Network with forest and conservation professionals and learn about job opportunities at the #MyGreenJob Career Fair! Join PLT Canada and Green Jobs employers on Thursday, February 10, 2022 for a virtual career fair hosted on Remo. The #MyGreenJob Career Fair will support young job seekers’ green career pathways and grow opportunities for young, diverse Canadians entering the Green Job sector. At the #MyGreenJob Career Fair, employers will be able to: Promote their organization and available opportunities; Meet diverse youth looking to break into the sector; and Interview attending job seekers.
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s (SFI) updated forest certification standards provide solutions to some of the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges. Sustainable forest management and the procurement of wood products from sustainably managed sources are critical tools that help avoid deforestation. When supported by the right policy frameworks, sustainable forest management acts as a bold but proven approach to tackling multiple global challenges by doing good instead of just avoiding harm. SFI is the largest forest certification standard in the world and its requirements are backed by third-party verification audits. SFI certification ensures healthy forests that mitigate climate change, reduce the impacts of catastrophic fire, protect and maintain biodiversity and verify that fiber is sourced legally and sustainably. …Forests are a powerful resource to mitigate climate change — but we can’t take them for granted. 
SFI certification is a powerful tool to provide customers and producers of forest products with the tools and guidance they need to make responsible supply chain decisions and achieve responsible forest management goals. The SFI standards help us achieve our mission to advance sustainability through forest-focused collaboration and these new standards include a variety of updates that help us address global challenges. With 370 million acres/150 million hectares certified to the SFI Forest Management Standard, and tens of millions of acres positively influenced by the SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard, SFI is working to create solutions at the scale needed to help protect the environment, combat climate change, reduce fire risks and promote dialogue and cooperation.
The B.C. government announced Tuesday it is developing a new strategy to protect watersheds and drinking water, in response to threats posed by climate change combined with the effects of urban and industrial development. Severe drought, wildfires, flooding and landslides in British Columbia last year show that responding to climate change requires focusing on water and strengthening natural defences provided by healthy watersheds, an expert says. …A discussion paper 
The B.C. government is moving ahead with a watershed security strategy to fund protection of wetlands that help protect against flooding, forest fires, drought and effects of climate shifts. Environment Minister George Heyman announced the project Tuesday, with a call for public input that is open until March 18 and a 
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Thirty years ago, surveyors for a logging company started mapping out the H’kusam forest in northern Vancouver Island. In a region where commercial forestry had already reduced many of the once-vast stands of forests to remnants, the local First Nations stepped in to protect the site, where they have traditionally harvested materials for clothing, medicine, canoes, totems and houses. Now, the Na̲nwaḵolas Council, representing four First Nations, has signed a deal with forestry company Western Forest Products that will temporarily protect 2,500 hectares of rare and significant ancient forest, including H’kusam. It’s the first such agreement under the British Columbia government’s recently announced plan to suspend logging in 2.6-million hectares of old-growth forest. …The Na̲nwaḵolas were the first out of the gate with an agreement only because they have spent years working with the forestry industry to reach the same kinds of stewardship deals that are now on the table. The deferrals happened to fit their plans.
PRINCE GEORGE – It was Day One of the Natural Resources Forum and the Chief of the Lheidli T’enneh used the venue to express concern over a new policy introduced by the government in November. … “We were informed that we had 30 days in which to respond. Since when did 30 days be significant enough to study a comprehensive new forest initiative and provide meaningful feedback?” Chief logan notes that many people within the Lheidli T’enneh work in the forest sector. “I for one would like to see the forest management plan support moose and other ungulates as well as to provide trees and to make lumber and pulp and other forest products. Let’s reset and determine a reasonable process to achieve progress in this matter. Let’s restart by working together as First Nations, industry, and other stakeholders to develop local old-growth management plans that work for everyone.”
The Fairy Creek old-growth blockade is heading into winter hibernation mode but the search remains ongoing for two activists missing in the remote region on southeast Vancouver Island. The Rainforest Flying Squad, the grassroots coalition behind the old-growth blockades, recently broke down the last of its publicly accessible camps due to extreme winter conditions. The Roadside Camp near the intersection of Granite Main logging road and Pacific Marine Road is now closed to the public, the RFS said in a press release Monday. A smaller remote camp with Indigenous land defenders and some long-haul forest protectors will stay, but any other occupants will need an invitation by Pacheedaht elder Bill Jones or youth leader Whale-tail Jones, who oppose any old-growth logging in their nation’s territory.
LOS ANGELES — The descendants of Native American tribes on the Northern California coast are reclaiming a bit of their heritage that includes ancient redwoods that have stood since their ancestors walked the land. Save the Redwoods League planned to announce Tuesday that it is transferring more than 500 acres (202 hectares) on the Lost Coast to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council. The group of 10 tribes that have inhabited the area for thousands of years will be responsible for protecting the land dubbed Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ, or “Fish Run Place,” in the Sinkyone language. Priscilla Hunter, chairwoman of the Sinkyone Council, said it’s fitting they will be caretakers of the land where her people were removed or forced to flee before the forest was largely stripped for timber.
A fire in January? Californians have, tragically, seen that before. But a fire in January after months of record-breaking rain? That’s far more unsettling. A blaze that erupted on the Central Coast over the weekend seemed to stun even those intimately familiar with California’s ongoing drought and its increasingly year-round fire season. The National Weather Service’s Bay Area office called the fast-moving fire near Big Sur “surreal,” given the recent storms. California saw heavy rainfall in the final three months of 2021, leading many to believe that the threat of fire would lessen for at least the next few months. But the latest blaze revealed a harsh reality: The drought has become so severe that even a series of torrential storms wasn’t enough to end it. …And January, usually one of the wettest months of the year, has been unseasonably dry.
The federal government last week announced an all-out, coordinated effort to reduce soaring wildfire risks, including a focus on critical watersheds and endangered forested communities. The effort would jumpstart the long-stalled effort to thin the C.C. Cragin watershed, on which Rim Country’s future water supply depends. The effort would also provide a boost for efforts to thin the forests in the White Mountains, where communities like Show Low and Pinetop face a greater fire danger than did Paradise, California. …Rep. Tom O’Halleran joined US Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and Sen. Mark Kelly to make the announcement during a tour of Arizona forests. …The plan’s national in scope — with California and other states clamoring for more money in the face of the past two catastrophic years. However, the decade of work on 4FRI could put Arizona near the head of the line.
What does a healthy forest look like? There are dozens of ways you could find an answer, but Rob York … starts with his own question: “Can you run through it?” … “The idea is that if it doesn’t have a lot of fuel on the ground [like] sticks and logs, you should be able to run through it.” … York’s example is part of Blodgett Forest, an isolated area just west of Lake Tahoe. York, who is a researcher with UC Berkeley, and others like him investigate different land management techniques at the site, such as prescribed burning, which is deliberately setting a fire to clear out the area. And with those techniques come a revised image of a healthy forest. … This forest is parceled out like patchwork, with different pieces of land assigned to different management techniques, in order to evaluate their effectiveness side-by-side.
In 1904, a biologist found an American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) in the Bronx Zoo that didn’t look so good. By 1940, virtually every mature chestnut within the species’ natural range … had perished. Enormous efforts by foresters, scientists and private land owners to save the trees were fruitless. It’s estimated in the course of those 36 years, the eastern forests lost some 3.5 billion trees. Prior to this devastation, about one of every four hardwoods in this region of some 8.8 million acres had been a chestnut. The killer was the fungus causing Chestnut blight, Cryphonectria parasitica. …It would be difficult to overstate the negative ecological and economic impacts of the loss of this one species from our woodlands. …Suppose you could plant a half-dozen American chestnuts in the family woodlot. You’d never see them as full-grown, blight-resistant trees, but your grandkids would. Suppose they were genetically engineered — GMO —saplings. Would you do it?
