Creating a more diverse workforce is a critical challenge for forestry companies across Canada. Addressing this will require rethinking how we recruit, train, and retain employees, while fostering an industry culture that welcomes women and people of all backgrounds. This year, we align with the International Women’s Day 2026 theme, #GivetoGain for gender equality, to drive these conversations forward. On March 5, 2026, Canadian Forest Industries, Pulp & Paper Canada, Canadian Biomass, and Opérations Forestières et de Scierie will host the Women in Forestry Virtual Summit. Co-hosted by Christine Leduc, VP, Communications & Government Relations at the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, this free, national event will bring together industry professionals for a meaningful discussion on gender and diversity in the forest sector.
Svetlana Kayumova
Jenna Phillips
Featured Q&A Stories associated with this year’s event include: Svetlana Kayumova, Vice-President of Corporate Communications & Government Relations at Interfor and Jenna Phillips, Senior Policy Advisor at the Forest Products Association of Canada.
A national horticultural association is sounding the alarm after new data shows a “staggering gap” in Canada’s post-wildfire forest restoration efforts. The Canadian Tree Nursery Association (CTNA) says current programs are restoring only a small fraction of forests lost to recent wildfires and is calling for “immediate and substantive action” from provincial and federal governments to dramatically increase commitments to restoring wildfire-impacted forests. Speaking at the Western Forest Contractors Association Annual General Meeting and Conference in Victoria from Jan. 28-30, Rob Keen, RPF, Executive Director of the CTNA warned that more than 7.3 billion seedlings are required to restore just 15 per cent of the forests destroyed by wildfires between 2023 and 2025 – more than 10 times Canada’s current annual seedling production capacity. “The crisis is compounded by a troubling biological trend – the declining ability of forests to regenerate naturally after more frequent and higher-intensity wildfires,” said Keen.
Fire departments across BC are concerned about changes to the FireSmart program and how funding is provided to communities as they plan for wildfires. The Ministry of Forests says it’s moving to a more “holistic approach” based on where risk is the highest but the fire chief who was at the centre of the Wesley Ridge wildfire on Vancouver Island last summer says the program is too important to change. Nick Acciavatti says funding from the provincial FireSmart program was instrumental in saving numerous homes in the Wesley Ridge fire. …The program provides funding to local fire departments that then go into local neighbourhoods to educate and undertake fire prevention work like brush clearing and cleaning properties of combustible materials. But that money may no longer be available to any fire department that applies for it is something Acciavatti is concerned about, considering the changing wildfire conditions here on Vancouver Island.
The Forest History Association of British Columbia is pleased to launch its 2026 Speaker Series with Jennifer Houghton, Campaign Director for the New Forest Act project with the Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society, on Tuesday, February 17, 2026 via Zoom. Jennifer’s talk, “Same System, Same Results: A Century of BC Forestry Without Structural Change,” takes a long-view look at the history of forest management in British Columbia. Over decades of reviews and tweaks to policy, tenure, and allowable cut levels, outcomes on the ground have remained largely unchanged. Jennifer will explore how volume-driven, tenure-based systems became entrenched and why those repeated cycles of reform have fallen short. Drawing on her work co-authoring the legislative framework for the New Forest Act, she will also introduce this grassroots proposal as a way to rethink and strengthen forestry law so that it serves both ecosystems and communities more effectively. All are welcome to register for the free Zoom event.
NORTH COWICHAN, BC — A representative for mill workers in North Cowichan addressed council to oppose the idea of a special task force to identify why mills are closing in the region. Adrian Soldera, president of Public and Private Workers of Canada Local 8… said everyone already knows why the mills are closing and that a new task force would be a waste of time. …He said the Crofton mill is ending several jobs at its plant and that the Chemainus sawmill now faces extended curtailment efforts due to a fibre crisis. Soldera added that putting another group together to investigate why the mills are closing would be redundant. …“its like asking for a committee to study why a house is on fire while the roof is already collapsing,” Soldera said. “Every day this task force spends sitting in a boardroom another family in a mill town wonders if they can pay their mortgage.”
BC NDP Forests Minister Ravi Parmar avoided the usual political pledges to accept recommendations from the latest in-depth analysis of the province’s troubled forest industry. The NDP government’s appointed experts, the Provincial Forest Advisory Committee, tabled their findings on February 2 after a six-month review of an industry that is moving from decline to collapse. …Parmar took the NDP’s familiar path, rather than address the sweeping recommendations to restructure the entire forest land base… he said the mill closures that are devastating communities across the province are mostly Donald Trump’s fault. …The 
Forest harvesting events will be analyzed at an upcoming event at Maple Ridge’s UBC Research Forest. The event titled “Not-So-Clear-Cut: Rethinking How We Harvest Forests” is coming up on Feb. 21, in two sessions from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. Participants are invited to join Dr. Suzanne Simard, a professor and the author of Finding the Mother Tree, and Hélène Marcoux, director and forester at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, for a two-hour guided walk along hiking trails through the forest. As part of ongoing research exploring alternatives to clear-cuts, attendees can discover how tree retention forestry supports soil carbon and ecosystem resilience – all while exploring the challenges and trade-offs of logging in a living ecosystem.
The Provincial Forest Advisory Committee’s (PFAC) 
…the IISAAK OLAM Foundation, which promotes the establishment of Indigenous protected conservation areas … hosted the Estuary to Old Growth Gathering in Parksville, bringing together representatives from Nuu-chah-nulth, Coast Salish, Kwakwaka’wakw and Haida nations. …Concurrently, the B.C. Natural Resources Forum launched its “Forestry is a Solution” campaign in Prince George on Jan. 20. This push seeks support for the logging and manufacturing sector, stressing the need to “speed up access to economic wood by expediting permits and approvals”. Many of the industry’s leading associations are backing this campaign. “The coalition is asking British Columbians to voice their support for the workers and families that depend on forestry,” stated the B.C. Council of Forest Industries. …Not surprisingly, a Feb. 2 report from the Provincial Forestry Advisory Council stated that the days of “abundant access to low-cost fibre” are over. The report was presented as “a call to fundamentally reimagine our relationship with the land.”
WASHINGTON — Billions of American chestnut trees once covered the eastern United States. …But by the 1950s, this venerable tree went functionally extinct, culled by a deadly airborne fungal blight and lethal root rot. A new study provides hope for its revitalization, finding that the genetic testing of individual trees can reveal which are most likely to resist disease and grow tall, thus shortening how long it takes to plant the next, more robust, generation. …The American chestnut … had little defense against foreign-introduced blight and root rot. Another type of chestnut, however, had evolved alongside those diseases. The Chinese chestnut had been introduced for its valuable nuts and it could resist diseases. …So, the authors want a tree with the characteristics of the American chestnut and the disease resistance of the Chinese chestnut. …Breed for disease resistance alone and the trees get shorter, less competitive.
For the first time, researchers have been able to confirm that our planet’s boreal forests are on the move. Using nearly a quarter million Landsat satellite images spanning 36 years, scientists have confirmed for the first time that Earth’s boreal forest—the planet’s largest forested biome—is shifting northward, revealing unprecedented changes in this critical ecosystem that stores more than a third of the world’s forests and helps regulate our global climate. [5 min. video]
Biological legacies (i.e., materials that persist following disturbance; “legacies”) shape ecosystem functioning and feedbacks to future disturbances, yet how legacies are driven by pre-disturbance ecosystem state and disturbance severity is poorly understood—especially in ecosystems influenced by infrequent and severe disturbances. Focusing on wet temperate forests as an archetype of these ecosystems, we characterized live and dead aboveground biomass 2–5 years post-fire in western Washington and northwestern Oregon, USA, to ask: How do pre-fire stand age and burn severity drive variability in initial post-fire legacies, specifically aboveground biomass carbon and fuel profiles? …Our findings demonstrate the importance of pre-disturbance ecosystem state in dictating many aspects of initial post-disturbance structure and function, with important implications for managing post-fire recovery trajectories in some of Earth’s most productive and high-biomass forests.
COLORADO — The U.S. Forest Service is proposing logging southwest of Glenwood Springs, involving about 2,600 acres in what’s known as the Fourmile area along the borders of Pitkin, Mesa and Garfield counties. The White River National Forest’s proposal includes acreage in all three counties. It involves selective thinning and vegetation clearing in two treatment areas and along several roads to improve forest health, reduce wildfire risk and provide timber, the Forest Service said in a news release. “The timber treatments would improve the forest’s ability to withstand and recover from drought and insect outbreaks by creating more diversity in the size and ages of trees. Additionally, work along roads will strengthen predetermined areas where firefighters could more effectively engage wildfires,” the Forest Service said in its release. …“Active forest management is an important tool for maintaining healthy forests,” Acting Aspen-Sopris District Ranger Jennifer Schuller said in the release. 
MISSOULA, Montana — Forester Sean Steinebach felt stunned when US District Court Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula vacated a federal magistrate judge’s favorable recommendations about the proposed South Plateau timber project. “Judge Molloy is a thorn in my side,” said Steinebach, outreach forester for Sun Mountain Lumber, based in Deer Lodge. …Molloy’s ruling was filed Dec. 11, vacating March 31 recommendations by Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto that had allowed the project to proceed. Sun Mountain Lumber operates a sawmill in Deer Lodge and one in Livingston. …Steinebach said incessant lawsuits by environmental groups like the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Council on Wildlife and Fish sabotage timber projects, threaten sawmill communities, loggers and others. …One key issue for Judge Molloy was secure habitat for grizzly bears, but Canada lynx habitat was also a concern. Both are considered threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
NEW YORK — BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group has acquired approximately 107,000 acres of sustainably managed timberlands in Central Virginia from the Weyerhaeuser Company. The acquisition represents one of the largest recent timberland transactions in Virginia, significantly expanding BTG Pactual TIG’s footprint in the region and bringing the firm’s total US portfolio to approximately 1.6 million acres under management. The property is Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified, consisting primarily of loblolly pine, and will be well-integrated with BTG Pactual TIG’s existing regional operations. …The acquisition also enables BTG Pactual TIG to further expand conservation efforts in the region through its long-term collaboration with NatureVest, The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC’s) in-house impact investing and nature finance team. A preliminary assessment of the asset conducted by TNC found that 25% of the property falls within areas of high ecological and biodiversity value.
Forests around the world are quietly transforming, and not for the better. A massive global analysis of more than 31,000 tree species reveals that forests are becoming more uniform, increasingly dominated by fast-growing “sprinter” trees, while slow-growing, long-lived species are disappearing. These slower species act as the backbone of forest ecosystems, storing carbon, stabilizing environments, and supporting rich webs of life—especially in tropical regions where biodiversity is highest. …The research also highlights the growing role of naturalized tree species, meaning trees that originated elsewhere but now grow wild in new regions. Nearly 41 percent of these species share traits like rapid growth and small leaves, which help them survive in disturbed environments. …The study shows that tropical and subtropical regions are likely to experience the most severe impacts from forest homogenization. …According to the researchers, human actions are the main force behind these changes in forest composition. …This makes protecting slow-growing tree species increasingly urgent.
In a controversial study published in April last year, researchers described an astonishing phenomenon: a forest of Norway spruce trees (Picea abies) appeared to ‘sync’ their electrical signaling ahead of a partial solar eclipse. Now there’s a new theory about what was actually going on. Having examined the data, ecologists Ariel Novoplansky and Hezi Yizhaq from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel propose an explanation that’s not quite as sensational. Novoplansky and Yizhaq suggest that the electrical activity seen in the trees was caused by a temperature drop, a passing thunderstorm, and several local lightning strikes; factors that previous research has shown can trigger similar signaling responses in plants.