Canadians of all political stripes and from all regions support greater protection for the country’s forests but are concerned about what that could mean for the economy, according to a new survey. The survey, commissioned by Nature Canada, Natural Resources Defense Council and Nature Quebec, days before Ottawa releases its climate plans, indicates that 83 per cent of Canadians agreed the federal government should do more to protect forests and wildlife. …But the same poll found 67 per cent were at least slightly concerned about the economic impact of those protections …Industry spokespeople say carbon releases are fully accounted for through methods developed by federal scientists. Canada’s accounting methods [are] approved by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, they say. The Forest Products Association of Canada says forest management already mimics natural processes such as fire losses in an attempt to keep ecosystems functioning normally. Still, the survey suggests strong support for more forest protection.
An environmental organization is offering cautious support for an announcement by the largest private landowner in British Columbia that will defer logging in 400 square kilometres of old-growth forest for the next 25 years. Mosaic Forest Management, which oversees the private lands of logging companies TimberWest and Island Timberlands, announced the deferral last week along with intentions to finance the plan through a carbon credit program that is expected to raise several hundred million dollars by 2047. A statement from the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance says exempting old-growth and older second-growth stands from logging will protect the unique trees that support everything from the climate and endangered species to wild salmon, clean water and tourism. Ken Wu, executive director of the alliance, says long-term deferrals will buy time to arrange further protection and Mosaic should be commended for its “important step” if the measure “pans out.”
A B.C. Indigenous woman is pleading with the provincial government not to spray herbicides from Squamish to Hope, and is asking for a public consultation extension. B.C. Timber Sales has a proposed a five-year pest management plan that would involve aerial and ground spraying of herbicides, which include glyphosate, in the Chilliwack and Sea to Sky Natural Resources District, starting April 1. This area includes Stó:lō, St’át’imc, Nlaka’pamux, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. But Angelina Hopkins Rose, 28, whose ancestral home is part of the St’át’imc Nation, said there wasn’t enough public consultation with Indigenous people… that could be negatively impacted by the potentially carcinogenic chemicals. Glyphosate is controversial but is still approved by Health Canada. …Rose said many Indigenous communities rely on picking organic berries to keep them healthy through the winter, and she worries about what chemicals they will be ingesting from picking wild fruit.
VICTORIA – An audit of Taan Forest Limited Partnership’s tree farm licence 60 and Taan Forest Ltd.’s forest licence A87661 on Haida Gwaii has found the company complied with almost all requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) and the Wildfire Act. The audit examined forestry activities carried out between September 2019 and September 2021. Activities included harvesting on 36 cutblocks, construction of 45 kilometres and maintenance of more than 1,700 kilometres of road, planting on 54 cutblocks and ensuring forests are regenerating on more than 170 cutblocks. These activities were assessed for compliance with FRPA, the Wildfire Act, applicable regulations and legal orders. “We are pleased to report that all field practices complied with legal requirements as well as objectives in the Haida Gwaii Land Use Order,” said Kevin Kriese, chair of the Forest Practices Board. “Taan appropriately addressed important resource features including riparian areas, visual quality objectives, wildlife habitat, karst, cultural features and cedar stewardship areas.”
STURGEON FALLS – The Ontario government is providing more than $460,000 through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) to two forestry and manufacturing sector projects in Sturgeon Falls. This investment will go towards purchasing new equipment and upgrading facilities, and help to build a stronger Ontario by creating jobs, expanding business operations and boosting economic development in Northeastern Ontario. “Promoting business expansion in our forestry and mining sectors helps these important industries and the companies that service them remain competitive, innovative and current,” said Greg Rickford, Minister of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry. “These investments not only enable these companies to grow and thrive, but also bring good-paying jobs to the community.” Sturgeon Falls Brush and Contracting Limited, a land clearing contractor and forestry service provider, will receive $400,000 to purchase new equipment to diversify its operations.
COLORADO — Top U.S. Forest Service officials said that major new federal funding will help a lot in addressing a crisis involving the threat wildfires pose to communities and watersheds, though far more money will be needed to do all the forest work that is needed. Chris French, deputy chief of the Forest Service said climate impacts, combined with a history of excluding fire from areas where it helped thin fuels in the past, have led to fires burning at levels and with impacts never seen before. …The bipartisan infrastructure bill recently passed by Congress includes nearly $3 billion for wildfire risk reduction work by the Forest Service. …But it is only a down payment on the amount of work needing to be done, with French saying it will pay for perhaps a fifth of that work. 
The use of prescribed fire has received increased attention in California and elsewhere. It is good that there is growing recognition that fire is a natural and necessary part of forests and other ecosystems, [but] current advocacy for large-scale prescribed fire across vast areas is often built on outdated assumptions and overstated claims, while downplaying problems stemming from how prescribed fire is actually being implemented. This factsheet identifies five key sets of myths regarding prescribed fire and shows how they can lead to misguided policies and missed opportunities to better accomplish public safety and ecological restoration goals. …Prescribed fire increases fire and smoke. Prescribed fire is inefficient for public safety compared to home retrofits. Prescribed fire is inefficient for ecological restoration compared to managed wildfire. Prescribed fire can be harmful. And prescribed fire and cultural burning are not the same.
A state forest plan that aims to protect endangered species across 640,000 acres of forestland west of the Cascades while providing certainty for logging is moving toward its final stages. The proposed
WINTHROP, Wash. — In the wake of record fire seasons for the largest fires in 2014 and 2015, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which also serves as the largest wildfire-fighting agency in the state, began a Forest Health Plan to make forests more resilient to fire. In 2019 outside the town of Winthrop in Okanogan County, the DNR thinned two stands of trees to more closely resemble forests of more than a century ago. Central and eastern Washington forests had become choked with flammable vegetation like bushes, grasses and small trees after generations of successful fire suppression… It is why today’s fires on untreated lands are much more intense. Now, these treated stands outside Winthrop have fewer and larger trees spaced further apart in an attempt to make those forests more fire-resistant. …During a fire, the idea is that they will be less intense because there’s less fuel to burn. 
In 2019, a bill, H.897, was introduced in Massachusetts that would make all state-owned public lands off-limits to commercial logging. It would provide sweeping forest protections no other state has ever adopted and serve as a national model … to function as carbon sinks. Climate activist Bill McKibben lauded H.897 as “the cheapest and quickest step…to mitigate climate change.” …That the Massachusetts Audubon Society joined arms with the timber industry to defeat the bill shows how fervently the organization believes in the logging-for-wildlife approach to managing forests. Spearheading opposition to H.897, Mass Audubon signed an open letter to legislators urging them not to pass it. “We do not think the best way to maximize the contribution of forests to addressing climate change is to prohibit timber harvest on all state lands,” the letter said. Other signatories included the New England Forestry Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, and the Environmental League of Massachusetts. [Full access to this story may require a National Geographic subscription]
