ST. JACOBS, ON – Home Hardware Stores Limited is proud to celebrate its long-standing partnership with Tree Canada by supporting community tree planting events in 25 locations across the country. As part of National Forest Week (September 21-28, 2025), participating Home stores are partnering with Tree Canada, local volunteers and municipal partners to plant native trees in parks, schoolyards and shared community spaces. These efforts highlight Home Hardware’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, reforestation, and building healthier communities. “For more than 30 years, our Dealers have supported environmental initiatives in the communities they call home,” said Ian White, President and CEO, Home Hardware Stores Limited. “We are honoured to continue this important partnership with Tree Canada and to help make a positive, lasting impact.” Home Hardware’s relationship with Tree Canada began in 1992. Since then, more than 30,000 trees have been planted, contributing to stronger urban canopies, improved air quality, and increased biodiversity across the country.
TORONTO — World Wildlife Fund Canada’s 
Today on the back steps of the Legislature building, MP Aaron Gunn, MLA Anna Kindy along with five North Island Mayors are calling on Ottawa and BC to remove the red tape when it comes to cutting permits in the province. North Island- Powell River MP Aaron Gunn sent an open letter today to both Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Mark Carney telling North Vancouver Island and the province is in a forestry crisis. “Harvest volumes have collapsed in half and more than 5,400 jobs have been lost. It’s the result of made in BC, made in Canada policies that have delayed permitting, dramatically increased harvesting costs and crippled investors confidence,” said Gunn. The Mayor of Powell River Ron Woznow was at the press conference with Gunn, echoing his concerns. …BC Forests Minister Ravi Parmar reacted briefly… adding that more details on a ‘refreshed BC timber sales’ will be released Tuesday.
Mosaic Forest Management says it has heard Vancouver Islanders loud and clear when it comes to accessing private forest lands, 
After a successful 2025 event, Quesnel council has approved $20,000 to advance the 2027 Future of Forestry Think Tank (FFTT) Summit. On May 21 and 22, the fourth FFTT took place at the North Cariboo Community Campus where 54 delegates from various orders of government, academia, industry, and funding organizations from across Canada attended. B.C.’s Minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar, opened the event with a pre-recorded message to the attendees addressing the importance of a positive, proactive, innovative, and local approach to the significant challenges confronting the province’s forest sector. This year’s theme was ‘Accelerating Change’ and in total, 
The B.C. government says two partnerships with the federal government are being expanded to help workers and communities affected by U.S. tariffs. The first is Build Your Own Future. A program originally focused on forestry, it is being expanded to support workers across all industries affected by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policy, says a release from the Social Development and Poverty Reduction Ministry Sept. 19. It’s funded through the Northern Innovation Network as a three-year initiative to develop and deliver entrepreneurship training tailored to skilled trades people and technicians. The ministry says the program offers five-day business boot camps, with one-on-one coaching and mentorship to “help displaced workers transition into entrepreneurship.” Those who complete the program are eligible for a $5,000 grant to help cover startup costs, the release adds. 
Lil’wat Forestry Ventures (LFV), working in partnership with the Líl̓wat Nation and with support from the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS), is set to carry out a cultural burn this fall adjacent to the Xetó̓lacw community in Mount Currie. The burn—located approximately 16 kilometres northeast of Pemberton—aims to reduce wildfire risk, restore ecosystems, and reintroduce culturally important plants like berries and mushrooms. “We’re proud to support this cultural burn, which combines traditional Indigenous knowledge with modern fire management practices,” said Fire Chief Marshall Ritchie in a release. “It will help protect our community from future wildfires while also restoring the landscape, bringing back berries and mushrooms over the next two to five years. That renewal will benefit not just us, but also local wildlife like deer and bears.”
A group of people staged a rally outside the Museum and Archives of Vernon Saturday, calling for climate action and raising awareness about human activities they say are a net negative when it comes to human health. … Climate activist Jane Weixl, said one climate-related issue on her mind is the need for forestry reform. She said the five-year mark has just passed from when the provincial government said it would implement 14 forestry recommendations from a strategic review. “We need to stop clear-cut logging. We have a lot of different excuses for clear-cut logging, that it’ll help with forest fires — well, we know it causes flooding. We know it makes forest fires worse because the whole top layer dries up when there are no trees sheltering it. We are really in serious need of forestry reform,” she added.
Summer is nearing its end but one Yukon community is already thinking about next year’s wildfire season. The Village of Mayo, Yukon is the latest community to finalize its wildfire community protection plan. It identifies potential wildfire risks within the community and surrounding areas, while outlining actions to prevent, or reduce those risks. The plan was designed with input from the municipality, the First Nation of Na Cho Nyak Dun, and the territory’s Wildland Fire Management. Ellis, Mayo’s mayor, said now that the plan is outlined on paper it’s time to start implementing it. “The big thing is the physical stuff,” he said, like thinning fire breaks for example. “That stuff is going to take some time and we’ve got to get to work on it.”
Mosaic Forest Management has clearly heard that communities value their outdoor access. After receiving what the company calls an “overwhelming” response to a survey, they will be moving forward with next steps on improving its recreation program. The survey garnered 7,600 responses in 23 days. “What we heard was clear. Communities value access to the outdoors and want more and better opportunities to do so,” said Mosaic’s CEO Duncan Davies (see report titled 
People should continue to use caution and take steps to be prepared by staying up to date on current conditions, following fire prohibitions and being Firesmart, as the risk of wildfire is expected to continue into fall. The BC Wildfire Service’s fall seasonal outlook forecasts ongoing wildfire risk for much of the province, especially in the Cariboo and southwestern Interior. Convective thunderstorms typically decrease as fall approaches; however, despite a lower likelihood of wildfires due to lightning, human-caused wildfires remain a risk. Until the southern coast shifts to a stormier fall-like pattern and the Prince George and Kamloops fire centres receive substantial rainfall, the wildfire danger ratings will continue to be elevated. As a result of the late summer’s record-breaking heat wave, combined with ongoing drought, people in B.C. are encouraged to be prepared for the risk of wildfire this fall.
The District of 100 Mile House is refusing a proposed project that could see solar and wind farms built in the South Cariboo. During the Sept. 9 District of 100 Mile House Council meeting, around 50 people showed up to council to hear them deliberate about the Cariboo Wind and Solar Projects, which are a collection of wind and solar projects that are being proposed by MK Ince and Associates Ltd. …In a letter to the district, Tyrell Law, who is the current manager of the 100 Mile Community Forest, said that the project significantly overlaps with the Community Forest areas. The 100 Mile Community Forest is around 18,000 hectares in size and is managed by the 100 Mile Development Corporation. The proposal comprises around 730 hectares of the community forest. Law said that while Ince is partially correct to say that the area had been recently harvested and was in a plantation, it is more complicated than that. 
A shaggy, cool-green lichen hangs from the trunk of a tree in a forest on northeastern Vancouver Island. Lichenologist Trevor Goward has named it oldgrowth specklebelly. …Old-growth advocate Joshua Wright photographed oldgrowth specklebelly this summer in a forest about 400 kilometres northwest of Victoria. …Wright and Goward prize the forest in the Tsitika River watershed for its age and biodiversity, and a provincially appointed panel recommended that it be set aside from logging in 2021. But if a plan by the provincial logging agency, BC Timber Sales, goes ahead, the site will be auctioned for clearcut logging by the end of September. The area was stewarded by several Indigenous nations. …The plan to log it reveals differing opinions among Kwakwaka’wakw leaders on how to protect old-growth forests, while raising questions about which Aboriginal rights holders the BC government chooses to listen to, and why.
Only a month after the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, another anniversary comes due for a different catastrophic storm—it is the first anniversary after Hurricane Helene devastated the communities of the Southern Appalachians. On September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall in southwestern Florida as a Category 4 hurricane with a peak sustained windspeed of 140 mph. After inundating Florida with storm surge, Helene swept north into Georgia and then the Carolinas, before stalling over Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia and eventually dissipating. However, it brought both tornado-strength winds and a deluge of rainfall that triggered flooding throughout the mountains and valleys of the Southeast. The hurricane was one of the deadliest and most destructive on record, causing more than 250 deaths and just under $80 billion in damage. Helene cut a path over nine national forests from Florida to Kentucky. The forests and the USDA Forest Service employees that manage them were right in the path of destruction.
One of the great challenges of ecology is to understand the factors that maintain, or undermine, diversity in ecosystems, researchers write in a 
The European Commission has proposed delaying the EU’s flagship anti-deforestation law for the second year in a row as it continues its war on red tape. The rules, which would force companies to stop using commodities that have been produced on deforested land, are unpopular with many businesses who argue they impose complex regulatory burdens. Several of the EU’s trading partners have also complained about the law. …The EU’s environment commissioner Jessika Roswall, announcing the delay of the European Union Deforestation Regulation said “We need the time to combat the risk with the load of information in the IT system.” …It’s the latest in a long string of actions by the Commission since late last year to weaken or delay green rules, part of a grand push to get rid of red tape and boost the global competitiveness of European industry. 
Increasing tree species diversity is widely suggested as a way to help forests withstand climate change – especially prolonged droughts. But a new international study led by the University of Freiburg, published in Global Change Biology, shows that simply mixing more tree species does not always boost forests’ resilience to drought. In fact, the effects of diversity on tree growth can shift from beneficial to negative as droughts drag on. Drawing on tree ring data from the world’s largest network of tree diversity experiments, researchers found that diverse forests can initially support better tree growth during single-year droughts. However, as droughts persist longer within a year or extend over consecutive years, these positive effects can turn negative depending on local conditions. In some cases, mixing tree species strengthened forest resilience; in others, it increased stress and competition for water. …Building resilient forests will thus require not just more species, but carefully selected combinations and adaptive management. 