Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

Canada’s fire forecast looks bad. The impacts could spill across the border into the US

By Mary Gilbert, Meteorologist
CNN
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

It could be another dangerously smoky summer for some in the United States as Canada prepares for a busy wildfire season with forecasts also signaling extreme heat is in store for both countries in the coming months. But when it comes to wildfire threats this season, the call is also coming from inside the house for the US: Violent wildfires have already raged in multiple states this year, millions were under red flag warnings this week and an active summer is on the horizon. In Canada, wildfires have scorched tens of millions of acres, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and killed multiple firefighters since the country’s record-breaking 2023 fire season. Some fires from the past two years also poured smoke into large population centers in Canada and the US, cratering air quality and ushering in orange-tinted, apocalyptic-looking skies. …Large wildfires produce dangerous smoke that can reach communities hundreds of miles away.

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Registration Open: CIF 2025 National Conference & AGM

Canadian Institute of Forestry
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

This multi-day Conference, Finding Opportunity in Complexity, will explore the interconnected dimensions of climate change, forest fire management, biodiversity conservation, Indigenous forest stewardship, socio-economic considerations, and the evolving forest industry. From October 5-8, 2025, you can experience beautiful Binesii-wiikwedong (Thunder Bay), on the shore of Anishinaabewi-gichigami (Lake Superior) and the surrounding area. The boreal forests of the “Lakehead”, the traditional territory of Fort William First Nation, have provided a cultural and spiritual foundation for Indigenous Peoples for generations, along with a diverse suite of ecosystem services. Over time the area’s forests have also become a source of economic prosperity, making the region a hub of forest management, scientific inquiry, and policy development. Join us as we transform the challenges of complexity into opportunities by considering the history of forest management, celebrating the contributions and diverse perspectives of our peers, and looking toward resilient and healthy future forests.

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CIF Annual Awards Program – Nomination Close May 15!

Canadian Institute of Forestry
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Each year the Canadian Institute of Forestry presents a number of Awards in recognition of outstanding and unique accomplishments to forestry in Canada. Recipients may earn distinction through demonstration of exceptional accomplishments in the field of forestry. The nomination deadline for all National Awards is May 15th, 2025. More than ten awards are open for nominations, including: The Canadian Forestry Achievement Award; the Canadian Forestry Scientific Achievement Award; the Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Award; the Presidential Award; and the Forest Capital of Canada Designation. Who will you put forward for recognition?

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B.C. forecast for drought and wildfire is bleak, but don’t panic yet, say officials

By Andrew Kurjata
CBC News
May 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

B.C. is already reporting some areas of extreme drought, which could spell bad news for the summer ahead. In the province’s first drought update of 2025, a few areas have been highlighted as regions of concern, including the Fort Nelson, North Peace and East Peace regions which have been recorded as having moderate to severe drought conditions. Most of the province has yet to be assessed but Vancouver Island is also reported as having level three drought conditions, on a scale of zero to five. Dave Campbell of the River Forecast Centre says while conditions are not as dry as they were in 2024, they are still concerning. The northeast, in particular, he said is now entering its third year of a multi-year drought where there are “long-term precipitation deficits” that contribute to dangerous conditions overall, such as wildfires. …Natural Resources Canada forecasts shows the potential for yet another active wildfire season across Western Canada…

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Mosaic seeks public input on recreational use of private forestry lands

By Hilary Angus
Victoria Times Colonist
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Mosaic Forest Management is gathering public feedback through a survey on outdoor recreation on its property, including its use of gates on its private forestry lands. Mosaic manages 550,000 hectares of privately owned land between Victoria, Sooke and Campbell River, or roughly 18 per cent of Vancouver Island’s total land mass. Olivia Lyle, Mosaic’s communications manager, said Mosaic wants the public’s input on topics related to recreation to inform their action and strategies. Key themes and trends from the survey will be compiled into a report that will be shared on their website in the near future. …Mosaic limits access to the land, according to its website, “to ensure the safety of workers and the public, to reduce the risk of wildfires, to protect sensitive plant ecosystems, and to protect wildlife habitat.” …The survey takes about eight minutes to complete and is available on Mosaic’s website until May 23.

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West Fraser hosts open house for West Bragg Creek logging project

By Hannah Lepine and Alesia Fieldberg
The Canadian Press in CTV News
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Canada’s largest logging company is hosting an open house to review its plans to harvest trees in the West Bragg Creek and Moose Mountain areas. West Fraser (formally Spray Lake Sawmills) plans to clearcut 268 hectares near West Bragg Creek and another 288 hectares in the Moose Mountain Trail Networks. The total harvest planned for both areas west of Calgary, slated to start in October 2026, is set for 556 hectares, a 37 per cent reduction than what the company initially planned. “We made sure to minimize and work together to come up with the best plan for both groups,” said Tyler Steneker, woodlands manager with West Fraser. The company also altered the placement of a logging road. “That road will turn into a trail when they’re done, so it’s been a very collaborative process. Very pleased with what has transpired so far,” said Mike Duszynski, executive director of the Bragg Creek Trails Association.

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Downton Lake wildfire investigation finds BC Wildfire Service compliant

BC Forest Practices Board
May 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board has released the results of its investigation into a complaint about the BC Wildfire Service’s (BCWS) use of planned ignitions during the 2023 Downton Lake wildfire near Gun Lake. A planned ignition is a deliberate use of fire in an emergency to remove unburned fuel from an area, typically between a control line and the wildfire. Burning this fuel can help contain the wildfire and make fire suppression efforts more efficient. The complaint, submitted by three Gun Lake residents, raised concerns that a planned ignition conducted by BCWS on Aug. 1, 2023, contributed to the destruction of more than 40 homes on the west side of the lake. The board assessed whether BCWS complied with the Wildfire Act and if its decision to use a planned ignition near the complainants’ properties was reasonable, given the conditions at the time. The board found BCWS complied with the Wildfire Act and BCWS’s decision to conduct the ignition in this emergency situation was based on sound forest practices and a reasonable assessment of the wildfire threat.

Additional coverage from Canadian Press in Times Colonist: Planned ignitions in 2023 wildfires were ‘reasonable,’ Forest Practices Board rules

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Deer Park Wildfire Brigade receives certification

By Deer Park Recreation Society
Nelson Star
May 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

In response to the growing threat of wildfires in rural areas, 22 members of the Deer Park Recreation Society (DPRS) achieved certification at the Deer Park Fire Hall on May 4 after meeting the BC Wildfire Service Pilot Project For Rural Communities criteria requirements. DPRS formed 27 years ago to provide fire protection services for its communities due to the area’s drier, warmer micro climate and substantially increased risk of wildfires. Following several recent wildfires in the area, including three very large forest fires, the society took charge and applied for grant funding to attain brigade validation by providing additional training, increased wildfire equipment and upgraded personal protective equipment (PPE) for its communities. …The pilot project enables BCWS to assign the Deer Park Wildfire Brigade to assist during wildfire emergencies in their area.

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Osoyoos Indian Band revitalizing traditional harvesting practices

By Alexander Vaz
Comox Valley Record
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Non-timber forest products (NTFP) provide a wealth of natural resources for the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB). …OIB wants to build a path forward for the sustainable use and commercialization of NTFP through a project supported by the BC Indigenous Forest Bioeconomy Program. The project started as a feasibility study into the commercial potential of NTFP and turned into an initiative once community members wanted to grow their connection with the land and traditional practices, according to Vincent Dufour, a registered professional forester with Silviculture and Private Managed Forest, and Siya Forestry. …One of the main goals of the project is to develop a full inventory of NTFP across the OIB traditional territory in the South Okanagan to the West Kootenays and surrounding regions. …Dufour works alongside local community members and experts in mapping the abundance and availability of species such as mushrooms, soapberries, blackcap raspberries, wild mint, juniper and wild roses.

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The myth of sustainable logging: lessons from a life in the woods

By Bruce Ellingsen, director, Cortes Island Community Forest
National Observer
May 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Bruce Ellingsen

I grew up in logging camps on the BC coast. …Back then, we didn’t talk about “sustainability.” …Today, that word is everywhere — but the way we’re managing BC’s forests tells a different story. We call current forestry “sustainable,” but it isn’t — not in any real or lasting way. …So how do we fix it? We start by grounding forest policy in ecology, not economics alone. If we applied this ecological rule [predator-prey systems] to forestry, it would mean taking no more than 15 to 20 per cent of the forest’s mean annual increment, its yearly growth. Not 50 per cent. Not clearcuts. A modest share allows the system to keep functioning over generations. …I know this kind of shift would have real economic impacts. I also know we’re already feeling them. Timber supply is dropping. Mills are closing. Companies are moving south. The current model isn’t just ecologically unsound, it’s economically unsustainable. [A subscription to the National Observer may be required for full story access]

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North American boreal forest holds 31 per cent more trees than thought

By Bev Betkowski
University of Alberta
May 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A new University of Alberta study calculates that there are 277 billion trees in the North American boreal forest, including 30 billion in Alberta, and it could benefit climate mitigation. Estimated using a sophisticated machine learning algorithm, the numbers are 31 per cent higher than a count made through an earlier attempt in a major 2015 global study. “Our research provides by far the most accurate and credible answer to the question of how many trees are in our boreal forests,” says study lead Fangliang He, a forest ecologist and Canada Research Chair in Biodiversity and Landscape Modelling in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences. The work fills a crucial knowledge gap that “reduces the uncertainty in estimating and managing tree density to promote forest productivity that enhances forest carbon sink potential,” he adds. “Knowing that there are 31 per cent more trees than previously estimated suggests our boreal forests have greater capacity to mitigate climate change.”

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Telkwa Caribou Road Restoration project gets funding

By Marisca Bakker
Houston Today
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The Telkwa Caribou Road Restoration project has received a commitment of $278,257 over three years from the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation. This project will benefit the Telkwa caribou herd through the reclamation of approximately 100 kilometres of road that will according to the project, reduce interactions of caribou with predators, increase habitat availability and access for predators to alternative prey, and increase intact caribou habitat (mature, old-growth forest) into the future. Senior conservation planning biologist Laura Greene said the Telkwa caribou herd has been a conservation concern since the late 1960s. Increasing landscape change, such as logging, road-building, human settlement, etc., is what has driven the decline of the Telkwa caribou, Greene explained. Habitat alteration can result in the direct loss of habitat for caribou, a decrease in habitat quality, and/or a shift in the predator-prey dynamics, resulting in more caribou being killed by predators.

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Alberta Newsprint, West Fraser share 2025 forestry plans with Whitecourt region residents

By Brad Quarin
The Whitecourt Star
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

James Norman

Representatives of the Alberta Newsprint Company (ANC) and West Fraser and Blue Ridge Lumber met locals during joint open houses in early May. The open houses were held in Whitecourt, Edson, Fox Creek and Swan Hills so region residents could learn about forestry operations plans for this year. “Plans are pretty much business as usual,” said James Norman, ANC fibre supply superintendent on Tuesday evening. “We’re cutting about the same amount we’ve cut in the last few years, about 400,000 cubic metres a year.” The purpose of the open houses from May 5 to 8 was for locals to see plans for harvesting, road development, reforestation and herbicide treatment, according to ANC. …Meanwhile, West Fraser stated that “Blue Ridge Lumber plans to layout roughly 1.1 million cubic m of timber.” West Fraser handouts stated the company plans to plant approximately eight million lodgepole pine, white spruce and black spruceseedlings in 2025, from mid-May to late July.

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Okanagan Forest Task Force founder uses thermal imaging drone to help prevent wildfires

By Rob Gibson
Castanet
May 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

When Kane Blake, founder of the Okanagan Forest Task Force, isn’t busy cleaning up the backcountry he uses a night drone looking for unattended campfires. Blake has spotted and doused hundreds of fires. “My truck has big water tanks on it. When it gets dry and we’re doing cleanups, dragging cars and heavy things across rocks — I want our group to be safe — I don’t want to be the group that started a fire,” Blake said. He uses a drone with thermal imaging to spot fires and he’s even able to see people light up with the technology. …According to the BC Wildfire Service, anyone found in contravention of an open fire prohibition may be issued a violation ticket for $1,150, required to pay an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 or, if convicted in court, fined up to $100,000 and/or sentenced to one year in jail.

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From Langford to Leadership: Honourable Ravi Parmar’s Journey in B.C. Politics

By Chief Dallas Smith
Rez Dog Walkers
May 6, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Join us live from Penticton as we dive into an engaging conversation with the Honourable Ravi Parmar, the Minister of Forests! In this episode, we explore the exciting changes happening in British Columbia’s forestry sector, including the recent timber review and the ongoing softwood lumber issues. Ravi shares his journey from a young political enthusiast to a minister, reflecting on his experiences with mentors like John Horgan and the importance of building relationships across party lines. We discuss the challenges and opportunities in forestry, the significance of reconciliation, and how First Nations are taking a leading role in resource management. Tune in for insights on the future of forestry in B.C., the importance of community engagement, and the collaborative efforts needed to ensure a sustainable and inclusive approach to resource management. Whether you’re a forestry professional, a community member, or just curious about the political landscape, this episode is for you.

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Bill 97: Unifor Quebec denounces a failed reform and calls for a fair, sustainable, and inclusive forestry regime

Unifor
May 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Unifor joined a press conference with a broad coalition of key stakeholders in Quebec’s forestry sector opposed to Bill 97, tabled by the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. Although long awaited, this bill in its current form is doomed to failure. It neglects to address the environmental challenges facing the entire forestry industry, as well as the sector’s pressing economic and social needs. “Despite the minister’s claims, this bill fails to protect jobs and will only add fuel to existing tensions with many partners in the forestry sector,” said Daniel Cloutier, Quebec Director of Unifor. …Unifor is calling for a forestry reform tied to a new industrial strategy that ensures a reliable supply of timber, revitalizes local processing, and strengthens protection of natural ecosystems. The future of our jobs, our communities, and our public forests depends on it.

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Canada’s woodlands have a health problem, says report

By Matt Prokopchuk
Superior North News
May 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

THUNDER BAY — The health of Canada’s forests is an issue if the county is to meet its climate targets, according to a recent study. Co-authored by Julee Boan, partnership director for the Global Nature International Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, with Rachel Plotkin, the boreal project manager at the David Suzuki Foundation, the report Counting on Canada’s Commitments: To Halt and Reverse Forest Degradation by 2030, Canada Must First Admit It Has a Problem, makes the case that forest heath — not just size — must be prioritized. The incoming federal government needs to provide leadership in how forests are managed in Canada, particularly around establishing regulations to ensure that overall woodland health is prioritized, says the report. …The report focuses on “degradation” of forests (essentially meaning, what the researchers are arguing, is a decline in their health), rather than deforestation… “…the quality of the forests is being degraded…,” Plotkin said.

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Innu Nations in northern Quebec want better protection of the woodland caribou

By Savanna Craig
APTN National News
May 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

©NRCan

Two Innu Nations in northern Quebec say they’re not satisfied with how the provincial government is handling protections for Woodland Caribou herds. Both Essipit and Mashteuiatsh Nations say they’re pushing for a legal resolution. “Quebec right now is not doing much and it doesn’t look good in the near future,” said Michael Ross, director of development and territory for Essipit First Nation. Ross said his community submitted new documents to the court on May 1 to request for a mediator to hold Quebec accountable and come to a resolution. Both parties have yet to come to a mutual agreement on how to protect the caribou. Ross said the woodland caribou population has been declining in Quebec since the late 1990s. …The Woodland Caribou, also known as the boreal caribou, has been listed as endangered in Canada since 2003, according to the federal government and has fewer than “34,000 individuals.”

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Will increased logging help ease Southern Utah’s wildfire crisis or exacerbate the issue?

By Alysha Lundgren
St. George News
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The Trump Administration aims to increase lumber production in the U.S. while simultaneously reducing wildfire risk on federal lands across the country, including Dixie National Forest. However, some are concerned the president’s decision could make matters worse. On March 1, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, the Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production, to streamline permitting processes. It directs the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to use the Endangered Species Act’s emergency regulations to the maximum extent possible to “facilitate the Nation’s timber production.” Additionally, the order directs federal members of the Endangered Species Committee to develop and submit a report to the president identifying “obstacles to domestic timber production infrastructures specifically deriving from implementation of the ESA and recommends procedural, regulatory, and interagency improvements.” …According to the Center for Biological Diversity, there are over 400 federally listed species that depend on national forest lands, such as grizzly bears, spotted owls and wild salmon.

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Transferring public land to private ownership will unleash America’s abundant natural resources

By Frank Garrison
Pacific Legal Foundation
May 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Last week, the House Natural Resources Committee included a provision in the budget reconciliation package allowing federal public land sales in Nevada and Utah. Yet the proposed provision has sparked pushback from some members of Congress and environmental activists. It shouldn’t: The provision represents a vital step toward restoring Americans’ ability to use their abundant natural resources to advance freedom, and it would represent a welcome challenge to the executive branch public lands abuse. For decades, federal property ownership has resulted in the erosion of Americans’ ability to harness the abundant natural resources with which our nation has been blessed. The United States possesses the world’s largest combined reserves of oil, natural gas, and coal. Our forests could sustainably produce timber for generations. …Yet these resources remain largely inaccessible under a federal management regime that is increasingly divorced from congressional intent and constitutional limits.

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Rep. LaMalfa Introduces Forest Protection and Wildland Firefighter Safety Act

By Congressman Doug Lamelfa
US House of Representatives
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Washington, D.C.—Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), along with Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Jeff Hurd (R-CO), introduced H.R. 3300, the Forest Protection and Wildland Firefighter Safety Act of 2025, to ensure aerial fire retardant remains available for wildfire suppression efforts without being tied up in Clean Water Act permitting delays. The bill clarifies that federal, state, local, and tribal firefighting agencies do not need a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to use fire retardant from aircraft when responding to wildfires. … In 2022, an environmental group sued the Forest Service over its use of aerial fire retardant, arguing regulation under the Clean Water Act. A federal court ruled in 2023 that the Forest Service must obtain a NPDES permit from the EPA… …if future litigation results in a successful injunction, firefighters could be forced to ground aircraft or fly them with only water…

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Bipartisan Effort to Expand Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration

By Senator Mike Crapo
Government of Idaho
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) teamed up to introduce the bipartisan Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) Program Reauthorization Act of 2025.  This legislation would reauthorize and expand the CFLR program, which helps fund collaborative and community-based forest management.  The CFLR program has a proven track record of improving forest health, reducing wildfire risk and supporting rural communities. “Shared, active forest management plays a vital role in reducing the risk of wildfires and fire suppression,” said Crapo.  “Ensuring long-term reauthorization of the CFLRP will promote Idaho’s forest health, encourage the responsible stewardship of our public lands and foster resilient, rural economies.  Reauthorizing the CFLRP results in stronger relationships on the ground, more effective projects and a decreased risk of conflict and litigation.”

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How the EU deforestation law aggravates the trade dispute with the United States

The Financial Times in Bytes Europe
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, International

The EU has made little headway and an attempt to appease the US by delaying controversial import controls has fallen flat. The US forestry industry has accused the EU of erecting trade barriers by favouring its own industry under amended deforestation rules. The EU’s deforestation law, which will ban the import of products from sectors including rubber, cocoa, wood and paper if they come from deforested land, should have come into force last year. Under pressure from the bloc’s trading partners it was delayed until the end of the year. Despite this respite, the nine biggest US forest product organisations accused the EU of setting “severe” compliance challenges, opening a new front in the growing transatlantic trade conflict. The EU has categorised the US — and all its own members — as “low risk”. Heidi Brock, head of AF&PA, said the law amounted to a “non-trade tariff barrier” for US paper and wood products.

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Why there won’t be significant logging in the Tongass

By Rodger Painter
The Alaska Beacon
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Industrial-scale logging in the Tongass National Forest was due to monopolies created by the federal government and taxpayer subsidies… A study by the Southeast Conservation Council calculated the federal government spent $386 million for preparation and sale of Tongass timber while collecting only $32 million in stumpage fees from 1982 to 1988. While the heyday of the timber industry supported about 4,000 jobs, many were nonresidents or recent arrivals who left when the pulp mills closed. Most of my former colleagues at the Sitka mill went “back home” to Washington when the mill ceased operation. The pulp mills closed primarily because of tree farms in warmer climates such as South Africa, where forests grow much faster than the Tongass. Many fruit and vegetable farms in the southern U.S. converted to tree farms… So, are there enough standing old-growth trees to support a vibrant timber industry in the Tongass? It depends upon who you ask.

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An architect of Oregon’s wildfire map on why he now supports repealing it

By Courtney Sherwood
Oregon Public Broadcasting
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

After Oregon’s devastating 2020 Labor Day fires, the Legislature passed a bill that was supposed to lead to more wildfire awareness and resilience. Among other things, Senate Bill 762 created a map of areas at high risk of fire. But that map led to a huge backlash from property owners — a backlash so strong that a few weeks ago, the state Senate voted unanimously to eliminate it. Jeff Golden is a Democratic state senator from the Rogue Valley. He voted to create the map in 2021, now he’s voted to get rid of it. …“We delegated to Oregon State University, which has credentials — among the best in the world in terms of maps like this — and gave them almost no direction, just said, ‘We need a map to fulfill this purpose. Let us have it within the next 18 months.’” At the time, very few lawmakers were worried about what would come next.

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‘Forests of Gasoline’

By Kathleene Parker
Santa Fe Reporter
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

With the passing of the 25th anniversary of the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire on May 10—during yet another bone-dry spring of the Modern Megadrought—we should consider a wildfire variation of the adage, “Those who don’t learn from (fire and forestry) history are doomed to relive it.” In the 1990s, Los Alamos and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) were warned, repeatedly, that they were vulnerable to wildfire. Today, Los Alamos and New Mexico in general, despite Cerro Grande and other fires, have not acknowledged or addressed the dangerous reality of today’s forests. As a correspondent for the Santa Fe New Mexican in the 1990s, I authored multiple stories featuring foresters and wildland firefighters who saw Los Alamos’ peril. I also witnessed, firsthand, the power and destruction of wildfires—Cerro Grande, Dome, Missionary Ridge, Los Conchas—in places I love. …Instead, it’s time to demand municipal, county, state, and federal leaders who acknowledge and aggressively address the wildfire threat.

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Timber harvest benefitting University of Washington sparks concern among residents of small, pro-logging town

By McKenna Sweet
The Daily (University of Washington Student News)
May 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

NASELLE, Wash. — One self-service library, high school, and grocery store serve the 519 people of Naselle, Washington. The piles of felled logs along the roadsides dwarf the passing cars, signaling to drivers that this town was built on logging. Many Naselle residents have family roots in the forestry sector, allowing them to be intimately familiar with its demands. They also do not often push back on timber harvests that pose no threat to endangered species or their habitats. But an upcoming harvest will fell trees surrounding one of two creeks that supply the town’s water: this is where most residents draw the line. …The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will auction off 105 acres of state-owned forest in Naselle on May 29 after they determined the area was suitable for harvest. The revenue from the highest bid will go to UW. …UW received approximately $20 million from the DNR from 2020 to 2024, $8.6 million of which was from timber sales. 

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Jefferson County Open Space working to gain control of spike in pine beetles at park

By Danielle Kreutter
Denver 7
May 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

EVERGREEN, Colo. — Crews with Jefferson County Open Space (JCOS) are working to reduce a spike in pine beetles in ponderosa pine trees at an Evergreen park. When the bark of infected trees is pulled back at Elk Meadow Park, the problem is clear. Pine beetles burrow into the trees and lay their larva under the bark. The larva live right on top of the living tissue of the tree, suck up the nutrients and end up killing the tree. They then pupate, turn into adults and fly off to the next tree. …”We are totally OK with a few trees being killed from the pine beetle that creates variable habitat for our wildlife species, and so at a small scale, mountain pine beetle is a good thing,” Steve Murdock, the interim manager of JCOS’ Natural Resource Stewardship. said. However, the numbers that Colorado communities, including Jefferson County, are seeing are well above what would be beneficial for a forest.

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Pacific Northwest leaders urge action as wildfire season nears without federal support

Oregon Public Broadcasting
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Trump administration funding cuts and a loss of federal workers who help support wildland firefighting continues to make planning for the upcoming wildfire season a challenge, according to forest and fire officials in Washington state and Oregon. The biggest issue they’re facing is a lack of communication from the federal government as the West faces “a pretty significant wildland fire season,” Washington State Forester George Geissler said Thursday during a press conference hosted by Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. …A spokesperson with the Department of Interior, which oversees National Parks and other public lands, said “funding is not in jeopardy.” They’re supporting firefighting efforts by increasing pay for federal and tribal wildland firefighters across the U.S. The administration has refused to release the exact number of fired and rehired workers, but numbers are coming in from individual forests, she said.

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Oregon State University purchases land outside Portland for research, recreation

By April Ehrlich
Oregon Public Broadcasting
May 9, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

By the end of this month, about 3,110 acres of private forestland outside Northwest Portland will become part of Oregon State University’s new research forest. OSU announced Friday that it’s finalizing its purchase of land northwest of Portland’s Forest Park for $27 million, all of it covered by federal and regional grants. This area, which OSU calls the Tualatin Mountain Forest, had been managed as a timber plantation by forest products giant Weyerhaeuser Company. As such, most of the trees are no older than 35 years. OSU leaders say this landscape will become more ecologically diverse under the university’s ownership. The plan is to research what effects different types of logging practices have on tree diseases, pests and fire resilience. …This land acquisition comes a year and a half after OSU suddenly backed away from yearslong plans to manage the Elliott State Forest near the Oregon Coast as a research forest.

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Court halts watershed logging

By Emma Maple
Peninsula Daily News
May 9, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

PORT ANGELES — A Clallam County Superior Court judge has issued a temporary restraining order to halt all logging activity in two Elwha River watershed forest parcels for 14 days. As double assurance the forests are not logged, activists have placed debris in the middle of a road, blocking logging access to Units 3, 4 and 6 of a timber sale called Parched. …Together, these actions have temporarily halted logging-related activity for about 300 acres in the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) parcels named Parched and Tree Well. The parcels are currently being litigated on two fronts. …Judge Elizabeth Stanley’s order, issued Wednesday, stated that the LFDC demonstrated that “immediate and irreparable harm, including construction of roads, environmental damage and loss of forest resources within the boundaries of the Parched and Tree Well sales, will occur absent immediate injunctive relief.”

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New tool helping Coloradans understand forest management across the state

By Maggy Wolanske
Denver 7
May 11, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

DENVER — The Colorado State Forest Service and the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, housed at Colorado State University, have recently launched an online database designed to help Coloradans understand forest management activities across the state. The Colorado Forest Tracker uses federal, state, and local data to create a user-friendly online database. The tool informs people of activities like where trees and bushes have been cut down, prescribed burns, along with where trees are being planted. “It’s been a really big effort to collect data from all these various sources and try and standardize it so we can understand it, more apples to apples. That’s how you really learn what’s happening and improve what’s happening and communicate a common message across Colorado, so we can work better together,” said Brett Wolk, associate director with the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute at CSU.

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Bill intends to boost Oregon’s ‘dual credit’ farm and forestry classes

By Mateusz Perkowski
Capital Press
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Oregon lawmakers appear likely to pass a bill that encourages college-credit agriculture and forestry classes in high schools, though some have doubts about its effectiveness. Senate Bill 784 would require the development of statewide standards for “dual credit” courses in these subjects, which is intended to make such classes more widely available, especially in rural areas. “Many students are eager to pursue careers in agriculture, forestry and natural resources but they need exposure and seamless pathways to higher education and industry jobs,” said Sen. Todd Nash, R-Enterprise, the bill’s chief co-sponsor. …More than 7,400 students are enrolled in natural resource programs at Oregon’s universities, showing there’s a demand for such education, so SB 784 would be a “smart investment” in the state’s future workforce, said Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, the bill’s chief co-sponsor.

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Washington state forests are too complex for ‘cut or don’t cut’ thinking

By Scott Freeman, Jefferson Timber Cooperative
The Seattle Times
May 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

SEATTLE — Recent controversy over the management of Washington’s older state-owned forests has been dominated by an either/or framework: Either we clear-cut these tracts or prevent any harvest at all. Cut it all now or don’t cut any, ever? The human brain loves to dichotomize, but this type of either/or thinking doesn’t work in the woods. Ecologically, economically and culturally, our forests are too complex. Ecologically, climate change is altering our forests rapidly and radically. …Economically, rural areas in Washington state are a microcosm of a pattern that is global in scope. …Cultural values need to be considered as well. …We have to implement a broad array of management models and tools. Instead of re-fighting the 1980s War in the Woods and practicing lawsuit-driven forestry, we need to create flexible, forward-looking practices that will support the health of our forests and rural communities in a time of rapid change.

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How a worm perpetuated wildfires in northern Minnesota

By Kyeland Jackson
The Minnesota Star Tribune
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Wildfires are burning through thousands of acres of forest in Northern Minnesota damaging buildings and forcing residents to evacuate their homes. The yet-to-be-contained Camp House fire, Jenkins Creek fire and Munger Shaw fire have a small accomplice to thank for their continued destruction: spruce budworms, a well-known pest that has terrorized Minnesota forests for at least half a century, killing trees and making them more susceptible to fire. The fires’ other helper? Humans. “Spruce budworm’s largest impact, in my opinion, is that it can help perpetuate dense stands of balsam fir on the landscape that are fire prone,” said Mike Reinikainen, a silviculture program consultant with the state’s Department of Natural Resources’ forestry division. Much of the area was infected by spruce budworms, whose infestations worsened the Greenwood fire near Isabella, Minn. in 2021.

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Zinke and Neguse Introduce Bill to Extend Successful Forest Management Program

By the Office of Ryan Zinke
Montana Outdoor
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Washington, D.C. – Today, Representatives Ryan Zinke (R-MT-01) and Joe Neguse (D-CO-02) introduced the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) Program Reauthorization Act of 2025, which would extend and expand a successful program focused on reducing wildfire risk, restoring forest health, and supporting rural economies through proven, locally driven strategies. Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced companion legislation in the Senate. Originally authorized in 2009, the CFLR program is a model of how communities, industry partners, landowners, and local governments can work together to improve forest conditions and prevent catastrophic wildfires. In its first decade, CFLR projects treated and restored 5.7 million acres of forest, improved 1,000 miles of trails, and maintained over 25,000 miles of forest roads helping keep public lands open and safe.

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Warner & Kaine Introduce Bills to Protect Wilderness in Virginia

US Senator Mark R. Warner
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) introduced two bills to protect wilderness in Rockingham, Augusta, Highland, and Bath counties. “We are lucky to have such beautiful natural resources in Virginia, and we need to do more to ensure that these lands are protected for future generations,” said the senators. “We’re proud to introduce this legislation to preserve wilderness in Rockingham, Augusta, Highland, and Bath counties, protect wildlife, and support local economies that depend on tourism and outdoor recreation.” These additions were recommended by the U.S. Forest Service in 2014 and endorsed by members of the George Washington National Forest Stakeholder Collaborative, a group of forest users who work together on acceptable locations in the George Washington National Forest for wilderness, timber harvest, trails, and other uses. In 2023, the tourism economy directly employed 7,562 people and generated $842.5 million in expenditures in [these areas].

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Cultural burning by Indigenous peoples increased oak in forests near settlements

By Jeff Mulhollem
Penn State News
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A debate continues among scientists over whether tree composition in forests in eastern North American historically have been influenced more by climate or by cultural burning, which is the intentional and controlled use of fire by Indigenous people to manage their environment. A new study of southern New England forests … lends credence to the cultural burning hypothesis, suggesting that fire-tolerant vegetation — oak, hickory and pine — were significantly more abundant near Indigenous settlements over the last 5,000 years. “The results of this study strongly suggest that Native Americans extensively use fire and other disturbances such as land clearing for villages, agriculture and trails, and both directly and indirectly promoted fire-adapted trees,” said study co-author Marc Abrams, Penn State professor emeritus. “These trees were very important to the Native American diet because of the mast — nuts and acorns — they produced.”

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‘Active Management’ Harms Forests — And It’s About to Get a Whole Lot Worse

By Dominick DellaSala, David Lindenmayer and Diana Six
The Revelator
May 9, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Over the past few years, many decisionmakers and forest managers have increasingly called for “active management” of natural forests — human intervention via mechanical thinning and other forms of commercial logging and road building — in response to increasing wildfires, beetle outbreaks, and intense storms. Many activists oppose these methods, saying they do more harm than good. For instance, actions that seek to suppress naturally occurring wildfires may make those fires more intense when they happen. But active management activities have scaled up in response to economic drivers, misinformation on natural disturbance processes, and more climate-driven extreme events that trigger large and fast-moving fires. …Our research daylights the expanding active management footprint while creating science support for decision-makers to choose more prudently on behalf of maintaining or restoring integrity and for activists to push back when policy is inconsistent with conservation science principles.

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Australian forestry agency should be shut down for repeatedly breaking law, critics argue

Lisa Cox
The Guardian
May 10, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

David Heilpern

NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia — A former magistrate and one of Australia’s most experienced scientists have launched an extraordinary attack on the New South Wales government’s logging agency, describing it as effectively a “criminal organisation” that should be shut down after a string of court convictions. Prof David Heilpern, a NSW magistrate between 1998 and 2020 and now the dean of law at Southern Cross University, said the state’s Forestry Corporation should be “disbanded” as it was was no longer fit for purpose. …A NSW Forestry Corporation spokesperson said Heilpern’s suggestion that the corporation be compared to a bikie gang was “ridiculous”. “Forestry Corporation will not respond to this analogy,” they said. …Heilpern’s comments follow a judgment in the NSW land and environment court last year that fined the Forestry Corporation $360,000 after it failed to accurately map two environmentally significant areas in the Yambulla state forest.

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