With fires already raging across parts of Siberia, Russia can expect “catastrophic” wildfires as bad as or worse than those that devastated parts of the country in summer 2010, some environmental experts say. A mild winter with little snowfall, the early onset of spring with Moscow recording its warmest Easter in over a decade, the aftermath of last year’s drought in European Russia and shortfalls in wildfire prevention…

A forest fire burning 68 kilometres northwest of Kenora is threatening two lodges, and is very close to the Caribou Falls hydroelectric dam on the English River. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry estimates Kenora fire #005 to be at about 200 hectares. MNRF Communication specialist Jonathon Scott says 10 fire ranger crews are assigned to Kenora #005. “Values protection has been set…

The B.C. government is distributing more than $1.7 million in grant money to help control the spread of invasive plant species around the province. The money will be divvied up into 29 grants and given to regional invasive species committees, local governments and the Invasive Species Council of British Columbia. This funding is in addition to…

The genome of the mountain pine beetle – the insect that has devastated B.C.’s lodgepole pine forests – has been decoded by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre. This is a first for the mountain pine beetle and only the second beetle genome ever sequenced. The first…

The forestry industry has been credited as one of the bright spots during this financial downturn, especially in Alberta and economic developers want to know how. The Alberta Association of Economic Developers is holding its 2015 AGM in Kananaskis this week and one of the presentations is from the Forest Products Association of Canada. There…

North America’s enormous conifer forests are being decimated by tiny beetles. About the size of a pencil eraser, bark beetles are native pests that have gotten carried away in recent years with help from climate change. They’ve killed 46 million acres of forest in the Western U.S. alone since 2000, and the U.S. Forest Service has estimated they cause…

Surespan, the company that holds AJB Investments, assures it will not log in the watershed on the east side of Chapman Creek this spring and will only plant trees in cut block CH1 on the west side. Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board chair Garry Nohr told Coast Reporter of the development after a Tuesday…

Even though there’s still snow on the ground in some parts of the province, forest fire crews in Ontario are gearing up for another summer. This year’s fire season started April 1 — and officials are watching the weather closely. While the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is predicting a fairly slow start to…

It appears balancing budgets often means research programs are the first to disappear. My observation is specific to the research program in what used to be the Cariboo Forest Region. The research program has been reduced considerably and it doesn’t appear that any new staff have been hired to replace those who have left. A…

New wildfire management legislation has arrived in time for the province’s wildfire season, which typically runs from April 1 to Oct. 31. The Wildfire Act replaces The Prairie and Forest Fires Act, 1982, one of the oldest pieces of wildfire legislation in Canada. The new act, with the accompanying wildfire regulations, provides a modern regulatory…