Adam Yeadon

The Adam Yeadon Memorial Scholarship is currently accepting applications. This scholarship aims to assist students from the Northwest Territories (NWT) who are seeking education in forestry or wildfire management. “As someone who chose to pursue a career in this field, I can confidently say there are many rewarding paths this industry can provide for your future. I encourage anyone interested to apply,” says Jay Macdonald, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. The Adam Yeadon Memorial Scholarship was created in 2024 to commemorate Yeadon’s legacy. The anniversary of Yeadon’s passing, who died on July 15 while defending his community on the fire line, was observed by family, friends, and the NWT Fire team in Fort Liard as they came together to remember and heal. Scholarships will be awarded to full-time post-secondary students who are enrolled in approved diploma, degree, or training programs in forestry or wildfire management.

The Alberni Valley Community Forest board has once again delivered a $300,000 dividend cheque to its sole shareholder, the City of Port Alberni. The dividends came from operating revenue in 2023 and were presented at the AVCF annual general meeting on May 22, 2024, community forest manager Chris Law said. The AVCF has contributed between $4 million and $5 million to the city since it was established, he added, including $2.5 million toward the purchase of the Somass Sawmill lands. Law and the AVCF board were busy this spring assessing their cut level to ensure it remains sustainable. “We’re only cutting half of what we’re allowed,” Law noted. “We’re not sure that’s sustainable in the long run.” …The AVCF is up to date on replanting what has been harvested, he added. Ongoing drought conditions have been challenging as mortality of seedlings is higher, however, anything that was lost due to drought has also been replanted at additional cost.

RE: Reconnecting with forests and the need for responsible logging: Dear Brittny. Thank you for your testimonial of our adventure up Sproule Creek in the Nelson Star. It was my pleasure to share the magic of this place and reflect on the disastrous effect on this community watershed if we were to continue to exploit and build new roads through this primary forest. …I appreciate you highlighting the work of local community forests and small scale operations (such as Harrop-Procter). I believe that broad scale industrial forestry has much to learn from these progressive ways. In particular, British Columbia Timber Sales (BCTS) which is government owned and operated, as well as the Ministry of Forests, who relies on the archaic professional reliance model and the overinflated annual allowable cut method of approving permits. …If citizens are to consider re-electing the NDP, a major overhaul of BCTS is needed. We are counting on you.

For years, Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper have removed trees and branches, logged a firebreak, ignited controlled burns and asked residents to clear yard debris in hopes of protecting the forest-nestled town from a dangerous blaze. Those mitigations may now be put to the test. …”A big part of these treatments is not necessarily to stop the fire cold in its tracks, but to slow the fire and keep the fire on the surface rather than spreading fire in the canopy,” said Jen Beverly, a University of Alberta associate professor. …Parks Canada’s uses strategies like prescribed burns and the maintenance of a fireguard to protect properties and important sites in Jasper National Park. The federal agency and the municipality have been working to thin the forest around the town since 2003. In 2018 and 2019, they also hired Canfor to carefully cut down trees on a slope west of town to create a protective firebreak.

With hundreds of wildfires burning across Canada amid a period of extreme heat for multiple regions, how does the season in 2024 rank when looking at the historical and destructive 2023? …To date, Canada has had nearly 3,700 blazes burn approximately 2.2 million hectares of land so far this year, with about 1,000 active wildfires across the country as of July 24. The good news is that it is considerably less than what was burned countrywide around this time last year. Approximately 11.9 million hectares of land had been scorched through July 2023. …Around the same time last year, BC had seen roughly 1.46 million hectares of land burned, thanks to a surge in fire activity. For 2024, the total is noticeably less, with wildfires burning a total of more than 790,000 hectares. …For Alberta, by July 22, 2023, there was 1.75 million hectares burned while there has been roughly 540,000 hectares burned so far this year.