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Tree Frog Forestry News
Daily Archives: March 21, 2014
Business & Politics
Catalyst Paper completes Term Loan and redeems Floating Rate Senior Secured Notes
Catalyst Paper Press Release
RICHMOND, BC – Catalyst Paper announced today that it has completed the C$20 million term loan maturing July 31, 2017 it announced earlier in March. The proceeds of the Term Loan are being used to redeem the remaining US$19.4 million of Catalyst’s outstanding Floating Rate Senior Secured Notes due 2016… By replacing the Floating Rate Notes with the Term Loan, Catalyst reduced its outstanding secured debt by approximately US$1.4 million and will reduce its annual interest costs by approximately US$1.4 million.
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Resolute Launches Boreal Forest Facts Website to Coincide with International Day of Forests
Resolute Forest Products Inc.
MONTREAL – Resolute Forest Products Inc. ) today launched the Boreal Forest Facts website (www.BorealForestFacts.com) to coincide with the United Nations’ 2014 International Day of Forests, providing a new digital resource highlighting the company’s ongoing efforts to promote sustainable forest management in one of the world’s most vibrant ecosystems. “Canadians have much to be proud of when it comes to the sustainable management of our forests,” said Richard Garneau, president and chief executive officer. “This site will offer a wealth of information about the boreal, the forest products industry, and the future of this renewable resource upon which so many of us depend.”
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Port Hawkesbury Paper joins Two Sides
Port Hawkesbury Paper has joined Two Sides North America, Inc., the rapidly growing non-profit organization that promotes the responsible production, use and inherent sustainability of print and paper products, as the company said in the press release received by Lesprom Network. Port Hawkesbury Paper is the second Canadian paper company to join us this month and we are excited to see this growing interest in Two Sides throughout North America,” says Two Sides President Phil Riebel.
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Mill advises students to send in resumés for apprenticeships
Apprentices hoping to be considered for positions at Corner Brook Pulp and Paper need only apply, provided there are positions available. That’s the message from the mill’s human resources manager Peter Waugh, who sent a prepared release Thursday in response to several millwright students from the?College of the North Atlantic.The students recently told the media they wanted to start their careers at Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, but were told there were no apprenticeship positions. …The students were asking about apprenticeship wage subsidies with provincial or federal training programs, but Waugh said the mill is ineligible for those subsidies because of the size of its operation.
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Forestry leaders make their case at the Capitol
ST. PAUL — The forestry industry helps Minnesota’s economy thrive; in fact this renewable $9.7 billion industry employs more than 40,000 Minnesotans. Leaders from both the Grand Rapids and Bemidji area forestry affairs councils spoke with Sen. Tom Saxhaug, DFL-Grand Rapids, and other forestry champions in the Legislature for Forestry Day March 18 at the Capitol… The forestry leaders came to the Capitol to discuss a number of legislative priorities. No. 1 on the list was ensuring the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is able to put up a minimum of 800,000 cords per year.
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Forest products firm brings 65 jobs, S.E. HQ to Peachtree City
Georgia’s largest lumber production company has announced plans to open a Southeast headquarters in Peachtree City in early May. International Forest Products Limited, known as Interfor, will be coming to the 700 Westpark Drive office building. Much of the expected staff of 65 people will be relocating to the office, but the company expects to hire for vacancies that occur. Interfor’s local employees will range from management and sales to accounting, administration and information technology, company officials said.
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From plantation to mill: Asian paper company’s ‘unprecedented’ sustainability commitment
A visit to Asia Pulp & Paper’s Chinese operations puts in context the company’s comprehensive sustainability commitments from plantation to pulp to paper. In June 2012, Asia’s largest paper company, Asia Pulp & Paper Group, published its sustainability strategy and goals for the next decade in the Sustainability Roadmap Vision 2020. Addressing environmental performance, biodiversity conservation, and the protection of community rights, the landmark roadmap represents AP&P’s attempt to develop its own certification standards for responsible forestry based on international best practices.
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Wood, Paper & Green Building
The Truth About Building with Wood online resource launched for World Wood Day
The Canadian wood industry is marking the 2nd annual World Wood Day with a significant initiative aimed at ensuring Canadians, from builders, contractors and architects to environmentalists and policymakers, have the information they need to make informed decisions about building 5- and 6-storey mid-rise buildings with wood. The Canadian Wood Council and its partners have developed the new online resource WoodFacts, aimed at providing relevant, easily understandable and timely information related to safety, building codes, environmental impact and the economic benefits of building with Canadian wood products. The website provides easy to use fact sheets, case studies and relevant reports at the click of a mouse.
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Canadian Wood Council Supports Ontario’s Decision on Mid-Rise
The Canadian Wood Council (CWC) and Wood WORKS! Ontario are pleased with the Government of Ontario’s announcement today that it will move ahead with proposed changes to the Ontario Building Code to allow the use of wood-frame construction in buildings of up to six-storeys. The changes will allow Ontario builders to access safe, strong and sophisticated building solutions. “We welcome Ontario’s announcement that it will undertake a Regulatory Review of the implications of adopting wood-frame construction in five- and six-storey applications,” said Michael Giroux, President and CEO of CWC.
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Forestry
Forest Capital of Canada Stays Local for Another Year
Whitecourt and Woodlands County will remain the Forest Capital of Canada for another year, the announcement was made Thursday morning. Despite communities out east looking for the distinction, Whitecourt and Woodlands County have the honor for a second year in a row. John Pinot, Chief Executive Officer with the Canadian Institute of Forestry, talks about setting a rare precedent… Cornerbrook, Newfoundland and Quebec City, Quebec were two other cities in the running for the award.
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Years of talk finally yield new park on Quadra Island
$5.85-million deal purchases land to link two existing parks
VICTORIA — After years of negotiation, collapsed deals and local fundraising campaigns, the B.C. government has signed an agreement to save waterfront land on Quadra Island from logging and turn it into a provincial park. Environment Minister Mary Polak announced the deal on Wednesday. The government and a group of partners will buy 395 hectares of ecologically-sensitive land on Quadra Island from Portland-based forest company Merrill & Ring, in exchange for $5.85 million and Crown land on nearby East Thurlow Island.
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Fewer foresters leaves B.C. short of proper forest management, union says
The province has cut back the ranks of professional foresters by more than a quarter in the past five years, which is reducing its ability to monitor logging and enforce forest practices, the union that represents them says. At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Forests employed 525 Registered Professional Foresters, down from 722 in 2009, according to the count of the Professional Employees Association. The ones that are left are overworked and unable to conduct the “boots-on-the-ground” field work that they used to do to make sure forest companies are in compliance with the forest resource plans they are required to file, says association executive director Scott McCannell.
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As Foresters Disappear, Who Watches Over the Trees?
Reduction of gov’t inspectors raises questions about stewardship of BC’s natural resources. …A report released yesterday by the Professional Employees Association (PEA), which represents government-licensed science officers such as foresters, reveals a trend of cutbacks to professionals in the public service. …”The provincial government has chipped away, downsized, and reduced licensed science officers to a point where they’re simply not able to manage our natural resources,” says Scott McCannell, executive director of PEA….The auditor concluded that the ministry, with all its efforts, could not possibly have the full picture of timber resources needed to make informed decisions on resource management.
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Nova Scotia sawmills need timber, temporary access granted to Crown land
HALIFAX — More than a dozen sawmills are being given temporary access to Crown lands in western Nova Scotia to help them meet demand. The provincial government is granting a six-month licence to 15 mills to harvest about 185,810 tonnes of fibre. Natural Resources Minister Zach Churchill says the access will help them get earlier and easier access to the land. He says the licences correspond with an updated Crown land plan, which deals with future plans for the St. Margarets Bay area.
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15 sawmills given short-term access to Crown land
Sawmills in Nova Scotia are being given short-term access to harvest trees from the Western Crown lands. The province is granting a six-month licence to 15 sawmills to harvest about 185,810 green metric tonnes of fibre. This decision will give the mills a chance to meet business demands. “Given some critical seasonal pressures as well as those facing the industry in general, the timing of this is crucial,” Natural Resources Minister Zach Churchill said March 20.
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Democratic Senate candidate Adams supports broad wilderness bill
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Dirk Adams said this week he supports a regional wilderness bill that would designate an additional 6.4 million acres of wilderness in Montana. …if he’s elected, he’d introduce the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act… It would protect 24 million acres of wilderness on roadless forest land in five states. …“(It) acts to protect an entire ecosystem which extends into portions of five states, including Montana.” Adams is the only U.S. Senate candidate in Montana to oppose construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would transport crude oil from Canada through Montana to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico.
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Winslow Is Bypassed As Site For 4FRI Mill
The wood processing facility slated to be built in Winslow by Good Earth Power AZ (GEP) will instead be built in Williams, according to a news release issued last week by the company. The facility is being built for the purpose of processing logs and other wood fiber from the Four Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI). In the press release, GEP announced it had “received approval from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Southwestern Region office to modify the business plan originally submitted for the Phase 1 4FRI contract to include a site in Williams, Ariz., that would accept logs and fiber from the 4FRI task orders. Previously, the contract referenced development of a site in Winslow, Ariz.”
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Tasmania’s forest peace deal dead: industry says ‘world has moved on’
Tasmania’s timber industry has accepted the state’s historic forest peace deal is now dead. After decades of conflict and four years of negotiations, it has taken less than a week for the newly-elected Tasmanian government to start unravelling the deal. Premier-elect Will Hodgman took the first step towards his election pledge to tear it up, meeting industry stakeholders, including farmers. The forestry union and green groups were not invited to the talks.
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FAO launches new satellite-based data on forest resources on the International Day of Forests
Rome — New data released on the occasion of the International Day of Forests confirm that forest areas continue to decline globally, with the biggest losses of tropical forests occurring in South America and Africa. Improving information on forest resources is a key factor in halting illegal deforestation and forest degradation, said FAO on the International Day of Forests, celebrated by the United Nations today. FAO is using this year’s celebration to discuss ways to improve the availability of information on the state of forests at all levels: nationally, regionally and globally. “If we want to be serious about halting deforestation, in line with FAO’s Zero Illegal Deforestation challenge, this must be premised on the availability of sound information and data,” said FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva.
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Why forest certification is an illusion for Uganda
On World Forestry day today, Simon Musasizi explores Uganda’s efforts at forest certification, and finds that a lot more work remains to be done – meanwhile, the forests are vanishing. Speaking to Kyenjojo District Forest Officer Onzima L P Badraa recently, journalists were shocked to learn how helpless the country is against illegal logging. Onzima was asked how authorities could verify that people issued with licences actually cut trees for which the licences were issued, without encroaching on forest reserves.
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Forestry shift to value key: Cunliffe
Selling logs overseas by the shipload is akin to exporting jobs and Labour wants a shift from “volume to value”, says party leader David Cunliffe. Labour’s forestry policy package announced this week was a specific sector example of the party’s economic development framework that would benefit regions like Nelson, he said. “It’s about a journey from volume to value in our primary sectors, and it’s about the investment, innovation and industry development to get us there.”
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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Tree planting key to reducing climate change: say 88% of Ontarians
National Take a Walk in the Park Day is just around the corner (March 30), and a new Leger survey shows that 88 per cent of Ontarians believe that tree planting and better forest management practices are key in reducing the risks of climate change. “These results prove that Ontarians are educated about the importance of forests to our health and well-being and that they are concerned about the loss of trees,” says Rob Keen, CEO of Forests Ontario, which commissioned the survey of 1,000 Ontarians. “At Forests Ontario, we offer people the chance to take a proactive approach to sustaining healthy forests through the help of subsidies for landowners, educational workshops and youth programs.”
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Developer won’t appeal Vt. board biomass decision
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — The lead developer for wood-fired power plant in Springfield, Vt., says he won’t try to appeal a state board’s decision to deny a permit. Last month, the Vermont Public Service Board rejected an application to build the 37-megawatt plant, saying it would unduly interfere with the orderly development of the region and the power benefits of the plant could be provided in a more cost-effective manner through energy conservation programs and energy-efficiency. The project would have used wood chips trucked to the site and produced low-cost steam heat for the businesses in the industrial park and some neighbors.
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Cant see the wood for the trees
Government climate change policy is putting up the price of your OSB ” and could be harming the environment.
UK — Have you wondered why your site hoarding, wall sheathing and floor decking materials have rocketed in price over the past few years? Why, it’s global warming, of course. Measures introduced to combat the effects of climate change inevitably add to the cost of a building project. Part L of the Building Regulations, governing the conservation of fuel and power, has been through numerous revisions over the past decade, each one tightening up the requirements and piling on the cost every time. The Part L revisions are tied into government policy with its strict carbon reduction targets enshrined in law and enforced by regulation. And so conditioned are we by the climate change orthodoxy that we accept these added costs as the price we must pay to save the planet for future generations.
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