Daily Archives: October 27, 2017

Today’s Takeaway

Do sasquatch exist? Tree species are leap-frogging? Read on…

October 27, 2017
Category: Today's Takeaway

New research on how trees respond to climate change in the western US found that “young limber pines are leapfrogging their cousins and taking over the higher ground”. Climate and higher ground were also driving the decision to build a 12 storey wood residence in Paris “to contribute to the fight against climate change and promote biodiversity in urban settings”.

Wildfire management news includes an opinion piece by AFPA’s Paul Whittaker, “we can’t let our guard down on forest management”; BC’s Cariboo District is hosting wildfire consultation meetings; Washington State released its plan to reduce fire risks; and House Republicans are targeting environmental rules that facilitate more forest-thinning.

In Business news:

Finally, do sasquatch exist? A Bigfoot researcher says he has proof they do, and he claims logging may have caused them to disappear in BC’s Kootenay region.

— Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Do sasquatch exist? Bigfoot believer takes B.C. gov’t to court

By Glenda Luymes
Vancouver Sun
October 26, 2017
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada

Big Foot?

A sasquatch tracker from Golden aims to take the provincial government to court to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt (or a guy in a gorilla suit) that the legendary creature roams the B.C. wilderness. In a civil lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday, Todd Standing accused the B.C. Ministry of Environment and B.C. Fish and Wildlife Branch of “dereliction of duty pertaining to the interests of an indigenous wildlife species.” The Bigfoot researcher said he will provide physical evidence, video and eyewitness accounts to prove the hairy primate’s existence. …He told a story about a group he was studying near Morley Creek that got “skinny and weak, and eventually disappeared.” “When I explored the area further I discovered that there had been extensive logging,” he said.

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Business & Politics

Economic summit says Vancouver Island economy remains rosy

By John McKinley
Westerly News
October 26, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The economic prospects of Vancouver Island are looking pretty good at the moment. Just not quite as good as they looked in the fall of 2016. That’s the verdict of the the third-annual State of the Island economic report unveiled… in Nanaimo. …Closer to home, while the demand for wood products remains strong, access to wood fibre means there has not been corresponding increases in wood production. Meanwhile, retail and service businesses are struggling to fill low-wage jobs in part because of a lack of affordable housing. …The caveat of course it that those numbers are still very strong, unemployment is at some of the lowest levels in the province and the softwood situation has yet to put its feared dent in the forestry industry.

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Neucel to recall laid-off employees

Tyson Whitney
North Island Gazette
October 26, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Neucel Specialty Cellulose will be recalling laid-off workers for maintenance on the 100+ year old pulp mill in Port Alice.  …“Neucel is preparing to recall some of the laid off hourly employees to complete necessary work for the mill’s asset preservation, preparation for the upcoming winter, as well as the work for the investors’ site visit and the external engineering study,” wrote Beatty [VP of Human Resources]. …In February 2015, the Neucel Specialty Cellulose mill in Port Alice, BC went into a production curtailment following three consecutive years of unfavourable pulp prices, combined with the high cost of oil, energy energy consumption and operating chemicals, as well as an unfavourable low US/CAN$ exchange rate. The mill has remained in curtailment ever since.

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Steel Building Contractor Builds Forest Industry Portfolio

Business Examiner
October 27, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

KELOWNA – Metal Structure Concepts (MSC), a Kelowna-based construction company that specializes in pre-engineered and structural steel buildings, has just started what it is calling a flagship project for Canada’s longest-running and largest manufacturer of wood pellets. Owned and operated by Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc., the new steel building is being supplied and installed 100 kilometres west of Edmonton in Entwistle, AB. Once completed, the building will be the first wood pellet plant owned by Pinnacle to be built outside of British Columbia. …Pinnacle Renewable Energy’s Entwistle project is one of a number of pre-engineered steel building projects MSC has conducted in the forest industry sector around Western Canada. The company has already installed sawmills in Burns Lake (Babine Forest Products) and Barriere, BC (Gilbert Smith Forest Products).

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Lavington businesses making noise

By Jennifer Smith
Vernon Morning Star
October 26, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Mike Molnar, Restoration Lands

Industrial operations in Lavington aren’t sitting silent over noise regulations that could impact business. Tolko and the Pinnacle Pellet plant have been the focus of complaints from some neighbours, who are fed up with the nightly noise.In response to these ongoing complaints (which have also been made around farming), the District of Coldstream was looking at a bylaw to regulate or prohibit noise. But that is on hold. “Do we really need this type of solution in Coldstream?” asked Michael Towers, Tolko’s manager of energy and environment. “This (bylaw) could mean that the mill could be forced to shut down from time to time.”

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‘Plywood on steroids’ holds great potential for Oregon economy, environment

By Steve Law
Pamplin Media Group
October 26, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Oregon and Southwest Washington are well-positioned to become a manufacturing hub for cross-laminated timber — an innovative building product sometimes called “plywood on steroids” — according to a new study prepared by Oregon BEST. The 110-page analysis found Oregon has the potential to create 2,000 to 6,100 direct jobs making cross-laminated timber and related mass timber products. Mid-rise office and residential buildings are now being made with CLT, providing a dramatically lower carbon footprint than buildings using concrete and steel. Some high-rise projects using CLT are in the works. …The report suggests several ways to boost the industry here, including grants or subsidies for equipment, financing for new plants, modernizing building codes so it’s easier to build taller buildings with CLT, and streamlining permitting. The full study is available at bit.ly/2fhpFTd.

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Southern Forest Products Association Elects 2018 Slate of Officers

Southern Forest Products Association
October 26, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

The Southern Forest Products Association (SFPA) Board of Directors elected its 2018 slate of officers during its recent Annual Meeting in Bonita Springs, Florida.  They are Chairman Donna Whitaker of Interfor U.S., Peachtree City, Georgia; Vice Chairman Steven Mason of Deltic Timber Corporation, El Dorado, Arkansas; Treasurer Donny White of Ray White Lumber Company, Sparkman, Arkansas. The Board also reelected Tami Kessler as Executive Director and William Almond of Almond Brothers Lumber Company in Coushatta, Louisiana, to serve as Immediate Past Chairman.The officers assume their duties immediately.

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Governor, senator set to meet with loggers

Associated Press in Maine Public
October 27, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Troy Jackson

AUGUSTA, Maine – Maine’s Republican governor and a Democratic senator are set to discuss the challenges facing loggers and the state’s logging industry. Gov. Paul LePage will attend a logging discussion hosted by Democratic Sen. Troy Jackson in New Canada on Friday afternoon. Jackson, a logger himself, has said Maine loggers and truckers are out of work while Canadians cut Maine wood, mill it in Canada and sell it back to the U.S. Jackson wants to establish a “Hire American” tax credit for businesses engaged in the logging industry that hire U.S. citizens.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Rock wool’s new role: protecting exterior wood stud walls

By Vickie Paul
Daily Journal of Commerce
October 26, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

While the 1960s ushered in political and cultural revolutions, old consumer advertising methods were still booming from the 50s. Products like asbestos, Spam and Lucky Strikes were accepted into American homes, offices and even airplanes. …Recently, we developed an alternate method we consider a revolution in sustainable building practices: using nontoxic mineral wool insulation with standard wood studs in exterior framed walls. …The code allows this alternative material to be used through appeals and engineering judgment letters, something Code Unlimited facilitates. This new method of protecting wood with mineral wool (aka rock wool) can save thousands in construction costs, reduce chemical footprints and provide better protection than previously approved products.

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West Virginia Great Barrel Company Expanding In The Mountain State

Business Facilities Magazine
October 26, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

The West Virginia Great Barrel Company has announced it will build a 90,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Greenbrier County, WV. The plant will be located on a 23-acre site in White Sulphur Springs, and create more than 100 new jobs. …Usually, timber harvested in West Virginia is shipped as raw material to other countries to be processed into manufactured products. “With West Virginia Great Barrel Company, our people will harvest the timber and we will make the goods ourselves,” said Gov. Justice. …By federal law, bourbon, rye and whiskey — excluding corn whiskey — must be aged in new, charred oak containers. The company’s goal is to produce 125,000 barrels a year to serve the bourbon, whiskey and rye distilling industry.

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Kevin McCloud backs TRADA Urban Buzz 2018 competition

Planning & Building Control Today
October 26, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Kevin McCloud

Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud has lent his support to TRADA’s University Challenge competition, to inspire the next generation of timber innovators to create inspiring designs and engineering solutions in cross-laminated timber. Speaking at Timber Expo at the NEC Birmingham, McCloud said: “I’m very excited about TRADA’s competition, which provides an opportunity to design with cross-laminated timber. CLT is such an incredibly versatile material.” “I recently filmed in a factory in Austria where CLT is made, and what was so uplifting about that experience was not seeing the timber being made, but the factory itself, which was built entirely out of cross-laminated timber. …60 Students from 24 universities will gather at the University of Sheffield on 23-24 February to take part in an intense ‘charrette-style’ challenge, to conceive ways that timber can be used in the creation of the world’s first timber multi-storey car park.

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Airy timber home is Finnish simplicity at its best

By Barbara Eldredge
Curbed NY
October 26, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

There’s something fantastically Finnish about this family house on the Jollas peninsula, located southeast of Helsinki. Could it be the homey modernism balancing clean geometric lines with warm timber cladding? The windows perfectly positioned to ensure privacy from the neighbors while taking full advantage of winter sunlight and ocean views? Designed by Helsinki-based Oratraum Architects, the home was built for an active family of five. …Both the ceiling and floors are made of naturally hued cross-laminated timber. Upstairs features a suspended-netting lounge, master bedroom, and three children’s rooms—which are outfitted with a trapeze and climbing wall.

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White Forest Tower in Paris Will Fight Climate Change With 2000 Plants

By Kyree Leary
Futurism
October 26, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

A new high tower is being constructed in Paris, France, and it will be unlike any other building in the city. Instead, it will be made entirely out of wood, and adorned with a large number of plants. Italian firm Stefano Boeri Architetti is behind the design, which has since been named Forêt Blanche (“White Forest”). Set to be erected in the Parisian suburb of Villiers-sur-Marne, Forêt Blanche will be 54-meters (177 ft) tall and will be covered by nearly 2000 trees, shrubs and plants. …Incorporating thousands of plant-life species into the White Forest’s design wasn’t simply a stylistic choice. …it also wants to contribute to the fight against climate change and promote biodiversity in urban settings.

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Forestry

Pacific Western Brewing to plant thousands of trees

By Frank Peebles
Prince George Citizen
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The caribou heads on Cariboo cans have been counted. The numbers are in and more than 18,000 trees will be planted in the local region next year based on beer sales. Pacific Western Brewing has for years attached the sales of their Cariboo line of beers to reforestation. This past summer the local manufacturer focused on replanting the areas devastated by the season’s wildfires. For each purchase of a six-pack under the Cariboo title (Genuine Draft, Blonde, Honey, Light and Malt) in the month of September, PWB earmarked 25 cents for buying seedlings. Sales of the Cariboo line went up 20 per cent this year over last, largely attributed to the silviculture campaign, said a PWB representative.

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Cariboo Regional District set to host wildfire consultation meetings

By Greg Fry
CFJC Today Kamloops
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Cariboo Regional District will kick off a series of wildfire community consultation meetings this Sunday in Forest Grove to look back and learn from this summer’s destructive wildfire season. “We’ve got 17 meetings to do and we’ll have to do some other follow-up meetings in some other communities that weren’t as directly impacted,” says CRD Board Chair Al Richmond. “We’re going to be having the various agencies for the most part that were part of the operation. So, we’re hoping to have the RCMP there, the Cariboo Fire Centre, the Emergency Social Service folks.” He says the meetings will allow residents to ask questions or express any concerns they may have.

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Let’s have the hard conversations about forests on Vancouver Island

By Torrance Costs and Mark Worthing
North Island Gazette
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Last March, we travelled to northern Vancouver Island and hosted four public meetings about logging in the span of five days. …In a few weeks, we’re going back to do it again. The vast majority of Vancouver Island’s original forest has been logged. One way or another, the end of old-growth logging is coming. We have to talk about what this means. We have to talk about how communities adjust so that the trend of shuttered businesses and shrinking logging towns doesn’t continue to grow. We have to talk about what the consequences of cutting down the last remaining old-growth will be – for Indigenous cultures, ecosystems and endangered species, water and the climate, and local jobs in a diverse economy including tourism. These are really hard things to talk about, but we have to talk about them anyways.

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Eglinski goats Grits on lack of pine beetle response

By Evan Matthews
Jasper Fitzhugh
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jim Eglinski

Yellowhead Member of Parliament Jim Eglinski took aim at the Trudeau government for its response — or lack thereof — to the devastating effects on the Yellowhead region, specifically, Jasper National Park. On Thursday Oct. 19, Eglinski took part in debate over a Conservative motion. The motion calls for federal support of the Yellowhead’s forestry industry and workers, largely based in Hinton. The topic is closely tied to the current and potential future effects of the pine beetle in the Yellowhead riding. “I have been working for two years with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, to take some serious action with respect to the pine beetle in Jasper National Park,” Eglinski said to Parliament. “It has destroyed the forest there. It has now moved into the province of Alberta and, in one year — if the members across would listen — it has increased tenfold.”

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Fiery summer shows need to manage our forests from pests

By Paul Whittaker
Edmonton Journal
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Paul Whittaker

It’s been a terrible year for forest fires in North America. As I write this, 31 lives have been lost to a massive blaze in northern California. We’ve also seen unprecedented destruction in British Columbia, with some devastating spillover into Waterton National Park. It all brings back painful memories of last year’s Fort McMurray tragedy. There’s an important lesson in all of this destruction, though. We can’t let our guard down on forest management. We need to actively identify areas that could burn and take steps to prevent the next catastrophe. …If you ask a professional forester where the next devastating fire might happen, they’d probably point to Hinton and Jasper. That’s because a massive pine beetle epidemic has killed much of the pine in Jasper National Park and is surging towards Hinton.

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Disagreements continue over Northern Peninsula’s forestry

By Stephen Roberts
Northern Pen
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

NORTHERN PENINSULA, NL – Forestry instructor Glenn Payne identifies the Northern Peninsula as an area of the province that is underutilizing its forestry potential. But Leander Pilgrim, a Main Brook man with experience in the Northern Peninsula’s forestry industry, believes Payne’s got it all wrong. And he ardently maintains there’s only enough forest resource on the Northern Peninsula for local use. Payne, an instructor at College of the North Atlantic in Corner Brook, says he’s encouraged by the interest expressed by Active Energy to put a pellet plant on the Northern Peninsula. In fact, he believes harvesting would actually help improve forest health.

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Commissioners may join Forest Service critics

By Stephen Floyd
Herald and News
October 27, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Klamath County commissioners have been asked join other Oregon counties in declaring “no confidence” in the U.S. Forest Service following a severe outbreak of wildfires this year. Commissioners considered a resolution Wednesday holding the Forest Service accountable for management policies that contributed to 678,000 acres of scorched federal timberland this summer. Critics claim the Forest Service does not adequately clean and thin its timberland, causing an accumulation of flammable materials. The proposed resolution before commissioners said these policies created “tinderbox conditions” that led to such destructive incidents as the Chetco Bar Fire this year, the Biscuit Fire in 2002, and the Silver Creek Fire in 1987.

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Collaboration builds policy to aid forests, prevent fires

Yakima Herald
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Hillary Franz

It has taken almost 10 years to build coalitions and compromise on thwarting wildfires in the Northwest, especially ponderosa forests east of the Cascades. Along with an overgrowth of trees and brush, massive mistrust had built up in the past few decades among the logging industry, environmentalists, landowners, the fishing industry, and tribal, local, state and federal governments. The good news is now, after a string of memorably catastrophic wildland fire seasons in Central Washington, the collective efforts locally stand to get a boost from state and federal governments. On Wednesday, state Lands Commissioner Hillary Franz came to Cle Elum to release her agency’s 20-year plan to reduce fire risks and improve the health of 1.25 million acres of forest that her agency oversees.

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Selection cutting: Panacea or damage in disguise?

By Betsy Herbert
Santa Cruz Sentinel
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

It’s not difficult to convey the environmental impacts of clear-cut logging; just look at the big, ugly bald patches of scarred earth after a clear-cut and you get it. But too often, an alternative to clear-cutting — known as selection logging — is offered as a panacea. Wow, it looks so much better than a clear-cut, especially when you’re looking at photos taken by timber companies doing the logging. …One of the biggest problems of selection logging is the ground disturbance from the haul roads and skid trails cut into the forest to take the trees out. …What follows is an expanded road network to cover the larger area. …A Woods Hole Research Center paper published in Science last month explains how new tools have made it possible to measure the damage in degraded forests, beyond the more dramatic and visible sites of clear-cutting and deforestation.

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GOP targets environmental rules after wildfires

By Matthew Daly
Associated Press in KIRO Seattle
October 26, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

House Republicans are targeting environmental rules to allow faster approval for tree cutting in national forests in response to the deadly wildfires in California. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said lawmakers will vote next week on a bill to loosen environmental regulations for forest-thinning projects on federal lands. The GOP argues the actions will reduce the risk of fire. The Republican bill “includes reforms to keep our forests healthy and less susceptible to the types of fires that ravaged our state this month,” McCarthy said Thursday. California has declared a public health emergency in the northern part of the state, where fires that began Oct. 8 have killed at least 42 people, making them the deadliest series of wildfires in state history.

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Forestry group backs scheme

By Simon Hartley
Otago Daily Times
October 27, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The Forest Owners Association has embraced the new Government’s proposal to plant 1 billion trees over the next decade, touting not only the benefits for the sector but also a solution to the thorny issue of farmers and their forced contribution to the emission trading scheme. Earlier this week, both the Forest Owners Association and Wood Council of New Zealand highlighted the crucial need for increased forest planting and architectural use of more wood in construction. The Government is preparing the breakup the 15-year-old Ministry of Primary Industries, returning it to ministries of forestry, agriculture and fisheries. Forest Owners Association president Peter Clark said when forestry was under the Ministry of Primary Industries it was not getting the attention an industry should, given it earned $6 billion a year in exports.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Tree species are leap-frogging up mountains in reaction to climate change

By Adam Wernick
Jefferson Public Radio
October 27, 2017
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Many species of trees tend to move to higher, cooler habitats in response to a warming climate. Now, research on two pine tree species in the western US Great Basin shows some species move faster than others. Brian Smithers, who led the research at the University of California, Davis, says when he wanted to look at how trees are responding to climate change, he realized the high-altitude tree line is a “really nice experimental spot to do that.” “It’s a real clear line of a species’ range edge because it’s controlled almost exclusively by temperature,” Smithers explains. …Somehow seeds from the limber pine are dispersing from well downslope to above the tree line and establishing faster than the bristlecone pine. The result is a downslope band of limber pine, then a band of bristlecone pine, and then another band upslope of limber pine.

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Energy compressed into ultra-dense wood

By Carlos Gomez Abajo
Hindu Business Line
October 27, 2017
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

From small business to large economies, the long-term availability of energy worldwide is crucial for sustained growth and development. …According to the World Energy Council 80 percent of energy currently consumed originates from fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal. …but one Spanish company is trying to change this. …Biomasa Forestal aims to promote the use of biofuels across the nation. Reported in the Financial Times as one of the fastest growing European organizations between 2012 and 2015, the company fabricates wooden pellets from tree waste (collected during pruning, felling and carpentry). …these pellets emit fewer greenhouse gases, notably nitrogen, than their traditional counterparts. Composed primarily of sawdust, pellets contain no additives as sawdust is compressed using lignin (the polymers in wood) which acts as a natural binder.

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