Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

Forest Stewardship Council Leadership Awards nominations now open

Forest Stewardship Council
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

The FSC Leadership Awards recognize excellence in the use of FSC-certified products, materials, and commitment to responsible forest management across industries, as well as in advocacy, conservation and individual leadership in the FSC community. Submissions are due Friday, July 25, 2025. Categories for submissions for people, organizations, and projects in the United States and Canada:

  • Built Environment – a commercial, institutional, mixed-use or residential building project, completed in the last three years that utilized at least 50% FSC-certified materials across all wood products.
  • An FSC-Certified Company or Organization 
  • An FSC Promotional License Holder 
  • A Nonprofit Organization – Partnership or shared goal with the Forest Stewardship Council.
  • An Uncommon Partnership – A campaign, event, or project that your company or organization completed in tandem with another company or organization brought about by your common interest in FSC and responsible forest management.
  • An Individual Champion – leadership in innovating and advancing FSC and responsible forest management

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Roots of tomorrow: Canada’s forests need our support

By Lisa McLaughlin, Nature Conservancy of Canada
National Newswatch
April 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

On this Earth Week, the significance of forests for conservation, community benefits and human health has never been more urgent to acknowledge. Forests play many critical roles for nature and people. …However, many pressures, including severe storms and wildfires, invasive alien species and habitat loss, threaten these ecosystems, the benefits they provide and the relationships they support. When our woodlands are compromised, so too is the quality of the air we breathe and the water we depend on. The well-being of every Canadian, from the bustling urban centre to the most remote rural town, is at stake. …According to the Forest Products Association of Canada, more than 200,000 Canadians earn their livelihood directly from forestry, sustainable agriculture and eco-tourism, contributing an impressive $87 billion in annual revenue. ….Since 1962, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has championed the cause of forest conservation, safeguarding over 1.6 million hectares of forests.

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Forests Canada’s restoration efforts optimize benefits for people and planet

Forests Canada
April 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Twenty years ago, Forests Canada set an ambitious goal to plant 50 million trees by 2025. After planting almost 47 million trees in the past two decades, the organization is on track to plant close to 3.5 million more by the end of this year – the highest annual number in its history – to fulfill its initial 50 million tree pledge. Forests Canada is a national non-profit charity that conserves, restores and grows the nation’s forests as well as educates Canadians on the value of these vital resources. It implements up to 700 planting projects annually and has completed more than 9,700 projects across Canada to date. As a result, Forests Canada has built unparalleled infrastructure and gathered extensive expertise on ways to optimize its projects’ benefits for climate, biodiversity, wildlife, habitat and people. While every tree is important, the sheer number of trees planted is not the ultimate metric for success, says Forests Canada CEO Jess Kaknevicius. 

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B.C. supports land stewardship at Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park

By Ministry of Environment and Parks
Government of British Columbia
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

A temporary closure will take place at Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park to provide time and space for members of the Líl̓wat Nation and N͛Quatqua to reconnect with the land and carry out cultural and spiritual practices. Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park has become one of the busiest parks in the province. As more people go to the park, there is a need for enhanced visitor-use management, ensuring the park is not degraded by heavy use. Temporary closures to the park for recreational visitors will occur from April 25 until May 16, 2025. Beginning Saturday, May 17, adults and youth older than 12 will require a free day-use pass to visit the park. …The park is collaboratively managed with Líl̓wat Nation and N’Quatqua with the primary goal of maintaining the natural environment, and so the Nations can continue their cultural practices on their territory. 

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More than 60 projects will reduce wildfire risk, support forestry in B.C.

By Ministry of Forests
Government of British Columbia
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Communities and workers throughout British Columbia are benefiting from 64 new Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) supported projects that reduce wildfire risk, enhance forest health and get more fibre into the hands of mills and energy producers. “The projects will remove almost 11,000 truckloads of flammable waste fibre from our forests,” said Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests. “…This fibre that once would have been burned in slash piles will instead support workers and help keep communities safe.” With $19 million in provincial funding, projects will take place in all eight of the Province’s natural resource regions. This includes 31 led by First Nations and another 14 with First Nations involvement, demonstrating the critical leadership role First Nation communities are playing in restoring and protecting B.C.’s forests. This funding is part of the $90 million allocated in 2025 for wildfire-prevention initiatives through BC Wildfire Service, FireSmart initiatives and FESBC.

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Forest Enhancement Society of BC project updates from around the province

By Jason Fisher, Executive Director
Forest Enhancement Society of BC
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Jason Fisher

Indigenous Peoples in British Columbia have long stewarded our forests with a deep connection to the land, imparting their valuable cultural knowledge. Since its establishment in 2016, the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) has been honoured to work alongside Indigenous partners and communities by investing in projects that are making a transformational difference in our forests. We are honoured to continue funding projects led by Indigenous proponents that reflect their vision for forest management, create opportunities for Indigenous People, and make their communities safer. Today…we released our Spring 2025 Accomplishments Update, showcasing newly funded projects – many of which are led by First Nations and rooted in local values, innovation, and sustainability. A more comprehensive report will be coming out this Fall… these initiatives are helping shape a more inclusive forest economy in B.C., one in which First Nations have an even greater leadership role to the benefit of all British Columbians.

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With Jasper’s devastation in mind, Alberta communities gear up for wildfire season

By Adrienne Lamb
CBC News
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Nicholas Nissen

Memories of the destruction wrought by a wildfire that roared through Jasper National Park last summer are fuelling wildfire prevention efforts across the region. The July 2024 wildfire destroyed one-third of the structures in Jasper’s historic townsite, 365 kilometres west of Edmonton. “The situation we watched last summer was absolutely devastating,” says Nicholas Nissen, mayor of Hinton, Alta., a town 80 kilometres east of Jasper. Since then, many displaced Jasperites have been calling the town of 10,000 home. “I’m certain those people feel nervous when they look out at a big forest and see a summer coming.” That’s part of the reason Nissen says they’re digging in this spring to prepare for the worst by reinforcing the firebreak south of town. “You can see around us — the grass grows, the shrubs grow, the trees grow up so those firebreaks need to be re-done,” Nissen said this week, pointing to a machine mulching the 58-hectare fireguard.

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Firefighting drones could change the way B.C. fights wildfires, especially during the night

By Denise Ryan
Vancouver Sun
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

[Alex Deslauriers watched the Downton Lake wildfire in 2023 where his home was destroyed by the fire.] Since then, Deslauriers, an aerospace engineer, has been focused on just one thing: how to make sure it never happens again. …He shifted his entire career, almost overnight, to solving the problem. …Now there is: firefighting drones. …Now his company, FireSwarm Solutions, is adapting a Swedish-made jet engine-powered heavy-lift UAV (Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle) to fight wildfires. FireSwarm has partnered with Strategic Natural Resource Group, an Indigenous-owned company based in Prince George that specializes in forestry, emergency response and remote site development, to bring the drones to the frontlines of firefighting. …Rapid wildfire growth at night is an emerging phenomenon that has become increasingly problematic… That nighttime gap in firefighting response is exactly what Deslauriers wanted to address

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A Tsilhqot’in First Nation builds capacity as fire season begins

By Ruth Lloyd
Clearwater Times
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Xeni Gwet’in First Nation is building capacity in a remote part of the Chilcotin Plateau as the wildfire season gets underway. The Tin Towh crew is an experienced forestry crew with Xeni Gwet’in, a community a three hour drive south-west of Williams Lake. Along with a lot of work doing fuel management, the crew is also continuing to build their skills as firefighters. Alexis Stowards is the crew coordinator, working both in the field and in the office, and Steve Quilt is the crew supervisor, overseeing field work. Based in the remote Nemaiah Valley, Tin Towh, which loosely translates to “in the woods” in Tsilhqot’in, the crew was well-positioned to respond to a fire reported on April 21. The fire was approximately three hectares and was located in an area about 20 km west of the Xeni Gwet’in community.

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Environmental groups want BC to refocus measures to protect old-growth forests

My Coast Now
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) are calling for better protection of old-growth forests from the BC Government. [They want the] province to refocus their measures, implement their draft biodiversity, and Ecosystem Health Framework to ensure a transition to a sustainable forest industry. Executive Director of EEA Ken Wu said there is two directions the government can go in response to tariff threats from the U.S. “Either take the easy but foolish route by falling back on the destructive status quo of old-growth logging and raw low exports, or instead take the opportunity to invest in a modernized, sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry that is the future of forestry in BC, while protecting the last old-growth forests.” …The groups are also issuing a warning which commercial logging must not be permitted in protected areas under the guise of wildfire risk reduction.

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Squamish Nation hope to be recognized as part of Stanley Park

By Min Kerr-Lazenby
CTV News
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) is calling for better education on Stanley Park’s Indigenous history after a First Nations group threw their connection into question during a logging protest earlier this month. A “sacred fire” lit March 15 was kept ablaze for over a month at Brockton Park’s totem poles by a woman who identified, according to protest group Save Stanley Park, as a “matriarch” of the land. The woman claimed to be a descendent of “Portuguese Joe”, an early B.C. settler with Musqueam lineage, and was in protest of the Vancouver Park Board’s ongoing project to remove hundreds of trees affected by the looper moth disease. Squamish Nation elected councillor Wilson Williams says the claims are still yet to be verified, and his own community is left reeling at the group’s failure to address the history of the Squamish people that dates back thousands of years within the park.

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Pipeline Habitat Restoration: Strategies and Innovations

Silvacom Ltd.
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Silvacom is hosting a free webinar titled “Pipeline Habitat Restoration: Strategies and Innovations” MAY 14, 2025 9:00 AM MDT | 11 EST. This event will bring together industry experts, environmental scientists, and key stakeholders to discuss the latest developments and best practices in habitat restoration in areas affected by pipeline projects. Join Our Webinar on Pipeline Habitat Restoration: Successfully Navigating Key Challenges of New SRP Requirements on Active Pipelines (Upper Smoky Sub-Regional Plan). With Alberta’s Sub-Regional Planning Process introducing new regulatory requirements for caribou habitat restoration, the energy sector must adapt and implement  habitat restoration on active pipeline corridors. Unlike decommissioned or abandoned pipelines, active right-of-ways (ROW) present unique operational, regulatory, and ecological challenges. This webinar will explore the complexities of meeting habitat restoration objectives while balancing: Ecological restoration goals; Operational efficiencies; Regulatory requirements; and Indigenous community and stakeholder values.

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BC Premier’s, minister’s statements on Earth Day

Government of British Columbia
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Premier David Eby has issued the following statement marking Earth Day: “On Earth Day, people in British Columbia join other Canadians and people around the world in celebrating our planet as we rededicate our efforts to protect it. British Columbia is lucky to have so many marvelous natural wonders, from snowcapped mountains to verdant valleys to spectacular coastlines. Our government is working in partnership with more than 60 First Nations on stewardship projects embracing local and Indigenous knowledge to protect nature. Our unique biospheres are our inheritance. We have an obligation to preserve them as our legacy for future generations.” …Tamara Davidson, Minister of Environment and Parks, said: “Earth Day allows us to reflect on where we are and where we need to go to build a cleaner, sustainable future. I am committed to do my part in stewarding our environment for future generations to benefit from, care and enjoy.”

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Canfor passes forestry audit, uses notable practice

BC Forest Practices Board
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

CRANBROOK – The Forest Practices Board has released its audit of Canadian Forest Products Ltd. (Canfor) Forest Licence A19040 in the Rocky Mountain Natural Resource District. The report finds overall compliance with forestry legislation but highlights a notable practice and a fire-hazard abatement issue. The audit examined Canfor’s forestry activities, which covered an extensive area near Cranbrook, Kimberley, Sparwood, Wasa and Elkford. The board found that Canfor met its legal obligations for operational planning, timber harvesting, road construction and maintenance, silviculture and most wildfire protection requirements. Canfor’s operations included harvesting in 90 cutblocks and maintaining more than 4,600 kilometres of forest roads. “The way Canfor managed its forest operations was very well done, given its size and complexity,” said Gerry Grant, vice-chair of the board. “We also saw a notable practice in this audit: Canfor’s use of a new predictive pine rust tool that can be used to model forest-health risks and support healthy, resilient forests.” 

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Drought persists in some parts of B.C. as crews gear up for wildfire season

By Michelle Gomez
CBC News
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The B.C. Wildfire Service is gearing up for the approaching season, noting drought conditions persist in some regions of the province. A seasonal outlook from the services says a less aggressive start to the fire season is expected in the coastal and southeast regions of the province, due to above-average precipitation this winter. However, forecasters expect drought to persist in B.C.’s northeast and southern Nechako regions, elevating fire risk, even if they receive average or above-average rainfall. It said there is also a higher fire risk in the western Chilcotin area. Much of the province is currently experiencing warmer-than-usual temperatures, said the service, but the intensity of the wildfire season will depend on the amount of rain during May and June. …Households should start preparing for fire season, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Kelly Greene said at a news conference last week. 

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BC Hydro on wildfire risk prevention tactics in face of hot and dry forecasts

By Spencer Hall
Energetic City
April 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — BC Hydro says it’s taking proactive steps to address wildfire risks due to higher-than-average temperatures and dry conditions anticipated in the coming months. BC Hydro has been trialling fire-resistant pole wraps between Fort Nelson and the Alberta border. These wraps are made of steel mesh that is coated with a heat-activated barrier, which protects power poles from “radiant heat and flames while allowing water evaporation to prevent decay.” Northern community relations manager with BC Hydro, Mike Kellett, told Energeticcity.ca that in early 2024, crews cleared vegetation along the right of way of the transmission line running from Rainbow Lake to Fort Nelson from the Fort Nelson River to the Alberta border. This work included installing the fire protection wrap on about 1,000 structures and over 90 per cent of the line.

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Public opinion has little impact on Kootenay logging plan: biologist

By Bill Metcalfe
The Fernie Free Press
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Matt Casselman

Castlegar biologist Matt Casselman believes public opposition to logging plans does not make much difference. Last summer, Casselman sent a 450-signature petition to B.C.’s then-forest minister Bruce Ralston asking him to cancel or postpone logging planned by BC Timber Sales (BCTS) near Castlegar in the Cai Creek watershed. His rationale was that BCTS was planning to cut old-growth trees in an intact watershed ecosystem of a kind that is rare and should be preserved. The minister declined to accept the petition. During the same period, BCTS requested public comment on the logging plan… The result was 93 against the logging and four in favour. …Casselman says that BCTS “mostly considers public comments a nuisance … BCTS will do the legal minimum to show they have considered public input” …The FPB investigation has not yet concluded, but BCTS nevertheless put the contested cut blocks up for public auction, with a deadline of April 24.

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BC Council of Forest Industries Announces 2025 Forestry Scholarship

Council of Forest Industries
April 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI) is now accepting applications for the 2025 Forestry Scholarships. As part of our commitment to supporting the next generation of forestry professionals, COFI will award 10 scholarships of $2,000 each to students from across British Columbia pursuing post-secondary studies or skilled trades training related to the forest sector. The scholarships are open to BC residents entering a forestry-related program at an accredited post-secondary institution in fall 2025 or spring 2026—whether you’re from a rural community, coastal town, or urban centre.

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Quebec Aims to Modernize Forest Management with Bill 97

World Today News
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Maïté Blanchette Vézina

Quebec’s goverment, led by the minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette-Vézina, introduced Bill 97 to modernize its forest regime. The legislation, presented in the National Assembly on Wednesday, addresses forest zoning, licensing, and wood auction oversight. This strategic move aims to improve sustainability, offering longer-term licenses. For more on this, watch our upcoming coverage. The proposed legislation focuses on several key areas to streamline and enhance forest management practices across the province. …The bill introduces a zoning system that divides public forestry territory into three distinct zones: Priority forest development zones; Multi-use zones; and Conservation areas. The bill also introduces Sustainable Forest Development Licenses (supply guarantees for forestry companies would be replaced with sustainable forest development licenses, extending the duration from five to ten years.); eliminates the wood marketing office; and provides for administrative criminal sanctions to ensure compliance.

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Newfoundland and Labrador government commits to repairing 5th water bomber 7 years after grounding

By Jenna Head
CBC News
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

All of Newfoundland and Labrador’s five water bombers will be in service for the 2026-27 wildfire season, promises the provincial government. On Wednesday the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure announced a $17-million contract has been awarded to aircraft manufacturer De Havilland Aircraft of Canada to repair the province’s fifth CL-415 water bomber. The water bomber has been out of service since 2018, when it hit a rock in a lake on the Burin Peninsula, causing significant structural damage. Previously announced as a $14.8-million contract, the province says it did not include the costs of HST in the initial statement. According to department spokesperson Maria Browne, the contracts value is subject to change. The multi-million dollar contract will address the structural repairs required so that the water bomber can return to the fleet next year. Additional maintenance will also take place, which is not accounted for in the contracts current price point.

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Environment groups raise alarm about Ontario bill that would weaken species protection

By Muriel Draaisma
CBC News
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

ONTARIO — Environmental groups are raising concerns about newly tabled Ontario legislation that they say will be “catastrophic” for wildlife and weaken government protections for “species that are the rarest” in the province. Ecojustice Canada said Bill 5…  would repeal Ontario’s existing Endangered Species Act passed in 2007, and replace it with a significantly watered down version of the original act called the Species Conservation Act. The legislation has passed first reading. …Ecojustice Canada said the legislation would gut environmental assessment processes, speed mining and infrastructure development and take a “register-first, ask-questions-later” approach that would allow developers to begin projects before their environmental implications are fully known. …Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks denied that the bill would weaken species protection. …”These changes will be supported by an enhanced Species Conservation Program, which will see funding more than quadrupled to $20 million each year,” Catherwood continued.

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Is there common ground for Gavin Newsom, Donald Trump on forestry? Timber!

By Tom Philip
The Sacramento Bee
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to cut down lots of little trees for fire protection. President Donald Trump wants loggers to cut down bigger California trees for lumber. Between these two oft-warring leaders, is there a policy marriage of sorts in the woods? At first blush, the answer appears to be yes. The governor wants to reduce the fire dangers on a million California acres a year. The president wants to increase timber harvests by 25% on the state’s national forests. On paper, these two agendas are entirely compatible. But it’s one thing to order more trees to fall in a national forest. It’s another to plan for large-scale forestry operations, which takes staff and time. Trump’s team so far has shown more interest in cutting forestry staffing in California than cutting down trees. And that may stall any real changes on the ground. [to access the full story, a Sacramento Bee subscription is required]

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Tree of Heaven Serves as Devilish Host to Spotted Lanternfly

By the Agriculture Research Service
US Department of Agriculture
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The Agriculture Research Service researchers are helping to mitigate a destructive tree and insect that continue to spread across the United States. With its lush tropical canopy and ability to quickly grow toward the sky, the Tree of Heaven seems as angelic as its name suggests. However, Tree of Heaven is proving to be a devil. The invasive tree is aggressive and damaging as it spreads rapidly across Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states. …Not only is Tree of Heaven an environmental menace, it is also “the most favored host” of the invasive spotted lanternfly, according to Tracy Leskey, a research entomologist in Kearneysville, WV. Leskey and university partners are working to reduce both Tree of Heaven and spotted lanternfly populations through ARS’ Area-Wide Pest Management program. Their goal is to suppress the populations of both invasive species … all while alleviating the impact on native pollinators and plants.

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Trump wants to log more forests. Will it really help prevent wildfires?

By Warren Cornwall
Science Magazine
April 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

…Many scientists agree that much of the nation’s federal forests—particularly in the West—are in dire condition. Decades of aggressive wildfire suppression combined with logging have left forests crowded with dense stands of small trees and shrubs, rather than bigger, fire-resistant, old-growth trees that once predominated. Selective logging could help. But experts caution there are more obstacles than simply red tape. Like previous forest-health campaigns, including a multibillion-dollar initiative by former President Joe Biden’s administration, the new push will confront a timber industry in decline, forests crowded with trees of limited economic value, and a USFS hamstrung by a lack of experienced staff. …Forest health problems have “been discussed ad nauseum since 2000,” says Scott Stephens, a fire ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley who served on a 2023 federal commission that examined ways to reduce wildfire threats. “Federal initiatives have come, good ideas have come, and this [problem] continues.”

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What Does the Future Hold for National Forests?

Yale School of the Environment
April 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

In March, the United States Agricultural Department (USDA) directed federal agencies to examine ways to increase timber production across 280 million acres of national forests and other public lands. An emergency order rolling back environmental protections on more than 112 million acres — or nearly 60% — of national forests, followed in April. At the same time, the U.S. Forest Service was ordered to increase by 25% the volume of timber being offered for logging. YSE experts Mark Ashton, senior associate dean of The Forest School, Sara Kuebbing, lecturer and research director of the Yale Applied Science Synthesis Program, and Joseph Orefice, lecturer and director of forest and agricultural operations at Yale Forests, discuss the potential impacts of these orders on ecosystem resilience, wildfire risks, and climate change mitigation. …What are the environmental consequences of increased logging on forest ecosystems, including on biodiversity, soil health, and water quality? 

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Sen. Curtis’ bill is the opposite of ‘fixing’ our forests

By Brian Moench, president, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment
Utah News Dispatch
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Brian Moench

During the Vietnam War, an American officer referred to the U.S. military’s decision to bomb a town of 35,000 people, saying, “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” This quote comes to mind when examining a bill sponsored by Utah Sen. John Curtis, ironically named “Fix Our Forests Act,” S.1462, (FOFA). It should be renamed “We Have to Destroy our Forests to Save Them Act”. The bill is forest malpractice, climate malpractice, and public health malpractice. Sen. Curtis’s S. 1462 is a legislative enactment of Trump’s recent executive order to dramatically ramp up logging on federal lands, exempting 60% of national forest lands from meaningful environmental analysis and public participation under the pretense of a wildfire “emergency.” Remember Donald Trump is the environmental expert that insists the climate crisis is a hoax, and attributed Western forest fires to insufficient raking of the forest floors.

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State survey finds New Mexico tree mortality doubled in 2024

By Danielle Prokop
Source New Mexico
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Tree deaths in New Mexico forests have doubled since 2023, according to a state survey released Monday, driven by insects and stress from prolonged warmer conditions. Those deaths include 70,000 acres of conifer trees in 2024, more than twice the 33,000 acres recorded the year prior. Native insects largely drove the tree damage, according to Victor Lucero, coordinator for the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department’s Forest Health Program. “Especially in bark beetles, longer, warmer and drier conditions stretching further into the fall, these insects can increase the number of generations they have each season,” Lucero told Source NM. The New Mexico Forest Health Conditions 2024 survey assessed approximately 14 million acres of forests by air across state, private, federal and tribal forests. About 406,000 acres showed damage from disease, insects and drought, a growth of 12%, with 42,000 more acres than last year. Wildfire also played a role.

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Idaho ramps up federal forest management with new executive order

By Governor Brad Little
Government of Idaho
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho – Governor Brad Little issued a new executive order today, the “Make Forests Healthy Again Act,” directing the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) to expand its partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to increase management activities and reduce fire risk in federally managed national forests in Idaho. “For too long, millions of acres of national forests in Idaho have remained totally untouched, creating a tinderbox of fuel that threatens communities, air quality, and the environment. The State of Idaho has led the country in standing up programs to help our federal partners increase the pace and scale of active management on federal ground. The work we’ve done is making a difference. However, under the previous administration, we were limited in the extent we could help. That has changed under the Trump administration,” Governor Little said.

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Matt Donegan Has a Plan to Stop Oregon From Burning. Think Moneyball for Forests.

Willamette Week
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Matt Donegan

OREGON – Matt Donegan is working on a plan for Oregon’s forest problem. In 2024, the state saw 1.9 million acres burn. And last year, the agency was beset by scandal, management turmoil, and near-bankruptcy from the cost of putting out blazes. During the current legislative session, a lot of people—lawmakers, Gov. Tina Kotek, the state’s timber industry, environmentalists, electric utilities, and hundreds of thousands of beleaguered property owners—are all looking for a solution. …Donegan knows he’s walking a knife edge between conservation groups that zealously guard Oregon’s forests and a timber industry eager to increase cutting. …The problem is, the forests are so overstocked with dead, dry debris after a century of fire suppression that fires easily become catastrophic rather than restorative. …Donegan proposes to break off a small fraction of that amount for intensive management—thinning and prescribed burns—as a pilot project.

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Judge upholds Mexican grey wolf plan

By Peter Aleshire
The Payson Roundup
April 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

A Tucson judge this week dismissed a broad challenge to the management of the Mexican Grey Wolf Recovery program. The judge in a 42-page decision dismissed claims the recovery plan was “arbitrary and capricious” and upheld the key points of dispute. A coalition of environmental groups had sued to overturn the key policies at the heart of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Department of Game and Fish plan to reintroduce the endangered subspecies to Arizona and New Mexico. The decision coincided with the release of the quarterly report on the reintroduction effort. That report put the population at 286 wolves in the wild, an 11% increase in 2024. However, the quarterly report also documented an ongoing high mortality rate. Environmental groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity and others maintained wildlife managers should establish three separate populations of the wolves, including one north of I-40.

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Colorado’s tree-eating pine beetles are surging back after a prolonged dry spell

By Michael Booth
The Colorado Sun
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

…a relatively wet 2023 for much of the state bolstered many trees against the spread of the mountain pine beetle, the separate spruce beetle and the spruce budworm. But a dry 2024 set the pests marching again by sapping forests of the water they need to stay healthy and fight off infestations, said Dan West, entomologist with Colorado State Forest Service. Colorado’s higher-altitude forests need several normal to wet seasons in a row to build up true resiliency, he said. One dry season meant Western spruce budworm affected 217,000 acres of state forests in 2024, up from 202,000 acres in 2023… Mountain pine beetle… grew to 5,600 acres of impact. The Douglas-fir beetle impacted 21,000 acres in 2024, its largest total damage in almost 10 years… Western balsam bark beetle …is still the … most widespread by acreage. The acres affected by the balsam bark beetle held steady at 27,000, but more of those trees die. 

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Logging isn’t all bad, but Trump’s order to boost timber harvest is troubling

By Marek Warszawski
The Fresno Bee
April 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Logging is not necessarily a dirty word in the environmental dictionary. There, I said it. Provided sustainable practices are used, namely the careful choice over what trees get chopped down, logging can have a positive impact on the health of our forests as part of an effective management strategy that includes mechanical thinning and prescribed burning. Selective logging can also mitigate the risk and destructive power of wildfires. …This is my way of saying logging shouldn’t automatically be perceived as an environmental threat – despite what history tells us is the result when chainsaws and bulldozers are employed by the wrong hands. …Environmental groups reacted with outrage to Trump’s order, calling it a thinly veiled attempt to bypass environmental laws in order to justify widespread commercial logging under the false pretense that such actions will reduce wildfire risk.

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‘Opportunity or crisis’: Washington State University professor joins call for caution in logging expansion

By Shawn Vestal
Washington State University Insider
April 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A Washington State University professor is one of a dozen researchers who signed an open letter noting that a proposed expansion of logging on federal lands may have some benefits — but that the firing of forestry experts and cuts in research could undermine that potential. The result, they say in the letter published Thursday at the website of the journal Science, could harm wildlife, increase wildfire risk and eliminate irreplaceable carbon stores in national forests. Austin Himes, an assistant professor in WSU’s School of the Environment, said that the idea of increasing domestic timber production and relying less on imports has promise. But focusing solely on speeding up the pace of logging risks other priorities that “evidence-based” forestry practices seek to balance. …the researchers said increased logging, if focused only on efficiently increasing timber production, could reduce the ability of forests to withstand growing threats from pests and wildfires.

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Clemson University earns first-ever SFI Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Certification

By Jonathan Veit
Clemson News
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Clemson University is the first organization to earn the Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s (SFI) full Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Standard certification. The achievement was announced April 25, 2025, in honor of Arbor Day. The certification highlights Clemson’s commitment to managing its campus trees and green spaces in ways that provide long-term benefits for students, faculty, staff and the broader community. This marks Clemson’s second SFI certification. In 2013, its 18,000-acre Experimental Forest became the first university forest certified to the SFI Forest Management Standard. It has maintained that certification ever since, establishing the University as a pioneer in forest management and a hub for forestry education and outreach statewide. Patricia Layton, forestry professor and director of the Clemson University Wood Utilization & Design Institute, led the certification effort.

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What Trump’s executive order on timber could mean for Tennessee forests

By Allison Kiehl
Knox News
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Increased timber production may be coming to the Volunteer State, impacting the Appalachian forests in East Tennessee. A new emergency order from the U.S. Department of Agriculture allocated 59% of national forests across the country for timber production. …However, the economics benefits of logging come at a steep price, according to The Wilderness Society. “Don’t be fooled: the Trump Administration and its allies in Congress aren’t trying to solve the wildfire crisis or protect communities threatened by it. Instead, they are aiming to deepen the pockets of private industry to log across our shared, public forests, while sidestepping public review,” said Josh Hicks, Conservation Campaigns Director at The Wilderness Society. …A majority of the impacted U.S. Forest Service areas are in the western half of the United States. However, the USDA declaration also impacts Appalachia and East Tennessee. The affected areas total more than 112 million acres of U.S Forest Service land.

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Facing new spruce budworm outbreak, Maine foresters look to history as a guide

By Jan DeBileu
The Maine Monitor
April 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

From the summit of Katahdin, the view is of forests stretching in all directions. …Forty-five years ago this scene would have been quite different. A voracious insect called the spruce budworm was ravaging Maine’s North Woods, killing mountainsides of balsam fir and red spruce. …Today, foresters and landowners are nervously tracking a renewed spruce budworm presence in the North Woods. The insects have already stripped hundreds of thousands of forest acres in Quebec and Ontario. After decades of heavy logging, scattered tracts are being managed with ecological timbering methods that strive to maintain natural systems — but most are not. Questions abound over how the state’s forests, both the northern timberlands and smaller, privately owned tracts throughout the state, will fare in a world beset by climate change. …And there’s the coming spruce budworm invasion. 

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This fungus targets invasive spongy moths. Could climate change alter their dynamic?

By Chris Polansky
Maine Public Radio
April 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

The spongy moth, native to Europe, originally landed in North America in the 1800s. …Since then, the moth has spread as far west as Minnesota and as far south as North Carolina, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Outbreaks can be dramatic and devastating to forests. …In 1989, though, another non-native organism became a game changer in the fight against the spongy moth. The fungus Entomophaga maimaiga is from Japan, and it’s unclear how it arrived in the spongy moth’s range in North America. … it’s possible a Connecticut scientist who had returned from a spongy moth-infested area in Japan brought it back on his boots. …the fungus was adept at killing spongy moth caterpillars. “Infected caterpillars cling to the tree and they slowly liquefy. It’s pretty gruesome, but if you see it, that’s good news.” The dead caterpillars become “spore factories,” entomologist Katherine Dugas says, spreading the fungus to their compatriots.

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European Commission takes action to simplify the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation

The European Commission
April 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The European Commission is providing further simplifications and reducing the administrative burden to facilitate the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). In this context, it has published new guidance documents in view of the Regulation’s entry into application at the end of this year for Member States, operators and traders. With these clarifications and simplifications, the Commission is also replying to feedback from its international partners. …The updated guidance and Frequently Asked Questions will provide companies, EU Member States’ authorities and partner countries with additional simplified measures and clarifications on how to demonstrate that their products are deforestation-free. …The simplifications introduced will be further complemented by a Delegated Act, published also for public consultation. The Act provides further clarifications and simplification on the scope of EUDR, addressing stakeholders’ request for guidance on specific categories of products. …Finally, the Commission is currently finalising the country benchmarking system through an Implementing Act.

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How new financial models for forest restoration create opportunities for nature, communities and investors

By M. Sanjayan, Conservation International
World Economic Forum
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The age of forest restoration has arrived. Between 1990 and 2020, our planet lost 420 million hectares of forest cover, with grave consequences for climate, biodiversity and resource security. For years, large-scale restoration efforts were hindered by concerns around cost-effectiveness and results — but science has come a long way. Yields are higher, and the cost is lower. Advances in methods for measuring carbon storage, creating three-dimensional maps of forest, planting and surveying wildlife populations have removed technical impediments. Now, new financial models are removing the final barrier to large-scale restoration. Philanthropy alone cannot restore, rewild and conserve hundreds of millions of hectares, especially in tropical systems in the global south. …We must find ways to unlock private capital for restoration. Fortunately, commercial restoration projects are now under way across the world and forward-thinking companies are building a strong business case for investing in nature.

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Biomass, a satellite to look inside the world’s forests like never before

Airbus
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

ESA’s Earth Explorer Biomass satellite, built by Airbus … aims to fill the gap in our carbon cycle knowledge by providing accurate and detailed data on forest biomass and forest height, supporting our understanding of climate change. …The Biomass satellite will accurately map aboveground biomass (AGB) over large areas using a synthetic aperture radar (SAR). What’s unique about this SAR is that it operates in the P-band wavelength, a first for use in space. The 12-metre-wide wire mesh reflector is provided by L3Harris. Unlike commonly used X-, C-, and L-bands, P-band’s 70 cm wavelength offers distinct advantages. Its longer wavelength enhances the SAR signal’s ability to penetrate the vegetation canopy down to the ground. An electromagnetic wave only interacts with objects of roughly the same size as its wavelength. So, with the P-Band, SAR can “see” all objects of 70 cm and more but not the smallest ones, such as leaves.

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