To slow the spread of emerald ash borer into new parts of Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is expanding areas regulated to control emerald ash borer to include the city of Thunder Bay in Ontario, as well as the Municipalités Régionales de Comtés of Joliette and D’Autray in Quebec. It is prohibited to…

A third attempt is underway to get international recognition for a large section of boreal forest along the Manitoba-Ontario boundary. The two provinces have spent millions of dollars over the last 13 years in hopes of getting the area known as Pimachiowin Aki named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Two earlier bids were deferred. Project…

Elk herds that were reintroduced to northwestern Ontario nearly 20 years ago have started to spread out and claim new territory, according to a retired wildlife biologist who continues to study the animals. Bruce Ranta was part of the team that brought elk back to the northwest in the Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls area, after they…

Aviation enthusiasts will be interested in catching a glimpse of the Kaman K-MAX 1200 aircraft at work heli-logging in and around the city for the next few weeks. “It is a very specialized aircraft,” said Clint Sarver, who owns and operates Sarvair Aviation with his wife, Karen Sarver. “I believe there are only three in…

An assessment of the total financial impact of last spring’s Fort McMurray wildfire is pegging the direct and indirect costs of the blaze at almost $10 billion. The $9.9-billion figure includes the expense of replacing buildings and infrastructure as well as lost income, profits and royalties in the oilsands and forestry industries, said MacEwan University…

“Cataclysmic” damage to fish habitat on Haida Gwaii has lead to $1.1 million in fines to a now-dissolved company controlled by Campbell River-based Pallan Group Ltd. The fines to Howe Sound Forest Products Ltd. are part of a sentencing by Judge Michael Brecknell in Masset provincial court on Jan. 9 that include fines to two…

William Angus and Thomas Logan chose Windsor, Que., as the site of Canada’s first wood-based pulp mill in 1864. Today, with more than 150 years of continuous operation, the site now known as Domtar’s Windsor mill is the city’s largest employer. Advances in technology and sustainable forestry over the past 152 years have dramatically changed…

The lily leaf beetle, with its shiny scarlet back, “is a cute little beetle,” admits Barry Hicks, who established the Applied Entomology Lab at the College of the North Atlantic (CNA) in 2008. But it’s a ravenous bugger, too. If your garden is full of lilies, “they will eat them right down to the ground,”…

The Ontario forest industry is hoping to find a middle ground as their exemption from Ontario’s Endangered Species Act nears expiration in mid-2018. Planning forester Scott McPherson said even though the industry is exempt from ESA, the sector adheres to unique regulations for managing and caring for species at risk. At Nipissing Forest Resource Management…

A new analysis of trees in major cities around the world puts Vancouver at the top of list for the largest green canopy.Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology used Google Street View to calculate tree canopy from a human point of view, as opposed to the more common way, from a bird’s-eye view.According to the…