CBC News features on the Canadian wildfire season:
- Another chaotic fire season on the horizon in B.C. (video)
- Ontario’s Minister of Natural Resources about the start of the wildfire season (audio)
- What Nova Scotians can expect this wildfire season (video)
- How governments can help Indigenous communities impacted by wildfires (video)
- Sask. heads into wildfire season ‘more prepared than ever,’ public safety agency says (print)
If reviews could save old growth, British Columbia would have the healthiest forests on Earth. Instead, the province has produced a stack of reports as tall as an ancient Douglas fir. Their wording may differ, but their conclusion does not: BC’s forestry system is broken. Fixing it will not be easy or quick, but instead of acting, the government continues to produce new reports to delay tough decisions — especially when those decisions mean standing up to large logging companies that profit most from the status quo. Rather than using the reports to inspire action, the BC government is hiding behind them. …Nearly six years into BC’s OGSR commitment, we now have a sixth report by the Provincial Forest Advisory Council called From Conflict to Care. It again concluded that systemic reform is needed in the province’s forestry regime. Each report acknowledges the same truth: what we’re doing isn’t working.
A non-replaceable forest licence has been awarded to Box Lake Lumber Products, enhancing its operations and the sustainable use of local timber. The opportunity is targeted to boost B.C.’s value‑added wood sector, putting to work unlogged timber. “A stable supply of wood to small-town forestry companies is a win for everyone in the community,” said Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests. “This means more wood … for manufacturing companies, logging contracts for haulers and another boost to our value-added wood manufacturing sector. Our independent wood manufacturers put B.C. on the map as the global leader in high-quality wood products, and this licence is one more way to support that work.” A competitive opportunity provided specifically to value-added wood manufacturing companies, the non-replaceable forest licence will provide a consistent and stable supply of wood to Box Lake Lumber Products in the Kootenays.
Sarah Wayne Callies, from AMC’s The Walking Dead, has urged her fans to oppose a Nanaimo zoning change west of Cable Bay trail. On April 16, a hearing will be held in Nanaimo, for the possible rezoning of 74.71 hectares of the total 86-hectare property at from rural resource to industrial, with site-specific provisions over its use, allowed density and lot coverage. Included in the application for rezoning is a provision of an average 100-metre buffer zone around Cable Bay trail, about 13 per cent of the property. The zoning application was submitted by Harmac Pacific. During an information session in 2024, the company shared it would like to turn the land into a private industrial park. At the time, a representative with Harmac told the News Bulletin that the process to lease out the land would be phased over many years, and it would be marketed to businesses that “might have synergies” with Harmac’s existing business. 
A private company is seeking exclusive rights to part of a coastal park near Victoria, sparking concerns about the B.C. government’s priorities for public wilderness areas. One With Nature Corp. aims to use 72 hectares of East Sooke Regional Park, …for an outdoor education and wilderness survival skills school. Five hectares near a hiking trail would be used for overnight accommodation and would be off limits to the public if approved. …The school would include an archery range, an outbuilding to process animals, a learning centre, a camping area, bathrooms, a boat dock and cabins built with trees the company would cut down in its exclusive use area, according to One With Nature’s application to the B.C. government. …A spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said the land is available because it was never transferred to the regional district or dedicated as park land when the East Sooke protected area was created in 1970.
LA RONGE, Saskatchewan — With Canada aiming to protect 30 per cent of land and water by 2030, a new study shows the federal government should pursue a conservation method which takes wildfires into account. That’s according to La Ronge’s Aaron Bell, who recently had a research paper published by the Ecological Society of America on March 30 as part of his PhD in Biology. The project, which includes experiments on 42 islands in the Lac La Ronge region, focused on testing competing ideas on how government’s design protected areas such as nature reserves, or provincial and national parks. …Bell proposing government’s use a pyrodiversity-biodiversity method, which promotes and maintains diverse plants and fauna and thereby generating diversity. …“I’m hoping it enables people in the North to say we’re not managing fires at all for biodiversity and maybe this is something we should think about moving forward,” he said. 
A years-long investigation into a special RCMP unit that polices protests against resource extraction in BC is finished but can’t be finalized because the RCMP’s oversight body has been without a chairperson for more than a year. The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) receives and oversees public complaints against the Mounties. It recently announced the completion of a systemic investigation into the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), which drew national attention in 2019. …It’s unclear why the CRCC has been without a chairperson since January 2025. …At the top level of the agency there is meant to be a chairperson and up to four other members. According to the CRCC, all of those positions are currently vacant. …The majority of complaints against C-IRG came in response to civil court injunction enforcements and arrests in relation to Wet’suwet’en-led opposition to Coastal GasLink pipeline and protests against old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek area.
The widely discussed West Fraser forest management plan for West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain has been updated to incorporate a new provincial wildfire mitigation program. West Fraser outlined the changes during its annual spring open house April 1 at the Cochrane RancheHouse, including a new supplementary harvest area in West Bragg Creek and a delayed timeline for Moose Mountain operations. The updates align with Alberta’s Community Hazardous Fuels Reduction (CHFR) program, introduced last year to reduce wildfire risk near vulnerable communities. “Working with forest companies, the program prioritizes the harvest of hazardous fuels within five kilometres of surrounding vulnerable communities,” the province said in an information package. “The CHFR program leverages existing forest tenure holders to adjust harvesting plans to make an immediate impact.” …“They’ve asked us as industry to prioritize our operations in that area,” said Tyler Steneker, woodlands manager for West Fraser Cochrane. 
Do you know the Okanagan is home to some of the very last remnants of interior old growth fir and spruce forests, specifically Peachland’s watershed, near Glen Lake? Do you know Glen Lake is a major source of our community drinking water, as it joins Peachland Creek before supplying our brand-new $35M water treatment plant? …Tell your government, Peachland’s trees are not destined for mills, ships to Asia or a flailing forestry industry safety-net. Peachland watershed’s forests are worth more standing, they store 83 per cent more carbon than pine plantations and mono-culture conifer farms. Most importantly we rely on their free infrastructure services and natural ecosystem benefits. …Act now before your back country is compromised. Four ways to make a stand! Write, call, online submissions and a petition…
OTTAWA, ON—Canadian Forest Owners (CFO) is pleased to welcome Forest Nova Scotia to its membership, expanding its national network in Nova Scotia, home to Canada’s largest private forest region. The province has the highest proportion of privately owned forest land in the country, supported by a diverse ownership base and a highly integrated forest sector. “Forest Nova Scotia represents a strong diversity of interests within its membership and is a valuable complement to our existing Nova Scotia members, including the Federation of Nova Scotia Woodland Owners and several large corporate members,” said Andrew de Vries, CEO of Canadian Forest Owners. “Forest Nova Scotia will further strengthen our national policy efforts and help raise awareness of the important role private forests play across Canada.” CFO represents approximately 480,000 private forest owners nationwide. Collectively, they manage 10% of Canada’s forest land base, contribute 20% of forest production, and play a vital role in sustainable forest management across the country.
Last week, the US Forest Service announced that it will be closing three-quarters of its research facilities as part of a reorganization. Now, experts are worried not only about the number of scientists who might be leaving the agency, but also about how the disruption could affect the gathering and dissemination of crucial wildfire and climate change data. The restructuring comes as parts of the US face what is expected to be a catastrophic wildfire season. The most recent wildland fire outlook shows that wildfire activity is already “well above average,” with more than 16,000 wildfires reported this year. Under the reorganization plan, the Forest Service will close 57 of 77 research facilities, as well as move its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, Utah. It will also close all nine of its regional offices; some states will then get their own offices, but others will be consolidated. 
For more than a year, the Trump administration has said it wants to harvest more timber from national forests. Now, officials are asking Congress to pay for the promise. The administration’s budget request would more than quadruple Forest Service spending on timber preparation and sales in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, even as many other agency priorities face steep reductions or elimination. The proposal calls for $175 million in the forest products account, up from $39 million this year. The administration didn’t ask for an increase a year ago, as it was settling in after taking the reins from the Biden administration. Spending on forest products has been flat for years, said Nick Smith, a spokesperson for the American Forest Resource Council, which represents companies harvesting timber from federal lands… saying the requested increase was a long-overdue investment in a programme that had operated at a small scale for decades. [to access the full story an E&E subscription is required]
The administrative architecture of America’s national forests is undergoing its most radical transformation in decades. In a series of swift moves designed to prioritize industrial output over conservation, the Trump administration has initiated a sweeping overhaul of the US Forest Service (USFS), relocating its headquarters and dismantling the regional oversight structures. …By moving the agency’s center of gravity from Washington, DC, to Salt Lake City, Utah, and shuttering nine regional offices, the administration is pivoting away from a centralized, science-driven conservation model toward a decentralized system focused on the immediate extraction of timber and wood products. For rural America, the impact is twofold. While the administration is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the timber industry and sawmill infrastructure, the move guts the scientific research and environmental safeguards that many rural communities rely on. This transition effectively replaces long-term ecological stewardship with a short-term commodity-driven mandate.
The U.S. Forest Service is shutting down research stations around the country, including centers in Portland, Seattle, and Wenatchee, Washington. Though much of the stations’ research is long-term, some fire experts say the cuts could hamper firefighting efforts as soon as this summer. …The agency is shutting down 50 of its 70 research stations. More than 200 people work in the Northwest research stations that are closing. …“There is a position for every permanent employee willing to accept reassignment,” Forest Service Chief Thomas Schultz Jr. said in a memo to research branch staff. Schultz Jr., a Trump appointee, was previously a lobbyist for Idaho Forest Group, one of the nation’s largest lumber producers, based in Coeur d’Alene. …Nick Smith, a spokesperson for the American Forest Resource Council, a Western states timber industry group, said he welcomes the Forest Service restructuring.
As Washington’s current snowpack conditions become worse than last year, a statewide drought emergency has been declared. It’s the fourth drought emergency for the state in as many years. According to Casey Sixkiller, director of the Washington State Department of Ecology, “widespread shortages and challenges across our state” are expected. “Going into April with half of our usual snowpack is alarming,” Sixkiller said. “… Issuing a drought emergency now helps water users prepare for what is likely to be a very difficult summer. This is becoming an all-too-common experience and is another example of how climate change is visibly reshaping our landscape.” The Department of Ecology declared the drought emergency on April 8.
MONTANA — The U.S. Forest Service plans to create a logging unit across regional national forests, seeking to boost economic stability by committing to process timber only via local businesses. The new Sustained Yield Unit – a concept created by 1944 federal law – would include 22 Montana counties and all of Helena-Lewis & Clark and Beaverhead-Deerlodge national forests, as well as most of Custer Gallatin. …Speaking for the Governor’s Office, Amanda Kaster, director of Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, expressed the state’s strong support. …The draft plan estimates that the unit would directly support 192 jobs per year over the next decade, plus an additional 225 jobs via economic ripple effects. But the Marks saw the yield unit’s harvest plan as inadequately ambitious. …Barb Cestero, Montana director at the Wilderness Society, feared that given the Forest Service’s recent staff cuts, a potential over-emphasis on logging could be problematic.
COULTERVILLE, California – Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir and Gifford Pinchot are turning over in their graves as Donald Trump launches a devastating war against the conservation movement. “With the subtlety of a wrecking ball and the morality of a foreclosure notice the Trump administration announced the most devastating attack on the US Forest Service in the agency’s 121-year history. …The administration announced it would move the USFS headquarters out of Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah. “They’re shuttering every single one of the 10 regional offices that have governed this agency and with them, the career professionals,” wrote Jim Pattiz. More than 50 research outlets across 31 states are set to close, labs that house decades of irreplaceable long-term science, “the kind you literally cannot restart once it’s gone,” Pattiz says. …Unfortunately, conservation groups like the Sierra Club built by John Muir have lost their focus and their power to bring change.
In 2001, the Forest Service signed the Roadless Rule. The Trump administration is seeking to rescind the rule. During a brief public comment period, 99% of the respondents opposed the idea. The Roadless Rule affected 58.5 million acres of Forest Service roadless lands and put them off-limits to new road construction, logging, and road reconstruction. As the Forest Service recognized in its original review, these roadless lands “have the greatest likelihood of altering and fragmenting landscapes, resulting in immediate, long-term loss of roadless area values and characteristics.” Abolishing protection from logging and roading provided by the Roadless Rule has major economic consequences, both in direct costs and in avoided costs. For instance, a practical rationale for the rule is the Forest Service’s acknowledgment that the roughly 370,000 miles of existing Forest Service road network could not be maintained. There is already an $11 billion backlog in road maintenance, and creating even more roads would exacerbate this situation.
For the last 25 years, 58 million acres of American forest have had no new roads, no logging equipment, and no reason to appear on anyone’s industrial map. This year that is changing — and much faster than most people realize. The 
BOSTON — Urban forestry is a noble and necessary pursuit, yielding environmental and health benefits almost too numerous to count. …Urban forests, broadly speaking, also happen to be sources of large amounts of wood waste. The most recent estimates from the USDA Forest Service indicate that 46 million tons of sellable wood from urban areas is felled each year, most of which gets chipped, landfilled, or burned for energy. There is a missed opportunity afoot; not one of those pathways—with the possible exception of biomass power generation—involves making something of tangible value that’s inversely proportional to the amount of waste being generated. …Tridome Structures, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of mass timber products, saw the gap in the Northeast market and acted accordingly. Only six months ago, the company opened a subsidiary mill operation called TimberWise in the town of Millis, a Boston suburb.
