With responsible forestry, natural climate solutions, regenerative building practices and consumer demand for environmentally responsible products at the forefront, FSC is inviting companies to showcase their leadership and inspire others to raise the bar. This year, the 12th annual FSC Leadership Awards recognize excellence in the use of FSC-certified products and commitment to responsible forest management in building, manufacturing, advocacy, conservation and individual leadership in the FSC community. People, projects and organizations in Canada, Mexico and the USA are eligible in a range of categories. …Past winners include Mattel, which sourced 97 percent recycled or FSC-certified content used in its packaging and products last year; and Canadian lumber and forest products giant GreenFirst, for maintaining FSC certification on over 9 million acres of complex boreal landscapes in Ontario and Quebec. Submissions are due September 16, 2022. Winners will be notified in October.
The bylaws governing the Association of BC Forest Professionals (ABCFP) have been amended to reflect operational business needs and changes in authorities, terminology, and other provisions in the Professional Governance Act (PGA) contained in 
In 1964, Bob Dylan released a song called The Times They Are A-Changin’. It’s now 2022, and as it relates to woodlots (WL), truer words were never spoken …er sung. These days, nary a meeting goes by without a discussion about the new vision for BC’s forest sector and modernizing BC forest policy. Buzz words like ‘transformational change’ and ‘paradigm shift’ abound. In the spring 2022 Almanac, I highlighted a few of the government initiatives that are underway, notably old growth deferrals, Forest Act changes, and FRPA changes. But there are many others including the redistribution of tenures (which includes identifying crown land in WLs as special purpose areas), cumulative effects assessments, wildlife strategy, species-at-risk, and the Ministry of Environment’s watershed security strategy. Individually and collectively, these initiatives are going to materially change Woodlot Licences and the way they must be managed. …The good news is that WLs are held in high regard by the provincial government.
After a 2-year hiatus, the Fraser Valley Woodlot Association is proud to host the Federation of BC Woodlot Associations-Woodlot Product Development Council Annual General Meeting and Conference! The event will be held at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Centre in Abbotsford, BC from October 14 – 16, 2022. The Fraser Valley is home to world-class hiking, fishing, food, breweries, wineries and more. The theme of the conference is Woodlots: Rooted in Learning, with panel presentations on First Nations engagement and Forestry Learning and Education along with field trips to the BCIT Woodlot and a guided tour through the rich Aboriginal history of the eastern Fraser Valley. Early bird registrants will be entered into a Sturgeon Fishing draw presented by Sturgeon Bay Resources in partnership with Double Header Sport Fishing.
For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples lived in and around the forests of BC. …When taking from the forest, they held ceremonies to ask permission and only took what was needed, being careful to cause as little damage as possible. With this care and respect, they acted as an integral part of nature and the ecosystem thrived indefinitely. …There’s a strong backlash due to fear that climate action will threaten existing socioeconomic systems and those who benefit from them. Forestry corporations and their workers are aggressively fighting any change that results in restrictions on their harvests of high-value timber. They threaten layoffs, loss of government resource revenues and play down the future financial risks of continuing with the current method of forest management. …The time has come to adopt a more Indigenous worldview where our connection to nature is of greater importance than our connection to consumer products.
EAGLE POINT, Oregon — The Oregon Department of Forestry has many ways to spot lightning-caused fires. This becomes vital when thunderstorms are rolling in. With recent fires that were started by a strike of lightning, ODF has the ability to spot smoke in remote areas. Their detection center is set up with monitors for employees to keep an eye out for any columns of smoke. This tool helps ODF allocate the correct resources in a more strategic way. “Our detection center is a very valuable resource in that aspect as well,” says Oregon Department of Forestry’s Public Information Officer Natalie Weber. She says that lightning-caused fires have the potential to spread faster as crews have a harder time getting to remote areas. Searching for the specific area where lighting hit is a time when ODF would search in the air.
The federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) is launching an investigation after U.S. Forest Service-controlled burns that escaped caused the largest wildfire ever recorded in New Mexico. …On May 20, USFS Chief Randy Moore halted all so-called prescribed fires on its land for a 90-day safety review. ..But many fire ecologists and forestry experts are concerned that this “pause” is only worsening the wildfire risk. Critics say it’s merely masking the agency’s dangerously incremental, outdated and problematic approach to intentional burns and fire mitigation, a policy that has failed to adapt to climate change and megadrought. …Controlled burns are seen by forest ecologists as perhaps the most essential tool for reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire and helping to undo a century of fire suppression policy that has worsened wildfire conditions that now annually wreak havoc across large swaths of the West.
On June 7, Central Oregon LandWatch and five other environmental organizations filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service over its decision to allow logging of large and old-growth trees across 7 million acres. For over 25 years, forest rules known as the Eastside Screens have protected our national forests across Central and Eastern Oregon. One element of the Eastside Screens prohibited logging of any tree larger than 21 inches in diameter, providing bedrock protections for our biggest trees from timber sales. …The Forest Service overstepped its legal duties to responsibly manage our forests when it rolled back the 21-inch rule’s protections for Central and Eastern Oregon’s forests. This is why we’re going to court to see those protections restored. We again call on President Biden, Sen. Wyden and Sen. Merkley to work with the Forest Service to first reinstate the 21-inch rule.
BAKERSFIELD, California — Two forest-thinning projects in the Frazier Park area have taken a significant step forward with a pair of recent federal court decisions not to rehear further challenges by conservation groups. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for work to begin on a 1,200-acre project above Cuddy Valley that the U.S. Forest Service says will address tree mortality and reduce a dangerous accumulation of fuels in that portion of the Los Padres National Forest. A separate but related 1,626-acre project the Forest Service plans to undertake further west at the base of Mount Pinos also received a favorable ruling. …The two court decisions, bring to a close about three years of legal wrangling over forest-thinning efforts the federal government says are necessary for wildfire safety and forest health.
Scientists have warned Members of European Parliament (MEPs) that a high-level move to water down EU legislation on deforestation could undermine Europe’s net zero emissions plans. European environment ministers rewrote a draft regulation last week to define “forest degradation” as the replacement of primary forest by plantations or other wooded land. In the EU, which has about 3.1m hectaresof primary forest amid 159m hectares of overall forest, it would limit the law’s reach to only 2% of the total area. While the proposal would also apply internationally, this could “hinder the legislation from tackling forest loss on EU soil and create a perception that the EU is evading its own forest-related responsibilities – instead throwing the burden on to developing countries in the tropics”, the scientists said. …Any exclusion of forest degradation from the law would… “gravely weaken” EU efforts to bolster global conservation, the letter adds.
