Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, remote piloting, and robotics are beginning to have a profound impact on the forest industry as we have known it, from forest management to log harvesting and delivery and right through to lumber production. This is only the beginning. In a recent interview, Bill Gates said that AI will have a more profound impact on humanity than the personal computer (PC) did. …From a forest management perspective, AI offers incredible potential for planning forest cutblocks and reforestation. In the face of climate change, forest companies will have no choice but to design forests that are more resilient to forest fires, pest and pathogens. The ability of AI to provide a variety of solutions in minutes, based on collating and analyzing past research, will make a forest technician’s job easier, while providing better solutions. This is a clear example of using AI for good—and we should make the most of it.
The Government of Canada says it is just over a 10th of the way to its goal of planting two billion trees across the country. Launched in 2021, Canada’s 2 Billion Trees program has reached the milestone of 228 million trees planted, with agreements already in place to plant a total of nearly one billion within the coming years. As of June, 11 provinces and territories, 58 Indigenous partners, 30 municipalities and 88 non-governmental organizations has signed or are negotiating tree-planting agreements. The program aims to protect crucial wildlife habitat, restore areas impacted by wildfires and sequester carbon. …Some of these initiatives include creating at least 10 new national parks and marine conservation areas and 15 new urban parks, as well as designating 30 per cent Canada’s land and water as conservation areas by 2030. The federal government has also committed to reach an emissions reduction target of 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
Canada’s forests are burning. …Smoke from these fires has degraded air quality across Canada and the US. The situation has led some US policymakers to publicly blame Canada for failing to manage wildfires and to demand more active forest management. These critiques are hypocritical, given their record of climate change denial. …Yet beyond partisan politics, the US continues to impose tariffs on Canadian lumber, undermining our capacity to invest in stronger forest management. …Eliminating or reducing US tariffs would instantly raise the value of Canada’s standing forest stock, sending a price signal that makes forestry activity viable in regions that are currently too remote or costly to harvest. At the margin, higher returns would unlock investment in better forest management, including areas that are now left untouched because they are uneconomic to service. …Lifting tariffs would be the first step, but it would not be a cure-all. 
…calls are growing for Canada to change how it prepares for, reacts and responds to the natural disasters. Experts say Ottawa needs to rethink how it deals with wildfires… Ken McMullen, the president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, which represents municipal firefighters, has been calling for the creation of a national fire administration. …When asked by CBC News if the federal government will create a new entity or program to improve wildfire response, federal Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski said it is one idea under consideration. …While suppression is critical, Yolanda Clatworthy, the interim director of the Mitigating Wildfire Initiative, argues that it does not address the root cause of the wildfire crisis. …She said mitigation and prevention work can include choosing where homes are built, how communities are protected, how forests are managed, as well as supporting Indigenous fire stewardship and moving away from fossil fuel expansion.
In this edition of our newsletter you’ll find these headlines and more:
Bikers should take note that end-of-summer logging operations are kicking into gear at Revelstoke’s Mount MacPherson for a month starting next week, but minimally impacting recreational trails, according to a local cycling group. In a Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 27, the Revelstoke Cycling Association (RCA) advised that forest harvesting begins at the mountain’s upper trail network on the weekdays following the Labour Day weekend. This comes one week later than previously indicated in RCA’s trail report. Logging will run from 3 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays through most or all of September, with no activity planned for weekends, according to the association.
North Cowichan council has voted to make logging in the municipal forest reserve a strategic priority, despite warnings from some councillors and staff that the move could jeopardize years of work with the Quw’utsun Nation on a forest co-management framework. Timber harvesting in the roughly 5,000-hectare public forest has been on pause since 2019 to allow for public engagement, consultation with local First Nations and advice from experts on how to manage the publicly-owned woodland. Surveys found a majority of residents preferred conservation over harvesting — with 67 per cent of telephone respondents and 76 per cent of online respondents supporting either limiting timber harvesting … or not harvesting timber at all. In 2021, North Cowichan signed a memorandum of understanding with the Quw’utsun Nation… While it could take years before harvesting resumes, some around the council table warned that exploring harvesting options could negatively impact progress made towards a co-management framework with the Quw’utsun Nation.
QUESNEL, BC — The Three Rivers Community Forest (TRCF) is showing how local control can bring fresh ideas to forest management, general manager Nick Pickles told Quesnel council this week. The area-based tenure, signed in October 2024, covers more than 38,000 hectares and is jointly owned by the City of Quesnel and the Esdilagh, Lhtako Dene, and Nazko First Nations. It comes with an allowable annual harvest of about 43,000 cubic-metres of conifer and another 10,500 cubic-metres of deciduous timber, Pickles explained at council’s Aug. 26 meeting. …Pickles said the TRCF mandate is more than just cutting trees. “It’s designed to provide long-term access to forest resources for community benefit. It focuses on local decision-making, stewardship, and sustainable forest use.” Profits are reinvested locally, whether it’s jobs, education, or infrastructure, Pickles added.
A reader wrote The Discourse recently with a question about why the BC Wildfire Service protects privately-owned forest land on Vancouver Island. It was an interesting question, but it hinted at a bigger one: What are forestry companies doing to prevent and mitigate wildfires from happening in the first place? Recent major wildfires on Vancouver Island have been on a mix of Crown land and private land owned by or under license of forestry companies. This includes the fire from early this week on Block 290 near Mount Benson that was recently transferred to Snuneymuxw First Nation. A recent special investigation by the BC Forest Practices Board on 
Harvesting in North Cowichan’s 5,000-hectare municipal forest reserve (MFR) is considered a primary issue for the rest of council’s term, which ends in October, 2026. On Aug. 20, council voted 4-3 to make harvesting, which hasn’t taken place since 2019, one of its strategic priorities. Coun. Bruce Findlay pointed out that the municipality has received no revenues from harvesting in the MFR for six years, and it may take several more years yet as negotiations with the Quw’utsun Nation on co-management of the MFR continue. …Despite the vote, CAO Ted Swabey advised council that he thinks that it’s unlikely that any harvesting could actually take place before the end of council’s term. …The public engagement aspect of the forest review concluded in early 2023, and the feedback from that process found very strong support for active conservation in the MFR, which would allow for targeted harvesting to provide some income, while restoring and enhancing biodiversity.
On the heels of record-breaking daily high temperatures, Vancouver Islanders face warmer than usual weather this week. Temperatures will continue to “remain well above seasonal” into mid-week for east and inland Vancouver Island with cooler temperatures overnight, according to an Environment Canada statement issued early Aug. 26. The extra warm conditions are expected to persist from inland Greater Victoria, up the east coast from Nanoose Bay to Fanny Bay. Cloud cover is expected Thursday. The Malahat area broke the newest record on the Island, hitting 30.2 C, topping the 29.8 daily record set in 2022. Nanaimo tied the oldest record, hitting a high of 33.3 set in 1958. Campbell River, Courtenay and Comox all flirted with 2016 records, with Campbell River shading the old 30 C temperature, hitting 30.2. Comox and Courtenay both tied the 2016 record of 30.3. The heat coincided with a new wildfire discovered Aug. 24 south of Nanaimo. The 8.6-hectare fire was classified as being held as of Tuesday morning.
An international research project in the northern is taking a hard look at the decline of keynote bat populations in a bid to help area ecosystems survive and thrive. Efforts to preserve a population of northern myotis – an endangered bat species that used to be found throughout eastern B.C., but whose range has been contracting to the central Interior – are under way near Kinbasket Lake, north of Revelstoke and Golden. Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society … are planting fake bark to mimic the old-growth trees where the northern myotis roosts, and on the north side they are using radio detectors to determine how many of the bats are present in logged areas. Logging may not be an automatic death sentence to bat populations, Lausen says, but it needs to stay within the limits of what northern myotis colonies can sustain. One of the project’s goals is to identify those limits.
A prolonged heat wave gripping British Columbia has already toppled more than 20 daily high-temperature records, with forecasters warning the sweltering conditions are set to persist through mid-week. Environment Canada has extended heat warnings to large parts of the province, including Fraser Canyon, South Okanagan, and South Thompson, where highs in the upper 30s are expected to continue. Inland sections of the north and central coasts are forecast to reach up to 29C, while four special weather statements remain in effect for Vancouver Island. …Even as air quality improves, wildfire officials warn the soaring heat and dry air are fuelling dangerous conditions. The B.C. Wildfire Service said low relative humidity is making forest fuels highly susceptible to ignition… For insurers, the intensifying fire risk underscores a costly pattern. …Another active fire season … adds further pressure to an industry already grappling with rising catastrophe exposures in B.C.
The Forest Appeals Commission dismissed a Vanderhoof hunting and fishing lodge’s appeal of a $25,000 fine for cutting Crown timber without a licence. In an Aug. 13 decision, panel chair Maureen Baird upheld the March 2023 fine against Crystal Lake Resort Ltd. by the Ministry of Forests. Daniel Brooks, whose family bought the resort in 1975, admitted trees were cut without a licence in July 2020 on a right of way and the company asked, after the fact, for the Ministry of Forests to authorize the removal of merchantable timber. The ministry advised the company that it needed to have a licence to harvest in the first place. Brooks said he did not know he needed a licence. …The Ministry approved the required management plan, that allowed cutting trees if the resort had a forestry licence to do so.
In the Summer Almanac you’ll find these headlines and much more:
Peter Constabel, a professor in the biology department at the University of Victoria said that several years of repeated drought in B.C. mixed with heat stress has increased the likelihood of branches breaking off, it could even happen on a “perfectly calm day” without any breeze. The consequences can be tragic. Constabel, who specializes in tree health said, “it’s the drought that specifically causes this, and somehow it stresses the tree and drops the branch, or the branch falls. If you get cumulative droughts, of course, it weakens the tree overall”. …Dry spells can leave trees in a weakened state, Simon Fraser University biological sciences professor Jim Mattsson said, reducing photosynthesis and growth, cutting their energy or sugar reserves, and lowering production of chemical defences. All of these can cause a chain reaction increasing trees’ susceptibility to insects and fungal diseases, causing trees to rot inside, weaken and potentially topple over.
Global warming is predicted to drive one of the greatest declines in caribou populations in the last 21,000 years, with British Columbia’s herds expected to see declines of up to 61 per cent by 2100 if high rates of warming go unchecked, a new study says. Caribou — also known as reindeer in Europe and Asia — have survived several spells of Arctic warming in the past. Their presence across the planet’s tundra, forests and mountains have long supported Indigenous populations while acting as ecosystem engineers, disturbing the soil and trampling vegetation in a way that promotes new plant growth. …Human disturbance of those landscapes — from logging to road building — has already led to a two-thirds decline in the global population over the past 30 years. New 
The Mount Underwood fire near Port Alberni wasn’t your typical Vancouver Island blaze. But what is normal is changing. Thanks to droughts and heat waves, tiny fires that crews were once able to extinguish in a matter of hours are now ballooning into major blazes. Historically, fires have been nearly non-existent in coastal B.C., and the playbook for putting them out has been simple: Find fire. Spray water on it. Dig up hot spots. Case closed. This “direct attack” was possible because of the slow speed at which fires grow in coastal ecosystems. But the Mount Underwood fire, which ignited along the road connecting Port Alberni to Bamfield, spread rapidly, burning as a Rank 5 fire, with flames rising into the crowns of trees and up the mountainside. “In the seven years I’ve worked for the Coastal Fire Centre, I don’t think I’ve seen a fire like this on Vancouver Island,” Julia Caranci told CBC.
Over 70,000 new trees have been planted in Narrow Hills Provincial Park after the destructive Shoe Fire ripped through the area in May. The park, about 130 kilometres northeast of Prince Albert, Sask., is home to Gem Lakes and Lost Echo campgrounds, which remained closed for the season due to the wildfire. “There was a lot of enthusiasm to get the new life going back in the forest,” Pat MacKasey, a provincial park forest ecologist. MacKasey has been the supervisor of a five-person crew who have planted 73,080 Jack pine and white spruce trees since July. Trees have been planted in an area in Pine Lake that had previously been wiped out by a windstorm in the 1990s, he said. MacKasey says regrowth after that storm was slow, but new trees were eventually planted again in 2002 once forest health improved.
The number and severity of wildfire damage claims are increasing partly because fire seasons are longer with more hectares burned, according to IBC spokesperson Adam Sutherland. “As we see the frequency and severity of claims growing, that’s putting pressure on premiums. “We know the risk is only going to grow. Insurance puts a price on risk. That’s why it’s paramount that we do much, much more as a society to reduce that, to better fireproof our communities and better protect our homes.” He said in addition to government action to reduce fire danger in the forests, residents need more incentives to protect their properties. “But then we also need to rethink our building codes and how we are developing our communities in the first place. That means moving away from wood shingles, wood roofs. No more vinyl siding. We need non-combustible materials on homes and interface fire zones for all new development.”
Cowichan Lake had just 16.5 per cent water storage capacity as of Aug. 13 as the recent hot spell, which saw temperatures in the region go above 30C, began to die down. Brian Houle, environment manager at the Domtar Crofton mill, which owns and operates the weir at Lake Cowichan, said the regulators of the watershed decided to reduce water flows from the lake over the weir to 4.5 cubic metres per second beginning on Aug. 13. He said the flow reduction will be done in two stages, dropping to 5.0 cms on Aug. 13 and then to 4.5 cms on Aug. 14 and that flow will hold until the rainfall returns this fall. …Houle said that, as water flows are reduced to the river, Domtar will have qualified professionals in the river helping to salvage fish stranded in pools, as well as measuring water quality.
A powerful documentary that addresses BC’s escalating wildfire crisis and the urgent need for solutions will be shown tonight in Williams Lake. “BC Is Burning” was written and produced by retired forester Murray Wilson who has over 4 decades of experience in wildfire suppression and forest management. “In August 2024 I started filming mainly around the Interior of BC.” Wilson said, ” I didn’t do any filming in the Williams Lake area but Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd. had some excellent videos and they very graciously gave me some of their footage from around the Williams Lake area as well as Percy Guichon who is also in the documentary.” …So far the documentary has been shown in Kelowna, Vernon, Merritt, Kamloops, and Williams Lake tonight (August 19) then it will be in Nakusp and on to Castlegar. A 20 minute Q & A with Wilson and Josh Prestie, Regional Executive Director for the Ministry of Forests will follow the Williams Lake show.
A monster firestorm roared through the pine and spruce forests of New Brunswick. It burned one-fifth of the province’s forests and raged through villages, reducing buildings to ash and killing at least 160 people — although historians believe that is likely a severe undercount. This was the Miramichi Fire, which 200 years ago this fall announced an era of megafires in North America. Commemorated in folk songs, documented in archives and seared into memory for those who lived through it, the Miramichi Fire to this day ranks among the largest and most devastating fires the continent has ever seen. The Miramichi Fire was the continent’s first megafire rooted in extracting resources from the land, but that century was packed with other examples that collectively destroyed thousands of buildings and caused millions in damages, all while claiming lives. Among the major fires were Quebec City in 1845, 1866, 1876 and 1881; St. John’s in 1846 and 1892; Toronto in 1849, 1885 and 1895; Montreal in 1850, 1852 and 1898 and both Calgary and Vancouver in 1886.
Interfor says it won’t proceed with its plan to spray forests in northern Ontario with a herbicide critics say is harmful. While the province said it was safe, First Nations and some municipalities were opposed to the plan to spray glyphosate over Crown land near Elliot Lake, Blind River, Espanola and other forest management areas in the north. Andrew Horahan, executive vice-president of Interfor’s Canadian operations, confirmed it won’t be conducting the aerial spray of the herbicide, at least for now. “Interfor is committed to responsible forest management and to maintaining open, constructive dialogue with our stakeholders and the communities in which we operate,” Horahan said in a statement. “The use of herbicide sprays is a carefully regulated and widely accepted industry practice, overseen by relevant authorities. For 2025, Interfor has chosen not to proceed with an herbicide application in the Pineland, Spanish and Northshore forests.”
Trees are valuable components of the Canadian ecosystem and natural instruments of carbon storage and sequestration. A tree’s growth is controlled by regional climate, including growing season length and air temperature. It is also impacted by local hydroclimate; water and temperature variations that occur on a smaller scale. Black spruce trees are common within the boreal landscape of North America, including within fen wetlands. There is limited research on black spruce growth in fens, and how the unique hydroclimate of fens may impact tree growth in a changing climate. Tree core and ring samples were collected from both sites and placed within a microscope slide scanner. This allowed key tree growth characteristics to be identified on a cellular level. Correlation analysis was conducted between these growth characteristics and long-term climate data to determine the relationship between the two variables.
The historic wildfires that ripped through Quebec in 2023, destroying millions of hectares of forest and impacting thousands of people, is estimated to have cost over $8 billion. That’s according to a new provincially funded study published Wednesday by Nada Conseils — a climate action consultancy firm — highlighting the impacts and collective costs of the fires on citizens, governments, businesses and ecosystems. According to SOPFEU, the agency responsible for wildfire prevention and suppression in Quebec, the 2023 wildfire season was the worst in over 100 years with 713 fires — 99.9 per cent of which were caused by lightening — burning 4.3 million hectares of forest. …For governments, much of the costs incurred stemmed from firefighting operations, emergency services including evacuations and housing evacuees, and financial assistance programs. …The report notes that some of the most significant costs for citizens were linked to property damage, as well as financial impacts related to lost income and increased expenses.
Under the 2001 Roadless Rule enacted by President Bill Clinton, millions of acres of roadless areas on national forests across the country are conserved, protecting vital habitats and watersheds. A “blank spot on a map,” in the words of the naturalist Aldo Leopold, is increasingly valuable in our urbanizing society. …The current administration is right to look for ways to address the growing wildfire threat in these areas. But instead of doing away with the Roadless Rule, the White House should look to a simple way to make our forests more resilient to wildfire without compromising the other benefits. …One way to allow forest thinning and prescribed burns to reduce the wildfire threat is to amend the roadless rule… to permit temporary roads in roadless areas that are near neighborhoods along the wildland-urban interface to allow for forest thinning or other ecological restoration. [to access the full story a NY Times subscription is required]
Industry concerns have been raised over a freshly-struck agreement between the EU and the US over future trading arrangements, which observers have asserted could lead to America being offered exceptions from complying with EUDR environmental laws, reports Neill Barston. As the Palm Oil Monitor non-governmental organisation noted, if America is to be permitted exemptions from data monitoring underpinning the entire basis of the much-anticipated deforestation laws following intense lobbying from its paper industry, then other trading partners including Malaysia and Indonesia – which have core interests in the supply of palm oils for the confectionery and snacks sector, should be allowed similar treatment. …Moreover, as the palm oil industry organisation stated, unveiling the broader US-EU Trade Framework Agreement presents an immediate major hurdle for the EU Commission. In seemingly offering preferential treatment for America, this could, in its view, lead to challenges from the World Trade Organisation over equal trading between nationalities.
Colorado’s state-specific rule for largely protecting roadless areas in its national forests will be spared from a Trump administration effort to remove such protections on a broader basis. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a news release on Wednesday that a public comment period is opening on her previously announced proposal to do away with the 2001 national roadless rule. But the Agriculture Department also said in the news release that state-specific rules in Colorado and Idaho won’t be affected by the proposal. Altogether, the proposal would apply to nearly 45 million acres, the release said. Eliminating the rule would open roadless areas to road-building. The existing rule has limited activities such as logging in those areas, and was instituted at the end of the Clinton administration.
A year after Oregon endures its most destructive fire season on record in 2020, state lawmakers order a map estimating the wildfire risk for every property in the state. It’s the kind of rating now available on real estate sites like Zillow. The state wants to use the results to decide where it will apply forthcoming codes for fire-resistant construction and protections around homes. Around the same time, insurance companies start dropping Oregon homeowners’ policies and raising premiums to limit future losses, much as they have done in other disaster-prone states. Insurers have their own sophisticated risk maps to guide them, but some brokers instead tell homeowners the blame lies with the map. The belief gets treated as fact both on social media and in mainstream news — even though insurers and regulators say it’s not true. …By the time the state pulls back the map, the myths about it have gained so much momentum there’s no stopping them. 
For a small but growing number of Oregon forestland buyers, timber output is no more than a potential byproduct. Their purchases are driven less by a desire for logs than for clean, drinkable water. …city governments have long drawn their drinking water from surrounding forests, but experts say more are now actually buying the tracts encompassing those crucial streams and rivers. …The prospect of hotter, drier weather diminishing summer stream flows — even as populations keep growing — is spurring cities to assert more control over their water supplies, experts say. …Apart from water quality considerations, cities are buying forested watersheds to encourage old growth characteristics, with the intent of actually boosting water supplies over the long term, experts say. …Though municipal ownership of forest watersheds is intended to pre-empt disputes between cities and timber operators, the arrangement can still lead to tension over management decisions.
An executive order by Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove has put 77,000 acres of older forests off-limits to logging. …Some local activists call these old-but-not-quite-old-growth stands “legacy forests,” and have resorted to protests, including tree sits and road blockades, to stop them from being sawed down. Upthegrove’s order would also allow logging to go forward on 29,000 acres of those almost-old-growth forests. Some environmental groups praised the move, while others say it greenlights too much logging of the best remaining older forests. …Forest activists still hope to save some of areas slated to be logged over the next five years. …State officials say that timber harvest levels — and the revenue that goes to schools and counties — would be largely unaffected by the executive order. …The Department of Natural Resources has 346,000 acres of structurally complex forests on the 2.4 million acres of forestland it manages.
Ten members of the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources are making an unusual visit to Alaska this week during a break from business on Capitol Hill. The 45-person committee deals with a variety of issues pertaining to public lands in the United States, and the visit is giving eight Republicans and two Democrats a chance to put their literal hands on the topics they cover. …Among the group was the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, as well as the home-state Republican Rep. Nick Begich. Also attending were Reps. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming; Tom Tiffany, R-Wisconsin; Pete Stauber, R-Minnesota; Rob Wittman, R-Virginia; Val Hoyle, D-Oregon; Paul Gosar, R-Arizona; and Sarah Elfreth, D-Maryland. …Several of the Republican lawmakers said they believe there is room to increase logging in the Tongass in order to meet the demand for lumber to build housing, particularly locally.
The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) was developed in 1994 for the 24 million acres of federal land within the range of the northern spotted owl… A network of large reserves for the spotted owl across its range (late successional reserves (LSRs)) were created in the NWFP along with a system of riparian buffers to protect streamside areas. …The Forest Service is currently updating the NWFP and chartered a committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to help advise on amending the plan. …We strongly endorse this proposal for widespread restoration treatments in dry forests inside and outside of the LSRs. Reducing stand densities in these forests while retaining all trees over 150 years of age is essential to owl survival, as is reintroduction of fire as a regular management tool. …Integrating forest restoration in dry forests with spotted owl conservation is one of the biggest challenges in updating the NWFP.
Oregon’s forestry sector, once the state’s driving industry, has scaled back dramatically, the result of modernization and reduced harvests since the 1990s. Yet the industry is still adding workers and looking to replace retirees — now with a growing demand for technical expertise. The industry’s employers say they’re struggling to fill the jobs they have. Retirements have thinned the ranks, turnover is high and new workers are hard to recruit. Adding to the trouble, a workforce study found the sector will add 3,400 jobs annually through 2030. In particular, the report found Oregon’s colleges and universities aren’t producing enough forestry graduates to meet demand — suggesting Oregon employers might have to recruit from elsewhere to staff some of the highest-paying jobs in a signature sector. It’s a counterintuitive finding for an industry that’s been cutting further in recent months through the closures of mills and factories. Officials say that’s because there’s more to forestry work than logging.
PORTLAND, Oregon — The USDA Forest Service and the Oregon Department of Forestry are investing $750,000 to restore oak habitat and reduce wildfire risk in the southern Willamette Valley. The project will reduce the risk of uncharacteristic wildfire and restore fire-adapted oak ecosystems that are important to wildlife, water quality, and rural communities. Work includes treating 150 acres of hazardous fuels while supporting partner efforts to treat an additional 1,200 acres — for a total of 1,350 acres restored. Landowners will receive assistance to implement oak management activities, including hazardous fuels mitigation, that promote resilient and fire-adapted forests. This investment is part of the Forest Service’s Landscape Scale Restoration (LSR) program, a nationally competitive grant program that supports collaborative, science-based projects across state, tribal, and private forestlands. The Forest Service invested $7 million to fund 19 projects nationwide, including $300,000 to this project in Oregon.
Wildfires are a natural part of the landscape in much of Central and Eastern Oregon. James “Jim Bob” Collins has seen the damage a wildfire can cause and the effects it has on the land after the smoke clears. His district had worked for months to receive a $21 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would have gone to wildfire mitigation in forests and rangelands. But this summer, just as wildfire season was starting, the government walked back on its offer in Wheeler County and across the state. All told $90 million worth of conservation work is on hold across Oregon. That’s left ranchers like Collins and his neighbors, whose land bears the scars of last year’s fires, hoping the rest of this year’s wildfire season is uneventful, as he and the conservation district he serves explore new ways to pay for the work.
ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service announced it is investing more than $2.1 million in four projects across nine states in the Southern Region to restore state and private forestlands. These investments directly support the agency’s efforts to reduce wildfire risk, increase timber production, and expand rural economies, while providing critical support to landowners across management jurisdictions as they work to promote healthy, productive forests that benefit rural communities. The investments, totaling more than $7 million nationwide, are being delivered as competitive grants through the Landscape Scale Restoration program. Of the total funding, $600,000 will support two projects for federally recognized tribes. …In the Southeast, protecting wildlife habitat and restoring important forest ecosystems such as longleaf pine and oak are important priorities to ensure continued economic productivity of rural working lands.
The Amazon rainforest is one of Earth’s most diverse ecosystems, playing a key role in maintaining regional and global climate stability. However, recent changes in land use, vegetation, and the climate have disrupted biosphere-atmosphere interactions, leading to significant alterations in the water, energy, and carbon cycles. …Here, we quantify the relative contributions of deforestation and global climate change to observed shifts in key Amazonian climate parameters. We analyzed long-term atmospheric and land cover change data across 29 areas in the Brazilian Legal Amazon from 1985 to 2020. …While the rise in atmospheric methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) mixing ratios is primarily driven by global emissions, deforestation has significantly increased surface air temperatures and reduced precipitation during the Amazonian dry season. Over the past 35 years, deforestation has accounted for approximately 74% of the ~ 21 mm dry season decline and 16.5% of the 2°C rise in maximum surface air temperature. 
The occurrence and fate of microplastics in forest ecosystems is a recognized knowledge gap. In this paper, we used an aligned extraction method to quantify microplastics (>20 µm) in organic and mineral forest soil horizons and throughfall deposition. Calculation of forest soil microplastic stocks and throughfall fluxes allowed an estimation of throughfall contribution to microplastic accumulation in forest soils back to 1950. We identified a short-term microplastic enrichment in decomposed litter horizons followed by an accumulation in lower mineral soil caused by litter turnover processes. Similar microplastic features in soil and throughfall deposition indicate that microplastics entering forest soils primarily originate from atmospheric deposition and litter fall, while other sources have a minor impact. We conclude that forests are good indicators for atmospheric microplastic pollution and that high microplastic concentrations in forest soils indicate a high diffuse input of microplastics into these ecosystems.
Three nations joined forces Friday to establish what will become the second-largest nature reserve in Latin America. Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize announced the creation of a massive tri-national protected area spanning 14 million acres (5.7 million hectares) across the heart of the ancient Maya forest. The announcement came during a summit in Calakmul, where Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stood alongside Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo and Belize Prime Minister Johnny Briceño to reveal plans for the Biocultural Corridor of the Great Mayan Forest. “This is one of Earth’s lungs, a living space for thousands of species with an invaluable cultural legacy that we should preserve with our eyes on the future,” Sheinbaum said during the joint press conference. She called the move “historic.” The new reserve will encompass 50 existing protected areas across the three countries.
One of the key agreements for Amazon rainforest protection – the soy moratorium – has been suspended by Brazilian authorities, potentially opening up an area the size of Portugal to destruction by farmers. Coming less than three months before Brazil hosts the Cop30 climate summit in Belém, the news has shocked conservation groups, who say it is now more important than ever that consumers, supermarkets and traders stand up against Brazilian agribusiness groups that are using their growing political power to reverse past environmental gains. Brazil is the world’s biggest soya bean exporter. The legume … posed a huge deforestation threat to the Amazon rainforest until stakeholders voluntarily agreed to impose a moratorium and no longer source it from the region in 2006. …Greenpeace Brazil called the move a “terrible mistake”, which was the result of political pressure from the “regressive wings of agribusiness”…