Following decades of lobbying for a provincial park in the Castle wilderness area, the province’s NDP government will Friday make good on its campaign pledge to better protect the iconic area in southern Alberta. Sources say Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips will announce plans to change the boundaries of the protected area, both expanding the existing wildland park and…
The Nova Scotia government is looking for someone who can study the pulp mill waste treatment plant in Boat Harbour. The province has issued a request for proposal for a hydrogeological study and a geotechnical and contaminant assessment. Labi Kousoulis, minister of internal services, says the assessments and test will help planners better understand surface and groundwater…
A windstorm that toppled trees across British Columbia’s south coast could fuel many fireplaces over the coming winter, but officials hope it will spark something creative, too. The Vancouver Park Board estimates at least 500 trees came down in parks and along boulevards during the Saturday storm, with large canopied trees such as maples, among…
One of the Okanagan’s largest employers, Gorman Bros. Lumber Ltd. has thrived throughout multiple fires, industry changes and an increasing scarcity of raw material. And one big reason for that business longevity is due to the dedicated work of its employees. It’s a story well known all over the Okanagan: A menacing fire broke out…
One of the largest tree-planting exercises in B.C. history is in jeopardy due to drought. Many in the know are worried because the newly planted trees — roughly the size of two toothpaste tubes stacked together — are vulnerable to the parched conditions. This year’s planting is one of the largest on record, with 265…
Canada’s softwood lumber trade agreement with the U.S. expires one week before the Oct. 19 federal election, yet almost no one seems to be talking this long-contentious issue. We ignore it at Western Canada’s peril. Not having a softwood lumber agreement leaves Canada vulnerable to punishing tariffs at the whim of the protectionist U.S. industry….
A new Yale-led study estimates that there are more than 3 trillion trees on Earth, about seven and a half times more than some previous estimates. But the total number of trees has plummeted by roughly 46 percent since the start of human civilization, the study estimates. Using a combination of satellite imagery, forest inventories,…
The BC Interior Forestry Museum is putting on an outdoor movie night series starting this Friday, September 4. The four-movie series looks at all aspects of the forest industry and forest ecology, from firefighting to tree planting. “It is clear Revelstoke cares about their forests. One thing I’ve learned in the five wonderful years I’ve worked at…
A search is underway at UBC for tree seedlings with the DNA to thrive under rapidly changing conditions, with the aim of better preparing B.C.’s forests to withstand climate change. B.C. experienced the driest summer on record this year, and experts say loose soil and brittle root systems may have contributed to the tree wreckage that…
In less than a decade, WorkSafeBC’s video production has evolved from a handful of cassette tapes to tens of millions of views online. Gordon Thorne, manager of product and program development, said WorkSafeBC started out distributing videos in the form of VHS tapes out of a bookstore. The reach was limited. A study showed that…