Ottawa, ON — Urban trees and forests play a vital role in climate resilience, public health, and community well-being. Supporting urban forests requires stronger coordination, knowledge sharing, and capacity building among professionals working in this sector. To meet this need, Tree Canada is proud to announce the recent launch of the Canadian Urban Forest Network (CUFN) Exchange, a new online hub connecting urban forestry professionals across the country. The CUFN Exchange, which now hosts over 300 members from every province in Canada, was created to convene urban forestry practitioners, researchers, educators, consultants and non-profit leaders in a shared space for knowledge exchange, professional connection, and collective problem-solving.
A national horticultural association is sounding the alarm after new data shows a “staggering gap” in Canada’s post-wildfire forest restoration efforts. The Canadian Tree Nursery Association (CTNA) says current programs are restoring only a small fraction of forests lost to recent wildfires and is calling for “immediate and substantive action” from provincial and federal governments to dramatically increase commitments to restoring wildfire-impacted forests. Speaking at the Western Forest Contractors Association Annual General Meeting and Conference in Victoria from Jan. 28-30, Rob Keen, RPF, Executive Director of the CTNA warned that more than 7.3 billion seedlings are required to restore just 15 per cent of the forests destroyed by wildfires between 2023 and 2025 – more than 10 times Canada’s current annual seedling production capacity. “The crisis is compounded by a troubling biological trend – the declining ability of forests to regenerate naturally after more frequent and higher-intensity wildfires,” said Keen.
Don’t miss the FSC Canada, February Update: Canada’s Taan Forest is now the first FSC Verified Impact Forest, recognizing protection of Indigenous cultural values and biodiversity. FSC Canada is inviting input via a social metrics survey open until March 16, 2026. The edition also highlights two new job opportunities, an updated trademark policy for certificate holders, newly welcomed Canadian promotional licence holders, a new guide on integrating FSC certification into impact investing, and details on where FSC will be present at events in 2026.
A Williams Lake man was of three people to be recognized by Forest Professional British Columbia (FPBC). At the 78th annual forestry conference on February 5, John Walker was honored as a Distinguished Forest Professional. …“John is a respected collaborator and mentor across BC, particularly in the Cariboo region, where he builds strong connections between forestry practices, First Nations stewardship and research,” Forest Professionals BC Board Chair Dave Clarke said. “I’ve been in Williams Lake since 1996 starting in consulting making decisions on a block by block level. Now working with Williams Lake First Nation it’s more landscape level working towards different policies and then also being operational. A lot of the Fire Mitigation work around town we’ve been a part of and helped push for,” Walker said. He has also collaborated with the BC Wildfire Service to develop thinning methods for prescribed burns, reducing wildfire risk, restoring culturally important plants, and enhancing operational efficiency.
Fire departments across BC are concerned about changes to the FireSmart program and how funding is provided to communities as they plan for wildfires. The Ministry of Forests says it’s moving to a more “holistic approach” based on where risk is the highest but the fire chief who was at the centre of the Wesley Ridge wildfire on Vancouver Island last summer says the program is too important to change. Nick Acciavatti says funding from the provincial FireSmart program was instrumental in saving numerous homes in the Wesley Ridge fire. …The program provides funding to local fire departments that then go into local neighbourhoods to educate and undertake fire prevention work like brush clearing and cleaning properties of combustible materials. But that money may no longer be available to any fire department that applies for it is something Acciavatti is concerned about, considering the changing wildfire conditions here on Vancouver Island.
The Forest History Association of British Columbia is pleased to launch its 2026 Speaker Series with Jennifer Houghton, Campaign Director for the New Forest Act project with the Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society, on Tuesday, February 17, 2026 via Zoom. Jennifer’s talk, “Same System, Same Results: A Century of BC Forestry Without Structural Change,” takes a long-view look at the history of forest management in British Columbia. Over decades of reviews and tweaks to policy, tenure, and allowable cut levels, outcomes on the ground have remained largely unchanged. Jennifer will explore how volume-driven, tenure-based systems became entrenched and why those repeated cycles of reform have fallen short. Drawing on her work co-authoring the legislative framework for the New Forest Act, she will also introduce this grassroots proposal as a way to rethink and strengthen forestry law so that it serves both ecosystems and communities more effectively. All are welcome to register for the free Zoom event.
NORTH COWICHAN, BC — A representative for mill workers in North Cowichan addressed council to oppose the idea of a special task force to identify why mills are closing in the region. Adrian Soldera, president of Public and Private Workers of Canada Local 8… said everyone already knows why the mills are closing and that a new task force would be a waste of time. …He said the Crofton mill is ending several jobs at its plant and that the Chemainus sawmill now faces extended curtailment efforts due to a fibre crisis. Soldera added that putting another group together to investigate why the mills are closing would be redundant. …“its like asking for a committee to study why a house is on fire while the roof is already collapsing,” Soldera said. “Every day this task force spends sitting in a boardroom another family in a mill town wonders if they can pay their mortgage.”
BC NDP Forests Minister Ravi Parmar avoided the usual political pledges to accept recommendations from the latest in-depth analysis of the province’s troubled forest industry. The NDP government’s appointed experts, the Provincial Forest Advisory Committee, tabled their findings on February 2 after a six-month review of an industry that is moving from decline to collapse. …Parmar took the NDP’s familiar path, rather than address the sweeping recommendations to restructure the entire forest land base… he said the mill closures that are devastating communities across the province are mostly Donald Trump’s fault. …The 
Forest harvesting events will be analyzed at an upcoming event at Maple Ridge’s UBC Research Forest. The event titled “Not-So-Clear-Cut: Rethinking How We Harvest Forests” is coming up on Feb. 21, in two sessions from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. Participants are invited to join Dr. Suzanne Simard, a professor and the author of Finding the Mother Tree, and Hélène Marcoux, director and forester at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, for a two-hour guided walk along hiking trails through the forest. As part of ongoing research exploring alternatives to clear-cuts, attendees can discover how tree retention forestry supports soil carbon and ecosystem resilience – all while exploring the challenges and trade-offs of logging in a living ecosystem.
The Provincial Forest Advisory Committee’s (PFAC) 
…the IISAAK OLAM Foundation, which promotes the establishment of Indigenous protected conservation areas … hosted the Estuary to Old Growth Gathering in Parksville, bringing together representatives from Nuu-chah-nulth, Coast Salish, Kwakwaka’wakw and Haida nations. …Concurrently, the B.C. Natural Resources Forum launched its “Forestry is a Solution” campaign in Prince George on Jan. 20. This push seeks support for the logging and manufacturing sector, stressing the need to “speed up access to economic wood by expediting permits and approvals”. Many of the industry’s leading associations are backing this campaign. “The coalition is asking British Columbians to voice their support for the workers and families that depend on forestry,” stated the B.C. Council of Forest Industries. …Not surprisingly, a Feb. 2 report from the Provincial Forestry Advisory Council stated that the days of “abundant access to low-cost fibre” are over. The report was presented as “a call to fundamentally reimagine our relationship with the land.”
Several programs have been suspended at North Island College, but before the decision came down, students and alumni made their displeasure known outside Koumox Hall in two different rallies. …The Ministry of Post Secondary Education sent out a provincial mandate for schools to review all programs last June after federal policy changes regarding the reduction of international student visas issued. The ministry projected it could lead to a province-wide negative annual revenue impact of a $300 million deficit. 15 programs are being considered for suspension including Coastal Forestry Certificate, Coastal Forestry Diploma, and Furniture Design and Joinery Certificate.
Reducing wolves to protect endangered caribou doesn’t always deliver the expected results—and the shape of the land may be the deciding factor. That’s according to 
A forest advisory council has recommended shifting BC’s forest regime towards more local decision-making. The plan has received applause from forestry groups, the BC Greens and the head of the BC First Nations Forestry Council. But some experts warn the plan lacks teeth and risks putting fragile forest ecosystems at risk. …“I think of this like the cod fishery,” said Garry Merkel, a forester and co-chair of the advisory council, at the report’s launch event Monday. Merkel likened B.C.’s crisis to the fishery collapse on Canada’s East Coast. …BC First Nations Forestry Council’s Lennard Joe said he supports efforts to bring forest decision-making closer to people it affects. …But UBC forest management professor Peter Wood noted that the report made little mention of the province’s Old Growth Strategic Review. …Rachel Holt, a conservation ecologist worries that the council’s recommendations stop short of changes that are required to protect key ecosystems.
The attorney general of BC has decided to take over any potential prosecutions of those arrested for violating an injunction prohibiting people from blocking roads in an area of the Walbran Valley. Forestry company Tsawak-qin Forestry Limited Partnership, which has rights to log in the area where protesters have set up blockades, asked the attorney general to take over the proceedings, and to determine if there is enough evidence to charge those arrested with criminal contempt. Those arrested have faced civil contempt of court charges for alleged breaches of the injunction. …Lawyer Noah Ross, who represents Bill Jones, a Pacheedaht First Nation elder who opposes the logging, said, “By being willing to step in and fund the prosecution, they make it effectively cheaper for the logging company”. …The decision means it’s now up to the BC Prosecution Service to determine what charges, if any, it will approve against those arrested.
The 2026 FPBC Forestry Conference & AGM opens with a timely and thoughtful plenary session, An Update from the Provincial Forestry Advisory Council: A New Model of Land Care for Stable Ecosystems, Communities, and Economies. This opening conversation brings together Shannon Janzen, RPF of Hypha Consulting and Garry Merkel (nadi’ denezā), PhD, RPF, from UBC’s Faculty of Forestry, moderated by Christine Gelowitz, RPF, CEO of Forest Professionals British Columbia. Framed as a fireside discussion, the session previews key themes from the Provincial Forestry Advisory Council’s forthcoming final report, including land governance reform, regional stewardship models, biodiversity and wildfire resilience, and long-term supply stability for communities and mills. The plenary sets the stage for the conference by exploring how ecosystem health and a resilient forest sector are deeply interconnected — and how new partnerships, structures, and tools can translate vision into on-the-ground action.
Victoria, B.C. – A new independent report from the Provincial Forestry Advisory Council (PFAC) finds that British Columbia’s current forest management system is failing to meet a range needs, including communities, First Nations, businesses and the environment. The report concludes that small, incremental reforms are not enough to address the scale of challenges facing the sector. Titled 
VANCOUVER — A government-commissioned review of forestry in British Columbia is calling for the system to be razed and rebuilt with a focus on trust and transparency about the state of the province’s forests, shifting away “from managing harvest volumes to managing lands.” …The authors of the report, including industry representatives and academics, pitch a model that would change who makes decisions about lumber allotment, taking that power away from the provincial government and shifting it to regional bodies that manage defined areas. …Shannon Janzen a co-chair of the advisory council, and former chief forester, said the use of area-based land management is not a new idea and is already in use in places like Ontario and Alberta. …Forest Minister Ravi Parmar would not commit to implementing the report’s recommendations, telling reporters that he has to consult with other ministries. …A statement from the BC Council of Forest Industries said it would be reviewing the recommendations with its members. …Brian Menzies, the executive director of the Independent Wood Processors Association of B.C., said there’s little detail in the report about how its members would access more fibre.
WASHINGTON — Billions of American chestnut trees once covered the eastern United States. …But by the 1950s, this venerable tree went functionally extinct, culled by a deadly airborne fungal blight and lethal root rot. A new study provides hope for its revitalization, finding that the genetic testing of individual trees can reveal which are most likely to resist disease and grow tall, thus shortening how long it takes to plant the next, more robust, generation. …The American chestnut … had little defense against foreign-introduced blight and root rot. Another type of chestnut, however, had evolved alongside those diseases. The Chinese chestnut had been introduced for its valuable nuts and it could resist diseases. …So, the authors want a tree with the characteristics of the American chestnut and the disease resistance of the Chinese chestnut. …Breed for disease resistance alone and the trees get shorter, less competitive.
For the first time, researchers have been able to confirm that our planet’s boreal forests are on the move. Using nearly a quarter million Landsat satellite images spanning 36 years, scientists have confirmed for the first time that Earth’s boreal forest—the planet’s largest forested biome—is shifting northward, revealing unprecedented changes in this critical ecosystem that stores more than a third of the world’s forests and helps regulate our global climate. [5 min. video]
The Interior Department is blazing ahead with a reorganization plan that will bring all of its wildland firefighting operations into a single agency. Starting next week, all the department’s wildland fire employees and programs will be moved into a new Wildland Fire Service. Congress did not approve funds for this consolidation of federal firefighting programs into one agency. The Wildland Fire Service also stops short of merging wildland fire personnel or programs from the USDA’s Forest Service with those same resources at the Interior Department. An internal memo sent to staff on Monday states the Wildland Fire Service “will unify wildland fire management within DOI only.” According to the memo, obtained by Federal News Network, the Wildland Fire Service will “align operations” with USDA through shared procurement, predictive services, research, and policy reforms.
Lawmakers from both parties agreed at a congressional hearing Tuesday that the federal government must act to address the growing threat of catastrophic wildfires, but they were sharply divided over how, and whether pending legislation known as the Fix Our Forests Act offers the right path forward. The House of Representatives passed the FOFA legislation in January 2025, and its companion bill is pending in the Senate. …Republican supporters of the bill championed its focus on fast-tracking the thinning and clearing of forests on large tracks of land by making exceptions to requirements in bedrock environmental laws. They argue that those steps are a fix for intensifying fires. …Democrats on the House Committee sharply criticized parts of the wildfire bill, arguing that it unnecessarily erodes environmental safeguards and expands logging, despite limited evidence that either makes communities safer. …Outside of the hearing, scientists and environmental advocates also criticized parts of FOFA.
COLORADO — Forest experts are warning that Boulder’s foothills could look markedly different this year as a mountain pine beetle outbreak intensifies, with potentially far-reaching impacts on recreation and fire risk. Landowners are urged to watch for signs of beetle infestation. The state has taken action: Gov. Jared Polis announced a task force in December aimed at protecting Front Range forests from mountain pine beetle over the next decade. Boulder County has seen increased beetle activity in several areas, including upper Lefthand Canyon and Jamestown. Years of drought, warmer temperatures and overcrowded forests have weakened trees, creating ideal conditions for beetles to spread rapidly and overwhelm remaining healthy stands. …The brood of beetles already in trees and poised to spread this summer is substantial, according to Colorado State Forest Service entomologist Dan West. “It’s kind of this cake that’s already being baked,” West told Boulder Reporting Lab.
Biological legacies (i.e., materials that persist following disturbance; “legacies”) shape ecosystem functioning and feedbacks to future disturbances, yet how legacies are driven by pre-disturbance ecosystem state and disturbance severity is poorly understood—especially in ecosystems influenced by infrequent and severe disturbances. Focusing on wet temperate forests as an archetype of these ecosystems, we characterized live and dead aboveground biomass 2–5 years post-fire in western Washington and northwestern Oregon, USA, to ask: How do pre-fire stand age and burn severity drive variability in initial post-fire legacies, specifically aboveground biomass carbon and fuel profiles? …Our findings demonstrate the importance of pre-disturbance ecosystem state in dictating many aspects of initial post-disturbance structure and function, with important implications for managing post-fire recovery trajectories in some of Earth’s most productive and high-biomass forests.
COLORADO — The U.S. Forest Service is proposing logging southwest of Glenwood Springs, involving about 2,600 acres in what’s known as the Fourmile area along the borders of Pitkin, Mesa and Garfield counties. The White River National Forest’s proposal includes acreage in all three counties. It involves selective thinning and vegetation clearing in two treatment areas and along several roads to improve forest health, reduce wildfire risk and provide timber, the Forest Service said in a news release. “The timber treatments would improve the forest’s ability to withstand and recover from drought and insect outbreaks by creating more diversity in the size and ages of trees. Additionally, work along roads will strengthen predetermined areas where firefighters could more effectively engage wildfires,” the Forest Service said in its release. …“Active forest management is an important tool for maintaining healthy forests,” Acting Aspen-Sopris District Ranger Jennifer Schuller said in the release. 
MISSOULA, Montana — Forester Sean Steinebach felt stunned when US District Court Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula vacated a federal magistrate judge’s favorable recommendations about the proposed South Plateau timber project. “Judge Molloy is a thorn in my side,” said Steinebach, outreach forester for Sun Mountain Lumber, based in Deer Lodge. …Molloy’s ruling was filed Dec. 11, vacating March 31 recommendations by Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto that had allowed the project to proceed. Sun Mountain Lumber operates a sawmill in Deer Lodge and one in Livingston. …Steinebach said incessant lawsuits by environmental groups like the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Council on Wildlife and Fish sabotage timber projects, threaten sawmill communities, loggers and others. …One key issue for Judge Molloy was secure habitat for grizzly bears, but Canada lynx habitat was also a concern. Both are considered threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
University of Oregon Assistant Research Professor James Johnston said he was taught that when a large fire burned a moist, Western Cascade forest to the ground, and the area didn’t burn for hundreds of years afterward, that’s what created a complex, old-growth landscape. Instead, his study found that ancient tree stumps in the Mount Hood and Willamette National Forests had burn scars from multiple fires over their long lives. It’s the first time tree-ring scars have been used to document fire records in the region. Johnston said forests are complex because of—not in spite of—lower-severity wildfires which don’t kill many of the trees. …Johnston said to figure out the best ways to foster healthy forests, relatively recent upheavals also need to be considered. Those include clearcuts, human infrastructure at the margins of forests, and hotter and drier weather patterns.
OLYMPIA, WA – Two Washington tribal leaders could soon sit on the state’s Board of Natural Resources, which guides logging sales and other management decisions on public land. Sen. Claudia Kauffman, a Democrat and first Native American woman to serve in the state Senate, proposed Senate Bill 5838. On Monday, it was voted out of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. The bill originally called for only one tribal representative, but it was changed to two members as it moved through the committee process. The proposal is backed by Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove, who chairs the board and leads the Department of Natural Resources. The department requested the legislation. If enacted, the governor would appoint a tribal representative from each side of the Cascades… Eligible tribal members must hold an elected position in a federally recognized tribe whose reservation or treaty-ceded lands are in Washington.
Anytime someone talks about shifting management of federal lands to Idaho, know that they have a bigger goal in mind. In a recent interview on The Ranch Podcast, Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, was frank about his goals for public lands in Idaho. He said his father, former Rep. Eric Redman, dreamed of Idaho taking ownership of federal lands, and his goal is the same. The first step is for Idaho to manage public lands for a bit, then the state takes ownership of them. “How do we get that federal land back in ownership for the state?” Rep. Jordan Redman said. Back? It should be said that Idaho has never owned federal land. Redman should try reading the Constitution he swore to uphold: “… the people of the state of Idaho do agree and declare that we forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof … .” You can’t get back what you never owned; you can only take it. In service of the goal of taking federal land, Redman made a familiar argument.
Baker City, Oregon — Baker County Commissioner Christina Witham lauded the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest for cutting and piling trees southwest of Baker City, the start of a project that will continue for several years with a goal of reducing the risk of a wildfire in the city’s watershed. “It’s looking really nice,” Witham said during commissioners’ meeting Wednesday morning, Feb. 4. Witham, whose focus areas as a commissioner include natural resources, said she recently toured some of the work areas with Forest Service officials. …According to the Wallowa-Whitman, the project, which totals about 23,000 acres, is designed not only to reduce the fire risk within the watershed, but also to curb the threat of a fire spreading into the watershed, particularly from the south, a path that summer lightning storms often follow.
OLYMPIA — The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee showed a lively interest in repealing a rule that will lock up 200,000 acres of timber in Western Washington. The committee held a hearing Feb. 3 on House Bill 2620, sponsored by a mix of conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats. The bill targets the Forest Practices Board’s decision in November to widen and lengthen riparian buffers along streams without fish. The bigger buffers will eliminate $2.8 billion worth of timber, a University of Washington analysis estimates. The rule barely passed, 7-5. …The buffers, which go into effect Aug. 31, are needed to keep logging from raising water temperatures in most cases, according to Ecology. Timber groups say Ecology’s no-increase-in-water-temperature standard is humanly impossible to meet. What matters is that water temperatures stay cool enough for fish downstream, they argue. Forest landowners and the Washington State Association of Counties suggested buffers that would take 44,500 acres out of production. 
ALASKA — The US Forest Service is moving forward with a plan to harvest over 5,000 acres of trees in the Tongass National Forest, just east of Ketchikan. A majority of that will be old-growth trees, which some people worry will be devastating to the forest. The Forest Service released the 
NEW YORK — BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group has acquired approximately 107,000 acres of sustainably managed timberlands in Central Virginia from the Weyerhaeuser Company. The acquisition represents one of the largest recent timberland transactions in Virginia, significantly expanding BTG Pactual TIG’s footprint in the region and bringing the firm’s total US portfolio to approximately 1.6 million acres under management. The property is Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certified, consisting primarily of loblolly pine, and will be well-integrated with BTG Pactual TIG’s existing regional operations. …The acquisition also enables BTG Pactual TIG to further expand conservation efforts in the region through its long-term collaboration with NatureVest, The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC’s) in-house impact investing and nature finance team. A preliminary assessment of the asset conducted by TNC found that 25% of the property falls within areas of high ecological and biodiversity value.
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Carbon dioxide is the most commonly produced greenhouse gas, the substances that trap heat in the atmosphere keeping the planet warm enough for life. Carbon is stored in high amounts in timber, of which Mississippi has an abundance. The state ranks in the top 10 nationally in timber production, with close to 20 million acres of timberland. The U.S. Geological Survey says that carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere reduces the potential for global climate change. Since timber stores carbon efficiently, a tremendous amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is stored in Mississippi’s forests. This makes timber a valuable resource in efforts to limit the amount of carbon available as a greenhouse gas. Carbon credits and the carbon offset market have made an impact on Mississippi’s economy to a degree for about 20 years.
Forests around the world are quietly transforming, and not for the better. A massive global analysis of more than 31,000 tree species reveals that forests are becoming more uniform, increasingly dominated by fast-growing “sprinter” trees, while slow-growing, long-lived species are disappearing. These slower species act as the backbone of forest ecosystems, storing carbon, stabilizing environments, and supporting rich webs of life—especially in tropical regions where biodiversity is highest. …The research also highlights the growing role of naturalized tree species, meaning trees that originated elsewhere but now grow wild in new regions. Nearly 41 percent of these species share traits like rapid growth and small leaves, which help them survive in disturbed environments. …The study shows that tropical and subtropical regions are likely to experience the most severe impacts from forest homogenization. …According to the researchers, human actions are the main force behind these changes in forest composition. …This makes protecting slow-growing tree species increasingly urgent.
In a controversial study published in April last year, researchers described an astonishing phenomenon: a forest of Norway spruce trees (Picea abies) appeared to ‘sync’ their electrical signaling ahead of a partial solar eclipse. Now there’s a new theory about what was actually going on. Having examined the data, ecologists Ariel Novoplansky and Hezi Yizhaq from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel propose an explanation that’s not quite as sensational. Novoplansky and Yizhaq suggest that the electrical activity seen in the trees was caused by a temperature drop, a passing thunderstorm, and several local lightning strikes; factors that previous research has shown can trigger similar signaling responses in plants.
