Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

Oh, Canada – don’t make the same wildfire mistakes as Australia

By David Lindenmayer (Australian National University) and Charles Krebs (UBC)
The Globe and Mail
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Both Canada and Australia have experienced megafires in the past few years, the size and severity of which have been unprecedented. It has been suggested that Canada needs to “fight fire with fire” in order to solve the problem, and follow Australia’s lead in tackling this national environmental issue. Wrong. Rather, it is critically important that Canada does not repeat the mistakes that Australia has made. The widespread application of prescribed burning or hazard-reduction burning has been proposed as a way to protect people and property in Canada. Prescribed burning to reduce fire hazards has been employed throughout large parts of Australia. Yet robust scientific evidence showing that it is effective is remarkably limited. In some places, prescribed burning can reduce fire severity and restrict fire spread for a few years, but afterwards the regrowing vegetation becomes more flammable – an increased fire-risk effect that can last for many decades. That is: short-term gain, but long-term pain.

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Canada Invests $540,300 in Firefighting Training

Natural Resources Canada
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

OTTAWA — Corey Hogan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, announced an investment of $540,300 for two projects through the Government of Canada’s Fighting and Managing Wildfires in a Changing Climate Program (FMWCC) – Training Fund. The funding includes: $335,000 to Yorkton Tribal Council in Yorkton, Saskatchewan… [and] $204,800 to the Rural Municipality of Piney, Manitoba. Through this investment, community members in Manitoba and Saskatchewan — two provinces that have faced severe wildfire conditions this year — will receive wildland firefighting training to enhance their communities’ capacity to prepare and respond to wildfires. …The addition of these 95 trainees has us on track to train over 2,800 wildland firefighters in Canada, greatly surpassing our original target of training over 1,000 community members.

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One in seven First Nations impacted as Canada battles raging wildfires

By Xonal Gupta
National Observer
August 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

As wildfires scorch Canada amid its second-worst wildfire season on record, Indigenous leaders and experts say the country’s approach remains reactive — leaving Indigenous communities disproportionately vulnerable. At a Monday press conference, federal officials reported that 707 wildfires are currently active nationwide. The extreme fire activity has strained firefighting resources, prompting Canada to deploy over 560 international firefighters from six countries alongside Canadian personnel. This situation is particularly dire for Indigenous communities. Jen Baron, a postdoctoral researcher and incoming assistant professor at the University of BC’s Centre for Wildfire Coexistence, said… Many First Nations communities are “overexposed and underserved.” Remote, fly-in communities with minimal access routes face significant risks in evacuation and recovery. The infrastructure gaps make an already dangerous situation much worse, Baron said. Some federal investments have targeted these gaps. This week, officials announced a $540,000 commitment to two wildfire training programs.

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More wildfire activity expected across Canada, experts say

By Kyle Duncan
CBC News
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Western provinces and the East Coast should remain on alert for the possibility of more wildfire activity throughout the rest of summer, based on the latest federal government update. Wide swaths of B.C. and the prairie provinces are expected to be drier and hotter than normal. Federal government forecasters also see above-average seasonal temperatures for most of the country over the next three months. Typically in the more northern regions, fire activity starts to wind down around September as cooler weather sets in and the days grow shorter. Not this year. Federal bureaucrats said there’s a high likelihood that the large fires currently burning will continue well into the fall amid the higher temperatures. …Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski said “it’s been a really hot and dry summer and this has of course contributed to above-normal fire activity in BC, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.”

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Who bears responsibility to prevent wildfire disasters: government or individuals?

By Lyndsay Armstrong
Canadian Press in the Prince George Citizen
August 15, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

HALIFAX — As climate change continues to raise the risk of extreme wildfires, a debate has arisen over who bears the responsibility to prevent disasters: government or individuals? …In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, last week provincial governments banned hiking, fishing and using vehicles in the woods in addition to their existing bans on open fires. …Their provincial governments have received a flood of feedback from people expressing confusion and frustration, and some have claimed the restrictions represent an infringement on their personal freedoms. …A day after the Nova Scotia restrictions were implemented, Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre criticized the ban and called on the province to address wildfire risk by making long-term investments in sustainable forestry management and climate adaptation, along with ramping up funding for local fire services.

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A look at how wildfire predictions held up throughout the years

By Genevieve Beauchemin
CTV News
August 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

©BCWildfireService

As Canada’s forests burn, climate change scientists warn the increasingly warm planet will continue to take part in fuelling more frequent and violent wildfires. That is their forecast now, but how did their predictions hold up over the past decades? “We are following the trend that scientists have predicted for some time,” says the director of research on adaptation at the Canadian Climate Institute Ryan Ness. CTV News archives shows that research two decades ago linked climate and a rise in fire frequencies. A 2006 study concluded new evidence showed climate change, not forest management and logging, was the main factor behind a spike of wildfires in California. …Statistics from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre show that trend is proving to be a reality on the ground, not just a hypothesis. …And now, scientists warn if the trend continue, the planet will continue to burn even hotter and help spread wildfires.

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Want a Steinway? The Forest Service Stands in the Way

By Sara Lehnert
The Wall Street Journal
August 15, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

KLAWOCK, Alaska — Steinway pianos have a particular sound. …The secret to the sound isn’t merely Steinway’s skilled craftsmen—who’ve been using the same methods since 1853—but the specialized wood they use for the soundboards. It comes from the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Unfortunately, a broken promise from the federal government will soon stop the music. …In 2016 the U.S. Department of Agriculture created a management plan that promised the availability of old-growth timber from the Tongass annually on a fixed schedule. …Not only has the Forest Service never met the timber-sale goals outlined in their management plan, in the past four years it offered less than 10% of the annual needs for the industry. …An executive order from President Trump… and a lawsuit we filed against the USDA earlier this year haven’t been enough to get the Forest Service to stop starving the industry. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]

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‘Pray for rain’: wildfires in Canada are now burning where they never used to

By Leyland Cecco
The Guardian
August 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Road closures, evacuations, travel chaos and stern warnings from officials have become fixtures of Canada’s wildfire season. But as the country goes through its second-worst burn on record, the blazes come with a twist: few are coming from the western provinces. Instead, the worst of the fires have been concentrated in the prairie provinces and the Atlantic region, with bone-dry conditions upending how Canada responds to a threat that is only likely to grow as the climate warms. Experts say the shift serves as a stark reminder that the risk of disaster is present across the thickly forested nation. …“We had fire everywhere,” said Paul Kovacs, at the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at Western University. “And so for the first time, we had a different thought about wildfires as a country. …This is a national issue. This can show up anywhere.”

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As Canada wildfires choke US with smoke, Republicans demand action. But not on climate change

By Tammy Webber
The Associated Press
August 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

The sternly worded statements and letters are filled with indignation and outrage: Republican US lawmakers say Canada has done too little to contain wildfires and smoke that have fouled the air in several states this summer. …They’ve demanded more forest thinning, prescribed burns and other measures to prevent fires from starting. They’ve warned the smoke is hurting relations between the countries and suggested the US could make it an issue in tariff talks. But what they haven’t done is acknowledge the role of climate change — a glaring and shortsighted omission, according to climate scientists. It also ignores the outsized US contribution to heat-trapping gases that cause more intense heat waves and droughts, which in turn set the stage for more destructive wildfires, scientists say. …“I don’t think there’s much they can do,” said Michigan climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck. He noted that hotter temperatures are melting permafrost in northern Canada.

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Redefining resilience with the Wildfire Resilience Consortium of Canada

By Forestry For The Future
Canadian Geographic
August 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

As of mid-August, the 2025 fire season is shaping up to be Canada’s second-worst on record. Since the spring, headlines across the country have consistently highlighted a community ordered to evacuate, a new fire sparking somewhere, or unique resource-sharing situations for fire management. Enter the newly-created Wildfire Resilience Consortium of Canada. As a beacon of boundary-breaking hope, the WRCC aims to create a transformative approach to wildfire management, bringing together the front line, researchers, industry experts, the forest products sector, Indigenous Peoples and governments. “It’s a purpose-built not-for-profit that was designed to transform wildfire resilience across Canada, really focusing on a ‘whole of society’ approach,” says Kelsey Winter of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre and Board Chair of the WRCC. …As part of breaking down boundaries between the different stakeholders involved in wildfire management, the WRCC has divided the country into six zones representing the different types of forest ecosystems that experience fire. 

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Replanting forests after wildfires comes with complex challenges, but there are opportunities in the ashes

By Martin Halek
CBC News
August 15, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Early last September, firefighters were in the final stages of containing a 33,000-hectare wildfire complex in Alberta’s Jasper National Park. Elsewhere, park workers were already replanting the first batch of trees in the recently scorched earth. The Douglas firs were chosen because they resist fire better than other conifers, according to Marcia DeWandel, vegetation restoration specialist for Parks Canada. However, replanting so soon after a fire is much more exception than rule. Replanting is typically expensive, time consuming, labour intensive — and doesn’t always work. …In most cases, it can take years for replanting to begin after a fire. …”It’s actually really important not to speed and just go right after a fire,” says Jess Kaknevicius, CEO of Forests Canada, one of the organizations supporting Ogoki’s replanting. …In some replanted areas, ensuring survival is easier said than done, especially when dealing with other effects of climate change. 

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Canada Invests to Build and Mobilize Knowledge on Wildfires

Natural Resources Canada
August 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

CALGARY, Alberta — Wildfire season is in full effect across much of Canada, and Canadians are facing significant impacts. …Corey Hogan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Honourable Tim Hodgson, announced $45.7 million in funding for 30 projects across Canada through Natural Resources Canada’s Build and Mobilize Foundational Wildland Fire Knowledge program. These projects are driving research focused on protecting Canadians from the growing threat of wildfires, strengthening wildfire risk assessments and improving mitigation and adaptive forestry practices. We are also helping Indigenous communities access the tools needed to lead on wildfire readiness in their communities and backing Indigenous-led projects that support fire stewardship.

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BC Forest Practices Board to audit forestry operations near Pemberton

BC Forest Practices Board
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board will conduct an audit of Tsetspa7 Forestry Limited Partnership’s Forest Licence A83924 in the Sea to Sky Natural Resource District. Beginning Aug. 25, 2025 it will examine forestry activities carried out under the licence from Aug. 1, 2023… [The licence] covers an operating area of about 115,000 hectares centred on the lower Lillooet River … 50 kilometres southeast of Pemberton. The licence is jointly held by the Skatin, Samahquam and Xa’xtsa (Douglas) First Nations, and Lizzie Bay Logging Ltd. The tenure is managed by Chartwell Resource Group Ltd. Tsetspa7 … manages an allowable annual cut of about 45,000 cubic metres. The audit area is rich in cultural, historical, ecological and recreational values, with high recreational use for fishing, hot springs, hiking, kayaking and camping. It provides critical habitat for the endangered northern spotted owl and contains First Nations cultural places and cultural management areas designated under the Sea-to-Sky Land and Resource Management Plan.

Additional coverage by the Canadian Press in Business in Vancouver: Forestry audit scheduled for B.C. licence for land covering spotted owl habitat

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Forests Canada and Cariboo Carbon to plant 2.3 million trees in areas devastated by wildfires

By Forests Canada
Cision Newswire
August 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

BARRIE, ON – As Canada faces rampant wildfires, non-profit charity Forests Canada and forestry consulting firm Cariboo Carbon Solutions are partnering to help private landowners and First Nations communities restore their forests. They supported the planting of 100,000 trees in North Shuswap and Criss Creek, British Columbia in response to the 2023 Bush Creek East wildfire and will plant 2.2 million in other areas of the province over the next five years. “Canada is facing a devastating wildfire crisis,” Elizabeth Jarrett, Chief Operating Officer, Forests Canada, says. “This new partnership will enable us to support restoration efforts.” In regions across British Columbia, Cariboo Carbon Solutions is providing private landowners and First Nations communities that have been devastated by wildfires with professional reforestation services for their properties. After the successful planting of 100,000 trees in North Shuswap and Criss Creek this spring, the organization is looking to support other communities in BC.

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Conservation group warns against West Fraser Timber’s push for higher logging limits in southern Alberta

By Noah Brennan
Calgary Herald
August 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A wilderness conservation group is sounding the alarm over a major forestry company’s bid to significantly increase the amount of timber it can cut in southern Alberta each year. West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. is seeking a significant increase to its annual allowable cut in the Crowsnest Forest Management Agreement area, according to a draft of its forest management plan posted on the company’s website. The current cut level, set by the province in 2017, is 157,800 cubic metres a year. West Fraser is proposing to raise that to 208,000 cubic metres annually under a new 10-year plan spanning 2025 to 2035. The plan has yet to be approved by the provincial government. …The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s southern Alberta chapter says the proposed increase comes before comprehensive impact and watershed risk assessments have been completed, and will likely worsen existing environmental pressures in the area.

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Climbing trees repaired for Ladysmith loggers’ sports show

By Duck Paterson
The Chemainus Valley Courier
August 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

…It’s a rare sight today to see a spar tree in a timber harvesting area, but you can see them at any loggers’ sports shows. This year locals will have a chance to see climbers in action on Sunday, Sept. 14 at the Transfer Beach Amphitheatre. Just a couple of weeks ago the state of the two spar poles at the amphitheatre was in question. …Dave MacLeod from Husky Forest Service, a professional tree climber as well as a loggers’ sports tree climber, said instead of destroying the trees, they could be taken out to find out where the rot ends. His suggestion was accepted and the trees were taken out by RKM Cranes on July 30 and laid down to be examined. MacLeod did tests at various lengths of the trees and it was determined that the rot was up 10 feet from the bottom, so 11 feet was cut off.

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Adam Yeadon Memorial Scholarship offers two $5000 scholarships for forestry/wildfire management students

Government of Northwest Territories
August 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Adam Yeadon

The 2025 intake for the Adam Yeadon Memorial Scholarship is open for applications. The Adam Yeadon Memorial Scholarship is awarded to Northwest Territories full-time post-secondary students enrolled in diploma, degree or other approved training programs related to forestry or wildfire management to support northern students interested in pursuing an education in these fields. The scholarship was established in 2024 after Adam’s passing in the line of duty during the 2023 wildfire season. In Adam’s memory, two scholarships of $5,000 each will be awarded to NWT students pursuing post-secondary forest management education.

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Long-delayed moisture for BC coast finally arrives for fire relief

The Weather Network
August 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Relief is finally coming for dry- and fire-stricken regions in B.C. this week. Much-needed and substantial rain is forecast for the South Coast from Thursday night through Sunday. An atmospheric river is taking shape, expected to fill in and bring periods of rain that will total 20-40+mm to much of the Lower Mainland, and 50+mm for the higher terrain. It will be a highly beneficial rainfall since it will be spread out over a more extended period of time. Some beneficial rain is likely for the southern and central Interior, as well. …A low-pressure system from Alaska will form west of Haida Gwaii for Thursday and Friday. The associated cold front will pull ample amounts of of moisture to set up an atmospheric river for the B.C. coast. …The heaviest rainfall will be Friday along the BC coast. 

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Amid wildfires, B.C. tree planting to plummet for third year

By Stefan Labbé
Business in Vancouver
August 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The number of trees planted in British Columbia is set to decline for a third year in a row, falling a combined 135 million seedlings short of a B.C. government’s election promise to increase planting amid a string of devastating wildfire seasons. In B.C., the logging industry is legally required to reforest after harvesting. But as harvest levels have dropped, so too has tree planting. The province planted 281 million tree seedlings in 2024. But by the end of the 2025 season, that number is expected to drop to 238 million, according to the Ministry of Forests. By the end of 2026, projections from the Canadian Tree Nursery Association (CTNA) suggest the number could fall even further to 226 million — far short of the 300 million trees promised by the NDP government in the last election.

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Federal funding boosts research and Indigenous knowledge on wildfires

By Emily Joveski
My Cowichan Valley Now
August 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Ottawa is offering $45.7 million for projects in B.C. and across Canada that advance knowledge about wildfires. The projects will be focused on protecting Canadians from the growing threat of wildfires, strengthening wildfire risk assessments, and improving mitigation and adaptive forestry practices. …The Vancouver-based Métis Wildfire Community Research Initiative is among the funding recipients.  “Our approach is different because we are building strong relationships with local people.” said Joe Desjarlais, Director of Research for the B.C. Metis Foundation. “We’re training them to do wildfire research, to recover their own knowledge for their own benefit, to give them a voice.” …Natural Resources Canada said annual national costs for fighting wildland fire total over $1 billion. It says fire-suppression costs could double by 2040.

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College of New Caledonia awarded $170K federal grant to launch remote sensing lab for forest stewardship

Education News Canada
August 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

CNC’s Applied Research team received a $170,775 Applied Research Tools and Instruments (ARTI) grant through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for the creation of a state-of-the-art remote sensing lab. …The grant allows for the acquisition of terrestrial LiDAR scanners, allowing researchers to capture, analyze and better understand individual tree characteristics, forest structure, and wildfire hazards, among other forest attributes. CNC research fellow Dr. Pablo Crespell will lead research activities related to remote sensing lab purchases and operation, including drones, LiDAR sensors and scanners, multispectral sensors, software applications, and computer hardware. Grant funds will also be used to support the costs of relevant training for CNC research staff, such as drone pilot training and new analysis approaches.

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Wildfires Will Get Worse. Here Are Five Things We Can Do Now

By Viviane Gauer & Zacharie Carriere, Canadian Climate Institute
The Tyee
August 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

…as climate change fuels more frequent and intense wildfires, governments can reduce the damage and protect lives with proactive, targeted actions. That means strengthening policies that guide where and how we build, investing in land and fuel-management strategies, supporting Indigenous leadership and stewardship, expanding emergency-response capacity and accelerating emissions reduction. The solutions are within reach, but they require governments to lead with urgency, coordination and commitment. …Here are five key actions governments can take to reduce wildfire risk — noting that no single strategy can solve the problem by itself: Stop encouraging building in harm’s way; Make new development fire-resilient; Manage forests and reduce wildfire fuel; Strengthen firefighting capacity; and Cut carbon pollution to avoid runaway risk. Governments at all levels face a clear choice: continue with business as usual and see fire seasons grow worse or take bold action to reduce risk, protect people and ensure public resources are spent wisely.

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Branchlines Summer 2025 – UBC Faculty of Forestry

Branchlines UBC Faculty of Forestry
August 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The human side of forestry is often overlooked but always present. Seeing the forest for the trees in this case means connecting the dots between the many ways that people interact with, benefit from and shape natural spaces, and the consequences these activities are having on everything from environmental sustainability to community wellbeing. In this issue, we delve into the social sciences of forestry, highlighting how the academic work, career paths and actions taken by our UBC Forestry community are shaping the future for the sake of humans and the planet.

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Western Forest Products donation allows logger show to go on in Ladysmith

By Duck Paterson
Cowichan Valley Citizen
August 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Ladysmith’s amphitheatre was designed around holding these events and it’s had the opportunity to stage these events many times. Built through the generosity of local businesses, organizations and individuals the theatre still requires the generosity of donations to continue the traditional logging show. Last week the local Western Forest Products (WFP) mill… donated the three very large logs that are used as the ‘dummy logs’ that many of the events are staged around. “The obstacle race and the various saw events centre around these logs, and the ones we have now are 12 years old and are getting pulpy so the folks from Western Forest Products stepped up and found three new ones. They made it possible for the show to go on.” …Glen Waatainen from SDN Contracting/Pro-Cut Lumber Corp lined up the loading and transportation and supplied the boom truck driven by Ken Nicholson. 

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Calls for provincial ban on herbicides in forestry are growing in northeastern Ontario

By Jonathan Migneault
CBC News
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

LAKE HURON, Ontario — Jenifer Brousseau often picks berries and traditional medicines in the bush around her community in northeastern Ontario. But in recent years, Brousseau and many others from Serpent River have been concerned about the forestry industry’s use of herbicides that contain the chemical glyphosate. …Environmental groups — including Friends of the Earth Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, Safe Food Matters and Environmental Defence Canada — have launched a court challenge of Health Canada’s conclusions on glyphosate. …Some small municipalities in northern Ontario have also started to petition the province in their effort to get the ban. …Fred Pinto, an adjunct professor of forestry at the University of Toronto said herbicides are just one tool used by forestry companies to manage vegetation. Pinto said herbicide spraying is often done using aircraft in areas that have little to no road access.

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Members of Serpent River First Nation protest herbicide spraying

By Kim Garritty and Jonathan Migneault
CBC News
August 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

ONTARIO -Roughly 100 people gathered along the Trans-Canada Highway passing through Serpent River First Nation on Thursday morning to protest forest companies spraying herbicides containing glyphosate in the surrounding area. The herbicide application is part of a growth program for the trees that forestry companies plant after clear-cutting operations. But several members of the Serpent River First Nation said they’re concerned about the chemical’s effect on the environment and human health. …Allan McDonald is an elder from Garden River First Nation. He questions why the chemical is still in use in Ontario when other provinces have restricted its use. “Quebec’s done it for, I think it’s over 22 years now and they seem to be doing OK. So why is it that Ontario can’t follow suit?”

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Forestry operations still allowed in Nova Scotia’s woodlands, but should they be?

By Joan Baxter
The Halifax Examiner
August 15, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

On Aug. 5, 2025, Premier Tim Houston announced a ban on forest travel in Nova Scotia because of extreme wildfire risks. …However, the ban didn’t apply to commercial operators in the province’s woodlands who could secure special travel permits from the Department of Natural Resources. …But not all forestry operators were comfortable with that. Some decided the risks of their heavy machines causing sparks and wildfires were just too great, and voluntarily halted all their work in the forests. …North Nova Forest Owner’s Co-op, managed by Greg Watson, is one of the organizations that opted not to continue operations, given the extreme risks, despite the fact that its revenue comes almost entirely from wood harvesting. …To find out more about the co-op’s decision to cease all forestry operations … the Halifax Examiner spoke with Watson from his home near Tatamagouche in northern Nova Scotia. …The interview has been edited for length and clarity.  

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Rain relief reaches Atlantic Canada though some areas still miss out

The Weather Network
August 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

A couple of cold fronts are set to move across Atlantic Canada in the coming days. These systems will bring showers and thunderstorms, with isolated areas experiencing heavy downpours. Some temporary and localized relief from the ongoing dry conditions is expected; however, rainfall amounts will fall short of addressing the broader precipitation deficit in most regions. Much of the Maritimes have received less than 40 per cent of their average summer rainfall, resulting in extremely dry conditions and heightened fire danger. Recent heat waves have also set multiple monthly and all-time temperature records across the region. The intense heat across the Maritimes is coming to an end. While most regions will remain warm on Thursday and Friday, with highs in the mid to upper 20s, a cold front is set to deliver some relief in the form of rain.

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Nova Scotia Recommends More Wildfire Precautions

By Natural Resources
The Government of Nova Scotia
August 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

Nova Scotia is strongly recommending additional precautions for industrial and agricultural operations on private land. “…there are always safety precautions to reduce the risk of wildfires on Crown Land. We added to those requirements last week given the current conditions,” said Tory Rushton, Minister of Natural Resources. “We’re working with forestry, agriculture and other industries operating on private land to also use those measures until we see rain counteract these dangerously dry conditions.” Commercial operations like forestry and mining need a travel permit to continue working on Crown land. Where possible, such as in forestry, permits require work to be done between the hours of 8 p.m. and 10 a.m.; fire suppression equipment must be on hand, and there must be a two-hour fire watch after work is completed. On private land any activities that require heavy machinery, including agriculture and forestry, are strongly recommended to take the same approach.

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Forest Products EXPO 2025 Largest Show Since 2000

Southern Forest Products Association
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

EXPO 2025: Fine Tune Your Strategy. That was the agenda for the 38th Forest Products Machinery & Equipment EXPO from August 6-8, 2025, at the Music City Center in Nashville, and early feedback shows exhibitors and attendees alike were able to successfully collaborate to drive their operations forward. “The Southern Forest Products Association (SFPA) hosting the Forest Products EXPO in Nashville for a second time continued to far surpass our expectations,” said Eric Gee, SFPA’s executive director. “I’m beyond proud of our exhibiting companies, whose creativity and hard work transformed the exhibit hall into an outstanding hub of innovation, connection, and opportunity.” The event boasted 243 exhibiting companies and a record number of exhibitors since 2000, representing 185 product categories, and nearly 1,000 attendees, including 60 first-time exhibitors. Early survey responses from attendees were positive, with many lauding the location and Music City Center, the opportunities for networking with industry colleagues and meeting new vendors, and the variety of exhibits.

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Old forests, new fires, and a scientific standoff over active management

By John Cannon
Mongabay
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Photographs of forests in the western U.S. from the mid-1800s show a starkly different reality compared to today, says Paul Hessburg, an ecologist at the University of Washington. …Today, many of these forests are overgrown and dominated by younger trees. Back then, they were typically more open — “park-like”. …Fire played an integral role — perhaps the integral role — in shaping these ecosystems. …Hessburg and others see the rejection of active management in part as a response to the “legacy” of commercial, industrial-scale logging of natural forests. Those rampant harvests often took the oldest and largest trees in the U.S., before a mix of science, policy and advocacy for species like the northern spotted owl caused a shift away from the practice in the 1990s. …“We created a climate that’s hostile to people and health and forests,” he says. What’s critical now is finding ways to adjust, for both ourselves and our forests. 

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Allegheny National Forest will increase logging by millions of board feet this year

By Abigail Hakas
Ellwood City Ledger
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

PENNSYLVANIA — The Allegheny National Forest is set to ramp up logging by more than 10% this year as part of a push from President Donald Trump to boost domestic lumber supplies. The move has sparked fierce debate between environmentalists and pro-logging groups who disagree on cutting trees to reduce wildfire risks or improve forest health. In the coming fiscal year, the state’s only national forest is set to sell 45 million board feet, an over 12% increase from this fiscal year, said Alisen Downs, for the Allegheny National Forest. …Allegheny National Forest has proposed a five-year plan starting next fiscal year, Downs said.“I think a slow and steady progress toward that increase is probably the best approach,” said Julia McCray, of the Allegheny Forest Alliance, which includes local officials and people from the timber industry. …While next year’s logging will be an increase… it’s not a historic high. 

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Trump’s Call to Log More Forests to Face Lawsuits, a Soft Market

By Bobby Magill
Bloomberg Law
August 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The Trump administration wants to scrap a rule that protects tens of millions of acres of national forest from road-building and large-scale logging—but its zeal to log will face a reality check from government downsizing, possible litigation, and even a soft timber market. The US Forest Service is grappling with budget cuts and staffing shortages. At the same time, environmental groups are already gearing up for legal battles, arguing the so-called Roadless Rule safeguards endangered species, clean water, and biodiversity. “The administration can sprint and rescind the Roadless Rule, but then what?” said Murray Feldman, at Holland & Hart LLP in Boise. “It seems like a moonshot to try to reverse decades of national forest management plans by revoking one specific set of rules. But we’ll see.” …The Forest Service hasn’t taken any official steps to rescind the Roadless Rule since Rollins’ announcement in June. 

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Conservationists again sue US Fish and Wildlife for denying Oregon red tree voles protection

By Alex Baumhardt
Oregon Public Broadcasting
August 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Conservation groups are again going to court as part of a nearly two-decade-long fight to protect a small forest-dwelling rodent native to the Oregon Coast. The Center For Biological Diversity, Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild and the Bird Alliance Of Oregon sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on July 17 in U.S. District Court in Portland over the agency’s decision not to provide the north Oregon Coast red tree vole federal Endangered Species Act protections. The suit names the agency’s director, Paul Souza, and Doug Burgum, head of the U.S. Department of the Interior, as defendants. The suit is the latest in an ongoing effort since 2007 to protect red tree voles, which live in the canopy of old growth conifer forests and feed on the needles of Douglas fir, Sitka spruce and western hemlock trees. …But they’ve seen their habitat reduced by roughly 65% since 1986 due to logging and wildfires.

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Oregon timber counties flail, awaiting Congress to renew key funding

By April Ehrlich
Oregon Public Broadcasting
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A budget crisis a century in the making is coming to a head as Oregon’s rural counties. The crisis originates with a compromise from the era of President Teddy Roosevelt and was prolonged by piecemeal solutions made during the Timber Wars of the 1990s. Now the president’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill removes a key funding source for Oregon’s timber counties. If nothing is done, rural counties could find themselves with no money to pay for sheriff’s departments or other essential needs. …Many rural Oregon counties once relied on a portion of revenue from trees logged on federal lands to cover the costs of essential services. That federal land doesn’t generate local property taxes… So the federal government started sharing a portion of its logging revenues with those counties. When those declined, federal lawmakers came up with the Secure Rural Schools program. …But Congress needs to regularly re-authorize the program.

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CAL FIRE invests $5M to expand biomass use and train forestry workers

By Debbie Sklar
Times of San Diego
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has awarded $5 million in grant funding to eight projects aimed at creating jobs, training future forestry workers, and helping small businesses expand their role in protecting forests and communities from wildfire. The funding comes through CAL FIRE’s Business and Workforce Development Grant program, which supports innovative approaches to reducing wildfire risk and promoting rural economic growth. Since its launch in 2022, the program has awarded over $100 million to more than 100 projects statewide. “From hands-on training for young adults to new mass timber production right here in California, these projects are helping build a more resilient future for our forests and our communities,” said Assistant Chief John McCarthy of CAL FIRE’s Wood Products & Bioenergy Team.

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US Department of Agriculture signs historic agreement to reduce wildfire risk in Montana

Lewiston Sentinel
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

HELENA, Mont. — U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz and Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a historic Shared Stewardship Memorandum of Understanding, establishing a new framework between the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the State of Montana to advance forest restoration and reduce wildfire risk across the state. Montana’s Shared Stewardship Agreement expands collaborative efforts to accelerate active forest management, safeguard communities, and support sustainable timber production. “This agreement is exactly the kind of forward-leaning, state-driven leadership that President Trump and USDA have championed since day one,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. “By cutting burdensome, unnecessary red tape and empowering Montana to lead, we’re proving that through real partnership, conservation and economic growth can go hand-in-hand. This partnership is just another example of our shared commitment to protect lives, livelihoods, and our forest resources — while creating opportunities for hardworking Americans.”

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Controversial timber sales begin in Hoosier National Forest, despite Gov. Braun’s objections

By Sophie Hartley
The Indianapolis Star
August 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

The US Forest Service kicked off timber sales in the Hoosier National Forest this week despite resistance from advocacy groups and Gov. Mike Braun, who called the federal project “misguided.” The timber auction is part of a controversial forest management plan called the Houston South Project — an initiative the USFS says will promote tree growth, reduce disease and move the landscape toward “desirable conditions.” Local environmental advocates have been suing the agency to halt operations since 2020, saying the project could jeopardize the quality of drinking water 130,000 Hoosiers rely on in Lake Monroe. But the project is plowing ahead, despite local outcry and direct pleas from Braun to halt the project. The Forest Service declined to immediately comment to IndyStar’s request, instead asking for one to two weeks to respond. …The project includes prescribed burns on 13,500 acres of forest and permitting timber harvests on another 4,300 acres across the next 10-15 years.

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Victoria invests $10M in plantations to secure timber supply for manufacturing

By Kate B.
Australian Manufacturing
August 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

AUSTRALIA — The Victorian Government has announced new funding to accelerate the establishment of timber plantations across the state, aiming to boost supply for construction and manufacturing while creating regional jobs. Minister for Agriculture Ros Spence said the government will provide $10 million under the Victorian Plantation Support Program to establish long-rotation timber plantations. …“Victoria is already home to the nation’s largest plantation estate, and this funding will continue to strengthen our thriving and resilient timber industry.” Under the program, Victorian growers developing new plantations can receive up to $1,000 per hectare, with combined Commonwealth and state funding allowing up to $3,000 per hectare for projects of 20 hectares or more. …The government said the plantations sector is critical to regional economies, providing long-term resource security for housing, infrastructure, paper, packaging, and other manufacturing needs.

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Forestnet Media launches podcast series

By Anthony Robinson
LinkedIn
August 15, 2025
Category: Forestry

Our First Podcast Episode Is Live. In our very first Forestnet Media Inc. Podcast, I sat down with Sam Noster in my Sunshine Coast workshop to share my journey — from tree planting and mill work to running Logging & Sawmilling Journal and TimberWest Magazine. We dig into: How forestry has shaped my career and perspective; Innovation and leadership in today’s industry; Why forestry has one of the most compelling sustainability stories out there; and The challenges and opportunities ahead for the sector. This is the start of something new for us — a place to have real conversations with people who make forestry happen. Please like, subscribe, and check out our channel for more stories. If you have a great topic or guest idea, get in touch about joining Sam and I on a future episode.

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