Susan Yurkovich
It should go without saying now that the industry needs to diversify its workforce to address the critical labour shortage. Bluntly put: there are only so many white men. That’s not even factoring in the plethora of business advantages that come from having a diverse team. To change that, we need to talk about it – openly and honestly. The Women in Forestry summit, held yesterday… drew 550 to talk about biases, culture changes, career ladders, Indigenous inclusion and so much more. These are not conversations for women only – anyone with a stake in the future of the forest industry needs to be talking about these issues. …Susan Yurkovich, outgoing president and CEO of the BC Council of Forest Industries, kicked off the summit with an inspiring reflection on her career in the forest industry and, specifically, the executive world.
This year, the theme for International Women’s Day is “
Anacla, British Columbia – C̕awak ʔqin Forestry (Tsawak-qin Forestry Limited Partnership) and Huu-ay-aht First Nations announce April 28, 2022 as the new date for the Anacla Old-Growth Summit. Tayii Ḥaw̓ił ƛiišin (Derek Peters, Head Hereditary Chief, Huu-ay-aht First Nations) and Elected Chief Councillor Robert J. Dennis, Sr. will host the Summit which will take place in Anacla, B.C. C̕awak ʔqin Forestry and Huu-ay-aht Forestry Limited Partnership will participate as co-chairs. This Summit was originally planned for November 2021 but was deferred due to COVID-19 restrictions. The Summit will bring together 50 coastal Indigenous nations to share information on their stewardship and resource management planning and decision making processes. These Indigenous-led models not only cover all values such as old growth, fisheries, culture and climate change, but incorporate the research and advice of leading experts that Indigenous governments have retained in forestry, fisheries and ecosystem management.
Five big timber companies hold the future of nearly half of BC’s at-risk old-growth forests in their hands, according to a 
The following is an edited version of a letter sent to Derek Lefler, district manager with FLNRORD and shared with the Coast Reporter. I am disheartened by the Timber Supply Review you had conducted via Zoom on Feb. 17. The presentations and format of this event indicate that for FLNRORD it is business as usual: i) continue to clear-cut as much forest as has always been done and ii) public input is not encouraged, as the review format did not allow for genuine discussions and follow-up questions. …The timber harvesting approach used presently by FLNRORD is based on current practices, thus what was done in the past, harvesting volumes above sustainable levels, will also be good for the future. However, climate change is here and cutting trees based on current practices is clearly not the way to go forward. The changing climate does not allow this. 
Board directors from the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary met virtually at the end of February, discussing several topics including old-growth logging, local homelessness issues, and regional statistics released as part of the Canadian census. …Delegate Dr. Rachel Holt, of Nelson, addressed the board. Holt is a provincial old-growth forestry expert who was hired by the Province of BC to help map old- growth forests. Less than 11 million hectares of old growth is left; 400,000 hectares of that is very large old growth. She spoke about the provincial old-growth logging deferral, which is a temporary measure to halt the decline of old trees and their ecosystems. Holt said British Columbia must change how forests are managed as they are vital and essential for biodiversity, carbon storage, watershed and climate change.
Vancouver, BC – Western Forest Products Inc. today announced that it is partnering with Vancouver Island University to establish a bursary to encourage and support more women to enter a career in forestry. The Western Forest Products Bursary for Women in Forestry will cover half of the tuition fees for the successful candidate enrolled in VIU’s two-year Forestry Resources Technology Diploma Program. Bursary applications are being accepted from September 1 until October 31, 2022, for the program starting September 2022. Priority will be given to those who have graduated from a secondary school in communities where Western operates; or, have worked for, or have a direct family member who works for Western. Learn more about the program and eligibility requirements here. “On International Women’s Day, we are proud to acknowledge the contributions of all of the women on the Western team,” said Jennifer Foster, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Human Resources, Western Forest Products.
On Feb. 8, 2022, Lees & Associates presented the results of the online survey, workshops and stakeholder interviews to North Cowichan council. For the sake of clarity, I have included the exact text of the report summary. This text was vetted by municipal staff, the Citizen’s Public Engagement Working Group, Lees and Associates & the UBC Partnership. These are the key takeaways: “The importance of protecting and enhancing the ecological benefits of the Municipal Forest Reserve (MFR) was a strong theme. …Many expressed that the MFR is a valued recreational asset and are in favour of forest management that supports hiking, biking, walking, ATVing, and horsebackriding. …Many community members expressed concern about harvesting practices… Concern about climate change, and the impacts of wildfires, flooding and extreme weather emerged as a key theme.
DECKERS, Colorado — Dripping flaming fuel as they go, a line of workers slowly descends a steep, snow-covered hillside above central Colorado’s South Platte River. …It’s winter in the Rocky Mountains, and fresh snow cover allowed the crew of 11 to safely confine the controlled burn. Such operations are a central piece of the Biden administration’s $50 billion plan to reduce the density of western forests that have been exploding into firestorms as climate change bakes the region. But the same warming trends that worsen wildfires will also challenge the administration’s attempts to guard against them. Increasingly erratic weather means snow is not always there when needed to safely burn off tall debris piles like those on Colorado’s Pike-San Isabel National Forest. And that seriously complicates the job of exhausted firefighters, now forced into service year-round.
Devastating and deadly wildfires are not just happening during the summer months anymore, but year-round. The U. S. Forest Service says wildfire risk has reached crisis level. …And now firefighters are making a major adjustment from the top down. …”Fires are burning with stronger volatility than I ever remember. So we are adjusting,” said Shawn Borgen, superintendent of the Flathead Hotshots. That adjustment includes a new wildfire crisis strategy put out by the U.S. Forest Service. It addresses everything from outdated forest management policies of total fire suppression, to climate change and expanded development into forested areas, known as the wildland-urban interface. The plan of attack includes ramping up prescribed burns and vegetation thinning efforts to four times what is currently being done. …How did we get here? …A 1911 federal policy put a halt to using ground fires for thining and adopted a full suppression strategy in the 1930s.
The company tasked with thinning hundreds of thousands of acres of northern Arizona’s forests has been issued a $200 million bond to ramp up work. It comes as large-scale restoration in the region has moved at a slow pace for nearly a decade. Goldman Sachs issued the bond to NewLife Forest Restoration. It’s included in what’s known as the U.S. green bond market, and mandates specific targets for thinned acreage every year. NewLife holds the nation’s largest U.S. Forest Service stewardship contract at 300,000 acres for the Four Forest Restoration Initiative. But the company has struggled to keep up with the pace and scale of the thinning work averaging only about 1,700 acres annually for the last nine years. 
…While Oregon has made real progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, emissions reductions alone are not enough. …Luckily, our oldest, simplest, and most-cost effective climate solutions – forests – have yet to be fully utilized to combat climate change. Forests on America’s public lands have been logged extensively over the past century and the natural, historic levels of carbon on the landscape have been severely depleted. While trees can live for centuries, most wood products only last a few decades, and much of this carbon ends up in the atmosphere. Experts estimate that as much as 95% of primary forests …have been lost in the United States. …The good news is we’ve already started recovering carbon stores in forests through better management under the Northwest Forest Plan, which helped slow logging and allowed our Pacific Northwest public forests to switch from a carbon emissions source to a carbon sink, but these practices alone are no longer enough.
This week, Oregon lawmakers approved a bill that establishes the Elliott State Research Forest on more than 82,000 acres in the coast range near Coos Bay. The Elliott is a unique tract of coastal forest originally meant to generate logging revenue for Oregon’s K-12 schools. Conservation groups and others long worked to halt that practice and keep the forest intact. Josh Laughlin, Executive Director of Cascadia Wildlands in Eugene said Senate Bill 1546 preserves the forest for education and research. … Oregon State University will lead research on climate, species, and forestry. There will be some logging in designated areas. The forest will remain in public ownership with public access. The bill was approved by the house Thursday after being passed in the senate Tuesday. At a press briefing following the legislature’s adjournment Friday, Gov. Kate Brown hailed the bill as one of the top accomplishments of the 2022 session.
Hundreds of Buncombe County residents are rallying to keep thousands of acres from potential logging in Big Ivy’s old growth forests, petitioning the county to take action. Residents flooded the County Board of Commissioners meeting March 1, asking commissioners to formally object to the nearly finalized U.S. Forest Service management plan. The Forest Service released the final Nantahala and Pisgah Revised Forest PlanJan. 21, a blueprint for management of more than 1 million acres of forestland in Western North Carolina for the next decade and beyond. Those who took the podium for their three minutes in front of the Board of Commissioners are farmers, conservationists, recreationalists and more, including Sam Evans, with the Southern Environmental Law Center. 
Thousands of Brazilians, including environmental activists and some of the country’s most well-known musicians, gathered in the capital Brasília Wednesday afternoon to protest a series of proposed laws that would facilitate mining and deforestation on Indigenous lands. Rallying under the banner #AtoPelaTerra—Stand for the Earth—the demonstrators decried what they called the “destruction package” of five bills before the National Congress that, if passed, will make Brazil “one of the biggest climate pariahs in the world,” according to protest organizers. “They have the power and the ink of the pen, but we have the ink of urucum and jenipapo,” Indigenous activist Célia Xakriabá told demonstrators, referring to fruits used to make traditional decorative dyes.
The Amazon rainforest may be nearing a critical tipping point that could see the biologically rich and diverse ecosystem transformed into a grassy savannah. …Scientists say that about three quarters of the rainforest is showing signs of “resilience loss” — a reduced ability to recover from disturbances like droughts, logging and fires. 
The Amazon is approaching a tipping point, data shows, after which the rainforest would be lost with “profound” implications for the global climate and biodiversity. …Novel statistical analysis shows that more than 75% of the untouched forest has lost stability since the early 2000s, meaning it takes longer to recover after droughts and wildfires. The greatest loss of stability is in areas closer to farms, roads and urban areas and in regions that are becoming drier, suggesting that forest destruction and global heating are the cause. …They found that in the past 20 years areas impacted by droughts or fires took significantly longer to recover than before. This is a key sign of increasing instability because it shows the processes of restoration are getting weaker. “The worrying conclusion [of the study] fits with other recent research on increased tree mortality, increased fires, and reduced regional carbon sinks.
Across the planet, about one billion women rely on forests for their livelihoods, helping to feed their families and contribute to household income – and building specialized knowledge of the best ways to manage and use forests sustainably. As we celebrate 2022 