The Clear Cut
A deep dive into Canada’s approach to forest management. How does it work? What are the issues? What needs to change in order to meet our climate and biodiversity commitments? Hear from the experts in the line of fire, working to protect one of the country’s most valuable ecosystems.
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Episodes
39 episodes
The Clear Cut - Looking Back (& Farewell Kaya 🥹)
Join Jan Sumner and Kaya Adleman for this special episode as they look back on all they've unpacked on the Clear Cut. It's a bittersweet one as this is Kaya's last time as co-host before the show goes on hiatus. Topics include...
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Episode 37
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49:01
How Does Forestry Operate in Forest Dependent Communities?
We return this week to our conversation with Executive Director Katie Morrison and Conservation Science & Programs Manager Josh Killeen of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s (CPAWS) Southern Alberta Chapter. Last week they pain...
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1:06:44
Trouble in Alberta’s Headwaters
Did you know that the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta are home to incredibly valuable ecological landscapes? Sometimes called the current of the continent, three major river basins extend from this area, with some of the water going...
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48:44
The Family of Laws Fighting for Better Fibre Supply Chains
Last year the European Union issued a new regulation (
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1:11:28
Toronto: Tree City of the World
This week we return to our conversation with the City of Toronto’s Director of Urban Forestry, Kim Statham. Last episode we talked about some of the challenges and opportunities facing Toronto’s urban forest, but this episode we take a step bac...
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42:56
Cool Trees in The City (of Toronto)
When we think of forest management and forestry, we often conjure up images of large swaths of untouched land with trees that span for kilometres on end. But did you know that forest management can play an important role in cities too? The shad...
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50:08
Canada's Forest Fibre Grab
We return this week with journalist Joan Baxter, who dives deeper into her work for the Deforestation Inc. investigative series that showcases reporting from 300 journalists worldwide. Joan shares with us her findings on ecologically d...
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49:13
Canada’s Forestry PR: A Game of Deception
It’s been almost a year since Canada’s Online News Act was passed, and in response Meta blocked links to Canadian news on Facebook and Instagram. This has created a void of fact checked articles that meet journalistic standards and ethics on th...
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59:58
Breaking the Cycle: Wildfires
This week we return to our conversation with fire ecologist Jen Baron from the University of British Columbia. In our last episode, we explored the main causes of the severe wildfires we've been experiencing in recent years. Now we turn our foc...
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1:02:33
Wildfires: What are the Drivers?
Last summer was a record-breaking wildfire season for Canada. As smoke blanketed major Canadian cities and even portions of the East Coast and Midwest of the United States, media coverage soared. This year, wildfire season has already...
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59:02
Forestry Downturns: Who’s to Blame?
We return to our conversation with Rachel Plotkin from the David Suzuki Foundation and Dr. Julee Boan from Natural Resources Defense Council. This week we’re talking caribou and the economics of forestry.Boreal caribou habitat overlaps ...
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41:20
What is the State of Canada's Forests?
Every year the federal government publishes a ‘State of the Forest’ report which, touts itself as “a trusted and authoritative source of comprehensive information on the social, economic and environmental state of Canada’s forests and forest se...
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54:48
Logging Scars Cut Deep
We return this week with our own Senior Forest Conservation Manager, Dave Pearce, to cover the wider implications of Wildlands’ Logging Scars report.In our last episode we learned that Wildlands League’s study showed an average...
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55:41
What are Logging Scars?
What happens to the areas of Canada’s forests that have been impacted by full-tree harvesting? According to international rules the term ‘deforestation’ only occurs when a forest is converted into another land use, like a shopping mall, farm or...
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1:07:17
Manufacturing Consent for Logging
In part 2 of our conversation with Conservation North, Michelle Connolly gives us a lesson in forest ecology and forestry semantics. How does British Columbia and the forestry industry use seemingly ‘green’ language to justify more logging of t...
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52:18
Is Forestry Pathological?
If natural forests are ‘self-willed, self-managing, and self-replacing’ to respond and adapt to disturbances like fire and pest-outbreaks, should we be logging more as some suggest? Or should our approach be more precautionary? This wee...
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49:52
Forestry Math
This week, we return to our conversation with Richard Robertson and Tegan Hansen from STAND.Earth on forestry issues in British Columbia. Wood pellets, or biomass fuels, from B.C.’s forests are being touted as a large-scale, carbon neutral ener...
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1:05:18
B.C. Forests: Extending the Gold Rush
We’re in beautiful British Columbia this week with STAND.Earth’s Richard Robertson and Tegan Hansen talking forestry on Canada’s west coast. In the first of two episodes, we talk to our guests about STAND’s forest campaigns in B.C. We cover the...
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56:18
Species at Risk: a Shared Responsibility
We return to the second part of our conversation on caribou policy with Wildlands’ own, Anna Baggio. If the Ontario government won’t protect caribou ranges from the looming encroachment of industry, who will? What’s the role of the federal gove...
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1:00:22
How Governments are Failing Caribou
Hot on the heels of our caribou science conversation with Justina Ray, we turn to the policy side of the equation with Wildlands’ own in-house policy expert on Caribou conservation, Anna Baggio. You’ll hear her unvarnished take on i...
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56:26
Thriving Forests, Thriving Caribou Populations
We return to our conversation with Justina Ray, President and Senior Scientist at Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, to pick her brain on caribou. What do caribou conservation strategies look like in practice? Do they lead to self-sustaining...
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36:10
How Much Disturbance Is Too Much?
We sit down with Justina Ray, President and Senior Scientist at Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, to talk all things caribou. Why are they important from a conservation and a forestry standpoint? How are they monitored? What are the cumulat...
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1:03:41
In the Spirit of the Treaty: Collaborative Lands and Resource Planning
We dive back into our conversation with constitutional lawyer Amy Westland to dig deeper on the case filed against the Ontario government by Missanabie Cree First Nation, Brunswick House First Nation and Chapleau Cree First Nation. We cover the...
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1:07:11
The Cumulative Effects of Forestry: Recognizing Treaty Rights
We’re excited to be back with a new episode taking a closer look at a cumulative impacts (or combined effects of resource extraction over time) case happening in Ontario.Missanabie Cree First Nation, Brunswick House First Nation, and Ch...
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1:07:05