Steven Guilbeault
GATINEAU, Quebec — Canada is launching a week-long Indigenous Nature Conservation Film Festival, featuring nine short films on nature conservation initiatives from across Canada, on National Indigenous Peoples Day. Indigenous leaders show us the lands, wildlife, and cultures they have protected for millennia and will continue to nurture for the future. Videos highlight the partnership between Indigenous Peoples and the Government of Canada to protect and conserve more lands and oceans across the country. The film festival kicks off with a Facebook live chat today at 4:00 p.m. (EDT) with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, interviewing Director Valérie Courtois and Deputy Director Dahti Tsetso of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. …Associated links:
The U.S. Forest Service failed to account for the effects of climate change when it conducted a controlled burn in April that prompted the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s history, the agency said in a report. The agency depended on multiple miscalculations, poor weather data and underestimated how dry conditions were in the Southwest when crews ignited a prescribed burn that led to the ongoing Calf Canyon/Hermits Creek fire, according to the agency’s 80-page review. The blaze, which has burned more than 341,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of homes, comes amid a prolonged drought and extreme temperatures in the region. …Drought, extreme weather, wind conditions and unpredictable weather changes have become significant challenges for the Forest Service, which uses prescribed burns as a way to lower the risk of a destructive fire. …The review discovered that “numerous details regarding situational awareness of weather in the fire environment were overlooked or misrepresented”
Every year around this time environmental doomsdayers attempt to convince readers the only way to address catastrophic wildfires is to batten down the hatches of our homes and bank on a strategy of reversing climate warming. These arguments ignore forest leaders and experts who view active forest management strategies like selective logging and prescribed burns as one most effective tools forest managers have right now to make forests more resilient. …This was the tact recently taken by 
OREGON — A move by a coalition of conservation groups to topple a decision made by the Trump administration that negated a rule that banned logging of large trees on national forests is ultimately a sad reminder that little progress has been made regarding nonlegal solutions to environmental challenges. At the heart of the issue is what is known as the 21-inch rule — an edict that restricted logging of live trees larger than 21 inches in diameter. …The rule was created to address concerns about the safety and viability of old growth timber. The suit is yet another example of failure for both the conservationists and government. Most — but not all — environmental lawsuits over flashpoint issues should never end up in a courtroom. That’s because both sides of any such issue not only carry the capacity to work these challenges out but also hold a responsibility to do so.
…objections to the U.S. Forest Service’s proposed land management plan for Pisgah and Nantahala National forests, released in January after a decade of analysis and collaboration with the public, are leading the agency to take more time than expected to evaluate the issues and concerns raised. The objection phase is the final step of the planning revision process, which has invigorated debate about the best way to manage Western North Carolina’s million acres of national forest. The plan revision, however, may not resolve long-standing grievances with public forest management, ranging from the protection of old-growth forests to serving the economic needs of rural counties. The Forest Service released the proposed management plan and an environmental impact statement in January. …The sheer volume of objections — from local governments, organizations and individuals — is evidence of the friction among elements of the Forest Service’s multiuse mandate, which includes timber harvesting, recreation and conservation.
Tropical deforestation is a cost our planet pays every day for the food we eat. The palm oil, steaks, and the soy — so much of what we depend on comes at the expense of forests, including those irreplaceable, old-growth bastions of biodiversity, stored carbon and much more. Major global consumers like the U.K., the U.S. and the EU are debating how best to reduce the amount of tropical deforestation resulting from the production of the commodities they import. Some experts argue that laws should restrict any products tinged with deforestation, while others say regulations should allow in imports that come from areas that were deforested legally in the countries in which they were produced. The debate involves questions around sovereignty, equality, and, ultimately, what strategy will best address the urgent need to stem the loss of some of the world’s most important repositories of carbon and biodiversity.
The precipitous decline of the monarch butterfly population over the past three decades — estimates place it at more than 80 percent from the 1990s — has won a reprieve. Data on monarchs overwintering in Mexico in 2022 show a sharp increase in their numbers, with researchers estimating monarch swarms covering 2.84 hectares (7 acres) compared with just 2.1 hectares (5.2 acres) the previous year. Craig Wilson is director of the USDA Future Scientists Program and a senior research associate at Texas A&M’s Center for Mathematics and Science Education. He’s also an expert on the monarch butterfly. “The numbers came up 350 million,” Wilson said. “So there were pessimistic thoughts that it would not increase, but the 35 percent seems to be correct. The numbers were late coming out because I think data was being held up because of COVID down in Mexico or something, but they’re out there now.”