Hügelkultur (“mound-culture”) is an technique in agricultural settings that stores excess woody debris and allows it to slowly rot over years or decades. Three new reports by FPInnovations looked into whether hügelkultur could be used in forest fuel reduction treatments to configure debris on site in a less flammable state, as an alternative to the more common method of piling and burning. FPInnovations has produced three reports on using hügelkultur as a debris management technique in forest fuel reduction treatments: Developing a research plan to evaluate the flammability of constructed debris piles; Decomposition of wood debris in hugels: A literature search; and A comparative productivity evaluation of a fuel reduction treatment incorporating hugels.
NANAIMO, B.C. — A lawyer for the Crown says a court application asking for a stay of proceedings against those arrested at old-growth logging protests on Vancouver Island is flawed and has no chance of succeeding. Nick Melling told the B.C. Supreme Court that charges were never recommended against most of the clients represented by one of the lawyers. …Neither charged nor uncharged applicants are making any allegations about police, Melling told Justice Douglas Thompson. “To be clear, not only are the applicants not saying that they suffered mistreatment at the hands of police, but no other third party is alleging that the applicant is providing a factual foundation that any of the applicants suffered police mistreatment.” …Lawyers for Teal Cedar Products were also scheduled to make arguments later in the court application.
Here in BC we didn’t want another reminder of our changing climate and its effects but we got it anyway… The floods of November 2021 will rank as one of the most costly natural disasters in Canadian history and the impacts will be with us for years to come. Water is a critical resource to British Columbians and one of the goals of BC’s forest practice regime is to ensure that forestry practices do not harm important water resources. However, there is a lot of concern from the public that our practices are not good enough and that water stewardship needs to be improved.
Doctors and other licensed health-care professionals in four provinces can now prescribe a free pass to Canada’s national parks. PaRx, Canada’s first national nature prescription program, was started by the B.C. Parks Foundation in November 2020 to help health-care professionals develop a “nature prescription” that encourages patients to spend time outdoors as a way to manage anxiety and improve mental and physical health. Citing a growing body of research on the health benefits of time in nature, the program recommends about two hours a week in nature, for at least 20 minutes at a time.
Lori Daniels and Robert Gray
NANAIMO, B.C. — Lawyers for several people arrested for breaching an injunction during protests over old-growth logging in British Columbia argued Wednesday that the charges against their clients and others should be stayed due to “systemic police misconduct.” Lawyer Karen Mirsky told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson that allowing prosecutions to continue would be harmful to the integrity of justice and a stay is necessary to dissociate the court from police misconduct. The RCMP have made close to 1,200 arrests while enforcing the injunction first granted to logging company Teal Cedar Products last April to prevent blockades set up over the last 18 months in the Fairy Creek area of southern Vancouver Island. Members of the protest group called the Rainforest Flying Squad filed an application last month asking for a stay in proceedings against those charged with contempt of court, claiming RCMP misconduct amounts to an abuse of process.
I read with interest Charlie Rensby’s column dated Jan. 26 regarding old growth deferrals. On first reading it sounded pretty good and I agreed that coastal old growth is not the same as our interior fire based ecosystems. But the article did leave me a bit confused so I did a bit of research into the management plans and recent timber supply review. What I found was that we don’t really have an old growth deferral but rather a number of Old Growth Management areas that were designated years ago. …What is impacting our local timber supply and therefore our local timber based economy are not old growth management areas or deferrals but rather a significant short fall in our mid term timber supply as a result of the mountain pine beetle infestation and the mortality of up to 80 per cent of our pine stands. 
…Buried in the province’s new approach to forestry is a worrying approach that is removing this very necessary stability for forestry firms. …Forest tenures are 25-year contracts between the province and forestry companies on an area of land – we pay for the license, and in return get the right to harvest trees under the province’s existing (and strict) rules. We hire registered professional foresters and engineers to plan the work, ensure there is no impact on waterways, consult with local First Nations and communities, and replant. … And, if the province should decide to remove some of the land we are compensated for that lost value. That’s fair, at least on paper. …Changing the compensation structure when removing huge swaths of this land under contract puts current and future investments in our mills at real risk. …The province’s approach will no doubt attract lawsuits. It is also making BC an expensive, unreliable place to invest, which will serve to drive companies to put their focus and funds elsewhere.
Environmental groups scored a victory in their push for a ban on the pesticide glyphosate at the Federal Court of Appeal last week. The court ordered Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) to reconsider an objection to its approval of the pest control product glyphosate, which has been listed as a probable carcinogen. “Ecojustice is pleased with the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision which reinforces the right of Canadians to request an independent scientific review of decisions made by the PMRA about potentially harmful pest control products,” Toronto lawyer Laura Bowman, who works with the Canadian non-profit environmental law organization, said in a release.
Less than a year after Washington state committed $328 million toward reducing the impacts of climate-charged catastrophic wildfire and improving forest health, the U.S. Forest Service announced a plan liable to supercharge that effort. A 
Only the Government can turn a billion dollar asset into ashes and make your kids the victims of that loss. Oregon created the Elliott State forest 92 years ago with a promise that income from logging would fund the public schools. Now, Governor Kate Brown has plans to kill that income and burn the forest to the ground…no kidding. No logging has been allowed in the forest for years thanks to liberal democrat tree huggers in Salem. They strapped the forest with so many rules that the estimated billion dollar value is barely one fifth of that today. … No one wants to own it, even for a dollar, because the current greenie rules guarantee this billion dollar asset loses millions of dollars. … This year’s election decides whether the Elliott turns back into a healthy growing forest…
Governor Kathy Hochul recently has announced an initiative that will help to fortify NY forests that are constantly being threatened with encroachment from developers. Did you know that 15 billion trees are lost annually to deforestation every year? That’s a scary statistic. In New York State, urban sprawl continues to plague us, which results in more and more forested lands being eliminated. Typically, when unprotected forested lands come up for sale, the developers (the ones willing to pay the most) swoop in and before you know it there’s a new parking lot or single-story sprawl-like building. This is not sustainable. To combat this, $1 million in grant funds is now available to communities through DEC’s new Community Forest Conservation Grant Program via DEC’s new Community Forest Conservation Grant Program, according to Hochul. Now, municipalities can apply for the funding, which will help to safeguard at-risk forested land.
This study is believed to be the largest pre-invasion risk assessment of exotic tree pathogens ever conducted. Scientists seek answers through research, but sometimes, a lack of findings can be good news. A recent University of Florida-led study involving tree diseases uncovered no remarkable threats to common Southeastern United States trees, and the lead researcher says to file it as a cautiously optimistic “win.” Fungal disease represents one of the greatest threats to tree industries and forests in the United States. They’re carried by invasive wood borers from overseas. A pre-invasion risk assessment tested 111 fungi samples extracted from 55 Eurasian beetles. None of the greenhouse-grown oak or pine saplings inoculated with the fungi died during the study period, and only a few fungi were shown to be weak pathogens.
