To read Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees is to discover a secret world that you never knew existed in the forest. You’ll learn how fungi acts as the Internet of the woods to communicate signals between trees and other plant life, mother trees stunt the growth of their young to ensure that they…
Vancouver Island’s rainforests are among the rarest ecosystems on the planet — temperate rainforests have never occupied more than 0.5 per cent of the earth’s land surface. They are also among its richest — they have been home to First Nations for time immemorial, and they contribute to a diverse economy including forestry, tourism and…
An audit of Canfor’s Tree Farm Licence (TFL) 14, south of Golden, found compliance with British Columbia’s forestry legislation, according to a report released today. “Canfor complied with requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act,” said Tim Ryan, board chair. “Auditors did find that Canfor had not completed fire-hazard assessments…
Colin Richardson has fished along the Skidegate Channel in Haida Gwaii all his life. As a child, he worked as a deckhand on his father’s commercial fishing-boat, trolling for halibut and salmon. The popular channel connects the Pacific Ocean to Hecate Strait and is lined with mountains that have been heavily logged over the past…
Approaches to forest management must change if B.C. wants to end bug outbreaks sooner, said the closing speaker at a two-day summit on managing the spread of spruce beetles. “We need to keep the system in focus and remember the beetles are always there. They may not always kill trees but we need to act…
The Tumbler Ridge Community Forest is expanding. Recently, the Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resource Operations allocated 15,500 cubic meters of coniferous volume and 2000 cubic meters of deciduous volume to the annual allowable cut that the Tumbler Ridge Community Forest is allowed to harvest. This bumps the total annual allowable cut for the…
A Victoria-based filmmaker is shedding light on B.C.’s coastal forest industry with a new documentary series entitled Heartwood: A West Coast Forest Documentree. In his series, Daniel J. Pierce highlights coastal communities, like Port Alberni, Cortes Island and Port Hardy, that are uniting to defend the last few pockets of old-growth temperate rainforest on the…
The Province has released its Industry Outlook Profile for the next ten years, predicting which sectors will see growth and job demands. The report, ( accessible here) has detailed employment growth and job openings forecast information. It is predicted thee will be nearly a million job openings in B.C. y 2025, with most of those…
About a third of this year’s spruce beetle larvae are expected to mature a early, adding their number to the outbreak as next year’s crop takes flight in the spring. Most of the spruce beetle in the Omineca region – about 85 per cent – typically follow a two-year life cycle, said Robert Hodgkinson, a…
Limited seats are available for the four-month Coastal Forest Resource program in Campbell River this January, designed to give students an advantage in BC’s forestry industry. The four-month program provides students with hands-on skills and knowledge to start outdoor careers on the B.C. coast. Graduates say the program provided enriching career opportunities on the BC…