FPInnovations’ latest newsletter pulls articles from their blog that feature several developments of interest to Canada’s forest sector. An update to its saw design software tool supports mills pushing production and recovery limits, incorporating long-standing calculations around bite per tooth, gullet capacity and cutting power to help optimize performance while maintaining sawing accuracy and uptime. In Ontario, the Ministry of Transportation has approved a 72.5-tonne, 9-axle B-train log truck configuration for use on more than 1,200 kilometres of public roads—opening the door to broader deployment across the province. FPInnovations also convened a January knowledge-sharing session on continuous digester weld repairs and refurbishing, focused on safe mill operations. Looking ahead, the organization is launching a new group to assess emerging forestry technologies—including densified wood, lignin in batteries and drone seeding—with a public presentation scheduled for February 26.
Results from a targeted deer hunt in the Cranbrook area show no new detections of chronic wasting disease (CWD), supporting ongoing efforts to contain and manage the disease in southeastern B.C. From Jan. 5-31, 2026, a general open-season deer hunt was implemented in a defined area near Cranbrook to bolster sampling efforts and reduce the risk of CWD spreading to surrounding deer and elk populations. A total of 228 deer were harvested during the hunt. All samples submitted for testing were negative for CWD. Of the deer harvested and tested, 79% were white-tailed deer and 21% were mule deer. Although no animals tested positive, targeted hunts within the established management zone aim to reduce deer population and density, providing fewer opportunities for close contact between animals and limiting the risk of CWD spread.
The newsletter highlights the ongoing work of the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) as it enters its tenth year of operations, showcasing the positive impact of FESBC-funded partners on forests across British Columbia. It opens with a safety tip from the BC Forest Safety Council aimed at improving workplace orientations and on-the-ground safety. FESBC also invites readers to participate in its Decade in Review, asking for stories about memorable, locally meaningful projects that have strengthened forests or communities. The newsletter introduces FESBC’s new Administrative Assistant, Jen Kulchar, and celebrates community forestry by linking to the BC Community Forest Association’s new film, Rooted Together. It also features a Faces of Forestry profile on Hengda Liu and shares additional news on FESBC-related forestry developments and partnerships. Throughout, the focus remains on collaboration, forest resilience, and the people driving meaningful forestry work province-wide.
Many people in British Columbia, including those living in remote First Nations communities, still rely on forestry revenue to keep the lights on. But as the forestry industry continues to wade through economic uncertainty, outdated forest legislation and – in some regions – a declining fibre supply, one can’t help but wonder: Could shifting gears to tourism pay the bills? “We watched the fishing industry decline …Now we’re watching the forestry decline. We are in a place where we need to look at other options…. I think tourism is a great option for that story,” said Paula Amos, Indigenous Tourism BC (ITBC). The harvest tenure for TFL 61 is held by Pacheedaht Andersen Timber Holdings (PATH) and managed by Angus Hope. … “There are a lot of challenges,” Hope says. From the “glacial pace” of government to the high cost of getting the logs to market, Hope says the status quo just doesn’t make sense anymore.
DUNCAN, BC — Mosaic Forest Management is launching a multi-year pilot on its private lands in the Koksilah watershed on Vancouver Island to demonstrate how working forests can deliver both economic performance and environmental resilience by integrating watershed services, carbon programs, renewable energy, recreation and real estate activities alongside timber production. This pilot supports the historic government-to-government agreement signed by Cowichan Tribes and the Province in May 2023 to develop BC’s first water sustainability plan in the Koksilah River which has experienced critically low summer flows in recent years. As part of the planning process, Mosaic sits on the Community Collaborative Advisory Table for the Xwulqw’selu / Koksilah Watershed and Water Sustainability Plan (XWWSP). “This pilot is about figuring out what works by combining sustainable forestry with watershed stewardship and other land solutions,” said Duncan Davies, President and CEO of Mosaic. “We’re committed to building the business model that makes this approach viable and scalable where the right conditions exist.”
It could take anywhere from six months to a year before a coalition of area First Nations can start logging following a timber acquisition deal made with the provincial government in January during a natural resources forum in Prince George. The wood, amounting to 1 million cubic metres, comes from a licence held by Canfor and was timber that the company was not logging itself. Called an ‘undercut’ because it amounts to less than what Canfor could cut, the timber will now be converted into a licence held by a coalition of Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, the Witset First Nation, the Lake Babine Nation, and the Wet’suwet’en First Nation. When logging does start, the new licence will call for logging of 200,000 cubic metres a year for five years. Through regulations, an undercut can be transferred by the forests ministry from one entity to another.
PRINCE GEORGE – British Columbia’s Forests Minister Ravi Parmar has announced that changes to BC Timber Sales are beginning to yield positive results, particularly in the Prince George area. The province aims to boost job creation, support local mills, and enhance forest health through this updated approach. Following a 2021 review of BC Timber Sales, several recommendations were made, and since then, the province has reported an increase in timber sales across British Columbia. This includes the recent auction of two new commercial thinning sales in the Prince George area, marking a significant achievement for the region.
The mood was jubilant at Mount Washington Alpine Resort on Vancouver Island after a weekend storm saw 108 centimetres of snow blanket the resort. The snow was a welcome reprieve from the warm and wet weather that started the season… A 
The forest industry and related associations, unions and community leaders have now coalesced behind the banner “forestry is a solution.” Their purpose, they say, is “to address the urgent challenges, from building affordable housing to reducing wildfire risks in our backyards” and to “rally British Columbians to support forestry workers and their families.” They will roll out the old dogma that BC practices the most sustainable forestry in the world. …The real purpose, I suspect, is that the coalition wants to continue the old model of intensive industrial forestry, despite the reality that our forests can no longer support this outdated model. In 2003, in an address at UBC, Pedersen, the chief forester of the day, stated that the forest industries’ plan was to harvest BC’s primary forests as quickly as possible and convert them into densely planted managed forests. Today, they have achieved that vision.
The head of an Indigenous-owned forestry company in New Brunswick says that provincial government statements about consultation with Indigenous communities over forestry policy are “hollow” without efforts to increase self-determination. Annie Simoneau, owner of L’Puk’Tuwis Forestry — which is based in Natoaganeg, also called Eel Ground First Nation — says that most small Indigenous communities currently lack the capacity to cut and manage their own timber. “Many are forced to rely on large forestry companies or urban-based contractors to do the harvesting for them. Those companies decide the methods — and too often that means clear-cutting, followed by herbicide spraying,” she told the NB Media Co-op. “That’s not self-determination,” she continued. “That’s dependency created by decades of policy that withheld equipment, training, and access from First Nations, then turned around and said, ‘You were consulted.’”
Nearly 40 Indigenous land guardians, alongside hereditary and traditional chiefs, have filed a lawsuit seeking formal recognition of their rights over a vast stretch of Quebec. Their legal challenge aims to curb industrial logging and ensure the protection of their traditional way of life. The application, filed in Quebec Superior Court last week, covers a territory spanning between the St. Lawrence River, the Saint-Maurice River valley and the forested areas of northern Mauricie, according to the document. The plaintiffs are specifically asking the court to declare all supply guarantees and intervention permits granted to forestry companies null and void. This legal move follows a summer of tensions marked by numerous blockades across the ancestral lands of several Indigenous nations. These actions were spearheaded by MAMU First Nation — a collective of land guardians from the Atikamekw and Innu nations — to protest a proposed overhaul of the province’s forestry regime.
Large, bipartisan majorities of voters across eight Western states remain concerned about the impacts of climate change and opposed to efforts by the Trump administration to weaken environmental rules and public lands protections. Eighty-four percent of Western voters say “rollbacks of laws that protect our land, water and wildlife” are a serious problem, up from 68% eight years ago, according to a poll released by Colorado College’s State of the Rockies project. The annual Conservation in the West poll has measured Western voters’ views of environmental and energy issues since 2011. The 2026 survey is based on interviews conducted in January with 3,419 voters in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. “After 16 years, it’s become a rare longitudinal data set that lets us track how public attitudes have shifted over time throughout the West,” said Ian Johnson, Colorado College’s director of strategic initiatives and sustainability.
ARIZONA — The Forest Service budget to thin the forest is down. But hey, at least there’s a budget. That is the bad news/good news gist of a report on the 4-Forests Restoration Initiative (4-FRI) delivered last week at the Natural Resources Working Group meeting. Fortunately, the state Forestry Department is also continuing to fund thinning projects, including creating buffer zones around forested communities like Payson. However, time may be running out to restore the overgrown, drought-plagued forest. The meeting also featured a report documenting the worsening condition of the forest as thinning efforts falter. Jon Orona, with Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, reported that 2025 was the fifth-driest year ever recorded – with average temperatures between 6 and 12 degrees above normal.
More than 110 million acres of land across the U.S. are protected in 806 federally designated wilderness areas – together an area slightly larger than the state of California. For the most part, these places have been left alone for decades, in keeping with the 1964 Wilderness Act’s directive that they be “untrammeled by man.” But in a time when lands are experiencing the effects of climate change and people are renewing their understanding of Indigenous knowledge and stewardship practices, protecting these places may require action, not inaction. …First, the American ideal that wildlands flourish best in the absence of human management – conflicts with the growing understanding that many wilderness areas are part of the ancestral homelands of Indigenous peoples, who tended those lands for thousands of years. …And second, as climate change and ecological stressors affect wilderness, human intervention could help sustain the very ecological qualities that are protected.
Federal officials are proposing to ramp up logging on 2.5 million acres of western Oregon forests as part of a Trump administration priority to expand domestic timber production. The Bureau of Land Management is asking for public comment on its plan through March 23. The federal agency said last week it would update the Western Oregon Resource Management Plan that governs logging on the state’s checkerboard “O&C forests” located in 18 Oregon counties. Known as O&C lands for having once belonged to the Oregon and California Railroad, the forests produced more than 1 billion board feet of timber annually from 1960 and 1989. …BLM’s latest proposal, issued Feb. 19 … could mean a timber harvest that returns to 1 billion board feet. …Oregon’s timber industry celebrated the latest news… Environmental groups strongly opposed the decision…
ARIZONA — A coalition of local governments, timber industry representatives and environmental groups plans to tell congressional leaders and US Forest Service officials this week that Northern Arizona’s forests — and the timber industry that depends on them — face collapse without construction of a second, 30-megawatt biomass-burning power plant. The group will carry that message to Washington, DC, arguing that a “biomass bottleneck” threatens forest restoration efforts, watersheds and rural communities. Two concurring reports outline the concern: one issued by the Eastern Arizona Counties Organization and the Natural Resources Working Group in the White Mountains, and another from the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership (GFFP) and the Forest Biomass Coalition Working Group. …The report concludes that, while private industry may eventually develop products such as fiberboard or biochar from forest byproducts, only a second biomass-burning plant near Flagstaff or Winslow offers a proven, near-term solution.
Montana — Punch more roads through the forest, and you’ll get more people starting fires, fewer bull trout and an even heftier maintenance bill. Keep the 2001 Roadless Rule in place, and you’ll ensure elk have a healthy habitat, and you’ll still be able to reduce wildfire risk. Those were some of the arguments former U.S. Forest Service employees made Friday at the edge of the Silver King Inventoried Roadless Area east of Missoula. Montana Trout Unlimited and the Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers hosted the event as the Trump administration takes steps to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule. The rule prohibits building roads and harvesting timber on 30% of Forest Service land in the country, or 60 million acres. In Montana, that’s 6.4 million acres, or 37% of Forest Service land in the state.
WILMINGTON, N.C. – The N.C. Forest Service (NCFS) is reminding the public to use best practices and common sense with outdoor fires ahead of the state’s spring wildfire season. NCFS officials say escaped yard debris burns are the leading cause of wildfires across the state, often due to carelessness. 99% of wildfires are caused by human activity, officials said, often when people work in their yards in spring and burn yard debris. Other causes of human-caused wildfires include machine and vehicle use, such as dragging tow chains, arson and escaped campfires. “With the recent rainfall combined with multiple winter storms earlier this year, some folks may not realize that most of North Carolina is still experiencing very dry conditions,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “Our state’s gradual descent into drought and prolonged dry conditions are going to lead to wildfires igniting more easily, burning more intensely and spreading quicker.”
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — The Arkansas Department of Agriculture announced some of its forestry personnel will go to Oklahoma and Tennessee to help with wildfire suppression and winter storm response. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders authorized state forestry personnel to support wildfire suppression in Oklahoma and urban tree recovery in Tennessee. …Six wildland firefighters will go to Oklahoma for around two weeks. These firefighters will focus on attacking and suppressing new wildfires to prevent further spread. The Department is also sending four bulldozers and two pick-up trucks to help. Three urban forestry personnel will go to Tennessee to join an Urban Forest Strike Team, a specialized group of certified arborists, foresters, and urban forestry experts. Arkansas forestry personnel will help the UFST with tree damage and risk assessments, hazard mitigation planning, and technical expertise and training.
