Leona Anoine
Spring comes to Leona Antoine’s field in patches. The snow retreats from the Nicola River valley, leaving islands of wet grass scattered across her family’s land. It’s an invitation to carry on a practice she first learned from her grandfather. Antoine, who is Syilx and Nlaka’pamux, remembers her grandfather’s joy when he would drop a match and watch a low, patchy fire creep across the field. The fire would clear away dead brush, allowing sunlight to reach the ground. …Wildfire agencies in Canada set prescribed fires on about 110 square kilometres this past year, mostly in B.C., according to a report from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. While that was the highest annual total of the past decade, it still pales in comparison to the United States, where the federal Forest Service alone routinely oversees prescribed fires on thousands of square kilometres of land each year.
For more than six weeks now, an Alberta group has been protesting the planned harvesting by a forestry company in the Crowsnest Pass. Defenders of the Eastern Slopes members are against the accelerated harvesting by West Fraser of about 460 hectares of forest in the Allison Creek area, in southwest Alberta. While the group says Crowsnest Pass residents deserve meaningful protection from wildfire, members question whether the proposed harvest is the right treatment, in the right place and at the right scale. …West Fraser got a temporary injunction, and, with a police presence, moved the bridge, which the company is placing across Allison Creek to access a logging area. The court injunction allows West Fraser to do its work, and Smith says the group has no intention of impeding the company. …West Fraser said its planned harvesting follows the direction of the Alberta government’s Hazardous Fuels Reduction program.
Almost half of the Parks Canada employees trying to help Jasper, Alberta, recover from a devastating 2024 wildfire could be among about 500 full-time staff facing job cuts nationwide. This news comes after nearly 3,000 Parks Canada staff around the country were sent letters notifying them of the upcoming cuts, and giving them the chance to voluntarily retire ahead of job losses. Of the roughly 3,000 letters sent by Parks Canada, 208 went to members of the 422-person Jasper Field Unit. Nearly two years after wildfire tore through Jasper, forcing the evacuation of the town and nearby Jasper National Park, Parks Canada crews are still busy cleaning up according to the federal government’s 
Surfers are worried about an… application by the Pacheedaht Anderson Timber Holdings partnership for a Crown lease to build a breakwater and log-dumping area in a bay just east of the Jordan River campground. …The primary worry for surfers is how the breakwater could change the patterns of sedimentation that shape all of the surfable waves in the area. …Angus Hope, for Pacheedaht Andersen Holdings, said the proposal is in its very early stages. Any construction, pending approvals, could be “three to five years” away, he said in an interview. While the coastline near Jordan River is now dotted with oceanside cottages and provincial parks, it was once the heart of a booming logging industry that employed thousands. …Pacheedaht Andersen Timber Holdings — a 50-50 partnership between Pacheedaht First Nation and Andersen Timber — formed in 2010 when it purchased the Jordan River Timber Tree Farm Licence (TFL61) from Western Forest Products.
As Canada’s 2026 wildfire season closed having scorched roughly 4.5 million hectares and forced 33,750 people from their homes — making it the country’s fourth-worst fire season on record — researchers in Montréal and Ottawa announced an AI tool that compresses months of hazard computation into hours. On October 23, Mila — the Québec Artificial Intelligence Institute — and the forestry division of Natural Resources Canada jointly announced an AI emulator designed to slot into Canada’s existing wildfire hazard workflow as a radically faster alternative to BurnP3+, the country’s established physics-based simulator. Depending on the hardware it runs on, the model operates between 800 and 3,400 times faster than BurnP3+, according to 
MISSISSIPPI — In a study spanning 192 sites and four continents, researchers have discovered that conifers planted in the Southern Hemisphere grow up to four times faster and are more drought-resistant than those growing in their native ranges. This rapid growth and resilience could make conifers a strong candidate for carbon storage, but there may also be drawbacks to planting trees outside their home turf. University of Mississippi ecologist Stephen Brewer was among more than two dozen researchers across multiple continents who studied the growth rate of pines, spruces, firs, cedars and other conifers in their native and nonnative habitats. The group 
A new analysis reveals that nearly ten million acres of U.S. forest were permanently lost between 1990 and 2017. Scientists from Clark University found that Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Arkansas, Alabama, Virginia, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, and Tennessee experienced the most significant losses. The primary drivers identified were development and cropland expansion. The report also introduces the U.S. Forest Monitor, a digital platform designed to track permanent forest conversion. Arbor Day Foundation CEO Dan Lambe stated that the research highlights the urgency of restoring lost forests and addressing pressures like land conversion. Additionally, Forest Stewardship Council U.S. President Sarah Billig noted that small landowners face difficult decisions due to a downturn in the paper industry and increased urban development pressure.
Proposition 137 has passed, allowing existing sales tax revenue collected from sporting goods purchases — an estimated $200 million annually — to fund conservation and wildfire rehabilitation and mitigation. The Associated Press called the race for Proposition 137 at with 51.6% of the votes counted in favour of the measure and 48.4% opposed. And it was a diverse collection of Coloradans voting in favor of the ballot measure. …The measure directs the legislature to distribute $83 million a year to Great Outdoors Colorado, nearly doubling the conservation group’s annual distribution from the Colorado Lottery. Another $83 million will be split between the Department of Natural Resources and the Colorado State Forest Service for wildfire risk reduction and rehabilitation of watersheds damaged by wildfire. The state currently spends about $16.4 million on wildfire risk reduction and another $5 million a year on restoring burned landscapes. 
Weyerhaeuser reported third quarter net earnings of $61 million on net sales of $1.9 billion. …In October, Weyerhaeuser entered into an agreement to divest approximately 81,000 acres of non-core timberlands in Arkansas for $146 million. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter and is subject to customary closing conditions. The company owns about 1.2 million acres in the state. It operates a plywood mill in Emerson and a pine tree nursery in the Calhoun community. …Devin W. Stockfish, CEO said, “In addition, we continued to enhance the value of our timberlands portfolio. Looking ahead, we remain confident in the longer-term demand fundamentals.” …In the West, fee harvest volumes and forestry and road costs were comparable to the second quarter. …In the South, fee harvest volumes were significantly higher than the second quarter due to more favorable weather conditions.
NEW HAMPSHIRE — On Thursday night, while crews from across the country battled a wildfire in the dense woods of the White Mountain National Forest, residents of nearby communities and officials with the U.S. Forest Service crowded into the Shelburne Town Hall. …The blaze, which according to officials grew to a peak of nearly 1,000 acres since it began on Sunday but was reduced to 856 acres as of Thursday night, is highly unusual for the region. …“We’re not used to fires of this size here in New England. This is, unofficially, the largest fire in the White Mountain National Forest’s history since its creation,” said Derek Ibarguen, forest supervisor. Drought conditions during the last two years have made the forest much more flammable than it would be under average conditions, said Ryan Hughes, incident commander with the Forest Service, during the meeting.
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will apply from 30 December 2026. To help companies get ready, Cepi has published an updated version of its guidance document for the pulp and paper industry. This new edition replaces the guide published in June 2025. It covers the main obligations companies must meet once the EUDR applies. It also reflects developments up to September 2026: the December 2025 amendment to the Regulation, the Commission’s May 2026 simplification package, the secondary legislation adopted in 2026, and the updated Commission Guidance and FAQs, in addition to other Commission publications. Cepi developed the document to set out the pulp and paper industry’s shared understanding of EUDR obligations, and to give practical guidance on applying the Regulation along the pulp and paper value chain. Cepi will present the document at a dedicated Cepinar in November. The document can be 
Mexico’s armed forces have dismantled more than 123 clandestine sawmills and detained 116 suspected illegal loggers over the government’s first two years, Defense Secretary Gen. Ricardo Trevilla Trejo said on Tuesday, Mexican newspaper La Razón