Daily Archives: February 12, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

Oregon joins California and Washington, lists marbled murrelet as endangered

February 12, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

In a 4-2 vote, the Oregon Commission of Fish and Wildlife uplifted the marbled murrelet from threatened to endangered, despite concerns from the timber industry. The vote puts Oregon on the same page as neighboring California and Washington, while in BC and Alaska the bird’s status is less protected [in part] because the populations are much larger.

In other news: Oregon State’s Dean, Tom Maness, calls the new Forest Science Complex “transformational” despite the challenges; Montana’s Big Snowy Mountains wilderness area may be threatened while planning in the state’s Flathead area achieved gains; and Indiana wonders whether cutting trees is good or bad for the forest, particularly given its 85% private forest ownership.

Finally, on the  trade front: tensions are growing between New York State and its largest trading partner [Canada]; a Florida media group says the softwood lumber dispute is following Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day script; and Prime Minister Trudeau strikes a cooperative tone on NAFTA while in California.

— Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Trade tariffs follow ‘Groundhog Day’ script

WFTV 9
February 11, 2018
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada, United States

Charlotte, Florida – Bill Murray starred in a 1993 movie called “Groundhog Day.” In the movie, each day when he woke up, Murray repeated the same basic story as the prior day. Only when he learned his life lessons did Bill Murray escape his purgatory. “Groundhog Day” best describes our history with trade tariffs on Canadian lumber and newsprint. This is the fifth time since 1982 we’ve seen trade tariffs applied to Canadian lumber and newsprint. We would think by now our two countries would have figured this out. Maybe, like Bill Murray, our timber trade war with Canada will need to be repeated many more times before we learn our lesson. …How many more times do we need to repeat Groundhog Day?

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Business & Politics

New York-Canada trade tension growing

By Brian Nearing
The Times Union
February 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Newspapers are just one of the pieces of the trade tensions that appear to be growing between the U.S., New York, and the state’s largest trading partner, Canada. As the administration of President Donald Trump continues contentious negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement with trade officials from Canada and Mexico, the president last month slapped a 6.5 percent tariff — a kind of a tax — on imported newsprint from Canada, which the Times Union uses in its press. And last week, the leader of Ontario vowed to push a law that could restrict New York companies from bidding on billions of dollars of government contracts in that Canadian province in retaliation for a ”Buy American” program signed two months ago by Gov. Andrew Cuomo for major state road and bridge projects.

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Trudeau strikes cooperative tone in seeking NAFTA deal

The Associated Press in the Atlanta Journal Constitution
February 9, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Jerry Brown and Justin Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday defended the North American Free Trade Agreement as an economic boon for the U.S. and his country, but he also urged for it to be retooled to lift workers who have been left behind. His remarks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, struck a cooperative tone at a time when President Donald Trump is threatening to withdraw from the 24-year-old pact that governs trade on the continent. Trudeau said 9 million jobs in America are tied to trade and investment with Canada and “the truth is that both Canada and the United States are winning. And so is Mexico. And that’s exactly how we should keep it.”

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100 jobs to go at Gisborne wood plant

Radio New Zealand
February 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

The Japanese-owned wood products company Juken has confirmed it will axe up to 100 jobs at its Matawhero plant near Gisborne. It said it was pressing on with plans to cut production of plywood and laminated timber products. The company said it had been affected by falling demand in the Japanese housing market and it could not afford to keep losing money on the plant. New Zealand general manager Dave Hilliard said it looked at suggestions for sustaining the business, including producing for the local market, but the investment needed to upgrade was too much. All staff had redundancy pay provisions in their contracts, he said. “Part of the extra assistance we’ll be putting in place is to give a minimum of six weeks’ pay and four weeks’ notice for those who have been here for less than a year.”

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Buildex Vancouver to focus on disruptive force of technology

By Warren Frey
Journal Of Commerce
February 12, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Vancouver’s biggest construction and design conference is back with some new twists. …“We have five different speakers talking about building with wood, robotics, reshaping the relationship between architecture and society, blockchain and smart contracts and regenerative housing,” Etherington said. …Buildex will also feature a Pechakucha track for the first time, Etherington said, focused on iconic wood designs. The Pechakucha presentations, consisting of 20 slides shown for 20 seconds each over approximately six minutes, will feature talks on the T3 Minneapolis office building, the Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre in Surrey, B.C. and the Thompson Rivers University addition to its law school. “Pechakucha is a format that’s new for our Vancouver conference and it’s built around the human environment, health and wellness at the urban scale and at building level,” Etherington said.

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Jamie McRae Wins Forests Ontario’s 2018 Ontario Wood Award

Forests Ontario
Cision Newswire
February 9, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Jamie McRae and Scott Jackson

TORONTO – Forester Jamie McRae was one of several award winners announced at Forests Ontario’s annual conference today. McRae took home the 2018 Ontario Wood Award for his contributions to the positive promotion of the Ontario Wood brand.  A fifth-generation forester, McRae’s family history dates back to the forestry boom of the mid-1890s. He currently manages the McRae Lumber Company, based out of Whitney, Ontario. In recent years, McRae began volunteering with Forestry Connects, a Forests Ontario program dedicated to educating high school students about the forestry industry via field trips. Rob Keen, Forests Ontario’s CEO says, “McRae’s family founded the McRae Lumber Company in 1922, and the family lumbering tradition extends back two generations before that. Clearly, wood is in Jamie’s blood. Now, his expertise sparks passion in the next generation of environmental stewards through our Forestry Connects program.

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Professor Hanington’s Speaking of Science: Super wood

By Gary Hanington, Great Basin College
Elko Daily Free Press
February 10, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Gary Hanington

Two years ago I told you about see-through wood. Now the research team headed by Liangbing Hu of the University of Maryland’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering has invented wood that is 10 times stronger than before! Their findings, reported in the February edition of Nature, detail the process and give some interesting suggestions where this new material may be used. …If the stiffness of wood could be increased by a factor of 10 it just may become a substitute for exotic metals such as a replacement for titanium in fighter jets. Wood is also a renewable resource. …This results in a processed wood having a specific strength higher than that of most structural metals and alloys, making it a low-cost, high-performance, lightweight alternative. They are also investigating making a solar cell from leaves.

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The Tallest Timber Building to Unveil in Newark

By Anna Domanska
Industry Leaders Magazine
February 11, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Michael Green Architecture has unveiled plans to erect the tallest timber building complex in the USA on the waterfront of Newark, New Jersey. …Some have argued that timber buildings are trending to end before 2035, with an alleged vulnerability of fire outbreaks. “Plyscraper” is a skyscraper made of wood; panels from cross-laminated timber. The bulk timber is engineered to provide high fire resistance – the panels are locked with carbon during construction to prevent its susceptibility to fire. Timber properties also provide its resistance to ground movement. Aside from prone effects from different climatic conditions, high maintenance and necessary treatments, a lot of benefits suggest that “plyscraper” has a big future the world is yet to harness.

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New wood University of Arkansas dorms get fire marshal’s OK

By Jaime Adams
Arkansas Online
February 11, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

FAYETTEVILLE — The state fire marshal has signed off on the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville moving forward with what’s considered the first U.S. campus housing units to be built using large, prefabricated wood panels known as cross-laminated timber. …A Feb. 7 letter from state Fire Marshal Lindsey Williams to Fayetteville’s modus studio, one of three architecture firms working on the complex, granted project approval based on design plans. “We’re strictly looking at this from a life-safety standpoint,” Williams said. …“While it may not be the most common type of construction, it does conform to requirements in the building code,” Williams said of the residence halls. He added that there were “no requests made to us for any special allowances for that method of construction.”

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Forestry

Alberta chainsaw artist slices her way into Calgary lumberjack expo

By David Bell
CBC News
February 9, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Maria Cole

“You are just a little girl, why are you using those big chainsaws?” That’s what professional chainsaw artist Marina Cole says is a common reaction she gets at lumberjack shows. “The rest is just amazement. You see something as a log and it turns into something.” Cole, from Medicine Hat, Alta., is in Calgary this weekend for the West Coast Lumberjack Show, a part of the Calgary Boat & Sportsmen’s Show at the BMO Centre. “I carve a lot of different things,” she told The Homestretch on Friday. 

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New allowable annual cut set for Arrowsmith Timber Supply Area

Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
February 9, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

VICTORIA – Effective immediately, the new allowable annual cut for the Arrowsmith Timber Supply Area (TSA) is 348,000 cubic metres, chief forester Diane Nicholls announced today. This is a 10% reduction from the previous cut level of 385,779 cubic metres. …The reduced cut level reflects the reduction in the timber supply area, with a transfer of treaty settlement lands to the Maa-nulth First Nations, the creation of a First Nations Woodland Licence and the Barkley Sound Community Forest.

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New Woss forestry program holds information session

By Hanna Petersen
The North Island Gazette
February 9, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Representatives from the new Fundamentals of Forestry Program held an information session for prospective students in Port McNeill. The 12 week program is designed to provide new forestry workers with the foundational skills and knowledge required to work safely, and will be held in Woss begining April 16. Paul Mottershead, Associate Dean of Trades and Applied Technology, gave a presentation detailing what the program will entail… Western Forest Products has committed to sponsoring six seats in the program… Vancouver Island University and BC Forestry Safety Council assisted in the development of the program.

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Forestry award makes debut

The Ottawa Herald
February 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Forestry management has been going on for decades in the county. For the first time, the Franklin County Conservation District recognized a landowner for outstanding forestry conservation practices. The first Forestry Stewardship award was given to Perry Madl during Thursday’s 77th Annual meeting of the Franklin County Conservation District at Celebration Hall on the Franklin County fairgrounds. Madl was unable to attend the award ceremony. Ryan Neises, EcoTone Forestry owner, said he began working with Madl a decade ago in forest management. Neises said Madl finished his forest stewardship plan on his property in 2009. …Neises said Madl was the right person to be the first recipient of the forestry award.

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Rural Lane County residents fight aerial herbicide spraying

Associated Press in San Francisco Chronicle
February 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

TRIANGLE LAKE, Ore. — Jenn and James Ruppert [have a] 3-acre farm. Most of their neighbors are small-farmers [in] … the rural Lake Creek Valley. …The timber companies’ intermittent use of helicopters to spray herbicides onto clear-cuts to kill brush and let planted Douglas fir seedlings survive has long been a flash point in this community, and in other parts of rural Lane County where homes abut large private forests. …Community Rights Lane County and the Lane County Freedom From Aerial Herbicides Alliance turned in about 15,000 signatures to the Lane County Clerk’s Office in September, more than enough to place a measure on the ballot in the May 15 election. …But timber advocates say banning helicopter sprays would dent an industry that supports thousands of direct and related forest sector jobs and billions of dollars in annual payroll in Lane County.

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Washington Senator Calls Out Congress For Failing to Adequately Fund Pacific Northwest Wildfire Prevention in Upcoming Budget

By Elise Herron
Willamette Week
February 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

On Friday morning, President Donald Trump signed into a law a budget deal that ended the second short-lived government shutdown the nation has seen in the past three weeks. Among other things, the deal includes around $90 billion for disaster relief funding—a response to the brutal hurricanes and wildfires of 2017. But U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) says the new budget agreement does not do enough to address wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. “Communities across the West, including my home state of Washington, are being torn apart by these disasters,” Cantwell said in a statement, adding that an area two-thirds the size of Rhode Island has been burned in Washington in the last two years

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Accord on the Forest

By Tristan Scott
The Flathead Beacon
February 9, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

MONTANA — Strange bedfellows are the logger and the conservationist, the motorist and the cyclist, yet here in the Flathead Valley those typically bifurcated corners of public forest planning have joined forces in an effort to change the way federal lands are managed. Five years ago, a coalition of stakeholder groups with competing interests convened a working group to discuss the Whitefish Range within the Flathead National Forest. …What emerged in the final plan was less a compromise than a proposal in which everyone gathered at the table gained something without losing anything of substance. They agreed to increase the timber harvest on suitable lands while expanding the minimum area of suggested wilderness. They increased the amount of available terrain to snowmobiles and other motorized uses and found mountain bikers new opportunities to expand trail systems.

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Oregon increases protections for ‘enigma of the Pacific’

By Gillian Flaccus
The Associated Press in The National Post
February 9, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon environmental officials on Friday increased protections for the marbled murrelet, a rare diving seabird known as the “enigma of the Pacific” because it lives and hunts in the ocean but nests far inland in the high canopy of mossy, old-growth forests. The 4-2 vote by the Oregon Commission on Fish and Wildlife to boost the relative of the puffin from threatened to endangered status under state law was the latest development in a long-running debate about how to manage a secretive species that breeds in dense Pacific rainforests that are also prime logging grounds. State environmental officials must now draft guidelines for ways to maintain bird population numbers, including possibly limiting logging in nesting areas owned, managed or leased by the state. Logging interests reacted with dismay, calling the move premature and a further blow to their industry.

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War on the wildest places: US bill may open pristine lands to development

The Guardian
February 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Big Snowy Mountains wilderness study area in Montana represents 91,000 acres of the wildest land left in America. …If a US senator’s bill passes, this tranquility could be shattered by the buzz of snowmobiles or the roar of excavators. In early December, Senator Steve Daines, a Republican, introduced a bill that would eliminate wilderness protection from the Big Snowies as well as from another 358,500 acres in Montana that have been shielded from development since the 1970s. They are known as wilderness study areas because the government is considering them for permanent protections… The five landscapes in Daines’s bill represent over a third of the wilderness study acreage on US national forests, and their loss would mark the biggest reduction of protected public lands in Montana history.

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Indiana’s forests are in danger, and the threat: You

By Sarah Bowman
The Indianapolis Star
February 12, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Indiana’s forests are in jeopardy. Now before pointing to the “Save Yellowwood” sign in your front yard in agreement or sighing at the gall of the so called “tree huggers” in exasperation, this discussion is not about the state’s public forests. No — rather, it’s the private forests at stake. …Considering that nearly 85 percent — or 4.1 million acres — of Indiana’s forests are privately owned, that’s worrisome. …As invasive species run rampant and hundreds of thousands of acres are expected to transfer hands in the coming years, experts fear for the future of Indiana’s forests. “Our concern is that the next generation and set of owners might not have the same ethics and focus on stewardship,” said Mike Huneke, a U.S. Forest Service stewardship program manager in Indiana’s region.

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Can cutting trees be good for Indiana forests? Or is it just about timber profits?

By Emily Hopkins
IndyStar
February 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

…It has been more than 100 years since the creation of what became the Division of Forestry and the state forest system. Thanks to careful oversight and informed restraint, Indiana has regained some of the woodland that was lost. But Indiana now once again finds itself at a crucial moment regarding its forests. Just as a majority of Indiana’s state forests are maturing, state foresters are in the midst of moving forward with a plan to drastically increase the amount of timber harvest on state forest lands — a decision that has spawned intense debate over the best way to “manage” one of Indiana’s most precious resources. The debate has spilled onto the floor of the general assembly, where multiple bills called for preserving some of the state forests, none of which were successful. 

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

“Saves for Trees” launched at Canadian ice hockey game

Climate Action Programme
February 12, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

The London Knights ice hockey team in Canada has recently implemented a range of sustainability initiatives, including planting trees for every save its goalkeeper makes. The team’s first ever green event was launched over the weekend during a home game at the Budweiser Gardens in Ontario. …The team has worked with local environmental groups to launch the ‘Saves for Trees’ programme at the game. In total, the Knights goalkeeper made 44 saves during Saturday’s match against rivals the Sudbury Wolves. These trees will contribute to the ‘Million Tree Challenge’, a community project designed to improve the city’s air quality and environment. The official game sponsor, Downtown London, has agreed to match the total and will plant an equal number of trees. Fans have also been encouraged to join the initiative by sponsoring a tree.

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