Current Problems: Environment
Exploring Theme: "Forest Management"
Updates on this page: 33
(Filtered by Indigenous Group "First Nations")
October 24, 2024
Indigenous stewardship holds the key to wildfire prevention in national parks, Jasper hearings told
Parks Canada employee terminated after voicing concern, former MP testifies CBC Indigenous: Members of Parliament along with industry forestry experts and Indigenous land stewards criticized present and past governments for not doing enough to prevent the wildfires that destroyed 30 per cent of the Jasper townsite in late July. Witness testimony during a parliamentary hearing Wednesday...
October 9, 2024
Indigenous guardians hold the key to reducing wildfires and their costs
AMY CARDINAL CHRISTIANSON: CONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL NationTalk: The Globe and Mail – As fall wildfires burn, Canada is on track to record the second-largest wildfire season in 20 years. From the heartbreak of the Jasper, Alta., fire to the waves of smoke stretching from Kelowna, B.C., to Montreal, this year confirms that...
September 20, 2024
First Nations leaders in Temagami region declare ban on herbicide spaying after glyphosate spill
World Health Organization said in 2015 that there is a cancer risk associated with glyphosate exposure CBC Indigenous: A spill of concentrated herbicide on the homeland of Teme-Augama Anishnabai and Temagami First Nation is spurring leaders to declare a ban on aerial herbicide spraying used in forestry practices on their territory. Temagami First Nation said...
August 20, 2024
A Small First Nation Chooses Its Path
Fort Nelson’s Chief has pushed for resource development. A vote this week will test member support. The Tyee: On Wednesday, members of the Fort Nelson First Nation will vote in what could be a pivotal election for the band and the roughly 3,000 other people who call the Fort Nelson area their home. The beloved...
August 1, 2024
Logging, climate crisis killing once great Cedar forests on Vancouver Island
Witnessing the spirit of Cedar as medicine– before the logging trucks arrive APTN News: By Odette Auger The majority of old growth Cedar forest on Vancouver Island is gone. Logging, the climate crisis and, some say, government policies are hampering its recovery. Here is the story of the Cedar and what it means to the...
July 3, 2024
Carrier Lumber president backs First Nations’ plea to restore local forest policy decision-making
‘That one-size-fits-all mantra that flows from the south, it doesn’t work up here in the north’ – Bill Kordyban NationTalk: Prince George Citizen – Carrier Lumber president Bill Kordyban is among a growing chorus of dissent getting louder in protest over how B.C. forests are being managed by the provincial government. He’s convinced there’s a...
April 4, 2024
Why Locking In Logging Deferrals to Save BC Old Growth Is So Slow
Three years into the plan, many First Nations continue discussing signing deferral agreements with the province. The Tyee: More than three years after announcing plans to defer logging of old-growth forests, the British Columbia government continues talking with many individual Indigenous nations about whether or not to move ahead with the deferrals proposed on their...
February 15, 2024
Manitoba First Nations concerned over major issues in province’s forestry plan
Duck Mountain Provincial Park Updated Feb. 15, 2024 6:08 p.m. EST Published Feb. 14, 2024 3:53 p.m. EST First Peoples Law Report: CTV News – Three Manitoba First Nations are calling on the provincial government to reject a forest management plan for the Duck Mountain and Kettle Hills area. On Wednesday, Minegoziibe Anishinabe, Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation...
February 15, 2024
First Nations’ Rights and Interests Must Be Part of the Future of Forests
NationTalk: WENDAKE, QC – A consultation meeting is scheduled this morning between First Nations and the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts (MRNF) as part of the Round Tables on the Future of the Forest. This process was announced in November 2023 by Minister Maïté Blanchette Vézina. This new initiative by the Quebec government...
January 29, 2024
15 Fairy Creek land defenders sued for $10M by Teal-Jones
Defendants say the lawsuit is meant to silence old growth activists A road blockade at Fairy Creek. Photo: Harley Gordon / Capital Daily The Tyee: Capital Daily – Things have been quiet lately in the Fairy Creek watershed. Logging in the area has been deferred until 2025 and the injunction that prevented protesters from blocking...
January 26, 2024
Study says harvesting trees is damaging boreal forest in Quebec, Ontario
APTN News: A new study published in the academic journal Land says that harvesting trees is severely damaging the boreal forest and wildlife in Quebec and Ontario. “While tropical forests have been the focus of extensive research on biodiversity losses from deforestation and degradation [8], the boreal forest biome also contains globally significant environmental values...
December 15, 2023
Blockade goes up in Wemotaci over dispute with council on forestry agreement
APTN News: After the Atikamekw council of Wemotaci signed a forestry framework agreement with the government of Quebec, a blockade was erected in protest because some community members say they were not consulted. Dave Petiquay, who represents the Petiquay family, says some traditional families were not consulted in the on-going negotiations between the Wemotaci council...
December 15, 2023
The Case of the Ghostly Trestle
On the northern Sunshine Coast, a popular lake preserves the remnants of early settler history The Tyee: A few summers ago, my friend Nola took me paddle boarding at Haslam Lake, in one of the more accessible recreational forest areas surrounding what is currently known as Powell River, B.C. We drove down a logging road...
December 13, 2023
Exclusive: Docs Blocked by BC NDP Raise Questions about First Nation Statement on Fairy Creek Protests
The Pacheedaht First Nation’s statement was an ideological bomb for protesters and their supporters. Was it influenced by the BC government? Joshua Wright / Wikimedia Commons NationTalk: The Walrus – IN THE SPRING of 2021, all eyes were on Fairy Creek, Vancouver Island. The valley, which contained one of the largest unbroken tracts of old-growth forest...
October 30, 2023
Forest range licence renewed without consultation, First Nation says
Halfway River First Nation says the provincial government has failed to consult with them over a forest tenure range located at the Crystal Springs Ranch. First Nations Law Report: Halfway River First Nation has filed a B.C. Supreme Court petition to protect their treaty rights, following a provincial licence renewal for a forest tenure range located...
September 5, 2023
Did a High-Profile Wildfire Review Lead to Real Change?
Five years later, the co-chairs say much more action is needed. Andrew MacLeod 5 Sep 2023The Tyee Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria and the author of All Together Healthy (Douglas & McIntyre, 2018). Find him on Twitter or reach him at amacleod@thetyee.ca. NationTalk: the Tyee – Maureen Chapman, co-chair of a review five years ago into...
August 29, 2023
30 years after Clayoquot Sound protests, old-growth logging continues unabated: B.C. conservation group
Forest management in region since so-called War of the Woods should be model for rest of B.C., critics say Chad Pawson · CBC News · Posted: Aug 29, 2023 6:13 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours ago CBC News: The Sierra Club of B.C. says the logging of large old trees in verdant, biodiverse forests on Vancouver Island...
July 20, 2023
New forest surveillance system exposes ongoing old growth logging in British Columbia, amid ongoing calls for transparency
Stand.earth Research Group’s ‘Forest Eye’ combines government data with remote sensing and satellite imagery to send the public alerts about recent logging in old growth forests in proposed deferral areas NationTalk: xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Territories (Vancouver, BC) – Award-winning researchers launched a bespoke data mapping tool today exposing the state of of old...
April 18, 2023
Fairy Creek old-growth protesters celebrate as a slew of contempt charges are withdrawn
Decision comes after earlier court ruling found RCMP did not properly read the injunction to protesters CBC News: The B.C. Prosecution Service says it has withdrawn contempt charges against 11 old-growth logging protesters accused of breaching a court injunction during blockades at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island. Spokesperson Gordon Comer says prosecutors were in court Tuesday to...
April 7, 2023
‘We will never give up on defending our land’: Ontario declares 10-year logging ban in Grassy Narrows
In a letter to Chief Rudy Turtle of the Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek First Nation, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry said it has abandoned its plans to open up a portion of the First Nation’s traditional forest to commercial logging for the next 10 years CBC News: For more than two decades, the people...
March 16, 2023
We Need to Talk about Private Forest Lands
A gap in government protection is undermining Indigenous rights and environmental protection. The Tyee: The B.C. government has been roundly applauded for removing a key word from the provincial regulations governing forest planning. For two decades the word “unduly” has limited the protection of so-called “non-timber” values in B.C. forests. Wildlife habitat, soil, biodiversity and...
March 10, 2023
Canada, home to a massive boreal forest, lobbied to limit U.S., EU anti-deforestation bills
Canada’s boreal forest covers 270 million hectares, spanning from Yukon through to N.L. CBC News: Canada is facing international criticism for undermining efforts to protect one of the world’s last primary forests — our own. Jennifer Skene, natural climate solutions policy manager for the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), accuses the Canadian government of...
December 2, 2022
Grassy Narrows just secured a ‘major landmark’ — 20 years after its logging blockade began
First Nation in northwestern Ontario gains promise that no logging company or lumber mill will touch trees from their land without their permission. Toronto Star: For 20 years, they’ve blockaded and marched, gone to court and negotiated, sang and drummed to protect their forest from clear-cutting. And on the eve of the celebration of two...
October 4, 2022
Three First Nations have filed for legal action against Ontario over boreal forests
Toronto Star: Three Ontario First Nations have filed for legal action against the provincial government for its management of the province’s boreal forests. The chiefs of the Missanabie Cree First Nation, Brunswick House First Nation and Chapleau Cree First Nation have filed a court case alleging Ontario is responsible for the degrading health of the...
January 9, 2022
Indigenous Rights: Conservation vs Logging: Fairy Creek
Toronto Star: The Indigenous-led Fairy Creek protest on southern Vancouver Island, active since August 2020 and with 1,188 arrests, so far, is the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. The RCMP has reportedly spent $6.8 million on policing in 2021, cycling in officers from round the province for one- to three-week stints. Pacheedaht...
December 1, 2021
Indigenous Rights: Conservation vs Logging: Fairy Creek
NationTalk – First Nations leaders from across B.C. and Technical Advisory Panel member Dr. Rachel Holt called on the provincial government to take faster action to protect threatened old-growth forests and commit the resources necessary to support First Nations through this process with immediate deferrals. Following the government’s announcement of its intention to defer 2.6...
September 9, 2021
Indigenous Rights: Conservation vs Logging: Fairy Creek
Ricochet – “Double standard: B.C. requires Indigenous consent for forest conservation but not logging”. Among the specific recommendations in an independent report “A New Future for Old Forests: A Strategic Review of How British Columbia Manages for Old Forests Within its Ancient Ecosystems” is the deferral of logging in all at-risk old-growth forests in B.C....
August 17, 2021
BC Government ignores First Nations Forest Strategy
Tŝilhqot’in, Lake Babine & Carrier Sekani Territories: Our Nations call on the Province to significantly rethink and revise the Forestry Intentions Paper content that is intended to address Crown Indigenous reconciliation, and commit to a process to co-draft a revised version of the Paper with our Nations, other interested First Nations, and the First Nations...
February 16, 2021
BC Government ignores First Nations Forest Strategy
BC First Nations Forestry Council – The Forest Stewardship Council of Canada (FSC) has announced their full support of the BC First Nations Forest Strategy (the ‘Forest Strategy’). Released in May 2019, the Forest Strategy was developed in collaboration with the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations & Rural Development (MFLNRORD) to advance...
February 3, 2021
First Nations issues with the 2021-2031 Timiskaming Forest Management Plan
Toronto Star – First Nations leaders from Temagami, Matagami, Matachewan, Teme-Augama Anishnabai, Beaverhouse, and Timiskaming cited concerns that the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) and Timiskaming Forest Alliance Inc. (TFAI) were not taking seriously their concerns or the long-term health and sustainability of the forest and the use of herbicides. The First...
November 16, 2020
BC Government ignores First Nations Forest Strategy
NationTalk – [Op-Ed] BC First Nations in Forestry: What Does Commitment Mean? – In several letters sent to BC First Nations in 2018 and 2019 the Government committed to involving Nations in the development of forest policy, including legislative and regulatory review. Regardless of these commitments, the BC Government made significant changes to forest policies...
September 22, 2020
First Nations lawsuit against Forest Management Plan
Wawa News – This legal action is being advanced by three Ontario First Nations. It focuses on the refusal by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks to order an Environmental Assessment (EA) or impose conditions on the Gordon Cosens Forest Management Plan (FMP). At issue is whether conditions for sustainability are met and...
May 1, 2019
BC Government ignores First Nations Forest Strategy
BC First Nations Forest Strategy (Draft) May 2019 Guiding principles To advance reconciliation by recognizing First Nations as governments with an increasing role in the governance and stewardship of forest lands and resources in BC; NOT ADDRESSED To honour and move forward on the commitments made by the Province to fully implement the United Nations...
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