All old-growth forest on Crown land is now protected as part of Nova Scotia’s new approach to ecological forestry. In related news: Canada and Nova Scotia commit to nature and biodiversity; a First Nation title case tests BC’s UNDRIP promise; and a new documentary on the battle over the Amazon rainforest.
In Business news: Canfor invests in Mobile, Alabama sawmill; the Village of Fraser Lake plans for West Fraser curtailments; a sawmill fire breaks out at New Brunswick GL Wood Products; and mass timber progress (and set backs) in Vancouver and New York.
Finally, Global Forest Watch says forest fire losses are getting worse, as fires claim 26 lives in Northern Algeria.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
EUROPE — “A price drop of as much as 25 percent, combined with other factors, creates a new reality for the paper industry,” explains Yasser Ismail, RCP expert at Geminor. Paper production and the re-use of paper for recycling is a huge business in Europe. …But by the end of July, we are seeing a radical change. “The signs of a back-bouncing market were present back in May, but were not expected before Q4”, explains Yasser Ismail. “Some of the world’s largest packaging producers located throughout Europe are reporting a decrease in their recovered paper demand. This is because the market for packaging goods is under pressure and starting to tumble. Ismail has over 23 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry. He has not seen a quicker change in the packaging market since the crises of 2008.
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HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Canada and Nova Scotia marked their shared commitment to nature conservation next to the Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes wilderness area, the site of the first proposed national urban park in Nova Scotia. The two governments agreed to work on a funded Nature Agreement that will focus on a number of nature-related opportunities, including protecting more natural spaces in Nova Scotia and increasing habitat protection for species at risk and migratory birds; complete the pre-feasibility assessment and work toward the designation of the proposed national urban park at Blue Mountain – Birch Cove Lakes; seek new opportunities for connecting key areas of protected and conserved lands, including by completing a pilot project in Nova Scotia under Parks Canada’s National Program for Ecological Corridors; and develop a funding agreement to conserve old-growth forests and address the hemlock woolly adelgid.
“Frankly, our people have been kicking butt,” said the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Tim Holschbach, Deputy Chief of Policy and Planning for the Fire Protection Division. As of Monday, ODF Districts have suppressed 418 fires, and held them to 582 acres total. The 10-year average for this point in the fire season is 590 fires and 56,121 acres burned. …More people have been the key to knocking out fires on lands the department is responsible for protecting. “Investments into the wildfire protection system from Senate Bill 762 allowed us to not only hire additional season firefighters to increase response, but also additional full-time positions to increase response capacity year-round,” said Holschbach.
Recently the federal government released its Confronting Wildfire Crisis plan to control wildfires in the West. …it focuses on removing “fuels” as its solution and calls for escalating fuel reductions (read: logging) up to four times over current levels and treating up to 50 million acres of land. …The distorted worldview of the timber industry and federal agencies see forest ecosystems as “fuels” rather than important wildlife habitat or critical for carbon storage. Ironically at about the same time as the new plan emerged, the largest wildfire in New Mexico history, the 340,000-acre Hermit Peak blaze, came to a quiet end this month. What stopped the fire? Was it firefighting? Did the fire run into fuel breaks? Did thinning halt its spread? What happened is that the summer monsoon rains began to fall …logging/thinning to reduce wildfires is an excellent example of treating the symptom rather than the cause of large fires. 
In the 1980s the Brazilian government made contact with the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people, an Indigenous tribe living in the Amazon rainforest, in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Though their population was in the thousands pre-contact, outsiders brought in disease which took their numbers down to less than a hundred by the early 90s. Today there are estimated to be around 200 left. Despite being granted protection of their land by the government in 1993, those remaining face constant threats from loggers and settlers. …A new documentary called The Territory, explores this tension, following both the tribe and their invaders, bringing the viewer up close and personal into this desperate fight to save the rainforest. …It’s hard not to see the parallels [with] similar fights right here in Canada in places like Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island, where protesters have been defending old growth trees from logging.
KUALA LUMPUR – Several European nations have in recent months struggled to cope with raging wildfires – driven by deadly heatwaves and drought – which have displaced thousands of people. As well as stretching emergency services to breaking point and causing harm to both the environment and people, wildfires release planet-warming carbon dioxide, further fuelling climate change. Globally, forest fires are getting worse – with the 2021 fire season the second-worst on record, according to the University of Maryland and monitoring service Global Forest Watch. …The increase in boreal forest fires is likely due to northern high-latitude regions warming at a faster rate than the rest of the planet, the new research said. …Improving forest resilience by halting deforestation and forest degradation is considered vital to preventing future fires, as is limiting nearby burning that can easily escape into forests, especially during droughts.
NORTH VANCOUVER, BC
President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (HR 5376) (the IRA or the Act),on August 16, 2022. …The IRA includes a number of key changes relevant to clean energy in the US, among them the extension of the Investment Tax Credit and Production Tax Credit and the addition of expanded tax credits for other technologies and for manufacturing of clean energy equipment as well as terms allowing parties to more easily monetize the tax credits. …The expanded tax credits will encourage the development of projects deploying emissions-free generation on a technology-neutral basis. The Act also includes tax credits for stand-alone energy storage which to date has only qualified when paired with solar or other projects claiming the ITC. …The Production Tax Credit (PTC) is extended to projects (wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, hydropower) beginning construction before January 1, 2025. 
ALGIERS, ALGERIA —