Daily Archives: May 29, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

Potential CP Rail walkout adds to industry’s freight backlog woes

May 29, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

A potential strike at CP Rail adds to industry’s rail capacity woes; while the closure of the Huron Central Railway would be particularly traumatic for EACOM. In other Business news: industry leaders in Ontario want a better natural resources strategy; and the Lesprom Network reveals who’s up (Russia) and who’s down (Canada) when it comes to softwood lumber shipments to China.

In Forestry news; the Ancient Forest Alliance is working hard to generate news coverage about old growth logging on Vancouver Island; the Montreal Economic Institute raises cost concerns of protecting the caribou; the U of New Hampshire says reduced harvesting in Maine can increase carbon uptake; a Vancouver lumberjack wins a world title in France and new research finds tall Amazon forests are three-times less sensitive to drought than short forests. 

Finally, Chinese researchers make supercapacitors—touted as the future of batteries—from wood.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Potential CP rail walkout is latest blow to freight backlog

By Jen Skerritt and Frederic Tomesco
Bloomberg in the Prince George Citizen
May 28, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Thousands of workers at Canada’s second-largest railway could walk off the job as early as Tuesday night, adding to the transport woes that have stranded commodities across the nation’s Prairies. More than 3,000 Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. train conductors, engineers and electrical workers represented by Teamsters Canada and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers could walk off the job as early as 10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time if a negotiated settlement isn’t reached, according to a Teamsters Canada statement Saturday. Teamsters members voted 98 percent to reject the company’s final offer on Friday. …The uncertainty over a possible labor disruption comes after a lack of adequate rail capacity led to piles of commodities being stuck on Canada’s Prairies this winter, including grain, oil and lumber.

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Closure of short-line railway would be “traumatic” for northeastern Ontario sawmill

By Ian Ross
Northern Ontario Business
May 28, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

EACOM Timber is prepared to pull out all the stops to keep its Nairn Centre sawmill running even if rail freight service is discontinued between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. Christine Leduc, director of public affairs for the Montreal-based forest products company, admitted that would be a difficult task since the mill has no other rail alternatives and trucking capacity in the northeast is very limited. …Genesee & Wyoming Canada, the parent company of the Huron Central Railway, announced May 22 that it intends to discontinue operations on the 283-kilometre line at year’s end. …Discussions with the provincial government to secure matching funds appear to have gone nowhere, though the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund recently provided the railway with $882,650 for track and crossing upgrades.

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Business Leaders Call for an Ontario Natural Resources Strategy

By EACOM
Cision Newswire
May 28, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

TIMMINS, ON – Days before Ontarians head to the polls, representatives from Aboriginal business, mining, prospectors, forestry, local government, and the broader business community are calling for the creation of a provincial natural resource strategy with specific actions, following a roundtable discussion held today in Timmins. …”At a time when Ontario is facing a skills mismatch, our next government must take bold action, working with the natural resource and northern communities, to address current challenges and provide a pathway forward for industry leadership in the global marketplace.” said Rocco Rossi, Ontario Chamber of Commerce President and CEO. The need to develop this strategy was the primary recommendation that emerged from today’s landmark meeting, which was convened… to stimulate thinking on priorities and opportunities for growth in Ontario’s resource sector.

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Timmins roundtable calls for a better natural resources stategy

By Len Gillis
Timmins Press
May 28, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Timmins Mayor Steve Black was joined by several high profile business leaders Monday to call on the new Ontario government, no matter which party wins the election, to create a formal natural resources strategy that goes above and beyond anything done before. The event was a roundtable that brought together mining, forestry and business leaders for talks at the Timmins Chamber of Commerce. …Black said the gathering was non-partisan and was not endorsing any single political party. …Kevin Edgson, president and CEO of EACOM Timber said seeking sustainability for resources was not necessarily a pro-business decision. …The importance of the forestry industry in the North was highlighted by Derek Nighbor, president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada. He said the industry has developed strong global markets and continues to be innovative. 

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Federal timber bill could help rural Oregon

By Stephen Hamway
The Bend Bulletin
May 29, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Oregon’s senators have thrown their weight behind a bill that could change the industry in Oregon and beyond for years to come. U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats, attached their names to a letter urging the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry to include the Timber Innovation Act, which streamlines and incentivizes the development of mass timber products, in the upcoming farm bill. Merkley said Thursday the timber bill has bipartisan support, including from Republicans in Idaho, Montana and Mississippi, and said he’s optimistic it will be included in the farm bill….Central Oregon communities like Bend and Prineville owe a lot of their early growth to the wood-product industry, but the industry has waned in recent years. 

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Massive fire destroys wood products mill south of Eugene

By Ed Russo and Morgan Theophil
The Register-Guard
May 27, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

SAGINAW — A massive fire on Sunday evening destroyed the Whitsell wood products manufacturing plant in Saginaw, north of Cottage Grove. The fire, which was reported at 7:36 p.m., completely engulfed the mill within 30 minutes, according to Lane Fire Authority Chief Terry Ney. Flames in the mill could be seen from a half-mile away. Billowing plumes of smoke rose into the evening sky and could be seen from Eugene, 20 miles to the north. No injuries were reported. After destroying the 169,000-square-foot mill building, the fire spread to stacks of finished lumber products on the roughly 46-acre site. Ney said that with so much fuel to feed the fire, firefighters took up a defensive posture and had resigned themselves to pouring water on the log piles through the night, into Monday and beyond.

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China’s softwood lumber import decreases 6% to 2.17 million m3 in March

Lesprom Network
May 28, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

The export of softwood lumber to China from leading exporting countries amounted to approximately 2.17 million m3 in March (-6% compared to 2017), Woodstat reported. The export totaled 5.60 million m3 during January-March (-6% compared to 2017). The trend line for the export of softwood lumber to China decreases further, but remains at a very high level. Russia exported approximately 1.43 million m3 of softwood lumber to China in March (+1% compared to 2017) and Canada exported 395,000 m3 (-26%). During January-March Russia exported 3.52 million m3 of softwood lumber to China (+1%) and Canada exported 1.02 million m³ (-26%). The Russian market share in the Chinese lumber market is increasing at a record high level. The smoothed line for the Canadian market share is decreasing at a very low level for the country. …Among the European exporters, the Finnish market share in the Chinese lumber market is decreasing but remains at a high level. 

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

A New Take on Timber

By Molly Priddy
Flathead Beacon
May 29, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

…While using cross-laminated timber (CLT) is a common building practice in Europe, [it] is still catching on in the United States. In Columbia Falls, SmartLam is running one of the first CLT production facilities in North America, whereas builders in Austria have been studying and using CLT for residential and commercial building for decades. The benefits include high efficiency, longevity, minimal upkeep, and using a renewable resource – wood – instead of steel. The building style also removes the need for drywall in many cases, because the CLT is not only structural, but also the inner finish of the home. The Patrick and Ron Clark (Wooden Haus Supply) … recently received a Wood Innovation Grant from the U.S. Forest Service to continue developing and studying a new method of using smaller diameter trees and lumber for CLT projects.

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Mainz scientists fight fungal disease on vines with nanotechnology

By Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research
EurekAlert
May 29, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

The fungal disease “Esca” infects grapevines and causes great financial damage to winegrowers every year. The fungus infects the vine trunks and decomposes the wood from inside – so spraying cannot reach the fungus. Dr. Frederik R. Wurm and colleagues have developed a nanotechnology-based carrier to protect and heal the vine from the infestation. …The shell of these balls is made of lignin – a substance that is the main component of wood besides cellulose. Therefore, this shell can also be decomposed by the fungus, thus releasing the agent inside the nanoparticle. “It is almost like a Trojan Horse: the fungus decomposes the shell of our nanocarriers and releases the fungicide that fights it”, says Wurm.

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Chinese Researchers Make Sustainable Supercapacitors From Wood

By Steve Hanley
CleanTechnica
May 28, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Supercapacitors are touted by many as the wave of the future when it comes to battery storage for everything from cell phones to electric cars. Unlike batteries, supercapacitors can charge and discharge much more rapidly… The key to supercap performance is electrodes with a large surface area and high conductivity that are inexpensive to manufacture, according to Science Daily. Carbon aerogels satisfy the first two requirements but have significant drawbacks. …Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have discovered a new process that is low cost and sustainable using nanocellulose, the primary component of wood pulp that gives strength to the cell walls of trees. Once extracted in the lab, it forms a stable, highly porous network which when oxidized forms a micro-porous hydrogel of highly oriented cellulose nano-fibrils of uniform width and length.

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The John Hope Gateway is a pioneer in modern wood construction

By Lloyd Alter
Treehugger
May 28, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

SCOTLAND –Arriving early at the West Gate of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, I stared through the gate and wondered, who designed this marvelous mix of wood and glass? I found that the John Hope Gateway was designed by Cullinan Studio in 2009; today we take this kind of wood construction for granted, but back then it was really cutting edge. Ted Cullinan has also been one of my favourite architects… On the website they note: …Timber – Scottish wherever possible – was an obvious choice and is used extensively for both structures and finishes, including the structured veneered lumber of the mullions and transoms of the glazing, the helical stair and major items of furniture

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Forestry

Board to audit BC Timber Sales operations in Dawson Creek Timber Supply Area

BC Forest Practices Board
May 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

VICTORIA – The Forest Practices Board will examine the activities of the BC Timber Sales (BCTS) program and timber sale licence holders in the Dawson Creek Timber Supply Area (TSA) portion of the Peace-Liard Business Area, during the week of June 4, 2018. Auditors will examine whether harvesting, roads, bridges, silviculture, fire protection activities and associated planning, carried out from June 1, 2016, to June 8, 2018, met the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act. …This BCTS program was chosen randomly for audit from among all the BCTS programs in the province. The board normally audits two BCTS programs each year.

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‘I can do what any guy can do’: Faces on the front lines of Saskatchewan’s wildfire fight

By Olivia Stefanovich
CBC News
May 29, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Denay Billette is one of four female Indigenous recruits out of a class of 40 selected by their First Nations to receive training last week from the Prince Albert Grand Council on the shores of Lac la Plonge, near Beauval, Sask., to battle the province’s wildfires this season. …Under the program, First Nations and northern communities choose people from their regions to send to the front lines of Saskatchewan’s wildfire fight. It’s run in partnership with the provincial government, and participants are given seasonal contracts that will see them working to suppress and prevent fires across the province all summer long. …Billette is a second-generation firefighter from Buffalo River Dene Nation in northern Saskatchewan, about 500 kilometres north of Saskatoon. She grew up watching and smelling smoke from wildfires close by, and has stayed behind with her parents during several evacuations to protect her community. 

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NDP under fire for allowing old growth logging near Port Alberni

By Tess van Straaten
Chek TV News
May 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

They’re the giants of the forest — massive, old-growth western red cedars and Douglas firs — and images of these towering trees being cut down have sparked outrage. “The visuals that we’re starting to see come out the latest cutting of old growth forest is really devastating,” says B.C. Green Party forestry critic Adam Olsen. “It’s important we’re protecting the old stands, especially on Vancouver Island where we have so little old growth left” Olsen says he’s shocked the B.C. NDP government is letting it happen. …”What we’re seeing right now is the liquidation of our forests!” says Olsen. “Frankly, this government has continued the exact same policy as the Liberal government did. …The province says it’s working on modernizing the land use plan. As it stands now, only about 55 per cent of old growth forests on crown land are protected.

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People are furious about the destruction of these old growth giants

By Tracy Sherlock
The National Observer
May 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Andrea Inness, a forest campaigner with Ancient Forest Alliance, and several other people went on an expedition on May 6, to the Nahmint Valley, which is about an hour outside of Port Alberni on logging roads. …“We expected to see some logging, but we were all astonished to see how much had taken place. There were near record-breaking trees that we found that were being cut,” Inness said in an interview. “We were shocked at the scale of the logging and so dismayed to see these cedars lying on the ground.” Adam Olsen, the B.C. Green Party critic for forests, said this issue could become a big problem for the government, if they don’t change their policy.

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Vancouver lumberjack powers to world title

By Karin Larsen
CBC News
May 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Stirling Hart

B.C.’s best axe man is finally a world champion, although, on the phone, lumberjack Stirlng Hart sounds more relieved than elated with his big win. “It feels a lot better than second place, I’ll tell you that,” said the 28-year-old Maple Ridge native. Hart out-chopped, out-sawed and out-sprinted all comers at the gruelling Stihl Timbersports Champions Trophy in Marseille, France, over the weekend, handily beating hulking New Zealander Jason Wynyard in the gold medal final. …Timbersports isn’t a sports page fixture, but Hart hopes his win will attract a little media attention in Canada. …Hart is a third generation lumberjack (his father and grandfather both competed) with a gift of the gab and an instantly identifiable 12 cm scar across his right cheek. …Last year the certified arbourist and tree faller launched Alpine Acceleration, a company that thins forests for growth and for forest fire protection.

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Protecting the caribou: Substantial costs, questionable results

By The Montreal Economic Institute
Cision Newswire
May 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

MONTREAL – Environment and Climate Change Canada recently published a report criticizing the measures taken by the provinces to protect the boreal caribou. If Ottawa decides to intervene, it must take into account the economic costs of protection measures and the realities of each province. “A strict application of federal requirements could be very harmful for the Ontario economy,” points out Alexandre Moreau, Public Policy Analyst at the MEI. “Around half of forestry activity in Ontario takes place in boreal caribou habitat, and could therefore be affected. This represents $2.6 billion of economic activity and some 18,300 direct jobs.” To comply with federal standards, the provinces and territories have to limit the level of disturbance of boreal caribou habitat caused by human activity or forest fires to less than 35%.

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Quinaults will host timber conference

By Angelo Bruscas
The Daily World
May 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Quinault Indian Nation will host the 42nd annual Indian Timber Symposium from June 4-7 — an event that brings tribes and participants from across the country to the Ocean Shores Convention Center and Quinault Beach Resort & Casino. As one of the original founders of the Intertribal Timber Council (ITC) in 1976, the Quinault Nation will be hosting the symposium for the fourth time. …The timber council works with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, state and federal agencies, private industry and academia to “explore issues and identify practical strategies and initiatives to promote social, economic and ecological values while protecting and utilizing forests, soils, water and wildlife.” It also encourages the training and development of Indian foresters, with a large focus on youth education and resource sustainability.

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‘A lost art’: Forest service worker brings traditional methods back to forest management

By Rob Chaney
The Missoulian
May 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Bob Beckley

POWELL RANGER STATION, Idaho — Bob Beckley loves his work. “There’s not many places I can get a job blowing things up, cutting things down and occasionally going on a pack trip,” the self-described “low-tech guy” at the Forest Service Technology Development Center admitted. Much of his time is spent writing lesson plans for using traditional tools like crosscut saws and axes. But every so often, he gets to confirm his cutting edges and skills remain sharp. …“I had to convince old timers to show me how to use those tools, and they were reluctant to do so,” Beckley said. “Why would you want to use a crosscut or an ax? When we got motors, those things got left behind.”

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University of New Hampshire Research Finds Maine Forest Management Hampering Ability of Forests to Reap Climate Benefits

UNH Today
May 29, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

DURHAM, N.H. – Over the last 20 years, Maine’s forests have become younger and less dense. As a result, forests are not providing the most climate benefits that they could through carbon sequestration and storage. However, more carbon could be stored over the next 100 years with less frequent harvests of smaller amounts of wood from each acre, according to new research from the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire. …“But, we can do better. When we shift to forestry practices that less frequently harvest smaller amounts of wood from each acre, this leads to 14 to 33 percent more carbon stored over the next 100 years…” said John Gunn, research assistant professor of forest management. …“Forests and [wood] products … help keep greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. …we can manage forests [to] provide more value to landowners and produce greater climate benefits.”

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Dartmouth students hands-on in learning Native traditions

The Associated Press in the Montreal Gazette
May 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

HANOVER, N.H. — Amid the buzz of a chain saw and banging hammers, a group of Dartmouth College students help cut down an ash tree and strip the bark that would eventually be used to make traditional Native baskets. Their outdoor classroom experience is part of the academic outreach and hands-on learning that has helped Dartmouth graduate more Native Americans than any other Ivy League institution. …After the tree was felled, the students took mud from a nearby stream. They placed it over the tree stump for regrowth purposes, and then helped each other carry the logs out of the woods and back to the farm. The students stripped the tree’s flaky exterior to unveil a smooth inner bark, and processed the log into strips of wood.

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Nominations open for the Prince of Wales Award for Sustainable Forestry

By the Institute of Foresters of Australia
PRWire
May 29, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Prince of Wales

The Institute of Foresters of Australia is calling for nominations for, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Sustainable Forestry Award for 2018. ‘It is about forests and foresters’, said Mr Rob de Fégely, Vice-President of the Institute of Foresters of Australia and Director responsible for international relations. ‘His Royal Highness has a well-known passion for forests and natural production systems. In recent years, he has provided support to the professional forestry institutes in Australia and New Zealand and prior to that in Canada and United Kingdom. …‘It is critically important that we continue to train professional forest managers who have the broad range of skills that early foresters were trained for to manage our forests for production or conservation purposes. …, said Mr de Fégely.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Climate change? I thought it was just a hoax

By Bill McQuarrie
CFJC Today Kamloops
May 29, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Last summer was a devastating year for the Cariboo, with nearly 20 wildfires merging into one and creating a firestorm on the Cariboo Plateau that had never been experienced in anyone’s lifetime. …BC’s Minister of Forests, Doug Donaldson, confirms that the region may not be able to support the allowable cut obligations to forest companies. From a decade of relatively inexpensive wood fibre, courtesy of the pine beetle, to losing one-quarter of the wood supply in one summer of wildfires, Minister Donaldson recognizes we have a major problem. …Leadership needs to replace our current practice of inaction and political platitudes. Those impacted need to stop complaining, blaming tree huggers or denying that anything is wrong. …Do nothing and the tombstone of our local economy and your job will likely read…”Climate change? I thought it was just a hoax.”

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How the ‘Model-T Ford of the bio-refining industry’ is offering new rewards from waste streams.

Bio-Based World News
May 28, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Virtually every person, organization, and human activity in the world creates some type of waste. And its generation in most cases represents a hugely inefficient use of materials. …But now, a company based just north of Atlanta, Georgia – Attis Innovations – is changing perceptions of what waste means, and has some major milestones approaching in 2018. Jeff [Cosman] goes on to say, “Our primary focus is in creating new revenue streams from biomass, where its various constituents can be elegantly extracted and converted into a multitude of bio-based products for use in plastics, fuels, adhesives and many more. We believe that by capitalizing on these new markets, existing pulp and paper and cellulosic ethanol facilities can generate between 35% to 100% more revenue per ton of biomass processed.”

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New research finds tall and older Amazonian forests more resistant to droughts

By Columbia University School of Engineering & Applied Science
EurekAlert
May 28, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

…A new study led by Pierre Gentine, associate professor of earth and environmental engineering at Columbia Engineering, shows that photosynthesis in tall Amazonian forests–forests above 30m–is three times less sensitive to precipitation variability than in shorter forests of less than 20m. Taller Amazonian forests were also found to be older, have more biomass and deeper rooting systems that enable them to access deeper soil moisture, which makes them more resilient to drought. The paper was published online May 28 on Nature Geoscience. “Our findings suggest that forest height and age are an important regulator of photosynthesis in response to droughts,” says Gentine …Climate change is altering the dynamics, structure, and function of the Amazon. While climate factors that control the spatial and temporal variations in forests’ photosynthesis have been well studied, the influence of forest height and age… has rarely been considered.

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Land-clearing wipes out $1bn taxpayer-funded emissions gains

By Adam Morton
The Guardian
May 28, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

More than $1bn of public money being spent on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by planting trees and restoring habitat under the Coalition’s Direct Action climate policy will have effectively been wiped out by little more than two years of forest-clearing elsewhere in the country, official government data suggests. The $2.55bn emissions reduction fund pays landowners and companies to avoid emissions or store carbon dioxide using a reverse auction – the cheapest credible bids win. The government says it has signed contracts to prevent 124m tonnes of emissions … An analysis by the Wilderness Society suggests the official figures underestimate the rate of land-clearing, and in reality the projects paid for from the Direct Action emissions reductions fund would have had their work nullified in even less time.

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Health & Safety

Supreme Court of Canada upholds claim of workers’ compensation against non-employer

By Elizabeth Raymer
Canadian Occupational Safety Magazine
May 29, 2018
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia, which found a forestry company liable for the death of a contract worker employed on its premises. In West Fraser Mills Ltd. v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal et al., the Supreme Court upheld a claim of workers’ compensation against a non-employer, West Fraser Mills, which as the license holder of the area of the forest where the accident occurred was the “owner” of the workplace as defined in Part 3 of B.C.’s Workers Compensation Act. A tree faller died after being struck by a rotting tree while working within the area of a forest licence held by the appellant.

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Forest Fires

Huge wildfire burning north of Fort St. John forces evacuation order

By Amy Judd
Global News
May 28, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West

A huge wildfire burning north of Fort St. John has forced an evacuation order for some residents and a closure of crown land in the area. The Tommy Lakes wildfire is now an estimated 16,954 hectares in size after merging with the Beatton Lake wildfire on Friday. It is zero per cent contained. The Peace River Regional District issued an evacuation order for Electoral Area B on Saturday. …There are currently 90 firefighters, seven helicopters and seven pieces of heavy equipment fighting this blaze. The primary objective at this time is to establish guards around the fire and conduct controlled burning operations in order to protect oil and gas infrastructure in the region. …B.C.’s tinder-dry weather is not helping… “What has been somewhat unusual has been the fire behaviour …more of a pattern we’d be seeing later in the summer,” Kevin Skrepnek with the BC Wildfire Service said.

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Eyes on the weather as B.C. crews gear up for another week battling wildfires

The Canadian Press in the Times Colonist
May 28, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West

KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Wildfire crews in British Columbia were watching the weather as a number of blazes burned Monday in several regions of the province. Environment Canada was forecasting showers and cooler temperatures by Tuesday or Wednesday for most of southern B.C., but Kevin Skrepnek of the B.C. Wildfire Service says winds that come with that cold front are a concern. …”If we can make it through the next 24 or 48 hours, it looks like the weather is going to shift to more seasonal,” Skrepnek said on Monday morning. …June is traditionally a wet month and rain could keep a damper on wildfires in July and August, he said. “What has been unusual about the fires we have had is how aggressive these fires have been,” he added.

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