Ottawa, Ontario – Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) issued a statement in response to claims by anti-forestry campaigners and fundraisers about forest management in Canada: “…This year was Canada’s worst fire season in history. …the call to action for more active management of Canada’s forests has never been clearer. …Through active management of our forests, we can curtail the intensity and frequency of future fires while also supporting ecosystems resilience and rural and northern economies. Today’s call by anti-forestry campaigners to restrict forest management is wrong-headed and would make future fire seasons even worse. It would also worsen Canada’s carbon emissions story. Our rapidly changing climate underscores the urgent need for climate smart forestry interventions including a return to prescribed burns, more active thinning to reduce fuel loads, building more fire breaks around communities and critical infrastructure, and finding more uses and new markets for low-grade wood.
Satellite surveillance shows 31,800 hectares of old-growth trees — 50 per cent more than the government reported — have been logged in the three and a half years since the province promised a “paradigm change” in B.C. forestry practices. That’s according to 
An old-growth forest on Haida Gwaii, a popular swimming hole in southern British Columbia and a lush hillside along a world-renowned canoe circuit are among the parcels of land the Province has acquired to expand B.C.’s parks and protected areas. The Province has acquired 109 hectares of land to be added to five provincial parks, enhancing protection of the province’s biodiversity. The newly acquired land is valued at $1.9 million and includes: Naikoon Park (Haida Gwaii), Wells Gray Park (near Clearwater), Gladstone Park (near Grand Forks), Bowron Lake Park (near Quesnel), and Mount Pope Park (near Fort St. James). Through the acquisition of private land and partnerships with conservation groups, individual donors, the BC Parks Foundation and supporters, the Province regularly adds land to the parks and protected areas system. …The Province is consulting with First Nations’ governments prior to making decisions about legally establishing the lands as parks and protected areas.
ALBERTA — If you curve around the front mountains of the Don Getty Wildland Provincial Park in Alberta on Highway 541 and carry on into the valley that houses the popular Highwood Pass, you find yourself in an unprotected swath of land that stretches into the southern reach of Kananaskis Country. On either side of the valley, protected land climbs up the side of the low mountains in this part of the eastern slopes — a rolling carpet of green dotted with splashes of yellow in the late fall chill. The valley bottom itself is green too, but not for long. It is not protected from logging and 1,100 hectares, an area the size of over 2,000 football fields, will soon begin to be cleared by Spray Lake Sawmills. Two giant cutblocks are planned to start this winter and more to come on the other side of the highway.
