Using prescribed burns to slow the spread of the mountain pine beetle is an expensive method that likely won’t work, according to at least one scientist who’s studied the beetle for the past 20 years. Diana Six, a professor of forest entomology and pathology at the University of Montana, cast doubt on the effectiveness of…

Alberta is starting its wildfire season a month early after flames last year torched almost 5,000 square kilometres. Forestry Minister Oneil Carlier said Tuesday the extra time provided with the March 1 launch will ensure that crews are recruited, trained and positioned to respond quickly to any wildfires that break out in early spring and…

Climate change is happening quickly, but forests adapt slowly. That’s the root of the problem that will challenge Canada’s forest industry for the next hundred years. The effects of climate change will vary by region. It is believed that Canada will experience a greater rise in temperature than the predicted global average. During a webinar…

It could be a beetles’ comeback with few fans applauding, say those overseeing Alberta’s forests. Another warm winter could boost the number and spread of Mountain Pine Beetles that have ravaged the province’s pine woodlands and are creeping towards Saskatchewan, said Alberta Agriculture and Forestry official Erica Samis. “There could be — a low winter…

As public relations coups go, it doesn’t get better than the deal finalized last week by the B.C. government, industry, environmentalists and First Nations to protect all but 15 per cent of the Great Bear Rainforest from commercial logging. Years in the making, it’s being hailed as a mature approach to sustainable development that has…

Erickson Incorporated, a leading global provider of aviation services, has renewed a longstanding contract for aerial timber harvesting with Vancouver-based Western Forest Products (WFP), one of the largest lumber producers in Canada. This is Erickson’s second timber harvesting contract renewal this year. Last month, the company renewed a separate timber-harvesting contract with Helifor in Western…

It has been 20 years in the making. Now an agreement has been reached among environmentalists, aboriginal groups, logging companies, and the government, to protect a massive area of British Columbia’s coastal rainforest. Valerie Langer, director of forest conservation for Forest Ethics Solutions was a major player in the deal. The Great Bear rainforest comprises…

On Monday, B.C.’s coastal forest industry celebrated signing the Great Bear Rainforest conservation agreement along with the region’s First Nations and environmental groups. But the companies involved don’t have a lot of time to rest on their laurels. The deal offers the forest licensees certainty around access to an annual harvest of 2.5 million cubic…

The Vancouver Park Board has voted unanimously in favour of a biodiversity strategy that will see 25 hectares of “natural area”  in the city restored or enhanced by 2020. There are 20 at-risk species in the city according to the park board, which considers its new strategy a “legacy piece” that will ensure future generations can…

The Great Bear Rainforest agreement is a victory for everyone involved, including the forest industry, said its members after yesterday’s announcement signaled that 15 per cent of the forest was open to logging. The agreement also protects 85 per cent of the coastal temperate rainforest, which stretches from B.C.’s Discovery Islands to Alaska’s Tongass Rainforest,…