Daily News for July 27, 2026

Today’s Takeaway

Wildfires threaten Bordeaux as Europe’s fire crisis deepens

The Tree Frog Forestry News
July 27, 2026
Category: Today's Takeaway

Wildfires continue to rage across France and Spain prompting emergency meetings. In related news: EU firefighters warn it could take months to contain these blazes, as the heatwave persists; BC’s Ainslie Creek wildfire prompts evacuation orders; and Ontario’s Thunder Bay 36 fire is the largest ever recorded. Meanwhile: scientists decry Trump’s blame game on Canadian wildfire smoke; Randy Essex says Trump is dead wrong on the cause; and Shawn Regan says more fuel treatments are required on both sides of the border.

In Business news: US builders say Trump’s new tariffs add uncertainty to housing; BC’s forestry critic says the tariffs could be catastrophic; BC’s Premier says businesses affected can access federal support funds; and Ontario furniture producers say more action is needed. In other news: USDA supports a new sawmill in Clatskanie, Oregon; Arkansas seeks new markets for its wood; and more fallout on Finch Paper’s mill closure in New York. Meanwhile: Canada’s carbon emissions are traced to soil and peat; climate change is impacting how Ontario reforests; conservationists worry about endangered species protections—while Oregon forges ahead; Mississippi State recognizes wood engineering professor; and PLIB expands its online grader training.

Finally, FireSmartBC helps homeowners see their property though FireSmart eyes.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor

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Business & Politics

Kamloops MLA says Trump tariff could be ‘catastrophic,’ but not likely set in stone

By Michael Potestio
Castanet
July 24, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Ward Stamer

BC’s forestry critic says a newly-proposed U.S. tariff on Canadian wood products could force mill closures across the province, but he believes the Trump administration is leaving room to negotiate. …Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer said many mills are already struggling and a 50% tariff could push some over the edge. …Stamer said he believes the proposed rate is a negotiating tactic by Trump. …The MLA said the province also has a role to play, arguing the Ministry of Forests needs to change policies and regulations to improve access to timber for BC producers. …Stamer said he expects the closure to have ripple effects across the region, potentially affecting other wood manufacturers. He said Kruger’s pulp mill in Kamloops appears to be in a stronger position due to its fibre supply, but wildfire conditions are creating new concerns.

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Government of Canada announces loan support to Millar Western Forest Products Ltd.

By the Department of Finance
Government of Canada
July 27, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada West

Department of Finance Canada highlighted a $100 million loan to Millar Western Forest Products Ltd. through the Large Enterprise Tariff Loan (LETL) facility. As part of the Government of Canada’s efforts to support and protect Canadian businesses facing trade-related uncertainty, this loan will provide the company with the flexibility to strengthen its near-term operations, including rebuilding its log inventory, and adapt to evolving market conditions while protecting jobs. Millar Western produces high-quality hardwood and softwood pulp from three mills in Slave Lake and Whitecourt, Alberta, and Quesnel, British Columbia. The company employs more than 420 full-time workers and supports approximately 300 contractors in maintenance, field-level forestry and consulting services. As an export-oriented business, Millar Western ships most of its products internationally, with 93 per cent of its sales going to Asian markets, primarily China.

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B.C. premier says businesses can tap into $1.5 billion fund if U.S. escalates tariffs

By Wolfgang Depner
The Canadian Press in Bloomberg
July 23, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West, United States

David Eby

BC Premier David Eby says local businesses will have access to a federal emergency fund if the US follows through on new tariff threats. US President Trump says he plans to impose tariffs of up to 50% on Canadian products, including those made out of wood, and Eby says Prime Minister Carney told him that affected business in BC could apply to a support fund worth $1.5 billion. The premier says Carney has told him the fund “has not been exhausted,” and he expects that there “should be more than enough in that regional fund,” should the US impose the threatened tariffs on Aug. 19. …Eby was speaking from Charlottetown, where he met with other first ministers, including Carney. …The premier says he also spoke during the meeting about BC’s softwood lumber sector, and there will be a separate gathering with the premiers of other provinces that have large softwood sectors.

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New Clatskanie sawmill gets $30 million in government-backed loans

By Matthew Kish
The Oregonian
July 26, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

The federal government on Friday announced $30 million in loans for a new sawmill in Clatskanie, marking a rare bright spot for Oregon’s struggling timber industry. The money will come from a U.S. Department of Agriculture program. The Clatskanie Scion project, which will include construction and the installation of equipment, is expected to create at least 35 jobs. The mill will make industrial lumber products. It’s an expansion of the operations of Sheridan-based Myers Woodline. “In recent years, Oregon has seen numerous timber mills closing across the state,” Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a press release. …“This fresh investment for Clatskanie is great news that will generate good-paying sawmill jobs throughout Oregon’s northwest corner and help in the ongoing battle to reduce wildfire risks throughout our state,” Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said in the press release.

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What to do with the Wall of Wood in Southern Arkansas

Rex Nelson, Senior Editor
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette
July 26, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

I grew up in south Arkansas and realize the importance of the timber industry. As goes that sector of the economy, so goes south Arkansas. Sawmills closing and jobs being lost have been much more common than modern facilities being built. In September, almost 200 people who are involved in the Southern timber industry will gather for two days in Texarkana. …Matthew Pelkki directs the Arkansas Center for Forest Business, which is housed on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Pelkki describes “a wall of wood” across the South and states that “our forests aren’t healthy.” Attendees will discuss what to do with that wall of wood. …Michael Blazier is dean of UAM’s College of Forestry, worries that we’re growing trees a lot faster than we’re harvesting them in Arkansas….If there’s any good news, it’s the new Weyerhaeuser facility and the way UAM has stepped up its research and education efforts.

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New York pulp mill closure has New England loggers worried

By Matt Holderman & Ben Breen
My Champlain Valley
July 25, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

VERMONT – Potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of loggers and foresters around the Northeast have a new reason to worry, as a customer they’ve depended on for years will soon be going away. Finch Paper in Glens Falls, New York is closing its pulp mill – meaning one of the largest buyers of certain types of wood will soon no longer exist. …Katharine Servidio at the Vermont Department of Forests called the announcement very concerning and that it came as a surprise. “One of the challenges of this is that for some of the material, there is simply no other buyer in the region currently,” she said. …Along with looking for more potential buyers around the northeast, Governor Scott says the state is also looking north to pulp mills in Quebec – though he’s unsure if Canadian businesses would be willing partners right now amid President Trump’s tariff push.

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Finance & Economics

Latest Tariff Actions Add Uncertainty to Housing Market

The National Association of Home Builders
July 24, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

President Trump imposed a 50% tariff on a broad range of Canadian goods, including cement, plywood and furniture. The action would not affect other existing tariffs on key building materials, including softwood lumber. The 30-day delay gives the US and Canada time to negotiate an agreement that could avert the tariffs. …Meanwhile, to replace the expiring Section 122 tariffs, the administration announced new duties under a different authority. Citing a ban on imports made with forced labor… the US will impose tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 nations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. …Additional tariffs could also be coming. The administration is still investigating whether 16 nations have engaged in excess manufacturing, driving down prices and putting U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage. …In a positive development, the U.S. Commerce Department is poised to lower anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber imports from a combined 35% to 25% in mid-August..

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau expands online training offerings with launch of STUDS grading course

By Erik Wilson, Executive Vice President
Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau
July 24, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, United States

Federal Way, Washington – Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau (PLIB) has expanded its online grader training offerings with the launch of STUDS, a stand-alone course designed to help prospective graders, as well as sales and management personnel, learn to grade STUDS according to the National Grading Rule for Dimension Lumber (NGR). PLIB’s 6-unit STUDS course opens with an in depth overview of the NGR and the grade rules that differentiate STUDS from the other NGR grade classifications (Structural Light Framing, Light Framing, and Structural Joists & Planks). Units 1-4 describe in detail the most common characteristics used to define the STUD grade. Hundreds of close-up photographs and three dimensional images captured from in-mill scanners provide an ultra-realistic learning environment. A variety of learning activities teach users to recognize and accurately measure and assess each grade-defining characteristic. Progressively more difficult grading practice exercises are sprinkled throughout. 

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Canada protects steel. It’s time to protect wood

By Alain Ouzilleau and Jean-Francois Dufresne
iPolitics
July 24, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Canada’s wood products manufacturers are on the operating table, bleeding out. …The United States has slapped tariffs on foreign steel, aluminum, and automobiles — but many Canadians don’t know the Section 232 and 338 tariffs also target wood products, like furniture and kitchen cabinets. …Those US tariffs have created a two-headed monster. On one side, wood products manufacturers like us have lost meaningful access to our largest export market. On the other, every other country in the world is now scrambling to find alternative buyers for product they can no longer sell into the United States. They found one: Canada. Today, Canada’s warehouses are bursting with cheap imported wood products. …Local manufacturers are prepared to compete globally, but not on an impossibly imbalanced playing field. …The solution is not a subsidy, or more loan programs. We need a short-term provisional tariff now, to bridge the gap between launching an investigation and finding an appropriate longer-term solution.

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New Renderings Show Bevel Office Tower Among Tallest Planned Mass-Timber Towers in U.S.

By Kara
Downtown Bellevue
July 22, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

©bevelbellevue.com

BELLEVUE, Washington — Skanska is moving forward with design and permitting on Bevel, its planned 12-story mass-timber office tower in downtown Bellevue’s business district, the company announced this week. The project is currently working through architectural design and entitlement review with the City of Bellevue. Skanska is developing Bevel alongside design team Mithun + Waugh Thistleton, and expects to get Administrative Design Review (ADR) approval from the city by late summer 2026. …The tower will be built from mass timber above ground, set on a steel core with a concrete parking structure below grade. Once complete, Bevel is expected to be one of the tallest mass-timber office towers in the country, and one of the more significant mass-timber office projects built in the US. …Mass timber cuts embodied carbon compared to traditional building methods, and it gives the tower a warmer, more natural look that Skanska says. [The Bevel Bellevue website has additional details www.bevelbellevue.com]

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Final Phase is Complete on Portland International Airport’s Main Terminal Expansion

Pacific Builder & Engineer Magazine
July 26, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

PORTLAND, Oregon — The second and final phase of the Portland International Airport (PDX) main terminal expansion is now open. Designed by ZGF for the Port of Portland, the 1 million-square-foot project is the largest public infrastructure project delivered in Oregon’s history. Since phase I opened in 2024, the terminal has received multiple international honors, including the Prix Versailles World’s Most Beautiful Airport award, Fast Company’s Best Design in North America distinction, and recognition from the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. Featuring a 9-acre mass timber roof, the terminal evokes the feeling of walking through a Pacific Northwest forest. …The $2 billion terminal renovation and expansion is the largest mass timber project of its kind. The Port of Portland and ZGF decided to expand in place, keeping the airport fully operational throughout five years of phased construction. The strategy was made possible, in part, by a prefabricated wood roof that spans the entire terminal.

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Mississippi State University scientist recognized internationally for wood engineering research

By Ellis Rupp
Mississippi State University
July 24, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: US East, International

Laya Khademibami

STARKVILLE, Miss.—A Mississippi State assistant research professor is receiving international recognition for early career achievements in wood engineering, success that’s enhancing efficient, sustainable wood construction. MSU Forest and Wildlife Research Center’s Laya Khademibami has earned the Wood Engineering Achievement Award for Young Engineers from the Forest Products Society. The FPS, a global organization promoting advancements in forest products research, education and industry, recognized Khademibami during its international conference held this month in Eugene, Oregon. …Khademibami’s research focuses on improving long-term performance of structural insulated panels. Working with collaborators at MSU, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory and the Structural Insulated Panel Association, Khademibami cultivated a series of full-scale studies designed to answer questions about building code development. …“This award reinforces the importance of conducting research that not only advances scientific knowledge but also creates meaningful benefits for industry and society,” she said.

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From thinking big to building whole: Early design critical to curbing carbon long-term

Wood Solutions Australia
July 26, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

AUSTRALIA — According to Architecture 2030… we’re in the midst of the largest wave of building and infrastructure growth in human history. …Closer to home, this global pressure is reflected in Australia’s own urgent need for supply; with a national target to build 1.2 million new homes over the next five years. …WoodSolutions, Australia’s leading resource for timber information, suggests that to genuinely tackle this urgent carbon issue, the industry must look upstream, to the projects’ earliest design stages. The idea that the biggest carbon reductions come from a holistic approach to a project isn’t new – Kevin Peachey, Head of Built Environment Programs at Forest & Wood Products Australia at WoodSolutions suggests that whole-building carbon optimisation is well understood, and tools like the Whole-Building Lifecycle Assessment (WBLCA) are well supported. …T3 Collingwood – the national headquarters for WoodSolutions – is a prime example of how timber’s unique whole-building potential can scale into multi-level commercial construction.

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Forestry

Americans are choking on Canadian wildfire smoke because our neighbors refuse to do proper forest management

By Shawn Regan, senior fellow, Manhattan Institute
Th New York Post
July 26, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

For the third time in the past four years, Americans are choking on smoke from Canada’s burning forests. Last week, roughly 900 wildfires turned the skies over Minneapolis, Chicago and New York into an apocalyptic haze. …Why does this keep happening? …Canada isn’t the only one with a wildfire problem. America’s forests are burning too. Fires are raging in northern Minnesota and across much of the western United States. …The media and politicians are quick to blame climate change, but the reality is that forest management works. Fuel treatments such as thinning, brush clearance and prescribed burning remove small trees, brush and dead material that allow flames to climb into the canopy and explode into a dangerous crown fire. …Canada does strikingly little of this work. The problem is that Canada has regulated the cure nearly out of existence. …American forest management is snarled by many of the same problems. 

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See Your Property Through FireSmart Eyes

FireSmart BC
July 27, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

By taking action and creating a FireSmart property, you will dramatically increase the resistance of your home and property to damage caused by wildfire. The best part is, it’s surprisingly easy to do. The actions recommended in this manual start from the home, and progress outward. Changes made to the area closest to your home, and your home itself, have the greatest potential to reduce the risk of wildfire damage.

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Winnipeg couple becomes unwitting hosts to ‘musical roommates’ as threatened chimney swifts move in

By Bryce Hoye
CBC News
July 26, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

©Wikipedia

Nettie and Thomas Rempel-Ong had uninvited guests living in their 91-year-old home in Winnipeg’s Old Tuxedo neighbourhood — chimney swifts, a migratory bird species classified as threatened under the federal Species at Risk Act. …Chimney swift populations have declined 88 per cent since 1970. How a bird became reliant [chimneys] has to do with European settlement, urbanization and forestry. Pre-colonization, chimney swifts in North America nested in old growth leafy trees, often dead or dying, with hollows large enough to raise a family in during the summer months. …Logging and land-clearing for housing and agriculture eliminated much of their historical habitat. …And the style of chimneys that swifts became reliant on fell out of fashion architecturally. …Chimney swifts are part of the second-most at-risk group of birds in Canada, called aerial insectivores. …they feast on insects in flight, including mosquitoes and beetles, the latter of which have experienced declines associated with DDT pesticide use.

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Rebuilding a northern Ontario forest with climate change in mind

By Leah Borts-Kuperman
The Narwhal
July 27, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park was nearly leveled in a 2025 storm. Now thousands of new trees have been planted to build a new forest for the future …In 2025, a powerful storm crashed down on Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park outside North Bay, Ont., dropping trees on tents, trailers and an environmental education centre. Since then, park staff and Forests Canada have been working to replant some of the trees that were lost and clean up the park to allow visitors in again this season. Extreme weather is becoming more common and severe as the climate warms. At the same time, global warming means the type of trees that will thrive in northern environments like Samuel de Champlain is also changing, and the restoration work has to account for that.

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Alliance for the Wild Rockies, residents score win in fight for North Idaho’s old growth, grizzlies

By Mike Garrity, executive director, Alliance for the Wild Rockies
Coeur d’Alene Press
July 25, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Seven years ago, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, with the support of local residents, took the U.S. Forest Service to federal court to halt the Hanna Flats logging, road-building and burning project on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests in North Idaho. The good news — for grizzly bears, old growth forests and the local populace — is that a federal appeals court just ruled for the Alliance. The logging project is located in the habitat of the imperiled Selkirk grizzly bears, which have been reduced to a mere 50 bears when the minimum needed for recovery is 100 bears. The bears suffer from human-caused mortality at unsustainable rates and are regularly displaced and harmed from logging and road-building. …There is no hope of recovering this imperiled grizzly population as required by the Endangered Species Act unless the government starts complying with the law. This court decision is one step in the right direction.

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Oregon forges ahead with endangered species protections, despite federal changes

By April Ehrlich
Oregon Public Broadcasting
July 24, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Trump administration is drastically changing the way the country protects endangered species, potentially jeopardizing years of policymaking in Oregon. Still, Oregon land regulators are moving ahead with plans for protecting Oregon’s forests that are essential for endangered species, including marbled murrelets and spotted owls. …For more than six years, Oregon land agencies, conservationists and loggers have been crafting plans that will protect Oregon’s most sensitive habitats, while also helping landowners avoid lawsuits when their logging projects harm federally endangered species. …Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it is removing the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act, effective in September. …Last year, Gov. Tina Kotek and multiple Oregon state agencies submitted comments opposing the change. …“In Oregon, where approximately 53% of the land is federally managed, habitat protection is essential to ongoing conservation efforts,” Kotek wrote.

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John James and Trump are dead wrong on Canadian wildfire smoke

By Randy Essex, retired business and political journalist
The Detroit Free Press
July 24, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Randy Essex

John James and several other Republicans, not surprisingly including the president, are either ignorant, or merely cynically pandering to ignorance with their witless demand that Canada “must be held accountable” for the smoke from its wildfires. …It might seem like I’m picking on James, who is running for governor of Michigan – he’s just one of several Republicans spouting this nonsense after the northern U.S. was shrouded with smoke this month. Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall says he’ll bring Canada to its knees with legislative hearings. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio wants to impose sanctions on Canada, and revoke the visas of officials deemed complicit. Donald Trump, of course imposed tariffs on Canada immediately after complaining about the smoke. All silly and damaging. …Does MAGA know the United States doesn’t have fire solved? In fact, the U.S. is having a miserable fire year. …It’s not just North America. Asia, Australia, Russia and Europe are setting records.

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Conservationists worry Endangered Species Act changes could threaten recovery efforts

By Elise Plunk
Lousiana Illuminator
July 27, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

©USFS

The U.S. Department of Interior announced in July it would no longer consider habitat destruction as direct harm to a species. This goes directly against the conclusions of conservationists who work to bring species back from the brink. “We cannot avoid extinction without protecting habitat,” said ​​Vicky Meretsky, a professor at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. “You can’t save a species that is becoming homeless without providing a home.” Meretsky worked for years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revive numbers of the California condor, which had fallen to 22 birds in 1982. Habitat loss was among the factors that caused the species, which now numbers more than 600, to nearly go extinct. Meretsky said it is impossible to separate habitat protection from endangered species protection. …The red-cockaded woodpecker’s recovery struggles are, in part, because of how severe its habitat problems are.

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Scientists decry Trump’s ‘blame game’ after he claims Canada ‘poisoning’ US air

By Oliver Milman
The Guardian
July 24, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Lori Daniels

Scientists have reacted with incredulity after Donald Trump accused Canada of “poisoning” the US’s air with smoke billowing from a slew of forest fires and threatened sanctions upon the country’s northern neighbor. The US president has said that he raised the issue of smoke wafting into the US from nearly 1,000 Canadian wildfires with Mark Carney, the country’s prime minister, at the weekend’s World Cup final. …Bernie Moreno, a Republican senator from Ohio, said he will introduce legislation to sanction Canada for the “atrocity” of not managing its forests properly. Such threats have been met with shock in Canada, where thousands of people have been evacuated from fires that have badly burned remote towns. …Attacking Canada over the fires is “unfounded, uninformed and even insensitive to people losing homes and fire fighters putting their lives on the line”, said Lori Daniels, an ecologist and wildfire expert at the University of British Columbia.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Three-Fourths of Carbon Emissions From 2023 Record-Breaking Wildfires in Canada Traced to Soil and Peat Combustion

Advancing Earth and Space Sciences
July 27, 2026
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

The 2023 wildfires in Canada burned a record-breaking area, contributing 23% of global wildfire carbon emissions that year. Yet, the relative contributions from live biomass versus soil and peat organic matter combustion were previously unknown. Our analysis reveals a total of 554 million tonnes of carbon released by the 2023 wildfires in Canada, with 76% originating from soil and peat combustion, and 24% from live biomass burning. As Canada stores about one-fifth of the world’s soil organic carbon, these findings underscore the growing vulnerability of northern soil carbon stocks to intensifying wildfires, amplifying climate feedback risks.

Additional coverage in the Globe and Mail, by Ivan Semeniuk: High proportion of Canadian wildfire smoke originates below ground, scientists report

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Forest Fires

BC Wildfire Service hopes to take advantage of cooler weather on Boston Bar-area wildfires

By Josh Dawson
Castanet
July 26, 2026
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada West

©BCWildfireService

With cooler temperatures and higher humidity in the forecast over the coming days in the Fraser Canyon, the BC Wildfire Service is hoping to use the more favourable conditions to make progress on containing several out-of-control wildfires. The Brunswick Complex consists of the Ainslie Creek fire, the Brunswick Creek fire and the Anderson Creek fire. Morgan Blois, BCWS fire information officer, said cooler temperatures and higher relative humidity is helping keep fire behaviour less aggressive than over the previous several days. “Because it is still quite dry out there as the wind increases in the afternoon, fire behaviour becomes wind and slope driven and so still potential for growth and for aggressive fire behaviour,” she said. With cooler weather expected to continue over the next several days, Blois said those conditions should help keep fire behaviour at “a more reasonable level.” She said there is still potential for aggressive behaviour in the late afternoons, when temperatures hit their peaks.

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Ainslie Creek wildfire prompts evacuation orders and alerts near Merritt

By Elora McCormack
CFJC Today Kamloops
July 25, 2026
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada West

©BCWildfireService

MERRITT, B.C. — The Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) has issued an Evacuation Order for more than 60 properties in response to the growing Ainslie Creek wildfire. The order is in effect for 61 addressed properties in Electoral Areas “I” (Blue Sky Country) and “N” (Beautiful Nicola Valley – South)… “If you are in the described area, you must leave immediately. A person must not enter the Evacuation Order area for purposes of residing, occupying, or visiting the area,” said the TNRD. The Nooaitch Indian Band has also issued an Evacuation Order for its main reserve – IR 10 – upgrading an Evacuation Alert that has been in place since July 8. Evacuees are being directed to the emergency support services (ESS) reception centre in Kamloops. Meanwhile, the Lower Nicola Indian Band (LNIB) has issued an Evacuation Alert in response to the out of control fires in the Brunswick Complex. …The Coldwater Indian Band has also issued an evacuation alert for Paul’s Basin IR No. 2, while the Shackan Indian Band has issued its own evacuation alerts.

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Thunder Bay 36 largest wildfire in Ontario history — by far

By Mike Stimpson
Elliot Lake Today
July 26, 2026
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada East

THUNDER BAY — There’s no end in sight to Whitesand First Nation’s evacuation, Chief Lawrence Wanakamik said Thursday. “But we’ll see next week,” Wanakamik told Newswatch… The chief said he heard earlier this week from band members who are still on the reserve next to Armstrong, and they said all buildings there are still standing. Whitesand and Armstrong, about 220 kilometres north of the city, evacuated last week as a raging forest fire neared the communities. The blaze, which has merged with other wildfires and is now labelled Thunder Bay 36, remains out of control and spans over 315,000 hectares — making it not just the largest wildfire of the 2026 season, but the largest ever recorded in Ontario. The mega-blaze measured at 318,813 hectares Wednesday evening but was re-mapped for accuracy at 315,431 hectares the next day. That far exceeds the previous provincial record of 196,974 hectares set by last year’s Red Lake 12 wildland fire.

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Wildfires up 57% in Europe in just four years, World Health Organization warns

By Giedre Peseckyte
Euro News
July 25, 2026
Category: Forest Fires
Region: International

As wildfires rage across parts of Europe, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a sharp rise in wildfires across the region and their growing toll on human health. This summer, wildfires have broken out in France, Germany, Greece, Spain and Portugal, with firefighters killed while battling blazes in France and Italy. From the start of the year until 22 July, 1,254 fires have been detected in Europe, emitting over 8.31 million tonnes of CO₂. Concerningly, wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense in Europe, WHO Europe said on Friday. Portugal and Spain have each reported a 100% increase in wildfires this year compared with the same period in 2025. Since 2022, the number of wildfires has risen by 57% across the WHO European Region. Last year alone, around 2.2 million hectares burned, while 254,388 hectares had already been destroyed by 22 July this year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. And it is only going to get worse.

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Macron calls crisis meeting as wildfires threaten Bordeaux and heatwave looms

By Chris Graham and Yang Tian
BBC News
July 26, 2026
Category: Forest Fires
Region: International

© elysee.fr

French President Emmanuel Macron will a hold a crisis cabinet meeting on Monday as wildfires close in on the south-western city of Bordeaux. Another heatwave is set to complicate efforts to tackle the expanding blaze, which is about 15km (9 miles) from Bordeaux, mayor Thomas Cazenave said. Earlier he said there were no plans to evacuate the population of about 850,000. Wildfires have raged across Europe over the past week, primarily in France and Spain, where more than 330,000 people have been evacuated across both countries. Macron said on Saturday that France would “rebuild” and his government would “be there for as long as is needed”. Tens of thousands of people have already been evacuated from Bordeaux’s surrounding region, with France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez saying the situation remained “very unfavourable” and the fire was “moving erratically” towards the city. Weather forecasts for the country warned that temperatures could spike to 40C in some areas from Tuesday.

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