On the eve of the annual Truck Loggers Association Convention, Executive Director Peter Lister opines on DRIPA and BC’s forestry crisis. In related news: another law firm compares the BC and New Brunswick Aboriginal title decisions; Corner Brook Pulp & Paper gears up to resume production; the CUSMA review looms in 2026; and Greenpeace questions Domtar’s intentions with Canadian forests.
In Forestry news: Vancouver begins the final phase of its mitigation work in Stanley Park; the World Resources Institute says the world is losing its forests to wildfire; Utah researchers link hot days with wildfire outbreaks; Virginia lawmakers push back on Roadless Rule repeal; and Scotland works to save its ancient pine forests. Meanwhile: the BC Forest Safety Council launched a mental health support program for forestry workers; SFI released its 2025 progress report; FSC Canada’s New Year’s message; and the lastest from the Forest Genetics Council of BC.
Finally, a winter escape to 10 of the world’s most spectacular tree houses.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
Two recent decisions from the courts of British Columbia and New Brunswick have addressed the relationship between Aboriginal title and private property rights. In Cowichan Tribes v. Canada, the Supreme Court of BC granted a declaration of Aboriginal title, which included lands held in fee simple by third parties. In contrast, in JD Irving Limited et al. v. Wolastoqey Nation, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal held that such a declaration could not extend to privately-owned lands. While these remedial declarations are discretionary, the apparent conflict in judicial approaches raises questions about the future approach to Aboriginal title claims in respect of private property. What you need to know:
With the fate of North America’s free trade pact on the line, 2026 will be a significant year for some of Canada’s hardest-hit sectors in the trade war with the United States—including auto, steel, forestry and aluminum—as they advocate for Ottawa to do what’s necessary to preserve the deal, and to also help these sectors in the meantime by following through on domestic support measures. …Derek Nighbor, CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, said that Canada’s auto and forestry sectors are among the most highly-integrated with the US. While both sectors share this deep integration, Nighbor highlighted a critical distinction for forestry: unlike other industries, forestry facilities cannot be relocated to another country because the natural resource—the trees—remain in Canada. This comment comes amid heightened concerns regarding the 2026 CUSMA review and ongoing trade disputes, such as US softwood lumber tariffs. [to access the full story a Hill Times subscription is required]
Environmental group Greenpeace is calling for more transparency on the part of Canada’s largest pulp and paper company, saying it has received millions of dollars in government funding without providing the public with details of how that money is being used or sharing its plans for the future of Canada’s forests. In a report entitled 
Nearly 1,060 hectares is being added to West Twin Protected Area to increase protection of important wildlife habitat across the Robson Valley. …West Twin Protected Area was established in 2001, and together with adjacent West Twin Park, covers more than 30,000 hectares to form the only protected wildlife corridor across the Robson Valley. The area spans from the Cariboo Mountains in the south, through the main Robson Valley trench and up to the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains. The additional land improves habitat connection for caribou, moose, elk, deer, grizzly bears and many other species. The Crown land was originally identified for protection through the Robson Valley Land and Resource Management Plan, but the land had two historical mineral claims that have now been forfeited. The land also contains old-growth priority deferral areas and an existing old-growth management area.
SEATTLE — Twenty-five years ago, I stood in a snowy National Arboretum in Washington, DC, shaking hands with President Bill Clinton at the signing ceremony for the most important forest conservation mandate in our country’s history. But now that landmark law, which went into effect on Jan. 12, 2001, is hanging by a thread, marked for repeal by the Trump administration — even though 99% of citizen input opposes the idea. The “Roadless Rule” was adopted to curtail harmful logging and industrial roadbuilding across 58 million undeveloped acres of our national forests. More than 2 million acres of those wild lands are in Washington, helping keep this the Evergreen State. …Trump officials claim that opening these areas to bulldozers and chain saws will protect communities from wildfire. But that’s a story that just doesn’t wash. [to access the full story a Seattle Times subscription is required]
President Donald Trump’s administration has set in motion efforts to repeal the Roadless Rule, a 2001 administrative mandate that put 45 million acres of the least developed forest land under protection from logging and construction of roads. As the nation observes the rule’s 25th anniversary, Virginia’s federal lawmakers and advocates are calling for its preservation and say hundreds of thousands of acres of forests could be at stake if it is axed. The federal government has framed the proposed repeal as necessary for forest management against wildfires. …Environmental advocates have said since last summer that repealing the rule will lead to land degradation, sediment pollution, and create risks to clean water sources. It would also open up large swaths of the 400,000 acres of the protected forestland in Virginia to logging and potential new roads.
The world is losing forests to fire at an unsustainable rate, experts have warned. …in recent decades [wildfire] scale, frequency and intensity in carbon-rich forests have surged. Research from the World Resources Institute (WRI) shows that fires now destroy more than twice as much tree cover as they did two decades ago. In 2024 alone, 135,000km² of forest burned – the most extreme wildfire year on record. Yet fires in other landscapes have not risen in the same way, according to research from the University of Tasmania. While the total area burned globally has fallen for decades as farms have expanded across Africa and slowed the spread of blazes – forests have become a new hotspot. …Four of the five worst years on record have occurred since 2020. Research from the WRI shows that 2024 was the first time that major fires raged across tropical, hot and humid forests such as the Amazon, and boreal forests, such as those spanning Canada’s vast coniferous regions.
Young tropical forests play a crucial role in slowing climate change. …But, according to a new study, CO2 absorption may be slowed down by the lack of a crucial element that trees need to grow: nitrogen. Published in Nature Communications … the study estimates that if 
Scots Pines once dominated the landscape of Scotland, part of the vast Caledonian Forest which began to spread some 10,000 years ago after the end of the last ice age. Now only one per cent of the original forest remains in more than 80 pockets scattered mainly across the Highlands. Conservationists say there is an urgent need to improve the protection of these forests as climate change and threats from disease intensify. A new study from the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen has revealed the environmental importance of preserving native woodlands. The research suggests the Scots pine alone supports nearly 1,600 separate species, including 227 that rely on it entirely. “Very few other tree species will support that range of biodiversity,” said Dr Ruth Mitchell, who led the study. “Species that use Scots pine include birds, mosses, lichens, fungi and invertebrates.”
