Daily Archives: October 26, 2017

Today’s Takeaway

Western wildfires: Scientists know the answers, but will citizens take action?

October 26, 2017
Category: Today's Takeaway

Scientists know the answers but will citizens take action — ask the experts on everything fire related who gathered this week in Montana to reflect on the 2017 fire season. Coverage by Rob Chaney (in the Missoulian), suggests we should “get used to  the summer smoke and flames” as they aren’t going away. Chaney also has a story on Sen. Steve Daines’ wildfire bill that would overturn a court ruling on endangered species habitat.

In other news, BC’s Premier says they’re still assessing the impact of wildfires on the allowable cut; Prince George is seeking money to update its wildfire plan; and Newfoundland and Labrador report fewer fires in 2017.

Company news includes West Fraser’s pessimism on the softwood dispute; Catalyst Paper’s tax certainty from the City of Power River; Tolko’s concern over a noise bylaw; Columbia Pulp’s plan to turn straw into paper; Sierra Pacific’s fine for safety violations; and Lumber Liquidator’s costly flooring settlement.

Finally, although the steel industry continues to tout its benefits, wood’s global potential will be championed at the Wood at Work forum in Montreal. Of course, if you want to see for yourself, the International Wood Products Association has a new book out and the Centre for Advanced Wood Processing at UBC is hosting a tour to the construction site of the world’s next tallest wood building (in Vienna).

— Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

Read More

Business & Politics

West Fraser CEO says softwood war end not near

By Tamar Atik
Wood Business – Canadian Forest Industries
October 25, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Canadian lumber producers may still have a long wait ahead of them if they’re hoping for a peaceful resolution to the wearisome softwood lumber dispute that has been plaguing relations between Canadians and our neighbours to the south. This, according to West Fraser Timber chief executive officer Ted Seraphim. …“I want to reiterate that at West Fraser our preference continues to be to find a durable long-term solution. And as such we are prepared to be patient,” he said. “I can’t stress enough the appreciation we have for the support of our prudential governments in B.C. and Alberta and the Canadian government that work tirelessly to find a solution to this dispute.” …West Fraser’s softwood lumber countervailing and anti-dumping duties cost the company $31 million for its current third quarter.

Read More

City of Powell River council renews major-industry tax program

By Chris Bolster
Powell River Peak
October 25, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Fred Chinn

City of Powell River council gave Catalyst Paper Corporation three more years of tax certainty by passing its new tax-revitalization bylaw for major industry. The new program, adopted on October 19, raises Catalyst’s taxes by $300,000 per year for the tax years 2018 through 2020. …Catalyst vice-president and mill manager Fred Chinn also addressed council before the vote to share the company’s perspective on the new bylaw. “This tax-revitalization program is critically important to the Powell River mill,” said Chinn. “It’s one more piece that helps build us the runway so we can be a profitable mill in the future and a long-term, viable employer.”

Read More

Sound barrier for biz?

By Kate Bouey
Castanet
October 26, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Coldstream council has put a proposed noise bylaw on hold after three major North Okanagan companies based in Lavington questioned its impact on their businesses. “The bylaw seems to be targeted at the industrial facilities in Lavington as this was the only area of sampling of noise levels,” said Pat Lauriente, Tolko general manager in a letter to the district. Tolko, which has a mill in Lavington that supports 558 full-time jobs, is concerned about a proposed 50 decibel threshold at night and the limited data gathered and used to support the bylaw. Council also received letters from… Lavington Pellet Limited, an operation which sits near the Tolko mill. Both questioned the worthiness of the proposed noise bylaw.

Read More

Group lobbies for change to provincial forestry strategy

Northern Ontario Business
October 26, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

The Ontario Forest Industries Association (OFIA) has outlined five recommendations to strengthen the province’s forestry sector ahead of 2018 budget planning. OFIA released a pre-budget submission on Oct. 25, in conjunction with its Forestry Advocacy Day at Queen’s Park, where OFIA staff and board directors met with ministers and members of provincial parliament. “On OFIA’s Forestry Advocacy Day, and every day, we want to acknowledge the vital role that forestry plays in our communities”… commented OFIA president and CEO Jamie Lim in a news release. “We have presented the challenges in forestry in Ontario, provided a path full of opportunities to grow the sector, and now we look forward to working with all three parties to make Ontario’s forest sector stronger.”

Read More

Plan for strong forest industry

By Unifor
Fort Frances Times
October 25, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

The forestry industry is poised for a strong future if governments and all stakeholders act now, Unifor wrote in a new policy publication. “After painful restructuring over the last decade, we see many opportunities to rebuild and create jobs that benefit our communities and sustain the environment,” said Unifor’s national president Jerry Dias. “The Future of Forestry: A Workers Perspective for Successful, Sustainable and Just Forestry” is a report from Unifor’s Forestry Industry Council, representing Unifor’s 24,000 forestry members. Given the challenges faced by unjustified U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber, the report argues that making the right policy choices will boost the value of the forestry industry and create good jobs by taking advantage of innovative technologies, new forest management practices, and increasing skills.

Read More

Ontario Forest Industries Association’s 1st Annual Forestry Advocacy Day at Queen’s Park

Ontario Forest Industries Association
October 25, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Wednesday, October 25, 2017. This month, the Ontario Forest Industries Association (OFIA) held their first annual Forestry Advocacy Day at Queen’s Park. OFIA staff and Board Directors met with several Ministers and Members of Provincial Parliament from the Liberal, Progressive Conservative (PC) and New Democratic Party (NDP) Caucuses. During these meetings, OFIA and its members, presented Provincial officials with their 2018 pre-budget submission. The OFIA submission outlines how Ontario can develop a Provincial forest strategy that accepts and embraces the sustainable use of Ontario’s forests.

Read More

Aberdeen lumber mill fined $112,000 for safety violations related to worker’s death

By Lauren Smith
The Olympian
October 25, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Sierra Pacific Industries, which runs an Aberdeen lumber mill, has been fined $112,000 for seven safety violations following the death of an employee last spring, according to the state Department of Labor and Industries. Andrew Ward, a 41-year-old Elma man, died in April after falling from an elevated platform to a concrete surface below. Investigators found that a section of yellow guardrail had been removed from the platform, which was more than 17 feet high, and replaced with caution tape to make way for a crane, the department wrote in a release Wednesday. Ward was attempting to communicate with the crane operator below when he fell, the release says. Investigators found the mill was aware that caution tape was not an appropriate substitute for guardrails at high elevations, but regularly allowed it, while also failing to ensure employees were wearing adequate safety equipment.

Read More

‘Cautious Optimism’ as the Timber Industry Moves Forward

By Molly Priddy
Flathead Beacon
October 25, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

COLUMBIA FALLS — The pieces of wood aren’t large in comparison to the rest of the timber and lumber stacking up at F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co.’s mill, but the 1-by-2 strips represent a new upgrade in efficiency and safety here.  Fitted between stacks of freshly cut lumber, these pieces of wood, called “stickers,” evenly separate the planks as they’re piled up to head into a kiln. The lumber is stacked high and on rails, ready to move into a silver square of a building that runs heated air through the planks at 140 to 170 degrees, depending on the type of wood, in order to pull out moisture before the lumber is used. It’s all part of the process, has been for a long time, but those little pieces of wood separating the lumber used to be inserted by hand, according to Chuck Roady, manager at Stoltze. Now, there’s a machine to do the work, eliminating the fear of crushed fingers and adding a level of efficiency to the process.

Read More

Lumber Liquidators plans $36M settlement in flooring cases

Associated Press in The Atlanta Journal Constitution
October 25, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

TOANO, Va.  — Lumber Liquidators has agreed to a $36 million settlement to resolve claims brought on behalf of people who bought Chinese-manufactured laminate flooring reported to contain unsafe levels of formaldehyde. The Virginia-based company said Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding to settle all claims in two class-action lawsuits filed in the Eastern District of Virginia. Lumber Liquidators will pay $22 million in cash and provide $14 million in store-credit vouchers to consumers who bought the flooring between January 2009 and May 2015, when it stopped selling the product, the company said in a statement. The agreement still needs approvals from the court and the company’s board.

Read More

Wood, Paper & Green Building

‘Holzbau 2017’ Timber Building Technical Tour and Conference – Austria and Germany

UBC Centre for Advanced Wood Processing
October 26, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP) at the University of British Columbia in collaboration with the University of Northern British Columbia is pleased to announce that they will lead a technical tour to Austria in December 2017. The tour will start in Vienna, with a visit to the construction site of the world’s next tallest wood building, the 24 story Ho Ho Tower. The next three days will be spent travelling through Austria visiting manufacturers of prefabricated energy efficient homes, modular building systems fabricators, and innovative mass‐ timber components manufacturers. The tour will culminating at the 23rd Holzbau Forum, the world’s largest international conference on wood building and design, in Garmisch Partenkirchen (Holzbau Conference).

Read More

WOOD at WORK 2017 in Montreal

Wood at Work
October 26, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Wood at Work is a community of practice and annual conference series that brings together leaders in conservation, forestry, urbanism, architecture, engineering, industry, and social practice to explore today’s most advanced ideas, theories, and practices around the use of wood—from forests to cities. Our mission is to advance the role of wood globally in urban construction, forest conservation, and climate discourse by focusing on the links between sustainable wood use, and the strategies that make sourcing this wood truly beneficial to global conservation efforts and human well-being. This year’s conference will be held in Montreal, one of North America’s most dynamic urban centers and an epicenter of its mass timber revolution. We will continue to explore leading-edge thinking and practice in the use of wood to build sustainable cities, protect forests, reduce climate change, and support human well-being.

Read More

Wood is Back in Fashion: 2017 International Wood shows traceability technology

By Bill Esler
Woodworking Network
October 25, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – “Wood is back in fashion!” according to JoAnn Gillebaard Keller, the president of the International Wood Products Association. Keller is touting the new edition of International Wood: The Guide to Applications, Sources and Trends. The annual publication features the latest advances in wood traceability – a key concern under the compliance requirements of the Lacey Act – describing technology that will provide wood and wood products buyers more information about the sourcing and sustainability of wood. The directory advances the business of the members of International Wood Products Association’s which has as its mission building “acceptance and demand in North America for globally sourced wood products from sustainably managed forests.” 

Read More

University of Washington makes paper from brewing waste

By Phoebe French
The Drinks Business
October 25, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

The Paper and Bioresource Science Centre at the University of Washington in Seattle has devised a way of making paper using spent grain left over from the brewing process. The centre is headed up by Kurt Haunreiter who encourages students to find alternative products to use in the paper making process, aside from the usual wood fibre. Haunreiter spent 25 years in the pulp and paper industry before joining the University of Washington three years ago. …“I was looking for ways to displace wood fibres with other agricultural residues/by-products to increase collaboration and to bring the paper side of our course work consistent with our mission. I also needed to have a product that would engage our students in their studies and produce a finished product for potential sale. Enter spent brewers’ grain”.

Read More

Washington Pulp Mill Plans to Turn Straw Into Paper

Associated Press in the US News
October 25, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

PENDLETON, Ore. — A pulp mill under construction in southeast Washington plans to give farmers in the state and in eastern Oregon another option to sell their leftover wheat straw. Columbia Pulp began construction late last month on a new plant near Starbuck, Washington, which will make wood-free pulp for paper products, the East Oregonian reported . The mill will pay for farmers’ straw that might otherwise be burned or plowed into the ground. John Begley, the company’s CEO, said they plan on revitalizing the local straw industry with $13 million in annual purchases, and farmers will pocket between $5 and $10 per ton of straw. …The process of turning the straw into paper was developed by Mark Lewis and William McKean, University of Washington professors who are co-founders of the company.

Read More

Cheaper and Stronger: The Financial Benefits of Steel Construction

ABC Money (UK)
October 25, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Homeowners and business owners in the market for a new main or auxiliary building have no shortage of structural materials to choose from. Each material has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. From a purely financial standpoint, however, there’s little doubt that steel frame construction is the way to go. …Steel frame buildings are exceptionally long-lived and durable. Whereas maintaining wood and concrete structures is a costly and time-consuming process. …In particular, steel frame buildings are more resilient than wood and concrete against earthquakes registering 7.0 or higher. …Steel resists non-kinetic threats as well. With no readily available supply of food, it’s of little interest to wood-eating insects and rodents.

Read More

Forestry

FPInnovations delivers training to Yale First Nations in British Columbia

FPInnovations
October 11, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

In 2016, under the Indigenous Forestry Program, FPInnovations developed a business case for Yale First Nations (YFN), which concluded that producing high-quality firewood from residual logs, currently piled at logging sites and burnt, was feasible and may be pursued. The results and recommendations of this study were utilized by YFN to secure funding to pay YFN members to participate in training delivered by FPInnovations. This year, between July 31 and August 2, FPInnovations delivered the following three training modules: millwork, firewood storage shed construction, and mechanized firewood processing and storage methods.

Read More

City of Port Alberni jumps into locked gate fray

By Elena Rardon
Alberni Valley News
October 24, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Council will invite Island Timberlands, TimberWest to discuss backcountry access issues. Port Alberni city council will be inviting forestry companies to council regarding restricted back road access across the Alberni Valley. The topic was brought forward by Coun. Chris Alemany  …“What it stems from is concern in the community about access to logging roads and our wilderness areas around the city,” said Alemany. “There’s tons of reports on social media of people being locked out behind gates.” Councillor Jack McLeman suggested inviting Island Timberlands and TimberWest to a meeting of council to discuss the policies of the two companies and to hear the public complaints.

Read More

West Kelowna seeks power to compel cleanup of fire fuels on private properties

The Daily Courier
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Private landowners should be compelled to reduce the fire risk on their land, West Kelowna city council says. Council agreed Tuesday to ask the provincial government to introduce such legislation, citing a need to better protect communities against wildfires. Currently, neither the province nor a municipality can compel a landowner to thin out trees or clear away underbrush. “We need to have the ability to mandate a cleanup (for fire mitigation purposes) on somebody’s property,” Coun. Duane Ophus said.

Read More

John Horgan Comments on Forest Industry

By Jeff Slack
MY PG NOW
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Judy Darcy & John Horgan

Premier John Horgan spoke today on the impact the BC wildfire had on the forest industry. He says the NDP government is working closely with the Ministry of forests to get an idea of the damage the wildfire had on effected regions. “The Chief Forester of course was making determinations on what the annual liable cut would be based on an expectation on a certain level of harvestable timber, that now is going to have to be re-written.” The premier says he doesn’t want to pre-judge the work of the chief of forester, but in coming up with the annual cuts for the interior region he didn’t believe the fire effected the number that was presented to him.

Read More

Video opposes Youbou mountain logging

By Robert Barron
Cowichan Valley Citizen
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A video that details the beauty of the community of Youbou, and the negative impacts of any logging that could be done close to it, is getting lots of hits on YouTube. The approximately three-minute video, which was made by Don Kitch, owner of the Youbou Guest House, was created in response to possible plans by the TimberWest forest company to log some of its land in the hills above the community near Cowichan Lake. …There is also a petition that is circulating through Youbou asking TimberWest not to log in the hills that will be sent to the forest company and the province.

Read More

Beetle infestation found near Nelson watershed

By Tyler Harper
Trail Times
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Gerald Cordeiro & Tyler Hodgkinson

A Douglas fir bark beetle infestation near one of Nelson’s water sources could lead to further outbreaks as well as potential wildfires if not addressed before next spring. That was the red flag Kalesnikoff Lumber waved in front of city council during a presentation Monday afternoon. Development supervisor Gerald Cordeiro told council the outbreak near Selous Creek needs to be taken care of before next April when beetles begin to fly in warmer temperatures. …Kalesnikoff still needs permission to log the area, which requires approval from the Ministry of Forests, Land and Natural Resource Operations. The ministry also needs to give Kalesnikoff’s plan an exemption from current regulations that limit more than one per cent of visible landscape be altered by cutting.

Read More

City seeking funding for wildfire prevention plan

By Mark Nielsen
Prince George Citizen
October 24, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The city is seeking provincial government money to help pay for an update of its plan to keep Prince George from being overrun by wildfires. The move comes in the wake of this summer’s series of massive forest fires which sent more than 10,000 evacuees into the city. Other than heavy smoke, Prince George was unaffected but the event did revive a concern the city could become a victim. “As a city in the forest, Prince George is susceptible to the impacts of wildfires,” the city’s engineering and public works general manager Dave Dyer said in a report to council. The city’s most recent plan dates back to 2005 and was drafted in advance of securing a licence to harvest beetle-killed pine out of the 3,880 hectares of undeveloped Crown land within the municipal boundary.

Read More

Forest fires down in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2017 compared to 10-year average

The Telegram
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

There have been 73 forest fires in Newfoundland and Labrador so far this year, resulting in 699 hectares of burned land. That’s down significantly from the province’s average of 116 fires and 35,324 hectares burned over the past 10 years, according to a news release Wednesday issued by the Department of Fisheries and Land Resources. Eighty-seven per cent of the total area burned this year occurred in one forest fire near Edwards Island in Labrador. The remaining 13 per cent of forest area burned in the province consisted of small fires on the island and other parts of Labrador. Seventy-nine per cent of forest fires occurring in 2017 were less than one hectare in size.

Read More

Western wildfires: Scientists know the answers, panelists say, but will citizens take action?

By Sherry Devlin
TreeSource
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Earth is a flammable planet. It’s been that way for 320 million years, since vegetation first took hold on the land. “So fire is this natural phenomenon,” said Phil Higuera. “But when it interacts with humans, it is truly a disaster.” Thus the eight experts on everything from insurance to incident command who gathered Tuesday night in Missoula to reflect on the 2017 wildfire season – and on how, after 320 million years, humans can learn to live with fire. Higuera, a fire ecologist at the University of Montana, said science is a great tool, but the conversation really has to be about human values.

Read More

Get used to it: Fire experts warn summer smoke and flames aren’t going away

By Rob Chaney
The Missoulian
October 24, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

We may not know how to live with wildfire, but the question won’t go away for lack of answers. A panel of experts from insurance agents to national forest supervisors and fire ecologists agreed that people in the forested West need to make choices about how much smoke they can stand, how much work they’re willing to do, and what they’re willing to lose for the opportunity to live in a beautiful landscape. The gathering, put on by TreeSource.org, drew more than 100 people to the University of Montana on Tuesday night. “The ecology just is,” UM fire ecologist Phil Higuera answered to the question ‘is there too much fire ecologically or socially?’ “You may lose some of the things you’re used to. Is that good or bad? It’s the humans that value what’s out there.”

Read More

Wildfire bill aims at lynx rule, litigation changes

By Rob Chaney
The Missoulian
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Steve Daines

A draft bill proposing wide changes to public forest management includes a provision by Sen. Steve Daines overturning a federal court ruling on endangered species habitat. Daines, R-Mont., discussed the Wildfire Prevention and Mitigation Act of 2017 at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on Wednesday. The full bill, by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., hasn’t been formally introduced yet. “We have had one of the most devastating fire seasons this year across the West and in Montana,” Daines wrote in an email. “We need forest management reform now to reduce the severity and intensity of wildfires and create more good-paying jobs.”

Read More

State issues 20-year plan to improve forest health in state

By Nicholas K. Geranios
Associated Press in the Seattle Times
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Hilary Franz

SPOKANE — The state on Wednesday issued a 20-year-plan to reduce the number of wildfires and improve the health of 1.25 million acres of forest land in eastern Washington. Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz released the plan at a press conference in Cle Elum, near the site of last summer’s Jolly Mountain Fire, a lightning-caused blaze that burned 57.5 square miles of land. Franz said the plan is necessary to break the cycle of destructive wildfires that plague the region east of the Cascade Range each year. “If we fail to do this work, we face formidable wildfire seasons in an increasingly difficult climate,” Franz said. “Improving the health of our forests will reduce risk to lives, communities, livelihoods, water supplies and essential forest ecosystems.”

Read More

Loggers dismantle roadblock set up by environmental activists near McKenzie Bridge

By Dylan Darling
The Register-Guard
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

McKENZIE BRIDGE — Loggers regained full access to a controversial timber sale Wednesday by pulling apart a roadblock that environmental activists installed on a forest road that leads to the sale. The loggers arrived around 7:20 a.m., attached a chain and a haul hitch to a pickup truck that was part of the roadblock and pulled it out of the way, said a protester who goes by the name North. For two days, he had been on a platform 80 feet up in a tree, supported by a rope anchored to the roadblock. Protesters on the ground Wednesday morning yelled at the loggers not to move the pickup truck, warning that doing so would put him in danger, North said, but they did it anyway.

Read More

Popular Seattle-area trail could be logged and ‘dramatically change for decades’

KIRO 7
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Outdoor enthusiasts and environmental advocates are fighting for one of the Seattle-area’s most beloved trails as it stands in jeopardy of being logged.  …Over 45,000 hikers each year make an eight-mile round-trip trek through vibrant forests to find Bridal Veils Fails and then Lake Serene.   The U.S. Forest Service owns the public lands where the trail lay, but wood products and timberlands company Weyerhaeuser owns property around it. Weyerhaeuser also owns property that a short span of the trail crosses, according to The Everett Herald.  Environmental Conservation Group Forterra NW has an agreement with Weyerhaeuser to avoid the logging project. But the conservation group needs to come up with $275,000 to make the deal happen. 

Read More

Congress could decide fate of Tongass plan to move away from old-growth timber

By Elizabeth Jenkins
Alaska Public Media
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Congress can now deny the U.S. Forest Service’s move to transition away from old-growth logging in the Tongass National Forest. Conservationists and timber industry groups thought the Forest Service’s decision was finalized last year. But a letter submitted by Sen. Lisa Murkowski prompted the Government Accountability Office to look into it. The office determined Monday that Congress can review the forest service’s decision. Now the agency must follow their old plan until Congress reaches an agreement. Owen Graham, the executive director at the Alaska Forest Association, says it’s a step in the right direction. “I’ve been working hard trying to persuade people to rescinded or reject it or withdraw it. Choke it to death or something,” Graham said. …Meredith Trainor, from the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, said she didn’t agree with everything in the plan. She thought it left too much old growth on the table. But for conservationists, there were also some substantial wins.

Read More

Citizen group proposes list of revisions to forest management plan

By Michael Gebelein
Carolina Public Press
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A citizen group has asked the U.S. Forest Service to consider a slate of proposed revisions to its management plan for Western North Carolina’s national forests, the Pisgah and Nantahala. The federal agency is already drafting a new forest plan that’s scheduled for released in early 2018. Made up of more than 30 organizations, the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Parternership’s members are hoping the Forest Service will embrace the changes they are seeking. “The big picture is we asked the Forest Service to consider some alternatives that are win-win for everybody,” said Kevin Colburn, a member of the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Partnership leadership team. “We worked really hard to come up with some ideas where everybody’s interests can move forward together.

Read More

Walker: State forestry headquarters moving to Rhinelander

The Northwoods River News
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Rhinelander has been chosen as the new home of the State Division of Forestry office, Governor Scott Walker announced Wednesday in a visit to the city. The headquarters will be located in the current DNR Service Center on Sutliff Avenue, Walker said. Hayward, Wausau and Rhinelander had previously been identified by the Department of Natural Resources as preferred locations for the office should it be relocated to the northern half of the state. ….”This move will put the Division of Forestry and its leadership in a better position to work with the primary forest industries in the state,” said Walker. “We will also be able to work more closely with our forestry industry partners in growing the state’s $24.7 billion forest industry that already generates nearly 65,000 jobs.

Read More

Logging of Victorian old-growth forest ‘cannot proceed’, lawyers say

By Michael Slezak
The Guardian
October 25, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

A Victorian government-owned business is poised to clear-fell hundreds of hectares of spectacular old-growth forest, in a move lawyers say is unlawful and which they intend to halt through the supreme court if necessary. The area about to be logged by VicForests contains countless trees that are centuries old. It is made up of two forest types that are required by law to have 60% marked by the government as “special protections zones” that can’t be logged – a step that has not been taken. Environmental Justice Australia has written to the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, arguing that, in order to protect 60% of those forest types, the areas that are about to be logged must be included in the special protection zones.

Read More

Forestry gains higher profile but questions raised over foreign investment, shortfall of trees

By Gerard Hutching
Stuff.co.nz
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Peter Clark

New Zealand needs continued foreign investment in forestry but it is unclear whether the new coalition Government will close the door on overseas investors, the Forest Owners Association says. It estimates that upwards of 1 million hectares of New Zealand’s 1.7m ha plantation forests are either directly owned or managed by foreign interests. Forest Owners President Peter Clark said New Zealand needed foreign investment, partly because the amounts needed were so big and for such a long time. “We’ve got $25-30 billion tied up in our plantation forests and if you restrict foreign ownership then it’s going to have to be New Zealanders. “We could do it with taxpayers’ money but you tie a lot of money up in forestry for a long time. That’s part of the reason why the Government got out of forestry in the first place,” Clark said.

Read More

Wood processors welcome govt’s forestry plans

By Lois Williams and Bridget Mills
Radio New Zealand
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Northland timber millers are praising the new government’s plans to invest in forestry. The industry has been warning of wood shortages and job losses because so many forests have been harvested early for log exports. The managing director of Whangarei’s Rosvalls sawmill, Mark Hansen, said the plan to re-establish a forest service, plant more trees and ensure a domestic supply of timber, was extremely welcome. He said wood processors had been hoping New Zealand First leader Winston Peters’ strong support for the industry would translate into gains post-election, and they were also pleased that Northland New Zealand First MP Shane Jones was to be Minister for Regional Development. “We are pretty impressed with what we’re seeing, and this will help some of the long-and medium-term issues for us,” he said.

Read More

Reality Check: Is tree-planting target being met?

BBC News
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

At the last election, the Conservative Party promised to plant millions of trees. But, as Reality Check correspondent Chris Morris reports, it is going to have to dramatically speed up the planting to meet the target.  Campaigners have called on the government to do more to address the “unacceptably low” level of woodland cover in the United Kingdom, arguing it is causing the country both economic and environmental damage. Only 13% of the UK’s total land area is covered in trees, compared with an average elsewhere in the EU of about 35%. In England, the figure is just 10%, and efforts to plant more trees have been falling short. A statement from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says: “Planting more trees is at the heart of our work to protect the environment for future generations.” But critics say the government is not doing enough.

Read More