NOVA SCOTIA — On comfortable beds of wood shavings inside multiple boxes, 3,600 Laricobius nigrinus beetles made overnight journeys last month from the forests of British Columbia all the way to southwestern Nova Scotia. The Lari, as the beetles are affectionately nicknamed by some scientists who study them, were imported to help protect hemlocks from the woolly adelgid, an invasive species that came from Japan. “The idea is that this first year is a kind of a pilot project to see if this insect will survive Nova Scotia’s winters,” said Lucas Roscoe, research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service. “As the project develops, we’ll be monitoring the beetle on the landscape and looking for it and seeing if it’s tracking these hemlock woolly adelgid populations across the landscape.” The woolly adelgid, about the size of a peppercorn, was first seen in southwestern Nova Scotia in 2017 and has since spread northward, he said.
A new report offers the clearest picture to date of how forests in Canada’s national parks help fight climate change by storing large amounts of carbon, but also warns that this storage capacity is at risk from natural disturbances, especially wildfires. The report, released by Parks Canada, is the first in a planned series of “carbon atlases” by researchers at the national parks service. The publications will look at how Canada’s protected areas capture, store and emit carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas that results from human activities. This research shows that forests in Canadian parks … suck up heroic amounts of carbon and store it away in trees, soil and deadwood, year after year. …Parks Canada chief scientist Gilles Seutin believes it is the first time a country has published a detailed carbon analysis of its protected areas – with potential to guide activities such as building new campgrounds or planting trees.
The BC Forest Discovery Centre in North Cowichan is receiving $222,000 in federal funding to develop an online exhibit on sustainable forestry from pre-colonization to modern day. Question is: will the exhibit take a biased approach to logging — like the centre’s industry-funded Forests Forever exhibit — or explore a full range of management options, including potentially no logging? …Despite being located in North Cowichan, the centre makes no mention of the fact the municipality’s forest reserve overlaps the coastal Douglas-fir forest, the rarest forest type in B.C. — described as “imperilled” by the watchdog Forest Practices Board. Private land development and logging are contributing factors. …It’s time for the BC Forest Discovery Centre to recognize the value of protecting the forest in its own backyard and to portray logging with fairness and balance. The expenditure of almost a quarter million in federal taxpayers’ dollars on the centre’s newest exhibit only emphasizes the point.
BC’s government is trying to implement further steps to protect and preserve the province’s at-risk environment through a new biodiversity and ecosystem health framework (BEHF). Right now the BEHF is just a draft proposal, but Nathan Cullen, the Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, is hopeful that it will become legislation and allow for the preservation of BC’s well-known natural landscapes. “People in BC share a deep connection to nature, from our ancient forests and diverse wildlife, to our coastal waters and mountain ranges,” said Cullen. “Together, we are charting the next steps for conserving BC’s rich biodiversity and healthy ecosystems that support us all.” …Although the BEHF is vague in its current stages, conservation activists are applauding the government’s steps towards preservation and protection of BC’s old-growth. However, these groups warn that “the devil will be in the details.”
…Make no mistake, heat resilient homes and air conditioning must be part of the solution. But we urgently need a complementary form of cooling that can be widely and equitably deployed, and one that doesn’t increase greenhouse gas emissions. The answer is right in front of us: trees. A tree can cool the area underneath it by as much as 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and studies have found trees can reduce cooling load in a home by more than 50 percent when placed in the right locations. That saves lives, energy use, and a lot of money for homeowners. The climate math gets even better when you realize that trees in U.S. cities and towns today collectively sequester nearly 130 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. That’s equivalent to emissions from nearly 30 million passenger vehicles. …This world-leading mobilization of urban trees to save lives and our climate should be a source of hope. 
EUGENE, Ore. – Northwest Youth Corps will invest $4 million from the USDA Forest Service to engage youth and young adults in urban forestry stewardship and education activities to help create a more climate-resilient city. Urban forests play a vital role in reducing air pollution and greenhouse gases and also lower energy consumption by providing shade and reducing heat island effects. Additional benefits include improving water quality and reducing stormwater runoff. Jeff Parker, executive director of the Northwest Youth Corps, said that the program will provide young people with skills valuable in both classroom and workforce settings. …Spring and autumn crews for young people between ages 19 and 24 will receive post-program assistance in connecting with green careers, while the summer crews for youths between 15 and 18 years of age will be eligible to receive high school credit.
In the summer of 2023 forest fires swiped across the globe. Just to name the biggest, Hawaii and Canada had some of their worst wildfires. In Europe Sardinia, Portugal’s Castelo Branco region, and the island of Santorini suffered extensively. According to the EC Joint Research Centre’s report on Forest Fires in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, the European Union in 2022 experienced the highest number of fires since 2006. …With the growing fire risk across the continent, the relevance of the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism has increased as well. The Mechanism is meant to facilitate firefighters’ cooperation between member states… It is clear that Europe needs more firefighters than ever before. However, the sobering reality is that recently 10 EU countries made cuts in the number of firefighter jobs, according to a recent report published in August 2023 by Eurostat. In 2022 359,780 firefighters were employed across the EU, that is 2800 people less than in 2021.