Daily Archives: November 29, 2017

Today’s Takeaway

Put forest-friendly gift ideas under your Christmas tree this year

November 29, 2017
Category: Today's Takeaway

The Canadian Press reports that the Quebec government intends to create a 10,000-square kilometre protected area for caribou habitat. The decision has environmental groups cheering.

In BC, Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson says there won’t be any salvage logging in his area as the summer fires burned so hot there is nothing harvest. In the US, the Forest Service is looking to hire 900+ firefighting jobs. “You get to travel” and you “could make $35,000 in a season”. Sounds good to me!

Canada has taken softwood lumber to the World Trade Organization, their pitch “the United States made calculations that fail to comply with international trade rules”. However, it isn’t all doom and gloom. BC’s NDP government says “BC lumber prices are near record highs“, and EACOM Timber in Ontario says the US will continue to be their biggest market, despite high tariffs. 

Finally, have you started your Christmas shopping? A non-profit tree planting organization has some great forest-friendly gift ideas for you.

— Sandy McKellar, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

40+ forest friendly gift ideas from One Tree Planted

By Diane Chaplin
One Tree Planted
November 20, 2017
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: International

With the holidays coming up, and we’re all feeling the pressure of getting great gifts for the people we love. As nature-lovers, we also want to avoid products that harm the environment, and aim to support the businesses that strive for sustainability. That’s exactly why we created this forest-friendly, eco-friendly gift guide! That means that they plant trees with us! However you shop, remember that you can always add a gift donation with One Tree Planted to give the gift of a healthier, greener world.

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Business & Politics

Softwood lumber: Canada takes its complaint to the World Trade Organization

By Alexander Panetta
The Canadian Press in the National Post
November 28, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

WASHINGTON — Canada is taking its softwood lumber case to the World Trade Organization, setting in motion a potentially years-long fight against the United States before the international commercial body. The Canadian government announced Tuesday that it requested WTO consultations over American lumber duties, an initial step in eventually establishing a panel for litigating the dispute. …Canadian softwood lumber exports to the U.S. are down about six per cent this year compared with last year, according to federal data analyzed by CIBC. …But the biggest gains this year have gone to Germany, followed by Austria, Sweden, Romania and Russia. With duties on Canadian lumber and a hot U.S. construction market, CIBC calculates German softwood exports to the U.S. have surged more than 600 per cent this year. …That issue of foreign lumber was one of the major outstanding impediments to a softwood deal.

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Canada takes softwood lumber fight to World Trade Organization (WTO)

The Globe and Mail
November 28, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Canada is challenging U.S. lumber tariffs by taking its fight to the World Trade Organization, the second appeal launched in two weeks by the federal government. Stephen de Boer, Canada’s ambassador and permanent representative to the WTO, made the formal request on Tuesday through the group that referees global commerce. He wrote two letters to U.S. trade diplomat Christopher Wilson, asking for WTO consultations with the United States to discuss the long-running softwood-lumber dispute. One letter raises concerns about the Trump administration’s countervailing duty and the other complains about the anti-dumping tariff. …Mr. de Boer said the United States made inconsistent calculations related to lumber pricing, which in turn led to anti-dumping measures that fail to comply with international trade rules. He also questioned the Commerce Department’s decision to slap on the countervailing duty against what the United States sees as subsidized Canadian lumber.

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Surplus decreased as BC wildfire, ICBC costs rise

By Tom Fletcher
BC Local News
November 28, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Carole James

B.C. Finance Minister Carole James released the province’s second quarter financial update Tuesday, downgrading the forecast surplus for the current year and using the bulk of the government’s forecast allowance to keep the books out of the red. …The biggest jump in provincial spending was $152 million to cover costs of the summer forest fire season. Forest fire efforts also accounted for most of a jump of 267 full-time equivalent B.C. government jobs in the summer. …Another bright spot was forest revenues, with the provincial revenue forecast up $55 million, due mostly to higher timber tenure stumpage rates. B.C. lumber prices are near record highs, with high demand from the U.S. despite 20 per cent countervail and anti-dumping duties imposed by the U.S. government at the Canadian border.

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Grassy Narrows leaders to push for mercury treatment centre at meeting

Canadian Press in CTV News
November 29, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

TORONTO – Leaders from a Northern Ontario First Nation are meeting with federal and Ontario Indigenous ministers in Toronto today to push for a mercury treatment centre. Mercury contamination has plagued the English-Wabigoon River system in northwestern Ontario for half a century, since a paper mill in Dryden, Ont., dumped 9,000 kilograms of the substance into the river systems in the 1960s. Researchers have reported that more than 90 per cent of the people in the nearby Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nation show signs of mercury poisoning. Grassy Narrows leaders say they need a mercury treatment centre in their own community and that one could be built for $4.5 million. They are set to meet today with Ontario Indigenous Relations Minister David Zimmer and federal Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott, who has so far committed to a feasibility study for a treatment centre.

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EACOM has faith in continued US trade

By Ron Grech
Timmins Press
November 28, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Blair Sullivan

EACOM Timber Corporation does not feel it has to begin exploring overseas markets in the face of US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies and the imposition of high tariffs against Canadian softwood lumber. About 55% of EACOM’s wood products are sold to the US, Blair Sullivan, EACOM’s general manager of Ontario Forest Operations, told an audience of local business representatives attending a Timmins Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Porcupine Dante Club Tuesday. That is not likely to change, he said. “North America is the biggest consumer of building products, the biggest builder of homes,” said Sullivan. “A little over half is going to the US, the rest is in Canada.” …Sullivan said based on their geography, it wouldn’t be profitable to ship lumber to Asia from mills located in Ontario and Quebec.

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Loggers’ lawsuit should name governor, legislature as well

By the Editorial Board
The Ely Echo
November 28, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Gov. Mark Dayton

One of the legs is about to be kicked out of the three legged stool of taconite, timber and tourism. Following a late-night move by the Minnesota state legislature and a signature by Gov. Mark Dayton, the state’s wood chipping operations were sold to the lobbyist-driven Xcel Energy.  This was back room politics pure and simple now covered up by altruistic sound bites on how the deal will save money for Xcel’s customers. Hogwash. …For 11 years, the system worked flawlessly. Then the political winds shifted and Xcel found enough votes to renege on the deal it had agreed to. …Nobody wants to tell loggers who collectively invested millions of dollars in equipment that come this spring they are out of luck.

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EXPO Earns Certification

Southern Forest Products Association
November 29, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

More accolades are in for SFPA’s Forest Products Machinery & Equipment Exposition. The International Association of Exhibitions and Events, the global authority on exhibition management and best practices, has approved the 2017 show as a “Certified Exhibition”.  This designation is considered the “Gold Standard” in exhibition management. “SFPA is honored to receive this recognition, the result of a hard-working team producing a spectacular event, advancing the exchange of ideas for the betterment of our industry,” commented exposition director Eric Gee. Meanwhile… All are encouraged to mark June 26-28, 2019 on their calendars. Contact Eric with any questions about Expo 2019, egee@sfpa.org.

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Saunas and sawmills: Inside look at mills in Finland and Estonia

By Maria Church
Wood Business
November 28, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International
The faint smell of burnt wood permeates Finland. The likely culprit: with a population of about 5.5 million, it is estimated there are four million saunas. Much of that forest is owned privately and managed intensively for sawlog production, which makes the quality and price of saw logs significantly higher than in Canada. “The philosophy here is to use every part of the log. …European sawmills are also challenged to cut for a diverse market of countries that have specific product requests. …To some extent, Canadian sawmillers can learn from the Scandinavian/Baltic sawmilling philosophy. That is the idea behind HewSaw’s annual sawmill safari, which this year took North American sawmillers, consultants and engineers to two top-producing mills in Estonia and four in Finland. 

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Timber Towers or Clean Air? Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s Big Priorities Don’t Go Together

By Nigel Jaquiss
Willamette Weekly
November 29, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Gov. Kate Brown

Two of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s top priorities are on a collision course. Earlier this month, the Portland Housing Bureau announced public financing for the latest in a series of record-setting wooden skyscrapers. …That announcement marks a success for Brown: During the past two years, she has invested considerable energy and state resources into promoting the development of a product called cross-laminated timber, which will be used to build the Framework. … At the same time, Brown has also pursued an aggressive environmental agenda. In February, after a yearlong process, Brown’s Department of Environmental Quality will seek legislative approval and funding for Cleaner Air Oregon, an initiative aimed at making Oregon’s air quality standards the nation’s highest. The problem: Observers say Cleaner Air Oregon could gut the nascent cross-laminated timber industry, which as part of its manufacturing process produces exactly the kind of emissions Cleaner Air Oregon proposes to limit.

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Construction Underway on New Stadium Drive Residence Halls

University of Arkansas
November 29, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Construction is underway on the University of Arkansas’ newest student residence halls, with the buildings scheduled to open in time for the fall 2019 semester. …The project will include the first residence halls in the United States to use cross-laminated timber and they will be the first multi-story advanced-timber structures in the state of Arkansas. …“Cross-laminated timber is a form of ‘super-plywood,’ that is, massive panels made of layers of dimensioned lumber adhered at 90 degree angles to each other,” said Peter MacKeith, dean of the Fay Jones School. …“Equally important, this is a building material for the emerging North American market that is grown right here in Arkansas. The market for cross-laminated timber could potentially be a major factor in the economic growth of the Arkansas timber industry.”

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Forestry

No response to logging concerns ‘disappointing’; Masterman

By Kevin Rushworth
High River Times
November 27, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Despite ongoing efforts to pause the proposed Kananaskis Country timber harvest, a letter to Okotoks town council from the province stated, “at this time, a logging moratorium is not being considered.” … Numerous Foothills municipalities, including High River and Okotoks, have asked the government to halt upcoming clear cut logging until environmental research has been conducted. This would help to ensure downstream users are protected from changes in water flow and quality, as reported. “…Mayor Craig Snodgrass wrote premier Rachel Notley on Aug. 31, stating the “community is very concerned” about the logging and its impacts on High River and other downstream communities. …With the letter having been mailed months ago, Masterman said it has been a source of disappointment for council not to have received any response from the province of Alberta.

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Canfor Gives Generous Donation

CKPG Today
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The United Way of Northern BC received a sizable donation last week. During last Wednesday’s hockey game of the Prince George Cougars, Canfor gave a $315,000 contribution to help support numerous programs in different communities throughout BC and Alberta. Part of that support will go into the programs that are up in northern BC. The funds raised came from things like barbeques, 50/50 draws and payroll donations. “This is a great example of individuals stepping up to be the hand raisers and game changers our vulnerable citizens need to achieve self-sufficiency,” says Roberta Squire, United Way of Northern BC CEO. 

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Optimized for aspen: JHL harvests pulpwood in northern Alberta

By Maria Church
Wood Business
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

David Lloyd


For a group of 20 or so loggers who make up JHL Forestry in northeastern Alberta, the job has several unique challenges, not the least of which is their diet: 90 per cent aspen. JHL is one of several contractors exclusive to Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries (Al-Pac), a large pulp mill located near Boyle, Alta., about 150 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. The mill produces 640,000 metric tons of pulp a year, about 85 per cent of which is hardwood from aspen and poplar in its forest management area (FMA).   At the time of Canadian Forest Industries visit, JHL Forestry was logging in the far eastern section of the FMA, almost at the Saskatchewan border. Muskegs and bogs checker the thick boreal forests of trembling aspen, balsam poplar, white spruce and jack pine.

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Friends, family mourning logging truck driver killed Nov. 15 in Caycuse

By Kevin Rothbauer
BC Local News
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A memorial has gone up in the Nixon Creek area near Caycuse remembering a logging truck driver who died on the job earlier this month. Ian Fraser died on Nov. 15, a week before his 69th birthday, when his truck left the road and plunged into standing water early that morning. Fraser was under contract to Kaatza Logging, a contractor for TimberWest, at the time. According to an obituary placed in the Citizen, Fraser is survived by his wife Dana, daughter Heather, and several brothers and sisters. A celebration of his life was held in Duncan on Nov. 25. …“We express our deepest sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues affected by this tragic accident,” TimberWest President and CEO Jeff Zweig said the day of the accident.

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Williams Lake Community Forest under new management

By Monica Lamb-Yorski
BC Local News
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Williams Lake Community Forest (WLCF) will be under new management as of Dec. 31. Recently the WLCF board selected registered professional forester Hugh Flinton and registered forest technician Kent Watson of C&P Management Group Inc. to take over the managing role from the UBC Alex Fraser Research Forest. Board chair Steve Capling said the change is occurring because present manager, Ken Day, is retiring from the UBC Alex Fraser Research Forest and UBC did not want to renew its management contract with the community forest. …A joint partnership between the City of Williams Lake and the Williams Lake Indian Band, the community forest is comprised of the Potato Mountain Block and the Flat Rock Block between Esler and the Fraser River.

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Barkley Community Forest revenue rolls in

BC Local News
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Come February 2018, the District of Ucluelet and Toquaht First Nation will receive a massive windfall of cash from a shared community forest project launched in July 2015. About $1.5 million will be coming back to the two communities in the New Year, which they will divvy in half. “It should be an annual thing. Obviously, with the markets right now, western red cedars are at an ultimate high,” said councillor Mayco Noel. “I think, you’ll probably see the windfalls go downhill a little bit after this. But, I think, with the markets and the model that they are using with the highest bidder wins, that it’s a model that will continue to provide positive results for the two communities.”

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New conservation site to be established near Dundurn

Saskatoon StarPhoenix
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A natural habitat for white-tailed deer, moose and elk near Dundurn will be protected as part of a new conservation project announced by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. The NCC announced on Tuesday that it purchased about 160 acres of private land, which was deemed to be in a pristine natural state. The rolling hills made of old sand dunes are covered by aspen trees, wet meadows and native grasslands. Prairie clover, which is considered to be a species of special concern under the Species at Risk Act, can also be found there. According to the NCC, other species of local importance on the property include the sand-dune wild rye, Menzies’ catchfly and red-stemmed cinquefoil.

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Pacheedaht First Nation and TimberWest Sign Memorandum of Understanding

TimberWest Press Release
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jeff Zweig & Chief Jeff Jones

The Pacheedaht First Nation and TimberWest Forest Corp. signed a  Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to formalize a long-term collaborative commitment in support of First Nation culture, environmental stewardship and restoration projects, and forestry education, mentorship and business opportunities. “TimberWest believes strongly in collaborative approaches with our neighbours,” says Jeff Zweig, President and CEO of TimberWest. …The MoU commits both parties to work together for mutual benefit and share knowledge and expertise on sustainable forest management practices, while collaborating on important cultural and environmental objectives. …“We have worked closely with TimberWest for many years, specifically on environmental projects through the San Juan Stewardship Roundtable,” says Chief Jeff Jones, Pacheedaht First Nation.

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More information coming to light on wildfire impact

By Ken Alexander
Quesnel Cariboo Observer
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Bob Simpson

Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson told the Nov. 21 council meeting there was a substantial discussion about timber losses at the Nov. 17 Cariboo Regional District meeting. …In the Quesnel Timber Supply area, the mayor said it does not look like there’s a lot of salvage opportunity. “The fire ran hot, plus it was an already infested area, so there was a lot of mountain pine beetle dead timber. “It’s not like Williams Lake and 100 Mile House where there were some close fire areas that were attacked pretty fiercely [that now has] a mix of green and burnt wood. …“What is important to us, and it’s part of what we have to do as a council, is the fuel mitigation work to be done particularly in the forest between the Plateau Fire and the Fraser River.

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Quebec creates new protected area for caribou in province’s north

The Canadian Press in Global News
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Environmental groups are celebrating the Quebec government’s announcement of a huge new protected area intended to preserve caribou habitat in the province’s north. The province says it will create a 10,000-square kilometre protected area in the Montagnes Blanche area about 700 kilometres north of Montreal. The region is on the edge of Quebec’s commercial forest and is not expected to affect logging operations. The area was one of the measures outlined in the province’s 2013 caribou recovery plan. It is home to old-growth boreal forest and hundreds of caribou. Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is currently evaluating provincial measures to protect caribou habitat to determine if they live up to federal legislation.

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Forest Service seeks to hire hundreds of seasonal firefighters

By Steve Frederick
Scottsbluff Star Herald
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Scott Bovey

CHADRON — Scott Bovey is the new fire management officer for the U.S. Forest Service office in Chadron. Beginning in December, he’ll be looking to fill hundreds of firefighting jobs. The Forest Service hopes to hire more than 900 temporary workers across Forest Service lands in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, not all of them in firefighting. …“It’s not just the hourly rate,” he said. “There are some unique benefits: overtime, travel, you get to see the country. In my tenure, I’ve fought fires across the United States.” During fire season, workers will go where they’re needed. On a big fire they might work 16-hour days for 14 days at a time, with their expenses paid. With overtime, a firefighter could make $30,000 to $35,000 in a season, he said.

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Rare lichen identified on rain forest fringe in Southeast Alaska

By Joe Viechnicki
KFSK
November 29, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Scientists have learned that a kind of lichen found in Southeast Alaska is a distinct sub-species that has evolved from the lichen of the same name found elsewhere in the world. This particular lichen has only been found in a small part of the Tongass National Forest. It also has received a new name, honoring the Tlingit people of the area.  The lichen was first discovered by a U.S. Forest Service ecologist on the Sukoi Islands near Petersburg in 1992, the first discovery of it in North America. At the time though, it was thought to be something else. “We sent it to Japan and the Japanese lichenologist said Oh yeah, this is Lobaria japonica,” said Karen Dillman of Petersburg, an ecologist with the Forest Service on the Tongass National Forest. 

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Forest Service team, new technology to complete post-fire work in Montana

By Perry Backus
The Missoulian
November 28, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The work is only beginning for the U.S. Forest Service when the last wisp of smoke disappears from any large wildfire. After more than 700,000 acres of national forest lands burned in Montana this summer, the agency decided the usual way of doing business wasn’t going to cut it this year. …Those efforts consider everything from replacing culverts and reshaping roads to keep sediment from roaring down hillsides, to deciding which burned trees can be salvaged for timber and where trees will need to be planted. The bulk of that work has to be done quickly in order to be ready for spring runoff and to ensure the timber that’s set aside for harvest retains its value for local mills.

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Security under review at Vic parliament

By Christopher Talbot, Georgie Moore and Kaitlyn Offer
Australian Associated Press in Perth Now
November 29, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

There will be a security review at Victoria’s Parliament House after an anti-logging protester scaled the roof and abseiled down the front of the building. … Fellow activists cheered as the man was led away by police, who arrested two other men and a woman. …The abseiling protester was part of the Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance group, which wants the government to introduce more parks and reserves to protect wildlife, and create jobs in the environment sector. “Under the Andrews Labor government, they have been logging native forests unlawfully and they’re pushing some of Victoria’s iconic endangered species to extinction,” group spokeswoman Zianna Fuad told AAP earlier in the day. 

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Planting 5,000 Trees in Brazil

By Diana Chaplin
One Tree Planted
November 15, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Thanks to the generous donations of our community and business partners, we recently funded planting 5,000 trees in Bananal, Brazil with the help of our on-the-ground project partners at AMOVALE, and countless volunteers who came out to help. …The Atlantic Forest originally covered an area equivalent to 130 million hectares and extended over 17 Brazilian states. Over the last 5 centuries logging, mining, farming, grazing, wildfires and unplanned urbanization had a huge impact on the ecosystem. Today, only 10% of the forest remains in fragmented areas. It is considered a global hotspot as one of the richest areas in biodiversity on the planet, but also one of the most threatened.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Scaling up bioeconomy to appeal to the masses

By Tamar Atik
Canadian Biomass Magazine
November 28, 2017
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

Jim Carr


Making the global bioeconomy mainstream is the theme at this year’s Scaling Up conference being held in Ottawa. “The world is talking about the transformation to a new bioeconomy… And Canada has every opportunity to lead,” Canada’s minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr told the audience on Tuesday. Biomass is the only renewable resource that can substitute carbon for fossil fuels. Canada has nine per cent of the world’s forests, more than 40 per cent of the world’s certified forests, and those forests are the world’s largest reserves of biomass, Carr said. “For Canada, the bioeconomy is here, it’s driving innovation.” …There’s nothing like a softwood lumber dispute and a drop in the market to spur the move to innovation, Forest Products Association of Canada chief executive officer Derek Nighbor said.

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Using Forests to Fight Climate Change

By David Shipley, Senior Editor
Bloomberg
November 28, 2017
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

…Even as we humans count on forests to soak up a good share of the carbon dioxide we produce, we are threatening their ability to do so. The climate change we are hastening could one day leave us with forests that emit more carbon than they absorb. Thankfully, there is a way out of this trap — but it involves striking a subtle balance. Helping forests flourish as valuable “carbon sinks” long into the future may require reducing their capacity to sequester carbon now. …The state’s proposed Forest Carbon Plan aims to double efforts to thin out young trees and clear brush in parts of the forest, including by controlled burning. This temporarily lowers carbon-carrying capacity. But the remaining trees draw a greater share of the available moisture, so they grow and thrive, restoring the forest’s capacity to pull carbon from the air.

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Time to ride the tree planting wave

By Vaughan Gunson
New Zealand Herald
November 29, 2017
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

I can get on board with this whole positivity thing. Even turn a blind eye to government spin, if it means a heap of trees get planted. 500,000, 1 billion, 2 billion, I don’t care, let’s just have it done. Planting trees, on so many levels, is a good thing to do. Erosion of soil from hillsides. Plant trees. Leaching of nitrates and animal effluent into waterways. Plant some trees. …Many reasons for planting trees, then, and that’s before getting to the big one, global warming. … To that aim, this Government wants 1 billion trees, mostly radiata pine, planted on marginal land over the next 10 years. This will go some way towards meeting our carbon reduction targets under the Paris Agreement. An important driver of this will be the resuscitation of New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme.

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