Lloyd Smith
Lloyd Smith, 64, has been in the business of growing Christmas trees in New Germany, N.S. for the past five decades. …So far this year, he’s sold about 1,300 trees, a third more than last year. He chalks this up to the city’s population boom, but he also sees something else: there are fewer farmers around. …two farmers who set up nearby Christmas tree stands died in the past five years. Other farms have been abandoned and grown over. …the industry needs new blood. The total area of Christmas tree farms shrunk by nearly 20,000 acres between 2011 and 2021, according to Statistics Canada. Shirley Brennan, executive director of the Canadian Christmas Trees Association, said the average age of a Christmas tree farmer is now between 65 and 85. …“The younger generation isn’t interested,” Smith said. …Revenue has grown to more than $100 million from $55 million in 2015 and Canada is exporting 2.3 million trees a year to the United States.
Toilet paper and biomass pellets are emblematic of the fight to save northern forests – and prevent some the planet’s more important biodiversity from going down the toilet (or up in smoke). While much of the focus on deforestation is on the world’s tropical forests, the degradation of boreal and temperate forests continues apace, threatening their ability to store carbon and destroying ecosystems.
For several years, McMillan LLP has been a go-to law firm for the Paper Excellence corporation. This large Canadian forestry company has been represented by McMillan on transactions worth over $6 billion. The ethical problem arose when McMillan took on a new retainer, for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). That client’s main work is administering the “FSC” certification, which you may have seen stamped on some wood products… One of FSC’s rules is that, in order to remain certified, a company must not only avoid destructive forest practices, but must also not be “indirectly involved” with companies that do so… In November 2023, Greenpeace alleged that Paper Excellence was effectively a corporate sibling of Asia Pulp & Paper, insofar as both were controlled by Indonesian forestry company Sinar Mas. That allegation was contested by Paper Excellence, and so the FSC sought corporate law expertise to conduct a review. The firm that FSC hired was none other than McMillan LLP.
BOSTON — Procter & Gamble has agreed to provide additional information regarding its practices related to sourcing wood pulp from the boreal forests of Canada. The updates will reiterate the company’s aim to eliminate sourcing from intact forest landscapes and to protect primary forests. …The agreement came after discussions earlier this year with investment firms Green Century Capital Management, AXA Investment Managers, BNP Paribas Asset Management, and Robeco. In exchange, these investors agreed to withdraw a shareholder proposal asking the company to enhance its disclosures in relation to its existing efforts to mitigate risks to biodiversity and forest resilience. “These disclosures will help investors better understand how P&G is managing the risks associated with sourcing from such an ecologically important area,” said Leslie Samuelrich, President of Green Century Funds. …In addition, P&G will renew its investment in the development of alternative fibers.
The consulting company that recommended the removal of thousands of trees from Stanley Park is sharing its perspective on a project that’s spurred considerable local controversy. The Vancouver Park Board began removing trees from the park after it revealed in November 2023 that up to 160,000 of them had been killed by a hemlock looper moth infestation and had become unsafe. The report that led to the removal was authored by B.A. Blackwell and Associates, which also worked to restore the Stanley Park forest after a damaging windstorm in 2006. “I felt this was an opportunity to provide an education moment because there’s a lot to learn about this issue, it’s complicated,” Bruce Blackwell, the company’s principal, told Global News during a tour of the affected areas of the park on Thursday. Blackwell was emphatic that the only purpose of the tree removal in the park is public safety.
Walking through the clear-cuts north of Lund, I’ve noticed they’re not terrible by typical standards … the real problem lies in what comes next: replanting. Replanted areas aren’t forests; they’re fiber-farms—dense monocultures devoid of biodiversity. There are no birds, deer, or diverse plant life, just crowded trees competing for scarce nutrients. If we had to live off these lands, we’d starve. Replanting is a public relations greenwash, creating biological deserts instead of ecosystems. Naturally regenerating forests, by contrast, begins with nitrogen-fixing alders, enriched soils and balanced biodiversity. …Yet British Columbia clings to outdated forestry models focused on short-term profit. …Why not replant one clear-cut while letting others regenerate naturally? We could compare outcomes and learn something valuable. …We could listen to professional foresters and scientists rather than corporate lobbyists. BC could lead the world in forestry innovation, but only if we upgrade our economic belief systems. 
British Columbia’s government expects to plant nearly 60 million fewer trees next year — a 23 per cent drop from this year’s planting season at a time the province has seen a major spike in wildfire activity. The projections come from presentation slides obtained by Glacier Media and shown to industry in September, less than 10 days before the B.C.’s provincial election campaign kicked off. During the campaign, the BC NDP promised to plant 300 million trees annually across the province to “help increase forest resilience.” That promise came off the back of two of the most destructive wildfire seasons in B.C.’s history. In 2023 alone, more than 6,000 fires torched 15 million hectares of land, an area larger than England, according to Natural Resources Canada. But according to the province’s own projections, the government expects the number of trees planted to sink to 233 million in 2025, down from 291 million in 2024 and far short of its election promise.
Sporting aviator sunglasses and standing in front of a lectern last month in Manaus, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon, outgoing President Joe Biden spoke of the importance of safeguarding the world’s carbon-rich forests — a message he delivered numerous times throughout his tenure. …“Despite Biden’s rhetorical flourishes about the importance of preserving and restoring old-growth forest ecosystems, his administration has led the charge to open more and more of these areas to commercial logging,” said John Talberth, president and senior economist at the Center for Sustainable Economy (CSE), a nonprofit think tank. …The Forest Service did not respond to questions about whether it expects to finalize a national old-growth amendment before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. …Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told The Associated Press that it would be “a serious mistake for the country to take a step backwards now that we’ve taken significant steps forward.” …As long as the Forest Service remains under the Department of Agriculture, things are unlikely to change, Talberth said.
People around the world are adorning homes and businesses with festive holiday decor, which typically means an abundance of Christmas trees are on display. In the U.S., they pop up everywhere from the average living room to the Rockefeller Center plaza in Manhattan and the White House in Washington, D.C. But climate change threatens to complicate the tradition. Christmas trees, like any other crop, are affected by the general rise in temperature associated with global warming and the extreme weather events that result from it… 
Just days after Christmas in 1973 President Richard Nixon signed into law the Endangered Species Act, establishing one of the strongest conservation laws in history. …The Northern Spotted Owl has proven to be the most controversial of animal species listed. Its “threatened” designation in the late 1980s sparked legal battles between logging companies and environmental groups later named the Timber Wars. …The Northwest Forest Plan was amended in a monumental compromise between environmental groups and the timber industry in 2022 when Governor Kate Brown singed into law the Private Forest Accord. …The Forest Service has proposed additional amendments to the Northwest Forest Plan that may open up millions of acres of western lands to logging. The final environmental impact statement of that plan will be released in 2025 under the Trump administration, which has promised extensive deregulation. The Northern Spotted Owl remains listed as endangered.
…Dead and dying trees — referred to as snags — pose severe risks to public safety, firefighter effectiveness and long-term forest health. Yet, contrary to claims, post-fire removal of dead and dying trees on state and federal lands is minimal, hindered by relentless litigation that threatens lives, compromises recovery efforts and delays the natural regrowth of our treasured forests. …Snags are far from benign. They fall unpredictably, endangering those working in or passing through these areas. When ignited, these dead trees burn intensely, creating spot fires and releasing embers that exacerbate the spread of wildfires. As they decay, snags create dense brush fields — a dangerous cocktail of highly flammable fuels. …By supporting post-fire salvage operations, we can ensure our forests recover more quickly, safely and sustainably. This is not just about restoring the land — it is about protecting lives, preserving our natural heritage and preventing the next catastrophic fire.
Logging would be allowed in millions of acres of national forest in Washington, Oregon and California, including older trees currently off-limits to cutting, under proposed amendments to the Northwest Forest Plan. The conservation plan was enacted in 1994 and includes 24 million acres across federal land. It was intended to preserve mature and old-growth forests and protect species, including the marbled murrelet, threatened and endangered salmon and the northern spotted owl. Now the Biden administration has embarked on an update of the plan to address changes, including a loss of nearly 7% of protected old-growth forest within the plan area because of wildfire. The loss has eliminated gains of old growth achieved during the first 25 years of the plan. The Forest Service intends to issue a final environmental impact statement on the proposed amendments in 2025, under the incoming Trump administration. What that will mean for the outcome is unclear.
Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is funding projects that will assist Tribes, nonprofits and private landowners in Oregon with their efforts to manage forests sustainably and permanently conserve private forests in partnership with the state. “Oregon’s forestlands – public – and private – need investments to remain healthy, and to withstand wildfires that impact us all,” Merkley said. “I’ve long championed efforts that ensure Tribes and all those who manage our forests have the tools they need for sustainable management. These new investments will help advance our shared mission of creating and conserving healthy, resilient forests for future generations”. …The investments from the U.S. Forest Service are funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and are part of nearly $210 million nationwide for Forest Landowner Support Projects.
