Midway, B.C. – With the infusion of new grant funding of $1,137,375 from the Forest Enhancement Society of BC’s 2022-2023 Funding Program, the West Boundary Community Forest (WBCF) has already started working toward proactively making the communities of Midway, Greenwood, Grand Forks, Rock Creek, and Westbridge safer from the threat of wildfires. …“Certain forested areas around many of our rural communities have been neglected over the years. This has allowed fuels in the forest …to build up and for Douglas-fir beetles to run rampant. Once our Community Forest tenure was established, we realized these areas need to be better managed in order to protect our communities from wildfires as well as protect our tenure from forest health concerns. Local employment in the phases of layout, fuels treatments, and harvesting will benefit from this funding and allow us to keep local contractors working,” explained Dan Macmaster, RPF, Forest Manager with WBCF.
Snuneymuxw Territory (Nanaimo, B.C.) – We are hosting a First Nations Forestry Forum in Kamloops on November 22-23rd, 2022. The BC First Nations Forestry Council is working with BC’s Ministry of Forests to deliver this engagement opportunity for interested First Nations and Indigenous forestry businesses. The Forum is intended to complement, not replace, ongoing engagement between First Nations and BC on key forest sector policies by providing a space for technical discussions on a range of forestry and forest stewardship initiatives and issues of interest to Indigenous communities. Held on Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc territory, this two-day Forum will include opportunities for First Nations and Indigenous forestry businesses to engage on key forest sector policies. Day 1 will be focused on Forest Sector Transformation, including the sessions on the New Fiscal Framework and forestry revenue sharing and tenure. Day 2 will focus on Forest Stewardship and include sessions on cultural and prescribed fire, forest landscape planning and the old growth strategic review.
The Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia (UBC) offers the Future Forests Fellowship, a research grant to a forestry student to enroll in their PhD program. UBC offers C$70 thousand annually for up to four years. The fellowship is intended to cover all expenses incurred in the preparation and conduct of research. Both domestic and international students are eligible to apply. The UBC Faculty of Forestry’s Future Forests Fellowship aims to attract and retain world-class doctoral students by supporting students who demonstrate both leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies. Applicants must intend to undertake doctoral research in one of the following areas of excellence for the Faculty of Forestry. The research must be conducted, at least in part, in British Columbia, and should result in an outcome that has practical application in BC.
In August, as Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault prepared to visit an old-growth forest, his office drafted a news release. It was never sent out. The federal government had committed up to $50 million to permanently protect B.C.’s old-growth forests and was “awaiting the matching commitment from the province,” said the draft release. In the lead up to the UN biodiversity conference Canada will host in December, the federal government is eager to see permanent protections announced for B.C.’s old-growth forests as part of Ottawa’s commitment to protect 30 per cent of the country’s land and waters by 2030. But with less than a month before the conference, the B.C. government has yet to accept Ottawa’s offer. That leaves environmental groups and the B.C. Green Party questioning the sincerity of the B.C. government. …When pushed… the Ministry of Forests said: “The $50 million pledge is a welcome first step.”
Vancouver, BC – The BC Council of Forest Industries and partner Canadian Forest Industries Magazine, announce the return of the annual photo contest. This year’s theme is ‘New Ideas. Great Forestry. BC’s Story’ and calls for submissions that bring to life the province’s forestry story, and the new ideas that are contributing to a more sustainable sector. “We encourage contestants to highlight some of the new ideas that are shaping the future of the forest sector. Whether it’s through the adoption of new technologies to help us do things better and more sustainably, partnerships with Indigenous Peoples, or new uses of forest products, we are excited to see the entrants of this year’s contest. BC’s forest sector has a great story to tell and we are pleased to once again showcase those who are passionate about making it great.” says Linda Coady, President and CEO, COFI.
The province is providing $1.5 million for three Thunder Bay projects that will train Indigenous people for skilled trades work. According to the province, more than 100 Indigenous people will be served by the hands-on training and apprenticeship programs, which will prepare them for work in forestry and mining. Of the funding, $876,286 will go to two programs run by the 
Yosemite’s top official and the National Park Service are being sued by a non-profit over the park’s forest thinning project. Currently, Yosemite National Park is cutting excess trees and branches along exits roads and elsewhere in the park to prepare for that kind of emergency and to prevent another big fire. But it’s hitting a snag. A lawsuit is delaying the work, and it’s not the only one holding up a growing number of logging projects nationwide – a result of the Biden Administration announcing this year its 10-year wildfire strategy. The strategy supports the National Forest Service’s goal of treating 50 million acres of forest nationwide. …While many leading forestry experts support some sort of wildfire prevention that includes thinning, conservationists like Khosla believe the federal government is coming in too hot and lawsuits, at times, are necessary to prevent overreach. 
An area the size of Switzerland, made of protected trees. That’s the plan being hatched by a group of six companies that includes the world’s largest pulp producer Suzano and Spanish retail-banking giant Santander. They’re proposing to plant and preserve a total of 4 million hectares of trees in deforested parts of Brazil, financing the project by selling carbon offset credits on the voluntary market. The companies involved are creating a new company called Biomas, which will start by identifying areas that have suffered from deforestation, including in the Amazon. Biomas plans to rely on the experience of Brazilian companies that already run massive eucalyptus farms. …By 2025, the group expects to start hiring workers and establishing tree nurseries. They aim to plant more than 2 billion native trees across 2 million hectares, while investing in the conservation of another 2 million hectares of native forests.
The biggest direct driver of wildlife declines globally is the conversion of natural forests and grasslands to intensive agriculture and livestock. This is the dramatic finding from a new paper that has looked into what is driving the unfolding biodiversity crisis. It found that land-use change caused the biggest effect over recent decades, followed by the exploitation of wildlife though fishing, logging and hunting, with pollution ranked third. The planet is losing its wildlife at breakneck speed. Over the past four decades alone populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians that scientists have monitored have fallen by an average of two-thirds. But as we continue to put pressure on the natural world, through deforestation and over exploitation, we are threatening our own survival. This is not some existential threat that may come to pass in the distant future, but a reality we are seeing in the present. 
