The push to have a large swath of rare boreal forest designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site has suffered a setback.The forest, called Pimachiowin Aki, spans 33,400 sq. km. on the Manitoba/Ontario border. The forest is also home to several First Nations territories, and the Pikangikum First Nation pulled their support, said the Pimachiwin…

City administrators in Thunder Bay, Ont. say they expect dealing with the arrival of the emerald ash borer in the city will cost millions over the next decade. A report slated to go to council Monday lays out several options for combating the invasive beetle, which destroys ash trees. The report, prepared by city forester…

A failed reforestation effort in the Kootenays has left B.C.’s logging watchdog concerned. Arrow Glenn Ltd, a private logging company with access to over 600 hectares of forested land in B.C., failed to reforest several clear-cuts near Creston — a direct violation of the regulatory Forest and Range Practices Act. According to a two-year random audit from the Forest Practices Board, Arrow Glenn had seven years…

A “remarkably quiet fire season” in Yukon so far this year may be due in part to the Fort McMurray fires, said fire information officer George Maratos. He says the number of human-caused fires in Yukon is down. “I think it was just more of an awareness thing, where people saw the devastation [in Fort McMurray] and…

Every Wednesday, climate journalist Tyler Hamilton gathers up the latest Ontario climate news and cutting-edge research on how climate change is shaping the world. It’s a recurring theme in our weekly roundup, but it’s difficult to talk about climate change during the summer without some mention of wildfires. And on that front, Alberta has suffered…

Preemptive work done in the Lillooet area proved effective in June when wildfire struck. Two fires started on June 30 in the area, but never got very intense, thanks to the fuel reduction efforts of local municipalities, First Nations groups and the B.C. Wildfire Service, according to a release from the B.C. Wildfire Service. The…

One year ago, the wildfire situation in the region was significantly different than it is this year, and that’s good news. This time last year, 219 fires had been sparked in the Kamloops Fire Centre, scorching a total of 3,600 hectares. This year, according to fire information officer Max Birkner, there have been 92 fires…

Over the last decade, fires have burned through some 15,500 square kilometres of B.C.’s forests and charred some 38 million cubic metres worth of trees from within the designated timber-harvesting land base, according to figures from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. In any given year losses to forest fires can swing from negligible to substantial. For example,…

A new forest management plan aimed at protecting caribou will prevent the logging of 223,000 hectares of forest for 20 years.The plan, which was recently approved by the provincial Ministry of the Environment, covers part of the Pasquia Porcupine Forest Management Area, a two-million-hectare area with the town of Hudson Bay at its centre, said Gord Vaadeland of the…

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the B.C. government against Canadian Forest Products and one of its contractors over a 6,100-hectare forest fire on Crown lands near Vanderhoof in 2010. The province alleged that Canfor and the subcontractor, Barlow Lake Logging, were negligent in the blaze, which began on a cutblock granted by the government…