Daily Archives: November 20, 2017

Today’s Takeaway

BC’s gender balance is shifting as more women enter the forest sector

November 20, 2017
Category: Today's Takeaway

The gender balance in BC’s forest sector is shifting as more women are studying forestry, entering the industry and taking key roles, according to UBC’s Sally Aitken. In other Forestry news, studies in BC and Europe suggest that the amount of moisture in the air will be impacted by climate change with the growing season in some forests becoming more arid.

With expectations of a NAFTA renewal waning, Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail) says challenging the lumber tariffs under NAFTA is an astute move by Trudeau, in part because currently the US economy—not Canadians—are paying the price. Naomi Christensen (Canada West Foundation) says the end of NAFTA is not going to stop trade but it will get more expensive. And Jesse Robichaud (Guardian) opines that political agendas have a way of getting in the way of the natural ebb and flow of business across borders. Elsewhere, Forest Minister Doug Donaldson speaks to his recent efforts to diversify BC’s lumber markets in China and Japan.

Finally, FPInnovations has a new President and CEO (Stéphane Renou) and Rolling Stones keyboardist and tree champion Chuck Leavell has a new show on PBS called America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

FPInnovations Announces the Appointment of its New President and Chief Executive Officer

FPInnovations
November 20, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Stéphane Renou

Montréal, Québec  – Yvon Pelletier, Chairman of FPInnovations’ Board of Directors, is pleased to announce the appointment of Stéphane Renou as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Renou will officially assume his new role on December 14 as successor to Pierre Lapointe, who has held this position since December 2008. A native of Montréal, Stéphane Renou has a number of degrees from Université de Sherbrooke as well as Polytechnique Montréal where he went on to complete a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering . In 2015, he earned an MBA (Innovation Management) from the University of Colorado. …Stéphane Renou is taking the reins from Pierre Lapointe, who announced his intention to step down as President of FPInnovations last spring. Mr. Lapointe spearheaded many major projects at FPInnovations and is leaving a rich and promising legacy to the Canadian forest industry. 

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Eastern dealmakers watch feds fumble NAFTA free trade opportunity with U.S. and Mexico

By Jesse Robichaud
The Guardian
November 15, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Free trade across America’s northern border is at risk of remaining frozen in the 1990s as the veneer of hopeful rhetoric fades from the NAFTA negotiating table. That’s bad news in New England and Atlantic Canada where time-tested trading partners would have benefited from the fulfillment of a more modern, inclusive reboot of the deal. Although two of the region’s top trade commodities, energy and lumber, fall largely outside the parameters of NAFTA, the renegotiation might have struck pay dirt for this northeastern part of North America that relies on shrewd partnerships and ambitious deal-making to compete globally. …NAFTA could still be saved, and there is a concerted lobbying effort currently deployed by U.S. businesses and the Canadian government. But if saving NAFTA means allowing the deal to sit frozen in the 1990’s it will be a lost opportunity.

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Canada’s lumber challenge is a NAFTA bargaining chip

By Barrie McKenna
The Globe and Mail
November 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Barrie McKenna

Canada has done the obvious thing by taking the softwood lumber fight to a NAFTA dispute settlement panel. And why not? The Canadian government has gone this route twice before – in 1992 and 2001 – and won both times. Given that track record, last week’s filing under Chapter 19 of the North American free-trade agreement is a no-brainer. There is another, less obvious reason this is an astute move by the Trudeau government. Canada could have held off on a challenge as a sign of goodwill to the Trump administration. Instead, it has given itself a valuable bargaining chip in the ongoing renegotiation of NAFTA. …In short, there is plenty of evidence that the tariffs are inflicting a toll on the U.S. economy. As long as NAFTA lives, Canada should use the tools at its disposal to get what it wants.

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Logging truck driver who died in crash identified as Cobble Hill man

By Louise Dickson
Victoria Times Colonist
November 18, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

A well-known Cobble Hill man has been identified as the victim of a fatal logging truck crash near Caycuse on Wednesday. Lake Cowichan RCMP have confirmed that Ian Fraser, 69, died after his truck went down an embankment and into a large pool of water.  The truck was about two kilometres past Nixon Creek, near Timber West’s Honeymoon Bay operations near Cowichan Lake, when it reportedly hit a patch of washed-out road and plunged down the embankment. The area has been hit with heavy rain, with 200 millimetres falling in the four days leading up to the crash, according to Environment Canada.

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What the end of NAFTA could mean for jobs in western Canada

By Naomi Christensen, Canada West Foundation
Macleans
November 18, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

As the fifth round of the NAFTA renegotiations kick off this week in Mexico, uncertainty over the future of the pact lingers. The demands by the U.S. such as scrapping the agreement’s dispute settlement mechanism… are among a growing list of “take it or leave it” demands by the Americans. …If the U.S. withdraws from NAFTA, our trade with the U.S. is not going to stop. It will, however, get more expensive. …In the short term, it could also give President Trump a tariff stick to inflict damage in certain sectors. We need look no further than the ongoing Canada-U.S. softwood lumber dispute to see how this can happen. …Canada is now appealing the decision, and as in the past, will likely win the appeal. But the process takes a couple years, and in the meantime, U.S. softwood lumber producers earn higher profits.

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Lumber trade mission returns from China

Clearwater Times
November 17, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Minister Doug Donaldson recently returned from British Columbia’s largest-ever forest sector delegation to China and Japan. From Nov. 12 to 17 he was joined by over 30 senior executives from B.C. forest companies and associations. “We need to continue to diversify and expand markets for B.C. wood products, both at home and abroad,” said Donaldson. “Forestry is one of B.C.’s founding industries, and an important part of a sustainable economy, that in 2016 supported more than 60,000 workers and their families in communities throughout B.C.”

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Despite impact of wildfire season and softwood lumber dispute, Interior sawmills in good shape

Radio NL
November 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Doug Donaldson

B.C’s Forests Minister says the emphasis remains on salvaging wildfire damaged timber in order to minimize any impact on sawmills due to fibre supply. Doug Donaldson says, so far, Interior sawmills remain in good shape, with no imminent job losses or mills threatening to shut down. This, despite the double trouble of timber supply after the wildfire season, and the increasingly bitter softwood lumber dispute with the States. “What we are seeing in the short term is that the supply is flowing, the burnt logs are flowing to the mills in the interior. We are focusing on the burnt wood and trying not to get into the green wood because that is future supply. Over the short term, it doesn’t seem to be the impact that will create negativity on the job front.

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Forestry Trade Mission in Japan highlights growth opportunities

By Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
Government of BC
November 17, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

TOKYO – A visit to Doggy’s Island Resort and Villa in Yachimata highlighted the growth opportunities for British Columbia wood products in Japan’s tourism sector, which supports the well-paying forestry jobs on which B.C.’s rural communities depend. While in Japan, delegates on B.C.’s largest-ever forestry trade mission also toured the Tokyo Lumber Terminal, visited CS Lumber and the Japan Home and Building Show, and met with key Japanese customers and government officials. “While the Japanese market for B.C. wood products is more mature than that in China, there are still opportunities to grow our market share,” said Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Minister Doug Donaldson.

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Pulp mill’s wastewater treatment design worries fishermen’s group

By Francis Campbell
The Chronicle Herald
November 17, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

The Northumberland Fishermen’s Association has demanded that Environment Minister Iain Rankin only approve a closed-loop waste water treatment system for the Northern Pulp mill in Pictou County. “We are concerned about fishing and tourism,” said Michelle Davey, executive director of the association…  The mill and the province have committed to having a new treatment plant operational by January 2020 to handle the 90 million litres of effluent the Abercrombie Point mill pumps out daily. The province has assured the Pictou Landing band that the controversial Boat Harbour treatment facility will be shut down by that date. The fishermen’s association calls for the new system to be totally contained on land, recycling the waste water through the closed-looped system for re-use in the pulp-making process.

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J.D. Irving boss accuses MLA Jake Stewart of ‘grandstanding’ on Doaktown mill

By Jacques Poitras
CBC News
November 17, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

New Brunswick’s forestry policies are back in the political spotlight as U.S. duties on softwood begin to hit the province’s mill towns. For a second straight day, Progressive Conservative MLA Jake Stewart called on the government to force J.D. Irving Ltd. to start work on a a new mill in Doaktown, a project the company says it’s postponing because of the American tariffs announced this fall. Irving responded by calling Stewart’s comments “self-serving grandstanding.” Meanwhile, PC Leader Blaine Higgs wants the Liberals to revisit a 2015 report by Auditor-General Kim MacPherson that the U.S. industry used to argue New Brunswick mills are unfairly subsidized and should be punished. “I think if you have a dispute like that … we need to dig and get under the hood and understand the basis for how these conflicting opinions are being made,” Higgs said. 

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North Coast fire victims likely to pay more for building supplies in coming year

By Bill Swindell
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
November 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

As displaced Sonoma County homeowners begin reconstruction after last month’s wildfires, they’ll face a daunting price tag on building materials. …The composite price for framing lumber in North America has increased 21 percent in the last year. …The increase is a result of many factors. Washington state, Oregon and … British Columbia had wildfires that threatened their timber stock. Random Lengths noted that Canadian softwood lumber imports — which represent about one-third of the U.S. market — reached a two-year low in the third quarter as a result of the fires. The Canadian supply also has been reduced by the mountain pine beetle…  American producers have faced similar threats with similar insects. To add further pressures, the Trump administration earlier this year tacked on tariffs of as much as 24 percent on Canadian softwood lumber …arguing that Canada… is unfairly subsidizing its domestic industry by charging below market fees for harvesting on government land.

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Loggers’ group sues to stop shutdown of biomass power plant

Associated Press in the Idaho Statesman
November 17, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

The Associated Contract Loggers and Truckers of Minnesota have sued to block closure of a biomass power plant in Benson. The plant burns wood chips and turkey litter. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Cass County, says a shutdown would hurt the environment and cost jobs. The Legislature authorized Xcel Energy to cancel its power purchase agreements with biomass plants in Benson, Virginia and Hibbing. Xcel is now asking the Public Utilities Commission for final approval, saying it would save consumers money.

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Resources Minister Guy Barnett claims forestry employment boom

By David Killick
The Mercury
November 20, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Guy Barnett

THE State Government has claimed a boom in forestry jobs with the release of a survey which counts park rangers as “forestry sector” workers. The State of the Forests 2017 booklet was launched on Monday by the independent Forest Practices Authority.It claimed: “Tasmanian forest industry employment has increased by approximately 1000 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees since November 2013 to over 3600.” The figure is only slightly higher than the figure of 3410 published in the FPA’s last State of the Forests report in 2012 — and starkly at odds with Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing a steep decline in employment in the sector. Resources Minister Guy Barnett said the report showed a dramatic rebound of the industry under the Liberals. “The Hodgman Government’s number one priority is jobs, and the report states that forest industry employment has increased by approximately 1000 full-time equivalent employees since November 2013,” he said.

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Red Stag Timber takes Juken New Zealand to court

By Tina Morrison
Scoop Independent News
November 20, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Red Stag Timber, New Zealand’s largest sawmill operator, is taking legal action against its Japanese-owned rival Juken New Zealand, alleging Juken mislabelled its engineered laminated veneer lumber product J-Frame. Rotorua-based Red Stag said it has filed proceedings in the Auckland High Court alleging Juken breached the Fair Trading Act 1986 and said in a statement the issue was important because it relates to the treatment of framing timber following the ‘leaky homes’ crisis. Red Stag manufactures and produces solid wood products, including framing timber for construction in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands. Juken, owned by WoodOne in Japan, produces both engineered products and solid wood products.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Ontario Wood WORKS! 2017 Award Winners Announced

Urban Toronto
November 2, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

At the same time as a trend towards sustainability is bringing increased focus on the age-old building medium of wood, recent changes to the Ontario Building Code have eased some restrictions on wood frame construction. To celebrate the growing importance of wood in modern city building, the Canadian Wood Council held their 17th annual Wood WORKS! Awards yesterday evening at the Delta Toronto, bringing together architects, engineers, developers and other construction industry professionals working with wood design and construction, as well as advocacy groups promoting the benefits of building and designing with wood. 12 awards were presented at the industry-led event, with the majority—ten awards—going to projects, and the remaining two handed out to individuals for their contributions to the advancement of wood construction in the building industry.

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Builders encouraged to ask ‘good questions’ about wood product assembly for success

By Don Procter
Daily Commercial News
November 20, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Andy Teasell


As the wood mid-rise market takes off in Ontario, one challenge designers and builders face is finding the best-priced pre-engineered wood products for their assembly. Another challenge is finding products that will work for that assembly. “A great price can come with no services but on these jobs, you might want something different — a little extra involvement (from your supplier),” said Andy Teasell, engineering and technical services manager for Weyerhaeuser’s Trus Joist. While more design professionals are choosing single layer gypsum board assemblies over two-board systems…, suppliers with technical expertise might illustrate how that single layer system can lead to unexpected costs, Teasell said at a seminar at the Toronto Wood Solutions Fair.

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Sanders Receives 2017 Governor’s Award for Excellence

By Andi Bourne
Seeley Swan Pathfinder
November 16, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

John Tubbs and Gordy Sanders

HELENA – Resource Manager Gordy Sanders of Pyramid Mountain Lumber received the 2017 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Use and Promotion of Montana Wood. While Sanders was surprised by the recognition and appreciates that the Governor and others that recognized the work he has been involved with, he said the greatest success has been the various groups accomplishing their objectives while ensuring that the forest products industry remains fully integrated with outlets for all Pyramid products and remains as successful as they can, given the challenges. …Sanders believes that Pyramid’s involvement with collaboratives makes them more visible as a small company and is a way to get more of their interests on the ground.

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Studio Ma designs net-zero timber building for Arizona State

By Sam Lubell
The Architect’s Newspaper
November 17, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Phoenix–based Studio Ma has unveiled a radically sustainable master plan and conceptual design for Arizona State University’s Interdisciplinary Science & Technology Building—a science and research complex that will be centered around a vast atrium filled with plants and water. The scheme will literally embody what its professors will be teaching—achieving triple net-zero performance by consuming zero net energy, and producing zero waste and zero net greenhouse gas emissions. …Not only will the complex’s cross-laminated timber (CLT) frame sequester carbon much more effectively than steel, ASU developed carbon-collection panels that will trap carbon dioxide, which can then be employed to enrich the soil. Sunshades will keep the interiors cool; and rooftop solar photovoltaics will help power the building.

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Flank plans timber office buildings in Brooklyn

By Kathryn Brenzel
The Real Deal
November 20, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

New York City isn’t quite ready for a timber tower, but Brooklyn is about to take a crack at low-rise office and retail buildings made of wood. Flank, an architecture and development firm, is building two timber-filled commercial buildings at 320 and 360 Wythe Avenue in South Williamsburg. The firm is billing the projects as the first wooden structures to be built in the city in nearly a century. …Current city rules only allow wooden buildings of up to six stories tall. That’s not a problem for Flank’s 360 and 320 Wythe, which will respectively rise five and two stories. The projects are using a kind of mass timber, which is engineered wood that’s extremely dense — a feature that serves to strengthen the material and make it fire resistant. Flank’s using cross-laminated timber from Canada-based Nordic Structures.

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New ways with wood open up building opportunities

By Jack Nessen
Capital News Service
November 19, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Lansing Michigan— Steel and concrete would be the classic choices for building a large new laboratory planned at Michigan State University. But experts in the university’s forestry department are asking, “Why not wood?” They’re not the only ones with that question as builders nationwide push to build high rises, college laboratories and other large buildings with a construction material typically seen in houses. It’s a trend that could bring new markets for Michigan trees, fight climate change and produce new jobs, experts say. “We have a tremendous amount of resources here,” said Jon Fosgitt, a member of the Forest Stewards Guild in Michigan. “The challenge is understanding the construction style, but also creating the infrastructure here in the state. We’ve got the resources here and that’s a Michigan-made story.”

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Timber! Why we’re falling for wooden houses

Sunday Independent
November 20, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

…Given their insulation abilities, wood houses have long been a staple in Scandinavia and Canada, and can easily withstand the vagaries of the Irish winter. Perhaps it’s a throwback to our colonial history, but Irish people have long been enamoured with bricks and mortar. Yet a growing number are warming to the idea of living in timber houses… Lars Petersson, owner of Scandinavian Homes in Galway, says: “The fact of the matter is that almost all planning authorities are negative to log cabin-looking houses, at least in recent times. We have built 142 timber-clad houses in Ireland since 1991 but since 2006 everyone has been more or less obliged to have a plaster finish instead. “Essentially the construction of the house is the same – a highly insulated timber frame but the cladding is different.”

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Sydney’s International House wins Grand Prix at Australian Timber Design Awards

Architecture and Design
November 20, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

International House, Australia’s first engineered timber multi-storeyed office building located in Sydney’s Barangaroo, is the winner of the Grand Prix Award at the 2017 Australian Timber Design Awards, held recently in Melbourne. Wood Solutions was the Platinum sponsor of the event. Designed by Tzannes Architects and developed by Lendlease, International House Sydney is a multi-storeyed building constructed from engineered timber products, cross laminated timber and glue laminated timber (glulam). Principal architect Alec Tzannes explains that the architecture of International House Sydney reflects a new form of beauty; beyond shape and surface, it is deep design renewing architecture’s role to serve the greater social purpose of lowering carbon emissions.

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Forestry

‘Very dire situation’: Disappearance of Alberta’s caribou threatens centuries-old way of life

By Zoe Todd
CBC News
November 20, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Brian Grandbois remembers the northern lights flickering across the sky over his childhood home. … An elder on the Cold Lake First Nation, Grandbois is especially worried about woodland caribou, which now share the forest with pipelines and oil wells. Development in Alberta has also opened pathways to woodland habitats for predators including wolves, which chip away at caribou herds. Roads and seismic lines allow wolves to travel two to three times more quickly, said Stan Boutin, a University of Alberta biology professor with more than 20 years experience researching caribou. “The way caribou have survived in the past is to basically avoid these guys at all cost,” Boutin said. … There are 15 caribou herds in Alberta, each with its own territory. Disturbances of caribou habitats throughout Alberta range from 55 to 96 per cent of land the animals use. Humans are responsible for most of the damage.

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Gender balance shifting in B.C. forestry as more women enter industry

By Clare Hennig
CBC News
November 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Dr. Sally Aitken

At UBC, 47 per cent of undergraduates and 55 per cent of graduates in forestry program are women.  The gender balance has recently started to tip in British Columbia’s forestry industry as more women occupy leadership positions and complete post-secondary studies in one of the province’s key sectors. Sally Aitken, associate dean of forestry at the University of British Columbia, has noticed the shift in the classroom. Forty-seven per cent of undergraduate students and more than half of graduate students in the forest program are now women, and a third of the faculty are female, she told CBC Early Edition host Rick Cluff. “We see a big change in the numbers of women receiving professional degrees that relate to forestry,” Aitken said. “We’re now at about gender balance in terms of our educational programs.”

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Cariboo Regional District board highlights Williams Lake Tribune

Williams Lake Tribune
November 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Experts estimated the timber losses from the summer’s wildfires at close to one year of the Provincial Annual Allowable Cut and up to six to 10 years of the ACC in Cariboo management units this week. Jeff Mycock, chief forester for BC Operations of West Fraser Mills Ltd., and Tom Hoffman, manager at Tolko Industries Ltd. spoke to the Cariboo Regional District Board at a meeting last week on the timber losses suffered. They also spoke about the potential impacts of these losses. Other estimates indicate hat approximately 24 per cent of the burned timber in the Cariboo can be salvaged. This was just one of the highlights from the CRD meetings this week.

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Will West Kootenay forests survive?

By Bill Metcalfe
BC Local News
November 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Greg Utzig

…In a recent project for the B.C. Ministry of Forests. a team of local scientists explored what climate disruption will mean for West Kootenay (WK) forest ecosystems. As with most things around ecology, the answer was not simple. Using the results of available climate projections and modeling by researchers at the University of Alberta, the team examined what WK forests might look like in the 2080s. …The results of the three scenarios differed in some factors but there was significant agreement in others. They all agreed that temperatures would increase in the future, particularly in the summer, but differed by how much. They also all agreed that annual precipitation would also increase, but that summer precipitation would either decrease or remain roughly unchanged. In short, they all agreed the summer growing season will become more arid.

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Ministry of Forests shares wildfire recovery plans with Cariboo Regional District

By Monica Lamb-Yorski
BC Local News
November 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

An estimated 5,000 kilometres of fireguard was built during the summer’s wildfires in the Cariboo region, including the Elephant Hill fire. “Rehabilitation work has started and has been focused on high priority features, such as stream crossings,” Ken Vanderburgh from the Ministry of Forests Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development told the Cariboo Regional District during a presentation Friday. …District forestry manager Mike Pederson responded there is more work than contractors right now. …Outgoing CRD Chair Al Richmond said there is a mass amount of timber stacked on the right of way that industry wants access to. “Not tomorrow, not two weeks from now,” Richmond said, adding companies could be there getting it on Monday. “The snow is coming. You know that and we know that, but maybe they don’t in Victoria because they get a lot of sunshine and rain.”

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Ferguson Forest Centre at risk: MPP

By Sabrina Bedford
Brockville Recorder and Times
November 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

KEMPTVILLE – The impending closure of a seed plant in Angus could affect the Ferguson Forest Centre’s ability to survive, the company’s chief executive officer says. Leeds-Grenville MPP Steve Clark says plans by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) to close the Ontario Tree Seed Plant in Angus puts the future of the Ferguson Forest Centre in North Grenville – along with 13 fulltime jobs and the more than $1 million it spends in the local economy every year – in jeopardy. The ministry announced in August that as of September 2018, all seed services offered to the general public through the seed distribution plant in Angus will be discontinued and the plant will close.

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Hamilton to spend $2.5 million to fight gypsy moth invasion

CBC News
November 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The city is set to spend $2.5 million to fight a surging gypsy moth population that is threatening trees all over Hamilton. In a report that went to the public works committee last week, city staff describe a dire situation where “West Hamilton, Ancaster, Dundas, and portions of Flamborough experienced notable defoliation,” of trees last year. The gypsy moth is not native to Ontario, and was introduced in the 1960s. Last summer, things became so bad that people reported the pests were chewing up foliage and dropping off trees and onto their property. The city plans to drop a pesticide called BTK from the sky, to blanket huge areas that are facing damage from the moths.

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Avoid senseless logging

Letter by Briana Martinez
The Register-Guard
November 20, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

I am an Oregonian, and one thing I love about this state is how many beautiful forests we have. Our acres of forestland are what make our state unique, but the House of Representatives passed a bill Nov. 1 that will put our forests in danger. House Resolution 2936, also known as the Resilient Federal Forest Act, claims to “return resilience to overgrown, fire prone forested federal lands,” but in reality would just open millions of acres of public land (including old growth forest) to logging. Once logged and replanted with same-age trees, these lands would be more likely to burn in the future, not less likely. Old growth forests actually burn less often and less severely than tree plantations because the trees are so big, have thick bark, and can retain moisture very effectively in downed wood and the understory.

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Wrangell Island timber sale moving forward, at a much smaller scale

By June Leffler
KSTK
November 17, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

After almost a decade of planning, the U.S. Forest Service said it’s going forward with the Wrangell Island timber sale. The service will put 5 to 7 million board feet of timber out to bid. The Wrangell Island timber sale has changed drastically over the almost-decade-long planning period. The original harvest was about 90 million board feet. The Forest Service scaled it back to a fifteenth of that. The agency decided on the figure after considering final objections. The environmental law firm Earthjustice objected on behalf of conservation groups including Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. Its attorney Buck Lindekugel said the smaller sale is more accessible to small regional mills. “This proposed resolution reflects reality on the ground. They’ve already cut the biggest and most economical timber on Wrangell Island,” Lindekugel said.

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Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell shares his passion for music and trees at FestForums

By Tracy Lehr
KEYT TV
November 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Chuck Leavell (left)

SANTA BARBARA,Calif. – When Chuck Leavell is touring with The Rolling Stones he is sharing his passion for music and trees. The award winning musician did both during a musical question and answer session at the 2017 FestForums held at the Fess Parker Resort in Santa Barbara. Leavell said he was ready to put music aside and focus on forest conservation when the Stones called in the 1980s. …But these days when he isn’t touring he is working his new show called America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell. PBS has aired the first few episodes. …Leavell began playing the piano at the age of 7 and his talent has allowed him to play music and visit forests around the world. For more information visit 
http://www.americasforestswithchuckleavell.com

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Keeping our whitebark pines

By Larry Hyslop
Elko Daily Free Press
November 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Ruby Mountains are a unique mountain range in several ways. One unique quality is the range’s predominance of whitebark pine trees. Most mountain ranges like the Sierra Nevada and Uintas are thickly forested with various pines, spruces and firs, with only a narrow band of whitebark pines along the very top of the range, in the harshest growing conditions. In the Rubies, whitebark pines are the most common pines carpeting the upper slopes, along with limber pines. Only pinyon pines are more common and they are found only along the bottom edge of the slopes. …Whitebark pines across the West are under threat of large scale die-off because of white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle, dwarf mistletoe, and drought stress. Some western mountain ranges have lost 80 percent of their whitebark pines.

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Wyden slams administration over lack of wildfire aid

KTVZ.COM
November 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Ron Wyden

WASHINGTON – On the heels of the most expensive wildfire season on record, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., slammed the Trump administration Friday for failing to provide aid for communities in the West and across the country ravaged by wildfires this year. The senator said the administration had committed to releasing a package in the coming weeks to help recovery efforts from 2017’s natural disasters, including major hurricanes and record-breaking wildfires. Yet the disaster aid request from the White House to Congress, released Friday, did not contain a widely supported, permanent wildfire funding fix, nor any additional aid for communities hit hard by the record-breaking fire year. “It is unacceptable the White House fails to recognize the danger wildfires pose to western communities, essentially leaving us to continue fighting the West’s natural disasters on our own,” Wyden said.

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Parrots And Politics Collide In Tasmania’s Trashed Forests

Forbes
November 17, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Poorly managed logging of Tasmania’s old growth forests threatens to quickly push Australia’s critically endangered swift parrot over the edge and into extinction. Recently, conservation biologists in Australia were “stunned” to discover that valuable forest habitat needed for nesting by the critically endangered swift parrot had been clear-cut. Swift parrots nest in old growth forests owned and managed by Sustainable Timber Tasmania, a government agency that regulates logging activities by corporations and private citizens. The scientists made their discovery whilst inspecting Tyler’s Hill, which is known swift parrot nesting habitat, on the island of Tasmania. They were planning to return shortly to install specially designed nest boxes for these charismatic parrots to use for raising their families.

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How our forests are adapting to climate change

By Sarah Perrin
Phys.org
November 20, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

How do trees adjust to the effects of global warming? Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) researchers have studied how beech and spruce trees – two of the most common plant species in Europe – react to changing temperatures. And they discovered that the amount of moisture in the air plays a decisive role. Rising temperatures, increasingly intense rainfall and extended periods of drought are some of the known effects of climate change. But how are trees reacting to them? To find out, a team of researchers from EPFL and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) studied two of the most common plant species found in Switzerland and the rest of Europe: beech and spruce trees. The study, which was recently published in Global Change Biology, revealed that each species reacts differently, with the amount of moisture in the air playing a greater role than was previously thought.

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Global platform for New York Declaration on Forests launched UNDP New York, November 2017 The United Nations Development Programme

The United Nations Development Programme
November 20, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

New York – The United Nations Development Programme announces the launch of a Global Platform for the New York Declaration on Forests, at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP23 in Bonn, Germany. The NYDF Platform aims to accelerate achievement of the goals expressed in the New York Declaration on Forests, a landmark commitment to forest protection and restoration launched at the 2014 UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit. The launch of the Global Platform provides a central coordination mechanism to increase political ambition, accelerate action, forge new partnerships, and monitor progress towards the ten ambitious goals of the NYDF.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Scientists: Wood pellet industry a threat

By Gavin Stone
Richmond County Daily Journal
November 17, 2017
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

ROCKINGHAM — The facts are not with Enviva, according to more than 100 scientists from North Carolina and across the world who signed a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper arguing that the wood pellet processing industry is damaging to the environment. “We are writing in our individual capacities to urge you to integrate forest conservation and restoration into your climate action plan and to swiftly address the threat that the wood pellet industry poses to meeting climate mitigation goals,” the letter reads. Enviva Biomass is the world’s largest wood pellet producer with six plants in the southeastern United States, including three in North Carolina and one in Virginia near the states’ border. 

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NGOs call on UK government to end biomass subsidies

Bioenergy Insight Magazine
November 17, 2017
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

A group of NGOs have called upon the British government to end subsidies for biomass and instead invest in other renewable sources. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and its partners the Dogwood Alliance and Southern Environmental Law Centre have written to Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond ahead of the upcoming Autumn Budget announcement. A significant amount of the UK’s renewable energy generation comes from old coal-fired power stations that have been converted to burn biomass, primarily in the form of wood pellets imported from the southeastern US. NRDC argues that biomass-burning relies on government subsidies to be financially viable.

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