Trout
Watts
Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) announces Laura Trout and Marie-Noëlle Watts as the recipients of the 2025 Women in Forestry Award, which honours women making exceptional contributions to Canada’s forest sector. This award celebrates individuals who are helping to shape a more inclusive and sustainable future for forestry through leadership in operations, environmental stewardship, community engagement, and workplace culture. Trout is a strong advocate for good, objective science to inform decisions. She leads many research initiatives related to ecosystem-based management, caribou recovery, fisheries conservation and biodiversity all within the context of sustainable forest management. Watts has consistently distinguished herself by reliably and effectively maximizing the output of mill production: it is said that wherever she goes, the efficiency of the mills improve. A proponent of intrapreneurship, Watts coaches her team to be assertive and creative and to propose projects and other initiatives, instilling a sense of ownership and pride in their work.
In many places, moose, bear, wolves and other wildlife can simply walk between the two nations. There are barriers — roads, development and a lack of protected habitat on either side — but for more than a century, relatively relaxed border policy and a shared sense of purpose saw conservationists in both countries working together to overcome them. Now, US President Trump has ratcheted up the challenges to cross-border conservation. …Many of Trump’s actions have explicit implications for cross-border conservation — in North America and globally. …Canadian conservation organizations have reported losing co-funding as a result of Trump’s cuts to foreign aid. As his administration has stretched staffing thin and proposed deep budget cuts at the US National Park Service, it ended funding many found crucial to habitat conservation work across the border. Trump has also withdrawn from the Green Climate Fund and the Paris Agreement.
OTTAWA, ON – Today, the Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, announced over $1.44 million in funding for 10 projects under Natural Resources Canada’s Global Forest Leadership Program, delivered through the International Model Forest Network. This funding will help restore damaged ecosystems, support agroforestry and sustainable local businesses, empower Indigenous and local communities — especially women and youth — and improve global forest management and restoration. Healthy forests around the world contribute to carbon sequestration and climate resilience, benefitting Canadians and the global community. As a leader in sustainable forest management, Canada plays a key role in advancing sustainable forestry worldwide, and the federal government remains committed to sharing its expertise, fostering collaboration and helping restore, manage and conserve forests around the world to protect biodiversity and help tackle climate change and environmental damage.
GATINEAU
The Interior Department says it’s on track to meet a federal goal to increase logging on federal lands, even as timber industry analysts warn low prices, scarce sawmills, and litigation will likely threaten progress. Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has increased timber sales by 4.6% so far in fiscal 2025 over all of fiscal 2024. Interior spokeswoman Alyse Sharpe said. …Trump’s logging goals face fierce headwinds, however, as depressed lumber prices, a worker shortage in the timber industry, and an overriding sense of uncertainty about the future of logging are chilling timber industry interest in actually cutting down the trees sold in federal sales, said Mindy Crandall, at Oregon State University. “The Forest Service can put the timber up for sale, but someone has to want it,” Crandall said. But Trump’s logging policies are likely to have limited reach across the US in part because federal lands make up only a small part of the timber supply, and tariffs are unlikely to crush the demand for Canadian lumber.
Through its 2 Billion Trees (2BT) program, the federal government has planted more than 228 million trees since 2021. With Canada enduring some of its worst wildfire seasons since it began, should the government expedite and increase its co-ordinated, replanting efforts? Canada’s 2 Billion Trees (2BT) program has achieved more than 11 per cent of its goal of planting, as the name suggests, two billion trees over a 10-year period. …The government also announced the program has agreements in place to plant one billion trees, approximately, since it kick-started the initiative in 2021. As of June 2025, Canada has signed or is negotiating tree-planting agreements with 11 provinces and territories, 58 Indigenous partners, 30 municipalities and 88 non-governmental organizations. …Restoring tree cover is an important strategy for carbon removal and addressing the climate crisis. So, with the intense wildfire seasons Canada has been experiencing in recent years, does the country require a more expedited process to keep its forests thriving?
In a career that has spanned nearly 40 years in the forestry industry, Michael McKay says he’s never had to face a situation like the one he’s staring at now. “This is probably one of the biggest, I mean with this fire and the current state of the industry, to have it all come together at once, it’s definitely about as tough as it’s been,” McKay said. The president of Franklin Forest Products is facing a perfect storm of problems but is pivoting as best he can to weather through it. The latest issue was the Mount Underwood Fire which started Aug. 11 and ended up destroying half of the company’s powerline despite his employees trying to save it. …The blaze interrupted the implementation of a new Gang Mill plant that would have added more staff to the company’s roster of 35 employees. …”It’s been four years and wood’s not coming out, there’s just no wood coming out of the bush and all we are is a bunch of too many squirrels chasing too few nuts,” McKay said.
Can the problems of wildfire and forestry industry setbacks be solved at once? …It will be a tough goal, especially with the Province’s timber supply forecast not projecting timber supply to turn in a positive direction until 2060. …The forest industry has been attempting to fight this every year. For wildfires, the BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) have adopted techniques, such as prescribed burnings, to try and mitigate the intense wildfire seasons. …One way is the more novel practice of harnessing the manpower of the logging industry. Nick Reynolds, acting director of investigations at the BC Forest Practices Board, was involved in two recent special investigations from the FPB on wildfire mitigation. …“Why don’t we use that engine and muscle (of the forestry industry)” Reynolds said. …Jason Fisher, executive director of FESBC, said that through their funding platform, they’ve seen workers who’ve specialized in traditional logging take on WRR work.
Less wildfire damage throughout the province and improved access to the great outdoors feature prominently in Danielle Smith’s renewed vision for Alberta. The premier issued new marching orders last week to Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen, directing him to expand efforts to prevent wildfires and reduce their effects. One bullet point is that the minister seek a wildfire agreement with the federal government. Loewen said wildfire fighting and prevention are “incredibly important to Albertans.” So is more access to public lands in a sustainable way. “Those two things encompass a lot of what’s in the mandate letter, and I think they really resonate well with Albertans,” said Loewen, the member for Central Peace-Notley in the province’s northwest. He was one of four ministers to receive new mandate letters on Sept. 17.
[Recent] articles in the Campbell River Mirror during Forestry Week, “Celebrating the role of First Nations in the forestry economy,” and “Mayor calls for urgent action to support forest industry,” deserve some context and reply from someone like myself who is directly in the crosshairs as a forest industry worker. …I work for La-kwa sa muqw Forestry Ltd., a majority-owned Western Forest Products company. And, as a union member, I am on strike. However, I am expressing my opinion only. …The article on the First Nations’ role in forestry is positive and forward-looking to a point. … On the face of it, you would think that the the Nanwakolas Council and Western Forest Products agreement was a win/win. …It glosses over the fact that Western is now using that partnership to try to gain major concessions from the union regarding the mid-island forest operations being a union shop. 
WASHINGTON, DC — US Secretary of Agriculture Rollins announced the USDA Forest Service is investing 
IDAHO — After a slew of firings and deferred resignations last winter, the loss of federal workers left holes throughout the Northwest. “When we get to peak fire season, it’s kind of an all-hands-on-deck call, if you will,” said Jim Wimer, a fire prevention officer for the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. US Forest Service employees who are normally in the office — like wildlife biologists or hydrologists — jumped in to help with fire information this summer, he said. …Workers even drove trucks with supplies to wildfires, often working overtime to help, he said. Not only does it help local fire efforts, but it also gets people out to other parts of the country to gain unique experiences and helps other forests that are in similar situations, Wimer said. …This year, there have been 364 fires on land the agency manages, but not a lot of acreage burned, he said.
INDIANA — The controversial and slow-moving forest management plan inside the Hoosier National Forest hit another roadblock last week. All related activities — including timber sales, prescribed burns, road construction — have been temporarily halted by a court order. The Houston South Project would have opened up about 13,500 acres of the Hoosier National Forest to prescribed burning, 4,000 acres to logging, 2,000 acres to herbicide application and 400 acres to clearcutting. Opponents of the Houston South Project say this ruling is a meaningful step in the right direction. …Groups like the Indiana Forest Alliance have argued that cutting, spraying and burning on the steep slopes could lead to pollution in the reservoir jeopardizing drinking water quality and public health for the 130,000 people in the Bloomington area. …Chief Judge Tanya Pratt halted the project after finding that the USFS violated the National Environmental Policy Act in failing to consider the potential environmental impacts of the plan.
SPAIN — This summer has been marked by particularly severe forest fires in the northwestern region of Galicia, and locals have called for the revival of a once-common practice of burning undergrowth in the winter, Reuters reports. Hotter, drier summers mean more widespread and destructive forest fires, and locals and experts have called for controlled burning and other forest management methods to prevent such large-scale fires. In southern Galicia, the summer of 2025 brought the worst forest fires in 30 years. …Just a few weeks ago, the flames destroyed 190 square kilometers around the village where Perez lives. …Forestry experts and political leaders have said that a lack of investment in forest management and fire prevention over the past two decades has made the situation so dire. Victor Resco, at Leiden University, said that a new approach was needed across Europe at a time when fires are increasingly occurring closer to populated areas.
Brazil will invest $1 billion in the