Thanks to a $20 million investment over the past two years, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry’s Sudbury Fire Management Headquarters have been able to better meet the mandate of fighting and controlling forest fires across the region. “It allows us to do our jobs a lot more seamlessly,” said Shayne McCool, a fire…
Scientists at Natural Resources Canada say that about 80 per cent of the spruce budworm moths they collected after a migration event in the Campbellton-Dalhousie area last month were female. Millions of the moths descended on the area covering parking lots, gas stations and cars in the northern communities. Rob Johns, an insect ecologist with…
As crews battle three wildfires in western Nova Scotia, the province is restricting activity within forests in a bid to keep more bone-dry woods from going up in flames. “We can manage the fires we’ve got. If we get many more, it’s going to cause great concern for us,” Natural Resources Minister Lloyd Hines said Monday, who warned…
Forty hectares have never looked so good. At the end of June, the Cumberland Community Forest Society (CCFS) took a huge leap forward in their goal of purchasing, protecting and restoring the Cumberland forest that borders the village. Thanks to a $100,000 grant from Mountain Equipment Co-op, the society was able to purchase the area…
Hot, dry and humid conditions have created the perfect scenario for forest fires in the Northeast region of Ontario, which includes South Temiskaming. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) say the North Bay 32 fire, located 12.5 kilometers west of Latchford, measuring 59 hectares is currently listed as not under control. MNRF crews…
The Supreme Court of Canada recently announced it will not hear an appeal, from a forestry firm’s captive reinsurance company, of a ruling arising from a disputed $25-million liability insurance claim. This means that an order for a new trial in British Columbia, of a claim from Swiss Re for recission, now stands. American International…
David Derbowka has long turned to trees to clean up toxic landfills, using plantations of poplars to draw contaminants from polluted soil. Now he is teaming up with a University of British Columbia chemist in a project aimed at extracting from the trees the chemicals they absorbed through their extensive root systems. It is taking…
More than four years after a Cherryville landslide almost destroyed a home, provincial documents that shed light on the cause of the slide have been made public. The reports backup what locals have feared all along – an upslope logging project helped trigger the slide. Both Weyerhaeuser (WEYCO), which built logging roads in the area,…
Cherryville residents are reigniting calls for restricted logging activities on the hills above them after viewing details into a landslide. Freedom of Information requests have led to the Ministry of Forests releasing investigation and geotechnical reports into a slide that roared down Cherry Ridge and came close to a home in April 2012. “When we…
UBC is partnering with a BC company to turn soil contaminants into household products. As part of the partnership, UBC Okanagan chemist Susan Murch will work with Passive Remediation Systems Ltd. (PRS) to find ways to pull natural and industrial chemicals out of vegetation that is being used to remediate a decommissioned landfill in Salmon…