This week’s landmark agreement to preserve a huge tract of the B.C. coastal forest had its beginnings in words scratched on a tablecloth in a San Francisco restaurant some 20 years ago. “We were sitting around at dinner one night in a cheap Italian restaurant with a bottle of great wine,” wrote activist Tzeporah Berman…

First Nations governments and the BC government, with the support of ForestEthics Solutions, Greenpeace, Sierra Club BC and five forestry companies, have announced the fulfilment of the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements. Eighty-five percent (3.1 million hectares) of the remote wilderness region’s coastal temperate rainforests are now permanently off-limits to industrial logging. The remaining 15 percent…

TimberWest salutes the Great Bear Rainforest Land Use Order passing into law. This historic legal order is the result of more than 15 years of discussions between First Nations, Government, forest companies and environmental groups working together to find sustainable environmental, social and economic solutions within the Great Bear Rainforest. The Order sets forth new…

After almost 20 years of environmental protests, conflict and negotiation, the B.C. government and coastal First Nations are poised to ratify a sweeping land-use order for the Great Bear Rainforest aimed at protecting 70% of the area’s old-growth trees. The Great Bear land-use order is expected to be signed by the B.C. government and First…

Erickson Incorporated, a leading global provider of aviation services, has renewed a contract with Canadian aerial heavy lift company Helifor Canada (Helifor), a subsidiary of Columbia Helicopters, to continue providing aerial timber harvesting services in British Columbia and western Canada. The contract is the fifth renewal with Helifor and provides for year-round services with one…

In the snowy woods of northern New England and other forested parts of the country, the lumberjack is an endangered species. As high-tech machinery replaces chain saws, which themselves replaced the axe, a generations-old way of life is disappearing, one that historically saw fathers pass on to their sons their love and knowledge of the…

On the eve of a long-awaited land-use agreement for the Great Bear Rainforest, scientists are decrying the fact that Gribbell Island — the greatest habitat on the coast for B.C.’s official mammal, the Spirit Bear — won’t receive official protected-area status. One of those scientists, veteran bear biologist Wayne McCrory, a director of the Valhalla…

Spray Lake Sawmills (SLS) would like to respond to the Jan. 14 letter to the editor in the Cochrane Eagle regarding the Alberta Forestry model. The assertion by Mr. MacMahon that forest management practices in Alberta are outdated is simply incorrect. Alberta’s forest management regime is based on best practices and takes into consideration the…

Though much of Quebec’s Cree territory has been flooded, razed and clearcut to make way for hydroelectric dams, herds of woodland caribou still roam throughout the Broadback Valley. Local hunters say that the game in this small, densely forested area is noticeably richer than any other place in Quebec’s vast wilderness. Located about 1,000 kilometres north…

The Cree First Nation of Waswanipi, Que. is fighting to protect one of Quebec’s last remaining virgin boreal forests from forestry development. Located about 730 kilometres north of Montreal, the community of Waswanipi describes itself as the “gateway to northern Quebec.” The Waswanipi Cree territory covers an area slightly smaller than Switzerland, and Chief Marcel Happyjack says…