Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

Documentary on Fairy Creek protests premiering in Toronto this month

By Curtis Brandy
Victoria Buzz
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

A documentary about the protests against logging in an old-growth forest on Vancouver Island is being premiered at the Planet in Focus International Film Festival later this month. The film titled FAIRY CREEK will be shown to audiences for the first time on October 17th, then it will be made readily available through its distributor, Cinema Politica. The film documents the protests against Teal-Jones Group in the logging of old-growth groves near Port Renfrew, which to date is the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. …The RCMP faced massive scrutiny during and following this protest for their ethics in arresting the activists involved as well as their gatekeeping of the media, who were often kept from the site where they were trying to report from. “The protests at the Fairy Creek blockade were record-breaking, with nearly 1,200 people arrested,” said Jen Muranetz, director of Fairy Creek.

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Government of Canada launches Indigenous Fisheries Monitoring Fund

By the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Cision Newswire
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

OTTAWA, ON – Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) recognizes that fisheries, oceans, aquatic habitat and marine waterways are of great social, cultural, spiritual and economic importance to many Indigenous peoples. Working with Indigenous peoples as they increase their capacity to monitor fisheries is key to providing dependable, timely, and accessible information for sustainable fisheries management. Today, the Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced the launch of the $5-million Indigenous Fisheries Monitoring Fund. This funding supports Indigenous groups as they increase fisheries monitoring and catch reporting activities, which is crucial for maintaining sustainable fisheries. Fishery monitoring provides accurate information on fishing activities, such as how many fish are caught from each stock, and how many bycatch species are caught during a fishery.

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‘Trees are meant to grow here’: Millions of seedlings planted to bring Interlake forest back from the ashes

By Santiago Arias Orozco
CBC News
October 14, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Farron Sharp

Farron Sharp sticks a shovel into the ground as her anchor point to draw a four-metre circumference, then counts how many seedlings are still alive in that circle two years after being planted. The survival assessment is part of an eight-year-long reforestation project that is bringing together members of seven First Nation communities with federal funding and other partners to build a forest near Devils Lake in Manitoba’s Interlake region. “A fully grown forest used to be here and then it became a dead forest…. All of this land was completely black in 2021,” said Sharp, a project manager for Blue-Green Planet Project, a tree-planting company that focuses on sustainability. …The plan is to plant 20 million trees after the area was decimated by a pest and ravaged by a wildfire.

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Stanley Park staff embark on next round of looper moth recovery, but critics assail decision to remove trees

By Derrick Penner
The Vancouver Sun
October 12, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

VANCOUVER, BC — Almost a year after 8,000 dead trees were removed from a swath of Stanley Park’s forest on the west side of Prospect Point, there are hopeful signs of new life. While taking reporters on a tour of the forest, Vancouver park board senior manager Joe McLeod pointed out the grand fir, western red cedar and spruce seedlings that had been planted. He explained how the city is trying to replant… tree species that are more representative of a West Coast forest than the multitude of hemlock trees that had been decimated during a moth infestation between 2019 and 2023. …The park board is now clearly spelling out its plan that involves removing a fraction of that number, not the total stated in an earlier park board bulletin. The plan, however, still faces opposition by members of the recently formed Stanley Park Preservation Society. The second phase will involve removing 4,000 trees.

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Proposed move of Mr. PG mascot prompts pushback in Prince George

By Andrew Kurjata
CBC News
October 13, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Mr. PG

“Paris has the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben chimes each London hour,” sings performer Al Simmons. “The CN Tower may be tall, but Mr. P.G. tops them all,” he continues, introducing the key character in his song Mr. PG, recorded in 1997. The track details how Prince George, B.C., built a giant faux-wood lumberjack to honour the community’s forestry roots and greet incoming tourists. Today, Mr. PG is a registered trademark owned by the city, whose image adorns mugs, socks and T-shirts. He’s been featured on a Canada Post stamp, marched in a Grey Cup parade and even received the endorsement of rock band KISS. But now a proposal to move Mr. PG from his current position, at the intersection of Highways 16 and 97, to a lower-traffic, more pedestrian-friendly location near an incoming downtown plaza, has sparked pushback and a debate over what the mascot and the city itself represent.

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Vancouver Park Board to continue Stanley Park looper moth logging

By Charlie Carey
CityNews Everywhere
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation is moving ahead with the second stage of removing looper moth-damaged trees in Stanley Park. During Tuesday night’s Park Board meeting, commissioners approved a plan to fell the trees killed by the hemlock looper. The hemlock looper insect experiences population outbreaks roughly every 15 years, however, the most recent outbreak resulted in significant tree mortality in the park causing an elevated risk to public safety,” the Park Board stated. Phase two is set to begin by the middle of this month, finishing by early 2025. Replanting is set to follow in the spring of next year. …“Our response efforts in Stanley Park have been vital to ensuring the continuing safety and well-being of park users, park infrastructure and wildlife species in the park,” said Bastyovanszky. “Further, it’s an opportunity to build a stronger Stanley Park that can better withstand future insect outbreaks and climate change impacts.”

Additional coverage in Global News by Simon Little and Alissa Thibault: Vancouver to remove a fraction of 160K Stanley Park trees it originally estimated

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Calgary Forest Area facing extreme wildfire danger due to unseasonably warm fall

By Mackenzie Rhode
Calgary Herald
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Wildfire danger across the Calgary Forest Area (CFA) remains extreme, as October continues to see unseasonably warm weather. Derrick Forsythe, a provincial information officer with Alberta Wildfire, said the warning is due to extreme dryness in the area exacerbated by the heat. He said the CFA typically stays warmer longer and experiences drier conditions than other parts of Alberta, putting it at risk of fires later into the fall season. …The wildfire danger level being extreme, however, is not typical. Strong winds combined with warm temperatures and a lack of precipitation triggered the danger in the area for the next several days, said Forsythe. These conditions, in combination with seasonal grass curing, create ideal wildfire conditions. …Calgary’s warm October is atypical, according to Shelley, with Environment Canada forecasting temperatures of 25 C into next week… 

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Jasper mayor condemns ‘finger pointing’ around wildfire

CityNews Everywhere
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jasper Mayor Richar Irland called for an end to the “finger pointing, blaming and both partial and misinformation” surround the Jasper wildfire and forest management. Telling reporters, the rhetoric is harming his communities recovery.

Additional coverage in Town and Country Today by Peter Shokeir: Jasper mayor condemns ‘divisive rhetoric’ around wildfire

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Parliamentary hearings on Jasper wildfire reveal need for more long-term planning

By Emma Zhao
CBC News
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Witness testimony during a parliamentary hearing Wednesday detailed how the Jasper wildfire could have been prevented with better planning. Meetings started in September to examine the reasons why the Jasper wildfire started this summer. …Experts expressed concerns about how the federal government addressed the disaster. Forester Ken Hodges said he penned multiple letters to Parks Canada and the minister of Environment from 2017-18, expressing concern over an inevitable wildfire in the region. He found that they didn’t respond well to his recommendations. “…they had seven years in which to do something and come up with a plan of some sort, I think they could have prevented the loss of Jasper town itself,” he said. …Randy Schroeder, president of the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association said he wants a national fire administration put in place to streamline the co-ordination and communication between municipal, provincial and federal fire agencies. 

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Two BC Parties ‘Playing Catch-Up’ with Glyphosate Pledges

By Amanda Follett Hosgood
The Tyee
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

B.C.’s two leading political parties say they would reduce or phase out the use of the herbicide glyphosate in forestry if they win the upcoming election. …The BC NDP’s platform …says the party would protect “communities and local watersheds by phasing out the use of the herbicide glyphosate” in B.C. forests. This followed the BC Conservatives’ promise last month to stop the aerial spraying of glyphosate in the forest industry. James Steidle, who is running for the BC Green Party in Prince George-Mackenzie, has been fighting the use of glyphosate for over a decade. In 2011, he started Stop the Spray BC, to raise awareness about glyphosate use. He said B.C.’s two main parties are “playing catch-up.” …A June 2023 briefing note prepared for Minister of Forests Bruce Ralston said that glyphosate use in forestry represents a “small fraction” compared with its use in agriculture, something it attributed to First Nations and public pressure.

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Chilcotin River helps inspire Indigenous forest leadership

The Clearwater Times
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

CHILCOTIN REGION, BC — A new video features the Chilcotin River and the importance of the river and the salmon it brings is aimed at inspiring First Nations leadership in forestry and conservation. Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation (CCR), a joint venture of Tŝideldel First Nation and Tl’etinqox Government, released The Focus on Water Tuesday, Oct. 8. …CCR has been salvaging and rehabilitating large areas of land in the Cariboo Chilcotin to help the forest regrow, mitigate wildfire risk to communities, and to improve wildlife habitat. …Additionally, instead of burning wood waste left over from harvesting work in slash piles, CCR has utilized this excess residual fibre to help create green energy that supports local industries. 

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ConocoPhillips Canada and Northern Alberta Institute of Technology agree to a ten year research partnership

By Breanna Driedger
The Whitecourt Star
October 7, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

ConocoPhillips Canada and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) have agreed to a ten year research partnership. NAIT’s centre for boreal research, located at Northern Lakes College in Peace River, is set to host a funding announcement on October 11 for work geared towards forest reclamation efforts. ConocoPhillips Canada and NAIT also plan to expand facilities with funding coming from Alberta’s research capacity program, the Canada foundation for innovation’s college fund, and the NSERC technology access centre program. Peace River’s boreal forest plant and seed technology access centre studies seed collection, treatment, propagation, and deployment. Their team is made up of scientists and technicians in forestry, agrology, and biology. “We provide scientific findings, practical methods, technologies and services to advance the capacity of industry to use native plants to lessen the environmental footprint in the boreal forest”.

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Dutch Elm Disease found in Prince Albert

By Nick Nielsen
Sask Now
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The threat of Dutch Elm Disease is something that cities around Saskatchewan have to monitor or they run the risk of the disease running rampant through their elm tree population. While Prince Albert hasn’t dealt with Dutch Elm Disease in the past, one case of the disease was found in a survey of the city’s trees in 2023, meaning the disease is here and it’s something to be monitored even if there were no trees found with the disease this year. Tim Yeaman, parks manager with the City of Prince Albert, said the city has been working with a third party organization, Living Tree Environmental, since 2021 to conduct two surveys per year on the trees in the city. The summer surveys include trees on public, private or residential land. …the City is doing maintenance on the elm trees now that the ban on pruning is out of season.

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‘It’s path-breaking’: British Columbia’s blueprint for decolonisation

By Arno Kopecky
The Guardian
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A wild experiment is under way in British Columbia, Canada: the government is rewriting its laws to share power with Indigenous nations… Decades in the making, this transition entered history in 2019, when BC became the first jurisdiction to sign the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into law. This means the regional government would share decision-making power over land management matters with First Nations, potentially affecting leasing and licences for forestry, mining and construction. …“We’re building a plane while flying it,” says Terry Teegee, chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations and chair of BC’s UNDRIP implementation committee. “It’s unique to anywhere in the world.” “It’s path-breaking,” agrees Sheryl Lightfoot, an Anishinaabe scholar and member of the UN expert mechanism on the rights of Indigenous peoples. “What we see in BC is such a deliberate, intentional approach to implement the Declaration,” Lightfoot says.

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Jasper wildfire: Alberta minister urges improved unified command structure

By Phil Heidenreich
Global News
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Parliamentary hearings focused on this summer’s devastating wildfire in Jasper National Park continued on Monday where more discussions were had about what could potentially be done better the next time disaster strikes. Alberta Public Safety and Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis told the hearing committee that he believes provincial authorities should have been better integrated into the unified command structure tasked with dealing with the emergency. “The fact is that Jasper is surrounded by a national park where the fire originated,” he said. “The challenge was that the Parks (Canada) superintendent has oversight for all emergency management decisions for both the park and municipality. This places the province in a position where we can certainly influence but not decide.” …Ellis noted that Alberta has approved a disaster recovery program with a budget of about $149 million but that only a portion of those costs will be eligible for reimbursement…

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Business group calls for more Indigenous participation in forest sector

The Soo Today
October 14, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Jason Rasevych

The Anishnawbe Business Professional Association (ABPA) is calling for more Indigenous participation in the forest sector and equal footing for the industry.  At the National Summit on the Indigenous Forest Bioeconomy in Thunder Bay, Jason Rasevych, Director of Waawoono Consultancy and ABPA representative, addressed the critical need for innovation and investment to position Ontario as a leader in the forest bioeconomy. “We need to create a more inclusive and equitable forest sector that recognizes and respects Indigenous rights and knowledge,” said Rasevych. “This includes increasing Indigenous participation in forest management and decision-making for wood supply directives and providing greater access to capital and resources for Indigenous-owned businesses.” The ABPA also called on the Federal Government to increase its funding from $50 million annually to $500 million as a start to scale the opportunities across Canada and re-introduce the strategic partnership initiative funding for this sector.

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Over $150 million in forestry equipment displayed at DEMO International 2024

Recycling Product News
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

QUEBEC — The 2024 DEMO International concluded on September 21 after five full days of groundbreaking displays, industry networking, and the latest in forestry innovations. Hosted by SBC Cedar and organized by the Canadian Woodlands Forum, the event marked the successful return of DEMO International, continuing its 55-year legacy as one of the world’s largest live, in-forest equipment demonstrations. With over $150 million in forestry equipment and machines on display from top manufacturers and suppliers internationally, over 6850 attendees had plenty to see and experience along the 3.2 km loop. …As one of the premier forestry events, DEMO International has been a platform for showcasing innovative solutions for more than five decades. The 2024 edition was no exception, highlighting advancements that promise to drive the industry forward for years to come.

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Should $700K in Ontario caribou recovery funding have gone to the forestry industry?

By Emma McIntosh
The Narwhal
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The Ontario government gave $700,000 of caribou conservation funding to a forestry industry group that is pushing back on whether habitat loss is a major cause of caribou decline. …The Forest Products Association of Canada received the funding to partner with Lakehead University on a DNA study to estimate the caribou population in the Churchill Range. …Environment and Climate Change Canada’s caribou strategy focuses on the idea — backed by a wealth of evidence — that the main cause of caribou decline is the loss of their habitat, which logging can contribute to. The association has argued the science isn’t so certain and the government’s plans fail to account for other factors like climate change and predators. Association spokesperson Kerry Patterson-Baker said it is involved in caribou research, also putting up its own money, because accurate population estimates are needed if forests in Canada are going to be managed effectively.

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Contrary to industry claims, forests left alone are best able to combat climate change

By Joan Baxter
The Halifax Examiner
October 3, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Forests … subjected to intensive industrial forestry are the least capable of storing and sequestering carbon. This is the conclusion of a recent study published in Environmental Reviews, which looks at the capacity of Wabanaki-Acadian forests in the Maritime provinces to store carbon, and to sequester it out of the atmosphere. The literature review shows Wabanaki-Acadian forests that are left alone store and sequester the most carbon. …Notably, forests managed for “modern” intensive forestry… fare worst of the three forest management regimes on carbon. …In recent years, forest industry associations have gone to great lengths and spent millions of dollars trying to convince the public that industrial forestry is a force for good in our forests and for the climate. …As for Canada being a leader in sustainable forestry, which is what FPAC and its Forestry For The Future campaign claim, Megan de Graaf of Community Forests International, is skeptical.

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Arbor Day Foundation Awards $8 Million In Forestry Grants to Tribes, Tribal Organizations

By Arbor Day Foundation
Businesswire
October 14, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

LINCOLN, Nebraska — The Arbor Day Foundation subawarded $8 million in grants to support community forestry on Indigenous lands. The 16 subawardees are all federally recognized Tribes, Tribal organizations, or an organization working in a Tribal community. In total, 26 Tribes will be directly impacted through these projects. The grant opportunity was established in partnership with the USDA Forest Service, utilizing Inflation Reduction Act funds. …The grants awarded will be used to plant trees and grow green spaces on or near Indigenous lands. Proposed projects range in focus from food sovereignty to workforce development. …The nonprofit has already subawarded $31.7 million of the funding to municipalities and community-based organizations across the country.

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US Forest Service Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments tackle the threat of invasive species across the nation

By the Forest Service
US Department of Agriculture
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is awarding $16 million in strategic investment in more than 100 projects to combat the spread of invasive species threatening ecosystems. Thanks to the Forest Health provision of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Forest Service has invested $56 million to combat invasive species since 2022. These investments are part of a broader series of investments made by the Biden-Harris Administration aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change, improving forest and grassland resilience and aiding in post-fire recovery. “Destructive invasive species can increase wildfire risk to communities, destroy habitat, degrade water quality, and displace native species. These investments are critical to efforts to stem the spread of invasive species across the country,” said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. Economic impacts from non-native forest pests are estimated to cost between $4.2 billion and $14.4 billion annually. Over the past 50 years, the global economic cost of invasive species is estimated at $1.28 trillion.

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European Commission to Consider EU Deforestation Regulation Delay — What’s Next

By Eric Gee, Executive Director
The Southern Forest Products Association
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, International

Given feedback from international partners about their state of preparations, the European Commission announced October 2 that it’s proposing to delay launching the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). If approved by the European Parliament and the Council, the EUDR would go into effect December 30, 2025, for large companies and June 30, 2026, for micro- and small enterprises. …The Commission also published updated guidance documents, and a stronger international cooperation framework. The new guidance provides a reference to the recent collaborative efforts involving stakeholders and authorities to help ensure uniform interpretation of the law. Key areas covered include details on the functionalities of the information system, updates on penalties, and clarifications on critical definitions such as “forest degradation,” “operator” in the scope of the law, and “placing on the market.” The new documents include further guidance on traceability obligations. The latest FAQ features more than 40 new answers to address questions raised.

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The fight for Washinton’s old-growth forests of tomorrow: How we got the story

By Erika J. Schultz and Lynda V. Mapes
The Seattle Times
October 13, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

To understand the controversy around cutting Washington’s older trees, you have to get to know an economic supply line, from tree to timber to cash. There are the trees and forests themselves, then the timber cruisers and surveyors, the loggers, the millworkers, the timber town residents, the local beneficiaries of timber sales, from hospitals to libraries, the county commissioners and other officials — and the logging opponents. …We met the employees at the Washington Department of Natural Resources who lay out a sale, as well as loggers cutting trees so big on slopes so steep that some of the logging equipment was chained to a bulldozer to keep it from toppling downhill. Then we went out with opponents ripping down timber sale boundary markers to foil the sale of a forest on the Olympic Peninsula.

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Sharp divide in Oregon over bill to step up logging to prevent wildfires

By Alex Baumhardt
The Oregon Capital Chronicle
October 11, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

…Republicans in the U.S. House – including Oregon’s two Republican representatives – are hoping Congress will pass a bill before year’s end that would tackle increasingly large wildfires in the West by scaling back environmental regulations to make it easier to log and cut vegetation in federal forests… the “Fix Our Forests Act” passed the U.S. House on Sept. 24… It is expected to get a vote in the U.S. Senate after the November general election… Proponents say the bill would restore forest health, increase resiliency to catastrophic wildfires and protect communities by expediting environmental analyses while reducing frivolous lawsuits and step up restoration projects. But opponents, including environmentalists and Democrats, say it would open millions of acres of federal land to logging without scientific review or community input, potentially increasing the risk of wildfires while rolling back regulations to protect endangered and threatened species.

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USDA and Arizona Sign Shared Stewardship Agreement to Reduce Community Wildfire Risk and Increase Forest Health

US Department of Agriculture
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

PHOENIX – Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment Dr. Homer Wilkes and Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed a Shared Stewardship Agreement to strengthen collaboration between state and federal land management agencies in the State of Arizona. The State of Arizona and the USDA Forest Service have a long and successful record of collaborating on efforts to improve forest health and resilience. Today’s agreement focuses on federal and state agencies working together to respond to land management challenges and concerns across Arizona forests. Today’s agreement builds on a 2020 Shared Stewardship Memorandum of Understanding, aimed at accelerating the pace and scale of projects like the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI), and will assist the state and the Forest Service in their continued efforts to address the wildfire crisis in Arizona’s high priority “firesheds ” using funding from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.

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Washington State Provides More Information About Suspension of Deputy Director at Department of Forestry

By Nigel Jaquiss
The Willamette Week
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Oregon state officials today released records that shed some light on the abrupt suspension of the second-ranking official at the Oregon Department of Forestry, deputy state forester Mike Shaw. WW first reported in August that the agency had placed Shaw on leave during the height of the largest wildfire season in Oregon history. …On Aug. 6, Shaw’s boss, Cal Mukumoto, the state forester, sent DAS director Berri Leslie an email with the subject line “ODF sensitive issue.” …The alleged misconduct is not specified in Mukumoto’s letter, but other emails that show a series of emails from a former female Department of Forestry diversity, equity and inclusion official expressing frustration that Shaw had excluded her from what the agency calls “leadership team” meetings. …On Oct. 10, The Oregonian reported a story on ODF that appears related.

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The Forest Service is cutting its seasonal workforce and public lands will suffer

By Nick Bowlin
High Country News
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Americans visit hiking and camping areas managed by the U.S. Forest Service more than 150 million times each year. …Due to a looming budget cut, the agency will not be hiring seasonal staff for the next fiscal year, leaving thousands of people out of work and putting essential conservation and biodiversity work at risk. …The spending bill that recently passed the U.S House of Representatives gave the agency around half a billion dollars less than it requested, meaning that the Forest Service faces a large budget cut. Most of the other environmental and science-based federal agencies also face large cuts. Meanwhile, the money that the agency received from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration’s signature climate law, has already been spent. …This decision does not apply to the more than 11,000 temporary firefighting positions that the Forest Service hires every year.

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California’s new, cutting-edge dashboards map the progress of wildfire resilience work that protects communities

Government of California
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

SACRAMENTO – California unveiled newly updated, first-of-their-kind dashboards that will help Californians track the state’s wildfire prevention work. Along with these new tools, state officials announced that 700,000 acres of land were treated for wildfire resilience in 2023, and that prescribed fire more than doubled between 2021 and 2023. For the first time, all fuels management projects are being tracked in one place, on one map, delivering valuable information for project planning and wildfire response. The updated Interagency Treatment Dashboard, led by the Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force, now covers data from 2021 to 2023, showing the acres of completed wildfire resilience (or “treatments”) work. …CAL FIRE also launched the Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Dashboard, which tracks how wildfire prevention projects have helped shield communities and landscapes from wildfires.

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How the Northwest Forest Plan may reshape management of our woods: Part 1 of 2

By Nathan Wilson
Columbia Gorge News
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

In March 1989, environmental activists from Earth First! chained themselves to trees and buried themselves under rocks, unsuccessfully preventing the North Roaring Devil timber sale in Breintenbush Hot Springs, Oregon. Dubbed the “Easter Massacre,” it ignited the Timber Wars, a years-long slew of protests, academic disputes and legal battles fixated on protecting mature, old-growth forests and the endangered northern spotted owl, ultimately culminating in the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). Passed in 1994, the NWFP is a land management strategy that governs more than 24 million acres of federal forests across Oregon, Washington and Northern California — balancing conservation and ecological resilience with a logging economy that many small, rural communities depend on. Now, it’s getting amended, and much has changed over the past three decades. …The USFS intends to release its draft plan on Nov. 6. While the agency isn’t required to adopt any of the FAC’s recommendations, incorporating just some may reshape how the Northwest’s forests are managed.

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Washington businesses turn to pine cone collectors to regrow burned forests

By Matthew Smith
Fox 13 Seattle
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

DARRINGTON, Washington – Locals are being tapped to collect pine cones in an effort to store seeds to re-grow forests before wildfires destroy natural seed banks in the Pacific Northwest. This fall, cone collectors hit mountainous locations in search of fresh pine cones around Darrington. …Collecting cones for cash is hardly new, though, there is more attention on the work than ever before as concerns grow with larger, more destructive wildfires along the West Coast. In Darrington, a non-profit called Glacier Peak Institute acts as the middleman between Mast Reforestation and Silvaseed, the end-users of the seeds being collected today. …Kea Woodruff, Silvaseed’s general manager, “Under whatever future scenarios happen in the landscape, we had the seed we’re collecting that captures all that range of diversity so we can put trees back into the landscape in the future.”

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How forest management helps mitigate an increasing fire threat

By The Washington Forest Protection Association
The Seattle Times
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Fire has always played a significant role in Pacific Northwest forests. Fire in the Cascades, historically sparked by lightning strikes, led to a natural succession that cleared debris on the forest floor, eliminated old and weaker individual trees, provided room for new plant growth, and, in the case of ponderosa pines, induced germination. …Yet today, due to several factors, the historical “fire season” has been replaced with the “fire year.” “Climate change has had a dramatic impact on the forest,” says George Geissler, deputy supervisor over Fire Management at the Department of Natural Resources. …As Washington state’s forester, Geissler is charged with maintaining healthy forests across the state. He says the region’s diverse environments require specific management techniques, noting that the dry eastern foothills of the Cascades are significantly different from the “almost tropical” forests of the Olympic Peninsula.

 

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U.S. Forest Service, Calif. fire agencies battle over wildfire aviation policies

By Tony Saavedra and Sean Emery
The Orange County Register in Fire Rescue 1
October 5, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — The Orange County Fire Authority and U.S. Forest Service are battling over accusations that USFS policies grounded an elite aerial unit during major fires and left the Cleveland National Forest susceptible to the recent Airport blaze that torched 23,526 acres. Southern California congressional members want answers from Forest Service officials. One point of contention involves the Southern California-based Quick Reaction Force, a squad of night-flying, converted military helicopters that can drop 3,000 gallons of water and fire retardant. The force’s operators, led by Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy, allege the USFS at times grounded the team during one of the busiest fire seasons in recent history. …The crux of the issue: for the last four years, U.S. Forest Service policy has required that all aerial supervisors …must be government employees … they must work for a government agency. This policy applies only to fires in national wildlands or using USFS resources.

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Helene impacted around $1.28 billion in timber resources, Georgia Forestry Commission says

By Natasha Young
WSAV News 3
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

SAVANNAH, Ga. — The Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC) said they estimated a total timber resource impact of $1.28 billion from Hurricane Helene on Thursday. The commission said that they are conservatively estimating this number after Helene traversed 8.9 million acres of Georgia forestland. GFC also said that they are working with state and federal partners to determine what resources might be available for impacted landowners. In 2023, when Hurricane Idalia hit Georgia, a total of 6.59 million acres of acres were in the storm path, but only 116,526 acres were impacted. The GFC said that of the 116,526 acres impacted, 11,069 acres were damaged, causing $9.26 million in timber losses.

Additional coverage in 11Alive by Reeve Jackson: Georgia’s timber industry loses $1.28 billion from Hurricane Helene

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Eco-friendly firefighting

Mizzou Engineering – University of Missouri
October 8, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Yingchao Yang

Mizzou Engineer Yingchao Yang and collaborators are developing a new biochar-based foam to reduce the use of harmful chemicals in controlling fires. Yang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, is using biochar, a form of plant waste, to support long-term forest management and prevent out-of-control wildfires. Biochar is created by burning organic material, such as wood or plants, in an environment without oxygen. Because biochar is carbon-rich, it has numerous environmental uses, including both as a fertilizer and a composting medium. It also has the potential to mitigate climate change by acting as a carbon sink, locking CO2 into soil instead of the atmosphere. And it can be used agriculturally to improve water retention and reduce soil erosion. Yang is looking to add controlling the spread of fires to this list, with research supported by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Products Laboratory.

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Why Germany’s dying forests could be good news

By Kiyo Dorrer
Deutsche Welle
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Conifer forests across Germany are deteriorating under the combined pressures of droughts, storms and invasive pests, according to the latest government report on the state of the country’s woodland. It’s a similar story in Poland, the Czech Republic and Scandinavia. But some see this loss as a net positive for the climate in the long term. To understand why forest loss might, in some cases, be a good thing, we need to rewind back to World War II. After Germany’s defeat, the Allied forces ordered the country to pay reparations — partly in the form of timber. …German foresters started planting large amounts of one specific tree: the spruce. That’s because spruce trees grow fast and straight, which makes them ideal for timber production and construction. …But these monoculture forests are less hospitable to other plants and animals and are significantly less biodiverse than mixed ones.

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European forest plants are migrating westwards: Research suggests nitrogen is the main cause

By German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
Phys.Org
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

New research reveals nitrogen pollution, and to a lesser extent climate change, unexpectedly as the key driver behind surprising westward shifts in the distribution of plants. A study published in Science has uncovered that many European forest plant species are moving towards the west due to high nitrogen deposition levels, defying the common belief that climate change is the primary cause of species moving northward. This finding reshapes our understanding of how environmental factors, and in particular nitrogen pollution, influence biodiversity. While it is widely assumed that rising temperatures are pushing many species toward cooler, northern areas, this research shows that westward movements are 2.6 times more likely than northward shifts. The primary driver? High levels of nitrogen deposition from atmospheric pollution, which allows a rapid spread of nitrogen-tolerating plant species from mainly Eastern Europe.

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Ukraine’s vast forests devastated in hellscape of war

By Thomas Peter and Max Hunter
Reuters
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Serhiy Tsapok surveyed the smouldering ruins of pine trees, blackened stumps as far as the eye can see that bear witness to a scorched nation. …It’s a drop in the ocean of the damage caused by the war, which has brutalized the landscape of Ukraine and much of its 10 million hectares, or 100,000 sq km, of forest. Both Russian and Ukrainian armies blast thousands of shells at each other every day. …Tending to forests is now a perilous occupation, with mines and unexploded shells hidden in the ground posing the biggest threat. …All that remains of many forests in eastern Ukraine are fields of stripped, broken trunks. Local wildlife, including deer, boars and woodpeckers, have been badly affected by the loss of habitats, the experts said, although it is currently hard to gauge biodiversity loss in forests. …About 425,000 hectares of forest across the country have been found to be contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance.

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FSC Forest Week Campaign Calls for Collective Global Action on Climate and Biodiversity

Forest Stewardship Council
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

BONN, Germany — The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) International has successfully concluded its third annual FSC Forest Week, spotlighting the crucial role of responsible forest management in addressing urgent environmental challenges. With the world set to convene at the upcoming COP16 and COP29 summits, FSC calls on businesses, communities, governments, and individuals to continue their efforts in protecting the world’s forests and urges decisive action to ensure forestry remains a priority in global climate discussions. This year’s campaign, themed “Small steps together create big change for all”, …amplified the message that impactful change does not always require large-scale efforts. Rather, everyday choices, such as purchasing FSC- certified products, can contribute to broader efforts of protecting forests and those who depend on them. Additionally, it highlighted the critical role these actions play in combatting biodiversity loss and climate change.

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Spruce tree planting ban over beetle pest fears

By Helen Burchell
BBC News
October 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Planting of new spruce trees is being banned in parts of East Anglia and South East England as part of new measures to limit the impact of an invasive beetle. The Ips typographus, or larger eight-toothed European spruce bark beetle, is a serious pest of spruce trees in Europe and was first spotted in the UK in Kent in 2018. The Forestry Commission said the measures were necessary “to limit the spread of the beetle and protect our nation’s trees, forestry and timber industries”. The new spruce tree planting restriction comes into force from 29 October and covers parts of Lincolnshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Greater London, Sussex, Kent and Essex. …Christmas tree growers in the affected area can continue to grow an unlimited number of spruce trees up to three metres (9.8ft) in height above the root collar before authorisation is required.

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Retired journalist Margo Kingston arrested at NSW anti-logging protest after allegedly locking on to machinery

By Lisa Cox
The Guardian
October 10, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Retired Sydney Morning Herald journalist Margo Kingston was arrested at a community protest in the mid-north of New South Wales on Thursday after she locked on to machinery to protest logging operations in endangered greater glider habitat. Kingston and another activist who protested alongside her are the 13th and 14th people arrested since forestry operations recommenced at the Bulga state forest last week. …The NSW Greens environment spokesperson, Sue Higginson, said most of the state’s cross bench was calling for the government to end native forest logging. …The Forestry Corporation of NSW said this week trained ecologists had undertaken nocturnal surveys for gliders and dens at Bulga state forest and put exclusion zones in place. The agency said more than 50% of the area would be set aside and not harvested, more than required under the operations approval.

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