Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

Wildfires affecting water quality in Fraser River, say UBC researchers

By Tiffany Crawford
The Vancouver Sun
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Ash and chemicals from some of BC’s largest wildfires are winding up in the Fraser River, which could eventually lead to low oxygen levels and harm marine life, say UBC researchers. In a peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, scientists linked increases in the concentrations of compounds like arsenic and lead, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, to wildfires that had burned near the 1,375 kilometre long river. These are all compounds that are found naturally in the water. However, researchers tracked a significant increase in compounds as wildfires were happening near the river. The researchers studied fires within 500 metres, 1,000 metres and 1,500 metres. Fires burning close to major waterways had immediate influence on water quality, said Emily Brown, a research scientist at UBC’s institute for the oceans and fisheries. The more distant wildfires had delayed influence on water quality.

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Canada’s Forest Sector Welcomes G7 Wildfire Commitment

Forest Products Association of Canada
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Forest Products Association of Canada issued this statement to recognize the release of the Kananaskis Wildfire Charter at the G7 meetings: Canada’s forest sector welcomes the G7’s commitment to address the environmental, economic, health, and social challenges that come with the increase in catastrophic wildfires globally. Over 3.7 million hectares have already burned in Canada this year, putting us on pace for our second worst fire season on record. To put that in some context, more than five times the land base that Canada’s foresters would harvest in an entire year has already burned in 2025. And when Canada’s foresters do their work, they ensure the forest is regrown. Fires in some parts of Canada are now burning so hot that regeneration of these forests are challenged due to scorched soils. The time for action is now. Quite simply, fires will get worse if we are not more proactive in managing fuel loads and our aging forests.  

Additional coverage by Matthew Scace at the Canadian Press: G7 leaders agree to ‘charter’ on wildfires, pledging global co-operation

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B.C. is Burning – Wildfire Documentary Premieres in Vernon Tomorrow!

By Murray Wilson
BC is Burning
June 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

New film reveals the roots of B.C.’s wildfire crisis—and what we must do to stop it. A powerful new documentary exploring the causes and consequences of British Columbia’s escalating wildfire crisis will premiere to the public at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre Thursday June 26 at 7:00 pm. Titled B.C. is Burning, the 45-minute film delivers a sobering but hopeful look at what’s fueling today’s megafires—and the science-based solutions that could protect our forests, our communities, and our future. B.C. is Burning was independently produced and funded through community support, with Homestead Foods generously contributing half of the total budget. We also gratefully acknowledge major support from Skyline Helicopters, Padoin Reforestation, and Kalesnikoff.

The film was produced and written by retired forester Murray Wilson and initiated by Associate Producer Rick Maddison, who played a key role in fundraising.

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Coulson Aviation to do first night-vision aerial firefighting in B.C.

By Darron Kloster
Victoria Times Colonist
June 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Coulson Aviation is joining the firefight in B.C.’s forests, bringing its night-vision technology to battle wildfires. The Port Alberni-based company, whose pilots use night-vision goggles to battle fires in Australia and the United States, has signed a 70-day contract with the B.C. Wildfire Service to provide one of its Sikorsky S-61 Type 1 helitankers that are equipped for night-time operations. The deal marks the first time Coulson will conduct night-vision aerial firefighting missions on Canadian soil. …Coulson Aviation Canada has logged thousands of night-vision flight hours and dropped tens of millions of gallons at night on urban wildfires in California and through parts of Australia. The company earned the world’s first night-vision firefighting certification from Transport Canada in 2011, followed by the first approvals in Australia and the United States. …Coulson Aviation employs a two-aircraft team, including a Sikorsky S-61 firefighting helicopter and a Sikorsky S-76 supervision helicopter.

Read the Coulson Aviation Press Release

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Kamloops councillor says community forest would provide FireSmart, revenue generation opportunities

By Kristen Holliday
Castanet
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A Kamloops city councillor is pitching the idea of a community forest as a way to generate revenue for local amenities and projects while reducing wildfire risk for the region. During Wednesday’s livability and sustainability select committee meeting, Coun. Stephen Karpuk said he’d like to see the City of Kamloops strike a working group to get more information about pursuing a provincial community forest agreement. “There’s an opportunity for all parties to gain some economic value, some certainty on the land base, and some safety and security and some benefits economically that we can bring back to our communities,” Karpuk said. He said surrounding communities of Barriere, Clearwater, Valemount, Clinton and Logan Lake all have community forests — a tract of land set aside for the municipality to manage.

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Trouble in the Headwaters: the hidden impacts of clear-cut logging in B.C.

By Jacqueline Ronson
The Narwhal
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Trouble in the Headwaters, a 25-minute documentary by filmmaker Daniel J. Pierce, explores the root causes behind the devastating 2018 floods in Grand Forks, B.C. More than 100 families were displaced and millions of dollars were spent on flood infrastructure — yet floods continue to threaten the region. The film follows Dr. Younes Alila, a professor of forest hydrology at the University of BC, as he investigates the upstream impacts of clear-cut logging in the Kettle River watershed. …Climate change is responsible for some of the increase in flooding. But decades of research by Alila and his peers suggests the role of industrial forestry is significant, and has long been underestimated. He spent years investigating… the cumulative effects of clearcutting. …Alila sees hope in ongoing class-action lawsuits: people impacted by floods in Grand Forks, Chemainus and elsewhere are suing governments and forestry companies.

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Scotch broom is a dangerous bully

By Joanne Sales, Executive Director, Broombusters
The Parkville Qualicum Beach News
June 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

QUALICUM BEACH, BC — Alien invasive species like Scotch broom do not move into a void. They displace something that was originally present. Broom displaces grasses and native plants – but while grass is food, broom is toxic to grazing animals, wild and domestic. Broom provides flowers for bees in May – but wipes out the native flowers that bees rely on for the rest of the season. Farmers call broom the Scourge of Pastureland – and it affects our food security. Broom competing with young trees on forest land creates millions of dollars in losses to forest companies – and the loss to the future of our forests is beyond measure. Biodiversity? Researchers designate Scotch broom as THE invasive species doing the greatest harm to species at risk in all of B.C. Broom is the top offender of biodiversity. Wildfire? Broom’s high oil content, naturally occurring dry branches, and dense growth patterns make broom extremely flammable. FireSmart classifies broom in the highest risk category.

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Calls to defer Elphinstone Highlands cutblock auction supported

By Connie Jordison
The Sunshine Coast Reporter
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Elphinstone and West Howe Sound community associations’ efforts to have B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS) defer the 35.2 hectare Elphinstone Highlands cutblock (TA0519) from its current Q1 sales schedule received support from the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board. Provision of a letter of support for the deferral requests was endorsed at the board’s June 12 meeting. According to the BCTS Chinook area sales schedule released April 17, TA0519 was slated to go to auction by June 30. In a June 18 email response to Coast Reporter, the Ministry of Forests stated that “Sales schedules are issued to notify of upcoming proposed timber sales auctions. BC Timber Sales starts accepting bids when a licence is placed on BC Bid for auction… TA0519 is a partial harvest/commercial thin sale and was pulled from BC Bid due to an administrative error. It is anticipated that TA0519 will be reposted this fiscal year.”

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BC prepares to clearcut old growth in the Walker Valley

By James Steidle
The Prince George Citizen
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

James Steidle

One of the great mysteries in the local forest industry has got to be why BC Timber Sales would start auctioning off the Walker wilderness for clearcut logging while obstructing a shift to plantation thinning. I went to a Conservation North event on May 23 to watch their film The Walker Valley. …What really struck me about the presentation was the importance of the Walker for threatened bull trout and endangered chinook salmon. …Despite that, BC Timber Sales is in the process of auctioning off cutblocks of old-growth in the lower Walker to start moving the industrial clearcut plantation machine into the headwaters. If the history of logging around Prince George is any indicator, where the clearcuts happen, the helicopter glyphosate herbicides follow and we usually end up with lifeless even-aged monocrop plantations with next to no wildlife, nothing like the old growth mixtures we had before.

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Speĺkúmtn Community Forest launches carbonizer pilot project

By Luke Faulks
The Pique News Magazine
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The Spel’kúmtn Community Forest is piloting a new technology with the potential to change how post-harvest forest waste is managed in the Pemberton Valley. The community forest has brought in a mobile carbonizer from SkyTech Yarding to process woody debris left over from timber harvests, known as slash piles, in the Miller Creek area. The machine converts biomass into biochar—a valuable soil product—and is touted as a cleaner, more climate-conscious alternative to conventional open-pile burning. …The Tigercat Carbonizer 6040 being used in Miller Creek burns biomass in a low-oxygen environment, producing significantly less smoke and yielding biochar—a charcoal-like, carbon-rich material that can enhance soil health and sequester carbon long-term.

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Class of 2025: Father and child graduate Forest Technology together

By Scott Messenger
Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Cassady & Darren Spencer

In 2023, Cassady and Darren Spencer (Forest Technology ’25, both) decided to answer the call of the wild… [which] led them to one place: as father and child studying the same program at NAIT at the same time. Darren, now 49, was curious about a career change. Cassady, now 21, was intrigued by a summer job as a junior forest ranger with Alberta’s Ministry of Forestry and Parks. Once Cassady was accepted into NAIT, Darren broached the issue. “We discussed the strange possibility of me going to post-secondary school with Cass,” he says. But Cassady didn’t think it was strange at all. The opposite, in fact. …We caught up with them, now out in the wild – Darren with Alberta Parks as an interpreter in the David Thomson Corridor; Cassady with West Fraser Timber, supporting forest management – to learn more about their mutual milestone.

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‘Absolutely critical’: Teched out new planes lead B.C. wildfire response

By Andrew Johnson
CTV News
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Before an aircraft in British Columbia drops water on a wildfire or crews attack flames from the ground, a pilot like Rob Verstraten gets there first. “We size up the fire to see what terrain and hazards we have to deal with,” Verstraten said. He flies in one of two new TBM 960 Air Attack planes from Conair Aerial Firefighting, known as “birddogs,” alongside a provincial air attack officer. Together, they orchestrate the aerial response to a wildfire. It’s a crucial role, according to Conair’s director of business development. “Without a strong birddog team your operation won’t be safe, effective, or efficient,” said Michael Benson said. Benson says the two new birddogs are the most modern in the world, and cost roughly $10 million based on the purchase price paid by Conair and modifications to maximize their effectiveness at fighting fires. The installed technology includes advanced weather sensors and infrared cameras.

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BC logging deal sparks clash over Indigenous rights and endangered owl

By Stefan Labbe
Business in Vancouver
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

An insolvent BC forestry company’s attempt to sell off a forest licence to pay back creditors has triggered a dispute with several First Nations, who allege the company is attempting an “end run” around their rights. This spring, three Indigenous groups challenged the Teal-Jones Group before a BC Supreme Court judge for attempting to complete an interim transfer of forest licence A19201 to Western Canadian Timber Products (WCTP). The move came before the B.C. Minister of Forests could consult with 39 First Nations who have territory in the area. …The legal dispute hinged on whether the proposed interim agreement triggered a duty to consult with First Nations. But Fitzpatrick ruled Teal Jones’ agreement with WCTP remained “the highest and best offer presently available for consideration and approval after all that time.” The judge concluded that the sales process had been conducted in a “fair and reasonable manner”.

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Matthews West begins vision for Somass Lands

By Gord Kurbis
Alberni Valley News
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Looking over the 40-acre waterfront Somass property, Port Alberni’s Chief Administrative Officer Mike Fox sees an area that is key to shaping the city’s future. “I believe this project will be one of those defining moments where people will look back years from now and comment on how the community rallied and how we enabled the development of this key waterfront area,” he says. The land that once housed Western Forest Products Somass Division was purchased from the timber giant after the mill was shuttered in 2017 and the land sat vacant for more than a decade… While there was early discussion about trying to incorporate some of the structures used in the operation of the mill, geotechnical and structural analysis work is being done to see if any meet building standards. One of the buildings included in initial discussions burned down last summer.

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Whistler advances new tree and environmental bylaws amid widespread support

By Liz McDonald
Pique News Magazine
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Whistler’s mayor and council advanced a pair of sweeping environmental bylaws that will introduce stricter rules for tree removal and land disturbance across the resort community. At its regular meeting, council gave first three readings to new environmental and tree protection bylaws, with 87 letters submitted in support and a wave of speakers appearing in council chambers to back the regulations. The bylaws were introduced to address long-standing gaps in how Whistler protects its natural areas, following community concern over clear-cut lots, unregulated vegetation removal and heightened wildfire risk. In addition to creating a new permit process for tree removal, the rules prohibit land clearing in sensitive areas and carry steep penalties for infractions—up to $50,000 for unauthorized tree-cutting.

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McBride Community Forest Expanded Election Boundaries

Letter by Al Birnie, Former Chair, Take Back Our Forest, 2010
The Rocky Mountain Goat
June 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Attending the McBride Community Forest Corporation Open House on May 24, I was both surprised and delighted to hear Chair Mike Monroe announce that the Articles of Incorporation of the MCFC have been permanently amended to guarantee that, starting with the 2026 Board elections, the majority of members will be elected by voters throughout the area of the forest, rather than only McBride Village Council! …This is how the CF was proposed to be structured in the first place, and is exactly what Mike and I and many others unsuccessfully fought for back in 2010 through the community group Take Back Our Forest! …The new arrangement by no means automatically solves every issue the CF will have to deal with, as there naturally will be differing opinions on how it should operate.

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Volatus Aerospace Supports J.D. Irving’s Vision for Drone-Powered Tree Planting in New Brunswick

GlobeNewswire
June 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Volatus Aerospace Corp. is pleased to announce a strategic collaboration with J.D. Irving, Limited to advance Spring 2025 tree planting operations in New Brunswick. This initiative supports JDI’s leadership in managing working forests by integrating advanced heavy-lift drone technology to enhance their efficiency, scalability and environmental impact. As part of the project, Volatus will provide a heavy-lift Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) capable of transporting seedlings and supplies to planting crews operating in remote and difficult-to-access terrain. All flight operations will be coordinated by Volatus’ centralized Operations Control Centre in Vaughan, Ontario, enabling real-time mission oversight and reduced environmental footprint compared to traditional ground logistics. “Forestry is a critical pillar of Canada’s economy and environmental stewardship,” said Glen Lynch, CEO of Volatus Aerospace. “We are honoured to support JDI’s long-standing commitment to well-managed working forests by contributing innovative drone logistics, training, and regulatory guidance to their Spring 2025 reforestation operations.”

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Water bomber pilot shortage grounds some aircraft in Ontario

CBC News
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

Several aircraft used to fight forest fires in Ontario are sitting in airport hangars and on tarmacs due to a pilot shortage. JP Hornick, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), said the province is now short three water bomber pilots and six helicopter pilots due to low pay and poor working conditions. “The Ontario pilots are the lowest paid in the country, and what the government has put on the table would bring them up to a whopping second lowest paid position across the country,” Hornick said. That pilot shortage has meant one of Ontario’s nine Canadair CL-415 water bombers has been grounded. Three of the province’s eight helicopters used for firefighting have also been grounded. Hornick said two of the five bush planes used by the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) have also been grounded because only three pilots are available to fly them.

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New glyphosate study sparks questions about New Brunswick use

By Andrew Waugh
The Telegraph-Journal
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

A new study suggests small, consistent amounts of exposure to the herbicide glyphosate can lead to higher incidents of cancer – a finding that has Green party Leader David Coon calling on the province to take the issue seriously. The study, by the Italian-based non-profit Ramazzini Institute, involved exposing rats to small levels of the herbicide and two other products for 2+ years. It found that “statistically significant dose-related (amounts of glyphosate) increased incidences of benign and malignant tumors.”…Bayer, which uses glyphosate in its Roundup herbicide, denounced the study. “It is clear this study has serious methodological flaws, which is consistent with the Ramazzini Institute’s long history of making misleading claims about the safety of various products,” the company said. …A government spokesperson initially told Brunswick News that the study’s findings weren’t applicable in New Brunswick because two products studied aren’t used in Canada.

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400-year-old spruce tree a window into history of dwindling New Brunswick forests

By Katelin Belliveau
CBC News
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

Chris Watson of Lorneville, a rural community in southwest Saint John, recently saw what he believed to be a centuries-old red spruce near Spruce Lake. He drilled a small hole into the trunk by hand and took a pencil-sized sample to have it tested. Ben Phillips, environmental lecturer at Mount Allison University, began a process known as dendochronology on the sample — a study that measures the age of trees by counting small lines otherwise known as tree rings. “This tree, I can confidently say, is over 400 years old,” Phillips, who runs the Acadian Forest Dendochronology Lab on campus, said about the sample he got from Watson. “It is probably in the top 10 oldest trees in the province that I know of.” …Both Phillips and Ilana Urquhart, Nature Trust of New Brunswick conservation co-ordinator, want to see legislation put in place in New Brunswick that would protect areas with old growth, specifically.

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Remembering a key player behind the Sault’s ‘bug lab’

By Darren Taylor
The Soo Today
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

Family members and local scientists gathered at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre on Monday to remember James MacBain Cameron. Cameron spearheaded the Centre’s growth from modest roots to its modern day status as a large, respected scientific facility. An entomologist, Cameron was born in Scotch Hill, Nova Scotia in 1910. He moved to the Sault in 1945 and was the original director of the Insect Pathology Research Institute, dedicated to protecting forests in the ongoing fight against threats posed by insects.  The Insect Pathology Research Institute eventually became known as the Great Lakes Forestry Centre in 1976, one year after Cameron’s death in 1975. Cameron is remembered in a professional sense for making the Centre grow through his ability to recruit scientists to work at the Queen Street East lab.

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USDA Rescinds Roadless Rule, Opening Logging on Federal Lands

The National Association of Home Builders
June 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced yesterday during a meeting at the Western Governors’ Association in New Mexico that the U.S. is rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule, which prohibits road building on more than 58 million acres of federal forest lands. NAHB supports this action to repeal the Roadless Rule because it is overly restrictive, prohibits land to be properly managed at the state and local level, and needlessly blocks federal timber harvesting in a healthy and sustainable manner. With the nation importing more than 25% of the softwood lumber it needs to build new homes, opening up federal forest lands in an environmentally responsible manner is an important step forward to increase domestic timber production to meet the needs of American home owners and home buyers. [END]

Additional coverage from the US Department of Agriculture: WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: Strong Support for Secretary Rollins’ Rescission of Roadless Rule, Eliminating Impediment to Responsible Forest Management

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Why nature loss matters to companies — and what they can do

By Rajat Panwar, Oregon State University
Financial Times
June 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Rajat Panwar

Over the past two decades, corporate sustainability has made meaningful strides. But the central focus on climate action has been too narrow. Nature loss — from deforestation and biodiversity decline to soil and ecosystem degradation — poses profound risks to business operations, supply chains, and long-term value creation. While climate action can help, it cannot replace a dedicated strategy for protecting and restoring natural ecosystems.  Business leaders are beginning to take notice. A growing number are now incorporating nature into their sustainability agendas. Some are embedding biodiversity considerations into procurement and product design. Others are working to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains or investing in ecological restoration. Investors are rallying behind the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), which seeks to make nature-related risks visible to markets. 

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Union warns Trump’s rapid changes for wildland firefighters will be ‘disastrous’

By Drew Friedman
The Federal News Network
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

A union is warning about the risks of moving too fast on the Trump administration’s plans to consolidate federal programs for wildland firefighters, as the U.S. heads into an intense wildfire season. The National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents federal wildland firefighters, said some of the administration’s end goals for wildfire management are “broadly positive,” but warned that a lack of detail and planning — coupled with an expedited timeline — could lead to serious consequences. “Making major changes during fire season, without congressional authorization or full planning, could be disastrous,” NFFE wrote. NFFE’s memo comes after Trump signed an executive order last week calling for the consolidation of wildland fire programs between the Interior Department and the Agriculture Department’s Forest Service. …Steve Lenkart, NFFE’s executive director, said the administration’s changes would immediately impact federal wildland firefighters, who have struggled for years with major recruitment and retention issues.

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‘Charmin wipes out a forest’ premieres July 1st

By Ken Martin
The Austin Bulldog
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Steve Mins

“Please don’t squeeze the Charmin.” …the goal of a new documentary is precisely to squeeze Charmin. The tactic is to create a wave of public support that will force its manufacturer to give up the destructive logging practices used to produce this toilet paper. Charmin Wipes Out a Forest, the latest documentary from Austin-based writer-director Steve Mims, goes after Procter and Gamble (P&G). …The goal is to challenge P&G’s longstanding practice of making Charmin out of virgin fiber from Canadian boreal forests, …which serve as a “giant shield in the fight against climate change,” according to Boreal Conservation. …In 2019 he launched an effort to persuade Home Depot to stop buying plywood made from logging in an endangered rainforest in Ecuador. …That project also started with a Mims’ documentary, Home Depot Destroying the Rain Forest for Plywood. “That film only got 5,000 views but it did its job,” he said.

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Trump’s elimination of Roadless Rule concerns conservationists

By Laura Lindquist
The Missoula Current
June 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Less than two weeks have passed since the public learned of a Senate proposal to sell off public lands, and now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has removed roadless protections for more than 58 million acres of federal land across the nation. …Helena Hunters and Anglers …decided to call an emergency meeting for Tuesday to discuss the implications of the announcement. If roadless areas were truly gone, the group might not continue their yearly monitoring of roadless areas. Montana has almost 6.4 million acres of inventoried roadless areas… Helena Hunters and Anglers has been monitoring some of those roadless areas for the past few years to assess their condition, and some of the findings aren’t good. …A number of other conservation organizations immediately criticized the action, calling it another handout to corporations to the detriment of the American public and future generations. The Colorado-based Center for Western Priorities said Rollins’ reasons were suspect.

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Oregon wildfires have already burned 20,000 acres and destroyed 56 homes. What’s next?

By Zach Urness
The Register-Guard
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

It’s been a busy and destructive start to Oregon’s wildfire season. Two state parks have already been evacuated by fast-moving wildfires, 56 homes have been destroyed, and 20,300 acres have burned in more than 400 fires — mostly east of the Cascades. Rafters on the popular John Day River have twice found themselves floating through the middle of an active blaze. …At one point, Interstate 84 was closed due to wildfire activity. …“What’s striking is the size of the fires we’ve seen this early in the season,” Oregon Department of Forestry wildfire spokeswoman Jessica Neujahr said. …High fire danger is expected to persist across the entire summer and into fall. …A combination of factors has led to the large wildfires seen so far this year. A wet winter led to the rapid growth of fuels like grasses in eastern Oregon, which then dried out rapidly under hot and dry spring conditions.

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Forest Service tanker base operating earlier than normal to combat wildfires

By Madelyn Heath
KTVH Helena Montana
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

HELENA — Aerial resources have been critical in reaching the Jericho Mountain Fire, and Helena has … a tanker base that can support the largest firefighting planes. …The around three thousand gallons of retardant the average plane holds is just one of the reasons it is so effective. Another factor is the team on the ground who get it refueled and refilled and back in the air in just minutes. …The tanker base typically opens for operations on July 7th but kicked off their wildfire season on June 15th nearly a month early this year due to the Jericho Mountain Fire. Once they got the call, the team had the base operational in two hours. So far the tanker base has already helped planes drop more than 32-thousand gallons of retardant this year compared to zero at this time last year.

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Gutting the Forest Service will cause irreparable damage

By Suzanne Cable, retired forester, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
The Daily Inter Lake
June 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

The U.S. Forest Service is headed for obsolescence due to recent personnel reductions, proposed budget cuts and re-organization plans. The ability of the Forest Service to meet its legislatively mandated multiple-use mission to the American public is being systematically dismantled. …over the last several months we’ve seen an agency deliberately dismantled by indiscriminate firings, forced retirements and coerced resignations. …The gutting of the Forest Service is a national crisis that will take years or decades to recover from once we, as a society, choose to stop the damage to our federal system of governance. We must individually and collectively speak out to all our elected officials and demand a stop to the out-of-control damage being done. We need to begin to rebuild a federal government that we can rely on to deliver critical services to the American public, including the Forest Service, and protect our wild landscapes from destruction.

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Federal land sales, more logging and more oil revenue: What’s in the big federal bill for Alaska?

By James Brooks
The Alaska Beacon
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Members of the U.S. Senate last week proposed a major sale of federal land as part of the “Big, Beautiful Bill” proposed by Republicans to fund the U.S. government. If adopted, the proposed sale could be significant for Alaska, where the federal government owns and manages 61% of all land in the state… The concept would significantly increase the amount of logging required on federal land. The U.S. Forest Service would be required to significantly increase the amount of timber sold to loggers, and the Forest Service would be required to sign at least 40 long-term timber sales contracts involving national forests. Those kinds of long-term sales contracts contributed to the establishment of Southeast Alaska’s pulp mills, which relied on harvests from the Tongass National Forest.  Most timber harvests from the Tongass currently are exported internationally without processing in the United States.

Related content:

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Researchers survey Oregon forests for insect damage and drought effects

By Bobby Corser
KPIC News
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Oregon Department of Forestry and the USDA Forest Service will conduct low-level flights in June to monitor forest health. This survey, which began in the 1940s and paused only during the 2020 pandemic, is the longest continuous annual survey of its kind in the United States. Airborne researchers conduct the survey from fixed-wing aircraft, flying between 1,500 and 2,500 feet above ground level at speeds of 90 to 140 miles per hour. They follow a systematic grid pattern, four miles apart, to identify areas where trees are in distress. “Oregon has about 30 million acres of forest so flying in a grid pattern over it allows us to find problems even in remote areas hard to reach by vehicle or on foot,” said Christine Buhl, an entomologist with the Oregon Department of Forestry.

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Fixing Yellowstone: How an intact ecosystem set the stage for a wolf queen’s long reign

By Clark Corbin and Heath Druzin
News From The States
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Sitting in an old-growth spruce fir forest, Doug Smith says he can see first-hand the impact of reintroducing wolves on the larger ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park. Long before Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872, wolves thrived in the U.S. Rocky Mountains. But early Yellowstone rangers killed off the last of the park’s wolves by 1926. Then, in 1995, the U.S. government reintroduced wolves to Idaho and Yellowstone using wolves captured in Canada. Smith helped bring them back to the park and was in charge of Yellowstone’s wolf project for nearly 30 years until he retired in 2022. “Yellowstone is a very different place, with and without wolves,” Smith said. “Wolves definitely have changed this landscape with the help of other predators,” he added. “It’s very different.” And one wolf, in particular, fascinated wolf watchers for longer than almost any other.

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City Council Votes to Move Tree Regulation Team to Permitting Office, Removes $2 Million From Enforcement

By Sophie Peel
The Willamette Week
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Portland City Council made a major change last week to the team of inspectors that enforces the city’s Tree Code, which regulates all street trees and some trees on private land across the city. The council voted to move the entire tree regulation team—which currently falls under the Urban Forestry division, a program nested within the parks bureau—to Portland Permitting & Development. …Councilor Eric Zimmerman called into question Urban Forestry and how it polices and fines Portlanders seeking to trim or remove trees on or near their property. …The tree regulators—who also process and vet permits for tree removals, replantings and prunings—will no longer be the under the oversight of city forester Jenn Cairo, whose management has come under scrutiny.The council also voted to transfer $2.1 million of Parks Levy funds from the Tree Code regulation division to backfill maintenance cuts to outdoor parks. 

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State foresters take to skies to survey forest health

KEZI News 9 Oregon
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

SALEM, Ore. – Researchers are taking to the skies this month to survey Oregon’s forests for damage from pests and other threats, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry and USDA Forest Service. Forest officials said that the Pacific Northwest Aerial Detection Survey is the longest continuous annual survey of its kind in the U.S. Airborne researchers use fixed-wing aircraft to identify trees in distress, flying between 1,500 to 2,500 feet above ground. “Oregon has about 30 million acres of forest so flying in a grid pattern over it allows us to find problems even in remote areas hard to reach by vehicle or on foot,” said Christine Buhl, ODF Forest Entomologist. The survey has highlighted a concerning trend of increasing tree deaths due to drought stress and beetle attacks.

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Start seeing Minnesota’s trees for the forest values they are

By Brian Buhr, Dean of Natural Resource Science, University of Minnesota
The Duluth News Tribune
June 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Brian Buhr

…However, few people consider how Minnesota’s nearly 18 million acres of forests can drive bioinnovation, supporting both a healthy environment and economy. For those who do, they’d likely underestimate the growing diversity of products that can use components of wood sustainably harvested from our state’s forests. Research at the University of Minnesota is leading the way to further develop those innovations… One such emerging opportunity is using woody biomass to produce climate-smart, low-carbon biofuels. …Clearly, forest loss also brings economic costs. Each acre burned or left unproductive loses $234 in carbon value, not to mention all the other products that could be created from that acre. Bottom line: Managing forest health and timber harvesting creates jobs, strengthens the economy, and reduces carbon emissions and wildfire risks. The University of Minnesota leads this effort through partnerships with industry, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Minnesota DNR, supported by public investment. 

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Why Canada’s wildfire smoke is now a fixture for Minnesotans when the weather warms

By Patrick Hamilton, Science Museum of Minnesota
The Star Tribune
June 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States, US East

It has only been in the past few years that wildfire smoke from Canada has become a persistent risk to the air we all breathe. Why is this? …A vast swath across northern Canada has a subarctic climate. The types of vegetation best adapted to these conditions are conifer forests dominated by black and white spruce with some pine, balsam fir, larch, aspen and birch. Fire has always been an element of this biome. Historically, about 7.3 million acres have burned annually but in 2023, an astonishing 67 million acres burned. This year’s acreage is on pace to meet or exceed the record-breaking year of 2023. …The fire season is changing in Canada because the climate of Canada is changing. …What this means is that large, long-duration wildfires in Canada’s boreal forest and the smoke plumes they produce are likely to be a new and persistent phenomenon going forward. 

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Study reveals US timber supply inelastic and South-Central reforestation profitable

The Lesprom Network
June 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A new analysis quantifies US timber harvest and supply dynamics and finds that, although national timber supply is largely price inelastic, rapid growth in South-Central forests now makes private reforestation clearly profitable, according to David Wear at Resources for the Future institute, and John W. Coulston at the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station. …In their modeling of owner behavior, Wear and Coulston find that price signals drive increased cutting in every region and ownership class except public lands on the Pacific Coast. …Supply responds more strongly to sawtimber than to pulpwood prices, underscoring the influence of higher-value markets on harvest intensity. Tree-planting choice models further show that private landowners in high-production regions (South, Northeast, Pacific Northwest, Northern Rockies) boost reforestation probability by roughly 0.5 % for every 1 % rise in sawtimber price. …This integrated, plot-level research positions the eastern US as the primary locus for future timber supply expansion.

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With global and UK timber demand increasing, it seems inappropriate to import so much

By Dougal Driver, CEO, Grown in Britain
The Timber Trades Journal
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

As a forester and now in my role at Grown in Britain, I regularly encounter a range of misconceptions about home-grown timber. …First, let’s address the elephant in the room. The UK imports a significant amount of timber, and these figures are often cited to suggest something isn’t working as it should be. However, increasing timber use in construction is a positive development, as it replaces more carbon-intensive materials. One of the key reasons Grown in Britain was set up – is we import substantial amounts of timber whilst neglecting our own forests and woodlands. Over 10 years ago, when GiB started, the government considered over 60% of our woods were not managed. Our initiative, alongside the efforts of many, has reduced this to nearer 40% today. …With global and UK timber demand increasing, it seems inappropriate to import so much when we’re not fully utilising our resources.

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Hiroshima tree seeds growing at university

By Eleanor Lawson
BBC News
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Seeds from two trees that survived the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima at the end of World War Two are being grown at a Staffordshire university. The seeds were collected from an oriental plane tree in the grounds of the Tenma Elementary School, which was destroyed by the bombing, and a 200-year-old ginkgo tree growing in Shukkeien Garden. Both trees were situated less than a mile from the bomb site on 6 August 1945 and miraculously survived the bombing. They will now be cared for by experts at Keele University until they become tall and sturdy enough to be planted in the ground. The university says it is part of an international project to promote peace and hope. The seeds were sent to Keele through the Green Legacy Hiroshima initiative, which aims to distribute seeds and saplings from ‘survivor trees’ worldwide.

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Forest Enhancement Society of BC Board of Directors Tour with Ntityix Resources

Forest Enhancement Society of BC
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry

The FESBC Board of Directors visited two wildfire risk reduction project sites with Ntityix Resources funded by FESBC. In collaboration with local residents and community members the project work will ensure important infrastructure, homes, and wildlife habitat are better protected. “It was great to be hosted by the Ntityix team. Walking the land, hearing how these projects are led by Indigenous values and worked in the face of wildfire was inspiring,” said Jason Fisher, RPF, Executive Director, FESBC. Ken Day, who recently stepped into the role of Chair of the FESBC Board of Directors said, “it has been my great pleasure to work on the Board with our outgoing president, Dave Peterson. Dave has been on the Board of Directors since FESBC was created in 2016, and we are pleased to have his continued contribution as a Director of the Society”.

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