Canada’s private forests cover roughly 23 million hectares, yet the last national study of the people who own and steward them was published more than 20 years ago. A lot has changed. Researchers at McGill University, in partnership with Canadian Forest Owners (CFO) and with support from MITACS Canada, have launched the first national survey of private forest owners in more than 20 years. The survey aims to build a stronger evidence base to help governments better understand the role private forests play in Canada’s economy, environment, and communities. The survey only takes 15 minutes and can be completed on a phone or tablet, but a computer is recommended. The survey will close on September 14, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. MT / 5:00 p.m. ET. Take the survey now: https://www.forestowners.ca/about/survey/
Canada is having an important conversation about the future of its forest sector. Fibre supply is tightening. Mills and communities face growing uncertainty. Wildfires, insects, conservation pressures, changing forest conditions and intensifying trade tensions are reshaping the economics of forestry. At the same time, governments are looking for ways to attract investment, improve productivity and strengthen rural economies. In that conversation, one of Canada’s significant forest resources has too often remained in the background: privately owned working forests. That is beginning to change. When Mark Carney announced the Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force in November 2025, Canadian Forest Owners (CFO) saw an opportunity to challenge the traditional boundaries of Canada’s forest policy. When we presented to the Task Force in February and submitted recommendations in March, our message was straightforward: Canada cannot build a stronger, more competitive and resilient forest sector while leaving private forests and forest owners at the margins.
The U.S.-Canada trade war escalated sharply over the weekend. …There are a few obvious implications of the trade war that could fall on Canada’s environment and the nation’s natural resources:
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.
Canada’s last wild spotted owl was known as Skalula. …No official announcement was made when Skalula disappeared in 2023, the year after her mate died. …To this day, neither the provincial nor the federal government has publicly acknowledged the disheartening truth: the northern spotted owl, which nests only in old-growth forests, has gone extinct in Canada’s wild. …How did we so miserably fail the spotted owl? …B.C. is Canada’s most biodiverse province, meaning that it has the greatest variety of life. But the number of species at risk of extinction in the province — a key measure of biodiversity loss — is steadily climbing. …Chris Johnson, the chair-elect of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, says that the only way to help many struggling wildlife species is for the B.C. government to enact endangered species legislation. …Today, almost 500 species in B.C. are endangered, meaning they could soon be lost if nothing is done.
The end of wildfire season is beginning to fizzle as the B.C. Wildfire Service is nudging open the gates a little bit and allowing category one fires today. The combination of current and future forecasts, recent precipitation and improved overnight recoveries has reduced the need to prohibit campfires in the Southeast Fire Centre region. “The B.C. Wildfire Service takes several factors into account before rescinding prohibitions,” noted the BCWS in a statement. “This includes balancing the needs of the public with the need to mitigate the risk of human-caused wildfires.” As of noon, category one campfires will be permitted throughout the Southeast Fire Centre — which includes the Rocky Mountain Natural Resource District and the Selkirk Natural Resource District — and all non-municipal land across the Regional District of Central Kootenay. However, there are rules involved. A category one campfire must be set in accordance with section 20 of the Wildfire Regulation…
Forestry critic and B.C. Conservative MLA for Kamloops-North Thompson Ward Stamer wants to see the province salvage more wildfire-burned wood faster. He said that only about 5% of burned wood is logged on average in B.C. following a wildfire — a number he’s prefer to see rise to 25%. The former logger said he also wants to see cutting license issued faster, noting most burned trees are useless if not harvested within two years. …Stamer said once a trees dies, it begins deteriorating and each species does so at different rates. He said most burned trees that aren’t harvested within two years may only be good for low value chips, as opposed to other products such as plywood, veneer and saw logs. …Forestry Minister Ravi Parmar said the salvage rate is closer to eight to 10%. Parmar said the province is always trying to increase its salvage rate.
The province has ended its state of provincial emergency. The state of emergency was first declared Aug. 8 following a night of fast-moving fires, including the Bald Range wildfire that led to the evacuation of the District of Summerland. At the time, more than 20,000 people were evacuated from their homes. It was then extended Aug. 21 through to Aug. 29, but the province says the decision to end it early follows advice from emergency management officials. However, the province says the wildfire risk in B.C. remains high. The ending of the state of emergency has no effect on the current evacuation orders, evacuation alerts or local states of emergencies put in place by local governments or First Nations.
Prince George city council is being asked to support a call for an independent public inquiry into BC forest and wildfire management. A report, drafted by Coun. Garth Frizzell in his capacity as chair of the Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs, goes before council on Monday, Aug. 31. It recommends the city submit a resolution to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) asking the provincial government to establish an inquiry under the Public Inquiry Act. The UBCM holds its annual convention Sept. 14-18 in Vancouver. The proposed inquiry would examine the relationship between forest management practices and wildfire risk and severity, as well as the effectiveness of fuel management, prescribed burning, wildfire prevention and landscape-resilience strategies.
BURNABY, B.C. — The United Steelworkers union (USW) says the B.C. government’s proposed Working Forest Landscape Model is a step in the right direction, but … implementation cannot wait. “Our union and others have called for a clearly defined working forest for decades,” said Scott Lunny, USW Western Canada Director. “Government needs to move quickly to define the economic land base, increase the sustainable harvest and give workers and communities the certainty needed to rebuild our forest industry.” …USW says establishing where B.C.’s working forest will be only part of the challenge. The province must also determine how access to fibre from that land will support domestic manufacturing and employment. “These are public forests and a working forest needs to work for British Columbians,” said Lunny. “Greater certainty around the land base and fibre supply should mean greater certainty that those resources support mills, investment and good jobs here in B.C.” …“There is no time to waste”.
Large, devastating fires like those B.C. has witnessed this year frequently spark complaints and questions from the public: Why are there helicopters sitting at the local airport while smoke billows from a nearby mountain? Why are no squadrons of water bombers coming to the rescue? While officials might compare fighting a firestorm to spitting into a campfire, it does little to dispel the complaints that more could and should be done — in particular as anxious residents are evacuated and wait to hear if their homes, farm animals and pets have survived. To better understand how aircraft are used as a tool in wildfire fighting, The Tyee climbed aboard a Bell 407 deployed to one of the province’s largest wildfires. Flying above the 
Amid another brutal stretch of hot, dry weather across Canada, the so-called cultural burning practices of North America’s Indigenous peoples are in vogue. In fact, they’re being inflated to the point of being celebrated as an ethnically exclusive competency, supposedly distinct from western science. Parks Canada’s online resources say cultural burning must be Indigenous-led, “so as not to misappropriate cultural practices,” while claiming that prescribed fire… is a “colonial adaptation of cultural burning practised by many different Indigenous groups in Canada.” …We know that Indigenous communities have historically used low-intensity fires to maintain grasslands for grazing, corridors for travel and forests, among other purposes. The evidence of this is substantial and not in question, nor is the effectiveness of those methods in their particular contexts. But that is not uniquely Indigenous knowledge. It is a basic principle of fire management that’s understood and applied around the world.
About 83 kilometres of Forest Service Road segments across the Merritt Timber Supply Area have been identified for possible deactivation over the next three years, with work aimed at reducing erosion, protecting waterways and addressing safety concerns on inactive roads. BC Timber Sales is planning the work as part of its ongoing management of Forest Service Roads in the Merritt TSA, according to the Ministry of Forests. The tentative list includes segments in the Gordon Tyner, Pimainus, Skuhun, Wallace Creek, Finnegan Red Creek, Matthew Creek, Tulameen Champion, Olivine Champion Creek, Jim Kelly Creek, Sunday Summit, Victor Lake, Cook Creek, Mellin Pennask Lake and Pattinson Lake areas. The province says the road list remains tentative and could change as detailed assessments are completed. …Future wildfire response, silviculture, range management and recreational access will also be considered during planning.
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.”
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.
More than 400 endangered animal and plant species could face accelerated extinction after the Donald Trump administration’s decision to rescind a rule that has protected old-growth forests for more than two decades. According to a new report from the Center for Biological Diversity, the rollback of the Bill Clinton-era “roadless rule” could put 7.4m acres of endangered-species habitat and nearly 1,800 miles of protected rivers and streams at risk, while opening more than 45m acres of national forests to roads, drilling and logging. The Trump administration moved last week to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, citing “outdated restrictions [that] have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities”.
Two environmental conservation groups and a Southeast Alaska tribe have filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service, challenging a logging project just east of Ketchikan. The Forest Service announced in July that it would move forward with the South Revilla Integrated Resource Project, a plan that includes harvesting over 5,000 acres of trees, mostly old growth, in the Tongass National Forest. …The complaint alleges that the project’s logging of old-growth trees will harm subsistence and recreation resources. It also highlights potential impacts to wildlife, the ecosystem and the economy. The suit lists several defendants, including the Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It also lists Forest Service Region 10 Acting Regional Forester Jeremiah Ingersoll and the Tongass National Forest Acting Forest Service Supervisor Janelle Crocker. The Forest Service could not immediately be reached for comment.
Oregon environmental groups are worried that dropping the so-called Roadless Rule, recently proposed by the Trump Administration, will increase fire risk and harm wildlife, drinking water and the recreation economy. The proof, they say, is in the documents produced by the U.S. Forest Service. Other groups say those concerns are overblown and that removing the rule will result in better forest management. …The draft environmental impact analysis — produced by the Forest Service — laid out several risks of removing the Roadless Rule. It acknowledges that road density is linked to human-caused wildfires. …Removing the rule could also trigger a loss of $9 million a year in visitor spending for nearby communities, the environmental analysis said, due to changes in landscape or loss of recreation opportunities caused by future construction. …The American Forest Resource Council, a timber advocacy group, said many of the concerns are overstated because rescinding the Roadless Rule won’t automatically result in new roads or logging.
The Wrangell Ranger District has recently wrapped up a large goshawk survey to prepare for potential timber sales. There is a push to increase logging on federally managed lands in Alaska following the 2025 presidential order to “unleash Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential.” Ahead of any logging operation, there are a variety of wildlife surveys required before anything can be cut, including these goshawk surveys. …Cooper Freeman, the Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity said that, with renewed push for logging in the second Trump administration, there has been an increase of surveys, but that he did not think the survey methods were very effective at locating the hawks. “So it’s quite likely that many goshawks, if they’re there, would go undetected, and logging would harm the birds.”
ARIZONA — US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said that misguided forest management policies played a role in the recent deadly flash floods at the Grand Canyon. Burgum said that a failure to properly manage protected forest areas contributed to the potency of last year’s Dragon Bravo Fire on the North Rim, which in turn increased the risk of flash flooding on the canyon’s floor. “When the forest has been burned through, you get a lot of runoff,” Burgum said. …The Dragon Bravo Fire burned nearly 150,000 acres last summer. …A Dept. of the Interior Burned Area Emergency Response Team conducted a postfire assessment in August 2025. The assessment found that the burn scar would increase the water runoff and debris flow in Bright Angel Creek, but “they are unlikely to significantly impact values-at-risk under normal storm conditions.” Burgum, however, said the Dragon Bravo Fire and Saturday’s Bright Angel Creek flooding are connected.
Giant sequoias only grow naturally in California today. But they once ranged as far east as Colorado, Wyoming and Nevada, before the climate turned drier and pushed them into their current, narrower range. Now, even that shrunken sequoia forest is under threat. Wildfires have killed off nearly one-fifth of all large sequoias across their native range over the last decade; a steep loss for a species that can live for thousands of years. A new study … finds those losses aren’t inevitable. Researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno studied Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest, home to the world’s largest old-growth sequoia grove, after the 2020 Castle Fire. Some parts of the forest had been thinned or deliberately burned in the 15 years before the fire, while others hadn’t. The difference was stark. Sequoias in untreated forest died at more than double the rate of those in treated areas, said Bryant Nagelson, the study’s lead author.
TWISP, Wash. — A trio of conservation groups sued the Trump administration Monday, asking a federal judge to halt a sweeping logging project set to clear-cut mature and old-growth forests in north-central Washington state. “This lawsuit challenges the false narrative that we have to choose between healthy forests or safe communities,” Kristine Akland, senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. The Center for Biological Diversity, joined by Kettle Range Conservation Group and Methow Forest Forum, accuse the U.S. Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service of violating multiple federal environmental laws through the approval of the Midnight Restoration Project.
OLYMPIA, Washington – The Washington Forest Protection Association (WFPA) and Washington Farm Forestry Association (WFFA) will appeal a Thurston County Superior Court decision upholding the state’s expanded buffer rule for non-fish-bearing (Np) streams. The appeal will ask whether forest-practices rules can be changed without first showing that existing protections are failing to protect fish and water quality. WFPA and WFFA said the state’s own record shows expected downstream benefits to fish are negligible to minor, and Ecology acknowledged the expanded rule may still allow temperature changes in non-fish streams. “This is not a conservation win if the state’s own record shows limited fish benefits, and immense harm to working forests and rural communities,” said Jason Spadaro, Executive Director of WFPA. …Elaine Oneil, Executive Director of WFFA. “If a rule strands harvestable timber or makes a parcel uneconomical to manage, that harm cannot be fixed later.” …The court has ruled, but policy questions remain.
CALIFORNIA — Tall trees are generally associated with high-biomass forests. This is particularly true for forests dominated by Sequoia sempervirens, the world’s tallest tree species. Extreme decay resistance, the ability to survive high-severity fires, shade tolerance and prolific trunk reiteration (resprouting) make the species unique, allowing tall redwood forests to accumulate more biomass and store more aboveground carbon than any other vegetation type. …A new study published in Forest Ecology and Management combined ground-based measurements and repeated (2007–2025) airborne laser scanning (ALS) to inventory the tallest redwoods and quantify forest biomass. …Forest biomass changed substantially over time. Large areas of primary forest gained biomass during the prestorm interval (2007–2022), averaging 10–13 metric tons per hectare annually. …These ALS-derived estimates of biomass change may be somewhat exaggerated. …Nonetheless, the amount of crown damage probably rivaled losses of live-tree biomass to treefall in California’s Redwood National and State Parks. 
Last week, the Trump administration announced it was moving forward with efforts to rescind the national Roadless Rule, which has governed roadless areas of U.S. Forest Service land for a quarter-century. But Idaho won’t be affected. That’s because of an effort, launched two decades ago during the brief governorship of now-Sen. Jim Risch, to secure a specific statewide roadless rule. Colorado is the only other state with its own rule. Idaho’s rule will remain in place, even if the Trump administration succeeds in reversing the national rule — a tragic outcome that places at risk some of the best remaining patches of wild habitat for fish and game, and risks increasing the number of wildfires, which are mostly caused by humans, mostly near roads. Idaho’s rule could provide a viable model for future protection of roadless areas in an era when federal land management decisions are likely to whipsaw with every presidential election for the foreseeable future.
WASHINGTON — A Thurston County, Washington judge upheld larger riparian buffers on timberlands in Western Washington, affirming a rule that will take 200,000 acres out of timber production. In ruling from the bench Aug. 21, Superior Court Judge Christine Schaller said the Forest Practices Board lawfully adopted the new buffer rule after years of study. She acknowledged the economic hardship faced by timberland owners and that her ruling will be appealed. The board, which regulates logging, voted 7-5 last year to expand buffers along streams without fish. The rule will go into effect Aug. 31 and require continuous 65- to 75-foot buffers. The old rule called for 50-foot buffers on half the length of streams. The Washington Department of Ecology said bigger buffers were need to prevent logging from raising stream temperatures in most cases. The timber industry says the buffers will immediately eliminate $1.8 billion worth of timber and have little environmental benefit
Land managers with the Flathead National Forest plan to approve a fuels-reduction project in the Swan Valley near Holland Lake using an emergency determination on the grounds that it lies in a “high-risk fireshed,” according to an Aug. 18 decision notice. Foresters say the project is eligible for an Emergency Action Determination (EAD) because it proposes to reduce wildfire risk while preserving the area’s old-growth forests. Initially released for public scoping in 2023, the Rumbling Owl Fuels Reduction Project spans 6,200 acres on the Swan Lake Ranger District of the Flathead National Forest southeast of Condon and east of Highway 83. According to an environmental assessment prepared by Jeff Durkin, the district silviculturist for the Swan and the project leader on Rumbling Owl, the project meets the newly established criteria for EAD authorization, which the agency has increasingly used to expedite approval of logging projects featuring a fuels-reduction component.
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.
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Forest Service to suspend a commercial logging project in southern Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest, finding the agency’s approval of the project under President Joe Biden violated the Endangered Species Act. Despite the agency’s own preliminary assessment showing an endangered bat species lived in the roughly 70-acre area targeted for the tree thinning project, the Forest Service did not wait for an official opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to approve the project. Environmental groups sued, but by the time the judge issued a temporary restraining order halting the project last summer, a logging company had already cut down trees in 40 of the 67 acres. Separately, the Trump administration this summer has moved to change two federal rules, including one weakening the Endangered Species Act, making it easier to approve projects like logging, mining, oil and gas drilling and other development in federal lands and forests.
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, 
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has said he wants to reinstate the death penalty for arsonists, following a wave of deadly forest fires. The official death toll stands at 12, but independent news outlets believe the figure is much higher. The president ordered the justice ministry to introduce changes to the criminal law introducing capital punishment for arsonists. Capital punishment remains in the country’s penal code for some offences, but no execution has been carried out since 1993. More than 100 wildfires have been recorded in recent days in the north-east of the country, most of which have been extinguished. …Under the current law, deliberately starting forest fires is punishable by up to 30 years in prison, or life imprisonment in certain cases. …While Algeria regularly experiences forest fires around the summer months, climate change has exacerbated the intensity and severity of recent wildfires in the country.