Category Archives: Forestry

Forestry

The US should stop taxing Canadian lumber if it wants cleaner air

By Pedro Antunes, Chief Economist, Conference Board of Canada
The Financial Post
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

Canada’s forests are burning. …Smoke from these fires has degraded air quality across Canada and the US. The situation has led some US policymakers to publicly blame Canada for failing to manage wildfires and to demand more active forest management. These critiques are hypocritical, given their record of climate change denial. …Yet beyond partisan politics, the US continues to impose tariffs on Canadian lumber, undermining our capacity to invest in stronger forest management. …Eliminating or reducing US tariffs would instantly raise the value of Canada’s standing forest stock, sending a price signal that makes forestry activity viable in regions that are currently too remote or costly to harvest. At the margin, higher returns would unlock investment in better forest management, including areas that are now left untouched because they are uneconomic to service. …Lifting tariffs would be the first step, but it would not be a cure-all. 

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Council decision puts logging back on the table for North Cowichan’s municipal forest reserve

By Eric Richards
The Discourse
August 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

North Cowichan council has voted to make logging in the municipal forest reserve a strategic priority, despite warnings from some councillors and staff that the move could jeopardize years of work with the Quw’utsun Nation on a forest co-management framework. Timber harvesting in the roughly 5,000-hectare public forest has been on pause since 2019 to allow for public engagement, consultation with local First Nations and advice from experts on how to manage the publicly-owned woodland. Surveys found a majority of residents preferred conservation over harvesting — with 67 per cent of telephone respondents and 76 per cent of online respondents supporting either limiting timber harvesting … or not harvesting timber at all. In 2021, North Cowichan signed a memorandum of understanding with the Quw’utsun Nation… While it could take years before harvesting resumes, some around the council table warned that exploring harvesting options could negatively impact progress made towards a co-management framework with the Quw’utsun Nation.

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Quesnel’s partnership with First Nations in forestry management

By Gary Barnes
The Quesnel Cariboo Observer
August 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

QUESNEL, BC — The Three Rivers Community Forest (TRCF) is showing how local control can bring fresh ideas to forest management, general manager Nick Pickles told Quesnel council this week. The area-based tenure, signed in October 2024, covers more than 38,000 hectares and is jointly owned by the City of Quesnel and the Esdilagh, Lhtako Dene, and Nazko First Nations. It comes with an allowable annual harvest of about 43,000 cubic-metres of conifer and another 10,500 cubic-metres of deciduous timber, Pickles explained at council’s Aug. 26 meeting. …Pickles said the TRCF mandate is more than just cutting trees. “It’s designed to provide long-term access to forest resources for community benefit. It focuses on local decision-making, stewardship, and sustainable forest use.” Profits are reinvested locally, whether it’s jobs, education, or infrastructure, Pickles added.

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Documentary screening in Roberts Creek highlights logging and flooding risks

By Jordan Copp
The Penticton Herald
August 29, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Younes Alila

A powerful new documentary connecting industrial logging to catastrophic flooding is coming to the Sunshine Coast this September. On September 17, the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (SCCA) and RhizomeUp!Media will host a screening of Trouble in the Headwaters at Roberts Creek Hall. The 25-minute film, directed by award-winning filmmaker Daniel J. Pierce, investigates the 2018 Grand Forks flood and its links to industrial clear-cutting practices. The documentary features the research of Dr. Younes Alila, a professor of forest hydrology at UBC, whose work has helped illuminate the hydrological consequences of logging in B.C.’s watersheds. …“This event comes at a critical time,” the release states, “as BC Timber Sales prepares to auction a logging cutblock in the recharge zones of Aquifers 560 and 552.”

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What are forestry companies doing to prevent wildfires?

By Mick Sweetman
The Discourse
August 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

A reader wrote The Discourse recently with a question about why the BC Wildfire Service protects privately-owned forest land on Vancouver Island. It was an interesting question, but it hinted at a bigger one: What are forestry companies doing to prevent and mitigate wildfires from happening in the first place? Recent major wildfires on Vancouver Island have been on a mix of Crown land and private land owned by or under license of forestry companies. This includes the fire from early this week on Block 290 near Mount Benson that was recently transferred to Snuneymuxw First Nation. A recent special investigation by the BC Forest Practices Board on aligning forestry practices with wildfire risk reduction conducted in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, Peace and Sea to Sky areas found that “logging occurs at 11 times the rate of [wildfire risk reduction] treatments” in the wildland-urban interface near communities. 

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Melissa McHale Receives 2025 Wall Fellowships Award

By The Faculty of Forestry
The University of British Columbia
August 27, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Melissa McHale

UBC Forestry congratulates Dr. Melissa McHale on receiving one of two prestigious Wall Fellowships, UBC’s highest-value internal research awards. The fellowships will fund innovative research to help B.C. communities adapt to climate change and address rising housing demands. The Okanagan Valley is feeling the effects of climate change more than ever with hotter summers, more frequent wildfires and growing pressure on water supplies. On top of this, rapid growth and urban development are adding new challenges for local communities. Melissa’s research, entitled “Rising Heat, Roaring Flames, and Waning Waters: Building a Climate-Resilient Research Hub for British Columbia” is tackling these issues head-on in partnership with the City of Kelowna, Indigenous communities and local organizations. The project is exploring how cities can: Use trees and vegetation to cool neighbourhoods while saving water; Design greener spaces that also reduce wildfire risk; and Build healthier, more inclusive communities through nature-based solutions.

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North Cowichan’s council votes to make harvesting in municipal forest a top priority

By Robert Barron
The Ladysmith Chemainus Chronicle
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Harvesting in North Cowichan’s 5,000-hectare municipal forest reserve (MFR) is considered a primary issue for the rest of council’s term, which ends in October, 2026. On Aug. 20, council voted 4-3 to make harvesting, which hasn’t taken place since 2019, one of its strategic priorities. Coun. Bruce Findlay pointed out that the municipality has received no revenues from harvesting in the MFR for six years, and it may take several more years yet as negotiations with the Quw’utsun Nation on co-management of the MFR continue. …Despite the vote, CAO Ted Swabey advised council that he thinks that it’s unlikely that any harvesting could actually take place before the end of council’s term. …The public engagement aspect of the forest review concluded in early 2023, and the feedback from that process found very strong support for active conservation in the MFR, which would allow for targeted harvesting to provide some income, while restoring and enhancing biodiversity.

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Prolonged heat brings renewed fire risk to Vancouver Island

Cowichan Valley Citizen
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

On the heels of record-breaking daily high temperatures, Vancouver Islanders face warmer than usual weather this week. Temperatures will continue to “remain well above seasonal” into mid-week for east and inland Vancouver Island with cooler temperatures overnight, according to an Environment Canada statement issued early Aug. 26. The extra warm conditions are expected to persist from inland Greater Victoria, up the east coast from Nanoose Bay to Fanny Bay. Cloud cover is expected Thursday. The Malahat area broke the newest record on the Island, hitting 30.2 C, topping the 29.8 daily record set in 2022. Nanaimo tied the oldest record, hitting a high of 33.3 set in 1958. Campbell River, Courtenay and Comox all flirted with 2016 records, with Campbell River shading the old 30 C temperature, hitting 30.2. Comox and Courtenay both tied the 2016 record of 30.3. The heat coincided with a new wildfire discovered Aug. 24 south of Nanaimo. The 8.6-hectare fire was classified as being held as of Tuesday morning.

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Canary in the cutblock: researchers target B.C.’s bellwether bat population

By Abigail Popple
The Revelstoke Review
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

An international research project in the northern is taking a hard look at the decline of keynote bat populations in a bid to help area ecosystems survive and thrive. Efforts to preserve a population of northern myotis – an endangered bat species that used to be found throughout eastern B.C., but whose range has been contracting to the central Interior – are under way near Kinbasket Lake, north of Revelstoke and Golden. Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society … are planting fake bark to mimic the old-growth trees where the northern myotis roosts, and on the north side they are using radio detectors to determine how many of the bats are present in logged areas. Logging may not be an automatic death sentence to bat populations, Lausen says, but it needs to stay within the limits of what northern myotis colonies can sustain. One of the project’s goals is to identify those limits.

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Forest Minister tours Alberni operations

By David Wiwchar
The Nanaimo News Now
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Ravi Parmar

BC Forest Minister Ravi Parmar was in Port Alberni on Monday, touring the Mount Underwood fire site as well as local mills. Parmar said local logging played an important role in helping control the massive wildfire. “The Mount Underwood fire could’ve been a lot worse if there wasn’t those breaks from those logging roads,” he said. “Having a chance to fly over and see where the fire stopped because the logging road was there, or there was a cutblock speaks to the role of the forest sector for managing our forests.” Parmar celebrated the recent purchase of the former Coulson Mill by Fraserview Cedar Products after the SAN Group fell into bankruptcy. …Parmar then met with Domtar / Catalyst managers, before sitting down with Mayor Sharie Minions. He congratulated the BC Wildfire Service, ACRD and local First Nations for working together to battle the Mount Underwood fire.

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Cougar sculpture erected to block logging trucks in Upper Walbran Valley

By Jeff Lawrence
Chek News
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Logging trucks in the Upper Walbran Valley were met with an unusual blockade Monday morning — a 15-foot cougar sculpture erected by anonymous forest defenders demanding permanent protection of one of Vancouver Island’s last intact old-growth watersheds. The group, which says it has the blessing of several local First Nations elders, is targeting eight provincially approved cut blocks in Tree Farm License 44. The license is currently held by C̕awak ʔqin Forestry, a partnership between the Huu-ay-aht First Nation and Western Forest Products. …While the provincial government enacted temporary logging deferrals in 2021 for the Central Walbran Valley and neighbouring Fairy Creek watershed, those measures do not extend to the upper valley. Geoff Payne, for C̕awak ʔqin Forestry, said… “Our approach reflects this understanding and follows the Pacheedaht First Nation and the Province’s shared objective for the area. He said that the Pacheedaht First Nation chief and council have consented to the tree harvesting plan.”

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Heat wave shatters records across B.C. as wildfire risk climbs

By Josh Recamara
Insurance Business Magazine
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

A prolonged heat wave gripping British Columbia has already toppled more than 20 daily high-temperature records, with forecasters warning the sweltering conditions are set to persist through mid-week. Environment Canada has extended heat warnings to large parts of the province, including Fraser Canyon, South Okanagan, and South Thompson, where highs in the upper 30s are expected to continue. Inland sections of the north and central coasts are forecast to reach up to 29C, while four special weather statements remain in effect for Vancouver Island. …Even as air quality improves, wildfire officials warn the soaring heat and dry air are fuelling dangerous conditions. The B.C. Wildfire Service said low relative humidity is making forest fuels highly susceptible to ignition… For insurers, the intensifying fire risk underscores a costly pattern. …Another active fire season … adds further pressure to an industry already grappling with rising catastrophe exposures in B.C.

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The spruce budworm is making an unwelcome comeback

By James Steidle
Prince George Citizen
August 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Take a road trip across BC and chances are you will see our forests in freefall. From Lilloet through to Whistler, I was shocked to see valleys of red, as a western spruce budworm, a type of moth, rips through the conifer forests of almost all species. Hemlock, Douglas Fir, spruce, and the true firs are all being impacted, on a massive, catastrophic level. Unlike the Mountain Pine Beetle, which prioritized the old pine, the budworm seems to go for the younger trees. I saw entire plantations of young monocultures, the textbook product of modern forest management, with near complete infestation. The only trees that were still green was the cottonwoods and, ironically, the odd lodgepole pine tree. I’m not sure how we will log ourselves out of this one. …It’s probably just a matter of time before the budworm shows up again in Prince George.

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Mount Underwood fire a ‘harbinger’ of future Island fires, says wildfire specialist

CBC News
August 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Lori Daniels

Lori Daniels, a UBC forestry professor with a focus on wildfires, told CBC that the fire is one of the biggest in about 100 years of record-keeping on Vancouver Island — and that significant wildfires are expected to become more frequent as climate change impacts coastal forests. She spoke to CBC host Gregor Craigie about the history and future of wildfires on Vancouver Island. …On the west side of Vancouver Island, and in our wet coastal forest, fire was not historically a large portion of how our ecosystems functioned. …So we know that in our coastal region, we don’t have nearly as much lightning, and lightning ignitions in the historical record are much lower than in the Interior. …We’re going to have to think carefully about how we are managing our forests, how we are managing logging residues.

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Vanderhoof hunting lodge loses appeal of fine for logging without a licence

By Bob Mackin
The Prince George Citizen
August 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Forest Appeals Commission dismissed a Vanderhoof hunting and fishing lodge’s appeal of a $25,000 fine for cutting Crown timber without a licence. In an Aug. 13 decision, panel chair Maureen Baird upheld the March 2023 fine against Crystal Lake Resort Ltd. by the Ministry of Forests. Daniel Brooks, whose family bought the resort in 1975, admitted trees were cut without a licence in July 2020 on a right of way and the company asked, after the fact, for the Ministry of Forests to authorize the removal of merchantable timber. The ministry advised the company that it needed to have a licence to harvest in the first place. Brooks said he did not know he needed a licence. …The Ministry approved the required management plan, that allowed cutting trees if the resort had a forestry licence to do so.

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The Woodland Almanac Summer 2025

Woodlots BC
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

In the Summer Almanac you’ll find these headlines and much more:

Come for a Ride on the Forestry Roller Coaster, by Gord Chipman, Executive Director. Market conditions have been challenging, with falling log prices and break-even lumber prices for mills creating a climate of uncertainty. …the Canadian dollar has risen by five cents against the US dollar, and the looming threat of an average 34% in dumping duties at the end of August dampens any optimism in the lumber market. The political landscape remains dynamic. …two significant forestry reviews are underway, with results expected in the fall. In response to these external pressures, our focus remains on controlling what we can, aligning our operational contracts with our strategic plan.

Value-Added Niches Boost Woodlot in Coastal BC, by Tom Younger: Value-added manufacturing is a key strategy in BC aimed at maximizing the economic potential of timber by producing finished or semi-finished products rather than exporting raw logs.

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Vancouver Island wildlife recovery centre officially opens bear pavilion

By Michael Briones
The Ladysmith Chemainus Chronicle
August 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

The North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre has officially opened its new bear pavilion, an educational building that features black bears, with a focus on old-growth forests. A ribbon-cutting ceremony opened the new building, which cost approximately $200,000. The pavilion was envisioned by centre founder founder Robin Campbell in 2021… The pavilion was completed in time for the the 40th anniversary celebration of the Errington wildlife recovery and education centre. Campbell, who founded the centre with wife Sylvia, felt emotional upon seeing his vision become a reality. …Campbell said the pavilion shares two goals, “the vital role of black bears and the irreplaceable value of old-growth trees in our wild rainforests”. “These two are woven together in a remarkable relationship that sustains the forests heartbeat.”

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When heat and drought stress B.C. trees, the consequences can be tragic

By Nono Shen
Canadian Press in Vancouver Sun
August 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Peter Constabel, a professor in the biology department at the University of Victoria said that several years of repeated drought in B.C. mixed with heat stress has increased the likelihood of branches breaking off, it could even happen on a “perfectly calm day” without any breeze. The consequences can be tragic. Constabel, who specializes in tree health said, “it’s the drought that specifically causes this, and somehow it stresses the tree and drops the branch, or the branch falls. If you get cumulative droughts, of course, it weakens the tree overall”. …Dry spells can leave trees in a weakened state, Simon Fraser University biological sciences professor Jim Mattsson said, reducing photosynthesis and growth, cutting their energy or sugar reserves, and lowering production of chemical defences. All of these can cause a chain reaction increasing trees’ susceptibility to insects and fungal diseases, causing trees to rot inside, weaken and potentially topple over.

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Kelowna discussion on connection of forestry and flooding in BC

By Barry Gerding
The Vernon Morning Star
August 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Sonia Furstenau

The former leader of the BC Green Party will be one of the panellists leading a discussion about the negative impacts of clear-cut logging on the environment. Sonia Furstenau will participate in the upcoming event co-hosted by the Interior Watershed Task Force and Joe Rich Forestry Trails and Watershed Committee. Along with the panel discussion, there will be a screening of the documentary film Trouble In The Headwaters, which examines the 2018 Grand Forks flood and reveals the connection of clear-cut logging in the headwaters of the Kettle River Basin. Filmmaker Daniel Pierce will also be on hand and Dr. Younes Alila, a professor of hydrology at UBC, and two retired loggers. On the panel along with Furstenau and Pierce will be Mike Morris, a former Liberal MLA; Dave Gill, general manager of Ntityix Resources LP, a natural resource company owned by Westbank First Nation.

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Rethinking Forestry: Bold Ideas for a Sustainable Future with Gary Bull

By Matthew Kristoff’s YourForest Podcast
Spotify
August 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

In this episode of YourForest, Matthew Kristoff discusses the future of forestry with Dr. Gary Bull, a leading expert in forestry economics, policy, and sustainability. Dr. Bull, a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, explores the evolving relationship between forest management, biodiversity, and the forest industry. He emphasizes shifting from timber-focused practices to integrating non-timber values like carbon storage, biodiversity, and ecosystem health. With decades of global experience, Dr. Bull advocates for rethinking forestry to create a more sustainable future. Key Points: Rethinking the Annual Allowable Cut; Circular Bioeconomy and Wood Products; Biodiversity and Carbon Credits; Balancing Forest Health and Resource Production; and Indigenous and NGO Collaborations in Forestry

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Keeping climate crisis and forestry mismanagement in focus amid the Mount Underwood wildfire

By S. Clay Steell, chair, Bamfield Huu-ay-aht Community Forest Society
Ha-Shilth-Sa
August 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Clay Steell

Since the Mount Underwood forest fire cut off power and direct road access to the community of Bamfield and Anacla, the town has been abuzz with talk on what it all means. …While we don’t yet know what caused the Mount Underwood fire, we can be certain that climate warming made it vastly more likely to spread out of control. …In addition to climate warming, the legacy of colonial forest mismanagement has also made fires far more likely to spread out of control. Since colonization, a large majority of primary forests have been cut down across this coast and replaced by tree farms, including the area where the Mount Underwood fire has spread. All the while, the forestry industry has shifted from local milling to mechanization and raw log exportation, sending jobs overseas and enriching shareholders while local workers get laid off, with over 50,000 jobs lost province-wide since the late ‘90s. 

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Soil performing balancing act

By Emily Dontsos
The Chronicle Journal
August 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

Amanda Diochon

Amanda Diochon is digging into the relationship between soils and sustainability, and her findings hold the potential to change the way forests and agriculture are managed for a healthier future. An associate professor in Lakehead University’s department of geology, co-ordinator of the water resource science program, and assistant dean of the faculty of science and environmental studies, Diochon says soil science is critical in a changing climate. “Soils are the largest reservoir of organic carbon, and they emit 10 times the amount of carbon dioxide that humans do,” she says. “So knowing how they respond to changes in the climate and understanding how to better manage them is important not just in Canada, but globally.” With a focus on the carbon cycle, or how carbon moves between the Earth, living things, and the atmosphere, Diochon’s research examines changes to soil’s ability to store carbon and how agricultural and forest-management practices influence sustainability.

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Restrictions on New Brunswick Crown land end at midnight, provincewide burn ban remains

By Oliver Pearson
CBC News
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

John Herron

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt says most restrictions on Crown land will be removed at midnight Monday night, but the province’s burn ban will remain in place to decrease the risk of wildfires. Speaking to reporters Monday, Holt said cooler weather and efforts by firefighters have made it possible to ease restrictions. Restrictions remain on timber harvesting, which will only be allowed from 6 p.m. to noon and will be reassessed on a daily basis, according to a news release from the province. …Natural Resources Minister John Herron said people should also stay away from any areas where firefighters are still actively fighting fires. All Crown land has been closed to industrial and recreational activities since Aug. 10 because of wildfires that required the province to request outside help. Herron said the decision to reopen may be changed again if multiple fires are ignited.

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How a centuries-old fire foreshadowed the future

By John Woodside
The National Observer
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

A monster firestorm roared through the pine and spruce forests of New Brunswick. It burned one-fifth of the province’s forests and raged through villages, reducing buildings to ash and killing at least 160 people — although historians believe that is likely a severe undercount. This was the Miramichi Fire, which 200 years ago this fall announced an era of megafires in North America. Commemorated in folk songs, documented in archives and seared into memory for those who lived through it, the Miramichi Fire to this day ranks among the largest and most devastating fires the continent has ever seen. The Miramichi Fire was the continent’s first megafire rooted in extracting resources from the land, but that century was packed with other examples that collectively destroyed thousands of buildings and caused millions in damages, all while claiming lives. Among the major fires were Quebec City in 1845, 1866, 1876 and 1881; St. John’s in 1846 and 1892; Toronto in 1849, 1885 and 1895; Montreal in 1850, 1852 and 1898 and both Calgary and Vancouver in 1886.

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Company won’t spray controversial herbicide in northern Ontario

By Darren MacDonald
CTV News
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Interfor says it won’t proceed with its plan to spray forests in northern Ontario with a herbicide critics say is harmful. While the province said it was safe, First Nations and some municipalities were opposed to the plan to spray glyphosate over Crown land near Elliot Lake, Blind River, Espanola and other forest management areas in the north. Andrew Horahan, executive vice-president of Interfor’s Canadian operations, confirmed it won’t be conducting the aerial spray of the herbicide, at least for now. “Interfor is committed to responsible forest management and to maintaining open, constructive dialogue with our stakeholders and the communities in which we operate,” Horahan said in a statement. “The use of herbicide sprays is a carefully regulated and widely accepted industry practice, overseen by relevant authorities. For 2025, Interfor has chosen not to proceed with an herbicide application in the Pineland, Spanish and Northshore forests.”

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Many older forests spared by Washington state order. Others to be logged

By John Ryan
National Public Radio
August 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

An executive order by Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove has put 77,000 acres of older forests off-limits to logging. …Some local activists call these old-but-not-quite-old-growth stands “legacy forests,” and have resorted to protests, including tree sits and road blockades, to stop them from being sawed down. Upthegrove’s order would also allow logging to go forward on 29,000 acres of those almost-old-growth forests. Some environmental groups praised the move, while others say it greenlights too much logging of the best remaining older forests. …Forest activists still hope to save some of areas slated to be logged over the next five years. …State officials say that timber harvest levels — and the revenue that goes to schools and counties — would be largely unaffected by the executive order. …The Department of Natural Resources has 346,000 acres of structurally complex forests on the 2.4 million acres of forestland it manages.

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U.S. House delegation visits Alaska this week, with focus on mining, timber and drilling

By James Brooks
The Alaska Beacon
August 27, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Ten members of the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources are making an unusual visit to Alaska this week during a break from business on Capitol Hill. The 45-person committee deals with a variety of issues pertaining to public lands in the United States, and the visit is giving eight Republicans and two Democrats a chance to put their literal hands on the topics they cover. …Among the group was the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Arkansas, as well as the home-state Republican Rep. Nick Begich. Also attending were Reps. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming; Tom Tiffany, R-Wisconsin; Pete Stauber, R-Minnesota; Rob Wittman, R-Virginia; Val Hoyle, D-Oregon; Paul Gosar, R-Arizona; and Sarah Elfreth, D-Maryland. …Several of the Republican lawmakers said they believe there is room to increase logging in the Tongass in order to meet the demand for lumber to build housing, particularly locally.

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Hundreds of Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs leap back into the wild

By Alex Feltes
Birch Aquarium
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

More than 350 Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs have been reintroduced into the wild in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains, marking one of the largest releases to date and a significant step in efforts to save this endangered species. The release also represents a milestone for Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego — the aquarium’s first-ever species reintroduction and a historic moment in its growing conservation work. Birch Aquarium, in collaboration with San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, UCLA, Big Bear Alpine Zoo and others, released the frogs into a wildlife preserve managed by The Wildlands Conservancy. This effort is part of a long-running recovery program …“Thanks to these efforts, Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs are hopping around Bluff Lake for the first time since they were last recorded here in 1951,” said Tim Krantz, Conservation Director for The Wildlands Conservancy.

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Washington state to conserve thousands of acres of ‘legacy forests’

By Isabella Breda
The Seattle Times
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

David Upthegrove

TIGER MOUNTAIN, Issaquah — Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove is making good on a campaign promise to conserve thousands of acres of older forests in Washington dubbed legacy forests. The state Department of Natural Resources announced it would conserve 77,000 acres of these structurally complex forests. The state defines these structurally complex forests as those with gaps in the canopy, diverse species growing below and a relatively low presence of large fallen logs or snags. …They are very close to fully mature forests with increased biodiversity. …These forests will no longer be in the state’s traditional logging rotation. Instead, the state said it would go to the Legislature for permission to enter carbon markets and look to new ways of managing the lands. …The state said it could also provide supply for mass timber. …Environmental advocates have been calling for the protection of these second-growth forests since 2021.

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Saving both fire-frequent forests and the spotted owl

By Jerry Franklin and Norman Johnson
The Bend Bulletin
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) was developed in 1994 for the 24 million acres of federal land within the range of the northern spotted owl… A network of large reserves for the spotted owl across its range (late successional reserves (LSRs)) were created in the NWFP along with a system of riparian buffers to protect streamside areas. …The Forest Service is currently updating the NWFP and chartered a committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to help advise on amending the plan. …We strongly endorse this proposal for widespread restoration treatments in dry forests inside and outside of the LSRs. Reducing stand densities in these forests while retaining all trees over 150 years of age is essential to owl survival, as is reintroduction of fire as a regular management tool. …Integrating forest restoration in dry forests with spotted owl conservation is one of the biggest challenges in updating the NWFP.

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Washington to conserve 77,000 acres of older forests on state lands

By Emily Fitzgerald
The Washington Standard
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

David Upthegrove

Eight months after Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove entered office and paused logging sales in older forests on state land, Washington’s Department of Natural Resources has identified 77,000 acres to set aside for conservation. …these older forests aren’t quite old enough to qualify for old-growth protections but are biologically diverse and naturally resistant to wildfire. Under Upthegrove’s plan, 29,000 acres of the forests will remain available for harvest. Most of the roughly two-dozen timber sales paused will proceed. …Timber industry groups and some conservation activists were both dissatisfied with the commissioner’s order. …But industry was opposed, making a case that larger, older timber is needed for certain wood products, like power poles, and that pulling lands back from logging would hurt jobs and mills. …the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, one of the leading groups calling for protection of structurally complex forests, described Upthegrove’s plan as a disappointment.  

Press Release by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources: Forest Forward – A New Direction For Our Forests

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Oregon’s forestry sector needs new workers, industry leaders say, with new skills

By Tristin Hoffman
Oregon Live
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Oregon’s forestry sector, once the state’s driving industry, has scaled back dramatically, the result of modernization and reduced harvests since the 1990s. Yet the industry is still adding workers and looking to replace retirees — now with a growing demand for technical expertise. The industry’s employers say they’re struggling to fill the jobs they have. Retirements have thinned the ranks, turnover is high and new workers are hard to recruit. Adding to the trouble, a workforce study found the sector will add 3,400 jobs annually through 2030. In particular, the report found Oregon’s colleges and universities aren’t producing enough forestry graduates to meet demand — suggesting Oregon employers might have to recruit from elsewhere to staff some of the highest-paying jobs in a signature sector. It’s a counterintuitive finding for an industry that’s been cutting further in recent months through the closures of mills and factories. Officials say that’s because there’s more to forestry work than logging.

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Missoula County, forestry experts push back against consolidation

By Martin Kidston
KPAX Missoula & Western Montana
August 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

MISSOULA – Missoula County has drafted a letter headed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture stating the value of the U.S. Forest Service’s Region 1 office in Missoula while raising concerns about the agency’s proposed consolidation. …“It seems intuitive that Forest Service management and leadership is best located close to the public lands they manage,” said Mike Burnside with Conservation Matters – a group of retired land managers. “It doesn’t seem workable to have everyone reporting to the D.C. office or five offices somewhere else. We don’t see that as being workable.” The Forest Service operates 10 regional offices across the country. Under the proposal released by the Trump administration last month, those offices would close and consolidate into five hubs located in Utah, Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina and Missouri. The Northern Region Headquarters in Missoula — one of the nation’s oldest and most storied — would close.

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Wildfire impacts on soil microbes can cause long-lasting effects to ecosystem

By Cindy Landrum
Clemson University News
August 28, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Antonino Malacrino

Over the past decades, fire seasons are getting longer and extreme wildfires have become more frequent, more intense and larger. …Fire leaves a dramatic and noticeable impact on the landscape — scorched trees, missing canopies and a forest floor devoid of plants and shrubs. But it has underground impact as well. “Within the context of fire ecology, we know a lot about plants and a lot about animals. We know a bit less about microbes,” said Antonino Malacrino, an assistant professor in the Clemson University Department of Biological Sciences. “Some studies show that if you have a severe wildfire, the soil microbiome is impacted. You can see the signature of that fire in the soil microbiome even after decades.” But very little information is known about what happens after a fire to the microbial community in terms of diversity, composition and the ecological processes that drive the assembly of the microbial community.

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Ruling allows logging plans for White Mountain National Forest to go forward

The Concord Monitor
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

©USDAFlickr

A federal judge ruled that commercial logging in two North Country sites in the White Mountain National Forest can go forward, raising questions about a similar lawsuit against logging plans in the Sandwich Range. U.S. District Court Judge Joseph LaPlante rejected many of the arguments against the U.S. Forest Service in a summary judgment handed down Aug. 20. The lawsuit was filed by Standing Trees, a Vermont-based group that advocates for forests on public lands, on behalf of New Hampshire individuals and businesses who would be affected by the logging operation. “It’s really a ruling on the process: Did the National Forest Service follow the appropriate process … with public hearings and other procedures?” said Jack Savage, president of the Society for the Protection of NH Forests, one of several environmental groups that supported the logging plans. …The lawsuit was filed by Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic on behalf of Standing Trees. 

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Doerner Fir tree in Southern Oregon survives fire but loses its record height

By Cassandra Profita and Jule Gilfillan
Oregon Public Broadcasting
August 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

After days of tremendous firefighting effort, a team of tall-tree climbers finally extinguished the fire burning inside the historic Doerner Fir tree in the Southern Oregon Coast Range. The tree is estimated to be roughly 450 years old and was the tallest Douglas fir in the world at 327 feet before the blaze. Volunteer tree climbers Damien Carré and Logan Collier scaled the tree Thursday afternoon and used a hose to put out the last of the flames burning inside the tree. Then, they helped set up a sprinkler system to prevent the fire from reigniting. “I’m still kind of zinging from the whole thing,” said Carré, who is the owner/operator of Oregon Tree Service in Oregon City. “I feel it was very successful, and I’m very proud and honored to be able to do it.” …They have ruled out lightning as the cause based on weather data.

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Wisconsin researchers listen to forests to learn more about protecting them

By Bridgit Bowden
Wisconsin Public Radio
August 25, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Once a month, researchers hike through the woods in the Baraboo Hills to check on small boxes strapped to tree trunks. The boxes hold microphones that are running 24 hours a day, capturing the soundscape of the forest. But for a research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, they could be an important way to learn about the health of forests. The Soundscape Baselines Project is an effort to record a full year of audio in untouched forests all over the world. Bioacoustics enable researchers to get a fuller picture of the forest, the species that inhabit it and how they change over time, said Zuzana Burivalova, the project’s founder. …Burivalova’s team and their partners are recording in six locations around the world: Ecuador, Peru, Gabon, Germany, Brunei and Wisconsin. …“These new technologies, like bioacoustics, artificial intelligence … they’re finally enabling us to really understand what is out there and how it’s changing,” she said.

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Forest soils accumulate microplastics through atmospheric deposition

By Collin J. Weber & Moritz Bigalke
Nature
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The occurrence and fate of microplastics in forest ecosystems is a recognized knowledge gap. In this paper, we used an aligned extraction method to quantify microplastics (>20 µm) in organic and mineral forest soil horizons and throughfall deposition. Calculation of forest soil microplastic stocks and throughfall fluxes allowed an estimation of throughfall contribution to microplastic accumulation in forest soils back to 1950. We identified a short-term microplastic enrichment in decomposed litter horizons followed by an accumulation in lower mineral soil caused by litter turnover processes. Similar microplastic features in soil and throughfall deposition indicate that microplastics entering forest soils primarily originate from atmospheric deposition and litter fall, while other sources have a minor impact. We conclude that forests are good indicators for atmospheric microplastic pollution and that high microplastic concentrations in forest soils indicate a high diffuse input of microplastics into these ecosystems.

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Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize Unite to Protect Maya Forest

Yucatán Magazine
August 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Three nations joined forces Friday to establish what will become the second-largest nature reserve in Latin America. Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize announced the creation of a massive tri-national protected area spanning 14 million acres (5.7 million hectares) across the heart of the ancient Maya forest. The announcement came during a summit in Calakmul, where Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stood alongside Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo and Belize Prime Minister Johnny Briceño to reveal plans for the Biocultural Corridor of the Great Mayan Forest. “This is one of Earth’s lungs, a living space for thousands of species with an invaluable cultural legacy that we should preserve with our eyes on the future,” Sheinbaum said during the joint press conference. She called the move “historic.” The new reserve will encompass 50 existing protected areas across the three countries.

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Group sues to save bull trout streams from logging damaged

By Laura Lundquist
Missoula Current
August 26, 2025
Category: Forestry

A nonprofit group is suing to stop the Lolo National Forest from logging areas around some of the best remaining bull trout spawning tributaries of the central Clark Fork River. On Friday, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed a complaint against the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Missoula federal district court, challenging the approval of the second part of the Redd Bull logging project on the Lolo National Forest. The complaint says the project will further harm threatened bull trout because of the haul roads planned along some of the few streams where bull trout live and spawn. …Because the agencies didn’t do a full environmental study and look at the direct, indirect and cumulative effects all these projects had on bull trout in the middle Clark Fork, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies is accusing the agencies of violating the National Environmental Policy Act.

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