Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

The federal government must revisit its approval of glyphosate, court says

By Nick Murray
The Canadian Press in CTV News
February 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

OTTAWA — The federal government has been ordered to reassess its 2022 approval of a popular weed-killer after a Federal Court judge ruled ­this week the original approval was unreasonable. Justice Russell Zinn gave Health Canada six months to reassess the health risks of glyphosate after the agency failed to show it considered new scientific evidence identifying new or elevated risks associated with the herbicide when it renewed the registration for a product containing it. …Monsanto, has faced multiple lawsuits in the US with multi-million-dollar awards to the plaintiffs, while others have been overturned. …The US Environmental Protection Agency reported in 2020 there were no risks to human health from current uses of the herbicide, but its assessment was overturned. …While the Federal Court’s ruling didn’t speak to the health risks of glyphosate, Zinn said Health Canada failed to show any evidence that it evaluated the new studies.

Additional coverage in the Delta Optimist, by Stefan Labbé: Judge rejects Health Canada’s ‘trust us’ approach in glyphosate pesticide approval

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Forest Stewardship Council News and Views

Forest Stewardship Council Canada
February 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

In the February newsletter you’ll find these stories and more:

  • FSC Canada 2025 Events
  • Chestnut Carbon‘s restoration project becomes first US-based project certified for biodiversity verified impact with the FSC 
  • Go Transit NOC prioritises sustainable materials and FSC-certified wood
  • Extension of the consultation period until February 24 for the review of FSC Risk Assessments in Canada and French version is coming soon
  • Webinar for FSC forest managers: Introducing the revised ecosystem services procedure

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Okanagan producers of a documentary focused on wildfires ask for funds to finish their project

By Rob Gibson
Castanet
February 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A retired forester and a Kelowna entrepreneur have joined forces to produce a documentary focused on British Columbia’s wildfire crisis by exploring forest management solutions. The project is the brainchild of Rick Maddison, who lost his home in the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park wildfire, and retired forester Murray Wilson. The pair teamed up to create a film focused on solutions rather than the devastation. The documentary is being produced by the Kelowna’s Distill Media, and filming has taken place throughout B.C., Nevada, and California. The documentary focuses on innovative forest management techniques designed to make wildfires more controllable and less destructive and features interviews with leading experts… The team is hoping to raise $45,000 to finish the production and distribution of their film.

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Kaslo and District Community Forest Society meeting discusses salvaging burned trees and fire mitigation

By Samantha Holomay
Castanet
February 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Kaslo and District Community Forest Society (KDCFS) revisited previous board discussions about future logging plans needed to mitigate fires. During a Feb. 20 meeting, KDCFS members highlighted the demand for cedar and fir while highlighting that several blocks of hemlock trees have been damaged by past fires, rendering some unusable. The Briggs Creek fire that occurred in 2022 led to the destruction of many hemlock trees that will need to be harvested in the next two years before deteriorating. Society forester and treasurer Jeff Mattes explained that the society’s logging plans for the year 2025 will include utilizing a patch-cut system to reserve some of the trees. A patch-cut system refers to the removal of an entire stand of trees less than one hectare.

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Northeastern co-op student in Vancouver develops affordable wildfire detection technology

By Kate Rix
Northeastern Global News – Northeastern University
February 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Devices used to detect and prevent wildfires in remote forests are expensive, but the one that Northeastern University student Anson He is making will be cheaper to launch on drones over dense woodlands. He is pursuing his master’s degree in computer science at Northeastern’s Vancouver campus. In January, he started a co-op at Bayes Studio — a Vancouver company that uses robotics and machine learning to make forest fire detection tools. He is helping to produce a device that uses less expensive components than others on the market. His role is core to the small company’s success: He is in charge of prototyping the hardware and coding the software for what Bayes calls its Edge device.  Other team members work on integrating artificial intelligence into the device’s functionality and connecting the device to servers.

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Canada and Northwest Territories sign nature agreement

By Environment and Climate Change Canada
Cision Newswire
February 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

YELLOWKNIFE, NT – The Governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories are working together to protect nature. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, alongside the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change for the Government of Northwest Territories, jointly announced the signing of the Canada–Northwest Territories Nature Agreement to advance nature-related priorities, in collaboration with Indigenous governments, across the territory. The 10-year Agreement reflects the governments’ shared commitment to long-term environmental sustainability and addresses the critical challenge of biodiversity loss. This is done by providing support for Indigenous-led Protected and Conserved Areas, improving outcomes for key species at risk, supporting Indigenous leadership in conservation and stewardship, and facilitating data exchange. The Government of Northwest Territories will work with Indigenous governments and organizations toward the protection and conservation of 6% of the territory by 2028, with the potential to protect and conserve up to 9.6% of the territory by 2035. 

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BC called on to protect caribou with logging moratorium

By Stefan Labbe
The Prince George Citizen
February 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A Kootenay-based conservation group is calling on British Columbia to enact an interim logging moratorium in the critical habitat of endangered mountain caribou. The call from Wildsight comes four years after the B.C. and federal governments signed an agreement committing to immediate and long-term actions to stabilize endangered caribou population. Over that time, B.C. has blown past deadlines to release recommendations that would protect the species. With one year left before the agreement expires, Wildsight says caribou habitat continues to be logged. …Responding to the call for a logging moratorium, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said in an email it has made “significant progress” recovering southern mountain caribou in the four years since signing the bilateral agreement. That includes implementing logging moratoriums on over 724,000 hectares of land, read the statement unattributed to any individual at the ministry.

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Vancouver Island has a ‘relative abundance’ of the kinds of bats considered to be at risk

By Jessica Durling
Nanaimo News Bulletin
February 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Bat species considered to be at risk seem to be in “relative abundance” on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Scott Wilson, wildlife research biologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, gave a first look into data he’s been gathering during a presentation Feb. 20 hosted by Nanaimo and Area Land Trust and Nature Nanaimo. “I’ve worked on migratory birds most of my life and the bats a bit more recently, and we know so much less about bats in comparison to migratory birds,” said Wilson. “I’d say we’re where we were 30 years ago with birds in terms of understanding their habitat needs and their ecology.” …The data shows that in the Nanaimo area, wetlands were significantly preferred by the myotis species, with a relative abundance 6-10 times higher compared to non-wetlands. They were also preferred by the silver-haired hoary and big brown group, but less significantly, with the species also frequenting meadow bluffs. 

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If a tree falls in a private forest …

By Karan Saxena
The Narwhal
February 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

In 2019, the residents of Glade, B.C., learned they had no right to clean drinking water, after members of the Kootenay community waged a legal battle against forestry companies logging in their watershed. A judge sided with the timber companies, arguing that their economic interests outweighed the community’s concerns about its water supply. A similar story has emerged in Wynndel, B.C. — another town in the drought-stricken region — as residents worry about planned logging in their watershed, Duck Creek. Here, in the Kootenays, logging on both private and Crown land is pretty widespread. One resident told reporter Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood that forestry in the area has gotten out of hand, and lack of management on sustainable practices has turned the practice into “corporate slaughter.” …about five per cent (or 4.5 million hectares) of B.C.’s forests are privately owned, which means that the public has little insight, and even less say, into what happens.

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B.C. is Burning Documentary Nears Completion, Seeks Community Support

By Murray Wilson
BC is Burning
February 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Kelowna, B.C. – A new documentary, B.C. is Burning, is tackling British Columbia’s wildfire crisis by exploring forest management solutions. The project was sparked in 2024 when Kelowna entrepreneur Rick Maddison, who lost his home in the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park wildfire, came across an article by retired forester Murray Wilson about wildfire prevention. The two teamed up to create a film focused on solutions rather than devastation. “I’m hoping if these ideas in the film are adopted, more communities can be protected from this ongoing threat,” says Maddison. …The documentary features interviews with leading experts, including scientists, carbon specialists, and forestry professionals, providing a comprehensive look at the problem and potential solutions. “We’ve spoken with some of the leading people in the field,” says Wilson. “Their insights could change how we manage our forests—and how we protect our communities.” The team is hoping to raise $45,000 to finish production and distribution of their film.

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Eby vows to cut ‘red tape’ for B.C. resource and energy projects — citing tariff threats

By Shannon Waters
The Narwhal
February 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

B.C.’s main response to the tariff threat from the United States so far is a vague plan to “expedite” 18 energy and mining projects — a commitment reiterated in the throne speech, which said the province will “speed up permitting and regulatory approvals” for major resource and energy projects. The selected projects include nine previously announced wind projects the government had already exempted from environmental assessments.  The preliminary list of expedited projects also includes the& North Coast transmission line to power the liquefied natural gas (LNG), mining and other industries, the Cedar LNG export facility the government had already approved, two natural gas pipelines and four mining projects. Eby had already announced that the transmission line, which will dodge an environmental assessment, will get speedy permitting… Details on exactly how the province intends to approve those projects faster remain scarce, but the push to fast-track major projects is drawing criticism from some environmental advocates, First Nations and opposition MLAs.

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The Kootenays are getting drier. A small B.C. community worries more logging puts its water at risk

By Steph Kwetasel’wet Wood
The Narwhal
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Wynndel is about halfway between Nelson and Cranbrook in the Kootenays in southeast British Columbia. Private logging is widespread in the region. Some communities have tried pushing back, but their efforts have run up against private ownership and lax regulations. After residents of Glade, a nearby community, mounted a legal challenge to private logging near their community water supply, a B.C. Supreme Court judge concluded British Columbians do not have any inherent right to clean drinking water… In 2019, the province announced a review of the Private Managed Forest Lands Act, but no amendments to the act have been made. The ministry said it is still working with the Private Forest Landowners Association and Managed Forest Council “to modernize the Private Managed Forest Land Program.”.. According to the province, just over one million hectares (or around one per cent of the province) is privately managed forest land.

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Old-growth logging was ‘goal’ of Interfor: BC Forest Appeals Commission decision

By Brenna Owen
The Canadian Press in the Financial Post
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

BC-based Interfor reaped an estimated $1.8 million in net profit from logging in old-growth areas that were meant to be preserved, a decision by the province’s Forest Appeals Commission says. The commission upheld the finding that Interfor committed eight contraventions of the Forest and Range Practices Act with the logging between 2012 and 2016 in the Arrow Lakes area of southeastern BC. …Interfor’s forest stewardship plan for the area stipulated that logging should not take place in old-growth management areas except in certain circumstances. It said Interfor’s site plans didn’t meet those requirements. Instead, it said the configuration of the cut blocks “indicates that the harvesting of (old-growth management areas) was a goal for Interfor, rather than confining such harvesting to exceptional circumstances,” as required by the stewardship plan. …Interfor acknowledged that its operations had involved logging old-growth management areas. But the company claimed it had complied with its forest stewardship plan.

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Kaslo and District Community Forest Society meeting seeks to discuss fire mitigation long-term community forest sustainability

By Samantha Holomay
Castanet
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The next Kaslo and District Community Forest Society meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Feb.20. Society chair Chris Webster said the society has been refocusing on fire mitigation efforts, community protection and the significant costs associated with fighting fires. Webster also touched on the broader implications of climate change and the need for pragmatic measures to protect tree health. “Cedar has been a big part of our forest, and we’ve got a ton of hemlock, and nobody wants hemlock,” said Webster, adding that other species have been affected and deemed undesirable in part due to diseases. “(Hemlock is) having a real hard time, especially with the heat and the drought.” Webster also reflected on the changes to community engagement and the financial facets that have impacted the society’s operations.

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All 6 spotted owls released in Fraser Canyon now dead

By Kemone Moodley
Hope Standard
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The mission to save the Northern Spotted Owl has hit another setback after its latest released owls were found dead near Hope over the winter. This means all six owls, raised through the conservation breeding program in Langley and released into the wild, are dead. “In June 2024, two male spotted owls were moved to an aviary in a protected forest area in the Fraser Valley and subsequently released into the wild. Unfortunately, both were found deceased later that year,” said the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship via email. “A necropsy on one determined that he was emaciated, and his diminished condition was severe enough to cause death. It is likely the other succumbed to a predator.” Both birds were part of a partnership between the province’s Spotted Owl Breeding and Release Program and Spuzzum First Nation…

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Hope’s new wildfire plans suggest town at only moderate fire risk

By Grace Giesbrecht
Fraser Valley Current in the Penticton Herald
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Big, dense forests full of highly flammable wildfire fuel surround Hope. But the town itself isn’t as doomed to fiery destruction as one might initially fear. While there is plenty of potential for wildfires in the area, a new report presented to Hope council says Hope itself benefits from several geographic features that keep the risk to homes and businesses to moderate levels. The wildfire risks facing Hope have been comprehensively catalogued in the community’s first wildfire resilience plan, a draft of which was presented to council earlier this month. The report warns that a severe wildfire could burn wide swaths of the forests surrounding the town. The forests are dense and full of coniferous trees that bake in hot, dry summer weather. In Hope, the highest risk areas are those that buttress the nearby woods. 

Additional coverage in Fraser Valley Current by Tyler Olsen: Why Hope’s surrounding forests pose only a ’moderate’ risk

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Clearwater County gets provincial grant to help protect Nordegg from wildfires

Red Deer Advocate
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Clearwater County’s West Country and communities such as Nordegg are vulnerable to wildfire. The wildfire risk was brought home last summer. In July and August 2024, two large wildfires burned for weeks and got within 25 kilometres and 50 kilometres of the Nordegg townsite before they were brought under control. To prepare for future wildfires the municipality applied for a grant from the Forest Resource Improvement Association of Alberta for a grant to help reduce the opportunities for wildfires to threaten homes and cabins in the growing community west of Rocky Mountain House. Last month, the municipality was approved for a $200,000 grant for vegetation and fuel management efforts. The money will be used to mulch about 70 acres of tree cones from the forest floor Nordegg’s north subdivision. …Alberta Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen has made it clear that communities vulnerable to wildfires need to step up efforts to reduce the risk.

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Tree diversity is the key to forest survival

By Zack Metcalfe
The National Observer
February 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

NEW BRUNSWICK — Anthony Taylor is an associate professor with the University of New Brunswick specializing in the relationship between forestry and climate. He demonstrated the link between tree diversity and carbon sequestration in a 2023 paper published in the journal Nature, comparing these two metrics on 406 sample plots across the country. …Taylor has been expanding his research into the domains of drought and wildfires, both of which will become more common in coming decades. Here too, he’s found the diversity of trees in a given forest is a good indicator of how well they’ll weather a warming world, not only absorbing carbon, but holding onto it. …Maintaining a natural blend of coniferous and deciduous species in Maritime forests, therefore, would mean sequestering more carbon and suppressing more wildfires, but as Taylor outlined, regional forest management practices have been pushing in the opposite direction for decades.

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Thunder Bay Fire Rescue ready for 2025 wildfire season

By Matt Prokopchuk
The Thunder Bay News Watch
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

THUNDER BAY — Thunder Bay’s fire chief says the local service is taking steps to be as prepared as possible for a wildfire on the city’s doorstep, as the region is likely to become increasingly susceptible to forest fires. David Paxton said with disastrous wildfires over the past decade, it’s something fire departments are taking seriously. …Paxton said that means the department is actively reviewing its capabilities around things like value protection, where firefighters identify and use heavy sprinklers and other specialized equipment to attempt to defend critical infrastructure against an encroaching fire. …Referring to lessons the local department can take from high-profile disasters, Paxton said clear messaging and communication, as well as early awareness and preparedness, are key.

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Will the Fix our Forests Act fix our forests? The right way?

By Reuben M. Schafir
The Durango Herald
February 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

After a century of wildfire suppression across the West, it’s no secret that the approach to forest management has needed to change. And change is, and has been, underway. But newly proposed changes, now in the form of legislation that would let fuel mitigation projects, including logging, in high-risk zones like the forest surrounding Durango skirt the public input process have some environmental groups up in arms. The Fix Our Forests Act passed the House on Jan. 23 in a vote with the support of 215 Republicans and 64 Democrats, over the opposition of 141 Democrats. If it passes the Senate and is signed into law, the law would direct cabinet secretaries who oversee land management agencies, namely the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, to designate high-priority firesheds and create a registry of those landscapes. In those areas, the bill outlines a slate of vegetation management tactics that would be exempt from the scrutinous review prescribed in the National Environmental Policy Act.

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U.S. Forest Service Firings Wreak Havoc on Careers, Endanger Rural Areas

By Ilana Newman
The Daily Yonder
February 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

National forests are vital to rural economies. The outdoor recreation industry contributed 1.2 trillion dollars to the American economy in 2023, according to the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable. This includes hunting, boating, skiing, RVing, fishing, hiking, and so much more — most of which would not exist without our public lands like those managed by the U.S Forest Service. That number also includes the hotels, restaurants and retail stores that support visitors that are participating in outdoor recreation, usually located in small towns surrounded by public lands. On February 24th, a source revealed that seasonal firefighters may be in the next round of terminations. A wildland firefighter in Southwest Colorado who did not want to be named said that he was asked to make a list of seasonal firefighters to prioritize for future eliminations. He said that they were told that the Southwest Colorado district would have a 20-22% cut in seasonal firefighters. “Everyone’s afraid for their jobs,” he said.

Related content:

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Oregon forestry department to plant 2.3 million tree seedlings this year

By Jashayla Pettigrew
KOIN.com
February 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Oregon Department of Forestry plans to plant around 2.3 million seedlings throughout more than 6,100 acres of harvested timber statewide. The agency announced that planting will soon occur across the Tillamook, Clatsop and Santiam forests. It is set to begin in the Sun Pass and Gilchrist forests later in May, with planting taking between six weeks to eight weeks — depending on factors like weather and soil conditions… The department revealed that planting seedlings has become more difficult since the Private Forest Accord was added to the Forest Practices Act in 2023. The new accord enforced further new requirements for maintaining forest roads and further monitoring for rule compliance, among other changes impacting private and non-federal forests throughout Oregon.

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Timber builds dreams at 87th Annual Oregon Logging Conference

By Reed Perry
The News Review
February 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The 87th Annual Oregon Logging Conference (OLC) took place from Thursday to Saturday, February 20-22, at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene. The theme for this year’s event, “Timber Builds Dreams,” reflected the growing impact of timber on Oregon’s economy and landscape as technology transforms the industry… On Friday, Feb. 21, more than 900 high school students from 33 schools participated in the 7th Annual Future Forestry Career Day. This invitation-only event offered students hands-on experiences in fields such as engineering, wildland firefighting, trucking, diesel mechanics, welding, and heavy equipment operation. Additionally, twelve high school teams competed in a forestry skills relay, showcasing their expertise in tasks such as choker setting and chainsaw use.

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Reviews range widely to Forest Service’s draft ‘biography’ of Tongass as part of management plan update

By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Empire
February 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A familiar range of comments about logging, fishing, tourism and tribal issues are being expressed in response to a draft “biography” of the Tongass National Forest, with the 45-day comment period ending Monday as part of the agency’s years-long effort to update its management plan for the forest. A big unknown, however, is if that biography and other aspects of the management plan will be drastically reshaped by the Trump administration’s wholesale overhaul of the federal government, including large staffing cuts and an executive order mandating the repeal of federal regulations that inhibit maximum utilization of Alaska’s natural resources… An affirmation that a shift in priorities will occur under the Trump administration was offered by federal officials participating in a Feb. 11 panel discussion at the Southeast Conference’s Mid-Season Summit in Juneau.

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Portland would plant 660,000 trees, reduce cost of tree care for residents under new plan

By Gosia Wozniacka
The Oregonian
February 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Portland wants to plant 660,000 trees over the next 40 years and launch a citywide and city-managed street tree maintenance program that will take the financial burden off residents. A draft of the new Urban Forest Plan says the decline of the city’s tree canopy in recent years, an imbalance of tree cover across the city and the increased frequency of extreme weather events are driving the need to protect, restore and expand the city’s trees and vegetation. …Portland currently has 4.2 million trees covering 27,600 acres, or about a third of Portland’s land area. … The plan, developed by the city with public input and released for comment this week, is an update of a 2004 plan and would be funded by more than $100 million from Portland’s Clean Energy Fund as well funding from other sources. …The city also plans on taking over street tree maintenance and planting.

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Gov. Kotek introduces bill that would allow her, future governors, Senate to choose state forester

By Alex Baumhardt
Oregon Public Broadcasting
February 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Following a rough few months of leadership and financial turmoil at the Oregon Department of Forestry — including the abrupt resignation of its director — Gov. Tina Kotek wants to change the law so she and future governors get to pick the agency’s leader, rather than the governor-appointed state Board of Forestry. Kotek is proposing Senate Bill 1051, sponsored by Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, to allow the governor to choose the director of the state Department of Forestry, also known as the state forester. …The governor-appointed seven members of state Board of Forestry, which oversees rulemaking for the state’s Department of Forestry, has historically vetted and chosen the state forester. …Under Senate Bill 1051, the state forester would not need to have a professional forestry background, but one of their deputies would have to be a “practical forester,” who is “familiar with western conditions and experienced in organization for the prevention of forest fire.”

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Timber builds dreams at 87th Annual Oregon Logging Conference

By Reed Perry
The News-Review Today
February 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The 87th Annual Oregon Logging Conference (OLC) took place February 20-22, at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene, Oregon. The theme, “Timber Builds Dreams,” reflected the growing impact of timber on Oregon’s economy and landscape as technology transforms the industry. Hundreds of vendors filled the venue, offering everything from equipment displays to hands-on demonstrations. The event was a mix of auctions, games with prizes, and special guests. One of the highlights was the keynote address by Chris Evans, of Portland-based TimberLab. TimberLab is known for its groundbreaking projects, including the Portland International Airport terminal roof, which used 3.4 million board feet of Oregon timber. Evans spoke about the future of large-scale construction using cross-laminated timber and custom glulam, highlighting the company’s leadership in innovation. …Overall, the 87th Annual Oregon Logging Conference proved to be a successful celebration of Oregon’s timber industry and its growing influence on both the economy.

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Wildfire ecology: Examining the environmental destruction of the Los Angeles fires

By Alex Semancik
Ohio University News
February 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Brian McCarthy

…The southwestern U.S. is usually synonymous with drought, but Ohio University Professor of Forest Ecology Brian McCarthy, says wet conditions this spring actually made matters worse for the January Los Angeles wildfires. McCarthy …uses a combination of experimental and observational studies to understand the population dynamics and community ecology of forests. “Southern California experienced a rather wet spring this year. This gave rise to the germination of a large number of herbaceous plants resulting in a thick luscious vegetation,” said McCarthy. “As part of the natural cycle of this region of the country, these plants then died at the end of the growing season and left an enormous amount of highly flammable fuel on the ground in the autumn.” …With fires becoming more frequent and volatile, McCarthy believes a key to mitigating damage from future wildfires is to prepare buildings and land and change the way we develop.

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How Trump’s mass layoffs raise the risk of wildfires in the US West, according to fired workers

By Martha Bellisle and Claire rush
Associated Press
February 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

SEATTLE — The termination letters that ended the careers of thousands of U.S. Forest Service employees mean fewer people and less resources will be available to help prevent and fight wildfires, raising the specter of even more destructive blazes across the American West, fired workers and officials said. The Forest Service firings …are part of a wave of federal worker layoffs, as President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting measures reverberate nationwide. Workers who maintained trails, removed combustible debris from forests, supported firefighters and secured funds for wildfire mitigation say staffing cuts threaten public safety, especially in the West, where drier and hotter conditions linked to climate change have increased the intensity of wildfires. …U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier, a Washington state Democrat, said on the social platform X that the Forest Service layoffs are already hurting the state, “and it is only going to get worse. Fire season is coming.”

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We’re Having Fewer Forest Fires – And That’s a Big Problem

By University of Colorado at Boulder
SciTechDaily
February 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Fewer wildfires occur in North American forests today than in past centuries, but this decline has increased the risk of more intense wildfires, according to a study published in Nature Communications. While it may seem unexpected, frequent low-intensity surface fires help maintain forest health by naturally reducing fuel buildup over large areas. Researchers from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station compared wildfire frequency across two periods: 1600 to 1880 and 1984 to 2022. Using data from 1,850 tree-ring records in historically burned areas, they assessed past fire activity and compared it with modern fire perimeter maps from Canada and the United States. The findings show modern-day fires are much less frequent than they were in past centuries, despite recent record-breaking fire years, such as 2020. 

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Environmental nonprofit says Trump cuts could threaten Oregon’s spotted owl population

By Anthony Macuk
KGW8 News
February 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

PORTLAND, Ore. — An environmental nonprofit is sounding the alarm over the federal funding cuts and hiring freeze instituted by President Donald Trump’s administration, which it said could threaten the population of Oregon’s endangered spotted owl. The widespread layoffs and cuts instituted by the Trump administration have set off a series of protests across the country and around Portland, some of which have focused specifically on the thousands of U.S. National Parks and Forest Service workers who have been fired. The Northwest Forest Plan and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) require the endangered owl population to be monitored, but the Center for Biological Diversity said in a news release that the federal freeze means the monitoring “either won’t occur or will be greatly reduced.”

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Conservation Groups File Lawsuit to Protect Elk Habitat, Wildlife Corridors and Old Growth Forests in Montana

By Mike Garrety
CounterPunch
February 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Native Ecosystems Council and Council on Wildlife and Fish filed a lawsuit in federal court in Montana against a road-building and commercial logging project on public lands in the Big Belt Mountains of Montana. The challenged Wood Duck project is located in a wildlife corridor that is critical for recovery of grizzly bears, and is highly desirable elk habitat.  Logging and road building harm elk and grizzly bears and will likely displace both species from the public lands in the area. The lawsuit raises challenges against the project, and also against the Forest Service’s failure to implement strong protections for public land elk habitat, grizzly bear travel corridors, and old growth forest across the Helena – Lewis and Clark National Forest.

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Remember that big SDS Timber land sale? Here’s what’s happening with that forest

By Kendra Chamberlain
Columbia Insight
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Back in 2021, the SDS Lumber and Timber Company’s sale of its extensive mill properties and nearly 100,000 acres of Pacific Northwest forest reserves to sent a shockwave through the Columbia River Gorge as well as the global timber industry. Now, through a complex partnership agreement, nearly all of the forests formerly owned by SDS in southwestern Washington are remaining open to logging, while being protected against future commercial or residential development.  The Columbia Land Trust has announced a $36 million award from the U.S. Forest Service that will go toward establishing a new conservation easement on a 29,000-acre piece of former SDS Lumber land… Keeping timberlands as “working forests,” rather than carving up the land into commercial or residential parcels, is considered a major conservation win, according to Columbia Land Trust Executive Director Meg Rutledge.

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New Washington state public lands chief defends pause on logging ‘almost old-growth forests’

By Libby Denkmann and Alec Cowan
The Chronicle
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Can Washington state hold off harvesting older forests in the face of a projected $12 billion budget deficit without impacting local governments and school districts that get money from those timber sales? That’s the big question facing Dave Upthegrove, Washington’s new Public Lands commissioner. As one of his first acts on the job, Upthegrove did what he promised to do on the campaign trail — pause the harvest of timber from 70,000 to 80,000 acres of older forests that don’t yet qualify as “old-growth” but still are old enough to provide valuable habitat. Upthegrove said the pause on logging older forests would be offset by increasing harvests in younger forests. He also said the fact that timber values have gone up should dampen the blow.

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It’s not clear how the Trump administration may affect the management guide for federal forests across the Pacific Northwest

By Michael Dotson
Ashland News
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The U.S. Forest Service is at a crossroads in 2025. As the Trump administration takes hold and federal employees are dealing with threats of termination from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the agency is set to wrap up a 120-day comment period on March 17 to amend the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. Meant to guide forest stewardship across more than 20 million acres in the Pacific Northwest, the original Northwest Forest Plan left tribes and Indigenous communities out of the negotiating room. Climate change was barely mentioned in 1994, and here we are 30 years later addressing issues that are important to many communities across Northern California, western Oregon, and western Washington… It remains to be seen what the Trump administration will do with the Northwest Forest Plan amendment effort, and there is potential that it could go the way of the National Old Growth Amendment and be abandoned.

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Natural Resources Professors Named 2024-25 University Faculty Scholars

By Andrew Moore
North Carolina State University News
February 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Justin Baker and Mirela Tulbure, both professors of forestry and environmental resources in the College of Natural Resources, are among 20 early- and mid-career NC State faculty to be named 2024-25 University Faculty Scholars. Established by Chancellor Randy Woodson in 2012, the University Faculty Scholars program recognizes faculty for their outstanding academic achievements and contributions to NC State through their teaching, scholarship and service to the university and beyond. Baker, who holds a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Texas A&M University, joined the College of Natural Resources in 2019. …Tulbure, who holds a Ph.D. from South Dakota State University, also joined the College of Natural Resources in 2019. 

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Tree Genetics: Understanding the White Oak for a Sustainable Tomorrow

WGNS News
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A group of scientists has been quietly working for decades on a project to improve tree genetics, with white oaks among the target species for the UT Tree Improvement Program. For those who are curious, genetics in organisms refers to the study of genes and how they are passed down from generation to generation. Genetics in trees, however, focuses on the study of genes within tree species and examines how their genetic makeup influences traits such as growth rate, wood quality, and resilience to environmental stresses. Scott Schlarbaum, a distinguished professor of forestry at UTIA, leads the UT Tree Improvement Program and is among the co-authors of the paper that describes the white oak genome and how local adaptations may have implications for the species in relation to heat and drought stress. Photo by A. Mains, courtesy UTIA.

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Australian Forest Products Association welcomes Albanese Government’s support for the establishment of new timber plantations

The Australian Forest Products Association
February 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) welcomes and thanks the Australian Government for its latest round of funding announced for the Support Plantation Establishment Program (SPEP) that will bolster our national stocks of local timber and wood-fibre for the decades ahead, Chief Executive Officer of AFPA, Diana Hallam said today. Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry the Hon Julie Collins MP has today announced $10.4 million for 14 new softwood and hardwood plantation projects through Round 3 of the SPEP. The projects range from 21 to 1,928 hectares – the total area around 5,500 hectares across NSW, Victoria, WA, SA and Tasmania.

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Airbus-built Biomass forest measuring satellite shipped to Kourou

SatNews
February 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Biomass, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Airbus-built satellite, has left Toulouse for its journey by ship to Kourou, French Guiana, ready for launch. Biomass, an Earth Explorer satellite, is ESA’s flagship mission to measure forest biomass to assess terrestrial carbon stocks and fluxes from an altitude of 666 km above the Earth. The spacecraft will carry the first space-borne P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), delivering exceptionally accurate maps of tropical, temperate and boreal forest biomass. The spacecraft … will be used to provide accurate global maps of tropical, temperate, and boreal forest biomass. Data on changes in biomass due to forest loss (for example from logging/burning) and regrowth is unattainable by ground measurement techniques. …The Biomass satellite’s development and testing have involved more than 50 companies across 20 countries. Biomass is scheduled to launch in April 2025 on a Vega-C rocket from Kourou and will operate on-orbit for five years.

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Unpredictable and unstoppable: extreme fires take over Europe

Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa
February 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

With the climate crisis, the threat of forest fires is getting worse every year. And from the Mediterranean, a global hotspot, it is spreading to unexpected latitudes, forcing society to deeply rethink its relationship with the territory. …Fires with extreme behaviour …are becoming more intense and frequent. In Europe, the Mediterranean regions are confirmed among the most vulnerable on a global level, while other areas much further north on the continent, with the climate crisis advancing, are finding themselves exposed to the risks of fire. …To frame the phenomenon, scholars have coined another specific term: Extreme wildfire event—those that are technically impossible to contain… even with the best technologies. …In a rapidly changing planet, proceeding with the tools of the past – simply trying to put out the fire at all costs – is no longer enough. A deeper paradigm shift is needed, which begins with a thorough rethinking of our relationship with the territory.

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