As Canadians face the growing threat of extreme weather events, high-intensity forest fires, and biodiversity loss, Forests Canada hosted The Forest Conference on February 19 and 20 in Mississauga, Ontario to bring experts from different fields together to talk about how we can conserve, restore, and grow Canada’s forests. During the conference, Forests Canada announced its annual award winners and would like to congratulate the award recipients.
BURNABY, BC
The Willow Creek watershed project will restore wetlands and watercourses in the Homalco First Nation’s territory to reduce flooding and other climate disaster risks, but also boost cultural values and sustainable economic development, said Xwémalhkwu (Homalco) Chief Darren Blaney. Wetlands and riparian areas are critical because they slow and store water moving across the landscape during heavy rains to prevent floods and reduce the wildfire risk created when forests dry out. The Xwémalhkwu, whose territory is in the Campbell River area, recently secured $1.5 million in provincial funding for watershed mapping to identify flood risks and environmentally important areas, Blaney said. The project will focus on balancing the community’s climate resiliency with ecological needs. …Collaborating with partners like Strathcona Regional District will create a holistic approach to flooding that will also protect downstream neighbours, like Campbell River’s Willow Point community, David Carson, Homalco’s emergency planning and land use consultant noted. 
The province’s review of B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS) is based on a false contention the industry is running out of wood because of allowable annual cut reductions, says the Valhalla Wilderness Society (VWS). VWS said the Ministry’s review of BCTS to ensure the province’s forestry sector “is continually evolving to overcome challenges and create a guideline for a stronger, more resilient future” is barking up the wrong tree. VWS’ Anne Sherrod said the province’s intention to protect more old-growth and reform forestry in a more environmentally beneficial manner lasted only until the forest industry applied enough pressure. …Logging companies were already moving their mills and jobs out of B.C. long before U.S. President Donald Trump was elected, said Sherrod, and claims the province continues to reduce the allowable annual cut, or isn’t signing permits fast enough and environmentalists are depriving them of wood, are just excuses.
VICTORIA – Workers and communities throughout B.C. are benefiting from Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) supported projects that reduce wildfire risk and increase fibre supply, keeping local mills and energy plants running in the face of U.S. tariff threats and unjustified softwood lumber duties. With $28 million from the Province, FESBC is supporting 43 new and expanded fibre-recovery projects and 31 new and expanded wildfire-mitigation projects. “In tough times, I want workers in our forest sector to know I’ve got their back,” said Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests. “Whether it’s better utilizing existing sources of fibre or helping protect communities from wildfire, the projects are supporting workers and companies as they develop new and innovative forest practices.” Projects are taking place in all eight of the Province’s natural resource regions, helping create jobs, reducing wildfire risk and supporting B.C.’s pulp and biomass sector. They will be complete by the end of March 2025, in advance of wildfire season.
The Tłı̨chǫ Government in the Northwest Territories signed 
Recently there has been discussion about upcoming forest harvesting plans on Tree Farm Licence 47 on Quadra Island. This area is within the unceded and core territory of the We Wai Kai Nation, who approves all forest management activities on the TFL. The Nation and Mosaic Forest Management have worked closely to develop a constructive relationship based on the recognition that as title holder, We Wai Kai has the right to ensure that resources on Quadra Island are being managed consistent with their conservation values and their right to benefit economically from resource extraction on their title lands. The Nation’s logging company, Way Key, is conducting all harvesting on the TFL on Quadra. Both We Wai Kai and Mosaic recognize there is interest in future harvesting activities. We also know that Islanders want a map that identifies where the old growth is (as part of a spatially explicit strategy) before harvesting occurs. 
The Kaslo and District Community Forest Society (KDCFS) revisited previous board discussions about future logging plans needed to mitigate fires. During a Feb. 20 meeting, KDCFS members highlighted the demand for cedar and fir while highlighting that several blocks of hemlock trees have been damaged by past fires, rendering some unusable. The Briggs Creek fire that occurred in 2022 led to the destruction of many hemlock trees that will need to be harvested in the next two years before deteriorating. Society forester and treasurer Jeff Mattes explained that the society’s logging plans for the year 2025 will include utilizing a patch-cut system to reserve some of the trees. A patch-cut system refers to the removal of an entire stand of trees less than one hectare.
Devices used to detect and prevent wildfires in remote forests are expensive, but the one that Northeastern University student Anson He is making will be cheaper to launch on drones over dense woodlands. He is pursuing his master’s degree in computer science at Northeastern’s Vancouver campus. In January, he started a co-op at Bayes Studio — a Vancouver company that uses robotics and machine learning to make forest fire detection tools. He is helping to produce a device that uses less expensive components than others on the market. His role is core to the small company’s success: He is in charge of prototyping the hardware and coding the software for what Bayes calls its Edge device. Other team members work on integrating artificial intelligence into the device’s functionality and connecting the device to servers.
Chronically understaffed, the service was already under a Biden-era hiring freeze, all the while on the front lines of fighting and recovering from back-to-back climate disasters across the country. …For now, workers with the Forest Service fear this is a turning point for public lands and what they mean in the United States. …In the South, forest workers played a key role in helping western North Carolina recover from impacts of Hurricane Helene. In the West, they’re taking on fire risk mitigation and fighting wildfires. They’re also involved in fisheries management in Alaska. …A spokesperson with the USDA said the new agricultural secretary, Brooke Rollins, supported Trump’s directive to cut spending and inefficiencies while strengthening the department’s services. “As part of this effort, USDA has made the difficult decision to release about 2,000 probationary, non-firefighting employees from the Forest Service. To be clear, none of these individuals were operational firefighters.”
After a century of wildfire suppression across the West, it’s no secret that the approach to forest management has needed to change. And change is, and has been, underway. But newly proposed changes, now in the form of legislation that would let fuel mitigation projects, including logging, in high-risk zones like the forest surrounding Durango skirt the public input process have some environmental groups up in arms. The
RAPID CITY, S.D. – South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden says during one of his several meetings with USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins last week, he and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon had an extensive conversation about the Black Hills and timber contracts. “Just what’s at stake for the Black Hills as far as wildland fires, dangers, the insect infestations and just our timber industry and the future of that in general,” said Rhoden. Rhoden continued on saying he was “very encouraged by the conversation we had with her, that we’re going to take steps to rectify that.” Rhoden says the current amount of timber harvested is far below what is allowed. “Not even close, and under the Biden administration we were just banging our heads against the wall. We would provide the facts and the data, and they were ignored,” the governor explained. 
For over a century, the American environmental movement has been animated by an intuitive and simple idea: Protecting trees means leaving forests alone. This stance—championed by figures like John Muir—was based on the belief that any alteration, including thinning or intentional burning, of wilderness harms it. While this ideology helped prevent widespread destruction by timber companies, it also created unintended consequences. Research now shows that overgrown forests are fueling unnaturally severe wildfires, causing irreparable ecological damage and massive economic loss… A key issue remains limited funding. Budget cuts to state and federal land management agencies have reduced the resources available for proactive fire prevention… Insurance and legal concerns further complicate matters. While the need for improved wildfire mitigation is widely recognized, legislative gridlock, environmental regulations, and partisan divisions have slowed progress.
Each spring, the U.S. Forest Service hires dozens of seasonal biologists to venture into remote Northwest forests on federal land and set up acoustic recorders to monitor for sounds indicating the presence of northern spotted owls, a threatened species. There are only as many as 5,000 northern spotted owls left in the Northwest… The counting is crucial for preventing the owls’ extinction. But President Donald Trump ordered a hiring freeze that means the Forest Service cannot hire more than 40 seasonal scientists to count the owls, according to Taal Levi, an associate professor at Oregon State University who works on owl monitoring. The monitoring typically involves about 60 scientists working from central California to Canada, Levi said. It also means the agency will likely go without dozens more scientists needed to monitor threatened and endangered salmon, frogs and other fragile species…. 
…On Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Missoula federal district judge Donald Molloy’s rulings on a few counts that will require the Kootenai National Forest to keep the Black Ram logging project on hold for a while longer. The appeals court upheld rulings on two of four claims that the U.S. Forest Service challenged, so the agency must redo parts of its project analysis. First, the justices agreed that the Forest Service failed to comply with Kootenai Forest Plan because the agency didn’t show whether or how it included unauthorized roads in its road density calculations. …Second, the justices agreed that the Forest Service didn’t take “a hard look,” as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, at unauthorized road use and its effects. The justices pointed at the agency’s unsupported claims of sporadic use of roads and prompt barrier repair as proof.
The US Department of Agriculture revoked a federal tree-planting grant to Keep Indianapolis Beautiful in a move the nonprofit’s CEO Kranowitz said may be the result of anti-DEI initiatives coming from the Trump Administration. The money would have helped KIB plant more trees throughout the city, and those plantings should not be all the same kind of tree, Kranowitz explained. The $400,000 grant for urban forestry projects was awarded to the organization in January through the Arbor Day Foundation, but was then clawed back on Tuesday. There’s growing evidence that words like “biodiversity” are being targeted by federal agencies bent on terminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives across the country. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins recently cancelled a federal contract in Hawaii for an agency meeting on biodiversity and has identified and canceled other training programs on environmental justice claiming they run “contrary to the values of millions of American taxpayers.”