Category Archives: Forestry

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Forestry

Canfor passes forestry audit, uses notable practice

BC Forest Practices Board
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

CRANBROOK – The Forest Practices Board has released its audit of Canadian Forest Products Ltd. (Canfor) Forest Licence A19040 in the Rocky Mountain Natural Resource District. The report finds overall compliance with forestry legislation but highlights a notable practice and a fire-hazard abatement issue. The audit examined Canfor’s forestry activities, which covered an extensive area near Cranbrook, Kimberley, Sparwood, Wasa and Elkford. The board found that Canfor met its legal obligations for operational planning, timber harvesting, road construction and maintenance, silviculture and most wildfire protection requirements. Canfor’s operations included harvesting in 90 cutblocks and maintaining more than 4,600 kilometres of forest roads. “The way Canfor managed its forest operations was very well done, given its size and complexity,” said Gerry Grant, vice-chair of the board. “We also saw a notable practice in this audit: Canfor’s use of a new predictive pine rust tool that can be used to model forest-health risks and support healthy, resilient forests.” 

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Drought persists in some parts of B.C. as crews gear up for wildfire season

By Michelle Gomez
CBC News
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The B.C. Wildfire Service is gearing up for the approaching season, noting drought conditions persist in some regions of the province. A seasonal outlook from the services says a less aggressive start to the fire season is expected in the coastal and southeast regions of the province, due to above-average precipitation this winter. However, forecasters expect drought to persist in B.C.’s northeast and southern Nechako regions, elevating fire risk, even if they receive average or above-average rainfall. It said there is also a higher fire risk in the western Chilcotin area. Much of the province is currently experiencing warmer-than-usual temperatures, said the service, but the intensity of the wildfire season will depend on the amount of rain during May and June. …Households should start preparing for fire season, Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Kelly Greene said at a news conference last week. 

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Idaho ramps up federal forest management with new executive order

By Governor Brad Little
Government of Idaho
April 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho – Governor Brad Little issued a new executive order today, the “Make Forests Healthy Again Act,” directing the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) to expand its partnership with the U.S. Forest Service to increase management activities and reduce fire risk in federally managed national forests in Idaho. “For too long, millions of acres of national forests in Idaho have remained totally untouched, creating a tinderbox of fuel that threatens communities, air quality, and the environment. The State of Idaho has led the country in standing up programs to help our federal partners increase the pace and scale of active management on federal ground. The work we’ve done is making a difference. However, under the previous administration, we were limited in the extent we could help. That has changed under the Trump administration,” Governor Little said.

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Matt Donegan Has a Plan to Stop Oregon From Burning. Think Moneyball for Forests.

Willamette Week
April 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

OREGON – Matt Donegan is working on a plan for Oregon’s forest problem. In 2024, the state saw 1.9 million acres burn. And last year, the agency was beset by scandal, management turmoil, and near-bankruptcy from the cost of putting out blazes. During the current legislative session, a lot of people—lawmakers, Gov. Tina Kotek, the state’s timber industry, environmentalists, electric utilities, and hundreds of thousands of beleaguered property owners—are all looking for a solution. …Donegan knows he’s walking a knife edge between conservation groups that zealously guard Oregon’s forests and a timber industry eager to increase cutting. …The problem is, the forests are so overstocked with dead, dry debris after a century of fire suppression that fires easily become catastrophic rather than restorative. …Donegan proposes to break off a small fraction of that amount for intensive management—thinning and prescribed burns—as a pilot project.

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Judge upholds Mexican grey wolf plan

By Peter Aleshire
The Payson Roundup
April 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

A Tucson judge this week dismissed a broad challenge to the management of the Mexican Grey Wolf Recovery program. The judge in a 42-page decision dismissed claims the recovery plan was “arbitrary and capricious” and upheld the key points of dispute. A coalition of environmental groups had sued to overturn the key policies at the heart of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Department of Game and Fish plan to reintroduce the endangered subspecies to Arizona and New Mexico. The decision coincided with the release of the quarterly report on the reintroduction effort. That report put the population at 286 wolves in the wild, an 11% increase in 2024. However, the quarterly report also documented an ongoing high mortality rate. Environmental groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity and others maintained wildlife managers should establish three separate populations of the wolves, including one north of I-40.

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