In the November edition of the FSC Canada Newsletter you’ll find these stories and more:
- Introducing our new board members: Indigenous Chamber – Leticia Hill, Chief Executive Officer, HaiCo; Environmental Chamber – Marie-Michèle Rousseau-Clair, Chief Conservation Officer, Nature Conservancy of Canada; Economic Chamber – John Pineau, individual; and Social Chamber – Jeff Bromley, Chair, United Steelworkers, Wood Council.
- Public Consultation: FSC International is revising how we develop and revise FSC Country Requirements (Forest Stewardship Standards and Risk Assessments) to more strongly incorporate risk-based approaches, outcome orientation and more.
- Draft 2-0 of the FSC Climate and Biodiversity Strategic Framework (2026-2032) now available
- Public Consultation and Working Group Invitation: Joint revision of FSC Principles and Criteria, International Generic Indicators, and other Forest Management normative document
FORT ST. JOHN, BC — Every single wildfire in northeast B.C. is now either ‘under control’ or extinguished as temperatures decline and snow starts to fall across the province. The BC Wildfire Service website shows the last two ‘out of control’ wildfires in the region, both located near Fort Nelson — are now ‘under control.’That means they’re not expected to spread beyond their current boundaries, as opposed to an ‘out of control’ wildfire that’s expected to keep burning aggressively. …Several other wildfires that were previously listed as ‘being held’ — meaning they’re expected to temporarily remain within their current boundaries, but could become ‘out of control’ again — have also been downgraded to ‘under control.’ …This year’s wildfire season saw over 300 wildfires in the PGFC coverage area.
Local governments on Vancouver Island are frustrated after finally receiving a long-awaited answer to when legislative changes are coming to the law governing how some forest lands are managed in BC. The answer … after years of fighting, change is not coming. The 2003 Private Managed Forest Land (PMFL) Act puts no limit on the volume of timber that can be harvested, contrary to logging on Crown land. …“What they’re looking for is the same standards that apply on Crown land to apply on private property,” BC’s Minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar said. “…we have a number of private licensees that do really good work in BC, and I would highlight Mosaic being the largest.” Parmar added he has recently spoken to Mosaic … and feels the company is taking steps to address local government concerns that don’t require legislative changes. 
Campbell River council has given the green light to the fire department to apply for a $419,000 grant through the Union of British Columbia Municipalities. This funding will help mitigate wildfire risks within the city over the next five years. Fire Chief Kelly Bellefleur and Assistant Fire Chief Stephanie Bremer told council the grant will be used to develop a new Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan (CWRP) with a more comprehensive, science-based framework. It will assess current wildfire risks in the city, identify priority treatment zones, and establish a five-year framework for wildfire mitigation and community preparedness. The grant will also help the city upgrade the fire department’s capacity to fight wildfires by purchasing a Type 2 Structure Protection Unit, a mobile trailer equipped with pumps, hoses and sprinklers designed to protect multiple structures during a wildfire, among other priorities.
Alberta’s wildfire season unofficially came to an end Oct. 31, though there are still 30 burning. Since the season began on March 1, there have been 1,245 wildfires across the province. Nearly 682,000 hectares were scorched—slightly less than 2024 (705,621) and much less than 2023 (2,212,399). The Calgary Forest Area had 63 wildfires that burned around 35 hectares—the lowest number compared to the other zones in the province. The Slave Lake Forest Area was the most damaged, with more than 379,000 hectares burned from 214 wildfires. The moderate fire season around Calgary was thanks to normal temperatures from June to August, with a warmer May and September. The rain also kept fires at bay with the third-wettest July on record in Calgary. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, there were 110 hours of smoke this year. “This is not a lot compared to most of the recent years,” said Natalie Hasell, ECCC warning preparedness meteorologist.
On Friday, October 17, the Ministry of Forests, through the Value-Added Accelerators, in partnership with the BC First Nations Forestry Council, the Council of Forest Industries, and the BC Value-Added Wood Coalition, hosted the Coastal Currents Regional Fibre Flow Forum in Richmond. Coastal Currents was designed to bring together stakeholders from across the coastal region to share insights, discuss fibre flow challenges and opportunities, and foster connections that support business development. Modeled after successful regional forums such as Roots in the Koots (Nelson), the Robson North Thompson Forestry Coalition, and the Northwest Fibre Symposium (Terrace), this event focused on collaboration within a specific geographic area to strengthen the value-added wood sector. The response was overwhelming, the session sold out, welcoming over 70 participants with strong representation from both the value-added and primary sectors.
BANFF – Most of the homes destroyed by the destructive Jasper wildfire were in neighbourhoods with many combustible roofs, highly flammable conifer trees and woody vegetation close to buildings after embers showered down on the national park townsite. That’s according to one of two independent Parks Canada-commissioned reports released last week, which examined the devastating wildfire in Jasper in July 2024 that destroyed 358 buildings – approximately one-third of the national park townsite. …“Once structures ignited, strong winds drove fire growth through densely-built up neighbourhoods, with structure to structure ignition dominating the spread,” according to the 71-page report by FP Innovation Wildfire Operations. “In the areas surrounding the townsite, continuous fuel pathways were often present between the wildland and structures. Consequently, a high proportion of ignitions were likely caused by direct flame contact and radiant heat emanating from burning wildland fuels. …The findings in FP Innovation’s report, said Martens, reiterate that “FireSmart works.”
Since its inception almost 10 years ago, the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) has been guided by a simple but powerful principle: collaboration drives impact. …Partnering with First Nations organizations has also deepened our understanding of how traditional knowledge can guide projects with a generational focus. This approach has helped foster greater Indigenous participation and leadership within forestry, contributing to a more inclusive and sustainable future. …Together, we are investing in projects that help create healthier, more productive and resilient forests for the future, and we are also strengthening the relationships that help make it all possible. 
As wildfires continue to devastate communities across North America, it’s time we confront a hard truth: neglecting the forests that surround our towns is no longer an option. …Silviculture — the science of managing forest growth, composition, and health — is not just a tool for local timber production. It’s a vital strategy for climate resilience and community safety. Through practices like selective harvesting, thinning, and replanting, silviculture reduces fuel loads, promotes biodiversity, and maintains the ecological balance necessary to prevent catastrophic fires. Critics often question the ethics of cutting trees in the age of climate change. But when done responsibly, harvesting followed by replanting can actually enhance carbon sequestration. …Moreover, strong forest management isn’t just about trees — it’s about people. …Let’s stop treating forest management as a luxury or a controversial topic. It’s a necessity. Investing in silviculture is investing in the safety, sustainability, and future of our communities.
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QUESNEL, BC — Given what’s going on around the world, it’s easy to understand why more areas in BC are taking a closer look at the Community Forest form of log harvesting tenure. It returns the management and responsibility for small, designated areas of forest land back into the hands of appointed people who live, work and care about them. Some control of what happens to and on the forest land in their own back yard has a growing appeal to its residents. …A community forest attempts to better accommodate other land users. …Co-operating with others as one cohesive unit becomes the catalyst for achieving dynamic, site specific land use solutions. It’s challenging but exciting work. It requires administering a cocktail of flexibility and responsiveness. Nick Pickles understands all that. It’s part of the appeal to being manager of the Three Rivers Community Forest based in the Cariboo region. 
DRYDEN — Wildland fire crews were kept “very busy” throughout the 2025 forest fire season as Northwestern Ontario saw over 560,000 hectares go up in flames. “It would be fair to call the 2025 wildland fire season a very busy one in the Northwest,” said Chris Marchand, a fire information officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources’s regional fire management centre in Dryden. “Often in the spring, you hear us speak of the volatility of spring fire hazard conditions,” he continued. “And this year, from about the second week of May, it really provided a good demonstration of how a few weeks of dry weather combined with high winds and low humidity can really produce extreme fire behaviour in forests that haven’t greened up yet.” Those early conditions were the spark for a season that saw 560,234.9 hectares burned by 435 fires in the Northwest region alone. Comparatively, the Northwest’s relatively slow 2024 season saw 69,938.3 hectares burned in 218 fires.
For more than 15 years, Scott Fitzwilliams led … the “crown jewel” of U.S. federal land — 2.2 million acres in Colorado that includes world class ski resorts… and sees a lot of wildfire. So when he was told in February to fire more than a dozen U.S. Forest Service employees from White River National Forest, one of his main concerns was: Will enough people be around to make sure the next big blaze doesn’t get out of control? …Fitzwilliams resigned in protest over the cuts, part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce… Eight months later, a new report confirms some of Fitzwilliams’s fears. A data analysis shared with The Washington Post found that as of the end of September, Forest Service work to reduce fire-fueling debris was down nearly 40 percent on this date compared with where it has been on average over the previous four years… [A subscription to the Washington Post is required for full story access]
A yearslong endeavor to change logging and environmental policies for millions of acres of Pacific Northwest forests is getting a restart. The US Forest Service will update the Northwest Forest Plan, a set of policies that broadly dictates where logging can occur on 25 million acres of forests in Oregon, Washington and northwest California. …Environmental groups worry new changes that could be made to this plan under the Trump administration will increase logging in mature and old-growth forests. …The Forest Service published its proposed changes in a draft environmental impact statement in November 2024 and received over 3,400 public comments. Now the Forest Service under the Trump administration wants to issue a new draft. …A Forest Service spokesperson said the agency will publish a new draft amendment next fall, and that the Forest Service will allow people to review the draft and weigh in during a 90-day public comment period.
SEATTLE — …Of Washington’s 22 million forested acres, the Department of Natural Resources manages about 3 million acres of state land. Of those, 545,000 acres are now dead or dying — the equivalent of more than 500,000 football fields. …Washington’s severe drought has weakened trees across the state. Then came powerful storms—including last November’s bomb cyclone and February’s windstorm—that battered already-stressed trees to their breaking point. …As droughts intensify and insects thrive in warming forests, trees are dying of thirst while being eaten alive. It’s a double assault turning once-green mountainsides into graveyards of standing dead timber—impacting both eastern and western Washington. “We’re concerned this trend could continue as our climate continues to warm,” Commissioner Upthegrove said. One solution is to remove dead or dying trees and replant more resilient species like hemlock or cedar. However, according to the DNR, the funding needed to address these issues has vanished.
A new bill poised to pass the Senate after clearing the House will govern how the federal government thins, burns and otherwise manages nearly 200 million acres of the nation’s forests. The Fix Our Forests Act, sponsored by U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., John Curtis, R-Utah, Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., passed out of Senate committee recently in a rare show of bipartisan support, with 18 senators in favor and only five opposed. “There is a wildfire crisis across much of the country — our communities need action now,” said Hickenlooper in a news release. “Wildfires won’t wait.” The proposed legislation — the first major congressional effort to fight wildfires in recent history — includes provisions that promote prescribed burning and forest thinning in fire-prone areas along with working with communities to create defensible space around vulnerable homes. The bill formally recognizes wetlands as buffers against wildfires and encourages cross-boundary programs among counties, states and tribes.
Durable, renewable and biodegradable, wood is an ideal material. And as we grapple with the aftermath of synthetic materials, such as forever chemicals and microplastics, the humble material growing in our literal backyards is suddenly looking pretty appealing again. But how do you know it wasn’t clearcut from a rainforest? Figuring out logging practices, deforestation policies, impact on wildlife, pesticide use, and impact on indigenous communities “can be really challenging”, said Linda Walker at the World Wildlife Fund. …That’s where certifications come in. A growing number of wood industry certifications are designed to guide consumers. They’re not perfect. Some have rules written by big timber. Almost all of them receive payments from companies seeking certifications. There is no seal that encompasses every issue, but don’t let perfect be the enemy of good – even the most flawed badges have some baseline value.
In the southeastern United States, pine plantations serve as critical components of the forestry economy, predominantly managed through intensive site preparation techniques designed to enhance tree growth and accelerate harvest cycles. These plantations often employ soil bed construction to improve drainage and the application of herbicides to mitigate competition from weeds and woody shrubs. While earlier studies have documented that such interventions yield promising early growth in pine species such as slash pine (Pinus elliottii) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), the long-term efficacy of these practices remains ambiguous, necessitating comprehensive longitudinal research to unravel their sustained impact on forest productivity. Addressing this knowledge gap, a recent extensive study conducted in the Lower Coastal Plain of North Florida monitored pine plantations for up to 27 years, offering unprecedented insights into how various site preparation strategies influence extended growth trajectories and timber yield.
Wildfire experts from around the globe convened at Istanbul Forest Innovation Week (IFIW) to evaluate Türkiye’s approach to forest fire management, unanimously acknowledging the country’s advanced capacity in both fire detection and intervention. Experts emphasized the integration of cutting-edge technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), as a critical factor in Türkiye’s rising prominence in global wildfire resilience. Tiago Oliveira, chairperson of the Portuguese Agency for Integrated Rural Fire Management, highlighted the multifaceted challenges climate change poses to forests worldwide. He underscored that warming trends are prolonging fire seasons and increasing the number of days with severe fire conditions. Oliveira also stressed the indispensable role of local communities living near forests. … Warning about extreme fire scenarios, Oliveira noted, “When difficult conditions triggered by climate change occur, very intense fires begin, making firefighting extremely challenging because water can become ineffective.”
