Washington State announced it will conserve 77,000 acres of “legacy forests”— to the chagrin of industry and environmentalists. In other Forestry news: BC Forest Minister Ravi Parmar tours Port Alberni sites; researchers track bat populations in BC cutblocks; North Cowichan council re-prioritizes harvesting in its community forest; and New Brunswick eases Crown Land restrictions. Meanwhile: record heat renews fire risk on Vancouver Island; US groups clash over spotted owl protections; and bull trout streams face logging lawsuits in Montana.
In Business news: Kimberly-Clark shifts four production lines offshore; and Trex reports Q2 sales increase; lumber futures slide after tariff-driven rally; and concerns rise over US lumber demand. Meanwhile: Novo Textile to expand its uses of BC wood pulp fibres; Arkansas’s Timber University is impacting architecture; BC introduces a new method for forest carbon accounting; EU wildfire emissions hit record levels; and wildfires updates from Nova Scotia, Oregon and California.
Finally, Jeff Keller is named Western Wood Products Association President.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
COQUITLAM, BC — Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacifiCan), announced an investment of over $6.8 million for two Coquitlam-based businesses that are developing technologies to reduce waste and advance sustainability in the energy and textile sectors. …Novo Textile Company is receiving an investment of over $1.8 million to expand its textile recycling capacity. Novo plans to bind recycled fibres with BC wood pulp fibres to produce Canadian-made textiles at a competitive price. This will strengthen Canadian supply chains and divert 15 million pounds of garment waste from landfills annually. …Novo Textiles was incorporated in 1991 as a supplier of fibre-filled home textiles. Most recently, Novo introduced a textile recycling production line, continuing its evolution within the textile sector. It is estimated that 92 million tonnes of textile waste ends up in landfills annually.
THE majority of consumers cannot identify the primary cause of deforestation – with an increasing number linking it to timber production. That’s going by the results of a major survey from the paper and pulp industry, which also found that more than 60 per cent of people believe only recycled paper should be used to produce new paper products. In contrast, 60 per cent of European consumers believe urban development poses the greatest threat, an increase from 55 per cent in both 2021 and 2023. 58 per cent believe palm oil plantations (up from 52 per cent in 2023), 54 per cent think construction and timber (up from 52 per cent in 2023), 52 per cent believe energy and wood fuel (slightly down from 54 per cent), and 46 per cent deem the paper and pulp industry is the most significant contributor – up from 42 per cent in 2023. …In reality, deforestation is primarily driven by agricultural expansion, especially in tropical and sub-tropical regions.
An international research project in the northern is taking a hard look at the decline of keynote bat populations in a bid to help area ecosystems survive and thrive. Efforts to preserve a population of northern myotis – an endangered bat species that used to be found throughout eastern B.C., but whose range has been contracting to the central Interior – are under way near Kinbasket Lake, north of Revelstoke and Golden. Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society … are planting fake bark to mimic the old-growth trees where the northern myotis roosts, and on the north side they are using radio detectors to determine how many of the bats are present in logged areas. Logging may not be an automatic death sentence to bat populations, Lausen says, but it needs to stay within the limits of what northern myotis colonies can sustain. One of the project’s goals is to identify those limits.
On the heels of record-breaking daily high temperatures, Vancouver Islanders face warmer than usual weather this week. Temperatures will continue to “remain well above seasonal” into mid-week for east and inland Vancouver Island with cooler temperatures overnight, according to an Environment Canada statement issued early Aug. 26. The extra warm conditions are expected to persist from inland Greater Victoria, up the east coast from Nanoose Bay to Fanny Bay. Cloud cover is expected Thursday. The Malahat area broke the newest record on the Island, hitting 30.2 C, topping the 29.8 daily record set in 2022. Nanaimo tied the oldest record, hitting a high of 33.3 set in 1958. Campbell River, Courtenay and Comox all flirted with 2016 records, with Campbell River shading the old 30 C temperature, hitting 30.2. Comox and Courtenay both tied the 2016 record of 30.3. The heat coincided with a new wildfire discovered Aug. 24 south of Nanaimo. The 8.6-hectare fire was classified as being held as of Tuesday morning.
Harvesting in North Cowichan’s 5,000-hectare municipal forest reserve (MFR) is considered a primary issue for the rest of council’s term, which ends in October, 2026. On Aug. 20, council voted 4-3 to make harvesting, which hasn’t taken place since 2019, one of its strategic priorities. Coun. Bruce Findlay pointed out that the municipality has received no revenues from harvesting in the MFR for six years, and it may take several more years yet as negotiations with the Quw’utsun Nation on co-management of the MFR continue. …Despite the vote, CAO Ted Swabey advised council that he thinks that it’s unlikely that any harvesting could actually take place before the end of council’s term. …The public engagement aspect of the forest review concluded in early 2023, and the feedback from that process found very strong support for active conservation in the MFR, which would allow for targeted harvesting to provide some income, while restoring and enhancing biodiversity.
The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) was developed in 1994 for the 24 million acres of federal land within the range of the northern spotted owl… A network of large reserves for the spotted owl across its range (late successional reserves (LSRs)) were created in the NWFP along with a system of riparian buffers to protect streamside areas. …The Forest Service is currently updating the NWFP and chartered a committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to help advise on amending the plan. …We strongly endorse this proposal for widespread restoration treatments in dry forests inside and outside of the LSRs. Reducing stand densities in these forests while retaining all trees over 150 years of age is essential to owl survival, as is reintroduction of fire as a regular management tool. …Integrating forest restoration in dry forests with spotted owl conservation is one of the biggest challenges in updating the NWFP.
Climate-heating emissions from wildfires in the European Union have surged to record levels this year as flames have engulfed over 1 million hectares of land – equal to 13 times the size of New York City – since January. Blazes sweeping through the continent – with major hotspots in Spain and Portugal – have so far released 38.37 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere, more than the annual CO2 emissions of Sweden, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). That’s more than double the average historical CO2 emissions recorded during the same months over the last 20 years. …Forests act as important carbon sinks, but when they burn, they release back into the atmosphere the carbon stored in the trunks, branches and leaves of their trees as well as in the soil. …Scientists have warned of the emergence of a ‘feedback loop’ between climate change and fires. 
A wildfire that destroyed four homes in central Oregon was starting to stabilize on Monday, authorities said, while a blaze in Northern California wine country has so far spared some of the state’s most famous vineyards. Moisture helped the 1,200 firefighters battling Oregon’s Flat Fire, but more work needed to be done. Dry, hot weather had fueled a rapid expansion of the blaze across 34 square miles of rugged terrain in Deschutes and Jefferson counties since the fire began late Thursday. …Officials said firefighters had protective lines of some sort around the entire fire, including roads, but the fire remained at 5% containment. …Meanwhile, the Pickett Fire in Northern California has charred about 10 square miles of remote Napa County, known for its hundreds of wineries. It was 15% contained on Monday. …western United States have been sweltering in a heat wave … with temperatures hitting dangerous levels in Washington, Oregon, Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.