The Clear Cut

After a season break, The Clearcut is back with a new mini series: Playing with Fire. Hosted by Jan Sumner, this series takes a closer look at Ontario’s Ring of Fire and the growing questions surrounding mining, critical minerals, Indigenous rights, and environmental protection.

In this episode, Jan is joined by Anna Baggio, Conservation Director at Wildlands League, to kick off the conversation. Together, they unpack what the...

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 ...

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 d...

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 Mana...

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. Policyma...

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 collabora...

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 lea...

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 ...

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 f...

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&rsquo...

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 t...

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 tak...

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 t...

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 ca...

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...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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 c...