the Colorado State Forest Service in late March. “I’m a little concerned moving in this summer because we really haven’t had any precipitation,” said Dan West, the forest entomologist for the Colorado State Forest Service. “I’m worried bark beetles are going to increase their populations in these drought-stricken trees.” Few bugs have had a more visible impact on forests across the western U.S.

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Logging company fined $16K for ‘Yellow Lake Fire’

By MI Jewkes
ABC4
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The U.S. Forest Service has imposed the maximum penalty of $16,000 on the logging company it holds responsible for starting last autumn’s Yellow Lake Fire. The penalty comes after a three-month-long investigation conducted by fire investigators with the U.S. Forest Service. At about 11 a.m. on Sept. 28, 2024, the only person on shift at the Duchesne Ridge Fuelwood Sale Site in the Uinta Mountains left for the day. Just over four hours later, dispatch received the first report of smoke in the area. According to the report, the fire was most likely started by friction from the logging company’s equipment. Despite having officials on the scene early, the fire grew to 150 acres overnight. The fire eventually became Utah’s largest wildfire in 2024, growing to over 33,000 acres.

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Millions of seedlings and cases of hot sauce: Behind the scenes at a Missouri state tree nursery

By Jana Rose Schleis
NPR – St. Louis Public Radio
April 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Cory W. MacNeil / KBIA

Every year, Missouri’s George O. White State Forest nursery sends out 2 million tree seedlings to customers across the state and beyond. The nursery was founded by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1930s to assist landowners in reforesting the state. The Ozarks had been heavily logged during the construction of railroads heading west. The original site was just 40 acres. It’s now owned and operated by the Missouri Department of Conservation. KBIA’s Jana Rose Schleis interviewed the staff growing and cultivating the trees on the now 100 acre site in Licking, Missouri… As for keeping wildlife from eating on the plots of snacks the nursery unintentionally makes available for them, the forest technicians use diluted Frank’s Hot Sauce sprayed over the fields. “We buy it in cases and Jeff City has never said a word about why we buy so much hot sauce.”

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Forging a Greener Future: Global Spirits Company and Conservation Leaders Continue Alliance to Plant 8,000 Trees for a Sustainable Future

By Chelsea Bowers
The Nature Conservancy Press Room – USA
March 31, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Continuing a four-year collaboration dedicated to enhancing environmental sustainability, Green Forests Work, Suntory Global Spirits, and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) are joining forces to reforest a former mine site in Hazard, Kentucky. This annual tree planting event underscores each organization’s strong commitment to restoring Kentucky’s natural habitats and fostering healthy environments for sustainable communities around the world… “Our premium spirits are made with agricultural ingredients, such as grains and agave, and we rely on healthy forests and White Oak trees for the barrels that age our spirits,” said Kim Marotta, Chief Environmental Sustainability Officer. “Given the significant role White Oak plays in our bourbon barrels, we’re committed to their regeneration and have set an ambitious goal of planting half a million trees by 2030.

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Apprenticeship Program Aims To Help California’s Struggling Logging Industry

By Keith Mizuchi
KQED
April 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

For centuries, logging was a seasonal, learn-on-the-job trade passed down from father to son. But as climate change and innovations in the industry have changed logging into a year-round business, there aren’t always enough workers to fill jobs. “Our workforce was dying,” said Delbert Gannon, owner of Creekside Logging. “You couldn’t even pick from the bottom of the barrel. It was affecting our production and our ability to haul logs. We felt we had to do something.” Retirements have hit Creekside Logging hard. In 2018 Gannon’s company had jobs to do, and the machines to do them, but nobody to do the work. He reached out to Shasta College, which offers certificates and degrees in forestry and heavy equipment operation, to see if there might be a student who could help.

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Governor Stitt floats the idea of dissolving Oklahoma Forestry Services

By Graycen Wheeler
KGOU
April 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Last week, Gov. Kevin Stitt criticized the Oklahoma State Forester’s response to the fires that blazed across Oklahoma in March. This week, the governor is floating the concept of axing the entire Forestry Services division. Stitt has said he believes the Oklahoma Forestry Service held back resources during the fires. When asked to specify which resources during a press conference, Stitt said he didn’t know. “The fact that we can’t get answers about where their assets were around the state is further proof that this is a deep-seated bureaucracy that are trying to protect their actions,” Stitt said. “We still haven’t been able to figure out where they were during that thing.” Just weeks after the fires, the state’s Chief Forester Mark Goeller resigned following criticism from the governor.

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Environmental groups launch lawsuit over the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan

By Katie Myers
WHQR Public Media
April 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

The Southern Environmental Law Center has sued the National Forest Service alleging its Nantahala-Pisgah Forest logging plan violates federal law. The lawsuit – filed on behalf of MountainTrue, the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Defenders of Wildlife – argues that the 2023 forest planning document is not in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act, or the National Procedure Act. The lawsuit seeks to have the Forest Service withdraw and revise its Forest Plan, which ultimately guides short- and long-term land management policies on federal lands. The full environmental review process for the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan took nearly a decade. It sets guidance for forest management of 1 million acres of national forest in Western North Carolina for the next two decades.

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Mississippi State University graduate student’s app fights illegal logging worldwide

By Vanessa Beeson
Mississippi State University
April 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Kyle Spessert

A Mississippi State graduate student is helping inspectors across the world identify timber species and combat illegal logging with a new smartphone application. Inspired by Asi Ebeheakey, a sustainable bioproducts doctoral student from Accra, Ghana, and developed as part of Kyatt Spessert’s master’s research in sustainable bioproducts, the innovative app WhatWood? provides a digital alternative to traditional wood-identification manuals used in Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Ghana by placing a dependable, field-ready resource in the palms of users’ hands. By correctly identifying wood quickly and effectively, Ebeheakey said inspectors can make an impact on illegal logging and the export of illegally prohibited or mislabeled wood. WhatWood? is free to download for iOS and Android devices at their respective app stores.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

One Million Acres of Forestland Conserved

By International Paper
PR Newswire
April 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

International Paper, the global leader in sustainable packaging solutions, today announced it exceeded its sustainability goal of conserving and restoring 1 million acres of ecologically significant forestland. This milestone achievement enhances biodiversity protection, strengthens carbon sequestration, and supports sustainable land management, reinforcing the company’s commitment to environmental stewardship and climate resilience. “We are thrilled to have surpassed one of our Healthy and Abundant Forest targets to conserve 1 million acres of ecologically significant forestland by restoring nearly 1,158,00 total acres, and we did so six years ahead of schedule,” said Sophie Beckham, Chief Sustainability Oficer, International Paper. “Reaching this milestone is a testament to the company’s ongoing commitment to nature conservation and to the great work of our conservation partners.” IP released its 2024 Sustainablity Report today too.

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Resilient growth in US forest carbon markets

By Gabriel Reis and Stuart Evans
Fastmarkets
April 1, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Over the last five years the forest carbon market in North America has experienced a period of rapid expansion, with a surge in dealmaking and heightened interest from institutional investors. In recent months, major corporations have signed high-profile offtake agreements for forest carbon credits, with the latest focus being on high quality-sequestration projects. At the same time, the uptake of Improved Forest Management (IFM) projects has grown, with over 1 million acres of IFM projects added in 2023 and 2024, reflecting the growing recognition of sustainable forestry as a viable tool for emissions removal and reduction. The rise in corporate demand for nature-based solutions, coupled with compliance frameworks including California’s cap-and-trade and emerging cap-and-invest systems, are reshaping the market landscape. Investors, timberland managers, and carbon project developers are competing in an increasingly competitive and innovative space.

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New University of Wyoming Scientist Helps Show That Responsible Logging Can Help Eastern Forests

University of Wyoming
April 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Dr. Sarah Germain

Responsible harvesting and other small disturbances can help make forests in the eastern United States more resilient to climate change, according to research by a new University of Wyoming faculty member… Forests of the eastern United States are important carbon storehouses. They remove carbon emissions from the air, packing them away into leaves, trunks, roots and soils. Eastern forests are responsible for 85 percent of all of the carbon taken up by U.S. forests. And the forests support biodiversity, timber products and other ecosystem services at the same time. But Eastern trees are becoming increasingly stressed by warming temperatures, which can slow their growth and reproduction. “It was comforting to learn that Eastern forests, which hold the most carbon in the U.S., are actually doing OK,” Germain says. “With moderate, status quo levels of disturbance, Eastern forests have the capacity to remain an important carbon sink.”

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Papua New Guinea lifts ban on forest carbon credits

Associated Free Press in France24
April 9, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

The island of New Guinea is cloaked in the world’s third-largest rainforest belt, helping the planet breathe by sucking in carbon dioxide gas and turning it into oxygen. Foreign companies have in recent years snapped up tracts of forest in an attempt to sell carbon credits, pledging to protect trees that would otherwise fall prey to logging or land clearing. But a string of mismanagement scandals forced Papua New Guinea to temporarily shut down this “voluntary” carbon market in March 2022. Environment Minister Simo Kilepa told AFP that, with new safeguards now in place, this three-year moratorium would “be lifted immediately”. “Papua New Guinea is uplifting the moratorium on voluntary carbon markets,” Kilepa said.

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Is Bolivia’s $1.2 Billion Deal to Protect Its Forests a Climate Boon—or a False Solution?

By Nicholas Kusnetz
Inside Climate News
April 8, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Sometime next month, the Bolivian government and a company you probably haven’t heard of are poised to offer what could be the largest single sale of carbon credits in history. The deal will be unusual not only for its size—$1.2 billion, organizers said—but also because it will be backed by a national government and packaged under new rules developed as part of the Paris Agreement. Depending on who you ask, the sale could mark a new frontier in global climate finance, the latest offering in a long and dubious line of carbon credits or, potentially, a giant escalation in corporate greenwashing… “I don’t think a lot of people even in the climate world quite appreciate how much volume and activity may be emerging quickly from this new area,” said Danny Cullenward, an economist and lawyer focused on the scientific integrity of climate policy.

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Corgan offers a tool to measure mass timber’s real production carbon footprint

By John Caulfield
Building Design and Construction Network
April 7, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Global demand for wood as a building material is expected to quadruple by 2050. Demand is being driven in part by the rising popularity of mass timber for its aesthetics and eco friendliness. One of the perceived advantages of choosing mass timber panels and components for construction and renovation is their lower production-related greenhouse gas emissions vis-a-vis conventional wood products and other building materials like steel or concrete. But the notion that producing mass timber is carbon neutral—one of its key selling points for developers and AEC firms looking to reduce a project’s carbon footprint—has come under greater scrutiny, and has led one firm, Corgan, to develop a tool that calculates CO2 from mass timber, including the harvesting and transporting processes that, according to a recent paper published by Nature, could add between 3.5 billion and 4.2 billion metric tons of GHG emissions annually to the atmosphere by 2050, the equivalent of roughly 10% of recent CO2 emissions.

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Renewable carbon needs smarter policy to boost European Union’s circular future

By Anna Gumbau
Eurativ.com
April 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

As the EU pushes to meet its climate neutrality targets by 2050, the concept of ‘renewable carbon’ is rising fast in both policy and industry circles. Unlike fossil carbon, which is extracted from underground and released into the atmosphere during production and consumption, renewable carbon comes from above-ground sources, biomass, recycled materials, and captured CO2. In short, it’s carbon that is already part of the ongoing carbon cycle. “Renewable carbon is not just about replacing fossil-based materials: it’s about rethinking how we design, use, and reuse resources across industries,” said Michael Carus, managing director of the Germany-based Nova Institute during a recent event hosted by EURACTIV and Metsä Group. This kind of thinking is gaining traction among companies looking to green their supply chains. Wood-based products, for instance, have a unique potential to store carbon for long periods when used in construction or durable goods, making them a crucial component of a low-carbon, circular economy.

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Forest Fires

How South Korea’s largest and deadliest wildfire spread

By Heejung Jung and Vijdan Mohammad Kawoosa
Reuters
April 9, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: International

REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

The wildfires in North Gyeongsang province began in Uiseong county before spreading 70 km (44 miles) east, to devastate an area equivalent to about two-thirds of the island of Singapore and much larger than the Los Angeles fires in January. “Strong, dry winds blew from the west. The wind had the biggest impact,” said Lim Sang-seop, the minister of the Korea Forest Service, adding that smoke and fog reduced visibility this week, presenting a bigger challenge to helicopters seeking to douse the flames. Experts have said the spread of the Uiseong fire was extremely unusual in terms of scale and speed, while climate change is expected to make wildfires more frequent and deadly globally.

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