Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

2025 Chisholm Awards for Innovation in Forestry

Forest Products Association of Canada
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

The Chisholm Awards for Innovation in Forestry program is a national competition for young researchers who are passionate about a range of activities relevant to forest-based science, products using forest-based raw materials, process improvements, or other innovations throughout the forest sector value chain. The Chisholm Awards for Innovation in Forestry are not just about rewarding research and development – they are also about showcasing the work of students and young researchers who are passionate about climate positive forestry and forest products, clean manufacturing, and the forest bioeconomy. Winners will be celebrated to coincide with The Twentieth Session of the United Nations’ Forum on Forests on May 5-9, 2025. Winners will receive a cash prize of CAD$2,500.00 along with local, regional, national, and social media promotion. Eligible applicants must be students or researchers who are 30 years old or younger as of March 1, 2025. Deadline to apply is April 4 by 11:59pm EDT.

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Courtenay air quality getting better thanks to local initiatives, report says

By Madeline Dunnet
Comox Valley Record
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Air quality in Courtenay is improving while pollution caused by wood stove smoke has been steadily decreasing over the past five years, according to a recent report presented to the City of Courtenay council. Wood is a common fuel source that is used to heat homes in the Comox Valley because it is relatively affordable, reliable and available. But wood stove smoke has also become the most significant source of air pollution in the region. According to the CVRD, a growing body of evidence gathered since 2008 shows that air quality in the area is concerning. There are high levels of fine particulate matter — a pollutant that can cause serious health problems — in the air and much of it is due to smoke.

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B.C. reminded of the bear necessities of safety as hibernation season ends

By Austin Kelly
Terrace Standard
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

As spring approaches flowers will bloom, leaves will come back to trees and hungry bears will be digging through your dumpsters. Angelika Langen the executive director and co-founder of Northern Lights Wildife Sanctuary says the best way to avoid bears at home is to make sure anything that might attract them, like dumpsters, are locked up because wherever they wander and wherever they roam, they’ll be looking for food. “They’re coming out of hibernation and they’re hungry, they will be looking for anything that provides them with as much calories as possible,” she said. Getting bear-proof garbage containers, avoiding leaving pet food outside and keeping gates to your property closed are ways to keep bears from being uninvited guests looking for a meal at your home.

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Nearly half of B.C. landslides linked to logging, wildfires, study finds

By Stefan Labbé
Business in Vancouver
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Nearly half the landslides that rocked southwest British Columbia during devastating 2021 floods started in areas that were logged or burned by wildfire, researchers have found. The study, published in the journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, analyzed more than 1,300 debris flows and landslides across 70,000 square kilometres of mountainous area flooded when a powerful atmospheric river slammed into B.C. in November 2021. …Carie-Ann Hancock, who co-authored the study as a senior geoscientist at BGC Engineering Inc., said she began collecting data for the study four years ago when she flew in some initial helicopter surveys. …When they finally published their study, the results showed landslides occurred more frequently downstream of logging roads and areas burned by wildfire. Freed from the roots of trees, hillsides collapsed, allowing sediment to pour into rivers.

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Here’s a challenge to Citizen columnist’s ‘turncoats’ opinion

Letter by Art Betke
Prince George Citizen
March 15, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Re: James Steidle: ‘Sawmill turncoats’ handing industry over to the U.S. James Steidle challenged me to critique his latest column. Let’s begin with his contention from Google’s AI, “a truly competitive economy would likely not produce billionaires.” My response … a computer program will give you anything you ask it for. … Hi-tech operations like Dunkley, Carrier, Lakeland are not small, they are the kind of modern mill needed. So why is Canfor leaving? After going to all the trouble and expense of buying up those mills, amounting to what James calls a monopoly, why abandon it all? Monopolies are a way to make bigger profits. Why not keep the mills running here as well as in the US? …Both federal Liberals and BC NDP want 30 per cent of BC conserved. They impose ever-increasing taxes and regulations, ever more bureaucracy over resource extraction, more hoops to jump through, more restrictions, more red tape. After a while it just isn’t worth the hassle.

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Forestry Works for BC’s agenda is an insult

Letter by Joe Karthein, Save What’s Left Conservation Society
Nelson Star
March 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Joe Karthein

Re: Kalesnikoff presents new pro-forest industry group to Nelson council, March 6 The Save What’s Left Conservation Society acknowledges Ken Kalesnikoff’s call for BC Timber Sales (BCTS) policy changes to prioritize smaller independent companies. We also recognize his efforts to add value to B.C.’s forest products over the years. However, this is where our applause ends. Despite claims that “Forestry Works for BC’s goal is education, not policy change,” this is yet another forest industry group lobbying to protect the status quo. Their primary messaging promotes increasing the annual allowable cut, even suggesting that more old-growth logging will be necessary to sustain higher harvest levels. Their website’s article, “New Forestry Advocate Society Presses for Working Forest Legislation,” makes this clear. Framing Forestry Works for BC’s agenda as “education” is an insult to British Columbians.

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Vancouver Island outdoor enthusiasts want authorities to ‘open the gates’ to the backcountry. Here’s why it’s complicated.

By Rowan Flood
The Discourse
March 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

…Mosaic is a forest stewardship business, which in part means it manages “private timberlands and public forest tenures in Coastal British Columbia.” Since 2018, it’s managed forestry assets on behalf of TimberWest and Island Timberlands, Mosaic explained in an email. …Across Vancouver Island, calls are growing for fewer restrictions to the backcountry, especially from recreational motorized groups. It’s also fueling tensions within some communities. …Opening up access raises challenges around complicated ownership of backcountry areas, and concerns for the safety of land and people accessing it. …As outdoor enthusiasts debate access to the beloved Vancouver Island backcountry, a larger question of addressing Indigenous title and rights in the same privatized areas. …Some conservationists are also raising ecological concerns about the little remaining Island wilderness — and worry that increasing motorized vehicle access for recreationists could hurt ecosystems.

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Upcoming controlled burn meant to gather information on how wood chips affect wildfires

Ben Low-On
Castanet
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A research project looking into the effects wood chippings have on wildfires is expected to start this spring. “There is a plan with BC wildfire to go in and burn it this spring, and then we can see the results of it,” said Rider Ventures Owner, Craig Moore. The controlled burn is being orchestrated by three agencies that fall under The Ministry of Forests. The research project is occurring in the Harvey Lake area near Lumby. Moore said the area is known as a high-danger zone for wildfires. …The project involves the removal of branches and sticks on the bottom 10 to 12 feet of a tree, getting rid of any excess that is touching the ground. The pieces are then made into 12 to 14-inch wood chips, which are spread around the forest floor. The area will then go through a controlled burn to see how the wood chips affect the fire.

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The Woodland Almanac

Woodlots BC
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Winter 2025 edition is now available. This issue offers a comprehensive look at the dynamic world of woodlot management – blending practical advice, community stories, and a focus on building resilience in the face of a changing climate.

In this Issue:

  • Minister’s Message
  • Executive Director Report
  • Why WRR is Crucial
  • 2025 Woodlots BC Bursary
  • Meet a Woodlotter Profiles
  • Resilient Ecosystems Committee
  • Mixed Retention

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City of Nelson to conduct wildfire mitigation near Selkirk College’s Silver King Campus

MyNelsonNow
March 11, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

© City of Nelson

The City of Nelson is undertaking a wilfire mitigation project this spring on 3.4 hectares of forested land near the Selkirk College Silver King campus.   The work is part of the City’s ongoing wildfire risk reduction efforts and will be funded fully through the provincial Community Resiliency Investment (CRI) program.  The city says wildfire mitigation projects like this help reduce the potential for intense wildfires, while making it safer and more efficient for suppression crews to respond to any fires that do start… “A treated forest is much safer to fight a wildfire in. Fire crews can work more effectively, suppression efforts are quicker, and the risk to surrounding homes is greatly reduced,” said Fire Chief Jeff Hebert.   “Ultimately, this helps protect nearby homes, infrastructure, and the community as a whole.”

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Three new Ktunaxa biodiversity projects on the horizon

By Gillian Francis
Cranbrook Daily Townsman
March 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Ktunaxa First Nation has launched three major projects in East Kootenay to help protect the land from wildfire and restore ecosystem diversity. Ktunaxa Nation Council and the communities of ʔaq̓am and ʔakisq̓nuk are undertaking prescribed burns to help protect against wildfire. Two burns are planned for the ʔaq̓am area in 2026 on the community’s Kootenay IR#1 lands, near the Canadian Rockies International Airport and on Crown land to the north of Cranbrook. The community is partnering with the City of Cranbrook and B.C Wildfire Service to thin dense sections of forest to create new habitat, and remove dense woodland material on the forest floor that serves as fuel for rapidly spreading fires… The forest is going to be thinned to help protect nearby communities and culturally and archaeologically important sites from wildfire and help special wildlife and plant species like Rocky Mountain big horn sheep and woodland strawberry, thrive.

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Forest fire season underway

By Forests, Fish and Wildlife Division
Government of Prince Edward Island
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The provincial Forests, Fish and Wildlife division is reminding Islanders that PEI’s wildfire season runs from March 15 to November 15 each year. Anyone planning on burning brush outdoors must check for burning restrictions by calling 1-800-237-5053 or visiting the province’s wildfire information page. Restrictions are updated daily at 2 p.m.  “Please don’t feed the wildfires. PEI had a few forest fires last year, and thankfully the damage was minimal,” said Environment, Energy and Climate Action Minister Gilles Arsenault. “I hope all Islanders will recommit to taking the important steps to prevent forest fires.”

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Money grows on trees: Forest harvests $2.5M in revenues for Orillia county

By Nikki Cole
OrilliaMatters.com
March 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Simcoe County forests are growing — and not just up. Councillors got a brief update Tuesday on the county’s forest management activities last year, as well as finding out what the future holds as the county moves into its 103rd year operating the local forest system… The fact the county has been managing these forests for more than a century is “quite exceptional,” Graeme Davis, who works as a forester for the county, said during Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting… Of particular note is that the county forests are very active and working forests, Davis added. While harvesting does play an important role, Davis said it’s also important to note that they are about much more than forest harvesting — they also provide “incredible” recreational uses.

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New agroforestry maps plot benefits of trees

By Lauren Quinn
Agupdate.com
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

There’s a longstanding attitude in many farming communities that trees and agriculture don’t mix. But agroforestry — the intentional integration of trees and shrubs in agricultural systems, such as planting trees as windbreaks, integrating trees on pastures, or growing tree crops intercropped with annual crops — can provide a multitude of benefits to both farmers and landscapes. So far, in the U.S. Midwest, those benefits have gone unrealized, with vanishingly small adoption rates. Researchers say strategic plans that integrate environmental, social and economic considerations are needed to expand agroforestry throughout the Midwest. Ultimately, the team developed a map identifying areas where agroforestry could deliver the biggest impacts in terms of soil erosion, water quality, climate and profitability for lands that are not viable for other crops.

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White House Executive Orders vs. Reality: Why Federal Timber Won’t Solve the US Lumber Shortage

By Global Wood
The American Journal of Transportation
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The US president recently suggested that domestic lumber production could be significantly increased by opening federal lands to logging. This move, he argued, would reduce US dependence on lumber imports from Canada and Europe. …At first glance, tapping into federal timber resources might seem like a logical solution. However, the reality is far more complicated. A combination of declining forestry expertise, legal challenges, labor shortages, infrastructure limitations, and lack of private investment incentives makes this an unrealistic path to reduce lumber imports to the US. …While the US president suggests that opening federal lands for logging could boost domestic lumber production, this is an unrealistic expectation. …Despite claims that the US no longer needs Canadian lumber, the reality is that imports from Canada and Europe will continue to play a crucial role in meeting US domestic wood demand in the future.

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Can Washington boost timber production to counter tariff costs?

By Drew Andre
KING5 News
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

WASHINGTON STATE is one of the most productive parts of the country for growing timber. Most of the timber is west of the Cascades and its annual production in the United States is only second to Oregon. However, harvesting faces significant constraints according to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). DNR manages about two million acres of timberlands, but only half can be harvested due to challenging terrain or environmental protections, such as endangered species habitats. …Federal lands in Washington state currently produce minimal timber, and changing protected land status would require congressional action, not just presidential directives. Upthegrove, a Democrat, anticipates any attempts to increase federal timber harvesting would face lengthy legal challenges. In Washington state, over 70% of the timber harvested comes from privately owned forestland. …For these reasons, state officials believe Washington cannot realistically offset the costs associated with Canadian lumber tariffs.

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Arkansas’ federal lawmakers ask European Union leaders to reconsider deforestation regulation

By Alex Thomas
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Dear Commissioners – We write to you today to share our significant concerns with the EU deforestation-free supply chains regulation (Regulation (EU) No 2023/1115) and to share our perspective on the impact this will have on the more than 900,000 forest products workers throughout the US. This regulation is unworkable for the forest products industry in the US and would jeopardize more than $3.5 billion worth of paper and wood products shipping into the EU. …We are asking you and the European Commission to ensure the US is recognized as the lowest possible risk for deforestation and to ensure the geolocation traceability requirements are proportional to the level of risk for a particular country. …We also believe the EUDR fits within President Trump’s “America First Trade Policy” executive order that was signed on January 20th, 2025, and …Mr. Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, has identified the EUDR as a potential technical barrier to trade.

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What old trees can teach us about modern wildfires

By Sarah Kaplan
The Washington Post
March 11, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

It was a year when fire seemed to engulf the continent. Flames surged through the pinyon-juniper woodlands of the Southwest, the ponderosa pine stands of the Rocky Mountains, the mixed conifer forests of the Great Lakes region. The smell of smoke was everywhere. To this day, 1748 remains the biggest wildfire year in North American history, according to a sweeping new study of data recorded in the rings of trees. Hundreds of sites representing an estimated 29 percent of the continent’s forests show evidence of burning. The blazes that year were more extensive than even the worst fire seasons of the past decade, when the hot, dry conditions created by climate change have helped turn whole landscapes into tinder. Yet unlike modern wildfires — which increasingly burn hot enough to damage ecosystems and destroy human communities — the blazes that swept the continent in the middle of the 18th century did minimal harm to the landscape, researchers say. [A free subscription is required to read this article]

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Elon Musk’s layoffs would undermine wildfire protection. It’s part of a bigger plan

By Zora Thomas
The Los Angeles Times
March 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

What are Musk, Trump and the congressional right really after? Anyone who works in land management knows these agencies have long gone underfunded and unsupported by Republicans, rendering them less and less effective as the demands on them grow ever more pressing. Now this bloodletting is accelerating, and soon it will be time to go for the throat. As these agencies flounder, turning their lands over to private administration — to timber, mineral and oil extraction or to private ownership and development — will begin to seem logical and even appealing. While sustainable logging can be a valuable forest management tool, research shows that when lands are managed primarily for resource extraction, they become less resilient to wildfire. This is a shortsighted, profit-driven turn toward a land-use model that is ultimately unsustainable. What will the public be left with? Will we still have places to hike, fish, hunt, dirt-bike and ski? Or will a new landlord be setting new rates?

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Big Sky Fire Department comments on U.S. Forest Service firings, wildfire preparedness

By Carli Johnson
Mountain Outlaw magazine: Explore Big Sky
March 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

…thousands of federal employees across the country lost their jobs as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s initiative for large-scale reduction and grant freezing. …Layoffs included essential employees whose responsibilities were to respond to wildfires, provide wildland fire safety education… Dustin Tetrault, Big Sky Fire Department’s fire chief said the state is well-equipped at the local government level has been gradually filling more roles to have large-scale incident response. …Many tenured forest service employees are being fired or accepting a leave with promised pay because the state of the forest service remains so uncertain. This takes away years of knowledge of the land and relationships built with local services like BSFD, making future collaboration more difficult. …Despite uncertainty, there are two potential bills in the Montana legislature that, if passed, could have a major effect on the reorganization of how the U.S. deals with emergency fire services, Tetrault explained.

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From coal to community forest: how one Ohio organization is reclaiming former mine land

By Erin Gottsacker
The Ohio Newsroom
March 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Lombard and Stanley are two co-founders of Rising Appalachia. The nonprofit is revitalizing 45 acres of former mine land, once owned by the Sugar Creek Coal Company… But the space won’t exist solely for recreation and education; they want to make it economically productive for the community again. The Sugar Creek Coal Company still owns 900 acres surrounding Rising Appalachia’s project. Lombard, Stanley and other community members are trying to raise approximately $4 million to purchase the rest of it and establish a community forest. “People can hunt on the land, they can gather food on the land, they can be involved in submitting public comments for projects and management proposals,” Stanley said. “But it’s not exactly managed by the community. A community forest in contrast, is designed by and managed by the people who live here and depend on the forest.”

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Don’t wait to battle beetles Forest experts warn, now is the time to guard against pine beetles

By Sierra Ferguson
Black Hills Pioneer
March 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

It might be time to treat your trees to prevent pine beetle infestations in the Black Hills. That’s according to US Forest Service Entomologist Kurt Allen, and Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Forest Health Specialist John Ball. The pair have been hosting talks and information sessions on mountain pine beetle outbreaks since 1999. Last week, they stopped in Spearfish with a handful of clear messages. For one thing, the Black Hills is not necessarily on the verge of a mountain pine beetle epidemic — at least not on the scale last seen a decade ago… “Between the larvae feeding and a blue stain fungus they introduce, they kill trees very quickly,” Ball said.

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‘Stonewalling’: Forest Service mum on firings during wildfire briefing for congressional staff

By Patrick Lohmann
Tucson Sentinel
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

An annual wildfire briefing between staffers for Southwestern members of Congress and Forest Service officials was unusual for two reasons, according to a congressional aide in attendance. First, the private briefing was a month earlier than is typical, a sign of the acute risk of wildfires this season in New Mexico and Arizona amid years of climate change-caused drought and especially low snowpack this spring. Second, Forest Service officials … refused more than 10 times in the meeting to say how many Forest Service employees had been fired, how many resigned and what might come of wildfire dispatch centers if the Trump administration terminates their leases. “We’ll have to send this to Washington and they will get back to you,” was the standard response, according to a Congressional aide… The meeting embodied how fraught the relationship has become between Forest Service and congressional staff amid President Donald Trump’s blunt efforts to slash federal spending.

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Northwest Forest Plan revision should fix 2 errors

Letter by Timothy Ingalsbee, ED, Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology and Tom Wheeler, ED, Environmental Protection Information Center
The Oregonian
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

…For millennia, Indigenous peoples nurtured the land with stewardship practices that sustained their communities and promoted resilient ecosystems based on a rich diversity of habitats and species. The forced removal of Indigenous peoples and the criminalization of their fire stewardship practices – replaced by industrial forestry practices that centered on commodity timber extraction and aggressive fire suppression – has caused a decline in landscape and biological diversity along with a loss of resilience to wildfires and climate change. Proposed amendments to the plan would work to better incorporate tribal co-stewardship and facilitate a more beneficial role for fire. …The inclusion of tribal co-stewardship and Indigenous knowledge represents a profound change that goes beyond undoing past wrongs to Indigenous peoples—it will help restore species, habitats and landscape diversity. …The Trump administration now threatens to subvert the progressive prospects of the Northwest Forest amendment by its effort to banish the words “diversity” and “inclusion.”

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‘One of the riskiest places in the US’: Southwest Idaho All-Lands Partnership targets high wildfire risk in the Gem State

By Abby Wilt
KTVB 7
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

IDAHO, USA — The U.S. Forest Service has identified Southwest Idaho as one of the nation’s most at-risk regions for wildfires as organizations prepare for the upcoming wildfire season. The Southwest Idaho All-Lands Partnership is working on wildfire mitigation across public and private lands to reduce damage from wildfires. “Southwest Idaho is, for lack of jargon, one of the riskiest places in the U.S. for wildfire,” said Ford Van Fossan, who is the Conservation Connect program manager at the National Forest Foundation and oversees the partnership. “We have a lot of folks that are in harm’s way potentially when fires come through our landscape.” Wildfires scorched over 800,000 acres of Idaho’s land in 2024… The National Forest Foundation said it aims to use a mix of “public funding, including federal grants and private funding,” to support these efforts amid federal funding cuts.

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Federal forestry changes leave state officials in the lurch

By Libby Denkmann and Alec Cowan
KUOW News and Information
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Washington’s Department of Natural Resources says it’s coming up with backup plans to address the growing threat of serious wildfires in the state. The typically close working relationship with federal forest managers has frayed under the Trump Administration. It started in mid-February, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut thousands of probationary employees at the U.S. Forest Service. The USDA is in charge of stewarding places like the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest. Altogether, about 2,000 employees across the country were fired. The USDA emphasized that no “operational firefighters” had been let go, and argued the critical work of responding to wildfires would not be interrupted. …Grassroots Wildland Firefighters estimated that three-quarters of the employees laid off had secondary wildland firefighting duties, meaning firefighting wasn’t their primary job, but they were pulled in to fight fires as needed.

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Alaska Forest Association takes action against US Forest Service for failing to sell timber in Tongass

By Suzanne Downing
Must Read Alaska
March 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Alaska Forest Association and two of its members have taken legal action against the US Forest Service. The lawsuit … seeks to compel the federal agency to comply with the Tongass Timber Reform Act’s mandate for timber sales, a move that could help revive the struggling timber industry in southeast Alaska. “Federal law requires the Forest Service to sell enough timber every year to meet market demand,” said Frank Garrison, attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents the plaintiffs that include Viking Lumber and Alcan Timber. “…the agency has violated federal law three times over.” The dispute stems from the US Forest Service’s 2016 Management Plan, which outlined a gradual transition from selling old-growth timber to younger trees over a ten-year period. … However, the plaintiffs argue that the agency abandoned the plan, ceasing old-growth timber sales immediately and failing to provide sufficient young-growth timber as promised.

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Northwest Forest Plan less effective in the face of climate change, says Forest Service, proposing changes

By Shari Phiel
The Columbian
March 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Time is running out for those wanting to offer feedback on proposed changes to the U.S. Forest Service’s Northwest Forest Plan. The public comment period closes Monday. The plan includes four management alternatives for 24.5 million acres of federal forest lands in Western Oregon, Washington and Northwestern California. It covers 17 national forests, seven Bureau of Land Management districts, six national parks, and 165,000 acres of national wildlife refuges and Department of Defense lands. Locally, this includes parts of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. …First put into effect in 1994, the plan includes standards and guidelines for management activities for each of the agency’s various land use and aquatic conservation categories. The proposed alternatives are intended to reduce the risk of wildfires, address climate change and — perhaps most controversially — expand logging.

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Trump harming own stated goals with forestry cuts in California

By Thomas Elias
The Mercury News
March 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

It’s now clear that some moves President Trump has authorized his pal Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to make will thwart at least a few of Trump’s own often-repeated priorities. …Then there are two moves that figure to make the next fire season, coming up in late spring or early summer, as bad as or worse than recent ones. Trump legitimately repeats the conviction that cleaning forest floors can reduce the intensity and frequency of wildfires. He consistently and falsely blames California’s government for not doing this. …With Musk’s aid, though, he fired 3,400 Forest Service workers in mid-February who were still on probation in their first year of employment, many of whom had been hired to do the job Trump calls critical to stopping fires. …If he knew these firings completely contradict priorities he has trumpeted, why would he have approved them?

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Opinion: Southeast Alaskans want sustainable economies, not extractive industry, within the Tongass National Forest

By Kate Glover
Anchorage Daily News
March 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Decades of industrial logging left deep scars on the Tongass – and on the people and communities of Southeast Alaska. Many Alaskans do not want to return to large-scale old-growth logging. Instead, they support projects that uplift Indigenous cultures and community uses of the forest and benefit the region’s current economic drivers—fishing and the visitor and recreation economies—if done responsibly and sustainably. The timber industry is no longer an important economic force in Southeast Alaska. Far from it. According to a regional economic report, the timber industry makes up less than four percent of Southeast Alaska jobs while the visitor and seafood industries combined make up nearly a quarter of the region’s workforce, with only government providing a similar share of employment. The economic impact of subsistence, sport, and commercial fishing within the region is estimated at nearly $1 billion annually, according to the Forest Service.

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New Study Finds Time is Not the Driving Influence of Forest Carbon Storage

By Chrissy Billau
The University of Michigan
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

PELLSTON, Mich. — It is commonly assumed that as forest ecosystems age, they accumulate and store, or “sequester,” more carbon. A new study based at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) untangled carbon cycling over two centuries and found that it’s more nuanced than that. The synergistic effects of forest structure, the composition of the tree and fungal communities, and soil biogeochemical processes have more influence on how much carbon is being sequestered above and below ground than previously thought. …“Time is a playing field, and the rules of the game are things like canopy structure, tree and microbial community composition, and soil nitrogen availability. That means that changes in things like structure, composition, and soil nitrogen are what control forest carbon trajectories, whether quickly or slowly, and whether we are influencing those changes through management or letting them happen on their own terms,” Dr. Luke Nave said.

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Arkansas foresters receive top honors

The Pine Bluff Commercial
March 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Don Bragg — one of three inducted into the Arkansas Foresters Hall of Fame — was a forester who loved science and sharing that passion with others. The late Bragg joins the Arkansas Foresters Hall of Fame roster along with Greg L. Hay and Pete Prutzman. The hall is housed in the Forest Resources Building at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Plaques honoring the three were officially hung this month following last November’s induction ceremony at the Ouachita Society of American Foresters. The Arkansas Foresters Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who have made significant and lasting contributions to forestry in Arkansas, according to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

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U.S. Senators Introduce Legislation to Help Conserve Working Forests and Give Landowners More Options to Ensure Their Land is Protected

By Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Sierra Sun Times
March 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Kirsten Gillibrand

U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Roger Wicker (R-MS) are reintroducing the Forest Conservation Easement Program Act, which would help conserve working forests and give landowners more options to ensure their land is protected. The bill would expand the Healthy Forests Reserve Program and rename it the Forest Conservation Easement Program, which would aim to: Prioritize keeping forests as forests, benefiting the economy and the environment; Help landowners restore and protect habitats for at-risk species while simultaneously increasing carbon sequestration; and Enhance the abilities of the Natural Resources Conservation Service so it can effectively conserve working forests through conservation easements. Landowners would be provided with two options for placing voluntary easements on their land: Forest Land Easements and Forest Reserve Easements.

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Trump environmental rollbacks would boost pollution and endanger lives, former EPA heads say

By Matthew Daly
Associated Press in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

WASHINGTON — Three former Environmental Protection Agency leaders sounded an alarm Friday, saying rollbacks proposed by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin endanger the lives of millions of Americans and abandon the agency’s dual mission to protect the environment and human health. Zeldin said Wednesday he plans to roll back 31 key environmental rules on everything from clean air to clean water and climate change. Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy called Zeldin’s announcement “the most disastrous day in EPA history.” …Zeldin’s comprehensive plan to undo decades-old regulations was nothing short of a “catastrophe” and “represents the abandonment of a long history” of EPA actions to protect the environment, said William K. Reilly, who led the agency under President George H.W. Bush and played a key role in amending the Clean Air Act in 1990. …Environmentalists have vowed to fight the changes, saying it would result in “the greatest increase in pollution in decades″ in the U.S.

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A timber industry ‘in turmoil’

By Rose Schnabel
WUSF NPR Florida Roundup
March 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

…Taylor, Liberty, Nassau and Dixie counties were “critically dependent” on forestry, according to the most recent analysis by the University of Florida’s Food and Resource Economics Department, with the industry accounting for more than 20% of jobs in each. Amid the economic challenges, some timber owners in these communities turn to a copper-colored side hustle: pine straw. The woody needles can be raked annually, offering earlier, more consistent income than timber alone. Profit margins are slim, but generally enough to pay the land’s taxes: a compelling business for producers whose land is already planted in pine. …In a tumultuous timber market, baling pine straw can bail out landowners.

University of Florida: Managing Pine Stands for Straw Production

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Proposed Bill Would Provide Tax Incentive for Landowners to Protect Wild Forest Lands

By Claudia Braymer, Protect the Adirondacks Executive Director
Adirondack Almanack
March 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A new proposed bill would provide real property tax incentives to landowners who voluntarily place permanent protective easements on their forested lands. State law currently provides real property tax reductions for landowners who manage a minimum number of acres of their land for timber production for a period of at least ten years pursuant to a timber management plan approved by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Landowners who meet these criteria receive a real property tax exemption of up to 80 percent of the assessed valuation of the lands subject to the approved timber management plan. The new bill would provide similar real property tax relief for landowners who place at least ten acres of forested land under a conservation easement that ensures that the tract will be permanently maintained as wild forest land and prohibits the cutting, removal or destruction of trees on the tract (with certain exemptions such as DEC-approved actions to address invasive species).

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Carolina Forest wildfire shows need for more prevention efforts, state forestry chief tells lawmakers

By Adam Benson
WBTW News 13
March 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. — The still-burning Carolina Forest wildfire highlights the need for more investments into education and prevention programs, the state’s top forestry officials told lawmakers Wednesday. “The agency’s risk of losing these important positions reduces its ability to implement successful prevention campaigns, and (to) assist communities with wildfire mitigation projects which would result in more, larger wildfires and more damage to homes,” Scott Phillips told a Senate Finance subcommittee. “I want to give you a real-world example. At the Covington Drive fire, there were two communities that were severely impacted: Walkers Woods and The Reserve at Walkers Woods,” Phillips said. “Those two communities had very different outcomes.” While no structures were destroyed, Phillips said homes in The Reserve were damaged, while those in Walkers Woods weren’t, since the latter is part of Firewise USA –– a nationwide preparedness program spread across 42 states.

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Drone tree-seeding trial could ‘revolutionise’ the expansion of rainforests say exponents

By Angela Garwood
Positive News
March 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

A pioneering drone seeding initiative in south-west England – one of the largest of its kind using native tree seeds to date – has the potential to transform rainforest restoration, say those involved. The project, by the Woodland Trust, has seen high-tech drones scatter 75,000 seeds across the Bodmin landscape in Cornwall. The drones, which weigh 110kg and can carry up to 58kg of seeds each, hover a few metres above the ground and can access areas where the planting of trees by hand isn’t feasible. Joining forces with the South West Rainforest Alliance, the Woodland Trust aims to use the technique to triple the land area of temperate rainforest across Cornwall and Devon from 8% to 24% by 2050… Scattering tree seeds that are native to these rainforests, including common oak, alder, wild cherry, downy birch and hazel, the drones seeded 11 hectares of land in eight hours.

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Irish government launches new NeighbourWood forestry scheme

By Maitiú Monaghan
AgriLand Ireland
March 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has launched the new NeighbourWood scheme within the Forestry Programme 2023-2027. The first element of the scheme, is to provide support for silvicultural works designed to enhance existing forests and to increase their attractiveness, biodiversity and suitability for recreation. Potential operations include the removal of invasive species, coupe planting to reinvigorate stagnant canopies, and the replacement of existing conifer stands with native woodland. …Element two provides funding for suitable facilities that enable the use and enjoyment of existing woodlands and forests by people. …This acknowledges the forest environmental and climate services provided by the forest owner’s adoption and management of alternative silvicultural and recreational systems, and the associated additional costs incurred in doing so.

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Want to preserve biodiversity? Go big

By Morgan Sherburne
University of Michigan News
March 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Large, undisturbed forests are better for harboring biodiversity than fragmented landscapes, according to University of Michigan research. Ecologists agree that habitat loss and the fragmentation of forests reduces biodiversity in the remaining fragments. But ecologists don’t agree whether it’s better to focus on preserving many smaller, fragmented tracts of land or larger, continuous landscapes. The study, published in Nature and led by U-M ecologist Thiago Gonçalves-Souza, comes to a conclusion on the decades-long debate… Previous research didn’t properly compare fragmented landscapes to large, continuous forests, Gonçalves-Souza said. For example, prior research may have looked at only one component of diversity, or may have compared a few continuous forests to dozens of fragmented patches… Additionally, the findings suggest that generalist species—species that are good at surviving in various environments—primarily live in the fragmented areas.

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