Monika Patel
As we enter 2025, our planet faces extraordinary climate challenges that demand decisive action. FSC Canada stands uniquely positioned to champion responsible forest management as a crucial driver of climate solutions, transforming urgent needs into tangible progress. As I step into the role of President and CEO of FSC Canada, I am inspired by both the profound responsibility and immense opportunities ahead. The heartbeat of FSC’s success—and the blueprint for our path forward—lies in our unique ability to unite diverse stakeholders in creating balanced solutions that serve environmental, social, Indigenous, and economic needs. Our National Forest Stewardship Standard, launched in 2019, stands as a testament to this collaborative approach. Through rigorous dialogue and unwavering commitment, FSC achieved what many thought impossible: forging a consensus amongst environmental groups, social stakeholders, industry leaders, and Indigenous Peoples to create the gold standard in sustainable forest management.
Colorado wildlife officials say the capture of 15 grey wolves in British Columbia and their release in the U.S. state is complete, an operation they say led to unspecified threats against staff. The operation that began in B.C. on Jan. 10 and wrapped up on Saturday follows Colorado voters’ approval of a 2020 ballot initiative to reintroduce grey wolves to the state, where the animals are listed as endangered. But the program has stirred opposition, and a statement from Colorado Parks and Wildlife on Sunday says its staff have been threatened over the relocations. It says its officers were “watched” and were targeted by threatening phone calls and social media posts. The department says it did not share details while the wolf release was underway due to the “safety risk and security needs of our staff and the animals.” It adds that two of the 10 wolves reintroduced in Colorado in 2023 have been illegally shot.
The provincial government is injecting cash into early-stage planning for a potential forestry project by Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and its economic development arm, Nch’Kay Development Corporation, it was announced last week. With $50,000 from the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund, the Nation will conduct pre-construction engineering and site assessments to determine the potential for a future capital project… Though details of the project haven’t been finalized, it represents a larger push in the forestry sector to use resources more efficiently, shift away from old-growth timber reliance, and invest in high-value manufacturing. The BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund is partnering with forestry companies throughout the province to grow and stabilize their operations and get the most out of our fibre supply, while producing more made-in-B.C. engineered wood products.
Rhonda Millikin, an award-winning ecologist who has questioned Whistler’s approach to wildfire mitigation, was issued a cease-and-desist letter last month from Forest Professionals British Columbia (FPBC), which said she is not certified to offer forestry advice. The FPBC said in its Dec. 14 letter that Millikin was unlawfully engaged in the reserved practice of professional forestry by providing advice and recommendations to the RMOW to limit or cease forest fuel-thinning efforts. “On principle, we don’t have an issue with people, whether a member of the public or someone from a different profession, researching or holding opinions or even talking about those opinions,” explained Casey Macaulay, the FPBC’s registrar and director of act compliance, who authored the cease-and-desist letter. “Where it’s an issue is when they start to advocate for a particular practice, and in this case, where that practice is so out of sync with the current science and the current practice of protecting communities from wildfires.”
The Coast Silviculture Committee is an ad hoc organization of forest professionals whose prime objective is to disseminate current technical forest management and silvicultural information to all forest practitioners and the public in coastal British Columbia. Its membership includes corporate, government, and self-employed professional foresters and forest technologist, forestry educators, forest land owners, researchers, and tenure managers. Every year the CSC holds two meetings; a short, one or two day, information meeting in winter, and a slightly longer field based technical workshop in early to mid- June; summer meetings are held in a different part of the coast each year. All of the surplus funds from workshops go towards supporting development of silvicultural expertise in students at the post-secondary level through providing of awards. The Winter 2025 workshop is scheduled for February 19 at Vancouver Island University. 
A lumber producer in Thessalon, Ont. that has been active for more than seven decades quietly shuttered its operations late last month — resulting in the layoff of roughly 40 employees in the weeks leading up to its impending closure. Midway Lumber Mills Ltd. first notified employees of plans to shut down the mill and lay off its workforce in October of last year, the soon-to-be former chair of USW Local 8748 told SooToday on Monday. “We got nine weeks advance notice that it was going to happen,” said Derrick Bookman, who has worked in a number of roles at the mill over the years. “They went above and beyond.”
President Donald Trump signed executive order aimed at boosting oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in Alaska. While state political leaders cheer, environmental groups see it as worrying. …”It means a timber industry in the Tongass National Forest can once again take place. It means Alaska can begin the process [of] finally getting its remain[ing] acreage of land from the federal government”, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy said on X about the executive orders. …It also aims to reverse restrictions on logging and road-building in a temperate rainforest. …Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Associated Press that the president “just can’t wave a magic wand and make these things happen. Environmental laws and rules must be followed… We’re ready and looking forward to the fight of our lives to keep Alaska great, wild and abundant”.
For the second time this decade, Weyerhaeuser Co.’s Longview lumber mill has been hit with a serious state fine for violating state stormwater control regulations. On Monday, the state Department of Ecology announced it has fined the company $145,000 for 36 stormwater discharge violations, 15 monitoring requirements violations, and 16 reporting requirement violations, all of which occurred between July 2022 and May 2024… “We believe strongly in permit compliance and invest significant time and resources to ensure we are meeting all environmental standards,” Weyerhaeuser Co. spokeswoman Mary Catherine McAleer said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. The latest penalty follows another related to stormwater that Ecology issued to Weyerhaeuser‘s Longview lumber mill in 2022, when the agency fined the facility $40,000 for repeated water quality violations.
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As California residents grapple for answers in the wake of a massive firestorm event in which two major blazes ravaged parts of Los Angeles — the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire —power lines are once again at the center of debate. It’s no wonder. Failed electric equipment and poor maintenance have caused horrific blazes in recent years, sometimes sparked by the smallest of parts, according to government investigators. …The 2023 fire in Maui that killed 102 people was caused by “reenergization” of broken power lines during high winds that showered sparks into dense, dry vegetation. …One key but often unpopular tool for preventing deadly wildfires is shutting off power when high winds of certain velocities are forecast. …Undergrounding power lines is the single best method to avoid dangerous arcing of overhead wires, or having dry palm frond hit one that can spark or spread fires. It’s also by far the most costly
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced the Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is investing $6.2 million in the state of Kansas to support forestry and construction industry workforce development. The EDA forestry investments announced today are: Kansas State University in Manhattan will receive a $3.2 million grant to bolster natural resource and wildfire risk management workforce development through construction of a modernized training facility. This EDA investment will be matched with $815,794 in local funds. …“The Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda is growing jobs, building a sustainable workforce, and creating opportunities for workers across the country,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “These EDA investments in Manhattan and Beloit will provide expanded forestry and construction workforce training programs so local workers get the skills they need for in-demand jobs, and the local economy grows.”
Nearly half of the global boreal forests — spanning Canada, Alaska and Siberia — are undergoing major transitions due to climate change, making them increasingly vulnerable to forest fires and altering their role as a key carbon sink, a new study has revealed. These forests are vast and found in the cold, northern regions. However, they are warming four times faster than the global average and are expected to shift into a new ecological regime. This transformation could impact global climate regulation by triggering biome shifts and changes in tree cover dynamics, according to the study published in the journal 
