Canada is on track for its fourth worst wildfire season on record. At a regular fire briefing in Ottawa Tuesday, federal forecasters said September’s fire risk stands to be well above seasonal averages across northern British Columbia, northern Quebec and most of Labrador. So far this year, wildfires have burned more than 40,000 square kilometres … marking the first time in history that forest has burned for four years in a row in Canada. A wildfire destroyed around 150 homes, barns and other buildings in B.C.’s south Okanagan this month. In July, a fire also destroyed much of Namaygoosisagagun, also known as Collins First Nation, 250 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. That fire merged with others in the area and became the largest wildfire ever recorded in Ontario, spanning more than 3,500 square kilometres. Yet the number of requests for federal assistance related to wildfires dropped dramatically this year, government officials told reporters at a technical briefing.
When Donald Trump says Canada is mismanaging its forests, many Canadians instinctively dismiss the comment. …But that would be too easy — not because clearing dead trees and brush never makes sense, but because Trump’s call to “rake the forest” turns a complex problem into a simplistic slogan… Managing a forest that stretches across nearly a third of the country is far more complex than the soundbite would suggest. The real question Canadians should be asking is, “Are we managing our forests in ways that can make catastrophic wildfires more likely and more intense?” The uncomfortable answer is yes. Canada’s wildfire crisis is being fuelled by two converging forces: a changing climate and decades of decisions about how we manage forests and fire. …Trump speaks in soundbites not science, so it can be hard to take him seriously. But that doesn’t mean Canada shouldn’t seize the opportunity to have a serious conversation about forest management…
Canadian forests are getting cooked by our fossil fuel pollution, unleashing a rapidly intensifying wildfire crisis. Most summers used to be calm, low-fire seasons when Canadians could peacefully enjoy our lakes, woods and mountains. As we will see, those low-fire years have become vanishingly rare because we’ve burned away the cooler, calmer climate that made them possible. Most summers in Canada now are choking, high-fire endurance events. As we will also see, we now suffer through more wildfires in our average year than during our very worst years in decades past. And our worst years have turned dystopian. If we don’t stop overheating our forests, the wildfire crisis will continue to spiral out of control. …Are humans causing the wildfire surge in Canada’s unmanaged forests? Yes. Our fossil fuel emissions now permeate every cubic millimetre of the atmosphere… We are cooking up a dystopian future overwhelmed by megafires. 
SFU researchers say the amount of money BC has spent fighting wildfires in recent years is almost the same as what the province has collected in natural gas royalties. They say it demonstrates how BC households are already paying for the costs of climate change. The researchers said the average cost of fighting wildfires in BC over the past 10 years was more than twice as much as the decade prior. …“Royalties from the gas sector are virtually the same as what it costs to manage and mitigate wildfires in BC,” said co-author Andy Hira, a professor of political science. …BC’s natural gas industry only represents “a fraction of global emissions,” Lisa Baiton, CEO of Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said. Dan McTeague, a former Liberal MP said the energy sector’s much-bigger economic footprint gets lost when the debate narrows to royalties alone.
The province has rejected a leasing application by a private wilderness survival school operator to set up camp within East Sooke Regional Park. Vitaliy Svetlichnyy, owner of One With Nature outdoor survival school, had applied two years ago to lease a 71-hectare parcel of Crown land inside the borders of East Sooke Park to build and operate his school. The proposal included an intensive-use area of about five hectares for several permanent structures … and a dock on the waterfront and storage buildings. Svetlichnyy was asking for a lease of 10 to 30 years on the land and foreshore, but his proposals caused a widespread outcry from local government and the public who said private operators should not be allowed in parks. In his decision, Peter Warbuton, senior licensed authorizations officer for the province, said the proposed long-term commercial use, infrastructure development and exclusive occupation were incompatible with the existing conservation, recreation and stewardship objectives of the area.
Canada has released the first ever biological control agent to tackle invasive common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), an invasive plant that negatively impacts the country and wider region’s livestock, rangeland, and native biodiversity. The release of the agent – a stem-mining weevil called Microplontus millefolii – marks a major milestone in efforts to manage this invasive plant across North America, reducing its ecological and economic impacts. In partnership with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) conducted the first releases of 1,200 adult weevils in May. AAFC conducted a further release of 400 weevils in Alberta in June. …These releases target areas experiencing significant, negative impacts on agriculture and biodiversity. …The common tansy has diminished the health of lands used for livestock foraging, as well as displaced native vegetation, and has hindered forest regeneration following logging. …Over 10,000ha of common tansy has been recorded in BC across all climate zones said BC’s Janine Brooke.
The BC Wildfire Service has outlined its policies regarding responses to house and structure fires following a fire that destroyed Ric and Shirley Martin’s Balsam Road home outside Houston on Aug. 5, 2026. An initial BCWS attack crew did respond, but that was to assess and address any risk of the fire spreading into surrounding forested areas, the service said. “Wildland firefighters are trained to respond to wildfires and other incidents involving vegetation and organic fuels. They are not trained or equipped to respond to fires involving structures or other non-organic materials,” the service stated. “Structural firefighters are trained and equipped to respond to structure fires and to protect and defend properties and infrastructure in the wildland urban interface.” …“In the case of the Balsam Road fire, BC Wildfire Service personnel were present to monitor and address any wildfire risk associated with the incident, while structural fire suppression responsibilities remained with the appropriate local fire response agencies.”
As fires continue to bear down on B.C., officials are developing an “all-of-society” approach to build community resilience, bringing together FireSmart programs, risk reduction work and the forest sector, according to Forests Minister Ravi Parmar. “I’ve asked my ministry to take a lot of the different pots of money that we have and develop an all-of-society approach,” Parmar said during a Tuesday press conference. He said the approach would include building a “working forest” with resilience as a core part of that work, along with broader efforts to help communities FireSmart their properties and neighbourhoods. Parmar said the province will provide more details later this week. He said that approach is already well rooted in the Okanagan and that he plans to continue conversations with the West Kelowna fire chief and mayor when he travels to the valley next week.
Smoke continues to linger over much of Southern B.C. Sunday. Environment Canada’s air quality warnings remain in place for a large portion of the region, including the Thompson-Okanagan. While most of the area is under a “yellow” warning, the South Okanagan and Fraser Canyon regions are under the more severe “orange” warning. Multiple wildfires are actively burning in and around B.C.’s Southern Interior and putting up plenty of smoke, including the Bald Range fire in Summerland and the Ainslie Creek fire in the Fraser Canyon, along with several fires south of the border. Environment Canada warns that the elderly and very young, people with lung or heart conditions, and people who are pregnant should reduce their time spent outdoors during smoky conditions. No air quality warnings are in place for the Metro Vancouver area or the East Kootenays. Smoky conditions are forecast to persist through Monday.
Thousands of pounds of fruit are going to waste in Summerland as farms on the frontlines of a firefight sit empty just as the window for harvest opens, offering a devastating blow in what has already been a difficult year. Adrian Arts, executive director of the BC Fruit Growers’ Association, said that growers have been hit by heat, drought and now wildfire this year alone. Peaches that were to be harvested last week will likely rot on the tree and the remaining fruits that aren’t quite ready for harvest will likely be ruined by ash, Arts said. “I’m guessing a lot of that crop is going to be abandoned along with the peaches, plums, and other fruit ripening this week,” he said. Arts said the repeated crises are exposing weaknesses in existing government support programs that are no longer meeting their needs.
BC’s government is contemplating carving the province into three zones to “provide greater clarity” to the timber industry, and discussions have so far left out First Nations. The zoning plan is outlined in an email sent in early July to public servants in the Ministry of Forests and the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. “The concept will consider three zones: commercial forestry, multiple-use and conservation and protection,” the leaked email reads, adding the zones will “provide greater clarity to achieve both investment stability and community economic benefits, and biodiversity and ecosystem stewardship goals for the land base.” The email provides no detail on how much forest might ultimately be placed in each of the zones, leaving open questions about just what impact the proposed plan would have on everything from at-risk species to rural and First Nations communities, and a logging industry that has been on a sharp downward spiral for years.
Salmon Arm Deputy Fire Chief Carmen Guidos was called in by council to help extinguish concern wildfire fuel mitigation work done at the Park Hill trail system has exacerbated the fire risk. On the agenda for city council’s May 10 meeting was a letter from resident Stig Keskinen regarding the timing of the city’s ongoing wildfire fuel mitigation program that saw work done along the Park Hill trails in May and June. In the letter, Keskinen posits this is not the time of year to do such work. One reason for this are the resulting “dozens of piles” of forest debris now drying throughout the trail system. …Keskinen wanted to know when they would be dealt with ….Guidos confirmed that is the plan, to burn in the fall – similar to what was done with the wildfire mitigation work at Little Mountain.
As an advocate for protecting the Peachland watershed water supply, Taryn Skalbania is used to publicly challenging the provincial government’s policies and guidelines governing logging in the forestry sector. But another challenge confronted her with the rapid growth of the Bald Range wildfire, as she faced an evacuation order at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8, from her Princeton Avenue hobby farm just inside the eastern municipal boundary of Peachland. …Skalbania also picked up on comments from Penticton Indian Band chief Greg Gabriel at a press conference in Penticton last Wednesday that included Premier David Eby, calling for the need to examine the forestry sector and logging practices as culprits of drought and massive forest fires. Regarding the recent preponderance of wildfires on the west side of Okanagan Lake, she cited logging was one of several factors playing a role in that occurrence.
The public is invited to give feedback on the timber supply review for the Williams Lake timber supply area (TSA). People can share their thoughts on the Williams Lake TSA discussion paper by submitting comments before Oct. 5, 2026. The discussion paper provides the results of a timber supply analysis and describes the current legal requirements, geography, natural resources and forest management practices. The information will be used by B.C.’s chief forester to determine how much timber can be harvested in the TSA annually, which is known as the allowable annual cut (AAC). Before setting the new AAC, the chief forester will consider input from First Nations, industry and community members. Public feedback is a part of every AAC decision and is an opportunity for communities to provide input, which will be considered during the AAC determination.
The District of 100 Mile House received a candid look at the current and projected timber supply for the 100 Mile House Timber Supply Area last week. On Tuesday, Aug. 11, Kane Copley, a strategic land manager for the Ministry of Forests, attended council’s regular meeting to deliver and explain the results of the 100 Mile House Timber Supply Area Timber Supply Analysis Discussion Paper. Copley said the review was conducted this year and based on information gathered from January to May. In his presentation, Copley outlined that the Ministry of Forests regularly reviews the timber supply for all areas and tree farm licenses throughout the province. These reviews are done to examine the impacts of current legal requirements and forest management practices on the timber supply, environment, economy and social conditions of the local area.
I am tired of the misdirection surrounding B.C.’s wildfire crisis. …We are constantly told this is strictly a global warming issue—a convenient excuse used to tax regular people for fuel consumption and agricultural methane. But the public needs to realize the truth: local industrial forestry has its foot on the gas pedal, directly creating the explosive conditions for these fires by destroying our natural ecosystem. For decades, the logging industry has used chemical spraying—specifically glyphosate—to systematically wipe out native deciduous trees… In the eyes of timber corporations, these plants are just “weeds” competing with commercial conifer lumber. …We are living in an upside-down system where regular citizens are told to fix global emissions, while multibillion-dollar timber giants are legally allowed to spray chemicals that strip the earth of its natural ability to clean the air, process organic waste, and create oxygen and water for us.
New documents show that more than 300,000 acres of land could be transferred to Vancouver Island First Nations, which are currently finalizing treaties. Approximately 30 parcels of Crown land would be given to five First Nations, which are located from Parksville to Victoria. The list includes Hatley Castle, Royal Roads University, waterfront in Victoria, property next to the legislature, Discovery Island Provincial Park and Sooke Mountain Provincial Park. “This is a betrayal of our core democracy here in British Columbia,” Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay said. …Lawyer Geoffrey Moyse spent decades advising the province on Aboriginal law. “There was no requirement to renegotiate the Douglas Treaties, so I think this was a political decision,” he said. Some concerns state that transferred lands would essentially become private property with no legal requirement to preserve public access or adhere to existing zoning.
TORONTO – The Steelworkers Humanity Fund (SHF) is donating $30,000 to support individuals, families and communities evacuated by recent wildfires in British Columbia. Hot and dry conditions across much of British Columbia have contributed to another difficult wildfire season, forcing thousands of people from their homes and creating uncertainty for many communities. The United Steelworkers union (USW) has documented impacts in several communities and in workplaces represented by the union across the province. These include evacuations and evacuation alerts, union members serving on local emergency response teams who are helping to protect their communities and fight fires, members trapped in their homes and some who lost their homes to the flames. The SHF is providing $30,000 to the Canadian Red Cross British Columbia Wildfire Appeal to assist those impacted by the wildfires. 
NORTH GRENVILLE, Ontario — The government is investing $865,000 in the Ontario Woodlot Association (OWA) to enhance private forest management and establish new supply chains for mill by-products and underused wood known as forest biomass. This investment will… test a business model that could double sustainable private harvesting over the next 10 to 15 years. …Ontario is investing $790,000 through the Forest Biomass Program to help the OWA create three new jobs and acquire equipment for the Wood Stewardship Program (WSP). This initiative will increase forest sector productivity by connecting businesses to biomass in privately owned forests. …The project will use up to 100,000 cubic metres of forest biomass over five years, creating new markets to maximize the value of wood and increase the industry’s diversification into value‑added manufacturing. Ontario is also investing $75,000 to support OWA workshops, conferences, publications and collaboration to promote sustainable forest management on private lands.
A team developing an aerospace and environmental project based in Montreal is currently working at the Timmins Stratospheric Balloon Base, testing its technology. The SAFARI-APEX project team from Montreal’s École de technologie supérieure has developed a prototype that uses cameras and artificial intelligence to monitor forests from above. The system is designed to spot conditions that could make an area more vulnerable to fire before one actually starts. Serguei Markov, an IT engineer and one of the people behind the project said the system analyzes factors such as vegetation, soil and humidity — information that could help focus fire prevention efforts where the risk is highest. …A prototype, called Borealis, was sent into the atmosphere on a Canadian Space Agency stratospheric balloon in Timmins.
CALIFORNIA — More than 4 million acres of California forest land may lose protected status under a proposed rollback of the Roadless Rule by the U.S. Forest Service. The federal government says the rollback is necessary to allow responsible timber production and wildfire mitigation efforts. Opponents argue rescinding the rule, which prohibits road construction and logging on 45 million acres of national forest land, would increase development, harm wildlife habitat, threaten water supplies and worsen wildfire risk. A public comment period on the proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule is open through midnight Sept. 21, 2026. More than 95% of roadless areas are in 10 Western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, per the USDA. In California, the proposal would open up 4,416,000 acres of roadless land across the state, which has nearly 21 million acres of national forest, the most of any state except Alaska.
California has adopted the toughest rules in the country to help protect communities from burning. Homeowners in wildfire-prone areas will be required to limit plants within five feet of their house, a protective measure that wildfire experts say can help prevent homes from igniting. …Wednesday’s vote by the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection comes after years of debate and delays. The state originally considered rules that would have restricted all vegetation within five feet of a house, aside from well-maintained trees. That generated pushback from some communities. …California regulators ultimately struck a compromise. Lawns, flowers and non-woody plants up to 18 inches tall will be allowed, unless they are located directly under the roofline of a house. Trees will be allowed, though branches must be trimmed five feet away from a structure. The rules will apply to new construction right away, but will be phased in for existing structures.
The United States Forest Service is proposing to amend the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) to allow cutting older trees across the western portion of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. As a fifth generation native of the west coast, I have spent a lifetime in these forests as a private citizen and a 40 plus year career as a U.S. Forest Service employee specializing in forestry and forest engineering. The primary proposed change in the 19.4 million acres of forestlands is to allow cutting trees up to 120 years old compared to 80 years in the current plan. Conservatively speaking, 90 or more percent of the old growth forests in the NWFP area were clearcut in the logging and road building boom from 1950 to the mid 1990’s. …The U.S. Forest Service likely lacks the experienced staff needed to carry out the proposed increase in timber harvest. Years of NWFP implementation, combined with recent federal workforce reductions, have significantly weakened the agency’s institutional knowledge. 
As the climate warms, some mountain trees are moving higher up, while others are spreading downhill. Scientists say something inside the trees may explain why. And that split could reshape watersheds and wildfire risk. For years, scientists have expected mountain trees to move upslope in search of cooler conditions. But a new global study found nearly one-third of tree species are moving downhill instead. That matters because where trees grow can affect how forests burn and how much water they soak up before it flows downstream to rural communities, cities and farms. So why are some trees moving in one direction while others head the other way? The answer may lie in how trees move water. Tim Rademacher, a researcher at the University of Vermont and a co-author of the study, says some species can move water quickly and efficiently, helping them grow. But that efficiency comes with a cost.
The Babylon Fire left parts of the burned landscape more vulnerable to flooding, erosion and debris flows, with increased runoff and erosion likely to recur intermittently for five to 10 years as the landscape recovers. The Forest Service’s newly released Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) report recommends emergency work to reduce those risks, including road-drainage improvements, debris racks at culverts, warning signs, closures and stabilization at old mine sites. Although the most severe soil damage covered only 5% of the area assessed, the report identified five drainages with the highest potential for debris flows. The lightning-caused Babylon Fire started June 26 in the Abajo Mountains about 25 miles southwest of Monticello and burned across parts of Elk Ridge, Dark Canyon Wilderness and Bears Ears National Monument within the Manti-La Sal National Forest. …The report says ground cover typically takes three to five years to re-establish and can take up to 10 years, particularly if drought persists.
The northern spotted owl is in trouble—per usual. This vanishingly rare subspecies of spotted owl earned its iconic status in the late ’80s and early ’90s, during the height of the Timber Wars in the Pacific Northwest. For forest defenders, the spotted owl is a sacred totem. For loggers, it’s been a pest. In 1990, federal officials reclassified the raptor as a threatened species, and greens won the Timber Wars with the establishment of the Clinton-era Northwest Forest Plan. The spotted owl left the trees standing—yet the number of spotted owls continued to decline. The culprit? The barred owl. …Today, just 15,000 spotted owls remain across North America; in comparison, there are some 3.5 million barred owls. So officials with the US Fish and Wildlife Service have come up with a bold plan to help the spotted owls: Shoot the barred owls.
Drought and wildfires are straining wildlife and the habitats they depend on across Colorado, prompting Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to closely monitor habitat conditions as animals face increased stress in their search for food, water and shelter. Wildfires rapidly alter ecosystems by removing vegetation that provides food and cover for wildlife. While ecosystems are adapted to periodic fire and will recover over time, large wildfires may reduce habitat quality, displace animals and increase competition for limited resources. Species unable to relocate quickly or that rely on specialized habitats are especially vulnerable this summer. …CPW is adjusting hunting and fishing season structures and license quotas in areas affected by wildfire damage, closing boating ramps during extreme drought conditions, and establishing voluntary and mandatory fishing closures to help sustain healthy habitats and wildlife populations. …Give wildlife extra space and respect area closures. Do not feed wildlife; let them find natural food sources. 
Today, many Washingtonians may be unaware that a looming federal policy change could have major consequences for the availability, quality and cost of the freshwater they rely on daily. …In August 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture officially launched a process to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Implemented in 2001, the Rule designated special areas across nearly 60 million acres of forests within the National Forest System. …The Rule reflects scientific evidence that extensive logging and road building contributed to widespread loss and fragmentation of habitat for wildlife and salmon, and degraded water quality for downstream communities. Just how important are roadless areas in national forests? To answer this question, we conducted the science and 
Thousands of acres of currently protected national forest land in Michigan could be opened to road construction and logging under a proposal from the U.S. Forest Service to rescind a 25-year-old rule. The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which restricts road construction and timber harvesting in designated roadless areas, currently protects about 16,000 acres of roadless forest land across the Huron-Manistee, Hiawatha and Ottawa national forests in Michigan. They are among nearly 45 million acres of inventoried roadless areas nationwide which would see protections eliminated under the proposal to rescind the rule, 
The closure of Finch Paper’s pulp mill in Glens Falls, New York, is a blow that will echo across the Northeast for years. For loggers, truckers, foresters and woodlot landowners, this is not some distant threat to worry about in the future. It is — today — lost income, lost markets for wood and the continuing fraying of a way of life. One of us has spent a career in forestry; the other leads a wilderness protection organization. …we both understand a truth: The amount of land we can set aside as wilderness depends on how well we manage the rest of the forest and thus the health of the timber industry. Both wildlands and managed woodlands are needed. …Put simply, wilderness advocates should be rooting for a thriving forest economy. And loggers should welcome a network of wildlands that keeps large forest blocks whole … and models the full range of what these forests can be. 
FRANCE — The megafire in Gironde, southwest France, has been “contained” since July 30, but foresters are still prohibited from entering the heart of their plots that were ravaged by the flames. It is too dangerous: With lingering smoke and a still-hot ground, the passage of a vehicle could rekindle the embers. As with the nearby fire in Landiras in 2022, they will probably have to wait for the fall rains before the fire can be officially declared extinguished. A race against time will then begin to fell all the burned trees as quickly as possible before the appearance of the destructive bark beetle and in the hope of selling the timber for the best possible price, depending on the extent of the burn. …The most damaged parts could be turned into heating pellets, while the preserved sections could be used for pallets, the paper industry or as timber. [to access the full story a Le Monde subscription is required]
