The Great Bear Rain Forest legislation introduced Tuesday takes the authority to set logging limits away from the chief forester and hands it to cabinet for the next 10 years. The chief forester is generally considered to have the independent authority to set the allowable annual cut on Crown land in timber-supply areas and the…

Surrey City Hall is working to get its tree canopy numbers to stop dropping in a new shade tree management plan. According to city numbers, the tree canopy — amount of tree visible from overhead — has shrunk 5% from 2001 to 2013, down to 28% of coverage. A report last year from Urban Systems…

An emotionally charged meeting was held Feb. 17 in Glade regarding plans for Kalesnikoff Lumber and Atco Wood Products to log in the Glade watershed. About 60 people turned up for the meeting, the primary purpose of which was to hear a report on the hydrogeomorphic assessment of the watershed. The report was completed by…

For Harbour Air CEO Greg McDougall, there is a bit of symmetry in his company’s efforts to stay carbon-neutral. His airline’s float planes fly over large parts of British Columbia’s south coast, and the company buys some of the carbon offsets for their emissions from a program that generates carbon credits from preservation of the…

Officials with the city’s forestry section say the massive plan to remove 23,000 dead and dying ash trees on city property over 10 years is more than one-third completed. A total of 8,800 trees afflicted by the emerald ash borer have so far been taken down across Hamilton. Those trees include ones on the city…

The government of Saskatchewan is scrapping a controversial policy that has been used to prioritize forest fires. Under the policy, the province could let forest fires burn unless they were within 20 kilometres of a community. Many northerners criticized that policy during last year’s record-setting season of wildfires. They said once a fire was within 20 kilometres of…

Saskatchewan is recalling firefighting crews two weeks earlier and hiring eight new crews as it prepares for what could be an early start to the wildfire season. An air tanker and a bird-dog aircraft, which directs the operation of the air tankers, are scheduled to be ready by March 27. Seasonal staff will start in…

One of the largest pulp-and-paper producers in the world has launched a major wildfire prevention initiative in the wake of large-scale forest fires in its home country of Indonesia last year. And the company is turning to its B.C. connections to do it. Asia Pulp and Paper has contracted Parksville-based TREK Wildland Services to provide…

First Nations leaders in Treaty 3 claim provincial law enforcement agents are infringing on their members’ harvesting rights. Four Anishinaabe men are scheduled to appear in courts across Northwestern Ontario this spring on charges First Nations say present a pattern of poor education on provincial jurisdiction and treaty rights. A moose was quartered in Nigigoonsimikinkaaning…

At least one western province plans to get the jump on the 2016 wildfire season by circling a date on the calendar. Alberta will officially start the season on March 1, a month earlier than usual. On that day, all burning activities in forested areas will require a burning permit, except for campfires, and training…