The European Union has updated its regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR), which is intended to ensure that products placed on or exported from the EU market do not contribute to deforestation or forest degradation. …The EU amended the regulation in December 2024 and December 2025, introducing simplification measures intended to reduce administrative costs and compliance burdens for affected companies. The EUDR will begin applying to large and medium operators on December 30. Micro and small operators will be subject to the regulation beginning June 30, 2027, while micro and small operators already covered by the EU Timber Regulation will have a December 30 compliance date. The EUDR replaces the EU Timber Regulation and is part of the European Commission’s broader effort to reduce the EU’s contribution to global deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss. …An Implementing Regulation classifies countries according to their risk of deforestation when producing the commodities covered by EUDR.
Wildfire risk reduction and fibre procurement research trials are ongoing within the Forest Operations Resilience Vertical. The team worked alongside Carrier Lumber Ltd. in Prince George, BC, on a commercial thinning trial assuming different fibre market availabilities, including a baseline sawlog and pulp scenario, a sawlog only scenario, a sawlog, pulp, and biomass scenario, and a sawlog and biolog scenario, where pulp was hauled as biomass to be chipped. A second trial is underway with Vanderwell Contractors in Calling Lake, Alberta, where the scenarios will trial different topping diameters for sawlogs and rat tail recovery, as well as mulching residual material on trails to influence fire behaviour. These trials assist FPInnovations in assessing which alterations to standard commercial thinning practices can influence wildfire behaviour and procure fibre, with cost and productivity data collected alongside wildfire fuel loading metrics. 
The University of British Columbia and the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance (LFFA) have signed a memorandum of collaboration to strengthen their partnership on fisheries conservation and research, resource management, and environmental stewardship in S’ólh Téméxw. The traditional and shared territory of the Stó:lō people spans the Fraser Valley and lower Fraser Canyon region of B.C. The agreement formalizes a long-standing research relationship between the Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship (FES), the Faculty of Science, the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF) and the LFFA, a First Nations-led organization that advances the collective fisheries interests of 24 Lower Fraser First Nations. The partnership provides a framework for collaboration on a number of areas including strengthening work on long-term fisheries conservation including the health and sustainability of fisheries, aquatic resources and their habitats, with particular attention to the management of Fraser River fish. 
Recent headlines have made clear the need for change in BC’s forest sector. …We can and should emphasise building with renewable materials sourced from BC timber, such as expanding local production of mass timber and continuing to advance tall wood construction. …The Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship (FES) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is doing just that. …Our recently launched UBC Richards Buchanan Professorship in Forests, Nature and Human Health is taking this line of research one step further. …Made possible with a multi-million-dollar gift from philanthropist Bruce Buchanan and leveraging support from UBC, the scope of this innovative professorship overlaps with such fields as medicine, public health, epidemiology, environmental health, neuroscience and/or environmental psychology. Potential topics of investigation span urban greening, forest therapy, nature-based solutions, Indigenous health, community well-being, biophilic design and/or environmental change, such as from extreme heat events, air pollution or wildfire smoke.
British Columbia has endured another extreme drought with damaging impacts seen across the province. …Playing out year over year, the chaotic cycle of drought crises has become a familiar experience for BC. We argue it’s the result of provincial water management that continues to treat drought as a short-term seasonal emergency rather than the year-round, persistent problem it has become. A 
Drought and water-scarcity challenges persist in B.C., with some areas expected to remain affected through the winter and potentially into 2027. While some recent rainfall has provided local relief, the snowpack is forecast to be low in the coming months, so water conservation must continue through winter. People, businesses, farms, water suppliers, First Nations and local governments are being urged to continue conserving water and planning ahead. Communities, particularly those in and below areas affected by wildfire, should also prepare for flooding, debris flows, landslides and erosion during intense fall, winter storms. …While late-summer rainfall has helped calm conditions, the wildfire season is not over and large areas of the province remain at risk for wildfire activity, including the potential for increased activity in October.
B.C.’s Ministry of Forests announced it would begin piloting its new Working Forest Landscape Model. The model aims to support the province’s goal of an annual timber harvest of 45 million cubic metres, while reducing industry red tape, such as cutting permits. It will be tested out in an area near Campbell River. …Instead of relying on individual cutblock permits for Crown land, this model would divide areas in the province into three zones. A working forest zone would prioritize commercial timber harvest. Forestry companies operating within it would be able to plan for the broader area from the start rather than incrementally adding more cutblocks. …A multiple-use zone would have various functions aimed at “the restoration and enhancement of biodiversity and ecosystem functions,” such as wildfire mitigation, according to the province. And a conservation and protection zone would ensure “long-term ecosystem function and biodiversity.”
Filmmaker Murray Wilson responds to criticism of the documentary’s case for active forest management:
As wildfires raged this summer, I turned to the documentary film 
As the provincial government advances plans to carve British Columbia’s lands into zones where logging and other industrial activities are permitted or barred, a former longtime public servant says he is struggling to not be cynical about what could lie ahead. In August, The Tyee broke the news that the provincial ministries of Forests and Water, Land and Resource Stewardship were proposing to divide B.C.’s vast and spectacularly diverse lands into “working forest,” “multiple-use” and “conservation and protection” zones. The details were included in a leaked internal government email. The zoning exercise is happening as Premier David Eby tells Forests Minister Ravi Parmar to find more trees for companies to log in order to meet a logging target of 45 million cubic metres per year. Forest ecologist Andy MacKinnon, who worked in the Forests Ministry for 30 years, said he worries that the “Path to 45” initiative will drive the zoning plan. .png?t=1789154044436)
Mosaic Forest Management is asking recreation users how they find gate and access information for its lands, returning to the public on an issue that surfaced as one of the clearest concerns in last year’s feedback. The survey asks people who camp, cut firewood or spend time on Mosaic’s lands how they plan trips, which apps and maps they already use, and what tools would help most. It is open until September 29, 2026. Mosaic’s lands are private managed forests, working forests where harvesting, road maintenance and hauling continue year-round. Public recreation is offered voluntarily alongside those operations, which means access can change with active work, road conditions and seasonal wildfire risk. Communicating those changes clearly is the challenge the new tools are meant to address. …Recreation users can complete the survey at 
Communities in McLeod Lake and Mackenzie, and on northern Vancouver Island, will have greater opportunities to manage local forests, support wildfire resilience and strengthen local forestry economies through expansions of two community forests. “Rural communities understand forestry, both as an economic driver and as a tool to reduce wildfire risk,” said Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests. “Driven by powerful partnerships, these expansions will mean real benefits for their communities in the form of local logs for local manufacturing, jobs on the land base and healthier, more resilient forests.” These expansion decisions will result in a total of 20,000 cubic metres allocated to the McLeod Lake Mackenzie community forest, and more than 8,100 cubic metres to the North Island Community Forest. The expansions will provide more opportunities for local forest management, including wildfire risk reduction, while helping ensure a sustainable fibre supply for local facilities and users. 
As part of the City of Rossland FireSmart program, contractors will complete FireSmart fuel treatment projects on municipal land parcels within the community beginning this week. The objective of the fuel management project is to reduce hazardous forest fuels and to decrease wildfire risk to the adjacent residents and the community, noted a release from the city. “The goal for the project is to reduce hazardous surface fuel accumulations close to homes and the community,” it stated. Expected activities include: Reduction of woody surface fuels from tree mortality and winter storm damage; Removal of dead standing trees; Retention of the healthy, large trees to maintain a cool and moist under storey; Retention and protection of all healthy, deciduous trees and shrubs (leaves have a high moisture content and are low flammability); Retention and protection of high value wildlife trees; and Debris disposal (chipping).
HURKETT — The Ontario government is investing over $1.1 million in five projects that will increase Indigenous participation in forestry and build a stronger, more resilient forest sector. As part its plan to protect Ontario, the government is fighting back against unjustified U.S. tariffs and economic attacks by making strategic investments through the Forest Biomass Program that will support economic development and clean energy projects to help the forestry sector increase productivity and capacity, with the long-term potential to create over 200 good-paying jobs in the sector. …Since launching the Forest Biomass Program in 2023, Ontario has invested close to $5 million in 22 projects under the Indigenous Bioeconomy Partnerships funding stream. The government’s latest investments will build a more resilient forest sector by developing projects with the potential to add annual demand for over 100,000 tonnes of mill by-products and underused wood, known as forest biomass.
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) today announced $500,000 in awards to CTrees and Spatial Informatics Group (SIG) through its Technology Solutions to Improve Forest Health and Forest Management initiative. CTrees will receive $300,000 to develop Forest Asset Intelligence: The Wood Triangle, while Spatial Informatics Group will receive $200,000 to develop and deploy the Planscape Bioeconomy Module. The initiative supports practical technology solutions that can improve forest health outcomes, strengthen wood markets, support forest management decision-making and increase operational effectiveness. Projects were also evaluated for their potential to be applied more broadly across regions, ownership types and markets.
A recent 
BILLINGS, Mont. — Killing endangered animals while logging a forest or building a dam would not be considered illegal unless the animals were specifically targeted, under a new interpretation of the Endangered Species Act by President Donald Trump’s administration that marks a sea change in how the landmark environmental law is enforced. A directive sent to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees this week says imperiled animals or plants must be intentionally targeted for their killing to be considered illegal. That’s a sharp turnaround from past practice at the wildlife service… Experts said the change would allow timber companies to log forests in the Pacific Northwest even if they knew that doing so could kill imperiled birds nesting in the trees…. …Under the new law, only people acting directly against animals, such as hunters, trappers, anglers and perhaps pesticide users would need permits, said Sandi Snodgrass, an attorney with Holland and Hart in Denver…
PENNSYLVANIA — For more than two decades, our national forests have been governed by the Roadless Rule and its full repeal carries significant consequences for American taxpayers. A closer read of USFS’ own analysis of the proposed rule’s impacts reveals that full repeal would increase taxpayer costs and liabilities through increased road subsidies, revenue losses from timber sales, and increased wildfire risks. While the USFS stated the goals to reduce regulatory burden, increase resource production, and increase local management flexibility to allow for active management where necessary in response to increasing wildfire risk, a full repeal may have the opposite impact. …Targeted improvements to the Roadless Rule make sense. Blindly instituting full repeal would expose taxpayers to billions in subsidized road construction and maintenance, exacerbate taxpayer losses from money-losing timber sales, potentially increase wildfire risks, and weaken the health of roadless areas that provide important commercial and recreational benefits.
The recent Public Forum letter criticizing the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) raises legitimate concerns about protecting forests and addressing climate change. But portraying the bipartisan legislation primarily as an effort to expedite logging misses much of what the bill is intended to accomplish. Climate change is making wildfires more dangerous. …We need to address both problems. Recent research provides a striking example. Scientists examined 164 forest plots burned during California’s massive 2021 Dixie Fire. In untreated forests, there was a 58% probability that every tree in a plot would be killed. Thinning alone lowered that risk to 48%. But where thinning had been followed by prescribed fire, the probability of complete tree mortality fell to just 4%. That distinction matters. Responsible forest management is not simply another name for logging. The research suggests that thinning alone provides limited protection unless surface fuels are also addressed. Prescribed fire was a critical part of the treatment.
There is a giant misconception regarding the way we manage our forests here in Northern California. …Recently, there has been a lot of talk of two harvest plans in the Charlie Creek area of Branscomb. I’m very familiar with this area and the work being done around it. An organization has sued Calfire over approved harvest plans that surround Charlie Creek. So I simply want to lay out what is being said by the organization’s website, in local news outlets, and what is actually occurring. First off, every timber harvest plan in the state of California goes through an extremely rigorous process before work begins. …The “experts “ from the other side who claim the whole mountain is gonna fall into the creek, have never set foot or eye on plan area. …The two Branscomb harvest plans currently in the courts are fully compliant following the strictest regulations …Here is the truth about the two plans in lawsuit.
The agency gave the public one week to weigh in on plans to log 5,000 acres of the Akawa Butte Fire burn area. The Trump administration is seeking to fast-track logging in forests recently burned by wildfires in a policy shift that’s starting with Central Oregon. The U.S. Forest Service aims to log about 5,000 acres in the Deschutes National Forest where the Akawa Butte Fire burned this summer. The agency gave tribes, counties and the public just one week to weigh in, with a deadline of just before midnight Monday. Similar projects typically include a 30-day public comment period. The proposal to log the Akawa Butte Fire burn area relies on a new policy that allows the Forest Service to fast-track logging recently burned forests. Forest Service officials say they need to act quickly to remove dead and dying trees that could become fire fuel later on. …Environmental groups say the Forest Service is rushing a sensitive process.
Oregon — U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Andrea Salinas have introduced legislation that would transfer 18,626 acres of federal forestland to the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, a federally recognized tribe in western Oregon, amid concerns from conservation groups about the extent of logging and potential impacts to wildlife habitat. The legislation is part of a larger push by tribes across the U.S. to regain ancestral lands. Such land transfers have been rare in Oregon, where tribes retain only a small fraction of their historic territories. The bill is backed by all seven Democrats in Oregon’s congressional delegation who said it addresses historic dispossession and will allow the tribe to sustainably manage the land and boost economic opportunity in the region. Other supporters are U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and representatives Suzanne Bonamici, Val Hoyle, Maxine Dexter and Janelle Bynum. [A subscription to the Oregonian is required for full access]
COLORADO—Six years ago, forest ecologist Marin Chambers looked toward the mountains with trepidation as a massive plume of smoke filled the sky above the largest wildfire in Colorado’s history. In June, she looked for clues to what the future forest might look like. …There is no guarantee that this high-elevation forest will come back as it was before. Many of the spruce trees were dead well before the fire hit, victims of an earlier beetle outbreak. The massive blaze killed much of what remained, burning so fiercely that vast swaths of land within the 845-square-kilometer burn scar were left with no living trees, limiting the cone crop needed to seed the next generation. A changing climate could pose a further obstacle to recovery. …Already there are signs that forest managers can’t count on natural recovery. …To prevent that transformation, some ecologists have proposed employing a forceful intervention called assisted migration. 
UNIVERSITY of UTAH — A satellite instrument built to track air pollution has turned out to be a useful early-warning sensor for dying forests. In work covered on 13 September 2026 by Scienmag and published earlier that month by the 
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has completed aerial seeding via helicopter to disperse jack pine, white pine, tamarack and black spruce seeds on 
MINNESOTA — At the North Star Logging Expo in Grand Rapids, Minn., I got a quick lesson in operating heavy equipment and a more sobering one about the pressures facing the people who make their living with it. Loggers are struggling with something out of their control: the price of diesel fuel. That matters to the whole state because the timber industry doesn’t just cut trees. It’s a key steward of rural Minnesota’s economy and environmental health. If you spent any time worrying about wildfire smoke, climate change or jobs in the past year, you’re invested in figuring this out. …Brady Hasbargen, a fourth-generation logger from Birchdale, Minn., along the Canadian border, said he uses about 100,000 gallons of diesel every year. Last year, he spent about $300,000 on fuel. With diesel now priced above $6 per gallon, that cost will double and could go even higher. That’s well beyond his profit margin. 
Vermont utility regulators are temporarily softening environmental rules at Vermont’s two wood-burning power plants to help stabilize the logging industry. State officials say the $2.3 billion wood products industry is in a perilous situation after one of the region’s largest paper mills announced in July it will no longer purchase local wood scraps to make its paper. The rule change, announced earlier this month, will allow McNeil Generating Station in Burlington and Ryegate Power Station in the Northeast Kingdom to buy wood that had been destined for that paper mill, even if it comes from timber harvests that have not been inspected by fish and wildlife officials for impacts to wetlands and habitat for endangered species. The Finch Paper Mill in Glens Falls, New York, used to buy some 2,000 tons of “pulpwood” scraps from Vermont loggers and mills each week before its July announcement.
WISCONSIN — On August 18, the US Secretary of Agriculture announced the US Forest service officially filed an official proposal to repeal the Roadless Rule. …The policy currently protects roughly 69,000 acres in Wisconsin, and with the potential repeal of the environmental policy, experts want to be clear about the relationship between roads and wildfires. Most wildfires in the US are caused by people. According to the
Scientists have identified a previously unknown frog species living in the seasonally flooded forests of the western Amazon. Named Adenomera varcena, the species adds to growing evidence that Amazonian biodiversity is even richer than it appears. The discovery also highlights the importance of cryptic diversity, in which animals that look nearly identical can actually belong to separate species. Researchers distinguished the new frog by combining several lines of evidence, including its DNA and distinctive call. The discovery grew out of field expeditions in the Upper Juruá River region of western Acre. Scientists surveyed forest fragments near the Moa and Crôa rivers, close to Cruzeiro do Sul. Confirming that the frog represented a new species required far more than simply examining its appearance. The team compared DNA data, recordings of its calls, body shape (morphology), habitat information, and specimens preserved in scientific collections.