Blog Archives

Special Feature

Summary Wrap-Up: 80th Annual Truck Loggers Association Convention and Trade Show

The Tree Frog News
January 23, 2025
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Tree Frog News has been featuring the panels and speakers from the Truck Loggers Association convention over the last week. For those who missed the coverage, here are the summarized stories from the panels, presentations, and discussions – all written by the Tree Frog’s very own editors!

Day One – January 15, 2025

Day Two – January 16, 2025

Day Three – January 17, 2025

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Froggy Foibles

‘An unremarkable place’: One-star reviews of Vancouver’s iconic Stanley Park

By Brendan Kergin
Vancouver is Awesome
January 30, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada, Canada West

Vancouver has plenty of highlights for locals and visitors to enjoy, but if you search for “the Jewel of Vancouver” online, there’s one clear result: Stanley Park. At the same time, you’ll find many people unimpressed by Vancouver’s awesome park. The vast majority of reviews are five- and four-star, but there are always going to be folks who disagree and drop one-star reviews on this not-so-hidden gem. So we went and read them on platforms like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Google. Perhaps the most surprising (and to some, hilarious) reviews of the park were the ones who seemed to just not like it.

  • “Fairly boring if you’re looking for an outdoors experience,”
  • “All I can see it seems is more trees”
  • “Nothing spectacular to see, yeah, lots of trees but I didn’t get to see any wildlife except 1 squirrel,”

Another person on TripAdvisor (who has posted over 5,000 reviews) titled their review “Too many trees.”

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Business & Politics

Province Investing $100 Million in Job Training to Protect Ontario Workers

The Province of Ontario
January 27, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

The Ontario government is stepping up to protect Ontario workers in the face of potential American tariffs on Canadian goods by investing an additional $100 million in the province’s Skills Development Fund (SDF) Training Stream, bringing the total provincial investment in SDF to $1.5 billion. This investment will support workers in fields including manufacturing, construction, critical mineral extraction and other skilled trades, providing them with the skills and training they need to secure better jobs and bigger paycheques while protecting Ontario’s economy… “The Ontario Forest Industries Association welcomes additional investment in the Skills Development Fund,” said Ian Dunn, President & CEO. “This commitment will help ensure workers in Ontario’s forestry sector—and across the province—are equipped with the skills and training needed to thrive in an increasingly competitive global market. By investing in our forestry workforce, Premier Ford’s government is strengthening our economy and supporting industries that are vital to Ontario’s growth and resilience.”

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Finance & Economics

Manulife Investment Management closes $480m Forest Climate Fund

By Sergio Barreto
Alternatives Watch
January 28, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

Manulife Investment Management held the final close of its Forest Climate Fund, securing $480.1 million in commitments from U.S. and global investors seeking to combat climate change through sustainable forest management. The fund, which prioritizes carbon sequestration over timber production, aims to capture more than 6 million tons of carbon dioxide throughout its term while providing investors with high-quality carbon credits and the option for offset sales or in-kind distributions… Manulife IM, which oversees more than five million acres of timberland, operates within the firm’s $100 billion private markets platform, which includes various alternative investments as of Oct. 31, 2024. Eric Cooperstrom, managing director of impact investing and natural climate solutions at Manulife IM, noted, “Investors are showing confidence in forests as a top natural climate solution.”

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After the wildfires: What a long rebuilding process will look like for Los Angeles homeowners

By Bob Woods
CNBC
January 26, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US West

While the current wildfires are forecast to be the costliest in U.S. history, the Golden State, unfortunately, is all too familiar with rebuilding communities wracked by previous wildfires, including Santa Rosa and Paradise in Northern California in 2020. That was 10 years after the state’s fire codes went into effect, so contractors are attuned to working with fire-resistant materials. Increased demand, however, could possibly stress materials manufacturers as well as their shippers, distributors and retailers. Specifically regarding lumber, though, increased tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump on Canada, a major source, might burden supply chains and raise prices, which will be absorbed by homeowners. “That could have a far greater impact on the cost of rebuilding in California than any [materials] price increases or enhanced marketplace dynamics,” Dunmoyer said.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

B.C. projects honoured with 2024 Structural Engineering Excellence Awards

The REMI Network – Real Estate Management Industry Network
January 27, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Two B.C. projects were named winners at the 2024 Structural Engineering Excellence (SEE) Awards. Presented by the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations, the annual awards honour projects that showcase ingenuity, technical skill, and groundbreaking design in the field.

  • The Presentation Centre at Fraser Mills exemplifies innovative mass timber systems through its inventive structural engineering and community-focused design. Notably, the Centre is among the first in British Columbia to use cantilevered glulam columns for lateral support. 
  • The new Tall Timber Student Housing tower at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Burnaby, British Columbia represents a shift forward in tall, hybrid, encapsulated mass timber construction. Utilizing the latest advances in engineered wood products, pre-fabrication, and encapsulation strategies, this project represents significant progress in the field of hybrid-mass timber buildings.

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Companies lean into paper packaging innovations amid scrutiny of plastic

By April Reese
Packaging Dive
January 27, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Regulatory requirements and consumer demand are pushing more companies to switch from plastic to paper for everything from packing peanuts to beverage bottles. But some groups question whether paper is truly a better alternative and how much it helps companies meet their sustainability commitments. Mounting evidence of plastic’s potentially adverse effects on the environment and public health are gaining attention. For example, about 98% of single-use plastic products are made from fossil fuel feedstock, and greenhouse gas emissions from the production, use and disposal of these plastics are expected to rise to 19% of the global carbon budget by 2040, according to the United Nations Environment Program. In response to these growing concerns, regulators at every level of government have adopted new policies.

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Architecture firm clads “first all-wood” mass-timber structure in Mexico with translucent panels

By Ben Dreith
Dezeen
January 30, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Architecture studio PPAA has unveiled the first building in the country with a structure constructed predominantly of mass timber, claiming it is a “milestone in Mexican architecture”. Located in an industrial complex in Querétaro, Mexico, the building has a structure made almost completely from engineered wood products, prefabricated and assembled on-site, with only the stairwells made of metal. PPAA founder Pablo Pérez Palacios told Dezeen that he chose mass timber for its sustainability, reduced labour costs and the speed of construction, though he noted that mass timber is currently more expensive in Mexico than other common building materials such as steel or concrete… The facade was made from polycarbonate sheets called Danpal, which were chosen to increase the project’s light diffusion, weather resistance and energy efficiency.

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Swedish startup to build pilot plant for wood-based material that purifies the air

The Next Web
January 28, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Swedish startup Adsorbi has secured €1mn to ramp up production of a cellulose-based material that sucks up pollutants from the air. Bordes and Grenda, the chief researchers, originally wanted to develop new ways to protect works of art from harmful pollution. But in the process, they discovered a way to turn cellulose from Sweden’s abundant forests into an air purification material with wide-ranging applications… The substance — which looks like little, white pieces of sponge — promises a better, greener alternative to activated carbon, the current market standard. Adsorbi claims its product lasts longer, doesn’t release any hazardous organic compounds back into the air, and is water and fire-resistant. Plus, the material has half the carbon footprint of activated carbon, the startup said.

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The shape-shifting biomaterials that make buildings move

World Bio Market Insights
January 22, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

One of the amazing things about plants is their ability to change shape in response to environmental stimuli such as light and moisture, even without a brain or central nervous system. Now, a new generation of biomaterials is similarly able to respond to environmental cues… The research started off with cellulose – a material found in plants that changes size in line with humidity levels around it… In terms of borrowing from nature, this adaptive material ticks all the boxes. First, it is made from plant raw materials. Cellulose is an abundant natural material found in the cell walls of plants, fruits, leaves, and vegetables. Second, the cellulose is processed in ways that are inspired by the makeup of biological organisms. In short, it is both a biomaterial (made from biological stuff) and a bio-inspired material (designed based on biological mechanisms).

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Forestry

Why the Douglas fir is disappearing from our forests

By James Steidle
Prince George Citizen
January 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Our new forest minister has been touring the North, trying to learn about forestry, and I hope, forests. I sure hope someone is telling him about the need to stop clearcutting Douglas fir forests… Douglas fir represent only two per cent of our forests in the Prince George Timber Supply Area. It’s a relatively fire-resistant conifer species with good biodiversity values we could use more of, not less… Douglas fir seedlings have a higher rate of failure compared to lodgepole pine. They are vulnerable to frost damage. During heatwaves the sun can cook them… This report identified another threat to Douglas fir regeneration: the elimination of our critical deciduous species. Douglas Fir, the report argues, are protected and enhanced by the deciduous “brush” that we currently eliminate from our regenerating stands, either with herbicides or with brush saws.

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Preserving the legacy of Cochrane’s Grandfather Tree

Cochrane Municipality Press Release
January 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

On January 30, the Parks and Open Spaces Department will begin safety work on the Grandfather Tree following its fall during the windstorm earlier this month. To ensure public safety, the Grandfather Tree trail will be temporarily closed to all bicycle and pedestrian traffic during this time. The Town of Cochrane kindly asks residents and visitors to respect posted signage and follow any guidance provided by staff working in the area… Propagation specialists have successfully collected seeds and meristem cuttings from the top of the tree. They are working closely with a grower to propagate the seed and are also exploring innovative tissue culture micropropagation techniques to create potential clones of the tree. These efforts aim to preserve the Grandfather Tree’s unique genetic legacy for future generations.

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Extra forestry staff to help address issues like Dutch elm disease

By Jason G. Antonio
SaskToday
January 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

With Moose Jaw’s Dutch elm trees “struggling” because of disease, city hall is hoping that hiring two more forestry staff will enable crews to address symptomatic trees and remove dead wood promptly. During a recent 2025 budget meeting, city council voted unanimously to allocate $72,356 to the community service department’s operating budget to expand staffing in the forestry division. This funding will help the city provide a full-time, four-person crew for 30 weeks per year and a two-person crew for 22 weeks during the fall and winter, a budget report said. More staff — there is currently a two-person, year-round crew — would improve response times for service requests, shorten tree pruning cycles, enhance public safety, reduce property damage and promote the urban forest’s long-term health.

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Forestry job losses could reshape the West Kootenay’s future

By Samantha Holomay
Castanet
January 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

As the challenges facing the West Kootenay’s forestry sector deepen, many have expressed concern over the potential for significant job losses. Tom Thomson, executive director of the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce (NDCC), highlighted the potential ripple effects of the proposed 25 per cent tariffs from the U.S. “Forestry jobs are the backbone of Nelson,” said Thomson. “ If those jobs disappear the ripple effects are felt everywhere…It trickles down.” “It’s a bit too early to say for sure,” he added. “It could lead to huge layoffs in the forestry and manufacturing areas.”.. The provincial government has stated through a preliminary assessment that they project to lose $69 billion in economic growth between 2025 and 2028. They also proposed that the province’s gross domestic product (GDP) could decline by 0.6 per cent each year, with an estimated 124,000 job losses by 2028.

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Men who planted Centennial Square sequoia speak out against its removal

By Andrew A. Duffy
Victoria Times Colonist
January 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Stu Montgomery, left, Tom Rose and Michael Leahy

You can add the names of the three men who planted it to the long list of people opposed to the City of Victoria removing a giant sequoia to make way for a re-imagined Centennial Square. Tom Rose, Mike Leahy and Stu Montgomery, the three-man city horticulture crew that planted the tree on a late-winter day in the early 1980s, say they just don’t understand why it has to come down. “It’s a waste,” said Montgomery, 67, who retired in 2012 from the city after 37 years tending boulevards, sports fields and a stint overseeing Centennial Square. “It doesn’t make any sense.” The tree and the fountain would both be removed in a proposed $11.2-million redesign of the 60-year-old civic landmark.

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What Squamish learned from California’s wildfires

By Bhagyashree Chatterjee
The Squamish Chief
January 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

In a place surrounded by breathtaking forests and rugged mountains, wildfire preparedness is more than just a precaution—it’s a community effort.  With climate change bringing longer, drier seasons, Squamish residents are coming together to protect their homes and neighbourhoods through the FireSmart program. Squamish faces heightened wildfire vulnerability due to a combination of topography, weather, and fuel accumulation. Squamish’s growing tourism and development also impact wildfire risks. Reflecting on lessons from the current and recent wildfires in California and beyond, Emily Wood, FireSmart co-ordinator, stressed preparation. “FireSmart is the best way to protect your home, and small steps like clearing debris or removing flammable vegetation can make a huge difference.” Wood also pointed to bylaws prohibiting highly flammable plants like cedar and juniper near structures. “These regulations are critical, but enforcement can be challenging,” she acknowledged.

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Tariff threats add to Nelson business uncertainty

By Tom Thompson
Nelson Star
January 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Ken Kalesnikoff

What is the impact of a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian products being sold to the U.S.? Let’s look at forestry. Regionally there are local companies employing local people with good jobs, and supporting local contractors and spin- offs to dozens or hundreds of small businesses. The B.C. lumber industry is watching closely. Locally, members of the Interior Lumber Manufacturers such as Kalesnikoff, Atco Wood Products and Porcupine say it is obviously top of mind. Ken Kalesnikoff says there has not been much certainty in the forestry sector for many years, and the uncertainty of lumber tariffs is yet another challenge for the local forestry companies. As much as they don’t know the exact impact yet, it is a huge concern.

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Indigenous communities in B.C. and California promote cultural burns for disaster mitigation

By Santana Dreaver
CBC News
January 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West, US West

Joey Gonzales, a Tataviam and Chumash model and actor from southern California, is one of the thousands of Indigenous people in California who watched their homeland burn.  “What’s really missing is the Indigenous perspective on these fires, knowing that they could have been prevented.” Cultural burning is a traditional fire management practice that has been used by Indigenous peoples in Canada, the U.S. and around the world to eliminate fuel build-up that contributes to the intensity of wildfires and promotes the regrowth of native species that local Indigenous communities depend on… Mata-Fragua says it’s important for those involved in disaster mitigation to acknowledge and encourage Indigenous practices because Indigenous peoples have been caring for those lands for thousands of years and understand the geography of their regions.

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Port Colborne council approves $55K for Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority tree-planting plan

By Rose Lamberti
Niagara This Week
January 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Port Colborne council has approved an agreement with the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) to support tree planting on private land through the Trees For All Initiative. The city will provide $55,000 from its 2025 tree planting operating budget for the program, with additional annual funding of up to $35,000 available until 2031, contingent on landowner participation.  The initiative was launched in 2023 in line with the federal government’s 2 Billion Trees Program, which aims to restore and expand Canada’s forests to improve air and water quality. The expansion plan is part of the NPCA’s key priorities in protecting and improving biodiversity in its watershed.

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Feds announce $2.7M toward climate change adaptation projects

By Tyler Clarke
Sudbury.com
January 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Five efforts in Northern Ontario are receiving a total of $2.7 million in federal funding to work on climate change adaptation projects. Four of these projects are based in Sudbury and one is in Mattawa, and they include such things as creating educational programming and climate change adaptation plans. Wednesday’s funding comes from a greater pool of $39.5 million the federal government announced last year to “help improve long-term resilience and reduce costs associated with the increasing frequency of extreme weather events in Canada… The Canadian Institute of Forestry is getting $190,687 to develop a climate change adaptation multi-module course for the development of a national climate adaptation and resilience professional development program for forest professionals.

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Utility company says it needs to log 5 acres of Portland’s mature forest. City staff are skeptical

By April Elrlich
Oregon Public Broadcasting
January 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A utility company wants to cut through 5 acres of mature Doug fir and big leaf maples in a massive Portland urban forest to make way for new transmission lines. Portland General Electric executives say the company needs to improve its infrastructure to meet Portland’s electricity demands, particularly as it moves away from fossil fuels and prepares the grid to carry more renewably generated power. The company plans to meet that goal by removing 400 trees through intact, mature forest to install new power poles and 1,400 feet of transmission lines. The proposal has drawn fierce opposition from environmental groups, as well as the city of Portland itself. That opposition was on display during a public hearing Wednesday, where city staff recommended a hearings officer deny PGE’s plan. A decision is expected in early March.

Related coverage in Portland Mercury: “A Dangerous Precedent”: PGE Faces Major Backlash for Forest Park Utility Proposal

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Federal budget uncertainty stalls Forest Service thinning projects

By Peter Aleshire
Payson Roundup
January 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

At the worst possible moment, budget uncertainty has effectively stalled the Forest Service’s effort to thin the forest to reduce the risk of wildfires: That’s the message Forest Service officials delivered to the Eastern Arizona Counties Natural Resources Committee last week. The Forest Service had already imposed a hiring freeze before the congressional budgeting process fell apart. Congress in January adopted a continuing resolution to get through March and avert a government shutdown. The continuing resolution was necessary just to allow the federal government to spend money Congress included in its last adopted budget for the current fiscal year starting in October. But it’s still unclear whether the new Republican majorities in the House and Senate can agree on fresh action to lift the debt ceiling and adopt either another continuing resolution or an actual budget. Some Republicans have demanded steep cuts in previously approved spending to rein in the federal deficit.

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Forest Service, environmentalists settle Kettle Range timber lawsuit regarding lynx

By Michael Wright
The Spokesman-Review
January 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review

Federal officials and an environmental group have settled a lawsuit over a Kettle Range timber project’s potential impacts on Canada lynx. The Kettle Range Conservation Group and the Colville National Forest finalized an agreement last week that ends a lawsuit over the Bulldog Project, a combination of logging and prescribed burning the agency had planned on about 13,600 acres in the Kettle Range and a nearby area known as the Wedge. The Kettle Range Conservation Group sued over the project in 2023, arguing that it would damage important habitat for lynx, which have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 2000. The suit raised concerns with a 2020 update to the agency’s lynx analysis units, which shrank the area protected as habitat for the snow-loving big cats. In the settlement agreement filed last week, the Forest Service agreed to return to its previous lynx unit boundaries and to not authorize timber work within the units, both old and new.

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Whatcom Million Trees Project continues planting new trees and sustaining old growth

By Ellie Coberly
My Bellingham Now
January 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

In 2021, a nonprofit formed to answer county executive Satpal Sidhu’s call to plant one-million trees in Whatcom. The organization, Whatcom Million Trees Project (WMTP), has now planted over 2,800 trees and protected nearly 323,000. The mission is to plant and protect mature trees, while also connecting people to nature and spreading the understanding of why trees and forests are so important to our region. The planting and protecting takes place in community parks and neighborhoods, as well rural lands in more remote parts of the county. Though the group clarifies that young saplings won’t add notable climate or biodiversity benefits for years, they hope to spread hope though the communal planting of trees.

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Phillips named manager of Clemson Experimental Forest

Bu Jonathan Veit
Clemson News
January 27, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Wayne Phillips

Clemson University has named Wayne Phillips, a forester with 28 years of experience across all aspects of the forestry supply chain, as the new manager of the Clemson Experimental Forest. Phillips takes over management of the forest after eight years as area marketing manager with Weyerhaeuser, a timber, land and forest products company that owns or manages 28 million acres of forestland. Phillips is the seventh manager of the 18,000-acre forest since Clemson College began supervising the land in 1939 under an agreement with the federal government. Over nearly 100 years, careful management has transformed the land from depleted row crop farmland to a resource for teaching, research and outreach, as well as a valued community asset.

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This Bill to Reduce Wildfires Might Actually Make Them Worse

By Will Peischel
The New Republic
January 27, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Fix Our Forests Act, co-sponsored by a Republican receiving substantial donations from the logging industry, makes it easier to bypass environmental review on federal lands. It would allow loggers to more easily thin forests by reducing environmental regulations and public input. The thinking is that reducing tree counts means reducing wildfire fuel. However, the most dangerous fires—the ones that threaten densely populated areas—rarely begin deep in the woods. For example, the Los Angeles firestorms “originated in very brushy areas just outside of town, then became an urban configuration issue,” said Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology, or FUSEE. “No amount of logging would have saved anything—it’s this spurious connection.”

Related content from UtilityDrive: PG&E, other electric utilities call for Senate to pass forest management bill

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With Trump’s new pro-timber order, Alaska conservationists poised to rehash Tongass Roadless Rule

By Jack Darrell and Michael Fanelli
Alaska Public Media
January 27, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

In the first two days of his new term, President Donald Trump signed more than 200 executive orders. One was aimed at accessing more natural resources in Alaska. It attempts to roll back protections on over 9 million acres of Tongass National Forest, potentially opening them up for logging… The Juneau-based Southeast Alaska Conservation Council has been fighting to keep most of the Tongass roadless for decades. Council Director Maggie Rabb said it’s hard to predict what this administration will do next… Rabb said that the conservation council is not anti-logging. There is still active logging in the Tongass. For Rabb, the Roadless Rule has been an effective tool to protect old growth without actually ending logging. “The push to roll back the Roadless Rule has very little to do with on-the-ground realities in Southeast Alaska or market demand, and it’s very much about external agendas that are disconnected from our region,” she said.

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Earth’s Largest Organism Slowly Being Eaten, Scientist Says

By Richard Elton Walton
The Conversation
January 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

In the Wasatch Mountains of the western US on the slopes above a spring-fed lake, there dwells a single giant organism that provides an entire ecosystem on which plants and animals have relied for thousands of years. Found in my home state of Utah, “Pando” is a 106-acre stand of quaking aspen clones. Although it looks like a woodland of individual trees with striking white bark and small leaves that flutter in the slightest breeze, Pando (Latin for “I spread”) is actually 47,000 genetically identical stems that arise from an interconnected root network. This single genetic individual weighs around 6,000 metric tons. By mass, it is the largest single organism on Earth. Although Pando is protected by the US National Forest Service and is not in danger of being cut down, it is in danger of disappearing due to several other factors.

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Inclusion of indigenous voices in revised Northwest Forest Plan focus of symposium

By Ryan Bonham
KEZI News 9 Oregon
January 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Northwest Forest Plan is undergoing a once-in-a-generation amendment process and a symposium held on Wednesday afternoon on the University of Oregon campus worked to make sure that vital voices are included in the process. The symposium brought together multiple groups to make sure that the voices of indigenous communities, environmental justice advocates, and others are included in the forest plan’s amendment process. The goal is to educate the community about the critical importance of including indigenous perspectives and indigenous leadership in solving the climate and wildfire crisis affecting northwest forests… Nearly 280 people attended the symposium that was held in the Redwood Auditorium at the Erb Memorial Union. More details on the symposium can be found on the University of Oregon’s website.

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What makes a neighbourhood resilient to fires?

By Umair Irfan
Vox
January 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Yana Valachovic

Wildfires are a fact of life in California. As the flames die down and residents return, this moment presents an opportunity to think more holistically about reducing wildfire risk in Los Angeles and other fire-prone regions. “There’s a lot that we can do as residents and homeowners to really change that trajectory and make small, often inexpensive actions that can make a big difference in changing the outcome when our buildings are exposed to the pathways of wildfire,” said Yana Valachovic, a fire scientist at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network… “I’m a licensed professional forester, so I will share my bias that I do like wood. We grow a lot of trees in California. It is our available natural resource, and I think it’s important to be able to use what you have in your community. The wood itself is combustible, but there are treatments that can make it fire-resistant.”

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The Need for Seed

The Nature Conservancy
January 27, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

The Nature Conservancy in Minnesota and our partners have an ambitious, collective goal to reforest a million acres in Minnesota. We can’t do that without a steady supply of tree seedlings. To get seedlings, we need seed. Lots and lots of seed… Seed scouts are doing the important work of collecting seeds. The work is year-round. A lot of planning goes into collection: the scouts must find a viable site where there are several trees of the desired species to ensure genetic diversity, they must get permission from the landowner or agency in charge of the site and they must find the right time to collect, when the seeds are ripe and beginning to fall, but before they become infested with bugs or eaten by wildlife.

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New iForester application puts tree knowledge in the public’s pockets

By Emily Matchar
Purdue University
January 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Imagine you’re a landowner with dozens or hundreds of mature hardwood trees — not a stretch, since the majority of forestland in the U.S. is privately owned. If you want to know the trees’ value, you’ll need to hire a professional forester. What if, before you start working with the forester, you could gain preliminary information about the trees’ value and other features with your phone? That’s the hope behind iForester, an app developed by Purdue University’s Song Zhang, a professor of mechanical engineering, and Cheryl Qian, a professor of industrial design, in collaboration with Songlin Fei, director of the Institute for Digital Forestry. The idea for the app was born over dinner at a colleague’s house about three years ago. The two began to discuss the digital divide in forestry — the way some members of society, especially rural residents, don’t have equal access to new technology.

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Global ‘gigantism’ hotspot: Tasmanian tree standing at almost 100m tallest in the country

By Petra Stock
The Guardian
January 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Australian researchers have documented the tallest and most massive living trees in Tasmania, a “global hotspot of gigantism in plants”, including 18 examples over 90 metres. Most of the largest and tallest were Eucalyptus regnans, commonly known as mountain ash, including a tree known as “Centurion”, measuring 96 metres, according to new research in the Australian Journal of Botany. Located in the state’s Huon Valley, Centurion was once the world’s second tallest specimen, behind “Hyperion”, a coastal redwood in California measuring 115.6 metres. This made Australia, and especially Tasmania, a “global hotspot of gigantism in plants”, according to co-author Dr David Bowman, a professor of fire science at the University of Tasmania with a background in eucalypt ecology. Bowman said Tasmanian eucalypts were the “kings and queens of the forest” that were achieving “the physiological limit of what a giant tree can be”.

Related content from Yahoo!News: Hunters of Australia’s rare ‘giant trees’ warn time running out to visit them

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‘We’re devastated at losing Edinburgh’s tallest tree’

By Angie Brown
BBC Scotland
January 27, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The man in charge of the tallest tree in Edinburgh said he is “devastated” it has been felled by Storm Éowyn – 166 years after it was planted during a visit by Queen Victoria’s eldest son, Albert. Simon Milne, Regius Keeper at The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, said his “heart sank” when he walked over the hill and saw the 100ft (30m) Himalayan cedar lying on the ground. He told BBC Scotland News it was one of 15 trees uprooted or broken beyond recovery in Scotland’s national botanical collection, with a further 25 others badly damaged. The species of tree is known to live for 600 years in its native habitat so it was not in its later stages of life.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Canada Unveils Direct Air Capture And Storage Offset Protocol

By Violet George
Carbon Herald
January 30, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

Canada is advancing its carbon removal strategy by developing a protocol for Direct Air Carbon Dioxide Capture and Geological Storage (DACCS).  This plan will establish a system for companies that extract CO2 directly from the atmosphere and permanently store it underground to generate federal offset credits. These credits will be tradable under Canada’s existing Greenhouse Gas Offset Credit System Regulations. This initiative aims to stimulate investment in the nascent field of direct air capture (DAC) technology, which is considered a critical tool for mitigating climate change.  The proposed protocol, released by Environment and Climate Change Canada, is subject to public review until March 28, 2025… By creating offset credits for DAC ventures, Canada is progressing toward its net-zero emissions target. The federal offset credit system will offer financial incentives, potentially making carbon removal a commercially viable industry.

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Biodiversity in several Hamilton areas in ‘severe decline’ says botanist after conducting land survey

By Justin Chandler
CBC News
January 24, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

Hamilton’s urban forests and woodlands may look nice and green, but according to a recent land survey commissioned by the Hamilton Naturalists’ Club, looks can be deceiving. The non-profit club says Hamilton’s biodiversity is in “severe decline.” In the spring, Hamilton field botanist Paul O’Hara went out to 11 natural areas in central and western Hamilton… To people living in the area today, it may seem very lush, but the region was once maybe a hundred times richer in biodiversity, O’Hara said. To people living in the area today, it may seem very lush, but the region was once maybe a hundred times richer in biodiversity. That “shifting baseline” is a problem when it comes to protecting our natural world, said Brian McHattie, program director at the naturalists’ club.

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Climate and community resilience on the docket in 2025

By Jay Kosa
Salish Current
January 22, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Whatcom County has embraced climate resilience as a goal and recognizes that mature forest protection is one of the best ways to preserve what we already have in these natural systems. Updating the funding mechanism to better address the near-term needs of local beneficiaries like Mount Baker School District would alleviate tensions that can arise when communities are asked to choose between better near-term revenue for schools and the myriad benefits of conserving mature forests. A $2 billion public education package is up for consideration. This funding package would move K–12 public schools toward being fully funded, taking pressure off of the Department of Natural Resources to provide timber revenues to fill gaps in school operating budgets (a use for which common school funds were never intended).

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Finland stopping logging won’t save global climate, says new climate minister

By Aleksi Teivainen
Helsinki Times
January 27, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Sari Multala

Sari Maltala, a 46-year-old third-term Member of Parliament from Uusimaa, has started in her new role as minister of climate and the environment by emphasising the needs of the forest industry. Multala on Friday outlined at a press conference that the climate crisis and biodiversity loss are “fateful questions” for the planet that require “effective solutions”. She acknowledged that measures to strengthen the carbon sink of forests – the cornerstone of the national effort so achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 – are required but declined to specify the nature of such measures. When asked about the need to scale back logging volumes – one of the primary causes of the shrinking carbon sink – she took the opportunity to emphasise the needs of the forest industry. “The world’s climate can’t be saved by stopping logging in Finland,” she retorted.

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UK would need forest ‘twice size of London’ to offset new airport expansion

By Josh Gabbitiss and Verner Viisainen
CarbonBrief.org
January 27, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

A forest twice the size of Greater London would need to be planted in the UK to cancel out the extra emissions from the expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports, Carbon Brief analysis reveals. New runaways at these airports surrounding London would result in cumulative emissions of around 92m tonnes of extra carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by 2050, if the number of flights increases in line with their operating company targets. For example, offsetting these emissions would require more than 300,000 hectares of trees to be planted within just a few years. This equates to all the trees planted in the UK since 2000… Reeves has stressed that “sustainable aviation fuels” (SAFs) and electric planes could help to offset these emissions. However, such technologies are still in the early stages of deployment and previous Carbon Brief analysis suggests the role of SAFs in achieving net-zero may be limited.

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The Democratic Republic of Congo to create the Earth’s largest protected tropical forest reserve

World Economic Forum
January 22, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

The Congo Basin is home to the largest expanse of intact tropical forest on Earth, covering approximately 3.7 million square kilometres. It retains vast areas of undisturbed forest – like the 108,000 square kilometres in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an area about the size of Iceland. The Amazon has steadily lost its carbon storage potential, flipping from a sink to a net emitter in 2021. But, the Congo Basin is still functioning effectively as a carbon sink, a crucial planetary buffer limiting greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The Congo Basin is currently the largest and healthiest tropical forest carbon sink in the world, sequestering 1.5 billion tonnes of CO₂ annually with a peat swamp that stores 29 billion tonnes of carbon – equivalent to about three years’ worth of global greenhouse gas emissions.

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