Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

Wildfires affecting water quality in Fraser River, say UBC researchers

By Tiffany Crawford
The Vancouver Sun
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Ash and chemicals from some of BC’s largest wildfires are winding up in the Fraser River, which could eventually lead to low oxygen levels and harm marine life, say UBC researchers. In a peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, scientists linked increases in the concentrations of compounds like arsenic and lead, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, to wildfires that had burned near the 1,375 kilometre long river. These are all compounds that are found naturally in the water. However, researchers tracked a significant increase in compounds as wildfires were happening near the river. The researchers studied fires within 500 metres, 1,000 metres and 1,500 metres. Fires burning close to major waterways had immediate influence on water quality, said Emily Brown, a research scientist at UBC’s institute for the oceans and fisheries. The more distant wildfires had delayed influence on water quality.

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Canada’s Forest Sector Welcomes G7 Wildfire Commitment

Forest Products Association of Canada
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Forest Products Association of Canada issued this statement to recognize the release of the Kananaskis Wildfire Charter at the G7 meetings: Canada’s forest sector welcomes the G7’s commitment to address the environmental, economic, health, and social challenges that come with the increase in catastrophic wildfires globally. Over 3.7 million hectares have already burned in Canada this year, putting us on pace for our second worst fire season on record. To put that in some context, more than five times the land base that Canada’s foresters would harvest in an entire year has already burned in 2025. And when Canada’s foresters do their work, they ensure the forest is regrown. Fires in some parts of Canada are now burning so hot that regeneration of these forests are challenged due to scorched soils. The time for action is now. Quite simply, fires will get worse if we are not more proactive in managing fuel loads and our aging forests.  

Additional coverage by Matthew Scace at the Canadian Press: G7 leaders agree to ‘charter’ on wildfires, pledging global co-operation

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Canada’s wildfire crisis is displacing First Nations at alarming rates

The Grist
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Since mid-May, wildfires across Canada have burned 9.6 million acres, prompting the evacuation of approximately 40,000 people. According to Indigenous Services Canada, a government ministry, more than half of those evacuees are from First Nations communities, and nearly 34 tribes in almost every province are affected. The sudden rush of refugees has challenged the country’s crisis response infrastructure as people seek shelter and services in cities far from their homes, with little information of when they may return to their communities. …Indigenous Services Canada has been authorized to release $20.9 million to disburse to First Nations. …According to an Intact Centre report in 2023, 60 percent of Canadian communities are now vulnerable to wildfires, a third of which are Indigenous living on reserves. 

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Calls to defer Elphinstone Highlands cutblock auction supported

By Connie Jordison
The Sunshine Coast Reporter
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Elphinstone and West Howe Sound community associations’ efforts to have B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS) defer the 35.2 hectare Elphinstone Highlands cutblock (TA0519) from its current Q1 sales schedule received support from the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board. Provision of a letter of support for the deferral requests was endorsed at the board’s June 12 meeting. According to the BCTS Chinook area sales schedule released April 17, TA0519 was slated to go to auction by June 30. In a June 18 email response to Coast Reporter, the Ministry of Forests stated that “Sales schedules are issued to notify of upcoming proposed timber sales auctions. BC Timber Sales starts accepting bids when a licence is placed on BC Bid for auction… TA0519 is a partial harvest/commercial thin sale and was pulled from BC Bid due to an administrative error. It is anticipated that TA0519 will be reposted this fiscal year.”

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BC prepares to clearcut old growth in the Walker Valley

By James Steidle
The Prince George Citizen
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

James Steidle

One of the great mysteries in the local forest industry has got to be why BC Timber Sales would start auctioning off the Walker wilderness for clearcut logging while obstructing a shift to plantation thinning. I went to a Conservation North event on May 23 to watch their film The Walker Valley. …What really struck me about the presentation was the importance of the Walker for threatened bull trout and endangered chinook salmon. …Despite that, BC Timber Sales is in the process of auctioning off cutblocks of old-growth in the lower Walker to start moving the industrial clearcut plantation machine into the headwaters. If the history of logging around Prince George is any indicator, where the clearcuts happen, the helicopter glyphosate herbicides follow and we usually end up with lifeless even-aged monocrop plantations with next to no wildlife, nothing like the old growth mixtures we had before.

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Speĺkúmtn Community Forest launches carbonizer pilot project

By Luke Faulks
The Pique News Magazine
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The Spel’kúmtn Community Forest is piloting a new technology with the potential to change how post-harvest forest waste is managed in the Pemberton Valley. The community forest has brought in a mobile carbonizer from SkyTech Yarding to process woody debris left over from timber harvests, known as slash piles, in the Miller Creek area. The machine converts biomass into biochar—a valuable soil product—and is touted as a cleaner, more climate-conscious alternative to conventional open-pile burning. …The Tigercat Carbonizer 6040 being used in Miller Creek burns biomass in a low-oxygen environment, producing significantly less smoke and yielding biochar—a charcoal-like, carbon-rich material that can enhance soil health and sequester carbon long-term.

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Class of 2025: Father and child graduate Forest Technology together

By Scott Messenger
Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Cassady & Darren Spencer

In 2023, Cassady and Darren Spencer (Forest Technology ’25, both) decided to answer the call of the wild… [which] led them to one place: as father and child studying the same program at NAIT at the same time. Darren, now 49, was curious about a career change. Cassady, now 21, was intrigued by a summer job as a junior forest ranger with Alberta’s Ministry of Forestry and Parks. Once Cassady was accepted into NAIT, Darren broached the issue. “We discussed the strange possibility of me going to post-secondary school with Cass,” he says. But Cassady didn’t think it was strange at all. The opposite, in fact. …We caught up with them, now out in the wild – Darren with Alberta Parks as an interpreter in the David Thomson Corridor; Cassady with West Fraser Timber, supporting forest management – to learn more about their mutual milestone.

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‘Absolutely critical’: Teched out new planes lead B.C. wildfire response

By Andrew Johnson
CTV News
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Before an aircraft in British Columbia drops water on a wildfire or crews attack flames from the ground, a pilot like Rob Verstraten gets there first. “We size up the fire to see what terrain and hazards we have to deal with,” Verstraten said. He flies in one of two new TBM 960 Air Attack planes from Conair Aerial Firefighting, known as “birddogs,” alongside a provincial air attack officer. Together, they orchestrate the aerial response to a wildfire. It’s a crucial role, according to Conair’s director of business development. “Without a strong birddog team your operation won’t be safe, effective, or efficient,” said Michael Benson said. Benson says the two new birddogs are the most modern in the world, and cost roughly $10 million based on the purchase price paid by Conair and modifications to maximize their effectiveness at fighting fires. The installed technology includes advanced weather sensors and infrared cameras.

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BC logging deal sparks clash over Indigenous rights and endangered owl

By Stefan Labbe
Business in Vancouver
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

An insolvent BC forestry company’s attempt to sell off a forest licence to pay back creditors has triggered a dispute with several First Nations, who allege the company is attempting an “end run” around their rights. This spring, three Indigenous groups challenged the Teal-Jones Group before a BC Supreme Court judge for attempting to complete an interim transfer of forest licence A19201 to Western Canadian Timber Products (WCTP). The move came before the B.C. Minister of Forests could consult with 39 First Nations who have territory in the area. …The legal dispute hinged on whether the proposed interim agreement triggered a duty to consult with First Nations. But Fitzpatrick ruled Teal Jones’ agreement with WCTP remained “the highest and best offer presently available for consideration and approval after all that time.” The judge concluded that the sales process had been conducted in a “fair and reasonable manner”.

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Matthews West begins vision for Somass Lands

By Gord Kurbis
Alberni Valley News
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Looking over the 40-acre waterfront Somass property, Port Alberni’s Chief Administrative Officer Mike Fox sees an area that is key to shaping the city’s future. “I believe this project will be one of those defining moments where people will look back years from now and comment on how the community rallied and how we enabled the development of this key waterfront area,” he says. The land that once housed Western Forest Products Somass Division was purchased from the timber giant after the mill was shuttered in 2017 and the land sat vacant for more than a decade… While there was early discussion about trying to incorporate some of the structures used in the operation of the mill, geotechnical and structural analysis work is being done to see if any meet building standards. One of the buildings included in initial discussions burned down last summer.

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Whistler advances new tree and environmental bylaws amid widespread support

By Liz McDonald
Pique News Magazine
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Whistler’s mayor and council advanced a pair of sweeping environmental bylaws that will introduce stricter rules for tree removal and land disturbance across the resort community. At its regular meeting, council gave first three readings to new environmental and tree protection bylaws, with 87 letters submitted in support and a wave of speakers appearing in council chambers to back the regulations. The bylaws were introduced to address long-standing gaps in how Whistler protects its natural areas, following community concern over clear-cut lots, unregulated vegetation removal and heightened wildfire risk. In addition to creating a new permit process for tree removal, the rules prohibit land clearing in sensitive areas and carry steep penalties for infractions—up to $50,000 for unauthorized tree-cutting.

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McBride Community Forest Expanded Election Boundaries

Letter by Al Birnie, Former Chair, Take Back Our Forest, 2010
The Rocky Mountain Goat
June 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Attending the McBride Community Forest Corporation Open House on May 24, I was both surprised and delighted to hear Chair Mike Monroe announce that the Articles of Incorporation of the MCFC have been permanently amended to guarantee that, starting with the 2026 Board elections, the majority of members will be elected by voters throughout the area of the forest, rather than only McBride Village Council! …This is how the CF was proposed to be structured in the first place, and is exactly what Mike and I and many others unsuccessfully fought for back in 2010 through the community group Take Back Our Forest! …The new arrangement by no means automatically solves every issue the CF will have to deal with, as there naturally will be differing opinions on how it should operate.

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Documentary ‘B.C. is Burning’ set to premiere in region feeling the heat

By Jen Zielinski
The Northern View
June 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

An independent documentary on the causes and consequences of British Columbia’s escalating wildfire crisis will premiere in Kelowna and Vernon this month. The 45-minute film, B.C. is Burning, was put together through community funding and will attempt to investigate what’s fuelling today’s mega-fires and look into the science-based solutions that could protect the province’s forests, communities, and future. Produced and written by retired forester Murray Wilson, the film was initiated by associate producer Rick Maddison… Featuring forest professionals, wildfire officials, and researchers, B.C. is Burning reveals the growing urgency—and the real solutions—to managing fire in an age of climate change, said Wilson. …The Kelowna screening will take place Tuesday, June 24 at 7 p.m. at the Mary Irwin Theatre. The Vernon screening will take place Thursday, June 26,  at 7 p.m. at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre

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Nakusp open house welcomes public into wildfire fuel break work

By Evert Lindquist
Revelstoke Review
June 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Residents curious for an update and behind-the-scenes on local forest fuel mitigation this wildfire season are invited to attend a free open house in Nakusp this Wednesday, June 17. Hosted by the Nakusp & Area Community Forest (NACFOR), the event unites voices from forestry, conservation, wildfire management and FireSmart to educate participants on work happening northeast of Nakusp at the Wensley Creek Cross Country Ski Trails to minimize fire-spreading foliage. “NACFOR contractors have been working on both the commercial harvesting patches that were planned for the Wensley Creek area, and continuing hand treatment of understory and ground fuel in other areas,” communications specialist Skye Cunningham shared by email.

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Wildfire risk reduction project near Merritt a model for community-led forest management

By Jeff Andreas
RadioNL
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A wildfire risk reduction initiative led by the Lower Nicola Indian Band Development Corporation (LNIBDC) has significantly decreased wildfire hazards in the Steffens Estates area, just north of Merritt, while setting an example for Indigenous-led land stewardship in British Columbia. The multi-phase project, which began in 2022 and was completed in March 2024, combined strategic timber harvesting with intensive fuel mitigation efforts to create safer forest conditions near the Steffens Estates subdivision—land bordering private residences and Crown forests. With more work planned near Steffens Estates and around critical communications infrastructure on Iron Mountain, the project is part of a broader effort to proactively manage wildfire risk in British Columbia. B.C. Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar also praised the initiative: “Wildfire risk reduction is one of the most important ways we can protect people, homes, and vital infrastructure – especially as our province faces the growing impacts of climate change.”

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New glyphosate study sparks questions about New Brunswick use

By Andrew Waugh
The Telegraph-Journal
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

A new study suggests small, consistent amounts of exposure to the herbicide glyphosate can lead to higher incidents of cancer – a finding that has Green party Leader David Coon calling on the province to take the issue seriously. The study, by the Italian-based non-profit Ramazzini Institute, involved exposing rats to small levels of the herbicide and two other products for 2+ years. It found that “statistically significant dose-related (amounts of glyphosate) increased incidences of benign and malignant tumors.”…Bayer, which uses glyphosate in its Roundup herbicide, denounced the study. “It is clear this study has serious methodological flaws, which is consistent with the Ramazzini Institute’s long history of making misleading claims about the safety of various products,” the company said. …A government spokesperson initially told Brunswick News that the study’s findings weren’t applicable in New Brunswick because two products studied aren’t used in Canada.

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400-year-old spruce tree a window into history of dwindling New Brunswick forests

By Katelin Belliveau
CBC News
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

Chris Watson of Lorneville, a rural community in southwest Saint John, recently saw what he believed to be a centuries-old red spruce near Spruce Lake. He drilled a small hole into the trunk by hand and took a pencil-sized sample to have it tested. Ben Phillips, environmental lecturer at Mount Allison University, began a process known as dendochronology on the sample — a study that measures the age of trees by counting small lines otherwise known as tree rings. “This tree, I can confidently say, is over 400 years old,” Phillips, who runs the Acadian Forest Dendochronology Lab on campus, said about the sample he got from Watson. “It is probably in the top 10 oldest trees in the province that I know of.” …Both Phillips and Ilana Urquhart, Nature Trust of New Brunswick conservation co-ordinator, want to see legislation put in place in New Brunswick that would protect areas with old growth, specifically.

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Remembering a key player behind the Sault’s ‘bug lab’

By Darren Taylor
The Soo Today
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

Family members and local scientists gathered at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre on Monday to remember James MacBain Cameron. Cameron spearheaded the Centre’s growth from modest roots to its modern day status as a large, respected scientific facility. An entomologist, Cameron was born in Scotch Hill, Nova Scotia in 1910. He moved to the Sault in 1945 and was the original director of the Insect Pathology Research Institute, dedicated to protecting forests in the ongoing fight against threats posed by insects.  The Insect Pathology Research Institute eventually became known as the Great Lakes Forestry Centre in 1976, one year after Cameron’s death in 1975. Cameron is remembered in a professional sense for making the Centre grow through his ability to recruit scientists to work at the Queen Street East lab.

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Edmonton keeping eye out for ‘relentless killer’ in tree canopy

By Brittany Ekelund
CTV News
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The City of Edmonton is keeping an eye out for what it calls a “deceptively attractive” and “tremendously damaging” invasive pest that has been spreading in Canada. The emerald ash borer is a bright metallic green beetle the city said has proven to be a “relentless killer” of ash trees in North America – with 99 per cent of trees in an infested area dying within 6 years of the beetle’s arrival. The insect, which is native to eastern Asia, lays its eggs in ash trees. The larvae then chew through the cambium layer of the bark and create tunnels that stop the flow of nutrients in damaged areas and eventually kill the tree. Mike Jenkins, senior scientist with the City of Edmonton, said the beetles were first found in North America in the 1990s.

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Tent caterpillars are back

By Julianna Balsamo
CTV News
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

They slither in silence, drape trees in silk and chew through lively leaves. This year, the forests of Ontario are full of a very distinctive, creepy crawler – the tent caterpillar. Eastern tent caterpillars are appearing in large numbers across the province marking what experts describe as an ‘outbreak year’ for the species. While noticeable, the current outbreak is not as severe as previous ones, according to Dan Rowlinson, forest health field coordinator with Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources. According to the Government of Ontario, periodic outbreaks occur roughly every 10 to 12 years and typically last three to six years in a particular areas. The tent caterpillar, often mistaken for their close relatives; the spongy moth, is known for having a similar looking larvae.

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‘Charmin wipes out a forest’ premieres July 1st

By Ken Martin
The Austin Bulldog
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Steve Mins

“Please don’t squeeze the Charmin.” …the goal of a new documentary is precisely to squeeze Charmin. The tactic is to create a wave of public support that will force its manufacturer to give up the destructive logging practices used to produce this toilet paper. Charmin Wipes Out a Forest, the latest documentary from Austin-based writer-director Steve Mims, goes after Procter and Gamble (P&G). …The goal is to challenge P&G’s longstanding practice of making Charmin out of virgin fiber from Canadian boreal forests, …which serve as a “giant shield in the fight against climate change,” according to Boreal Conservation. …In 2019 he launched an effort to persuade Home Depot to stop buying plywood made from logging in an endangered rainforest in Ecuador. …That project also started with a Mims’ documentary, Home Depot Destroying the Rain Forest for Plywood. “That film only got 5,000 views but it did its job,” he said.

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Forest Service tanker base operating earlier than normal to combat wildfires

By Madelyn Heath
KTVH Helena Montana
June 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

HELENA — Aerial resources have been critical in reaching the Jericho Mountain Fire, and Helena has … a tanker base that can support the largest firefighting planes. …The around three thousand gallons of retardant the average plane holds is just one of the reasons it is so effective. Another factor is the team on the ground who get it refueled and refilled and back in the air in just minutes. …The tanker base typically opens for operations on July 7th but kicked off their wildfire season on June 15th nearly a month early this year due to the Jericho Mountain Fire. Once they got the call, the team had the base operational in two hours. So far the tanker base has already helped planes drop more than 32-thousand gallons of retardant this year compared to zero at this time last year.

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Gutting the Forest Service will cause irreparable damage

By Suzanne Cable, retired forester, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
The Daily Inter Lake
June 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

The U.S. Forest Service is headed for obsolescence due to recent personnel reductions, proposed budget cuts and re-organization plans. The ability of the Forest Service to meet its legislatively mandated multiple-use mission to the American public is being systematically dismantled. …over the last several months we’ve seen an agency deliberately dismantled by indiscriminate firings, forced retirements and coerced resignations. …The gutting of the Forest Service is a national crisis that will take years or decades to recover from once we, as a society, choose to stop the damage to our federal system of governance. We must individually and collectively speak out to all our elected officials and demand a stop to the out-of-control damage being done. We need to begin to rebuild a federal government that we can rely on to deliver critical services to the American public, including the Forest Service, and protect our wild landscapes from destruction.

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Federal land sales, more logging and more oil revenue: What’s in the big federal bill for Alaska?

By James Brooks
The Alaska Beacon
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Members of the U.S. Senate last week proposed a major sale of federal land as part of the “Big, Beautiful Bill” proposed by Republicans to fund the U.S. government. If adopted, the proposed sale could be significant for Alaska, where the federal government owns and manages 61% of all land in the state… The concept would significantly increase the amount of logging required on federal land. The U.S. Forest Service would be required to significantly increase the amount of timber sold to loggers, and the Forest Service would be required to sign at least 40 long-term timber sales contracts involving national forests. Those kinds of long-term sales contracts contributed to the establishment of Southeast Alaska’s pulp mills, which relied on harvests from the Tongass National Forest.  Most timber harvests from the Tongass currently are exported internationally without processing in the United States.

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Researchers survey Oregon forests for insect damage and drought effects

By Bobby Corser
KPIC News
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Oregon Department of Forestry and the USDA Forest Service will conduct low-level flights in June to monitor forest health. This survey, which began in the 1940s and paused only during the 2020 pandemic, is the longest continuous annual survey of its kind in the United States. Airborne researchers conduct the survey from fixed-wing aircraft, flying between 1,500 and 2,500 feet above ground level at speeds of 90 to 140 miles per hour. They follow a systematic grid pattern, four miles apart, to identify areas where trees are in distress. “Oregon has about 30 million acres of forest so flying in a grid pattern over it allows us to find problems even in remote areas hard to reach by vehicle or on foot,” said Christine Buhl, an entomologist with the Oregon Department of Forestry.

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Fixing Yellowstone: How an intact ecosystem set the stage for a wolf queen’s long reign

By Clark Corbin and Heath Druzin
News From The States
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Sitting in an old-growth spruce fir forest, Doug Smith says he can see first-hand the impact of reintroducing wolves on the larger ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park. Long before Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872, wolves thrived in the U.S. Rocky Mountains. But early Yellowstone rangers killed off the last of the park’s wolves by 1926. Then, in 1995, the U.S. government reintroduced wolves to Idaho and Yellowstone using wolves captured in Canada. Smith helped bring them back to the park and was in charge of Yellowstone’s wolf project for nearly 30 years until he retired in 2022. “Yellowstone is a very different place, with and without wolves,” Smith said. “Wolves definitely have changed this landscape with the help of other predators,” he added. “It’s very different.” And one wolf, in particular, fascinated wolf watchers for longer than almost any other.

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City Council Votes to Move Tree Regulation Team to Permitting Office, Removes $2 Million From Enforcement

By Sophie Peel
The Willamette Week
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Portland City Council made a major change last week to the team of inspectors that enforces the city’s Tree Code, which regulates all street trees and some trees on private land across the city. The council voted to move the entire tree regulation team—which currently falls under the Urban Forestry division, a program nested within the parks bureau—to Portland Permitting & Development. …Councilor Eric Zimmerman called into question Urban Forestry and how it polices and fines Portlanders seeking to trim or remove trees on or near their property. …The tree regulators—who also process and vet permits for tree removals, replantings and prunings—will no longer be the under the oversight of city forester Jenn Cairo, whose management has come under scrutiny.The council also voted to transfer $2.1 million of Parks Levy funds from the Tree Code regulation division to backfill maintenance cuts to outdoor parks. 

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State foresters take to skies to survey forest health

KEZI News 9 Oregon
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

SALEM, Ore. – Researchers are taking to the skies this month to survey Oregon’s forests for damage from pests and other threats, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry and USDA Forest Service. Forest officials said that the Pacific Northwest Aerial Detection Survey is the longest continuous annual survey of its kind in the U.S. Airborne researchers use fixed-wing aircraft to identify trees in distress, flying between 1,500 to 2,500 feet above ground. “Oregon has about 30 million acres of forest so flying in a grid pattern over it allows us to find problems even in remote areas hard to reach by vehicle or on foot,” said Christine Buhl, ODF Forest Entomologist. The survey has highlighted a concerning trend of increasing tree deaths due to drought stress and beetle attacks.

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California’s 2025 wildfire season was already going to be dangerous. Trump has made it worse

By Hayley Smith
The Los Angeles Times
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

As California continues to reel from the historic firestorm that decimated portions of Los Angeles, the state is now facing the prospect of an exceptionally active wildfire season fueled by hot, dry conditions. It may not be ready: Experts say sweeping changes at federal agencies that play key roles in California’s wildfire preparation and response could make a challenging season even worse. …The forecast arrives as the Trump administration is enacting budget cuts, layoffs, office closures and restructuring at the U.S. Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Trump says changes will help eliminate federal waste and save tax dollars. However, these three agencies are critical components of California’s wildfire response capabilities… Weakening them at the start of fire season — and at a moment when human-caused climate change is driving larger and more destructive blazes — puts California at a dangerous disadvantage, multiple experts said.

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Oregonians deserve a smarter approach to wildfires

By Derek Johnson & Lorelei Juntunen, Nature Conservancy
The Oregon Capital Chronicle
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Each year, Oregon braces for wildfire season. And each year, we spend tens of millions (sometimes hundreds of millions) trying to put those fires out. But despite our best efforts, the fires keep getting worse — more dangerous and more destructive.  Science tells us that suppression alone isn’t enough. To meaningfully reduce risk, we must invest in proactive mitigation, restoring the health and resilience of fire-prone landscapes, and helping communities prepare for wildfire and smoke.  This legislative session, Oregon lawmakers have a chance to make an important initial investment to protect our forests, our homes, and our public health in the long run.  A package of bills now under consideration would provide $280 million per biennium for a comprehensive wildfire response. These bills reflect recommendations from the Wildfire Funding Work Group, convened by the State Fire Marshal, Oregon Department of Forestry, Governor Tina Kotek, Tribal Nations, and shaped by a wide array of stakeholders.  

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Cal Fire Allocates $72 Million for Forest Health and Resilience Projects in California

Sierra Daily News
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) has announced the allocation of nearly $72 million to support extensive land management projects aimed at restoring forest health and resilience across the state. Through its Forest Health Program, Cal Fire has distributed 12 grants to various local and regional partners working on projects spanning state, local, tribal, federal, and private lands. These initiatives are designed to tackle critical forest health issues, reduce wildfire risks, improve ecosystem resilience, and enhance carbon sequestration across California’s diverse landscapes. The forest health grant projects must focus on large-scale forestlands that involve multiple landowners and jurisdictions, with a minimum size of 800 acres. These projects are expected to be applied across expansive areas to achieve regional forest resilience, prioritizing initiatives that incorporate a mix of activities involving experienced partnerships.

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Sierra Nevada Conservancy launches new Wildfire and Forest Resilience grant round to reduce fuels, protect communities

Sierra Nevada Conservancy
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) is accepting statements of interest for its Wildfire and Forest Resilience Directed Grant Program. Funded through Proposition 4 (Climate Bond) and fast-tracked by Governor Gavin Newsom’s emergency proclamation, this immediate action program will allocate $10 million for projects within SNC’s Sierra-Cascade service area that will protect people and communities. Passed in November of 2024, the Climate Bond allocates $1.5 billion to wildfire and forest-resilience programs. In March 2025, the Governor signed an executive order authorizing $170 million of Climate Bond funds to be issued to a variety of state entities to expedite forest-health, prescribed fire, and fuel-reduction projects that will advance wildfire resilience statewide. The SNC received just under $31 million of this allotment and at its recent June meeting, the SNC Governing Board approved grant guidelines for the first cycle of the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Directed Grant Program that will distribute $10 million.

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In new proposal, 60% of kicker would go to wildfire, rest to Oregonians making less than $95k

By Alex Baumhardt
The Oregon Capital Chronicle
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A late-in-the-session Hail Mary proposal to redirect the bulk of the state’s “kicker” tax rebate to fund statewide wildfire work would still kick some of the rebate back to most Oregonians. Under a forthcoming amendment to Senate Bill 1177 — still a placeholder bill for some mechanism to fund wildfire prevention and response work in the state — Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, proposes the Legislature move $1 billion of the expected $1.64 billion state tax rebate to an interest-bearing wildfire account. “The notion of walking into every session with $100 to $150 million waiting for us for wildfire, is really attractive, as opposed to starting from scratch every two years,” Golden said. Under his proposal, $1 billion from next year’s kicker would be put into an interest-bearing account that could, if earning 5% each year, send $100 million each biennium to the state for wildfire — covering about one-third of the total $300 million the state hopes to budget each biennium.

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Study reveals US timber supply inelastic and South-Central reforestation profitable

The Lesprom Network
June 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A new analysis quantifies US timber harvest and supply dynamics and finds that, although national timber supply is largely price inelastic, rapid growth in South-Central forests now makes private reforestation clearly profitable, according to David Wear at Resources for the Future institute, and John W. Coulston at the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station. …In their modeling of owner behavior, Wear and Coulston find that price signals drive increased cutting in every region and ownership class except public lands on the Pacific Coast. …Supply responds more strongly to sawtimber than to pulpwood prices, underscoring the influence of higher-value markets on harvest intensity. Tree-planting choice models further show that private landowners in high-production regions (South, Northeast, Pacific Northwest, Northern Rockies) boost reforestation probability by roughly 0.5 % for every 1 % rise in sawtimber price. …This integrated, plot-level research positions the eastern US as the primary locus for future timber supply expansion.

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Whitefish Creek Enterprises Named 2025 Minnesota Logger of the Year

Minnesota Logger Education Program
June 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Brady Hasbargen & Rick Horton

Whitefish Creek Enterprises, Inc. of Baudette has been named the 2025 Minnesota Logger of the Year by the Minnesota Sustainable Forestry Initiative Implementation Committee. The award was presented to Brady Hasbargen of Whitefish Creek at the Minnesota Logger Education Program workshop held in Bemidji in April. The Logger of the Year Award recognizes outstanding independent logging contractor performance with the purpose of honoring Minnesota’s competent professional independent logging contractors. The formal nomination clearly demonstrates that Whitefish Creek Enterprises are recognized by their peers for professionalism, commitment to sustainable forestry, using best business management practices, trade organization involvement, fostering excellent landowner and forester relationships, and for their exceptional community outreach activities. 

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Iowa woodland owners pledge to keep advocating for the Forest Reserve Program

By Olivia Cohen
The Gazette
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Tim Meyer’s interest in the outdoors goes back decades, beginning with hunting. In 1987, he bought 115 acres of land in Davis County in southern Iowa. It was on that land that his love of the outdoors — and his interest in developing a healthy forest — grew. Today, that property has grown to 384 acres, which includes 320 acres of forest. Last year, Meyer’s knowledge and care for trees was honored when he and his wife, Pam Goschke, were named Iowa’s Outstanding Tree Farmers by the Iowa Tree Farm Committee. The award honored Meyer’s work fostering woodlands across the state, but learning the ways of tending to woodlands wasn’t always easy. “I didn’t realize how cruel nature can be,” said Meyer, who lives in Iowa County. “If you leave a forest unmanaged, there’s really a war going on out there in the forest because, you know, bad trees outgrow good trees.”

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Environmental groups sue to protect western North Carolina forests from increased logging

By Michelle Alfini
WSOC-TV
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

As Western North Carolina’s forests recover from Hurricane Helene, environmental groups say Pisgah and Nantahala face a one-two punch from the federal government, potentially setting the stage for further destruction. For as long as the country has had national forests, logging has been a part of their management, but those needs are also weighed against the need to maintain habitat, recreational opportunities, protect local water systems and defend wildlife. In the past few years, the U.S. Forest Service has opened up more land to logging and now with a recent executive order calling for increased timber production across the country, environmental nonprofits like Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Asheville-based MountainTrue are suing to prevent what they believe could severely damage habitat in a way that could take decades to recover from.

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With global and UK timber demand increasing, it seems inappropriate to import so much

By Dougal Driver, CEO, Grown in Britain
The Timber Trades Journal
June 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

As a forester and now in my role at Grown in Britain, I regularly encounter a range of misconceptions about home-grown timber. …First, let’s address the elephant in the room. The UK imports a significant amount of timber, and these figures are often cited to suggest something isn’t working as it should be. However, increasing timber use in construction is a positive development, as it replaces more carbon-intensive materials. One of the key reasons Grown in Britain was set up – is we import substantial amounts of timber whilst neglecting our own forests and woodlands. Over 10 years ago, when GiB started, the government considered over 60% of our woods were not managed. Our initiative, alongside the efforts of many, has reduced this to nearer 40% today. …With global and UK timber demand increasing, it seems inappropriate to import so much when we’re not fully utilising our resources.

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Hiroshima tree seeds growing at university

By Eleanor Lawson
BBC News
June 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Seeds from two trees that survived the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima at the end of World War Two are being grown at a Staffordshire university. The seeds were collected from an oriental plane tree in the grounds of the Tenma Elementary School, which was destroyed by the bombing, and a 200-year-old ginkgo tree growing in Shukkeien Garden. Both trees were situated less than a mile from the bomb site on 6 August 1945 and miraculously survived the bombing. They will now be cared for by experts at Keele University until they become tall and sturdy enough to be planted in the ground. The university says it is part of an international project to promote peace and hope. The seeds were sent to Keele through the Green Legacy Hiroshima initiative, which aims to distribute seeds and saplings from ‘survivor trees’ worldwide.

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Logging company using ‘zombie’ permit from 1977 to log endangered possum habitat

By Angela Heathcote
ABC News, Australia
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

A Victorian timber company is using what has been dubbed a “zombie” license from 1977 to log critically endangered mountain ash forest, including the habitat of the Leadbeater’s possum, which was once thought extinct. Conservationists said the activation of such an old licence was a loophole allowing the loggers to avoid the application of more recent laws designed to protect endangered plants and animals, and which require consultation with the public prior to logging. …The council approved the application, leaving environmentalists and some scientists furious. …Critically endangered Leadbeater’s possums have been observed on the perimeter of the property and in the state forest that neighbours the property. …Professor Lindenmayer said the logging of 16 hectares of mountain ash forest on this property could fragment Leadbeater’s possum populations.

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