Canadian Forestry Can Save The World

This season on Canadian Forestry Can Save The World, we went deep on the different types of innovation and technology shaping the future of Canada’s forest sector. From carbon capture and storage to wildfire mitigation, we’ve heard how our forests and the people managing them are providing the economic and climate solutions to help us face some of our most pressing challenges. In the final episode...

As we come to the end of season two of Canadian Forestry Can Save the World, Erin and Dave sit down with Derek Nighbor, the CEO of Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) to consider the lessons learned about innovation this season. As a leading voice for the forest sector and those working in forestry in Canada, Derek shares the potential of an integrated, full value chain approach to forest...

Earlier in Season 2 we spoke to Jamie Stephen of Torchlight Bioresources about the role of forest management in helping reduce wildfire risk and emissions from wildfires. In this episode, we revisit that conversation and ask the question, how does Canada compare globally and what more can be done? Jamie Stephen considers how changes to government policy can allow Canada to better harness the power...

In our previous episode we looked at the way traditional Indigenous forestry practices are allowing for new ways of thinking about innovation across the sector. This week, we dive deeper into a standout model of Indigenous leadership, Meadow Lake Tribal Council in northern Saskatchewan, where traditional wisdom and forest sector partnership come together to create province-wide economic opportunit...

In Season 2, we’ve looked at the many ways those in the forest sector are thinking differently to find innovative solutions to our most pressing climate challenges. This week, we turn that thinking on its head to examine how traditional ways of thinking about forestry are opening the sector up to new possibilities. JP Gladu, Principal of Mokwateh, Tina Rasmussen of Meadow Lake Tribal Council, and...

What do you think about when you think about forestry? For most Canadians, it’s the classic image of a lumberjack. What most don’t realise is today’s forest sector is using leading-edge technology and innovation to modernise and digitise operations. This week, we talk to Francis Charette of FP Innovations, Kevin Lim, CEO of Lim Geomatics, and Dr. Morgan Crowley, a forest fire research scientist fr...

Canada is facing a housing crisis. To meet rising demand and support the 1-in-5 Canadians unable to find affordable housing, we need to construct nearly 6 million units by 2030. This is a lofty but attainable goal if industry, governments, and the public can come together to support the innovative building solutions that will not only help us build more homes quickly, but align with our climate go...

Whether it’s paper bags for groceries, consoles for cars, or concrete for sidewalks, companies are increasingly looking to our forests for solutions to reduce their environmental footprint. This week, we speak with Gurminder Minhas of Performance Biofilaments and Alain Boudages of Resolute Forest Products about the fascinating solutions for everyday problems coming out of Canada’s sustainable fore...

Last week we looked at how companies like Resolute Forest Products are adopting a zero-waste approach to power their operations and reduce their carbon emissions. But what if it was possible to scale that innovation to help other sectors decarbonize? Or better yet, to power an entire town? This week, we look into a future that is actually playing out in the present, with towns like New Glasgow, No...

We know trees are used to produce the lumber that will help us build more homes, but have you ever wondered what becomes of the bark, wood chips and branches leftover after a harvest? This week, we explore how the adoption of a zero-waste approach can help fuel our futureeconomy — in some cases, literally. From forest company’s like Resolute salvaging biomass out of areas affected by wildfires to...

In 2023, wildfires ravaged Canada’s forests, consuming over 16.5 million hectares of land, twice the previous record set in 1989 and over 6.5 times the national average of area affected. So what can be done? This week we’ll talk with Mike Morrow, a Wildfire Prevention Officer with the BC Wildfire Service and Jen Beverly, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Alb...

What do wildfires, housing and climate change all have in common? Aside from being among our most pressing challenges, they’re all things a sustainable forest sector can play a role in solving. Welcome back to Season 2 of Canadian Forestry Can Save The World, the podcast that explores what’s actually going on in our forests and the role they can play in supporting a more sustainable future. In Sea...

Canada’s favourite forestry podcast is back! Dive in to Season 2 where we’ll explore how the sustainable management of our forests can help solve some of our most pressing challenges — from mitigating the risk and severity of wildfires and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels to how the solutions for Canada’s housing crisis can be found in our forests. Join us weekly as we talk to the professiona...

Canada’s favourite forestry podcast is back! Dive in to Season 2 where we’ll explore how the sustainable management of our forests can help solve some of our most pressing challenges — from mitigating the risk and severity of wildfires and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels to how the solutions for Canada’s housing crisis can be found in our forests. Join us weekly as we talk to the professiona...

In our final episode, we’re joined by Velma McColl, Shawn McCarthy, Eric Miller and Paul Robitaille — communicators and community organisers — as we explore the role of social licence in a sustainable forest sector. What can forestry do for our communities? And what’s needed to ensure it can? How can we, as a country, actualize the considerable potential of Canada’s forest sector in a way that bal...

As Season One of the Canadian Forestry Can Save The World podcast draws to a close, we sit down with Rosemary Thompson, the Executive Director at The Coalition For A Better Future, and Derek Nighbor, the CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada to discuss how forestry fits into a more sustainable future and the benchmarks needed to assess our success in combating climate and growing a gree...

In Episode 9, we explored the myriad ways Canada’s sustainably-managed forest sector can help grow a greener economy. This week, we’re joined by Virginie Chambost and Dr. Peter Holmgren, expert advisors on the emerging bioeconomy, to look at how other countries have actualized their forest’s full climate change potential and policy pathways needed for Canada to do the same. Canadian Forestry Can S...

Over the last few episodes we’ve explored the place Canada’s forests occupy in our history and the role they play today in our everyday lives. This week, we’re joined by Monique Frison, the Director General of the Trade, Economics, and Industry Branch of Canadian Forest Service at Natural Resources Canada and Mahima Sharma, the Director of Environment, Innovation and Mill Regulations at the Forest...

We know sustainable forestry has a critical role to play in the collective fight against climate change, but what about its role in advancing Indigenous economic reconciliation? When we think about a Just Transition, the two ideas are inextricably linked. This week, we talk with JP Gladu, the founder of Mokwateh and Albert Gerow of Strategies 360 about the role Indigenous knowledge, stewardship, o...

Canada is a country founded on forestry, but what comes next for one our most storied sectors? This week, we talk with Faye Johnson, a professional forester and Chair of the BoD, Temagami Forest Management Corporation and Laird Van Damne, an adjunct professor at Lakehead University about the role forestry played in the founding of our country and where the sector — with its incredible climate acti...

Everyone knows that as a forest grows trees absorb and store carbon. But what happens to that carbon when the trees that captured it leave the forest? In this episode, we talk with Sindhu Mahadevan, the Head of R&D at Michael Green Architecture and Nick Milestone at Mercer Mass Timber about how innovations in mass timber are not only changing the face of the construction industry but changing...

In this episode, Rob Keen, the CEO of Forests Ontario sits down with Mat from Nova Scotia, Alison from BC, and Candace from Ontario at the kitchen table to dispel some of the most common misconceptions about forestry practices in Canada while talking about the role sustainably-sourced wood products can play in helping Canadians make more climate-conscious choices. Canadian Forestry Can Save The Wo...

You’ve heard of fighting fire with fire? In many ways that’s what’s happening in our forests. Fire has long been a natural part of the forest lifecycle, and our foresters respect that, using both it, and innovative harvesting techniques, to reduce the likelihood that a more catastrophic wildfire breaks out. In this episode, we talk with Amy Cardinal Christianson about how prescribed burns have lon...

Shel Silverstein’s 1973 book The Giving Tree teaches us that trees can give us a lot over the course of their life. But the story of a single tree never really ends; from the seeds it sows, to the homes it builds, a single tree continues to give back long after it’s left the forest. In this episode, we’ll reconnect with Jenny Tallman and Lacey Rose to talk more about regeneration and renewal and h...

What do we mean when we say Canadian Forestry Can Save The World ? In the inaugural episode of the podcast of the same name, we dive into that question while debunking some of the most common misconceptions about the sector. We talk with foresters Lacey Rose and Paul LeBlanc about what movies like Fern Gully got wrong and how cutting down trees — contrary to the lessons of The Lorax — can actually...