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: misguided industry responses to fire suppression, deceptive practices, greenwashing and pathways to a reimagined future for forestry management in Canada.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Kaya for taking us on an exploratory journey of Canada's forests and forestry practices.

Thank you for listening!

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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 painted the landscape of Alberta’s headwaters for us. We learned about the incredible value of this region to the wildlife, species, and many communities (across the continent!) who depend on them. This week we explore some of the challenges these lands are facing in greater depth. How does the underlying approach to forest management make it difficult for protection? What is the government’s role? And what are the opportunities, particularly unique to this landscape, that could result in better outcomes for all?

Learn more about Josh and Katie's work on the CPAWS Southern Alberta Chapter's website and support a future for the Highwood here.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

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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 to Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Coast. This week we head back to western Canada to talk with Executive Director Katie Morrison and Conservation Science & Programs Manager Josh Killeen of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s (CPAWS) Southern Alberta Chapter.
With the confluence of the mountains in the west, the grasslands to the east, and boreal forests in the north, there is a wide range of diversity in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, including a 50 kilometer strip of forest that holds an incredible amount of biodiversity. In addition to the amazing nature in Alberta, the province also has a long history of natural resource extraction — especially as it hosts the fourth largest forestry industry in Canada. Josh and Katie take us on a tour of the region they work in, and set the stage to understand challenges facing these areas. What does forest management look like, and what are its impacts?

Learn more about Josh and Katie's work on the CPAWS Southern Alberta Chapter's website and support a future for the Highwood here.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

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Last year the European Union issued a new regulation (the EUDR) aimed at preventing the entry of products that originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation into the EU marketplace. The EUDR is likely the most significant, but not the only, law or rule proposed by governments around the world to ‘clean up’ their supply chains when it comes to forest and agricultural products. Policymakers are increasingly working to do their part to meet global climate and biodiversity targets. Where does Canada, and its purported leadership in sustainable forest management, fit in?
We sit down with Etelle Higonnet, who has been an advisor to the European Union on the EUDR. She explains the EU law and the other “family” of regulations on deforestation and forest degradation free products. We discuss the importance and implications of these rules, as well as the response from the Canadian government and forest industry groups. What are Canada’s arguments against these rules? Why are they making them? And what opportunities do these laws provide that we could be missing out on?

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

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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 back, and contextualize these issues more broadly. Kim discusses Toronto’s participation in the United Nations Environment Program, where cities from around the world collaborate to promote ecological restoration and facilitate knowledge exchange.
In addition to the role cities play on the international stage to reach our climate and biodiversity goals, Kim explains how subnational governments can contribute through building both physical ecological corridors and relational ones. We also learn about how Toronto’s approach to urban forestry has earned its status as a leader in this arena.

Check out Toronto's Tree City of the World Award news release.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

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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 shade of a tree canopy provides cooling in the city and trees help manage drought and floods. This week we sit down with Kim Statham, the City of Toronto’s Director of Urban Forestry to learn more.
Kim talks about what urban forestry is and her office’s role of managing, stewarding, and developing programming for Toronto’s urban forest. We discuss some of the challenges the city’s canopy is facing, what opportunities are available, and the programs the city is undertaking to meet its canopy cover goals and promote the urban landscape’s biodiversity and climate resilience.

Check out Toronto's Tree City of the World Award news release.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 destructive practices hidden behind sustainability claims.
We learn about how Joan's investigation into Canada’s logging industry helped uncover a web of corporate consolidation that has been aided by funding from taxpayers. We also discuss her book, The Mill: Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest, the story of taxpayer support for the Northern Pulp Mill in Nova Scotia and its history of “environmental racism” and public protests.

Check out The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' Deforestation Inc. series and read Joan's article in the Halifax Examiner.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 those platforms. As a result, information about wildfires, forestry and forests from respected media sources is not shareable via social media.

We sit down with Joan Baxter from the Halifax Examiner about her recent article on the growing problem of greenwashing in an age of digital information sharing.  We discuss the Forest Products Association’s (FPAC) ‘Forestry for the Future’ advertising campaign that’s been proliferating across social media. Joan breaks down how this could be problematic in the absence of independent journalism on Canada’s forests available on those platforms. How can those concerned about Canada’s forests and climate become better at identifying industry public relations materials?

Read Joan's article in the Halifax Examiner.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 focus to strategies for managing those factors within our control.
We know wildfires are driven by topography, climate, and the availability of fuel. While we can’t alter a forest’s underlying topography, we can reduce the carbon emissions fueling climate change. And in the short term, we can improve forest management practices, such as fire suppression and clearcutting, to prevent an increase in flammable material. With Jen, we explore tools that can break the cycle of a century of fire suppression. What are the opportunities for forestry and what is missing from the public discourse on wildfires?

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 started. Experts are warning of another series of catastrophic impacts. What is driving these unprecedented, longer wildfire seasons? Is there something missing in the public narrative? In this episode, we’re looking for answers.
This week, we set the stage for our wildfire inquiry by asking some of the pressing questions with a fire ecologist expert. We sit down with Jen Baron from the University of British Columbia for some insights. What are the main drivers? What is the role of forest management policies, and is there a disconnect between the two?

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 with forest areas where harvesting takes place. Caribou are also a species-at-risk, in trouble across the country. Julee and Rachel break down two narratives that are simultaneously taking place. One behind closed doors that seems to understand the science and is amenable to protecting this indicator species. But then in the public arena, the narrative flips to paint caribou conservation as a threat to economic health. Are economic and environmental values inherently at odds? Or as Rachel says, is there “room for both”?

Check out more of Rachel and Julee's work by reading  The State of the Forest in Canada: Seeing Through the Spin  and the Room for Both reports. 

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 sector for 33 years.” But do these annual reports truly accomplish this promise? This year, 8 environmental organizations released their own report, The State of the Forest in Canada: Seeing Through the Spin, to challenge many of the conclusions in the government’s annual report.

We sit down with the David Suzuki Foundation’s Rachel Plotkin and the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Dr. Julee Boan to discuss the details of this investigation. Why is the government’s annual report inadequate? What is missing, and what are the ramifications?

Read  the report here.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 of 14% of the forest is not regenerated after one cycle of full-tree harvesting. While that may not seem like a significant impact to the forest, Dave explains why this isn’t the case. In addition to reducing our resilience to climate change, logging scars spell serious trouble for biodiversity as well.  We give context to degradation in Canada’s forests and why there’s a need for higher quality data to better understand the impacts of logging on the landscape.

Check out the Logging Scars webpage to read the report and see the eye-opening images.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 housing development. We don’t count formerly forested areas that are now barren as deforested, if the area remains designated for forestry. But could it, should it be classified as forest degradation?

Our own Senior Forest Conservation Manager, Dave Pearce unpacks Wildlands League’s 2019 Logging Scars report on the subject. We discuss the genesis of this pivotal report. What kickstarted our investigation into areas that were still barren 30 years or more after logging? What did we assume going into this, and what did we discover? The findings may surprise you. 

Check out the Logging Scars webpage to read the report and see the eye-opening images.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 the province’s natural forests? Who is forestry sustainable for? The planet? The species? Or the companies?
We also get  a sneak peek into Conservation North’s new report on U.K. biofuel producer Drax, and how they’re continuing to source materials from rare old growth forests.

Learn more about Conservation North on their website and read the report they co-authored, Logging What's Left.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 week, Michelle Connolly from Conservation North takes us back into the forests of British Columbia. She breaks down for us the severity of B.C.'s industrial logging impacts that her organization has documented through spatial mapping. While logging is advertised as a necessary means to manage B.C.’s forests, including for pests and wildfires, we unpack why fire and pests are actually part of the natural forest cycle.

Learn more about Conservation North on their website and check out the  Seeing Red map.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

Support the show

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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 energy source. Does the carbon accounting behind those claims add up? What are some alternative solutions for the future of the forestry industry?

Richard and Tegan also share their experiences at last year’s climate COP in Dubai with us. Find out what it was like to be an observer at the biggest stage for international climate negotiations and how Canada’s forests can be affected.


Learn more about STAND.Earth on their website.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

Support the show

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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 province’s approach to forest policy, how government and industry see B.C.’s forests as a tool in the renewable energy transition, and what the shocking carbon implications are.

Learn more about STAND.Earth on their website.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

Support the show

https://wildlandsleague.org/theclearcut/

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 government, and what has been done so far? All this, and more.

We each play a crucial role in shaping a future where  Caribou, and the forests they call home, continue to thrive for generations. Tell your Member of Parliament to protect habitat in Ontario here. 

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

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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 implementation of both the federal Species At Risk Act and Ontario’s Endangered Species Act. In spite of agreements and lofty goals, governments continue to prioritize harmful industrial activities in threatened habitat instead of giving caribou time and space to recover. All is not lost though. Anna shares her passion and drive and how you can make a difference.

Tell your Member of Parliament to protect habitat in Ontario here. 

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

Support the show

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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 populations? What are some of the current challenges? All this and more.

Learn more about WCS Canada and their work on their website.

+ More info in the Amended Recovery Strategy for the Woodland Caribou, Boreal population, in Canada (2020)

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

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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 cumulative effects of disturbance to their habitat? Tune in to find out!

Learn more about WCS Canada and their work on their website.

+ More info in the Amended Recovery Strategy for the Woodland Caribou, Boreal population, in Canada (2020)

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.

Support the show

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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 limitations of Canada’s exercise of consultation with First Nations, and why these cases could be a game-changer for the future of resource management decisions. How can this be to the benefit of our relationship with Indigenous Peoples, our environment, and society as a whole?

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.


Media on the Case:

• https://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/three-first-nations-have-filed-for-legal-action-against-ontario-over-boreal-forests/article_815749c2-4e96-5350-9f06-7d6d939dd294.html
• https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/first-nations-ontario-court-1.6608276

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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 Chapleau Cree First Nation have filed a case against Ontario, asserting the government has degraded the boreal forests in the province and inhibited their livelihoods, violating their treaty rights. We speak with attorney Amy Westland to get  greater context for the case and why it’s so important for moving forward on the path to Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and the health of our forests.

Make sure to check out the show notes on the podcast webpage for more links and helpful resources.

You can help this community grow by sharing the podcast with your friends.


Media on the Case:

• https://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/three-first-nations-have-filed-for-legal-action-against-ontario-over-boreal-forests/article_815749c2-4e96-5350-9f06-7d6d939dd294.html
• https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/first-nations-ontario-court-1.6608276

Support the show

https://wildlandsleague.org/theclearcut/

Happy New Year from The Clear Cut! Dive back in with a sneak peak of all the exciting things we want to cover on the podcast this year. From cumulative impacts, to wildfires, to defining forest degradation, there’s so much more to explore in Canada’s forests.  

Have questions about the show or suggestions for new content? Feel free to contact us: kaya@wildlandsleague.org

Support the show

https://wildlandsleague.org/theclearcut/