Forsite Consultants kick-off Wildfire Resilience and Awareness week with a feature on full-circle fire resiliency. In related news: the US West struggles to recover from wildfires; climate smart forestry can save carbon without harvest change; and Simpcw First Nation pushes back on BC’s old-growth strategy.
In other news: Kruger gets Kamloops City support for fibre access; Cooper Creek Cedar is investigated for Kootenay Lake clearcut; DroneSeed acquires Cal Forest Nurseries; and some wood innovations courtesy the Northern Forest Center. Meanwhile: the Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau has a new grading rule book; and the UK timber industry launches a wood and fire safety website.
Finally, why are ecologists yelling at frogs in the forest?
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Forestry Corporation ecologists have spent the week walking through Bondo State Forest near Tumut calling ‘hey frog’ – The most effective survey technique for detecting the critically endangered Northern Corroboree Frog. Amazingly, yelling ‘Hey Frog’ elicits a response from the frogs, which call out in response. Without this technique, the frogs would otherwise remain hidden in the wetlands, said Rohan Bilney, Senior Field Ecologist with Forestry Corporation. …“In late summer, the male corroboree frogs will call out in response to us bellowing “Hey frog” in a deep voice — they are usually sitting in their nest defending their territory,” Dr Bilney said. “So the survey method involves our ecology team essentially wandering through the swamps and bogs in the forest calling ‘hey frog’ to see how many we get calling back.”
BC Wood Free Webinar: March 9, 2023. Indigenous Peoples; Fundamental Information on North America’s Past, Present, and Future – The goal of this presentation is to empower individuals with the baseline knowledge and skills needed to participate in popular culture conversations, specifically related to Indigenous matters, both within and outside of the workplace. It features the voice of Bryan Hansen’s grandmother, a survivor of white assimilation, to help anecdotally relate the content in a more connected manner. Participants will leave this session with an assured sense of correct terminology and a better understanding of fundamental issues such as systemic racism and intergenerational trauma, which may have blocked them from participating in past conversations on Indigenous topics. Participants will learn how valuable it is for them to have a voice through knowledge empowerment, and most importantly, how their voices are needed now more than ever.
SEATTLE
While nationwide single-family housing starts have slowed in the past year, the largest drop on a percentage basis is occurring in the densest counties, due to high housing costs. Meanwhile, multifamily growth was robust throughout much of the nation at the end of 2022, with the notable exception in high-density markets, according to the latest findings from the National Association of Home Builders for the fourth quarter of 2022. …The market share in the single-family market has consistently been changing since the pandemic. As many families move out of densely populated urban centers, there has been more single-family building in outlying areas of metros, small metros, and non-metro areas. The largest increase in market share since the fourth quarter of 2019 was in Micro Counties, where the share increased from 6.0% to 7.4% in the fourth quarter of 2022. 
Government and the B.C.-First Nations Water Table announced an unprecedented $100-million investment in healthy watersheds and the launch of engagement on a new co-developed watershed security strategy intentions paper to help ensure safe, clean water is available to communities throughout B.C. for generations. This $100-million investment in the Watershed Security Fund builds on last year’s $30-million commitment announced in Budget 2022, and will continue to improve B.C.’s watersheds and build on the success of a previous $27-million investment in the Healthy Watersheds Initiative (HWI) under the StrongerBC economic plan. Convened in June 2022, the B.C.-First Nations Water Table (BCFNWT) is made up of representatives from the Province and delegates from First Nations in B.C. This announcement formalizes the BCFNWT’s role co-managing the Watershed Security Fund and further co-development of B.C.’s watershed security strategy.
Though forestry programs have evolved and spread across colleges nationwide, many prospective and current college students remain unaware of this major, experts say. So to increase the visibility of this academic discipline, some colleges have linked forestry with environmental science or natural resources. The emergence of forestry degree programs began at the turn of the 20th century, with the formation of the National Forest System and the U.S. Forest Service, says Thomas DeLuca, dean of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. Established in 1900, The Forest School at Yale University’s School of the Environment in Connecticut is the “oldest continuous professional graduate forestry school in the nation,” according to Yale. …”Forestry has become very popular lately because everyone is looking at us to save the world from climate change,” says Rene Germain, professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.