The similarities between the fires now and then are uncanny, as described in my book Dark Days at Noon: The Future of Fire. The ignition of fires between 1870 and 1922 was fuelled by higher temperatures, drier forests and the kind of elevated lightning activity that we are experiencing today. Much of the warming back then can be attributed to the end of the little ice age (1300 to 1850), and the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Today, the unprecedented warming taking place is primarily because of the burning of fossil fuels. Forest land-grabbing and negligence has also fuelled numerous fires. …The other thing that hasn’t changed much is public policy. …The end of the world is not at hand, but there will be many more dark days at noon if we do not learn to live with fire.
Months of record-breaking dry weather have set B.C. up for the perfect storm, the province’s power supplier is warning. BC Hydro says drought-stricken trees are far more likely to become uprooted or snap in half as the windy season picks up. As a result, British Columbians could be facing more serious power outages this fall and winter than in a typical year. BC Hydro’s meteorologist is predicting “a greater likelihood for substantial damage this storm season,” according to a Wednesday (Oct. 26) news release. “Trees that have been impacted by the drought will not show immediate visible effects. However, drought conditions have impacted the small structural roots that provide trees with stability, making them more susceptible to wind of any speed,” BC Hydro says.
The Province has convened a new advisory council in support of forestry workers and communities. …”
SASKATCHEWAN — You will soon get a chance to hear about harvesting and reforestation plans in the province’s northeast. Public hearings are being held on the Pasquia Porcupine Forest Management Plan. It’s one of six main FMA’s in the province. “Basically outlining some of the draft operating plans proposed for the 2023 operating year,” said Travis Hedger, with Edgewood Forest Products. …Edgewood has made some capital improvements and is working on adding another production line. The $100 million expansion was announced about a year ago by Dunkley Lumber, the parent company. …The FMA helps support two mills. Hedger said around 150 people work at the sawmill in Carrot River, and another 100 work in harvesting timber for the mill. …According to Weyerhaeuser, 167 people work at it’s mill in Hudson Bay, and 160 people work in harvesting and hauling. Between the two of them, the companies harvest roughly 6,000 hectares of forest per year.
As a deforestation crisis reaches its breaking point in America, officials roll out a massive and ambitious plan to replant more than a billion new trees across the nation. The plan to tackle this monumental environmental task involves you. Wildfires are responsible for the destruction of millions of acres of forested land in the U.S. David Lytle of the U.S. Forest Service said. “We are facing a wildlife crisis in the U.S., size and intensity, more difficult to fight,” he said. “And as a result of our limited resources … backlog of 5 million acres in need of reforestation.” Seeds of hope in the form of federal legislation called the REPLANT act couldn’t have come at a more pivotal time. The bipartisan act delivers a much-needed infusion of funds and resources. 
SALEM, Ore. — When U.S. Forest Service personnel carried out a planned burn in a national forest in Oregon on Oct. 13, it wound up burning fencing that a local family, the Hollidays, uses to corral cattle. The crew returned six days later to restart the burn, but the flames then spread onto the family’s ranch and resulted in the arrest of “burn boss” Rick Snodgrass. …“It was just negligence, starting a fire when it was so dry, right next to private property,” said Sue Holliday, matriarch of the family. The incident has once again exposed tensions over land management in the West, where the federal government owns nearly half of all the land. …The Holliday ranch covers more than 6,000 acres and has about 1,000 head of cattle. The Hollidays say they want justice done. “We’re just standing up for what we believe in, and this is our land,” Tonna Holliday said.
Research institutes in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico signed a $16.47-million agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to map forest treatments and measure their effectiveness in reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires. 
BOZEMAN — Even after the smoke clears, communities can be impacted by wildfire when scorched mountainsides are flushed with rain, washing sediment, ash and other contaminants into streams and reservoirs that supply drinking water. In light of the severity and frequency of wildfires across much of the U.S., a Montana State University researcher and collaborators are working to help communities better safeguard water resources against wildfires as part of a three-year, $4 million transdisciplinary project led by the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station. “We want to provide municipalities and others in the drinking water community with really clear, science-based guidance for how they can invest their money and resources to prepare for future wildfires,” said Amanda Hohner, assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering in MSU’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering.
ST. GEORGE — …Many in Southern Utah believe logging is the best strategy to mitigate next year’s risk – but is it? …Jesse Morris said it depends. Morris is a research professor at the University of Utah… Logging is an important tool in forest management, said Morris, adding that society relies heavily on wood products that have to come from “some forest somewhere.” However, whether or not a beetle-killed forest should be logged depends on what the goals are for the landscape. …When removing trees, the nutrients they contain are removed from the forest as well. However, by taking dead trees, Morris said there is less risk of the carbon they’ve stored being released into the atmosphere should they burn. Logging is a “delicate” scientific method that involves removing enough trees to create the ideal fuels balance while “leaving enough cover for a healthy ecosystem,” according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Forest Service Chief Randy Moore has denounced the arrest by an Oregon sheriff of a Forest Service employee after a planned burn in a national forest spread onto private land. The criticism by Moore was followed by a statement from Grant County District Attorney Jim Carpenter in which he defended the arrest of a U.S. Forest Service “burn boss” on allegations of reckless burning. …Sheriff Todd McKinley occasionally briefs Carpenter on the case, the prosecutor said. Once it’s completed, “a decision will be made as to whether a charge will be made or not,” Carpenter said. Burn Boss Randy Snodgrass told the local Blue Mountain Eagle newspaper that his arrest by McKinley disrupted the chain of command while the Forest Service crew was conducting the prescribed burn in the Malheur National Forest. …Snodgrass said, “[the sheriff] put not only my guys at risk, but he put that land at risk.”
The Oregon Board of Forestry has approved more than 100 changes to the Forest Practices Act. The rule changes are a result of the Private Forest Accord (PFA) that brought together representatives from conservation groups and the timber industry. The changes will impact timber harvest activities on more than 10 million acres of private and non-federal forests in the state. “The rules we adopted are just one of a great many changes coming from the Private Forest Accord that will advance how Oregon protects its natural resources and responds to the climate change crisis, while also providing some stability for the communities and economies that rely on the forest products industry,” Oregon Board of Forestry Chair Jim Kelly said. …The goal of the PFA and the Forest Practices Act rule changes is to provide long-term certainty to industry while providing enhanced protection to critical aquatic species.
The 2022 Fire Season will officially end for Klamath and Lake counties. Fire management personnel from the Oregon Department of Forestry, Klamath-Lake District, in cooperation with other local fire agencies and departments will declare the termination of the 2022 fire season as of Oct. 26. “Even though we have lifted fire season, it does not mean that people should be any less careful; they are still responsible for any fire that gets out of control and spreads. Debris Burning should be attended at all times, done only during daylight hours, in cleared areas, in ‘no wind’ conditions, and meeting Air Quality guidelines,” said Randall Baley, Protection Unit Forester. …During the 2022 season… 62 fires that burned approximately 1,230 acres. The total number of fires falls well below the 10-year average… Logging operation requirements have also been lifted, including watchman services and fire equipment on site, in effect on private, county, and state lands.
Forest owners in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and eastern Alabama breathed a sigh of relief on October 11, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
MANISTIQUE, Michigan — Bluesource Sustainable Forests has purchased 29,019 acres of forestland in the Upper Peninsula from The Lyme Timber Company. …This property will be part of over 90 North American forest carbon projects covering over four million acres that Anew Climate, LLC currently manages in partnership with landowners. Eleven of these locations are also located in Michigan. Anew said that acquired properties will be managed under sustainable working forest practices that prioritize carbon sequestration and long-term forest health while maintaining a level of commercial harvest that supports the local economy and the climate. When BSFC is ready, they plan to initiate a selective logging operation below annual growth levels. This will allow the forests to continue to be working forestlands to support the local economy and produce high value forest products, while also developing carbon credits.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has adopted a number of significant changes during its recent general assembly in Bali, chief among them moving its cutoff date for eligibility from 1994 to 2020. With the change, logging companies that have cleared forests since 1994, but before 2020, will be allowed to obtain certification from the body, something they weren’t allowed to do before. To qualify, companies will have to restore forests and provide remedy for social harms done in the 1994-2020 period in their concessions. The decision has sparked responses from both critics and supporters, with the former saying the new rule rewards known deforesters, and the latter saying it opens opportunities for forest restoration and remedies for Indigenous and local communities.