Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

Forest Stewardship Council Canada October Newsletter

Forest Stewardship Council Canada
October 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

In this newsletter you’ll find:

  • FSC at Toronto Climate Week: Toronto Climate Week (TOCW), in partnership with the University of Toronto and MaRS, will kick off its inaugural edition with the flagship event True North Rising on October 1.
  • FSC Public Consultations:
    • Revision of Advice Note 20-007-23: Maximum hectare threshold for ‘very limited portion – open to October 12.
    • Conceptual phase of the Principles, Criteria and Indicators (PCI) revision begins October 1, 2025.
    • FSC International: “Management Activities” defined in FSC-PRO-60-006b FSC Risk Assessment Framework
  • FSC Circular Bioeconomy webinar presentation available on YouTube.
  • FSC recognized in Sustainability Magazine as one of the Top 10 Sustainability Associations.
  • New FSC webinar series to showcase Verified Impact.

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Indigenous-owned Forestry Services Company Receives National Award

Forest Products Association of Canada
September 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Dale Levesque

Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), in partnership with the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business (CCIB), announces Dallan LP as the recipient of the 2025 Indigenous Business Leadership Award. This honour celebrates exceptional Indigenous entrepreneurs and businesses making significant contributions to Canada’s forest sector and local communities. “From operator to owner, Dale has built a 100% Indigenous-owned business that champions inclusive employment, partnerships between First Nations, continuous improvement, environmental responsibility, and providing the customer with an exceptional service—setting a powerful example for the broader forest sector,” said Derek Nighbor, President and CEO of FPAC. …In 2014, under Dale’s leadership, efforts were made to expand and Dallan LP was formed which is a partnership between Dale Levesque, Lac des Mille Lacs First Nations and Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nations. Dallan LP expanded its reach into the Pulp and Paper mill yard services and the addition of Atikokan and Ignace sawmills.

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UBC Researcher Rosalia Jaffray is awarded Christopher Lee Memorial Scholarship

By Sandra Bishop
Canadian Forest Owners
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Rosalia Jaffray

Canadian Forest Owners (CFO) is proud to announce it has awarded University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Forestry master’s student Rosalia Jaffray its $2,000 Christopher Lee Memorial Scholarship for her outstanding academic and leadership achievements. With an undergraduate degree in Harvest Planning and Engineering, Jaffray’s graduate studies focus on optimizing sustainable forest management practices using a novel open-source modeling framework for forest operational planning. Jaffray is registered both as a Forester-in-Training and an Engineer-in-Training, and plans to complete these professional designations after graduating. “I am delighted that my research aligns with Christopher Lee’s legacy advocating for sound forest policy, sustainability, and the welfare of forest-dependent communities, and will help to ensure private forest landowners have the tools they need to better respond to dynamic changes in operational environments,” remarks Rosalia Jaffray, UBC Faculty of Forestry Master’s Student.

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Canadian Wildfire Conference continues growth in Kelowna

Wings Magazine
October 6, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

More than 300 people attended the 6th annual Canadian Wildfire Conference which, for the first time, ran for two days from October 1 to 2 at the KF Centre for Excellence in Kelowna, B.C. The conference is designed to bring together the primary stakeholders of wildfire suppression, including air operators, fire departments, technology and service suppliers, and government agencies. …The two-day conference featured 57 exhibitors, a dozen educational sessions, and a static display of firefighting equipment, including wildfire trucks, helicopters from Yellowhead Helicopters and Coldstream Helicopters, and a Hercules C130 converted for aerial firefighting needs by Coulson Aviation. …Award-winning author John Vaillant kicked off the Canadian Wildfire Conference with a morning keynote called The New World Order of Weather. Vaillant’s 2023 book Fire Weather details the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfires from the front lines and tackles the impact of climate change.

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Forest Enhancement Society of BC is accepting expressions of interest for projects

Forest Enhancement Society of BC
October 6, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) is accepting expressions of interest (EOI) for projects to assist the Province of British Columbia in advancing the environmental and resource stewardship of British Columbia’s forests. These projects must occur on provincial crown land and support one or more of the core purposes of the Society, which include:

  • Preventing and mitigating the impact of wildfires;
  • Improving damaged or low value forests;
  • Improving habitat for wildlife;
  • Supporting the use of fibre from damaged and low value forests; and
  • Treating forests to improve the management of greenhouse gases.

“We are asking for Expressions of Interest from proponents with ideas for innovative investments in B.C.s’ forests. We want to work with proponents to help strengthen these proposals, secure approvals from government, identify opportunities to collaborate with like minded organizations and ensure longer-term impact.” -Jason Fisher, Registered Professional Forester and Executive Director of FESBC.

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Province, ʼNa̱mǥis First Nation reach milestone in forest stewardship agreement

By Ministry of Forests
Government of British Columbia
October 3, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

ʼNa̱mǥis First Nation and the Province are one step closer to a joint decision-making agreement that will support predictable harvesting, job creation and sustainable forestry operations on the north Island. “The best way to move fibre is by working together and that is what we are accomplishing with the ʼNa̱mǥis First Nation,” said Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests. “I am optimistic that this draft agreement will create good-paying jobs and help us in our efforts to provide stability and certainty for our coastal forestry sector, as we deal with Donald Trump’s attack on our forestry sector.” ʼNa̱mǥis First Nation and the Province have developed a first-of-its-kind draft Section 7 joint decision-making agreement for the forestry sector under the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Declaration Act) and Forest Range and Practices Act. 

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Down a Forgotten River

By Larry Lynn
The Tyee
October 3, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Chemainus River reveals its secrets in strange and unexpected ways. For years, I have wandered the forests near my North Cowichan home in search of the last few ancient trees, finding a few nice specimens here and there. In the heavily logged, 5,000-hectare Municipal Forest Reserve — popularly known as the Six Mountains, an hour north of Victoria — they are as elusive as the last rhinos of Sumatra. With a bit of luck, I hope my persistence may yet pay off. I don’t know it at the time, but my quest will launch me on a journey from the river’s headwaters to its mouth in pursuit of questions fundamental to the Chemainus and its future. How have human activities like industrial logging shaped the river, its watershed, and its salmon? …In my search for answers, I will discover modern challenges that bedevil other B.C. coastal rivers.

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Hikers can be citizen scientists in photo project documenting forest regrowth in Jasper

By Maggie Kirk
CBC News
October 5, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

©GeoReach

As visitors at Old Fort Point look out at the mosaic of burnt patches of forest from the Jasper wildfire, they see a vastly different landscape than they would have before July 2024. But that same barren view looks strikingly similar to photos taken in the early 1900s. Now, as the Jasper landscape begins to regenerate in the wake of last year’s massive wildfire, hikers can participate in a citizen science project to help document the area’s rebirth. …Parks Canada and the University of Waterloo have teamed up to crowdsource photos from three locations on the hike …they installed three cellphone stands, each with a cradle for the camera, along the popular 3.8-kilometre hike, which starts just east of the Jasper townsite. Visitors will take a photo, then scan the QR code to directly upload a photo, or visit the GeoReach website to share their photo with researchers

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Scale up efforts to reduce wildfire risk or B.C. faces dire economic consequences: Study

By Gordon Hoekstra
Vancouver Sun
October 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

©BCWildfireService

If B.C. doesn’t turn to large-scale efforts to reduce the risks of wildfire, the full costs of those wildfires could have dire economic consequences, says a paper in the journal Science by wildfire ecologist Robert Gray, UBC professor Robin Gregory, and senior counsel at the University of Victoria law centre, Calvin Sandborn. They said the wildfire picture in B.C. in the past decade is stark. More than 70,000 square kilometres have been burned. The costs to fight those fires were $4.8 billion, with the province setting aside a wildfire contingency of $2.8 billion in its 2023-24 budget. …Indirect costs — that include disaster recovery, property loss, environmental damages, and business and health costs — can push the total costs of wildfires 1.5 to 20 times higher. …The authors recommend that B.C. make a policy shift that sets a clear vision to increase wildfire resilience, establishing targets for how much fire is too much and how much area will be treated…

Additional coverage:

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Eleven dead cattle found on logging road in B.C. Cariboo, likely poisoned

By Glenda Luymes
Vancouver Sun
October 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

…the carcasses of 11 cattle were found on a logging road near Quesnel earlier this week… The owner of the animals, who holds tenure for an area of Crown land in B.C.’s Cariboo region, discovered the cows had ingested a nitrate-based fertilizer used in forestry to encourage tree growth, said Kevin Boon, of the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association. “They licked it, thinking it was salt, and died of nitrate poisoning,” he said. …Boon said the rancher … fears more may have been poisoned… The fertilizer is usually applied in the winter or early spring, while cows aren’t grazing in B.C.’s forests. It appears to have been done earlier this year, due to a “lack of understanding,” said Boon, emphasizing that it doesn’t appear to be deliberate. “When you have multiple tenure-holders on the land, there needs to be communication with the stakeholders,” he said. …B.C. Forests Ministry is aware of the situation and is investigating…

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Woodlots BC News

Woodlots BC
October 3, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Look for these stories and more in the Woodlots BC News:

  • Online voting for the Woodlots BC Board of Directors is open to all woodlot licensees. Be sure to cast your vote by October 6! 
  • The latest Woodlots BC Annual Report is now available, just in time for the conference and AGM in a few weeks. 
  • Just two weeks until the conference! The 38th Annual General Meeting will be on Thursday, October 16 at Spirit Ridge Resort.
  • The Resilient Ecosystems Committee, with the help of a Silviculture Innovation Program Grant, has developed a pamphlet that will be released at the Woodlots BC Conference in Osoyoos. 

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BC Community Forest Association releases 2025 Indicators Report

The BC Community Forest Association
October 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Don’t miss the September BCCFA newsletter with these headlines and more:

  • The 2025 Community Forest Indicators Report has been released along with the launch of our new website and visual identity. We encourage you to take a look and distribute to your networks wherever possible. Our updated website features a brand new BCCFA members only section! 
  • Community Forest Expansion!!! Three community forests in the Prince George TSA—Vanderhoof, Fort St. James, and Fraser Lake—are set to expand their land base. This milestone highlights strong collaboration with government to advance the mandate of growing the Community Forest Program, and the dedication of rural communities in championing resilience.
  • The 2026 BCCFA Conference and AGM will be hosted by Monashee Community Forest—a partnership between the Splatsin First Nation and the Village of Lumby BC.  Mark June 3-5th in your calendars!!!

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The Future of BC’s Forests: A Public Dialogue

Branchlines UBC Faculty of Forestry
October 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Date: Wednesday, October 8, 2025 | Doors: 6 pm | Event: 7 pm | Reception: 8:30 pm | Location: Hollywood Theatre, 3123 W. Broadway, Vancouver

Forests are one of British Columbia’s most valuable resources, but their future is under pressure from wildfires, tariffs, and changing values around their use. How can we balance healthy ecosystems, community needs, and a sustainable economy? Join us for an engaging panel featuring: Molly Hudson, RPF, RPBio, Vice President of Forestry & Sustainability at Nch’ḵaỷ Development Corporation; Adam Olsen (SȾHENEP), Negotiator for the Tsartlip First Nation and former MLA; Dr. Dominik Roeser, Associate Dean at UBC Forestry and international leader in forest operations; and Lisa Matthaus, Provincial Lead for Organizing for Change and longtime forest policy advocate. Moderated discussion, audience Q&A, and a post-event reception will follow. UBC Forestry faculty and panelists will also prepare a white paper highlighting key recommendations.

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B.C. forest industry dismantling Integrity of the hydrological Cycle

By Eli Pivnick and Janet Parkins
Castnet
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Do you remember the hydrological cycle that you learned about in school? Rain and snow fall from the sky. Tree leaves and branches slow the fall of rain. In the spring, snow slowly melts, the melt slowed because trees shade the snow and cool the air. Some of the rain and melted snow infiltrate deep into the ground, aided by the presence of tree roots, to become part of the ground water that flows downhill, slowed by tree roots. …Transpiration from tree leaves, and evaporation from the land, lakes and ocean return the water to the sky and the cycle starts over again. But wait. Remove a major part of the trees from the cycle and what happens? Rain and snow land directly on the ground. Less rain infiltrates the soil and, with no tree roots, what ground water there is flows downhill more quickly.

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B.C. Timber Sales change

Letter by Joe Karthein, Save What’s Left Society
Castanet
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Re. Change at B.C. Timber Sales (Castanet, Sept, 23) The recent article on new parameters for B.C. Timber Sales highlights optimism from wood manufacturers about a more predictable fibre supply. What is being presented as good news for industry but very bad news for forests, watersheds and the public. In reality, the BCTS Task Force report means more logging, more subsidies and less accountability. The most troubling recommendation is the first, to move B.C. Timber Sales to “arm’s length” from government. That is a recipe for secrecy and deregulation. BCTS already approves its own cutblocks with minimal oversight. Turning it into a Crown corporation—or worse, a privatized entity—would strip away what little public accountability remains. …The task force boasts BCTS is “100% SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) certified.” But the Sustainable Forestry Initiative is a discredited “greenwashing” scheme, criticized internationally for allowing destructive practices. Real sustainability requires independent science, not marketing spin.

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BC First Nations Forest Council September Newsletter

By Lennard Joe – Suxʷsxʷwels
BC First Nations Forestry Council
September 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

As we move through September, a month that holds the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we are reminded that reconciliation is not a single day of recognition, but a daily responsibility and a collective path forward. For First Nations, truth is not new; it is the lived experience of our people. What reconciliation requires is that truth leads to action, and that commitments translate into real changes on the ground. At the Forestry Council, we see this reflected across each of our program areas. In Policy and Forest Transformation, the recent recommendations from the BCTS review mark an important step in reforming systems that have long excluded First Nation voices. It was an important responsibility for me to contribute to the taskforce and speak to the importance of Nation-led governance and stewardship. …In Business and Workforce Development, we are proud to share a joint publication with FESBC.

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Forest Enhancement Society of BC project updates from around the province

The Forest Enhancement Society of B.C.
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Jason Fisher

The Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC), in collaboration with the BC First Nations Forestry Council (Forestry Council), released a Special Report to commemorate National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, 2025. This report shines a light on exceptional forestry projects led by Indigenous proponents that reflect a deep commitment to the land and a powerful vision for more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable forest management in British Columbia. At FESBC, we recognize that Reconciliation in forestry goes beyond an acknowledgement. It requires action, partnership, and respect for Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge….We are proud to feature Indigenous-led organizations such as Ntityix Resources LP, Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd., Taan Forest, Kenpesq’t Forestry, and many others who are leading meaningful change on the ground and serving as role models for others to continue this work.

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Roots of BC forestry decline is home-grown

By Jock Finlayson, Independent Contractors and Businesses Association
Truck LoggerBC Magazine
September 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jock Finlayson

For several years, British Columbias forest products sector has been struggling, weighed down by a mix of dwindling fibre supplies, high operating costs, steep (and recently increased) US duties on southbound lumber exports, and cumbersome regulatory and permitting systems designed and administered by the provincial government. An industry that long ranked as BC’s number one source of export earnings and served as a mainstay of jobs and business activity in every region of the province has fallen on exceptionally hard times. However, even in its diminished state, the combined logging, wood products manufacturing, and pulp/paper industries continue to make outsized contributions to the province’s economy. 

Since 2021, apart from what every forest industry executive I have consulted describes as a punishingly uncompetitive regulatory environment, the biggest problem for the BC industry is the vertiginous decline in access to fibre. Without an adequate supply of raw material, industry has had no alternative but to shrink; a gradual vanishing act that is still underway. …This explains why BC’s biggest forest companies have been directing their capital, management attention, and growth ambitions elsewhere. British Columbia has become a high cost producing jurisdiction, with a shrinking and unstable fibre supply base, a uniquely difficult day-to-day operating environment for logging contractors and lumber manufacturers, and a “land-lord” that exhibits almost no understanding of what it takes to succeed in business. No wonder independent equity analysts now describe forestry in BC as essentially “uninvestable”.

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Old logging roads pose landslide risk along Highway 99 where five died: Internal report

By Gordon Hoekstra
Vancouver Sun
September 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

A hazard assessment commissioned by the B.C. government has identified 45 kilometres of old logging roads at high risk of landslides reaching Highway 99 — in the same area where a rain-triggered slide killed five people south of Lillooet in 2021. The hazard assessment, completed in 2023, was obtained through a freedom of information request by Postmedia News after the B.C. Forests Ministry refused to release the report. The report produced by Westrek Geotechnical Services Ltd., recommended further inspection to determine the best way to deactivate the roads and reduce landslide risk… They assessed Hwy. 99 between Duffey Lake and Lillooet — is about 100 kilometres northeast by road from Whistler. …It’s important to determine whether these old logging roads are diverting water out of its natural path and if this poses a landslide threat, and straighten it out from top to bottom, said Calvin VanBuskirk, an engineer with decades of experience in how logging and roads alter water flow. [This story may require a Vancouver Sun subscription for full access]

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Memo to Fairy Creek protesters: Respect Indigenous choices, ditch ecocolonial tactics

By John Desjarlais, executive director, Indigenous Resource Network
Victoria Times Colonist
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

John Desjarlais

First Nations in the Fairy Creek watershed again demanded that protesters leave their lands after a judge granted an injunction barring blockades on logging roads in the Upper Walbran Valley, where a forestry company holds harvesting rights. The Dididaht, the Pacheedaht, and the Huuayaht Nations signed partnership agreements with industry to harvest old-growth forest. Indigenous communities across the region developed sustainability plans to balance economic livelihoods with environmental stewardship, and they insist they do not need outside interference. Despite that, non-Indigenous protesters resumed blockades in old-growth areas on Indigenous territory. …Indigenous leaders have tracked a decade-long pattern of non-Indigenous protesters arriving, overstaying, and fomenting division within communities. They call this trend “ecocolonialism,” arguing that outside environmental activists intervene in Indigenous internal affairs and oppose resource development pursued by Indigenous groups. They equate that behavior with a modern version of the colonial “divide and conquer” strategy.

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Forestry at University of New Brunswick: A century on, deep roots and new growth come together so that innovation, opportunity and sustainability can blossom

By Kayla Cormier
University of New Brunswick
October 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

The University of New Brunswick’s faculty of forestry and environmental management (ForEM) is an “old growth” tree, with over a hundred rings to show its age. Since its first graduating class in 1910, it continues growing out in new directions in an ever-changing landscape. As the climate crisis intensifies and industries evolve, the faculty is at the forefront of a sector undergoing rapid transformation. With cutting-edge technology, a growing demand for skilled professionals and a commitment to sustainability, ForEM grads are shaping the future of forestry. Over the next decade, New Brunswick’s forestry sector is anticipating a significant wave of job openings—as many as 3,200—as seasoned professionals retire and transition out of the workforce. “Our graduates are entering a workforce that’s hungry for their skills,” said Dr. Michelle Gray, ForEM dean and associate professor. “We’re seeing unprecedented demand for professionals who understand both the science and the technology driving modern forestry…”

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Mi’kmaw land protectors say they won’t leave mountain even if Nova Scotia passes controversial law

By Angel Moore
APTN News
October 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

While the Nova Scotia government works to pass its controversial law that would make it illegal to block forest roads in the province, Mi’kmaw land protectors say they’re not going anywhere. On Sept. 23, the province introduced the Protecting Nova Scotians Act… The part of the proposed law that is drawing the ire of Mi’kmaw across the province deals with Crown Lands. The bill promises to “prevent the blocking of forest access roads and to allow structures to be removed without notice if they are a hazard to public health, safety or order or if they are impeding the lawful use of Crown lands.” According to land protectors on the Hunters Mountain, that part of the bill is aimed at them. …They said they’re protecting the forest from clear-cutting. Sacred lands that contain medicines and important sites.

Additional coverage:

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University of Toronto students gather White Oak acorns at Queen’s Park in an effort to preserve native trees

Muriel Draaisma
CBC News
October 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

A group of University of Toronto forestry students collected acorns from a giant White Oak tree at Queen’s Park on Wednesday as part of an effort to preserve the diversity of Toronto’s native trees. Eric Davies, a forest ecologist at the University of Toronto, led a group of undergraduate students in the university’s foresters club as they gathered about six litres of acorns from a tree in Queen’s Park North, one of four remaining large White Oaks in the park. White Oaks, a common deciduous tree species in North America, are the largest and oldest trees in the green spaces outside the Ontario Legislature. …Davies said timing is key, as White Oaks produce acorns about once every five to 10 years — this year being one of them. …Davies said the students will donate most of the acorns to the City of Toronto’s tree seed diversity program in the next two weeks. Some of the acorns will be kept at U of T to be grown there, he added.

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Domtar, Government of Canada support efforts by Nature Conservancy of Canada to conserve ecologically significant lands in central Newfoundland

Domtar
October 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

GANDER, Newfoundland — The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is announcing a bold campaign to protect more than 1,800 hectares of boreal forest, freshwater shoreline and wetlands in central Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the largest land donation NCC has received during its 54-year history working in Atlantic Canada. Domtar has agreed to donate land to NCC, thus allowing NCC to conserve four large parcels of forested lands and waters along the Southwest Gander River and Gander Lake near the communities of Glenwood and Appleton. The land donation project is significant as it enables better wildlife movement through connected conservation lands. Less than three per cent of the Central Newfoundland ecoregion currently falls under conservation status. …”This initiative reflects our commitment to community, sustainability and collaboration… that safeguard biodiversity — which is embedded in our 2030 sustainability strategy. We are honored to play a role,” said Luc Thériault, President, Domtar Wood Products.

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Nova Scotia Crown lands bill would criminalize peaceful protests, critics say

By Keith Doucette
Canadian Press in CityNews Everywhere
September 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

The Nova Scotia government’s proposed move to make it illegal to block forest access roads on Crown lands is being dismissed as heavy-handed and an attempt to ignore Mi’kmaq rights. Several presenters spoke out in opposition Monday during an appearance before the legislature’s public bills committee hearing on the Protecting Nova Scotians Act. The omnibus bill includes one new piece of legislation and amends seven other acts, including the Crown Lands Act. The changes to the act would impose a $50,000 fine and/or six months in jail for protests or individuals who ignore protest camp removal orders. Michelle Paul, a Mi’kmaq water protector and land defender, said the bill was written without consultation or consideration of treaty rights and should be withdrawn. “It’s not lost upon us that this bill is being rushed through on the eve of Treaty Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation,” said Paul. 

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Outcry as Trump plots more roads and logging in US forests: ‘You can almost hear the chainsaws’

By Oliver Milman
The Guardian
October 6, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

VIRGINIA — Today, this site in George Washington national forest, along with other near-pristine forests across the US that amount to 58m acres, equivalent to the size of the UK, could soon see chainsaws whir and logging trucks rumble through them amid a push by Donald Trump to raze these ecosystems for timber. The Trump administration has said it will rescind Clinton’s roadless rule, more than two decades after its introduction appeared to mark the end of the bitter battle between environmentalists and loggers over the future of America’s best remaining woodland. …Yet advocates of the roadless rule argue these areas should not be viewed as mere sources of timber, pointing to their crucial ecological role in protecting and filtering the streams and rivers that provide clean drinking water to millions of Americans. …The American Forest Resource Council called the roadless rule removal “a long-overdue correction”.

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‘All the trees are dead’: An ancient California forest has been wiped out

By Julie Johnson
The San Francisco Chronicle
October 5, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Roughly 500 years ago in California’s High Sierra, pine cones dropped to the ground and a cycle began. …Half a millennia later, US Forest Service scientists began testing strategies to save these now ancient and massive trees in the little-known area east of Fresno called the Teakettle Experimental Forest. They had plans to light a huge prescribed burn to clear overgrowth next year.  But then the Garnet Fire ignited and scorched all 3,000 federally protected acres on its path through the Sierra National Forest. …Scott Scherbinski, a biologist at the Climate & Wildfire Institute, said “It will be a start-over event for this forest.” …Malcolm North, a Forest Service ecologist said…fires with less intensity can be beneficial in California’s fire-adapted landscapes, but the Garnet Fire, when it burned through in September, may have killed most trees and sterilized the ground — making it unlikely the forest can rebound without intervention. [to access the full story a San Francisco Chronicle subscription is required]

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Oregon’s Douglas fir trees in crisis with widespread, ‘unprecedented’ dieback

By Zach Urness
The Register-Guard
October 4, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Drought and insects have killed an unprecedented number of Oregon’s Douglas fir trees during the last decade, costing billions in timber value, damaging infrastructure and ramping up wildfire danger. Beginning in 2015 and accelerating with the 2021 heat dome, roughly 635,000 acres of forest have been impacted by what’s known as Douglas fir “dieback” in southwest Oregon and the Willamette Valley. “It’s hitting trees of all sizes, but it’s hitting larger and older trees the hardest,” Max Bennett, a retired forest researcher with Oregon State University, told members of the Oregon Legislature on Sept. 30. “What we’re seeing now is unprecedented.” The dieback has led to $1.1 billion in lost timber value, $500 million in potential road hazard costs and created a tinderbox of forest fuel capable of spawning the West’s most destructive wildfires, a group of foresters and researchers told the House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources and Water.

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Wqwhington’s stream buffer rule: Big economic impact, little environmental evidence

By Jacob Vail, Hampton Family Forests
The Cascadia Daily News
October 5, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Jacob Vail

I work for a local forest products company and in this line of work, it can feel like we live and breathe forest policy. …Unfortunately, major changes to forest policy have recently been proposed without adequate analysis or justification. The state Forest Practices Board is currently grappling with an ongoing debate surrounding the regulation of non-fish perennial streams, essentially streams without fish that flow year-round. The Washington Department of Ecology is proposing a new rule that would create additional tree buffers on these streams, taking another 200,000 acres of private forestland out of timber production. If passed, this rule would reduce harvests on private lands by 4–8%. …Washington’s private forestlands are already sustaining salmon habitat and clean water, and there’s no evidence current temperatures are harming fish or that the new rule will improve fish recovery. The Forest Practices Board should restart the adaptive management process to determine the best path forward.

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Montana logging project on track to clear legal challenge

By Monique Merrill
Courthouse News Service
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

A coalition of conservation groups’ attempt to stop a forest project in Montana’s Bitterroot National Forest fell flat on Tuesday when a magistrate judge recommended the court toss their claims. In her findings and recommendations, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto noted inconsistencies in the conservation groups’ arguments across different filings, leading to many of their claims being waived. “Therefore, defendants argue, plaintiffs have conceded these issues,” DeSoto wrote. “Defendants further point out that several of plaintiffs’ arguments are raised for the first time on reply.” The groups challenged the planned Mud Creek Vegetation Management Project, claiming it violates multiple federal conservation acts by failing to provide exact details of where logging and burning will take place, as well as what effects it will have on the environment. The project will include logging, thinning, controlled burns and road construction on 48,000 acres of federal forest. It is intended to mitigate wildfire risk.

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In shift, Bureau of Land Management blocks environmental groups, media from Oregon timber auctions

By Zach Urness
The Statesman Journal
September 27, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

OREGON — George Sexton said he’s attended a couple dozen timber auctions during his 23 years as conservation director at KS Wild, an Ashland-based environmental group. But when he showed up at the Bureau of Land Management office in Medford on Sept. 25 for a timber auction, he, a lawyer and a reporter for Jefferson Public Radio were not allowed to enter. Sexton said that for years, he’s attended the auctions to observe and make sure BLM follows its laws and that bidders know about potential lawsuits. In this case, KS Wild is planning litigation to stop the “Take A Chance” timber sale, one of the four that was being offered. Sexton said the public has only been blocked from the meetings recently, coinciding with the Trump administration’s focus on increasing logging. BLM said closing timber auctions isn’t a new policy and that it was never intended as a “public meeting.”

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To fight rising wildfire danger, New Jersey turns to tree thinning in the Pinelands

By Jeff Pillets
The Jersey Vindicator
October 5, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Last April, a pair of teenage boys … set fire to wooden pallets someone had dumped in the woods. Within a few hours it became one of the fastest-moving and most destructive wildfires on record in the New Jersey Pinelands. By the time it was brought under control three weeks later, about 15,000 acres of preserved forest were destroyed, and thousands of people were forced to flee their homes and businesses. Most official accounts of what became known as the Jones Road Fire attribute its ferocious power to the intensifying cycles of drought and heat linked to climate change that continue to affect coastal areas. But forestry experts in New Jersey point to another cause. …On Sept. 18, the New Jersey Pinelands Commission took a big step toward more aggressive management of the state’s Pinelands National Preserve voting to thin out a 12,000-acre stretch of pine and oak woodland adjacent to the wildfire site.

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27th annual wildfire academy begins next week at Camp Swift

Texas A&M Forest Service – Texas A&M University
October 3, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

The 27th annual Capital Area Interagency Wildfire and Incident Management Academy begins at the Camp Swift National Guard Facility in Bastrop, Texas, next week. The academy will take place Oct. 7-20, 2025. Each year, federal, state, local and private firefighters travel from across the state and nation to attend the academy to continue their education and earn National Wildfire Coordinating Group training qualifications. This academy is one of two Texas Interagency Wildfire and Incident Management Academies, which aim to enhance wildland firefighters’ knowledge, utilizing National Wildfire Coordinating Group standards, while promoting safe and cost-effective operations. …Academy partners include the Texas Army National Guard, Texas A&M Forest Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Texas Department of Emergency Management, Federal Bureau of Prisons and Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System.

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Forested Future – a Documentary on U.S. Hardwood Forests Premiering This Fall!

By Michael Snow
Miller Wood Trade Publications
October 6, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

For the last two years, the American Hardwood Export Council has worked with noted environmental journalist and author of A Trillion Trees, Fred Pearce, to tell the story of hardwood forests and the people who depend on them. This project, Forested Future, has just been officially selected to be a part of the BARQ Architectural Film Festival in Barcelona this November and will be made available to the public shortly after! The website for the film is www.forestedfuture.film where you can watch the trailer. Forested Future is a feature-length documentary examining our complex relationship with forests and the inherent bond we have with trees. The film follows characters whose lives and sense of identity are inseparable from the hardwood forests in which they live and work. This project has the chance to tell the story of our forests, and our industry, to an audience never before reached.

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Minnesota Department of Natural Resources completes project to sow trees by helicopter

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
October 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

©DNRFacebook

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has completed an aerial seeding project via helicopter to disperse jack pine, white pine and black spruce seeds on DNR-managed forests across the state. The flights are part of the DNR’s typical fall reforestation work, which can also include activities like direct seeding and planting, bud capping, prescribed burns, and other site preparation. Reforestation is led by the DNR’s Silviculture Program. …“Depending on each site and future goal, we choose the right mix of tree species and use every available tool to make sure we’re giving trees their best chance to grow,” said Chris Gronewold, DNR Silviculture Program coordinator. Some sites are too remote or geographically difficult to reach with a crew on the ground. In these instances, the DNR contracts a helicopter to aerially disperse seeds. 

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Shutdown causes ‘confusion’ across the US Forest Service

By Kylie Mohr
The High Country News
October 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

MONTANA — With the federal government in a shutdown, the Forest Service has paused much of the wildfire preparation and prevention work it does on its 193 million acres of national forest. A Forest Service contingency plan, current as of Sept. 30, calls for continued wildfire response. But the work necessary to reduce the fuels for massive wildfires, including prescribed burns, is on hold. …“We were told, ‘No ignitions,’” said a Forest Service fire management officer, who didn’t want to be named for fear of losing his job. “‘Don’t even start.’” The cooler, wetter fall season is an ideal time for prescribed burns and pile burning across the West. …Other significant activities will be delayed during the shutdown, including statewide forest inventories, processing special use permits and reimbursing partners like the states and non-governmental organizations that do forest management work with federal funds.

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Nestle, others warn EU law delays are endangering forests worldwide

By Virginia Furness
Reuters in Trading View
October 3, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Major agri-food companies including Nestle, Ferrero and Olam Agri have warned that European Union delays to its anti-deforestation law are endangering forests worldwide. The EU last month proposed delaying the launch of its anti-deforestation law for a second time, citing concerns about the readiness of information-technology systems needed to support the law. The delay could postpone the ban on imports of commodities such as palm oil linked to forest destruction for another year. The law faces major opposition from industry and EU trade partners such as the United States and Brazil. EU Commissioner Jessika Roswall said last week the delay was not linked to U.S. concerns about the policy. …Contrary to the EU’s aim of simplifying rules for business, any changes at this stage would introduce uncertainty, annoy shareholders and risk the rules being watered down further, the companies said. The EU deforestation law was due to take effect on December 30.

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FSC Suspends Memorandum of Understanding with APRIL Following Reports of Alleged Violence

FSC.org
September 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has suspended its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd. (APRIL) and its corporate group, effective immediately.  FSC was recently informed of serious allegations of violence involving Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL), a member of APRIL’s corporate group, and an Indigenous community in North Sumatra, Indonesia. These allegations, which include reports of attacks on community members, if confirmed, would be contrary to the intent and commitments of the MoU.  FSC will consider lifting the suspension if an independent investigation is conducted which identifies the root causes of the conflict, and results in the transparent implementation of corrective measures in line with the Remedy Framework. Failure to demonstrate meaningful progress may lead to the termination of the MoU. 

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Major breakthrough made in grey squirrel fertility control ambition

The Forestry Journal
October 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

A breakthrough in the creation of an oral contraceptive for wildlife has been made by British researchers – in a significant step towards ethical grey squirrel management. Scientists at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) have achieved infertility in rats through free feeding of an oral immunocontraceptive, and say initial studies show the formula has also succeeded in attaining a reaction in grey squirrels. Funded by the UK Squirrel Accord (UKSA), the research will develop a vaccine-based contraceptive and species-specific feeder to reduce grey squirrel numbers for the protection of UK red squirrels, trees and woodland ecosystems. …Fertility control is used as a safe and non-lethal option to tackle wildlife problems. …This contraceptive affects an animal’s immune system to prevent it creating the sex hormones and causes infertility in both males and females. Developing a formula that can survive the body’s digestive processes and make it into the bloodstream is a real challenge.

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7th national conference on forests slated for November in Iran

Tehran Times
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

TEHRAN – The 7th national conference on the country’s forests is scheduled to be held from November 5-6. Titled ‘Maintaining sole ownership and integrated management of natural resources with an emphasis on social forestry in Zagros’, the event will be held in the southwestern Lorestan province, IRIB reported. The Iranian Forestry Association, in cooperation with the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization, has organized the event. The conference is centered around forestry and forest ecology, law and politics; forestry and forest management, technical and engineering subjects; forest genetics and breeding, economic and social issues of forests; climate change in forests, and the application of new technologies in forest management. Zagros forests, mostly located in Lorestan, are among the most important natural resources of Iran, as they constitute 40 percent of the country’s forests, and play an important role in the production of a large part of the country’s freshwater.

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