Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

The US should stop taxing Canadian lumber if it wants cleaner air

By Pedro Antunes, Chief Economist, Conference Board of Canada
The Financial Post
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

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. 

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Free to Grow in Forestry Initiative announces new management structure

By Free to Grow in Forestry
LinkedIn
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

After much reflection on what is best to fulfill the mission of the Free to Grow in Forestry initiative, the Canadian Institute of Forestry / Institut forestier du Canada and Centre for Social Intelligence have decided to consolidate the management of it so as to create efficiencies and regular communications for our followers. Free to Grow in Forestry (FTGF) will build off the Canadian efforts to-date, maintaining those relations, while also expanding into the global arena. To that end, you will now see a refreshed Free to Grow in Forestry website. …At FTGF, we recognize that workplace culture issues (such as harassment, bullying, undermining, abuse of power, destruction of workplace relationships) are the primary reason people leave the forest sector – making it difficult to attract and retain top talent. The resources above aim to address these issues and support inclusive workplaces. Stay tuned for the September newsletter! 

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New approaches needed for Canada to prepare for, combat wildfires: experts

By Julia Wong
CBC News
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

…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.

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The spruce budworm is making an unwelcome comeback

By James Steidle
Prince George Citizen
August 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Take a road trip across BC and chances are you will see our forests in freefall. From Lilloet through to Whistler, I was shocked to see valleys of red, as a western spruce budworm, a type of moth, rips through the conifer forests of almost all species. Hemlock, Douglas Fir, spruce, and the true firs are all being impacted, on a massive, catastrophic level. Unlike the Mountain Pine Beetle, which prioritized the old pine, the budworm seems to go for the younger trees. I saw entire plantations of young monocultures, the textbook product of modern forest management, with near complete infestation. The only trees that were still green was the cottonwoods and, ironically, the odd lodgepole pine tree. I’m not sure how we will log ourselves out of this one. …It’s probably just a matter of time before the budworm shows up again in Prince George.

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Mount Underwood fire a ‘harbinger’ of future Island fires, says wildfire specialist

CBC News
August 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Lori Daniels

Lori Daniels, a UBC forestry professor with a focus on wildfires, told CBC that the fire is one of the biggest in about 100 years of record-keeping on Vancouver Island — and that significant wildfires are expected to become more frequent as climate change impacts coastal forests. She spoke to CBC host Gregor Craigie about the history and future of wildfires on Vancouver Island. …On the west side of Vancouver Island, and in our wet coastal forest, fire was not historically a large portion of how our ecosystems functioned. …So we know that in our coastal region, we don’t have nearly as much lightning, and lightning ignitions in the historical record are much lower than in the Interior. …We’re going to have to think carefully about how we are managing our forests, how we are managing logging residues.

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Vanderhoof hunting lodge loses appeal of fine for logging without a licence

By Bob Mackin
The Prince George Citizen
August 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

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.

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The Woodland Almanac Summer 2025

Woodlots BC
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

In the Summer Almanac you’ll find these headlines and much more:

Come for a Ride on the Forestry Roller Coaster, by Gord Chipman, Executive Director. Market conditions have been challenging, with falling log prices and break-even lumber prices for mills creating a climate of uncertainty. …the Canadian dollar has risen by five cents against the US dollar, and the looming threat of an average 34% in dumping duties at the end of August dampens any optimism in the lumber market. The political landscape remains dynamic. …two significant forestry reviews are underway, with results expected in the fall. In response to these external pressures, our focus remains on controlling what we can, aligning our operational contracts with our strategic plan.

Value-Added Niches Boost Woodlot in Coastal BC, by Tom Younger: Value-added manufacturing is a key strategy in BC aimed at maximizing the economic potential of timber by producing finished or semi-finished products rather than exporting raw logs.

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Vancouver Island wildlife recovery centre officially opens bear pavilion

By Michael Briones
The Ladysmith Chemainus Chronicle
August 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre has officially opened its new bear pavilion, an educational building that features black bears, with a focus on old-growth forests. A ribbon-cutting ceremony opened the new building, which cost approximately $200,000. The pavilion was envisioned by centre founder founder Robin Campbell in 2021… The pavilion was completed in time for the the 40th anniversary celebration of the Errington wildlife recovery and education centre. Campbell, who founded the centre with wife Sylvia, felt emotional upon seeing his vision become a reality. …Campbell said the pavilion shares two goals, “the vital role of black bears and the irreplaceable value of old-growth trees in our wild rainforests”. “These two are woven together in a remarkable relationship that sustains the forests heartbeat.”

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When heat and drought stress B.C. trees, the consequences can be tragic

By Nono Shen
Canadian Press in Vancouver Sun
August 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

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.

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Kelowna discussion on connection of forestry and flooding in BC

By Barry Gerding
The Vernon Morning Star
August 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Sonia Furstenau

The former leader of the BC Green Party will be one of the panellists leading a discussion about the negative impacts of clear-cut logging on the environment. Sonia Furstenau will participate in the upcoming event co-hosted by the Interior Watershed Task Force and Joe Rich Forestry Trails and Watershed Committee. Along with the panel discussion, there will be a screening of the documentary film Trouble In The Headwaters, which examines the 2018 Grand Forks flood and reveals the connection of clear-cut logging in the headwaters of the Kettle River Basin. Filmmaker Daniel Pierce will also be on hand and Dr. Younes Alila, a professor of hydrology at UBC, and two retired loggers. On the panel along with Furstenau and Pierce will be Mike Morris, a former Liberal MLA; Dave Gill, general manager of Ntityix Resources LP, a natural resource company owned by Westbank First Nation.

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Rethinking Forestry: Bold Ideas for a Sustainable Future with Gary Bull

By Matthew Kristoff’s YourForest Podcast
Spotify
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

In this episode of YourForest, Matthew Kristoff discusses the future of forestry with Dr. Gary Bull, a leading expert in forestry economics, policy, and sustainability. Dr. Bull, a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, explores the evolving relationship between forest management, biodiversity, and the forest industry. He emphasizes shifting from timber-focused practices to integrating non-timber values like carbon storage, biodiversity, and ecosystem health. With decades of global experience, Dr. Bull advocates for rethinking forestry to create a more sustainable future. Key Points: Rethinking the Annual Allowable Cut; Circular Bioeconomy and Wood Products; Biodiversity and Carbon Credits; Balancing Forest Health and Resource Production; and Indigenous and NGO Collaborations in Forestry

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Keeping climate crisis and forestry mismanagement in focus amid the Mount Underwood wildfire

By S. Clay Steell, chair, Bamfield Huu-ay-aht Community Forest Society
Ha-Shilth-Sa
August 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Clay Steell

Since the Mount Underwood forest fire cut off power and direct road access to the community of Bamfield and Anacla, the town has been abuzz with talk on what it all means. …While we don’t yet know what caused the Mount Underwood fire, we can be certain that climate warming made it vastly more likely to spread out of control. …In addition to climate warming, the legacy of colonial forest mismanagement has also made fires far more likely to spread out of control. Since colonization, a large majority of primary forests have been cut down across this coast and replaced by tree farms, including the area where the Mount Underwood fire has spread. All the while, the forestry industry has shifted from local milling to mechanization and raw log exportation, sending jobs overseas and enriching shareholders while local workers get laid off, with over 50,000 jobs lost province-wide since the late ‘90s. 

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Opinions: North Cowichan Municipal Forest Reserve

Letters by Peter Rusland and Larry Pynn
Cowichan Valley Citizen
August 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The Cowichan Valley Citizen has published two letters to the editor referencing the North Cowichan Municipal Forest Reserve

Taxpayers expect community plan to be followed, By Peter Rusland: Active conservation is council’s only moral, smart option outlined in the Harvesting Considerations Summary of our Growth Strategy plan — set for debate Aug. 20, 2025. Any thoughts about resuming logging in our ecologically and culturally rare municipal forest reserve would be egregious at the very least. Profits from destroying our forests with inane harvesting would apparently total chump change compared to potential revenues from carbon-credit programs.

Council must reject the idea of resuming logging, By Larry Pynn: Council must reject the idea of resuming logging in the Municipal Forest Reserve. A lengthy and detail public consultation process showed strong support for conservation. Just over six years ago, North Cowichan council responded to a massive outpouring of public concern by voting to suspend new logging in the Municipal Forest Reserve. …I strongly urge council to do the right thing by its citizens and stand for protection of our imperilled forests.

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B.C. caribou populations predicted to fall by up to 61%

By Stefan Labbé
Business in Vancouver
August 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

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 research, published in the journal Science Advances last week, has now found global warming could push caribou populations even closer to extinction. 

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BC’s Coastal Fires Have Entered a New Era

By Tyler Olsen
The Tyee
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

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.

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Over 70,000 new trees have been planted in Narrow Hills Provincial Park since fire tore through area

By Aliyah Marko-Omene
CBC News
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

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.

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Rising wildfire risk fuels stress in B.C. home insurance industry

By Bill Metcalfe
Comox Valley Record
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

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.”

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Forestry workers are on the frontlines of the wildfires

By Geoff Russ
Resource Works
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Forestry has long been a key pillar of British Columbia’s resource economy and is central to many regional economies, but for those who work in the forests, the industry is increasingly defined not by trees but by fire. Every year wildfires force loggers, silviculture crews, and sawmill suppliers to adapt to a landscape where risk is constant, work is precarious, and survival often depends on quick action. Few industries are more exposed to wildfire, and few workers bear the burden more. …The problem is twofold. Forestry workers are directly threatened by flames, smoke, and unstable terrain, but they are also squeezed by the economic impact of fires. The loss of timber means fewer shifts in the bush or at the mill. Salvaging burned wood is a partial solution, but even that requires speed and regulatory flexibility. …For forestry workers, wildfires are no longer seasonal events; they’re part of the job.

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Water levels in Cowichan Lake and river continue to drop

By Robert Barron
Cowichan Valley Citizen
August 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

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.

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Is BC’s Forestry Ministry ‘Coming for’ Unused Licences?

By Ben Parfitt
The Tyee
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Ravi Parmar

Shortly before his appearance at a timber industry conference in Prince George this April, Ravi Parmar, British Columbia’s recently named forests minister, had blunt words for the industry his ministry regulates. “If you have fibre and you’re not using it, we’re coming for it,” Parmar said during an hour-long sit-down interview with John Brink, a veteran of the province’s value-added forest products industry. …The list includes Canfor, West Fraser, Interfor and a number of others. …If Parmar is looking for where he might set a much-needed new tone, he’d be hard pressed to find a better candidate than Fort Nelson. …For 13 years after delivering that economic gut punch, Canfor sat on its Fort Nelson forest licence, logging not a single tree as the community’s increasingly frustrated municipal and business leaders looked on.

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Experts say Manitoba needs better forest management to mitigate wildfires — but some divided on best practices

By Rosanna Hempel
CBC News
August 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Robert Gray

Experts say Manitoba needs better forest management practices to mitigate and prevent the devastating impacts of wildfires, but there isn’t a clear consensus on the best course forward, after a season that saw wildfires claim two lives and at least 130 cabins and homes. …The Canadian Council of Forest Ministers has said “suppression alone is no longer adequate” to tackle wildfires, pointing to the benefits of FireSmart Canada and other prevention and mitigation strategies, including controlled and traditional cultural burns. …British Columbia-based wildland fire ecologist Robert Gray argues communities in fire-prone regions aren’t adequately protected — but he says they can become more resilient by treating about 40 per cent of the surrounding landscape to prevent or slow wildfires from spreading into towns. …Gray said provinces must better regulate the forest industry to make sure activities like logging and tree planting are carried out with a focus on fire and fuel management.

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BC Is Burning documentary showing in Williams Lake

By Pat Matthews
My Cariboo Now
August 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

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.

Additional coverage in the Revelstoke Review: Nakusp to screen ‘BC is Burning’ with Ministry of Forests. Regional executive director Russel Laroche will be available after showing to answer questions from public about the documentary and wildfire season.

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How BC Forestry is Preparing for the Future – Quesnel Think Tank 2025

By Forestnet
You Tube
August 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Future Forestry Think Tank 2025 in Quesnel, B.C. brings together leaders from government, industry, First Nations, and academia to tackle today’s biggest forestry industry challenges. With insights from experts in Canada and abroad, the event highlights how collaboration can shape a more sustainable forestry future. From advanced operator training to new management practices, see how sustainable forestry in Canada is evolving.

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Company won’t spray controversial herbicide in northern Ontario

By Darren MacDonald
CTV News
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

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.”

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Predicting the future of black spruce growth

University of Waterloo
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

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.

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Record-breaking wildfire season in 2023 cost Quebec more than $8B, new study finds

By Annabelle Olivier and Sharon Yonan-Renold
CBC News
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

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.

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USFS chief Tom Schultz outlines vision for more logging, mining and grazing and less wildfire in America’s national forests

By Amanda Eggert
The Montana Free Press
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

©Facebook

WHITEFISH — U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Shultz on Tuesday said America’s national forests need less wildfire and more logging, mining, grazing and recreational activity. Schultz spoke at the Congressional Western Caucus conference where U.S. senators and representatives discussed policy with state officials, industry groups and prominent think tanks. Schultz said his approach will favor expedited review for natural resource development… He intends to aggressively suppress all wildfires and make more USFS land accessible for recreational use by motorized users and others. “America should mine, mill and manufacture more,” he said, adding that more of the country’s national forests will be available to log in the near and long term to comply with Trump’s executive orders and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed into law on July 4.  Schultz said implementing those directives will give companies more certainty to invest in lumber mills, which cost about $250 million to build. 

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Industry managed forests more likely to fuel megafires, study finds

By University of Utah
Phys.org
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The odds of high-severity wildfire were nearly one-and-a-half times higher on industrial private land than on publicly owned forests, a new study found. Forests managed by timber companies were more likely to exhibit the conditions that megafires love—dense stands of regularly spaced trees with continuous vegetation connecting the understory to the canopy. The research, led by the University of Utah, University of California, Berkeley, and the United States Forest Service, is the first to identify how extreme weather conditions and forest management practices jointly impact fire severity. Leveraging a unique lidar dataset, the authors created three-dimensional maps of public and private forests before five wildfires burned 1.1 million acres in the northern Sierra Nevada, California. …Although the study demonstrates that private industrial lands fare worse, both private and public agencies have much room for improvement to protect our nation’s forests.

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Oregon’s forestry sector needs new workers, industry leaders say, with new skills

By Tristin Hoffman
Oregon Live
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

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.

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Missoula County, forestry experts push back against consolidation

By Martin Kidston
KPAX Missoula & Western Montana
August 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

MISSOULA – Missoula County has drafted a letter headed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture stating the value of the U.S. Forest Service’s Region 1 office in Missoula while raising concerns about the agency’s proposed consolidation. …“It seems intuitive that Forest Service management and leadership is best located close to the public lands they manage,” said Mike Burnside with Conservation Matters – a group of retired land managers. “It doesn’t seem workable to have everyone reporting to the D.C. office or five offices somewhere else. We don’t see that as being workable.” The Forest Service operates 10 regional offices across the country. Under the proposal released by the Trump administration last month, those offices would close and consolidate into five hubs located in Utah, Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina and Missouri. The Northern Region Headquarters in Missoula — one of the nation’s oldest and most storied — would close.

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US Forest Service and Oregon Department of Forestry partner to restore oak forests

By The Forest Service
US Department of Agriculture
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

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.

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Clearing the air: It’s time to fix Washington forests

By Todd Myers, Washington Policy Center
The Seattle Times
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Once again, communities across Washington face smoky skies as wildfires stretch across the state. …there is broad agreement that to reduce the intensity of fires and habitat destruction, we must treat forests using controlled burns and harvests. Forests across the West are particularly fire-prone because they have not been thinned and harvested after fire was removed from the ecosystems decades ago. Washington’s native tribes are already acting. The Colville Confederated Tribes have taken steps to make reservation forests more fire-resistant. …Good Neighbor Authority was developed to allow state, county and tribal forestry programs to partner with the federal government to conduct forestland, rangeland and watershed restoration to address areas of high fire risk. … It is time to use the important tool of Good Neighbor Authority to get the work done and make our forests healthier and more resilient.

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With less federal funding, Oregon ranchers forced to delay wildfire resilience projects

By Alejandro Figueroa
Oregon Public Broadcasting
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

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.

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Doerner Fir tree in Southern Oregon survives fire but loses its record height

By Cassandra Profita and Jule Gilfillan
Oregon Public Broadcasting
August 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

After days of tremendous firefighting effort, a team of tall-tree climbers finally extinguished the fire burning inside the historic Doerner Fir tree in the Southern Oregon Coast Range. The tree is estimated to be roughly 450 years old and was the tallest Douglas fir in the world at 327 feet before the blaze. Volunteer tree climbers Damien Carré and Logan Collier scaled the tree Thursday afternoon and used a hose to put out the last of the flames burning inside the tree. Then, they helped set up a sprinkler system to prevent the fire from reigniting. “I’m still kind of zinging from the whole thing,” said Carré, who is the owner/operator of Oregon Tree Service in Oregon City. “I feel it was very successful, and I’m very proud and honored to be able to do it.” …They have ruled out lightning as the cause based on weather data.

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Wisconsin researchers listen to forests to learn more about protecting them

By Bridgit Bowden
Wisconsin Public Radio
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Once a month, researchers hike through the woods in the Baraboo Hills to check on small boxes strapped to tree trunks. The boxes hold microphones that are running 24 hours a day, capturing the soundscape of the forest. But for a research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, they could be an important way to learn about the health of forests. The Soundscape Baselines Project is an effort to record a full year of audio in untouched forests all over the world. Bioacoustics enable researchers to get a fuller picture of the forest, the species that inhabit it and how they change over time, said Zuzana Burivalova, the project’s founder. …Burivalova’s team and their partners are recording in six locations around the world: Ecuador, Peru, Gabon, Germany, Brunei and Wisconsin. …“These new technologies, like bioacoustics, artificial intelligence … they’re finally enabling us to really understand what is out there and how it’s changing,” she said.

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US Forest Service invests in four projects to restore state and private forests across the South

By Forest Service
US Department of Agriculture
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

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.

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Study looks at capacity of wildfire chars to suppress methane

By Kathy Atkinson
University of Delaware
August 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

…a University of Delaware professor has found that there is something of value to be learned from what’s left behind in the remnants of a wildfire. The charred debris left in the wake of wildfires … is known as wildfire char. UD’s Pei Chiu, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, studies wildfire chars and the ways they just might prove useful in reducing methane, a powerful gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Methane emissions come from many different sources, ranging from livestock manure to landfills and wastewater treatment plants. This work also informs his research on biochar — man-made chars created from leftover wood chips, rice husks, corn stover and other agricultural biomass — that can be used in soil amendments, stormwater treatment and other applications. Chiu shares five important facts about char — both natural (wildfire char) and manmade (biochar). 

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Brazil authorities suspend key Amazon rainforest protection measure

By Jonathan Watts
The Guardian
August 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

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”…

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US demand for RVs fuels deforestation on Indonesia’s Borneo: NGOs

The Associated Free Press in France24
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The recreational vehicle industry is now the biggest consumer of tropical wood in the United States, UK-based NGO Earthsight and Indonesian NGO Auriga Nusantara said. They said evidence showed sheets of tropical “lauan” plywood found in Indonesia were likely being used in the floors, walls and ceilings of RVs produced by major brands like Jayco, Winnebago and Forest River. “Nature-loving RV owners will be horrified,” said Earthsight director Sam Lawson. …Indonesia has one of the world’s highest rates of deforestation linked to mining, farming and logging, and is accused of allowing firms to operate in Borneo with little oversight. …PT Kayu Lapis Asli Murni, sourced timber mostly from rainforest in areas the NGOs visited, half of which was then exported to US firms MJB Wood and Tumac Lumber in 2024, they said.

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Pulp and paper giant APP moves closer to regaining FSC stamp despite pending review

By Hans Nicholas Jong
Mongabay
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The Forest Stewardship Council has allowed Asia Pulp & Paper — “one of the world’s most destructive forestry companies” — to resume its remedy process toward regaining certification it lost in 2007 for deforestation and land conflicts. Watchdog groups say the decision is premature because a legal review of APP’s links to Paper Excellence/Domtar, the biggest pulp and paper company in North America, is still unfinished. Critics warn the move could erode trust, enable greenwashing, and expose communities in conflict with APP-linked companies to further harm. NGOs are calling for the remedy process to be paused until the review is completed and for full transparency on corporate ownership and compliance.

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