Mosaic Forest Management launched its annual photo contest on July 1. Photographers of all levels are invited to submit their favourite images of B.C.’s wild West Coast for a chance to win one of three 14-day camping passes valid at any Mosaic campsite. Two of the winners will be chosen by a panel of Mosaic staff, and the third winner will be selected this year through a new category of the People’s Choice Award. … Mosaic’s newest opportunity for even more spectacular photos is at its Macktush campground, located south of Port Alberni, where everyone can enjoy coastal forest walking trails and access to world class sockeye fishing on the Alberni Inlet. This brings the number of Mosaic not-for-profit campsites to 12. …To enter, visit www.mosaicforests.com/contest to upload a photo, or share on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #MosaicCampsiteContest. The contest remains open until midnight on Sept. 10, 2020.

There is still a lot of work to do but Mayor Bob Simpson says Quesnel has never been closer to finally getting a community forest. He says the City has had a number of opportunities in the past, dating back as far as 1997, but he says they’ve never come this far. …“We have an agreement in principle, not formal, just verbal, that we want to see a contiguous land base surrounding the City of Quesnel that takes in the area that we call the interface between the built up area and the forest. …Simpson says they are probably at the very front end of a two year long process at a minimum. …He says they have about 77 thousand cubic meters of conifer and deciduous trees, but Simpson says they won’t be taking timber away from the local mills…

Gary Foster

FORT NELSON, B.C. – On June 29, it was announced that a partnership between Fort Nelson First Nation and Northern Rockies Regional Municipality had received the largest community forest licence ever awarded in British Columbia. With an annual allowable cut of up to 217,650 cubic metres from approximately 200,000 hectares of specified Crown land in the Fort Nelson area, the licence awarded has both the largest harvestable volume, as well as the largest physical area, of any community forest in the province. Once in operation and local manufacturing resumes, Northern Rockies Mayor Gary Foster says this partnership means a source of revenue to the partners for reinvestment in the community. …Foster also says the partnership will help to restore the working relationship between the First Nation and the Municpality.

EDMONTON – Four years after its flames guttered out, the record-breaking Fort McMurray wildfire continues to astound — this time with its lasting impact on an extensive river system.  “It’s actually stunning that we were able to observe an effect at that large scale,” said Uldis Silins, a University of Alberta professor and co-author of a recently published study on how the 2016 blaze affected the Athabasca River.  In May 2016, the fire swept through nearly 6,000 square kilometres of boreal forest in northern Alberta. …Almost immediately after the city was safely cleared, Silins and his colleagues were flown in as part of an emergency reaction team to assess the threat to Fort McMurray’s water supply. …The scientists were amazed when, every time it rained, they were able to detect significant increases in ash, potassium, nitrogen, calcium and heavy metals such as lead even within the river’s normal load.