Extinction Rebellion protesters don’t care about “decolonization.” The loosely organized environmental activist group, known for blocking major roads and disrupting lives the world over, adopted the term to latch onto Indigenous people like a mosquito, and not for any inherent concern for them. They only respect Indigenous people who agree with them. …Wanting to save the planet is a fairly common goal. Blocking commutes or vital routes to the hospital will have absolutely no impact on that. …Roads aren’t just for getting to work. They are used by people who need medical care. …Similarly opportunistic is the craftiness of the Extinction Rebellion’s rhetoric. …The activists at Fairy Creek, which include many Extinction Rebellion members, made headlines all last year for blockading roads to prevent old growth logging — logging which provides economic opportunities for Indigenous workers. Almost none of those holding up signs are Indigenous.
Branding the world’s primary forests as ancient is probably one of the slickest con jobs in recent environmental history. Because ancient forests (in the normal sense of the word) are few and far between, if they exist at all. Back in 2006, Greenpeace proclaimed the boreal forest of Canada “one of the largest tracts of ancient forest in the world” … But Greenpeace did not define ancient forests in terms of how old the trees were. ” In subsequent years, … Canopy has taken the “ancient” campaign to another level, promoting the Ancient and Endangered Forests brand and boosting an Ancient Forest Friendly logo scheme that corporations can buy into … My objection here is to the hijacking of the meaning of the word ancient for emotional and commercial purposes, and to the media’s continued and inaccurate use of the word. 
I read with interest, an article appearing in the December 31 edition of thenelsondaily.com (
The Alberta Forest Products Association is warning Albertans that soaring energy prices are soon coming. “We see this as an issue that scares us,” said Brock Mulligan, AFPA senior vice president, at the High Prairie town council meeting. He asked council to consider supporting the forest industry to “push back” against the Alberta Electric System Operator’s proposal to redesign their tariff. Costs would increase 40 per cent for the forest industry, said Mulligan. The result is lumber companies are generating their own power to save money. With less power drawn from the grid because of this, all consumers – industrial or residential – will pay more. Mulligan disputes the claim that the redesign will save residential customers money. “The average household would see less than $1 a month in savings,” said Mulligan. “Meanwhile, large industrial consumers [such as forest companies] would see substantially higher transmission rates.”
Over the past two years, the Ashcroft Indian Band has been pressing the British Columbia government to overhaul the province’s forestry policies, saying the current system doesn’t reflect the government’s commitment to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples or its legal obligations to them. …The effort is part of a province-wide push by First Nations to gain more influence over an industry that has shaped settlement and trade in B.C. for more than a century and remains a significant economic force. …In theory, the stage is set for First Nations to assume a major role. …The First Nations Forestry Council, an advocacy group focused on forest policy, has said the recent [government] changes are at odds with reconciliation commitments and with B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. The group has called for a “reset.” …The provincial government’s revised legislation does not address revenue-sharing, FNFC executive director Charlene Higgins said. [We respect the copyrights of the source publication – full access may require a Globe and Mail subscription]
Anti-old-growth-logging protesters have vacated one of their last remaining camps leading to the Fairy Creek Watershed. …The group also says the snow makes their roadside campsite dangerous so…they’re pulling out of one of their last remaining camps at least for the short term. “There’s no logging happening right now. Mother nature has her own blockade with the snow so we have an Indigenous-led occupation on their own territory and they’ll stay and keep watch for spring or for next actions with industry and we’ll just be waiting,” said Shawna Knight from the Rainforest Flying Squad. …“We won’t be going away. We’re simply attending to our safety at other places and we will be patrolling and checking all the access points to the territory,” said Bill Jones, a Pacheedaht elder. …The protesters say some of their members are now involved in protests on Wet’suwet’en territory while others will take a much-needed break.
A Nanaimo family that has worked their lives in forestry is warning there will be serious impacts if the government stops all old-growth logging. Lifetime Nanaimo resident Tim Dorman grew up in a logging family. He and his siblings spent their lives in the industry now they own numerous forestry companies that depend on old-growth logging, employing more than 200 people. But they’re facing an uncertain future after the B.C. government deferred a large section of old-growth logging in November. “It’s going to cause everybody that’s worked hard all their life, their assets are going to crash in price and people are going to be out of really good-paying jobs,” said Dorman. …Dorman says every time the loggers and B.C. government have made agreements protecting old-growth, anti-loggers change the goalposts. “They’re never going to give up. They just want us to stop logging,” said Dorman. 
We are happy to announce the start of a new partnership with Mosaic Forest Management on Vancouver Island in BC, Canada. LOTS, through 
A new conservation foundation is working to provide Indigenous and other land-based communities with funds to protect endangered ecosystems and build economic alternatives to the logging of at-risk old-growth forests. It’s unjust and impractical to expect communities that rely on revenue from activities such as forestry, ranching or resource extraction to bear the financial burden of shifting their local economy on their own to protect areas for the benefit of all, said Ken Wu, chair of the recently established Nature-Based Solutions Foundation. … Conservation financing allows communities to protect or conserve valuable ecosystems and is ideally paired with the development of economic alternatives in areas such as tourism, recreation, clean energy, sustainable fisheries and agriculture, or the setting up Indigenous Guardian programs, where people who live on the land become the stewards of conservation areas in their territories … provincial and federal governments need to step up and provide the lion’s share.
BRITISH COLUMBIA – Real dialogue and consultation with the provincial government over NDP forest policy tops the list of priorities at this week’s Truck Loggers Association (TLA) convention this Wednesday and Thursday in Vancouver. The TLA plans to initiate the “long overdue dialogue through a series of virtual sessions with industry representatives offering a broad spectrum of viewpoints”. It will include a series of speakers and sessions to address the “harsh reality and implications of sweeping forest policy changes by the BC government, and options to move the sector forward.” …The TLA has called for meaningful collaboration among all key stakeholders for a number of months, including First Nations, community groups, licensees, and non-government organizations. The Association has suggested there is an opportunity for a collective vision for forestry that addresses society’s expectations of BC’s forest-management while ensuring decision-making is informed with a true understanding of the issues and the consequences.
Town of Fort Frances Mayor June Caul issued a public apology for releasing a confidential legal opinion to a local resident, during Monday night’s council meeting. The apology was made at the unanimous request of council, following an in-camera discussion. “I definitely misstepped in the way I handled the situation,” Caul said in her statement. “I should have asked council to give me permission to share the report from the lawyers and for this, I humbly apologize.” …A local barrister claimed he obtained, through a Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection Privacy Act request, all emails Caul sent to and received from local resident David Kircher. …Kircher has been publicly vocal about investigating the sustainable forest license that was held by Resolute Forest Products when they owned the Fort Frances mill. The sustainable forest license is now under the management of the Boundary Waters Forest Management Corporation. 
Threats of wildfires to New Mexico’s forests could be getting worse. A report from climate change organization States At Risk showed New Mexico could grow from 15 days a year of with high wildfire risk in 2000 to 30 in 2030 and up to 40 days with increased risk by 2050. …While many wildfires are caused by lighting or other natural forms of ignition in remote areas of southern New Mexico, scientists pointed to increasingly dire drought brought on by human impacts on climate change as creating conditions where the fires could burn longer and hotter. …This week, New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department established a memorandum of understanding with New Mexico State University, University of New Mexico and New Mexico Highlands University to create the New Mexico Reforestation Center. The Center will focus on ways to recover areas around the state damaged by wildfires in recent years.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new letter, signed Tuesday by Tuolumne County’s Board of Supervisors aims to prevent the next big fire from occurring in the county by asking that the U.S. Forest Service not let fires burn out.The letter calls on the Forest Service to “replace the current let burn Agency-wide internal direction with the Initial Fire Attack.” In an August memorandum, which sparked the creation of the letter, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said that while the agency’s primary strategy in 2021 was initial attack, fire resources would only be committed to fires where the agency has “a high probability of success and they can operate safely and effectively.” “Initial attack” refers to not letting fires burn out on their own by attempting to extinguish all fires regardless of conditions. The Forest Service has continued to deny the existence of a “let it burn” policy.
Global companies and financial institutions with the highest potential for curbing deforestation are largely failing to do so, undermining pledges to protect forests made at the COP26 climate summit in November, a report said Thursday. The Forest 500 analysis by non-profit research group Global Canopy graded 350 companies most responsible for producing, using or trading commodities that drive deforestation, along with the 150 biggest banks, investment firms and pension funds that finance them. One-in-three companies assessed had no forest commitments at all, and 72 percent addressed some but not all of the forest-related commodities in their supply chains. …”Too few companies recognise the climate risks that are caused by deforestation, with few including their supply chains in their reporting,” Niki Mardas, executive director of Global Canopy Executive Directory, told AFP. …Progress is even more halting among financial firms, which provide more than $5.5 trillion every year to companies in forest-risk supply chains, according to the report.
India’s forest and tree cover has risen by 2,261 square kilometers in the last two years with Andhra Pradesh growing the maximum forest cover of 647 square kilometers, according to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021 released on Thursday. The biennial report by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), an assessment of the country’s forest resources, was released by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav. He revealed that the total tree-and-forest cover in the country includes an increase of 1,540 square kilometres of forest cover and 721 sq km of tree cover compared to the 2019 report. “It is very satisfying to know that the tree and forest cover has increased in India. The report also touches aspects which are important in terms of climate change. … According to the report, India’s total forest and tree cover is now spread across 80.9 million hectares, which is 24.62% of the geographical area of the country.
LONDON – A third of the 350 companies most exposed to commodities such as palm oil, beef and timber have no policies to ensure their products are not fuelling deforestation, a report by NGO Global Canopy showed on Thursday. Protecting the world’s forests is central to efforts to limit man-made global warming by mid-century, and at the COP26 climate talks, 141 countries pledged to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. …more than 30 financial institutions with nearly $9 trillion in assets said they would aim to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation from their portfolios by 2025. Britain has already made it a legal responsibility for companies to ensure they have no illegal deforestation in their supply chains, and the European Union and United States are looking at similar legislation. …In its annual ‘Forest 500’ report, Global Canopy said just 28% of companies that produce, use, trade or sell commodities had comprehensive policies covering all those they were exposed to.
