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Francis Allard is co-founder of Ramo, whose business is planting willows and poplars to help remediate landfills, mines and marginal land. At the Ste-Sophie Landfill north of Montreal, the company is growing willows to treat leachate from areas of the facility that were closed decades ago. Ramo harvests the trees every few years, weaving them into a variety of products, including fences and noise barriers. It’s also establishing a plantation in northern Quebec, to supply soil amendments for reclamation at nearby mines. …Willows on a landfill: It’s probably not what most people envisioned when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced 2BT in 2019. Indeed, the program has taken heat for funding shrubs that in no way resemble pines or oaks. But such majestic trees take years to grow a few feet, while willows can grow that high in a few months.
VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board will audit the forest planning and practices of Lake Babine Nation Forestry Ltd. on First Nations Woodland Licence (FNWL) N21, located near Burns Lake, during the week of Aug. 8, 2022. Auditors will examine whether timber harvesting, roads, silviculture, fire protection and associated planning carried out between Aug. 1, 2020, and Aug. 12, 2022, met the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act. The audit area is in the Nadina Natural Resource District, north of the Village of Burns Lake, in the territory of the Lake Babine Nation. The licence has three separate operating areas on the west side of Babine Lake, covers 36,500 hectares and has an allowable annual cut of approximately 74,000 cubic metres. First Nations Woodland Licences are an area-based, long-term forest tenure unique to First Nations.
Charlie Schelz, an ecologist with the Bureau of Land Management, is part of the Southern Oregon Wildlife Crossing Coalition. They are a group of scientists, agency representatives, and hunting, fishing, and wildlife advocates seeking to create new structures and enhance existing ones so that animals can safely cross I-5 in the Siskiyou Summit region. This section of highway includes a dangerous, steep downgrade as it cuts through mountainous terrain. …“It’s not just your run-of-the-mill wildlife barrier,” says Jack Williams, an emeritus scientist for Trout Unlimited. …Planned wildlife crossings work. A series of projects on a stretch of Highway 97 just south of Bend have greatly improved life for mule deer attempting to cross the busy thoroughfare. The improvements, which include a new undercrossing built exclusively for wildlife, have reduced wildlife-vehicle collisions by 86 percent since they were completed in 2012. Nearly 30 different species have been documented using the crossings.
CAIRO – Egypt will soon launch a presidential campaign of planting 100 million trees nationwide, announced the cabinet in a statement on Sunday. The “100 million trees” campaign comes under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi as part of Egypt’s efforts regarding the climate file, coinciding with the 27th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) due to be held in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh in November, the statement said. Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli said that this initiative will begin with extensive planting on both sides of highways, and we also aim to increase the green areas in urban cities, the statement continued. …The Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy said, at the meeting, that there are 9,900 sites with a total area of 6600 acres that have been pinpointed nationwide to be suitable for tree forests or gardens.
Fire has burnt through forests for hundreds of millions of years, but now unprecedented wildfires are burning hotter and longer partly due to climate change. Declining rainfall and longer droughts are making forests so dry that localized lightening can spark a small fire that transforms into an 
Hungary waived environmental regulations protecting native forests from logging, showing the increasingly extreme steps the government is willing to take to prepare for next winter’s energy shortages. The rise in energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have forced the government to partly scrap one of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s signature policies, the generous subsidies on household consumption. Hungary risks having shortages despite Orban’s maintaining the closest links to Russian President Vladimir Putin among European Union members. An emergency government decree published late Thursday eases the way for the clearcutting of native tree species – which include oak and beech – in protected forests, while also relaxing other restrictions on loggers. The government has also instructed schools to check if they can switch to wood from gas for their heating. The retail price of firewood climbed 18% in June compared to a year ago, according to the Hungarian statistics office.
AUSTRALIA — A group of unions have hit out at the Andrews government over proposed legislation designed to criminalise environmental protests, which they say will stifle peaceful democratic action, calling for the bill to be scrapped. The bill, which is before the state’s upper house, would see protesters who illegally enter timber harvesting zones to disrupt workers face 12 months jail time or $21,000 in fines. In a letter sent to the premier, Daniel Andrews, and the state’s agriculture and workplace safety ministers, the unions argued the legislation is undemocratic and will not result in greater worker safety. “Any stripping away of the right to protest eventually finds its way to further limiting workplace action,” the unions said in the letter, seen by Guardian Australia. …“We are deeply concerned that the bill is disproportionate, lacks sufficient safeguards and oversight, and makes a mockery of psycho-social safety in the workplace,” the letter said.
IKEA is one of the largest furniture retailers in the world and a leader in a booming global furniture market. The market hit an estimated value of over $490 billion last year. …there are a lot of unseen costs that go into supplying cheap, mass-produced wooden furniture to major retailers — namely costs from how and where that wood gets harvested. …IKEA has said before that “under no circumstances” would they accept wood that doesn’t meet their sustainability requirements. They’ve also taken action against problematic suppliers before. To balance the growing global demand for wood with conservation of these crucial forests, the EU and national governments have established massive protected areas… Furnishers often rely on something called the Forest Stewardship Certification, or FSC, to vet the sourcing for wood products. …But critics have pointed out some central flaws to the audit process and warned FSC certifications may be giving a false sense of security.