The rise of antibiotic/antimicrobial resistance is a huge threat to public health. Herbicides, including those sprayed on forests and on our food, can be a key driver for antimicrobial resistance spread.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1740431/full
Unpublished documents and a helicopter flight into the Tranquil Creek watershed reveal details about renewed exploration at a long-dormant mine, raising concerns about B.C.’s mining laws, water and Indigenous Rights
"Clayoquot Sound is home to the some of the largest intact old-growth forests on Vancouver Island, and remains a key refuge for massive red cedars, orcas and Pacific salmon. About 20 kilometres from the mine site, these lands and waters now underpin the tourism economy of Tofino, B.C. First Nations including Tla-o-qui-aht have spent decades protecting the region, helping to shape its economic future. According to Tourism Tofino, visitors spent $430 million in the region in 2024.
What will become of the area if a mining company gets their way?
Market forces will be capitalizing on wilderness areas to build the 'Internet of Forests.' Nothing is sacred when it comes to profits and control over every bit of life on this planet.
They will be using the excuse of carbon credits/markets to fill forests with wireless sensors, LiDAR and machine learning.
https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/technology-roadmap-the-internet-of-forests/
"The Internet of Forests integrates internet-based modules into trees, enabling the detection and monitoring of key environmental parameters, such as temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide levels. This technology provides real-time data on land conditions, enabling early detection of forest fires, deforestation, and illegal logging.
By integrating land sensors, cameras, LiDAR satellite data, and high-resolution imagery, combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), the IoF system analyzes the relationship between landscape dynamics, environmental conditions, human activities, biophysical variables, and natural reserves."
https://www.tomorrow.city/internet-of-forests-tech-to-protect-colombias-rainforests/
Historical reforestation using Norway spruce conducted in northern Italy during the 1930s resulted in reduced biodiversity of plants and soil fauna.
Long-Term Ecological Impacts of Norway Spruce Plantations on Biodiversity and Microhabitat Conditions
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10021-026-01048-0
Not much view on the mountain top but really enjoyed the foggy trail on a cloudy day
Valley of the Giants BLM area, these two are probably around 400-450
>Local forest advocates gathered in Nelson on Monday to call on Premier David Eby’s government to increase protections for old-growth forests.
>Eby was in the region this week, visiting and touring local facilities.
>More than 140 people attended a demonstration outside Kootenay Central MLA Brittny Anderson’s office at about 5 p.m.
After almost two decades' delay, the federal government has finally published the long-awaited Spotted Owl Recovery Strategy. In June 2025, the feds issued detailed maps identifying 4,000 square kilometres of forests in the Lower Mainland of B.C. — critical habitat needed for the spotted owl's recovery — that must be protected.
The problem is B.C. continues to allow logging within the federally-mapped critical habitat. Some of these forests, like the big old trees we recently visited at Fire Lake, are some of the most beautiful remaining. Fire Lake is located near the north end of Harrison Lake and is within Xa'xtsa Nation territory.
Please write your letter today to convey how strongly you feel about protecting these critical habitat forests for future generations of spotted owls.
From the Wilderness Committee's webpage. Letter template in link.
https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/take-action/bc-must-stop-logging-spotted-owl-critical-habitat
>It’s that time again: the Government of British Columbia is seeking yet another five-year approval to continue killing gray wolves in the name of caribou recovery. Over the past 12 winters, more than 2,800 wolves have been shot from helicopters as part of the province’s predator reduction program.
>While caribou populations remain at risk, scientists and conservation organizations continue to raise concerns that ongoing habitat destruction is driving their decline. Yet, in the more than 50 years Raincoast Senior Scientist Dr. Paul Paquet has been involved in wolf and caribou conservation, governments have habitually favoured the killing of wolves over addressing these underlying causes. Lasting caribou recovery requires meaningful protection and restoration of the habitats caribou need to survive. Instead, the government continues to perpetuate a cycle of wolf killing that targets a symptom while the root causes of decline persist.
https://www.raincoast.org/2026/06/bc-government-five-year-killing-wolves/
I don't agree with carbon markets because it's just about profit and nothing to do with protecting the environment or the 'Internet of Forests' but certainly we need old growth forests more than ever. They are infrastructure and cool the planet by combating the heat island effect of buildings, concrete and other human activity and are a critical part of the water cycle.
>In her groundbreaking research, she revealed that trees are connected through underground fungal networks and that older "Mother Trees" play a vital role in supporting the health and resilience of entire forest ecosystems.
>In this conversation, Suzanne returns to discuss her new book, When the Forest Breathes, and the urgent lessons forests have to teach us about climate change, biodiversity, regeneration, and our relationship with the natural world.
>Suzanne and Joe explore why old-growth forests matter, what happens when forests are clear-cut, how forests naturally heal themselves, and why protecting mature trees may be one of the most important climate solutions available to us today. They also discuss the economic pressures driving forest loss, emerging carbon and biodiversity markets, Indigenous stewardship, and what home gardeners can learn from forest ecosystems.
"The group is promoting a proposal for a new Forest Act for the province in which ecological balance would replace timber flow as the central driver of all forestry activity. In her talk she explained how the new act is not a protest or a slogan but a practical roadmap to more economically healthy forest communities."
What do you think? More of the same short term greed until all the old growth is gone and we are left with spindly narrow diameter second and third growth or long term planning and jobs?
>[At the] Council of Forest Industries conference in Prince George, Forest Minister Ravi Parmar suggested that provincial parks and Old Growth Management Areas could be logged for so-called “wildfire resilience.”
>Old Growth Management Areas were established to protect biodiversity, and parks are important for natural and cultural values.
>“We need prudent fire hardening directly around communities to protect human life and property, but what Minister Parmar suggested at COFI sounds like a timber grab."
New Endangered Ecosystems Alliance video clip of Dr. Andy MacKinnon speaking off the cuff about the endangered Garry oak ecosystems in B.C.
Via @reshare_app • Repost from @goongerah_environment_centre
"DEECA released a major new forest policy in April. No public announcement. No consultation. It just appeared.
Victoria's State Forest By-Products Framework creates a commercial distribution pipeline for forests logged during fuel breaks, roadside clearing, and introduces 'ecological thinning'. Timber mills and firewood sellers are first in line.
We filmed the results on the Princes Highway between Lakes Entrance and Nowa Nowa.
The framework explicitly states it has no influence over whether clearing happens at all. It just decides where the wood goes. And in forests still recovering from the Black Summer fires, trees, including hollow bearing trees are critical habitat for Greater Gliders, Potoroos, and Spot-tailed Quolls.
They don't even bother with consultations anymore. We will have to lodge another FOI just to find out who was involved in writing this policy."
Full breakdown at the link their bio.
Check out Stop the Spray Canada's excellent website with links to provincial Stop the Spray groups and petitions.
Forest herbicide spraying is indefensible.
https://stopthespraycanada.ca/
https://stopthespraycanada.ca/petitions/
>The case for Australia’s new Great Koala National Park rests on a practical point: koalas need more than scattered trees. They need connected habitat that can support populations over time.
>The national park, planned for the state of New South Wales, is meant to link fragmented eucalyptus forests along the east coast, giving koalas a better chance to disperse, feed, and breed. It would also protect habitat used by dozens of other threatened native species, reports contributor Johan Augustin for Mongabay.
Public comments are needed to protect our Species at Risk legislation.
Action alert: It's not just endangered species being undermined by federal fast tracking of major projects, it’s also the SARA legislation that protects them.
Raincoast Conservation are asking people to urgently do two things:
https://www.raincoast.org/2026/05/canadas-species-at-risk-act-106146/
>A province-wide public tour this June will bring a citizen-led proposal for forest management reform to communities across British Columbia, with stops in Campbell River on June 11, Quadra Island on June 13 and Courtenay on June 15.