Daily Archives: January 22, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

Opinions clash on trade and forest management

January 22, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

Opinions clash on trade as Canada officially requests a Chapter 19 review to adjudicate softwood duties. Other headlines suggest trade protectionism is shielding US companies from competition and causing the demise of local newspapers; and the tentacles of the controversial president could reach into BC’s Cowichan Valley.

In Forestry news: BC Premier Horgan says licensees appear to have more sway than they’ve ever had; a past NDP forest minister says it’s time to change who benefits from forestry; ENGO’s say it’s time to pull the plug on self-regulation in BC; and the Ontario government wants an independent panel to help with forestry and conservation policy, while industry leaders plan to push back on species at risk policy.

Finally, a TEDx Montana speaker fears the pine beetle could destroy vast areas east of the Rockies; wildfires are impacting Missouri forests; and fire management can restore/save California communities.

— Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Canada initiates NAFTA mechanism against U.S. import duties

Xinhua
January 22, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

OTTAWA — Canada on Friday filed a request for panel review within the framework of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) over the U.S. decision to impose duties on imports of Bombardier jet airliners, the Canadian Foreign Ministry said Friday. …The foreign ministry statement issued Friday evening said Canada also filed a request for panel review over the U.S. decision to impose duties on imports of Canadian softwood lumber. The panel reviews were requested according to a dispute settlement mechanism under NAFTA Chapter 19, for a panel consisting of U.S. and Canadian trade experts to be set up and decide on whether the duties follow the U.S. trade law. Otherwise the Canadian complaints will have to go through the U.S. court system.

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Protectionism pulling plug on US press

By the Editorial Board
Business in Vancouver
January 22, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Collateral damage from America’s anti-free-trade regime is being felt well beyond the economy. Countervailing and anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports to the United States are now adding around 20% to the cost of Canadian wood exports to the U.S. …But trade protectionism under the Donald Trump White House includes more than products. …Local newspapers, which provide an invaluable voice and forum for the exchange of ideas and information for any community, are disappearing fast. …Shielding American companies from competition is doing more than eroding bottom lines for their Canadian counterparts. It is damaging the institutions that have made America great in the past and without which the country will be far less than great in the future. 

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Trump dangerous to Valley’s economy

By Robert Barron
Chemainus Valley Courier
January 21, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

No matter what one thinks of Donald Trump, the tentacles of the controversial American president reach even into the Cowichan Valley. Trump has always said he would toughen up international trade deals in favour of the U.S. if he was elected president, so recent announcements about the implementation of punitive duties on Canadian companies that sell newsprint to the U.S., including Catalyst Paper, should not come as a shock. …But Trump has made it clear that he could care less about such rulings from international bodies and will continue to do whatever it takes to ensure American markets are protected, regardless of the long-range economic implications for his own country. …It would be a devastating blow to this area if Catalyst determines at some point that it’s not economical anymore to continue operations here.

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Fire contained, 3 workers treated at large sawmill blaze in south Vancouver

CBC News
January 19, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

A major fire that began just before 6 a.m. PT in a south Vancouver sawmill has been brought under control. Three workers at Mainland Sawmills on Yukon Street near Kent Avenue were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Fire officials say upward of 70 employees were on the site when the blaze broke out. Mill worker Parv Uppal said he could smell the smoke from blocks away when he was on his way to work this morning. “The alarm was going off. People were running around, you could see flames,” said Uppal. He said employees that work overnight were luckily to get out alive. “There was smoke everywhere. A couple of guys had to escape through the roof,” he said.

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Woodlot owners might be stronger with 1 board, former minister says

By Connell Smith
CBC News
January 22, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Bruce Northrup

Former Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup says woodlot owners might be better off if a single, province-wide marketing board represented them in dealings with forestry companies. Seven marketing boards in different regions of the province now serve private woodlot owners. To make his case for a single marketing board, Northrup pointed to the model used by New Brunswick dairy farmers who, through their single board, have control over their market sector. The wood marketing boards once had exclusive rights to negotiate wood prices on behalf of their members. But in many cases today, mill owners like J.D. Irving Ltd., are bypassing the boards, requiring individual woodlot owners to negotiate prices one on one with a company or one of its contractors.

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Let’s stop hugging trees, start embracing industry

By Bill Black
The Chronicle Herald
January 20, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Nova Scotians are anxious to protect and preserve the many aspects of our province that make it such an attractive place to live, work and play. We do not always ask ourselves to list what those aspects are. We would like our streams and rivers to flow with clean water that supports abundant wildlife. We want to preserve the natural beauty of our coastlines, and our farms and forests.  Sometimes the urge to protect those from every form of resource development puts other treasures of our province at risk. …Forestry is the most geographically diverse industry in the province, with harvesting and/or processing happening in every county. There are 6,100 direct jobs, almost double the employment at Nova Scotia’s three Michelin plants. There are between 25,000 and 30,000 private woodlot owners, who own and control what happens in 65 per cent of the forests. Knocking down trees reduces habitat for wildlife. So does every other human resource development, such as wind turbines, which continue to kill birds after they are built. The trees grow back.

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Pulp mill’s dark side gets short shrift

By Joan Baxter, Author
The Chronicle Herald
January 19, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Joan Baxter

Last Saturday morning (Jan. 13), I picked up the The Chronicle Herald to see a front-page spread announcing the launch of a special report on the Northern Pulp mill in Pictou County, about which I had just written a book, “The Mill —Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest.” An editor’s note said that journalists from The Chronicle Herald and the SaltWire paper, New Glasgow’s The News, had spoken with people who run the mill. I looked forward to reading what they had to say since they had refused to be interviewed for my book. The editor also said that the journalists had spoken to some of those with concerns about the company’s plans for a new effluent treatment and disposal system.  … It has certainly provided lots of positive coverage of the mill. Missing, however, are the voices of the people with concerns about the mill, and many facts that still deserve attention.

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Northern forestry at risk

By Ian Ross
Northern Ontario Business
January 19, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Expect some pushback this spring by forest industry leaders on the province’s controversial Species at Risk policy. Jamie Lim, president-CEO of the Ontario Forest Industries Association (OFIA), expects to see sound forestry policy heading into 2018, not changes influenced by the “fearmongering” and “misinformation” campaign being spread by “anti-forestry groups.” OFIA is part of a coalition, recently dubbed the Alliance, comprised of industry, municipalities, First Nation communities, business and labour groups who are rallying against, what they view as, an attack on the forestry industry through a coordinated campaign in the Toronto media. Lim said groups opposed to forestry are branding the industry as being unsustainable by bashing the province for not doing enough to protect the habitat of the woodland caribou, currently listed as “threatened” in Ontario.

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Freres looks to the future with production of mass-plywood panels in Santiam Canyon

By Justin Much
Statesman Journal
January 20, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

While heavy rains were pelting Santiam Canyon Thursday afternoon, Jan. 18, there was a warm bustle of activity at one brightly-lit site between Lyons and Mill City….Representatives from a German manufacturer were fine-tuning equipment inside a covered, 4-acre plant.  Employees of Freres Lumber worked with the visitors in a month-old mill to test tools ready to crank out an innovative product. It’s been a busy year for the 95-year-old Freres Lumber Company: the construction of one mill; a blazing destruction of a drying facility, which was promptly rebuilt and is back in operation; and the marketing of a new product, Mass Plywood Panel. “This past year has been a trial for all of us,” Tyler Freres, the company’s vice president of sales, said as workers eddied around him tending to tasks, tackling everything from computer inputs to judicial placements of mass-panel resins.

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Fire crews battle blaze at Hancock Lumber in Pittsfield

By Doug Harlow
The Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel
January 21, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

PITTSFIELD — Fire crews from several area towns battled a stubborn, smoky fire Sunday in the roof rafters of a building at Hancock Lumber at the Pittsfield Industrial Park on Route 100. The fire was reported just around 11 a.m., inside the building where raw logs are sawed and milled into finished building products. There were no injuries, according to a Somerset County dispatcher. …The largest manufacturer of Eastern white pine, Hancock Lumber operates three sawmills in Maine in Bethel, Casco and Pittsfield, and distributes its world-class pine boards in Maine, North America and around the globe, according to the company’s website.

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China’s Import Demand for Softwood Logs and Lumber 2022

WOOD MARKETS (FEA Canada)
January 22, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Forest Economic Advisors (FEA) and WOOD MARKETS (FEA Canada) are pleased to announce that work has commenced on their latest multi-client outlook report China’s Import Demand for Softwood Logs and Lumber to 2022 – The Changing Supply Chain in China with a Focus on Russia’s Industry / Export Potential. This timely report will profile the current status and outlook to 2022 for China’s imported softwood logs and lumber. It will include a look at China’s wood demand by end use and geographical market segments and the fit for imports, including perspectives on the changing supply chain in China. There will be a focus on the Russian log and lumber industry, examining the ability of Russian log and lumber exports to compete in China versus other exporting countries/species. A competitive analysis of delivered log and lumber costs by major supplying country will be included.

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Log exports concern NZ processors

By Simon Hartley
Otago Daily Times
January 22, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Record log exports last year could mean building timber shortages for domestic New Zealand housing and reliance on imported lumber. For the 11 months to November, New Zealand exported $2.41billion of softwood logs, surpassing previous records for any full calendar year and 75% of 2017 exports were bound for China,worth $1.81 billion. While New Zealand forest owners may be reaping benefits from harvesting and exporting, the country’s processors and manufacturers are struggling to compete for high priced logs. Not only had Chinese demand driven prices up during the past two years, a trifecta was created with generally favourable foreign exchange alongside very low shipping rates. …Wood Processors & Manufacturers Association of New Zealand chief executive Jon Tanner said last year’s record exports underscored concerns of local manufacturers that the country was sending too many unprocessed logs overseas.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

FPInnovations and Resolute Forest Products Announce Investment in Pilot Project in Ontario to Produce Bio-Chemicals Derived from Wood

By FPInnovations and Resolute Forest Products
By Cision Newswire
January 22, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada

THUNDER BAY – FPInnovations and Resolute Forest Products today announced a significant investment in the implementation of a TMP-Bio pilot project in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The pilot project will focus on developing new ways to efficiently produce and commercialize innovative bio-chemicals derived from wood, contributing to the development of a bio-economy in Northern Ontario, as well as elsewhere in Canada. The $21 million project is part of an initiative to renew and transform the forest products industry, building on investments made in 2012 by Resolute, the Ontario Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy (CRIBE), and Natural Resources Canada. This investment covers cost of capital and R&D and has the support of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), CRIBE, FedNor, the City of Thunder Bay CEDC and Natural Resources Canada.

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The Dust Settles on Prop 65 Updates

By the Western Wood Products Association
Building-Products
January 22, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

California Proposition 65 regulations have been updated and compliance is required for producers selling lumber to wholesalers and retailers who will ultimately sell the lumber to consumers in California. The regulations require warnings to consumers of exposure to chemicals that are known to the State of California to cause cancer or reproductive harm. While this law took effect in 1988, the regulation changed this past August and it’s important for wholesalers and retailers to take note. New Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment regulations that will take full effect in August 2018 change the safe harbor warnings, which are deemed to comply with the law in several important ways. For example, the new warnings for consumer products will say the product “can expose you to” a Proposition 65 chemical rather than saying the product “contains” the chemical.

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Forestry

Premier Horgan’s Speech Lifted Loggers’ Hearts

Truck Loggers Association
January 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Vancouver – Premier John Horgan’s speech about the need to reinvigorate social license in BC’s forest industry resonated yesterday with TLA members at the Truck Loggers Association 75th Annual Convention & Trade Show in Victoria.  “Licensees appear to have more sway than they’ve ever had before, and less responsibility than they’ve ever had before,” said Premier John Horgan. “I appreciate that the major licensees may take issue with that statement. But it’s a certainty in many communities that the relationship between the tenure holder and community has been broken.” The Premier also spoke about the Contractor Sustainability Review report which is expected in the next few weeks and his anticipation for it. 

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TLA and Parkland Refining Support Vancouver Island University Heavy Equipment Operator Students

Truck Loggers Association
January 18, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Trevor Foldy and Trevor Pinckney both accepted $5,000 Truck Loggers Association & Parkland Refining Awards today at the TLA’s 75th Conference & Trade Show in Victoria. [They] earned their awards through their success in the Heavy Equipment Operator certificate program at Vancouver Island University. Based in Chemainus and Cassidy respectively, both students live close to many active forest operations run by TLA members. “TLA members are struggling to find enough skilled workers to get the wood out and we are pleased to see young people choosing forestry,” said David Elstone, TLA Executive Director. “These scholarships are part of the TLA’s broader advocacy around the skilled labour shortage that is impacting our membership,” said Elstone. “I’m pleased Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development was able to attend today and meet our scholarship winners.”

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Protecting the Working Forest Shields Residents from Wildfire

Truck Loggers Association
January 18, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Bruce Blackwell

Protecting the working forest can reduce the effects of wildfires on rural communities in BC that were so badly impacted last summer. “Fuel is the only thing we can affect when it comes to fire. We can’t control weather or topography—the other two main variables,” said Bruce Blackwell of B.A. Blackwell & Associates who presented Defending the Working Forest: Learning From Others at the TLA 75th Convention. “It’s clear we can’t deal with these fires through suppression,” said Blackwell. “So we need to invest in fire preparedness and prevention to make a real difference and the working forest is where we can have the greatest impact on fuels.” This should be important to the TLA, he added. “Logging contractors are the largest source of people and machines with the capacity to address the fuel and hazard problem in a coordinated fashion,” said Blackwell.

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It’s time for forestry to benefit British Columbians, not multinational companies

By Bob Williams
The Vancouver Sun
January 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

There was a time when securing a good-paying forestry job in B.C. was not just an option but an expectation for many. This was a time when the provincial government took an active role in managing our public forests and overseeing the activities of private companies whose workers cut trees, milled wood and made pulp. …B.C.’s forest industry today is a shadow of what it was in the post-war period. But it doesn’t have to be this way. I believe from my five decades experience with the industry, including as minister of forests in the Dave Barrett government, that a better way is possible. A system of regional-based forestry would best serve British Columbians, our forests and forestry-dependent communities. …Right now we have an industry that for the most part is in the cheap commodity lumber business. We have pretended… that we get full value for our trees.

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Annual allowable cut does not need to change, according to report

BC Local News
January 20, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Albert Nussbaum

The current annual allowable cut does not need to change when it comes to salvaging logging in the fire recovery process, according to an analysis provided by Albert Nussbaum, director of the Forest Analysis and Inventory Branch. Nussbaum and other parties involved with the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, had a phone conference with the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) on Jan. 8 to give the board an update on the fire recovery process. They shared an overview of the forested area within the fire perimeters by management units, providing retention guidance for planning on how to salvage dead logs from 2017’s fires. “Retention planning is key to the successful salvage and we, as the CRD, have been working very closely with the provincial government to get the licensees into the salvage areas to get wood out,” said CRD chair Margo Wagner.

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University of Northern British Columbia forum urges caution on resource development

By Stuart Neatby
The Prince George Citizen
January 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A day after resource and municipal leaders crowded the stage of the B.C. Natural Resources Forum to express support for LNG projects in the north, members of first nations and conservationist researchers cast a more restrained note at a University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) conference. The Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium, a research organization that examines the comprehensive long-term effects of resource development, held a well-attended forum at UNBC on Friday. The forum examined issues such as watershed protection, wildfire preparation and human health impacts of resource development. At a panel examining indigenous land use, speakers stressed a need for changing the evaluation process for resource projects, with a more comprehensive focus on the impacts of these developments from past and future developments.

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Dozens show to protect District Lot 1313

By Sophie Woodrooffe
Coast Reporter
January 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

On Wednesday, Jan. 11, Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) director Lorne Lewis organized a community meeting at Frank West Hall to discuss the future of 118 acres of forest in Elphinstone. The property, known as District Lot 1313 or A91376, is located in Area E (Elphinstone), of which Lewis is director. The property juts up against the eastern boundary of Area D (Roberts Creek). Between 60 and 70 people attended the informal meeting, and plans are in the works to write letters, organize hikes and create awareness online, Lewis said. The SCRD has repeatedly stated its opposition to the logging of the cutblock, which is part of the BC Timber Sales (BCTS) five-year plan, in part because of its location in the community watershed. Residential properties are located next to the cutblock, which is a source of concern for Lewis.

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It’s time to pull the plug on self-regulation in B.C.’s forest industry

By Taryn Skalbania, BC Coalition for Forestry Reform
Business in Vancouver
January 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Taryn Skalbania

B.C. has adopted what respected forest ecologist Herb Hammond says is a “crass, colonial approach to ecosystems and the societies that depend upon them.” Self-regulation by industry foresters means corporate responsibility is virtually always put ahead of ecological and social responsibility, with unfortunate results to B.C.’s forests. Self-regulation controls B.C.’s resource industries and has been identified as a major setback as we struggle with declining levels of timber and an increase in climate disruption. Known as “professional reliance,” this model relies on industry consultants, employed by privately owned companies, to determine how resources are managed in our province. …Registered professional foresters are expected to follow an ethic that protects the public interest, including ecological factors. The reality is that some are compelled to work in the interest of their profit-focused employers.

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B.C. logger gets human rights tribunal hearing after province rescinds job offer

By Chad Pawson
CBC News
January 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A B.C. logger who claims the provincial government contravened the Human Rights Code after revoking a job offer will have his case heard at the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. Bryan Fraser was offered a senior policy officer job at the Ministry of Forests in February 2015, only to have the offer pulled a month later. He claims, in information provided to the tribunal, that the decision was based on his political beliefs about logging on Haida Gwaii. Section 13 of the code says a person’s political beliefs cannot be held against them when seeking employment. However, the province said it rescinded the job offer to Fraser because he did not disclose that he was the subject of a 2014 investigation by the Forest Practices Board.  That probe found that a company where Fraser was a forester logged trees on Haida Gwaii that had cultural significance for the Haida Nation.

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Province wants an independent panel to help with forestry and conservation policies

By Jeff Turl
Bay Today
January 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The province says it wants to balance  ” habitat protection of wildlife species” while creating opportunities, and is creating an independent, expert panel  “to provide advice on a long-term solution for species at risk in Ontario’s managed Crown forests.” It says the panel would include representatives from northern municipalities, Indigenous leaders, scientists and forestry practitioners. “The independent, expert panel will work to identify innovative local approaches and potential pilot projects for consideration as part of the development of the province’s long-term approach to protecting species at risk and their habitat while minimizing impacts to the forest industry,” says a ministry news release. The province is also proposing to extend the current regulatory approach to Crown forestry for a two year timeframe.

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Province proposes extension to forestry regulation changes

By Matt Vis
TB Newswatch
January 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

THUNDER BAY – The province is proposing to give the forestry industry a two-year extension to continue operating under its existing regulatory framework. The Ontario government on Friday announced a plan that would create an independent expert panel to assist in drafting a long-term strategy for managing species at risk in the province’s Crown forests as well as the regulatory extension. A previous five-year regulatory extension was set to expire on June 30, when management of Ontario’s forests would shift from the Crown Forest Sustainability Act to the Endangered Species Act. Currently, operators are required to obtain an approved licence under the Crown Forest Sustainability Act and must follow an approved forest management plan. Business representatives and regional municipal leaders had expressed alarm about that potential change, claiming the legislation could be prohibitive to the industry if a significant amount of woodlands were to be protected as designated boreal caribou habitat.

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A destructive beetle has jumped the Rockies

By Daisy Simmons
TEDx UMontana in Yale Climate Connections
January 22, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Diana Six

Canada’s vast conifer forests are being destroyed by tiny beetles that are on the move. Mountain pine beetles are native to western North America, but as the climate warms, the beetle’s range is expanding. “It’s actually jumped the Rockies and has spread across Alberta to Saskatchewan. That’s in the far north, it’s interior. It’s typically very, very cold, and in the past too cold for the beetle to survive there, but now it’s warm enough.” Diana Six is an entomologist at the University of Montana. She says that, as the beetles spread to these new locations, they are starting to kill a new type of tree: jack pine, which is a dominant species across much of Canada. …She fears that the beetles could destroy vast areas of jack pine forests across Canada, and eventually even move into eastern pine forests.

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Western wildfires are impacting our Missouri forests, but we can help

By Beth All
The Kansas City Star
January 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Like many Missourians, the Ozarks hold a special place in my heart — and the Mark Twain National Forest is a cornerstone of that region and an important part of keeping our streams and rivers healthy. But the way the U.S. pays for fighting wildfires is beginning to impact the programs and resources that keep our Missouri forests healthy. …While emergency funds are available to pay for damages and recovery from earthquakes and other disasters, wildfire disasters are paid for directly from U.S Forest Service and Department of the Interior funds. …When it comes to the choice between suppressing wildfire or spending money on important conservation practices will always — understandably — be to save lives and property. But it’s those exact conservation practices, such as restoring forests and selective timber thinning, that help reduce the risk of fire in the first place.

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Resilient lodgepole may help Summit forests recover from pine beetle

By Deepan Dutta
The Aspen Times
January 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Fire, disease, logging — these are mortal enemies to most trees. Yet the lodgepole pine seems to thrive after disaster, and that is a bit of good news for Summit forests devastated by the mountain pine beetle. Matt Schilitz, a forester with the Colorado State Forest Service, gave a presentation Tuesday to the Forest Health Task Force about the lodgepole’s resiliency. The task force is a collaborative program that brings together various forest-related government agencies and nonprofits to promote and educate about forest health. Schiltz, who works out of the CSFS’s Granby field office, demonstrated the lodgepole’s knack for regrowth with a case study of the forest in and around the old ghost town of Arrow, located just north of Winter Park. 

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Scientists weigh in on Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

By Jack Williams, Ph.D., Trout Unlimited & Pepper Trail, Ph.D., Rogue Valley Audubon
Statesman Journal
January 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Jack Williams

Pepper Trail

In a recent report, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended that President Donald Trump drastically weaken the protections, as well as reduce the size, of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Southern Oregon and adjacent California. …Established in June 2000, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is unique as the first and only monument established to protect an area of outstanding biological diversity.  …Even though the January 2017 expansion of the monument was smaller than scientists proposed, the expanded boundaries were still based on our analysis of what is ecologically needed to conserve these values into the future. If the monument’s boundaries are cut back or its protections reduced, much of Cascade-Siskiyou’s outstanding biodiversity will be at unacceptable risk.

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Fire management can restore forest – save communities

By Peter Aleshire
Payson Roundup
January 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The good news: Returning fire to the forest can work wonders for the ecology. The bad news: The Forest Service will have a hard time making the transition back to a healthy, fire-dominated ecosystem while towns like Payson, Show Low, Pine and Springerville remain unprotected by Firewise programs and a wildland-urban interface building code. California has demonstrated the terrible danger faced in an era of megafires, with giant fires in the past six months that have consumed hundreds of homes and killed scores of people. To underscore the lesson, a series of mudflows off recently burned areas have killed people and buried homes in recent weeks. But California researchers have also demonstrated how a return to periodic, large-scale wildfires can solve many of the problems created by a century of fire suppression.

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The battle may be over, but burning of the beetle continues

By Chris Huber
Rapid City Journal
January 20, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

CUSTER | The U.S. Forest Service may have declared the battle against the bark beetle over in the Black Hills, but the burning will go on. For the fifth year, Black Hills residents — with lit torches in hand — will trek up Pageant Hill in Custer on Saturday for a cathartic burning in effigy of a giant, wooden pine beetle. The Bug Crawl Blues part of the event, which features live music and drinks, will also continue again this year. Hank Fridell, coordinator for the festival, said while the event started because of the bark beetles, the true intent was to start a conversation about the changing landscape of the forest.  In April, U.S. Forest Service officials said that the 20-year mountain pine beetle epidemic in the Black Hills has officially ended. Even with that designation, the conversation needs to continue, according to Fridell. 

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U.S. top court takes up property rights case involving endangered frog

By Lawrence Hurley
Reuters
January 22, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed hear a bid by timber company Weyerhaeuser Co seeking to limit the federal government’s power to designate private land as critical habitat for endangered species in a case involving a warty amphibian called the dusky gopher frog. Weyerhaeuser harvests timber on the Louisiana land in question and is backed in the case by business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Weyerhaeuser challenged a lower court ruling upholding a 2012 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to include private land where the frog does not currently live as critical habitat, putting limits on future development opportunities. The case pits property rights against federal conservation measures. The frog, found only in four locations in southern Mississippi, also previously inhabited Louisiana and Alabama.

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Dept of Natural Resources and Justice administration defend parks logging plan

By Chris Lawrence
MetroNews West Virginia
January 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Justice Administration and the Division of Natural Resources are taking fire over Senate Bill 270. The measure would allow for strictly regulated commercial logging on certain West Virginia State Park lands. DNR Director Steve McDaniel defended the bill as an enhancement of the parks, not a detriment. “The bill is going to allow for sound, sustainable timber management in our parks,” said McDaniel on MetroNews’ West Virginia Outdoors. This bill, in its form, would only allow for select cut timber management in a small portion of that–less than 25 percent. …Despite the insistence of McDaniel and the governor timbering will help the State Park lands, many remain unconvinced. Several environmental and conservation organizations have banded together to fight the bill.

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Florida wildfire season is coming as Forestry Service does prescribed burns to head it off

By Dan Scanlan
The Florida Times-Union
January 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

The heat’s been on in some state forests in Northeast Florida lately, despite the frigid temperatures of recent weeks. State forestry crews have been systematically burning dead underbrush in an effort to prevent wildfires over the next few months. The hazard reduction burns were done in recent days after forestry firefighters fought 49 wildfires in Florida in the first week of 2018, a number that jumped to 97 as of Wednesday. Due to two periods of hard freezes that killed grass and trees, the wildfire danger index for Duval and Nassau counties is “high,” with St. Johns, Clay and Putnam in the “moderate” range, Florida Forest Service wildfire mitigation specialist Annaleasa Winter said. “If we burn it now, we have a good three to five years before we worry that property will catch fire again,” Winter said.

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Government short on land for 1 billion trees promise

By Ella Prendergast
Newshub
January 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Shane Jones

The Government is scrambling to find enough land to meet its target of reaching 1 billion trees in 10 years. The Labour/New Zealand First coalition committed to the target, which would require a doubling of the 50 million trees already being planted annually – 270,000 a day on average, or 100 million a year. But Forestry Minister Shane Jones told The AM Show his team is facing a “real challenge” finding the space. “The Government in this context is not going to go into the business of buying land. “There is a lot of land out there – [but] the farmers are leery [and] the Māori often find it difficult to agree, as you’re seeing in Waitangi.” The Government will only boost the current 50 million trees bring planted annually by 10 percent this year, Mr Jones says. That would bring the total to 55 million – well short of the target.

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Billion tree target a mirage

By the New Zealand National Party
Scoop Independent News
January 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The new Government’s target to plant a billion trees in ten years is rapidly turning into a fanciful mirage, National Party MPs Simon Bridges and Nick Smith say. “We learnt on Friday that Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is now hoping to plant just five million extra trees this year,” Regional Development Spokesperson Mr Bridges says. “At 5 million trees a year, it would take 200 years to achieve a billion trees. I know Mr Jones is not the hardest worker but stretching a ten year target out to 200 years would be an impressive under-achievement even for him.” Forestry Spokesperson Nick Smith says this back down on the flagship forestry policy is hugely embarrassing and damaging to the Government’s economic and environmental credibility.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Eastern Ontario Model Forest partners with Bluesource Canada to generate carbon offsets for community forests across Ontario

Eastern Ontario Model Forest
January 22, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

KEMPTVILLE, ONTARIO — The Eastern Ontario Model Forest’s commitment to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through Improved Forest Management (IFM) Practices will help combat climate change, while contributing to the local forest economy and providing for clean drinking water, wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities. The new partnership with Bluesource Canada, a leading developer of forest carbon and other Greenhouse Gas (GHG) offsets, supports EOMF’s vision to promote sustainable forest management practices on private forest lands across Ontario. Aside from reducing GHG emissions through a long-term commitment of sustainable forest management, the development of carbon offsets will also result in a host of other ecosystem service benefits such as clean drinking water, wildlife habitat, and recreation.

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