Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

B.C. failing to protect 81% of critical habitat for at-risk species: government docs

By Ainslie Cruickshank
The Narwhal
April 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

More than 80 per cent of the critical habitat for at-risk species in B.C. fails to meet federal protection standards, according to a government briefing document. The document was included in a transition binder compiled for B.C. Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Minister Randene Neill. Close to 300 species in B.C. are listed under the federal Species At Risk Act… Critical habitat … has been identified in federal recovery plans for 107 of those species, according to the briefing document. Combined, it amounts to 31.3 million hectares — an area about 10 times the size of Vancouver Island. According to the document, the B.C. government provides “special management” of more than 34.5 million hectares of habitat for at-risk species. But not all of this area is considered “critical habitat” and not all meets legal federal protection standards, the document says. The provincial government, for instance, allows commercial logging in some special management areas.

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Earth Day time to recall value of forests, including in Saskatchewan

By Lisa McLaughlin, Nature Conservancy of Canada
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
April 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

After we marked Earth Day last week, the significance of forests for conservation, community benefits and human health has never been more urgent to acknowledge. Forests play many critical roles for nature and people: they provide habitat for hundreds of species, act as water filters, reduce air pollution, and are places of community connection, recreation and refuge. However, many pressures, including severe storms and wildfires, invasive alien species and habitat loss threaten these ecosystems, the benefits they provide and the relationships they support. …The economic value of our forests is just as vital as their ecological importance. According to the Forest Products Association of Canada, more than 200,000 Canadians earn their livelihood directly from forestry, sustainable agriculture and eco-tourism, contributing an impressive $87 billion in annual revenue. …The call is clear: safeguarding Canada’s forests means safeguarding ourselves. Our natural resiliency, our economic prosperity and our health require us to do our part. 

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Wildland firefighting drones are being tested in B.C.

By Santana Dreaver
CBC News
April 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Alex Deslauriers and Melanie Bitner’s home was one of 56 properties destroyed by the Downton Lake wildfire two years ago.  A fire tornado … swept through the community of Gun Lake, about 61 kilometres north of Pemberton, B.C., in August 2023, during Canada’s most destructive fire season on record. A working aerospace engineer, Deslauriers started brainstorming innovative ways to fight wildfires, to prevent others from a similar fate. …Along with David Thanh, a former B.C. Wildfire warden and Bitner, a communications expert, the trio co-founded Fireswarm Solutions — a Canadian company that, once testing is done, aims to supply heavy-duty drones to first responders. Known as Thunder Wasp drones, these quad-rotor drones UAVs, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, are built by Swedish aerospace company ACC Innovations. …FireSwam is working with the Strategic Natural Resource Group to test the drones’ ability to fight wildfire in B.C. over the course of the wildfire season. 

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We must support a vibrant forestry industry in B.C.

By Evan Saugstad
Energetic City
April 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

…As northern B.C. sawmills have closed over the past few years, a common refrain has been in each company press release. Punishing tariffs, high log costs, lack of access to B.C.’s plentiful timber and uncertainty in permitting processes… Is this the opening we need to dispense with the notion we need to begin turning B.C. into one big park for the world to enjoy? …Although B.C. has lost many of our lumber manufacturing facilities, our main ingredients are still here – our forests, its trees and a workforce, which when combined, provides for some of the best quality forest products in the world. Despite the economic hit our rural communities and residents have sustained with the loss of our forest industry, it is only a temporary setback, if we treat it as such, and do not let our governments succumb to the “end the forest industry” ideology that is so prevalent today.

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Fort Nelson Community Forest to receive part of $1 million investment

By Ed Hitchins
Energetic City
April 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

FORT NELSON, B.C. — Northeast BC forests will receive $1 million in funds for enhancement projects from the provincial government. Fort Nelson Community Forest, which will receive a portion of those funds, is a joint venture between the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and Fort Nelson First Nation. Ravi Parmar, minister of forests, made the announcement on Thursday, April 24th at the BC First Nations Forestry Council’s conference in Penticton, according to a press release. The money announced will go toward waste wood utilization, including “funding to support additional wildfire reduction work west of the community of Fort Nelson,” and money to “assist in the movement of fire-damaged pulp logs from the Fort Nelson Community Forest near Fort Nelson to a central distribution site.” The salvaged wood will later be moved to a Canfor mill in Prince George, according to the release.

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North Cowichan, Nanaimo mayors encourage province to harvest more wood

By Robert Barron
Cowichan Valley Citizen
April 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The mayors of North Cowichan and Nanaimo are urging the province to increase the amount of timber that can be harvested annually in the province. In a letter to Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar, North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas and Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog said that despite its recent struggles, the forest industry continues to be a major part of the local economies of both municipalities, providing high-paying jobs while contributing millions of dollars in taxes every year that help pay for municipal services and build critical infrastructure. …They said the province’s budget for 2025 projects that only 30 million cubic metres of timber will be allowed to be harvested on Crown land this year, further declining to 29 million cubic metres by 2027, while more than 60 million cubic metres were allowed to be harvested in 2024. …The mayors also said they want to see the province’s permit and regulatory processes for timber harvesting streamlined.

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Cariboo Wildfire Risk Reduction & Wood Recovery Utilization Projects Receive Funding

My Cariboo Now
April 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Forest Enhancement Society of BC has given over $5 million for 18 projects in the Cariboo Region. Executive Director Jason Fisher said the Society distributes the money on behalf of the Province to invest in Forest Management activities related primarily to two major functions. “There’s the wildfire risk reduction, which involves going in and removing potentially some of the crown closure, removing some of the stems, some woody debris off the ground and making forest stands more resilient in the event of wildfire or less likely a wildfire that occurs in those stands would lead to more catastrophic wildfires.” Fisher said the other major function is wood recovery and utilization. In damaged stands, or post harvesting “we will help support applicants in going in, collecting that wood [debris] and bringing it to facilities like pulp mills or pellet plants to generate economic opportunities.”

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BC Forest Discovery Centre sparks conversation on wildfires April 30

By Chadd Cawson
Cowichan Valley Citizen
April 27, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The BC Forest Discovery Centre announced the first of their planned continued educational series with the presentation of their book project Fire Season by authors Liz Toohey-Wiese and Amory Abbott. It will explore … how Toohey-Wiese’s and Abbott’s views on wildfires have changed over the course of publishing the three books as they share how both artists and writers can contribute to the narratives around wildfires. “Throughout the three editions of Fire Season historical materials from the BC Forest Discovery Centre have been woven into the contents of the book, showing a visual history of how we have thought about wildfires for the past 100 years, from ‘Smokey Bear’ and beyond,” said BC Forest Discovery Centre general manager Carol Miller. Fire Season: Making Sense of Wildfires Through Art and Writing: Zoom Webinar, April 30, 7 – 8 p.m. followed by a half hour reserved for audience questions afterwards.

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Logging irony: Unsustainable logging practices, unfair trade arguments threaten Alberta caribou

By Kirby Smith, retired Alberta wildlife biologist
Alberta Daily Herald Tribune
April 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Irony is one of Alberta’s most sustainable products. A current example is Weyerhaeuser, an American timber giant, with significant questions about environmental conservation and trade fairness. This company, alongside other American timber enterprises, have fervently lobbied the US Government to impose tariffs on softwood lumber imported from Canada. …Wearing its faux-Canadian hat, Weyerhaeuser, a Forest Management Agreement Holder, is now proposing to clear-cut log the remaining core forested winter range of the Redrock-Prairie Creek and Narraway southern mountain caribou populations. This proposal endangers the future of these already threatened caribou, which rely on these forests for their survival during winter. …Why should Albertans allow the future of these caribou populations to be jeopardized for the sake of supporting a US company? This same company has argued that Canadian softwood lumber is unfairly subsidized, yet it sees no issue with exploiting provincial lands in Alberta at fire-sale prices.

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Manitoba puts down payment of $80M on 3 new water bombers to fight forest fires

Tessa Adamski
CBC News
April 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The provincial government is putting an $80-million down payment on three new water bombers it plans to have by the 2031 and 2032 fire seasons. The new Calgary-made De Havilland Canadair 515 Firefighter water bombers will have upgraded navigation systems, increased tank capacity and more fuel-efficient engines, Premier Wab Kinew said on Friday. The first water bomber is expected to join the fleet for the 2031 fire season, with the other two expected to be added in 2032, he said. The $80 million is a down payment and the full cost is still being negotiated, Kinew said. …The new bombers were promised within a decade in the provincial budget released last month. The new water bombers will help fight fires not only in Manitoba, but in neighbouring provinces and territories and even south of Canada’s border, Kinew said.

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B.C. supports land stewardship at Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park

By Ministry of Environment and Parks
Government of British Columbia
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

A temporary closure will take place at Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park to provide time and space for members of the Líl̓wat Nation and N͛Quatqua to reconnect with the land and carry out cultural and spiritual practices. Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park has become one of the busiest parks in the province. As more people go to the park, there is a need for enhanced visitor-use management, ensuring the park is not degraded by heavy use. Temporary closures to the park for recreational visitors will occur from April 25 until May 16, 2025. Beginning Saturday, May 17, adults and youth older than 12 will require a free day-use pass to visit the park. …The park is collaboratively managed with Líl̓wat Nation and N’Quatqua with the primary goal of maintaining the natural environment, and so the Nations can continue their cultural practices on their territory. 

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More than 60 projects will reduce wildfire risk, support forestry in B.C.

By Ministry of Forests
Government of British Columbia
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Communities and workers throughout British Columbia are benefiting from 64 new Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) supported projects that reduce wildfire risk, enhance forest health and get more fibre into the hands of mills and energy producers. “The projects will remove almost 11,000 truckloads of flammable waste fibre from our forests,” said Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests. “…This fibre that once would have been burned in slash piles will instead support workers and help keep communities safe.” With $19 million in provincial funding, projects will take place in all eight of the Province’s natural resource regions. This includes 31 led by First Nations and another 14 with First Nations involvement, demonstrating the critical leadership role First Nation communities are playing in restoring and protecting B.C.’s forests. This funding is part of the $90 million allocated in 2025 for wildfire-prevention initiatives through BC Wildfire Service, FireSmart initiatives and FESBC.

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Forest Enhancement Society of BC project updates from around the province

By Jason Fisher, Executive Director
Forest Enhancement Society of BC
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Jason Fisher

Indigenous Peoples in British Columbia have long stewarded our forests with a deep connection to the land, imparting their valuable cultural knowledge. Since its establishment in 2016, the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) has been honoured to work alongside Indigenous partners and communities by investing in projects that are making a transformational difference in our forests. We are honoured to continue funding projects led by Indigenous proponents that reflect their vision for forest management, create opportunities for Indigenous People, and make their communities safer. Today…we released our Spring 2025 Accomplishments Update, showcasing newly funded projects – many of which are led by First Nations and rooted in local values, innovation, and sustainability. A more comprehensive report will be coming out this Fall… these initiatives are helping shape a more inclusive forest economy in B.C., one in which First Nations have an even greater leadership role to the benefit of all British Columbians.

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With Jasper’s devastation in mind, Alberta communities gear up for wildfire season

By Adrienne Lamb
CBC News
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Memories of the destruction wrought by a wildfire that roared through Jasper National Park last summer are fuelling wildfire prevention efforts across the region. The July 2024 wildfire destroyed one-third of the structures in Jasper’s historic townsite, 365 kilometres west of Edmonton. “The situation we watched last summer was absolutely devastating,” says Nicholas Nissen, mayor of Hinton, Alta., a town 80 kilometres east of Jasper. Since then, many displaced Jasperites have been calling the town of 10,000 home. “I’m certain those people feel nervous when they look out at a big forest and see a summer coming.” That’s part of the reason Nissen says they’re digging in this spring to prepare for the worst by reinforcing the firebreak south of town. “You can see around us — the grass grows, the shrubs grow, the trees grow up so those firebreaks need to be re-done,” Nissen said this week, pointing to a machine mulching the 58-hectare fireguard.

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Firefighting drones could change the way B.C. fights wildfires, especially during the night

By Denise Ryan
Vancouver Sun
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

[Alex Deslauriers watched the Downton Lake wildfire in 2023 where his home was destroyed by the fire.] Since then, Deslauriers, an aerospace engineer, has been focused on just one thing: how to make sure it never happens again. …He shifted his entire career, almost overnight, to solving the problem. …Now there is: firefighting drones. …Now his company, FireSwarm Solutions, is adapting a Swedish-made jet engine-powered heavy-lift UAV (Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle) to fight wildfires. FireSwarm has partnered with Strategic Natural Resource Group, an Indigenous-owned company based in Prince George that specializes in forestry, emergency response and remote site development, to bring the drones to the frontlines of firefighting. …Rapid wildfire growth at night is an emerging phenomenon that has become increasingly problematic… That nighttime gap in firefighting response is exactly what Deslauriers wanted to address

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A Tsilhqot’in First Nation builds capacity as fire season begins

By Ruth Lloyd
Clearwater Times
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Xeni Gwet’in First Nation is building capacity in a remote part of the Chilcotin Plateau as the wildfire season gets underway. The Tin Towh crew is an experienced forestry crew with Xeni Gwet’in, a community a three hour drive south-west of Williams Lake. Along with a lot of work doing fuel management, the crew is also continuing to build their skills as firefighters. Alexis Stowards is the crew coordinator, working both in the field and in the office, and Steve Quilt is the crew supervisor, overseeing field work. Based in the remote Nemaiah Valley, Tin Towh, which loosely translates to “in the woods” in Tsilhqot’in, the crew was well-positioned to respond to a fire reported on April 21. The fire was approximately three hectares and was located in an area about 20 km west of the Xeni Gwet’in community.

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Environmental groups want BC to refocus measures to protect old-growth forests

My Coast Now
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) are calling for better protection of old-growth forests from the BC Government. [They want the] province to refocus their measures, implement their draft biodiversity, and Ecosystem Health Framework to ensure a transition to a sustainable forest industry. Executive Director of EEA Ken Wu said there is two directions the government can go in response to tariff threats from the U.S. “Either take the easy but foolish route by falling back on the destructive status quo of old-growth logging and raw low exports, or instead take the opportunity to invest in a modernized, sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry that is the future of forestry in BC, while protecting the last old-growth forests.” …The groups are also issuing a warning which commercial logging must not be permitted in protected areas under the guise of wildfire risk reduction.

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VIDEO: Luncheon about forestry with chamber of commerce

By Jessah Clement
The Thunder Bay News Watch
April 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

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Quebec Aims to Modernize Forest Management with Bill 97

World Today News
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Maïté Blanchette Vézina

Quebec’s goverment, led by the minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette-Vézina, introduced Bill 97 to modernize its forest regime. The legislation, presented in the National Assembly on Wednesday, addresses forest zoning, licensing, and wood auction oversight. This strategic move aims to improve sustainability, offering longer-term licenses. For more on this, watch our upcoming coverage. The proposed legislation focuses on several key areas to streamline and enhance forest management practices across the province. …The bill introduces a zoning system that divides public forestry territory into three distinct zones: Priority forest development zones; Multi-use zones; and Conservation areas. The bill also introduces Sustainable Forest Development Licenses (supply guarantees for forestry companies would be replaced with sustainable forest development licenses, extending the duration from five to ten years.); eliminates the wood marketing office; and provides for administrative criminal sanctions to ensure compliance.

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Newfoundland and Labrador government commits to repairing 5th water bomber 7 years after grounding

By Jenna Head
CBC News
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

All of Newfoundland and Labrador’s five water bombers will be in service for the 2026-27 wildfire season, promises the provincial government. On Wednesday the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure announced a $17-million contract has been awarded to aircraft manufacturer De Havilland Aircraft of Canada to repair the province’s fifth CL-415 water bomber. The water bomber has been out of service since 2018, when it hit a rock in a lake on the Burin Peninsula, causing significant structural damage. Previously announced as a $14.8-million contract, the province says it did not include the costs of HST in the initial statement. According to department spokesperson Maria Browne, the contracts value is subject to change. The multi-million dollar contract will address the structural repairs required so that the water bomber can return to the fleet next year. Additional maintenance will also take place, which is not accounted for in the contracts current price point.

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The Endangered Species Act needs market-based reforms

By the Editorial Board
The Washington Post
April 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The Trump administration’s attempt to weaken the Endangered Species Act is easy to criticize. This month, it proposed a rule that would limit what constitutes “harm” under the law to only direct actions against wildlife, such as hunting, wounding or trapping. Destroying their habitats would no longer count. …As scientists warn that the world is entering a period of mass extinction, lawmakers would be wise to rethink federal conservation strategies. This means reforming the Endangered Species Act to better incentivize citizens to protect the country’s precious biodiversity. …The government could, for instance, turn protected species into assets by giving landowners financial incentives to assist in conservation efforts. …President Donald Trump and his party are unlikely to embrace these reforms. But Congress in recent years has shown that there is strong bipartisan appetite to strengthen protections for endangered species. The best way forward is to embrace market-oriented strategies.

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10 Endangered Species Jeopardized by Trump’s Proposal to Strip Habitat Protections

Center for Biological Diversity
April 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The Trump administration on April 16, 2025, issued a proposed rule to rescind nearly all habitat protections for endangered species across the country. The proposal has profound, life-altering implications for endangered animals in the United States that are currently protected under the Endangered Species Act. Habitat loss is a key driver of extinctions around the globe and in the United States. The protection of habitat has therefore been a crucial element in preventing extinction for species protected under the Act. …The Trump administration’s extinction proposal open the door for industries to mine, log, bulldoze, drain, pollute and otherwise destroy habitat that’s fundamental to the survival of endangered species. For this report, we highlight 10 endangered species under direct threat from Trump’s proposal — wildlife whose very existence on the planet will be jeopardized by the destruction of their most important habitat.

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Is there common ground for Gavin Newsom, Donald Trump on forestry? Timber!

By Tom Philip
The Sacramento Bee
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to cut down lots of little trees for fire protection. President Donald Trump wants loggers to cut down bigger California trees for lumber. Between these two oft-warring leaders, is there a policy marriage of sorts in the woods? At first blush, the answer appears to be yes. The governor wants to reduce the fire dangers on a million California acres a year. The president wants to increase timber harvests by 25% on the state’s national forests. On paper, these two agendas are entirely compatible. But it’s one thing to order more trees to fall in a national forest. It’s another to plan for large-scale forestry operations, which takes staff and time. Trump’s team so far has shown more interest in cutting forestry staffing in California than cutting down trees. And that may stall any real changes on the ground. [to access the full story, a Sacramento Bee subscription is required]

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Tree of Heaven Serves as Devilish Host to Spotted Lanternfly

By the Agriculture Research Service
US Department of Agriculture
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The Agriculture Research Service researchers are helping to mitigate a destructive tree and insect that continue to spread across the United States. With its lush tropical canopy and ability to quickly grow toward the sky, the Tree of Heaven seems as angelic as its name suggests. However, Tree of Heaven is proving to be a devil. The invasive tree is aggressive and damaging as it spreads rapidly across Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states. …Not only is Tree of Heaven an environmental menace, it is also “the most favored host” of the invasive spotted lanternfly, according to Tracy Leskey, a research entomologist in Kearneysville, WV. Leskey and university partners are working to reduce both Tree of Heaven and spotted lanternfly populations through ARS’ Area-Wide Pest Management program. Their goal is to suppress the populations of both invasive species … all while alleviating the impact on native pollinators and plants.

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Department of Natural Resources, Forest Service Continue Forest Restoration Partnership near Mount Pilchuck

By Department of Natural Resources
Washington State Government
April 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources recently began a multi-faceted forest restoration project across approximately 150 acres of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest near Verlot. The Pilchuck Restoration Project is led by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Federal Lands Program under the agency’s Good Neighbor Authority agreement with the USDA Forest Service. Established in 2014, the GNA allows DNR to leverage its resources with federal and local partners to perform a variety of restoration activities on federal lands. Operators are following a carefully designed prescription focused on thinning out the small-diameter, younger trees that, due to past management practices, are overcrowding tree stands to the detriment of the larger, older trees.

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Jeff Hurd joins Colorado Representatives advocating to reinstate thousands of forestry workers

By Robbie Patla
KJCT8
April 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.  – Colorado representatives wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to reinstate around 3,000 U.S. Forest Service staff who hold a red card. Staff with a red card are qualified to support wildfire prevention. Representatives Jeff Hurd, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow, Diana DeGette, and Brittany Pettersen were joined by Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper. … “They said they weren’t gonna let any firefighters go and thousands of people with red cards have been let go,” said Bennet. “We are going to push, continue to push, continue to push, to make sure that they understand how counterproductive that is and how damaging that is.” Third Congressional District Congressman Jeff Hurd said these layoffs still happened despite President Trump’s determination to protect firefighters. …Representatives urge Secretary Rollins to restore these workers without delay.

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Threads of the Tongass: Opinions split on whether there is a market for mass logging in Southeast

By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Empire
April 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Environmentalists and tribal members who have defended the Tongass National Forest for decades are unsure how to proceed under the second Trump administration. Meanwhile, some people struggling in timber and mining feel renewed hope. Both sides say only time will tell as they watch federal actions fall. …Conservationists say public opinion overwhelmingly supports protecting the Tongass, based on comments collected by the Forest Service. Some Alaska policymakers and industry representatives argue that national polls and public comments are detached from the economic and existential reality of people living in Southeast. …Gordon Chew, owner of Tenakee Logging Co., said logging did not change the last time the Roadless Rule was rescinded. He finds it unlikely to be different now because he said no industry exists. The Forest Service no longer builds roads for timber operators.

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Forest Service Braces for Restructuring as Timber Orders Add to Workload

By Robert Chaney
The Mountain Journal
April 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A national strategy to increase timber production and use emergency authorities to protect forests from fire, insects and disease should be in place by May 3, according to an order by Forest Service Acting Associate Chief Chris French. At the same time, the agency is consolidating its nine regional offices into two or three centers. Simultaneously, its parent USDA could lose as many as 30,000 of its 100,000 employees. Approximately 12,000 of those are expected to leave in the second wave of buyout offers in late April. The remaining 18,000 USDA employees are expected to be fired, the firm said. How that might play out in Greater Yellowstone regions like the Bridger Teton or Custer Gallatin national forests is not clear. …With a looming fire and tourist season about to spin up activity in the woods, the Forest Service’s ability to handle baseline missions while reinventing itself has other longtime forest observers worried.

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Proposed change could reshape Endangered Species Act. Here’s how it affects Washington

By Daniel Schrager
The Olympian
April 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A big change could be coming to U.S. wildlife conservation policy. In mid-April, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal to change how the term “harm” would be defined in the Endangered Species Act. …According to Paula Swedeen, policy director at Conservation Northwest, the goal of the change is to bring the definition of “harm” in the ESA closer to what the Trump administration believes is its originally-intended meaning. …Washington state has its own conservation plans that are already in place on state lands. According to Swedeen, there’s reason to think that the changes to the ESA won’t impact those too much. …According to Swedeen, the spotted owl is one of the best examples of how endangered species could be put at risk by the proposed new ESA reading. …changes could also impact other endangered species in Washington, like the grizzly bear

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Months after Oregon’s state forester resigned, officials outline a recruitment plan

By April Ehrlich
Oregon Public Broadcasting
April 27, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Oregon forestry officials now have a general idea of how they’ll find a new state forester — more than four months after Cal Mukumoto’s sudden resignation from the job. …It could take another two to four months to fill the role, state human resources staff told the Board of Forestry on Wednesday. …In February, Gov. Tina Kotek introduced a bill that would give her the power to choose Mukumoto’s replacement. Mukumoto resigned in January after months of turmoil over workplace conduct investigations, questionable spending and a massive, albeit temporary, financial deficit resulting from the state’s most expensive fire season on record. The ongoing leadership shakeup comes at a pivotal time for the forestry department, as the Legislature considers bills that could change how the state covers wildfire costs and reshape wildfire hazard mapping. The state also faces President Trump’s federal staffing cuts could lead to lackluster firefighting response.

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Sen. Curtis’ bill is the opposite of ‘fixing’ our forests

By Brian Moench, president, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment
Utah News Dispatch
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

During the Vietnam War, an American officer referred to the U.S. military’s decision to bomb a town of 35,000 people, saying, “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” This quote comes to mind when examining a bill sponsored by Utah Sen. John Curtis, ironically named “Fix Our Forests Act,” S.1462, (FOFA). It should be renamed “We Have to Destroy our Forests to Save Them Act”. The bill is forest malpractice, climate malpractice, and public health malpractice. Sen. Curtis’s S. 1462 is a legislative enactment of Trump’s recent executive order to dramatically ramp up logging on federal lands, exempting 60% of national forest lands from meaningful environmental analysis and public participation under the pretense of a wildfire “emergency.” Remember Donald Trump is the environmental expert that insists the climate crisis is a hoax, and attributed Western forest fires to insufficient raking of the forest floors.

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Ghost forests are growing as sea levels rise

By Jude Coleman
Yale Climate Connections
April 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Clusters of dead standing tree trunks are appearing along the Chesapeake Bay on the United States’ mid-Atlantic coast. They are ghost forests: the remains of cedar and pine stands. Since the late 19th century, an ever-widening swath of these trees have died along the shore. And they won’t be growing back. They are showing up in places where the land slopes gently into the ocean and where salty water increasingly encroaches. Along the United States’ East and West Coast saltier soils have killed acres of trees. …As these dead forests transition, some will become marshes that maintain vital ecosystem services, such as buffering against storms and storing carbon. Others may become home to invasive plants or support no plant life at all — and the ecosystem services will be lost. Researchers are working to understand how this growing shift toward marshes and ghost forests will, on balance, affect coastal ecosystems.

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Some Maine landowners see a future in ecological forest management

By Jan DeBlieu
The Main Monitor in News Center Maine
April 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

…Bob Seymour has promoted an ecological approach to forestry for more than three decades. In 1991 he and conservation biologist Malcolm Hunter, also of the University of Maine at Orono, gave a presentation at a national convention about a new model they called Triad Forestry. It was a time, Seymour remembered, when forestry issues were particularly charged, in part because of growing concern about climate change. “Foresters tend to want to manage every acre,” he said. The profession was wrestling with the concept of what was then called New Forestry, with its more hands-off approach. In the Triad model, forest lands are managed using three different timbering strategies. Some are logged commercially — business as usual, including heavy cutting and the creation of tree plantations. Others are set aside as natural reserves. The final portion is logged but managed with selective harvesting that maintains natural forest habitat: ecological forestry or a similar model. 

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Clemson University earns first-ever SFI Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Certification

By Jonathan Veit
Clemson News
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Clemson University is the first organization to earn the Sustainable Forestry Initiative’s (SFI) full Urban and Community Forest Sustainability Standard certification. The achievement was announced April 25, 2025, in honor of Arbor Day. The certification highlights Clemson’s commitment to managing its campus trees and green spaces in ways that provide long-term benefits for students, faculty, staff and the broader community. This marks Clemson’s second SFI certification. In 2013, its 18,000-acre Experimental Forest became the first university forest certified to the SFI Forest Management Standard. It has maintained that certification ever since, establishing the University as a pioneer in forest management and a hub for forestry education and outreach statewide. Patricia Layton, forestry professor and director of the Clemson University Wood Utilization & Design Institute, led the certification effort.

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What Trump’s executive order on timber could mean for Tennessee forests

By Allison Kiehl
Knox News
April 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Increased timber production may be coming to the Volunteer State, impacting the Appalachian forests in East Tennessee. A new emergency order from the U.S. Department of Agriculture allocated 59% of national forests across the country for timber production. …However, the economics benefits of logging come at a steep price, according to The Wilderness Society. “Don’t be fooled: the Trump Administration and its allies in Congress aren’t trying to solve the wildfire crisis or protect communities threatened by it. Instead, they are aiming to deepen the pockets of private industry to log across our shared, public forests, while sidestepping public review,” said Josh Hicks, Conservation Campaigns Director at The Wilderness Society. …A majority of the impacted U.S. Forest Service areas are in the western half of the United States. However, the USDA declaration also impacts Appalachia and East Tennessee. The affected areas total more than 112 million acres of U.S Forest Service land.

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Gisborne District Council introduces new forestry consent conditions

By Gisborne District Council
The Government of New Zealand
April 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Gisborne District Council has reached a major milestone with the introduction of new standard forestry consent conditions, developed after more than a year of collaboration and consultation with industry stakeholders. The new conditions, which respond directly to the Ministerial Inquiry into Land Use, represent a significant step forward in advancing sustainable land management in the region. Council Chief Executive Nedine Thatcher Swann says the conditions strike a careful balance between enabling the forestry sector and protecting the environment. …The conditions represent Council’s interim position and will guide decision making on forestry resource consent applications on a case-to-case basis. They form part of a wider programme of work, with Council continuing to develop a more integrated and holistic approach through its forestry plan change.

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Simpler EU deforestation law sparks debate

By Stephen Frost
Ecotextile News
April 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

BRUSSELS – For fashion companies grappling with the EU’s ambitious anti-deforestation law, a recent tweak from the European Commission may appear to offer some relief. As the December deadline looms for the landmark EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), Brussels has eased what some companies claimed were daunting reporting requirements. Instead of the initially mandated declaration for every shipment of goods linked to forest destruction, companies now only need to submit a single annual due diligence statement. …The Commission hopes this new simplification – which also includes allowing authorised representatives to file for company groups and enabling reuse of statements for re-imported goods – will shave off a significant 30% in reporting burdens and associated costs for affected businesses. However, the EU Commission’s simplification is being met with concern by environmental campaigners. As Reuters reported, the streamlining of paperwork has sparked fears that the teeth of the EUDR might be blunted.

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Tunisia Launches $24 Million Project to Restore Forests and Revitalize Rural Economies

African Development Bank Group
April 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The Government of Tunisia, in partnership with the African Development Bank Group, has launched a flagship $24 million initiative to restore degraded forest landscapes and boost climate resilience in rural ecosystems. The Agroforestry and Degraded Forest Landscape Restoration Project (PARFD) was officially launched on 23 April in Tunis. The project, estimated at $23.72 million (over 73 million Tunisian dinars), is being funded by the African Development Bank through the Climate Investment Funds’ Strategic Climate Fund, which is contributing $17 million. The Tunisian Government is providing $6.06 million, while project beneficiaries contribute $660,000. The initiative aligns with Tunisia’s national development priorities, including the 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy and the country’s commitment to reducing carbon intensity by 45% by 2030. It is expected to generate nearly 4,500 green jobs across the governorates of Béja, Siliana, and Bizerte.

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European Commission takes action to simplify the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation

The European Commission
April 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The European Commission is providing further simplifications and reducing the administrative burden to facilitate the implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). In this context, it has published new guidance documents in view of the Regulation’s entry into application at the end of this year for Member States, operators and traders. With these clarifications and simplifications, the Commission is also replying to feedback from its international partners. …The updated guidance and Frequently Asked Questions will provide companies, EU Member States’ authorities and partner countries with additional simplified measures and clarifications on how to demonstrate that their products are deforestation-free. …The simplifications introduced will be further complemented by a Delegated Act, published also for public consultation. The Act provides further clarifications and simplification on the scope of EUDR, addressing stakeholders’ request for guidance on specific categories of products. …Finally, the Commission is currently finalising the country benchmarking system through an Implementing Act.

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How new financial models for forest restoration create opportunities for nature, communities and investors

By M. Sanjayan, Conservation International
World Economic Forum
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The age of forest restoration has arrived. Between 1990 and 2020, our planet lost 420 million hectares of forest cover, with grave consequences for climate, biodiversity and resource security. For years, large-scale restoration efforts were hindered by concerns around cost-effectiveness and results — but science has come a long way. Yields are higher, and the cost is lower. Advances in methods for measuring carbon storage, creating three-dimensional maps of forest, planting and surveying wildlife populations have removed technical impediments. Now, new financial models are removing the final barrier to large-scale restoration. Philanthropy alone cannot restore, rewild and conserve hundreds of millions of hectares, especially in tropical systems in the global south. …We must find ways to unlock private capital for restoration. Fortunately, commercial restoration projects are now under way across the world and forward-thinking companies are building a strong business case for investing in nature.

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