Monika Patel
In this edition you’ll find an inspiring New Year’s message from the CEO of FSC Canada, reflecting on last year’s progress and outlining bold plans to strengthen climate action, deepen Indigenous leadership, and grow market trust in responsible forestry across the country. Plus:
- Technical Working Group invitation – apply by January 16
- Closing January 16: Last call to participate in consultation for Indigenous Cultural Landscapes
- Coming this February: FSC Forests as a Climate Solution podcast series
- Upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC
- Reminder: Trademark changes for FSC licence and certificate holders
In this Woodlots Weekly you’ll find:
Students and instructors at North Island College (NIC) say they’re disappointed following the institution’s recommendation to suspend 15 programs from its three main campuses on mid and north Vancouver Island. The recommendations were made as part of the college’s expedited program impact assessment that began last fall, and will go to the board of governors for approval on Feb. 5. …The suspensions are not permanent cuts, but create “opportunities to re-imagine how and what programs are delivered.” …NIC faculty president Jen Wrye says many of the programs have strong enrollment and offer good job opportunities for students at the Comox Valley, Campbell River and Port Alberni campuses — regions without other college-based post-secondary opportunities. The programs facing suspension include:
Nearly 1,060 hectares is being added to West Twin Protected Area to increase protection of important wildlife habitat across the Robson Valley. …West Twin Protected Area was established in 2001, and together with adjacent West Twin Park, covers more than 30,000 hectares to form the only protected wildlife corridor across the Robson Valley. The area spans from the Cariboo Mountains in the south, through the main Robson Valley trench and up to the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains. The additional land improves habitat connection for caribou, moose, elk, deer, grizzly bears and many other species. The Crown land was originally identified for protection through the Robson Valley Land and Resource Management Plan, but the land had two historical mineral claims that have now been forfeited. The land also contains old-growth priority deferral areas and an existing old-growth management area.
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C.— In the 2025 wildfire season, 199 wildfires were fought in Fort St. John, Fort Nelson and Dawson Creek areas in the “second-worst wildfire season in Canadian history.” The Ministry of Forests said in a news release on December 29th, 2025, the province has experienced over 1,350 wildfires burning an estimated 886,360 hectares of land since April 1st that year. In the news release, Ravi Parmar, minister of forests, said: “We’re coming off our second-worst wildfire season in Canadian history.” The Prince George Fire Centre specifically – the branch of the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) covering northeast B.C. – recorded 354 fires in the 2025 wildfire season. …For the 2026 wildfire season, the province says it will continue to look at new technology and opportunities for better prevention and response.
A BC judge has quashed a decision from the province to transfer a major forestry licence to an Indigenous-owned forestry company, after the government was found to have failed to uphold the “honour of the Crown” with a neighbouring nation. The Jan. 8 ruling centred on the BC Ministry of Forest’s decision to approve the transfer of a forest licence to the Kitsumkalum First Nation. The transfer, which occurred after the previous holder Skeena Sawmills entered into bankruptcy proceedings in 2023, was opposed by eight Gitanyow hereditary chiefs. … In his decision, the judge found the government oversimplified the impacts of the transfer, and relied on “hope and optimism” that the two First Nations could reach an agreement. …The Gitanyow had called on the court to quash the transfer of the forestry licence. Instead, the judge forced the province to reconsider the licence transfer while properly consulting with the Gitanyow.
North Cowichan will hire a wildfire specialist to support wildfire-protection planning in the municipality. At its meeting on Dec. 3, council voted to allocate $95,000 in North Cowichan’s budget for 2026 for the position from the Climate Action and Energy Plan’s reserve funds, and funding for the wildfire specialist will come from general taxation in following years. As well, council decided to allocate $115,000 in the 2026 budget for the creation of a Strategic North Cowichan Wildfire Plan, with the funding also coming from CAEP reserve funds. Council adopted a resolution establishing wildfire preparedness as a strategic priority in September, and the key actions identified and recommended by staff since then include strengthening the fire department’s wildfire-response capabilities, vegetation management, FireSmart education, evacuation planning, infrastructure standards, and community volunteer initiatives.
Three pieces of logging equipment owned by Fraser Valley Timber were torched overnight Jan. 1 into the morning of Jan. 2, putting multiple employees immediately out of work and potentially costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in replacement costs. …While a company spokesperson suggested to television media that the fire may be linked to nearby anti-logging protests, members of the Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek blockade denied any involvement. RCMP said investigators have not made any connection between the fire and the protest. Blockade members posted on Facebook that to assign blame to them before the facts are known “serves to vilify old-growth forest protectors without grounds.” …the Office of the Fire Commissioner brought an accelerant detection dog to the scene as part of the investigation. “…the Office of the Fire Commissioner is assisting in determining the circumstances, origin, and cause of the fires,” according to the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
A group protesting old-growth logging on Vancouver Island is hitting out at an “insinuation” they were involved in the suspected arson of logging equipment last week. Sgt. Kevin Mack with Lake Cowichan RCMP says officers responded to the scene of the suspected arson at a site operated by Fraser Valley Timber on Jan. 2, and they are keeping an “open eye to all possibilities.” Two grapple yarders and a log loader reportedly sustained more than $530,000 in damage in the fires… The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but media reports quoted a spokesman suggesting that the proximity of the protest camp wasn’t a coincidence. But the Walbran Valley Blockade protest camp says its code “explicitly prohibits violence and the damage or destruction of property.” It says it supports a full and transparent investigation and that “assigning blame before the facts are known serves to vilify forest protectors.”
…council was about to vote to log our protected community forest. At the last moment, a chief saved the day. But we are now forewarned — our forest isn’t protected. …a new council could throw down the gauntlet. So, once again we’re asking ourselves, as a community how do we protect the Six Mountains? Now that we know our North Cowichan council can ignore our public consultation, and our vote for conservation, what can we legally do? In the next election, vote in a pro-conservation council? This is our intention, but there are no guarantees. …an extraordinary solution [exists to] protect ecosystems from human destruction. It’s called the Rights of Nature movement (RoN). …founded on indigenous ancestral reverence for nature, as sacred and sacrosanct, beyond human control and ownership… it’s the perfect solution for our Valley where we, N. Cowichan and Quw’utsun, “own” the legal right to protect the ecosystem surrounding our home.
The in-creek infrastructure for the Peachland water treatment plant is at risk of a landslide in the aftermath of the summer’s Munro Lake wildfire. The 
The intense 2025 wildfire season in B.C. means firefighters will face challenges in 2026 because of overwintering wildfires, also called holdover or zombie fires, that smoulder deep underground through the colder season. As they spread below the forest floor in the dried-out peat, the fires can ignite in spring, sparking new life into last season’s devastating blazes. Canada’s 2025 wildfire season was the second-worst on record after 2023, with more than 6,000 fires burning more than 83,000 square kilometres across Canada, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. In B.C., the season started early because of several zombie fires in the northeast region of the province, where fire officials say overwintering fires and underlying drought combined to create challenging conditions in April and May. …Scientists say climate change is making B.C.’s wildfire season longer and more intense as drought dries out the forest floor and heat waves become stronger.
If we’ve reached the point where we’re fretting over barnacles being knocked off by drift logs, perhaps we’ve run out of real crises. A recent University of Victoria study warns that wandering logs — nature’s most passive travellers — are scraping B.C.’s intertidal ecosystems into oblivion. …I mean no disrespect to my academic descendants at UVic — my alma mater — but I can’t help recalling a time when a scientist would distinguish between data and drama. Anyone raised on this coast knows those “thundering” drift logs are as much a fixture of our marine landscape as kelp, rockweed, and yes, barnacles themselves. …Here lies the problem with this kind of “drive-by ecology.” A barnacle count taken on a single day, at a single beach, photographed from orbit, becomes a sweeping “coast-wide phenomenon.” Probability alone tells us that the fraction of shoreline simultaneously blanketed and agitated by free logs — especially those resting on sand — is marginal.
In 2025, the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) worked tirelessly with people and communities to fight wildfires and build community resilience throughout the province. “We’re coming off our second-worst wildfire season in Canadian history,” said Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests. “From technology to equipment and training, all to protect people and communities, the BC Wildfire Service has shown us that they are a global leader in wildfire work. Thanks to the dedicated members working tirelessly to fight the threat of wildfire. In 2026, we will raise the bar even higher. …Since April 1, 2025, more than 1,350 wildfires burned an estimated 886,360 hectares of land in B.C. The 2025 season compared to the past five years:
VICTORIA — The BC government says cutting red tape has allowed provincial pulp mills to more than double their use of timber salvaged from forest fires. The Ministry of Forests says in a statement that mills processed more than one million cubic metres of wildfire chips in 2024-25, up from 500,000 cubic metres in 2023, and representing about seven per cent of all processed wood. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar says that BC can’t let anything go to waste, including logs that have been burned in wildfires.” The statement says pulp mills rarely accepted burned timber before 2022, but both government and industry recognized the opportunity of turning wildfire-affected fibre into wood chips. It says that faster permitting and stronger partnerships between government and industry made it even easier to use that type of timber and the work will continue in 2026.
The BC Conservative leader fostered fear and falsehoods in his 
In late August 2025, FREED (Field Research in Ecology and Evolution Diversified) at their University of Toronto (UofT) chapter hosted their fourth annual weeklong event in Algonquin Park. FREED, created in 2020, was founded to provide accessible, barrier-free outdoor and fieldwork opportunities for Indigenous, Black, and/or Racialized (BIPOC) undergraduates. Experiencing the outdoors and nature can be formative in building a connection to the land and pursuing a career in a related field but these experiences are often inaccessible to underrepresented communities due to financial, societal, cultural, or other potential barriers. …At the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station (AWRS), we welcomed a wonderful group of fifteen BIPOC undergraduate students bringing bright, inquisitive energy, teeming with excitement for the week to begin. The 7-day program was filled with activities to help students build skills and confidence in the outdoors and field work, as well as to build community and relationships amongst their peers and with the Land.
QUEBEC — A rare old-growth forest in Quebec’s Mauricie region is at the centre of a growing conflict between conservation advocates and the provincial government, after forestry roadwork was authorized in an area currently under review for protected status. The forest, known as the Grandbois Lakes forest, is located near Sainte-Thècle, in the Mékinac Regional County Municipality, northeast of Shawinigan. Composed largely of red spruce trees, the ecosystem is considered one of the last intact forests of its kind in southern Quebec. Despite its ecological value, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests has approved the construction of a winter road through part of the forest — a step that could lead to logging in the coming months. The roadwork is slated to be carried out by the forestry company Forex Langlois. …Environmental groups and local residents gathered to oppose what they say is a threat to an irreplaceable ecosystem.
Between the attention on forests at COP30, emerging regulations, and many corporate pledges, 2025 was slated to be the year that companies eliminate the practice within their supply chains of clearing forests and natural landscapes for production. As the calendar has turned to 2026, the truth is that we now know that dozens of the most at-risk companies have not reached that goal – but a few market leaders are proving that cleaning up supply chains is possible. Let’s be clear: Protecting forests makes economic sense. Industries depend on the benefits that natural ecosystems provide to grow food, transport goods, and manufacture products. Harming nature poses compounding financial risks to companies and their investors. …Growing awareness of the risks of biodiversity decline and the advantages of acting quickly have spurred private sector action in recent years, and we saw more positive developments unfold last year.
USDA on Monday published a notice in the Federal Register looking to update the reporting requirement for foreign land ownership under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA). …The proposed changes come as Congress and state lawmakers have demanded more updates and better reporting on foreign ownership from USDA, spurred mainly by Chinese ownership of agricultural land. …USDA’s latest report on foreign agricultural land holdings shows people from outside the country own nearly 45 million acres of land, as of the end of 2023. That takes up about 3.5% of all privately-held agricultural land. Foreign holdings also increased by more than 1.5 million acres from 2022. Nearly half of foreign land holdings, 48%, are forest land, with 29% being cropland and 21% pastures. Canadian investors make up about one-third of all foreign holdings, or 15.3 million acres, followed by the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany.
In 1980, Washington State’s Mount St Helens erupted…causing an ecological nightmare as the volcano spewed lava, ash, and debris over the surrounding landscape that was followed by mudflows and pyroclastic flows, leaving the vegetation covered in mud and detritus as far as 27 kilometers from the volcano. …But one team of scientists had an unconventional idea to help jumpstart the process: send a few gophers on a one-day mission to the mountain. “Gophers are known as ‘hole diggers’,” says a 2024 paper assessing the long-term effects of the rodents at Mount St Helens, adding, “a single gopher can move 227 kg [500 pounds] of soil per month”. Digging is a useful quality in restoring an area devastated by volcanic eruption. Plant life was struggling to return… But while the top layers of soil were destroyed by the eruption and lava flows, the soil underneath could still have been rich in bacteria and fungi.
Western Washington forests are vital to the identity, economy, and quality of life vital to the region. From the Puget Sound to the Olympic Peninsula and Columbia Gorge, healthy forests provide clean air and water, sustain fish and wildlife habitat, store carbon, and support local jobs in forestry, recreation, and tourism. …The Western Washington Forest Health Strategic Plan is the result of an holistic and collaborative effort by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources to bring partners representing all lands and stakeholder groups together to identify priorities and strategies for how to steward and manage western Washington forests at a landscape scale. This plan builds on lessons learned from the development and implementation of the 
PUEBLO, Colo. — The Pike-San Isabel National Forests & Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands began a 10-year partnership and $7.3 million investment to implement forest health treatments as part of the War Department’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program. The partners will use $3 million in REPI funds, along with $4.3 million in partner contributions, to treat 2,000 acres of National Forest System land and nonfederal lands near the U.S. Air Force Academy and Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station. The REPI program preserves military missions by avoiding land use conflicts near military installations, addressing environmental restrictions that limit military activities and increasing military installation resilience. 
SEATTLE — Twenty-five years ago, I stood in a snowy National Arboretum in Washington, DC, shaking hands with President Bill Clinton at the signing ceremony for the most important forest conservation mandate in our country’s history. But now that landmark law, which went into effect on Jan. 12, 2001, is hanging by a thread, marked for repeal by the Trump administration — even though 99% of citizen input opposes the idea. The “Roadless Rule” was adopted to curtail harmful logging and industrial roadbuilding across 58 million undeveloped acres of our national forests. More than 2 million acres of those wild lands are in Washington, helping keep this the Evergreen State. …Trump officials claim that opening these areas to bulldozers and chain saws will protect communities from wildfire. But that’s a story that just doesn’t wash. [to access the full story a Seattle Times subscription is required]
VALLEJO, Calif. — The USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region and CAL FIRE have renewed their commitment to battling wildfires across California. This renewal extends the California Fire Master Agreement for another five years. The agreement, signed by Pacific Southwest interim Regional Forester Jacque Buchanan and CAL FIRE Chief Joe Tyler on Dec. 12, allows for a cooperative approach to wildfire response. According to the USDA Forest Service, this collaboration enables firefighters to share resources and respond across jurisdictional lines during emergencies. “This complex operating environment within California and the challenges we face year-round require this collaborative approach,” Jaime Gamboa, fire director for the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region, said. The agreement emphasizes a united front in wildfire emergencies, prioritizing the closest available resources to protect lives and property. It also covers hazardous fuels reduction and streamlines training and equipment sharing.
OREGON– The Bureau of Land Management’s state office in Oregon increased its timber sales in 2025, leading to one of its largest years for sales by board-feet and dollars in decades. The increase coincides with a provision of the tax and spending bill approved by Congress in July, that requires BLM to increase the timber it makes available for harvest by 20 million board-feet each year through 2034. BLM data show that the timber sales through the office totalled 290.6 million board-feet this year, an increase of 66.8 million from the previous year. …2025 was the third-highest year for BLM timber sales through the Oregon office by both board-feet and sale price, topped only by 2019 and 2021. Sales this year brought in $63.7 million.
President Donald Trump’s administration has set in motion efforts to repeal the Roadless Rule, a 2001 administrative mandate that put 45 million acres of the least developed forest land under protection from logging and construction of roads. As the nation observes the rule’s 25th anniversary, Virginia’s federal lawmakers and advocates are calling for its preservation and say hundreds of thousands of acres of forests could be at stake if it is axed. The federal government has framed the proposed repeal as necessary for forest management against wildfires. …Environmental advocates have said since last summer that repealing the rule will lead to land degradation, sediment pollution, and create risks to clean water sources. It would also open up large swaths of the 400,000 acres of the protected forestland in Virginia to logging and potential new roads.
Scots Pines once dominated the landscape of Scotland, part of the vast Caledonian Forest which began to spread some 10,000 years ago after the end of the last ice age. Now only one per cent of the original forest remains in more than 80 pockets scattered mainly across the Highlands. Conservationists say there is an urgent need to improve the protection of these forests as climate change and threats from disease intensify. A new study from the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen has revealed the environmental importance of preserving native woodlands. The research suggests the Scots pine alone supports nearly 1,600 separate species, including 227 that rely on it entirely. “Very few other tree species will support that range of biodiversity,” said Dr Ruth Mitchell, who led the study. “Species that use Scots pine include birds, mosses, lichens, fungi and invertebrates.”
Young tropical forests play a crucial role in slowing climate change. …But, according to a new study, CO2 absorption may be slowed down by the lack of a crucial element that trees need to grow: nitrogen. Published in Nature Communications … the study estimates that if 
The world is losing forests to fire at an unsustainable rate, experts have warned. …in recent decades [wildfire] scale, frequency and intensity in carbon-rich forests have surged. Research from the World Resources Institute (WRI) shows that fires now destroy more than twice as much tree cover as they did two decades ago. In 2024 alone, 135,000km² of forest burned – the most extreme wildfire year on record. Yet fires in other landscapes have not risen in the same way, according to research from the University of Tasmania. While the total area burned globally has fallen for decades as farms have expanded across Africa and slowed the spread of blazes – forests have become a new hotspot. …Four of the five worst years on record have occurred since 2020. Research from the WRI shows that 2024 was the first time that major fires raged across tropical, hot and humid forests such as the Amazon, and boreal forests, such as those spanning Canada’s vast coniferous regions.
The intense green of spring cannot mask the dead trees in the Harz mountains. Standing upright across northern Germany, thousands of skeletal trunks mark the remnants of a once great spruce forest. Since 2018, the region has been ravaged by a bark beetle outbreak, made possible by successive droughts and heatwaves. …The loss has sparked a reckoning with the modern forestry methods pioneered by Germany that often rely on expanses of monoculture plantations. The ferocity of the beetle outbreak means there is no going back to the old way of doing things: replacing the dead spruce with saplings from the same species would probably guarantee catastrophe once again. Instead, foresters have been experimenting with a different approach: pockets of beech, firs and sycamore have been planted around the surviving spruce to make sure the returning forest is more biodiverse. 
Australia’s trees must contend with many lethal factors, from intense megafires to introduced diseases and invasive species. But beyond these specific pressures, new research indicates the underlying natural death rate of trees in major forests across the country is rising. This increase in tree deaths is due to higher average temperatures from climate change, according to a study