Daily Archives: July 11, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

Hip hop forestry, Winnie-the-Pooh and the pros and cons of high lumber prices

July 11, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

High lumber prices have both positive and negative impacts in Mississippi; but are masking Canadian industry concerns re: trade uncertainty, tax competitiveness and regulatory delays.

In Wood Products news: Ontario architects get support for tall wood structures; Chicago’s first CLT building only a first step in that direction; an APA study finds flexible structural sheathing products overstate their lateral load resistance; and a Montana company is incorporating old wood into their timber frame structures.

In Forestry headlines: the Sierra Club on BC’s rainforests; the Powell River Peak on logger sports; the Montreal Economic Institute on species at risk; and the BC Supreme Court on former forests minister Rich Coleman.    

Finally, Hip hop forestry at Yale and Winnie-the-Pooh’s original Hundred Acre Wood illustration sells for £430,000 at auction.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Original Winnie-the-Pooh map sets world record at auction

By Sian Cain
The Guardian
July 10, 2018
Category: Froggy Foibles

The original map of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood by the artist EH Shepard has set a world record for a book illustration sold at auction, selling for £430,000. The 1926 sketch, which was privately owned and had been unseen for nearly half a century, introduced readers to the world of Christopher Robin and his friends in the original book. Purportedly drawn by Christopher Robin himself, the map is littered with spelling errors – “nice for picnicks” and “100 aker wood” – and is captioned “Drawn by Me and Mr Shepard helpd”.

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Business & Politics

Canada welcomes U.S. decision to rescind duties on imports of Canadian supercalendered paper

By Global Affairs Canada
Government of Canada
July 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Canada welcomes the decision by the United States to rescind its duties on imports of Canadian supercalendered paper and to refund all duties collected since August 2015. On July 5, 2018, the WTO circulated a panel report concerning Canada’s challenge to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s subsidy determination against Canadian supercalendered paper and a U.S. practice of finding Canadian exporters to be non-cooperative, and then artificially increasing the subsidy rate assessed on them during the duty investigation. The panel found that the Department of Commerce’s practices breached numerous WTO obligations.  It also found that the Department of Commerce improperly included an inflated subsidy rate for non-cooperation in an average rate for other Canadian companies that were later found to have minimal or no subsidy rates.  

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Blue Wolf Capital Closes Sale of Suwannee Lumber Company and Caddo River Forest Products to Conifex Timber Inc.

By Blue Wolf Capital Partners
Business Wire
July 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

NEW YORK — Today, Blue Wolf Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, announced the completion of the sale of Suwannee Lumber Company and Caddo River Forest Products to Conifex Timber Inc., a publicly-traded lumber and sustainable forestry company operating in British Columbia, Canada. A portion of Blue Wolf’s proceeds will be in the form of Conifex stock, and Blue Wolf will receive representation on Conifex’s board. The closing of the transaction represents a significant milestone for Suwannee and Caddo, each of which Blue Wolf acquired and invested in after the companies struggled in the wake of the financial crisis. Now that the two businesses are part of Conifex, a larger and more diversified forest products company, they are even better positioned for growth and long term success. …“We are pleased to welcome Suwannee and Caddo into the Conifex family,” said Ken Shields, President and CEO at Conifex. 

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First Digital Version of Madison’s Lumber Reporter Officially Launches on Forest2Market’s SilvaStat360

By Forest2Market
Cision Newswire
July 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

VANCOUVER, British Columbia and CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Madison’s Lumber Reporter and Forest2Market have officially launched the redesigned, digital version of Madison’s Weekly Lumber Reporter. Madison’sNorth American lumber price reporting service is now exclusively available via SilvaStat360, Forest2Market’s online business intelligence platform. The Madison’s / Forest2Market partnership combines Madison’s lumber price data and market insights with Forest2Market’s SilvaStat360 cloud-based interactive delivery platform. Madison’s Lumber Reporter subscribers now have fingertip access to historic and current lumber price data that is updated weekly and available on a 24/7/365 basis. Kéta Kosman, Publisher of the Reporter, said, “As the North American lumber industry continues to evolve amid the uncertainty associated with global trade policy, operators need access to the most reliable datasets and analytics available to the market.

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High lumber prices mask long-term concerns for BC forest sector

By Nelson Bennett
Business in Vancouver
July 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

It’s estimated that about 140 communities in B.C. depend on forestry. …It is a sector that is generally doing well right now, thanks to record high lumber prices in the U.S. But it’s an industry is that is becoming increasingly anxious about its longer-term prospects. U.S. duties on imported softwood lumber represent just one of a host of challenges facing the Canadian forestry industry, and not necessarily the one that concerns the industry most. …The oil and gas sector in Canada has been ringing alarm bells that regulatory uncertainty and inertia in Canada has triggered flight of capital. The forestry industry is now echoing those concerns. …Resource industries of all stripes in Canada are facing three major challenges, Derek Nighbor, CEO of FPAC said: uncertainties in international trade, eroding tax competiveness with the U.S. and regulatory delays and uncertainties at the federal and provincial levels. 

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Former forests minister Rich Coleman to testify in court battle

By Haley Woodin
Business in Vancouver
July 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Rich Coleman

A BC Supreme Court judge has ordered that former forests and range minister Rich Coleman be examined under oath about his knowledge of events at the centre of a multimillion-dollar, multi-year legal battle between TimberWest Forest Corp. and former contractor Ted LeRoy Trucking. Plaintiffs Ted and Rebecca LeRoy are suing TimberWest and several of its former executives over what they claim was a conspiracy to bankrupt TLT and terminate their logging contracts so that TimberWest could subdivide that work among smaller operators and ultimately reduce its timber-harvesting costs. …In a separate but related lawsuit between TimberWest and Munns Lumber Ltd., a judge ruled that TimberWest had breached its contractual obligation to negotiate in good faith when it terminated two five-year contracts with Munns after the companies failed to agree on logging rates. 

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Life and times of a small-town paper

By John Demont
The Chronicle Herald
July 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Liverpool, Nova Scotia — An entrepreneur I knew used to say that there’s nothing sadder than a business closing. But he had never been inside a shuttered newspaper, where if the mournful ghosts of the past linger anywhere, they linger there. On Monday, it was just Stephen Bowers and I wandering around in the bowels of 171 Main St. in Liverpool, back where the printing presses once rumbled, where reporters two-fingered stories about fires, car accidents and county fairs, where the linotype operators worked their hot lead alchemy in the days when the Queens County Advance was laid out in such a manner. Small community newspapers are closing all over the place in these print media-challenged days. Twelve days ago the Advance, which printed its first edition in 1878, printed its last.

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Tariffs on Canadian lumber creating both positive and negative impacts in Mississippi

By Courtney Ann Jackson
Mississippi News Now
July 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

JACKSON, MS — Tariffs are a hot topic right now. But the tariff on Canadian lumber being sold into the U.S. is slightly different than some of the others you’ve been hearing about. Mississippi’s sawmills are busier than they were this time last year. “They were challenged and struggling,” explained David Livingston, executive director of the Mississippi Loggers Association. “…And the prices were so suppressed competing against the Canadian lumber coming in that there was no way for it to grow and become as strong as it once was.” The Mississippi Loggers Association said the tariffs on Canadian lumber have made prices more competitive and increased the demand. More people are buying American lumber, and the price hit an all time high in June. “If the tariffs keep us in a position to keep Canada on an even playing field with us, then that’s where we need to stay,” added Livingston.

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State Wants To Grow Hardwoods Industry

By Rebecca Thiele
WFYI Indianapolis
July 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Indiana exports a lot of wood to other countries, but it wants to make more wood products — like cabinets and doors. The state is working on a strategy to grow the hardwoods industry. Connie Neininger is the director of economic development for the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. She says Indiana is number one in wood office furniture production, but companies like that are facing a lot of competition from industries overseas. Meanwhile, Neininger says foreign demand for raw lumber is increasing. …Director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ forestry division, John Seifert, says the recession took it’s toll on the hardwoods industry and the state hopes to bring some of those businesses back. Seifert says the strategy is unlikely to lead to more logging in the state. 

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Norbord and HBI Open First Trades Training Program in Houston and Graduate First Norbord-Funded Class in Tampa

By Norbord Inc.
Cision Newswire
July 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

TORONTO – Norbord Inc. and HBI joined Mayor Sylvester Turner to officially open the first construction trades training program in Houston, Texas. In a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the HBI Acres Homes Program, Mayor Turner celebrated the beginning of a 12-week training program at no cost to students. The first 14 students have begun preparing for careers in the construction trades to address the labor shortage in the industry and rebuilding in Houston post-Hurricane Harvey. In response to both issues, Norbord made a donation last year to support programs in both Houston, Texas and Tampa, Florida. The first Norbord-funded class in Tampa graduated its first 13 students late last month. “Our partnership with HBI, which was based on our award-winning Thank-a-Framer campaign, has been a tremendous success” said Norbord’s Vice President, North American Marketing and Product Management, Ross Commerford.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Growing Innovation

By Darryl Hood
Canadian Architect
July 10, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada

The 2015 change in the Ontario Building Code that permits wood structures up to six storeys and the resulting surge in the construction of these buildings, seems to indicate that there is considerable support for larger wood structures in Ontario, but for practitioners wanting to pursue a wood structure taller than six storeys, there has been very limited practical support. Mass timber products, for example, are not specifically defined as a distinct material in the current Ontario Building Code. …Fortunately, things have now changed. …Since the 2006 version of the Ontario Building Code came into effect, architects in Ontario have been freed from the compliance constraints of a single acceptable solution (prescriptive path). …The recently released Ontario’s Tall Wood Building Reference… is making it easier for project teams to consider a mass timber structure for tall buildings.

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Study Finds Flexible Structural Sheathing Under-designed, Unsafe and Unreliable

APA – The Engineered Wood Association
July 10, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

A new report finds that manufacturers of flexible structural sheathing overstate their lateral load resistance values by as much as 42 percent. In a study by three independent laboratories—Clemson University, University of Oklahoma and APA – The Engineered Wood Association—five flexible structural sheathing materials available in the marketplace were tested for their wind and seismic lateral load (shear wall) performance. APA published the results in a new Product Advisory: Performance of Flexible Structural Sheathing. …“Design values published by each product manufacturer are in place to provide safety and reliability to building designs,” said Dr. BJ Yeh, P.E., APA Director of Technical Services. “Therefore, the designers, building officials and consumers are expecting product performance to comply with the published design values.”

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Montana Made: Big Timberworks

By Chet Layman
KRTV Montana
July 10, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Gallatin Gateway, Montana — From log home builder to an employee-owned business, Big Timberworks has found a way to succeed, even after its founder passed away. In 1983, Merle Adams and his partner decided they no longer wanted to build log buildings – they wanted something better. They chose timber frame building. “It’s been around for thousands of years,” said Hudson Hart, Co-CEO Big Timberworks Inc. “Timber frames can stand for thousands of years, and when you travel parts of the world you see that (in the) big roof systems of castles and what not.” …“Big Timberworks was actually the first company in this area that started bringing in old wood,” said Hart. “The old wood I’m talking about is what we refer to as commercial salvage Douglas fir.

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Chicago Approves First Use of CLT, Don’t Expect High-Rises Anytime Soon

By Jeff Yoders
ENR Midwest
July 10, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 gave local building officials the jitters about the use of structural wood in commercial buildings. But a recent installation of cross-laminated timber decking in a one-story McDonald’s may mark a new era, at least for low-rise mass timber. Although the 19,000-sq-ft McDonald’s marks the first use of CLT in a Chicago building, officials say they are not about to allow tall mass timber buildings any time soon. Though there has been some fire testing on structural mass timber, “we’re not there yet” in terms of allowing tall mass timber buildings, says John Javorka, chief fire prevention engineer with the Chicago Fire Dept. and Bureau of Fire Prevention. …CLT manufactured with existing and improved adhesives was tested and demonstrated a satisfactory, non-fire-regrowth performance…. Chicago still wants more testing

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Melbourne’s first timber office building to be built in Docklands

Architecture AU
July 11, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

A six-storey cross-laminated timber (CLT) office building will become Melbourne’s first timber commercial building after it received planning approval to be built in Docklands. Designed by NH Architecture,  the 8,000-square-metre office building will be built with 80 percent CLT and will sit atop an existing concrete building. …“This is a unique building which has 5.5-star NABERS and Green Star ratings due to the use of CLT, which has the structural strength of traditional concrete and steel but dramatically reduces the building’s environmental impact,” said Anthony Park of CBRE, the agency tasked with marketing the building. The approval of the building, dubbed Woodwork, follows a number of timber buildings that have completed in the Docklands, including Australia’s first timber high-rise apartment building, Lendlease Design’s Forte Apartments, completed in 2012, and The Library at the Dock by Clare Design and Hayball, which opened in 2014.

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Forestry

Fake grassroots campaigns deserve uprooting

By David Suzuki
The Georgia Straight
July 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Astroturf …the well-known artificial turf’s brand name has taken on a new meaning, referring to purported “grassroots” efforts that are actually funded and supported by industry and political entities. …campaigns involved in everything from forestry to fossil fuels look and feel “grassroots”, but many are anything but. In discussions about climate change and fossil fuels, for example, we see groups like Canada Action, Ethical Oil, Resource Works, the International Climate Science Coalition, Friends of Science, and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, among others. It’s one tactic in the industry playbook. In a recent column, we discussed science-denial campaigns related to climate change and caribou-habitat protection. …In B.C., they go back [to] … logging in Clayoquot Sound. To counter massive protests, the Citizens Coalition for Sustainable Development, also known as Share B.C., was launched with support from and ties to the forestry industry, later spawning a number of “Share” offshoots.

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Common themes, contentious moments as Community Forest consultation kicks off

By Sean Eckford
Sunshine Coast Reporter
July 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Mark Lebbell and John Henderson

The District of Sechelt’s consultation on the Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) kicked off Monday with a world café event at the Seaside Centre. More than 50 people came out to offer opinions on five questions set by the district… Some of the ideas that came out included making sure the board of directors has a broader base of backgrounds and better gender balance, putting decisions about how to spend legacy funds into the hands of a community-based committee or group instead of Sechelt council, and even having the SCCF ownership expanded to the SCRD, where most of the logging tenure is located. It was also suggested by the people at one table that if the community can’t come to an agreement about the future of the Community Forest, it should be turned over the shíshálh Nation to manage.

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Comment: Our rainforests need action urgently

By Jens Wieting, Sierra Club B.C.
Victoria Times Colonist
July 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jens Wieting

Remember the story of the boiling frog? A frog placed in cold water and brought to a boil slowly will not perceive the danger until it’s too late. …The liquidation of B.C.’s spectacular, endangered old-growth rainforests and their mosaic of species follows the same pattern, at least to those who are willing to see it. …Unfortunately, a year into taking power, Forest Minister Doug Donaldson appears in denial about how little old-growth is left across most parts of the province. He believes there is still time to wait and deal with this crisis at a later date. This is wrong. Most of the remaining areas are now so small and fragmented that they can no longer support the web of life as we know it. …Two hundred twenty-three experts have studied what is happening in B.C. and the science is clear. Business as usual will result in ecological, cultural and economic disaster.

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First Fundamentals of Forestry Students Graduate

By Hanna Petersen
North Island Gazette
July 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The first class to go through the Fundamentals of Forestry – Harvesting Practices program in Woss has officially graduated. The 12 students, dressed in their best work gear, attended the special graduation ceremony on July 6 in the Woss Community Centre. The ceremony not only acknowledged the success of the students but also the success of the first year of the program… The Fundamentals of Forestry Program, which ran for 16 weeks, is based on competencies identifies by the BC Forestry Safety Council and developed with VIU to teach both employability skills and safe work practices. …VIU has also received funding from the Ministry of Advanced Skills Education and Training to work with a number of institutions to adapt the program for different areas around the province.

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Powell River Logger Sports profile: Verjall Ham

By Andy Rice
The Powell River Peak
July 9, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Verjall Ham

Powell River Logger Sports begins on Friday, July 13, at Loggers Memorial Bowl. Competitions at the Willingdon Beach venue continue through Sunday, July 15. …In the case of Verjall Ham, a passion for Logger Sports was born out of necessity. Growing up on a rural island meant that firewood was needed for heat during the winter, and it was Ham’s job to venture into the woods to collect it. Although he now keeps busy by day as an industrial instrument mechanic at Catalyst Paper Corporation, an auxiliary firefighter with Powell River Fire Rescue and a firefighter with Malaspina Fire Department, he still looks forward to swinging an axe or climbing a tree any chance he gets. 

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Species at risk: A troubling precedent for the Canadian economy

By the Montreal Economic Institute
Cision Newswire
July 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

MONTREAL – The newspaper headlines this morning take note of a Federal Court ruling that gives the federal government complete latitude to block development projects in order to protect at-risk species. Such a decision establishes a troubling precedent. We tend to forget, but the Species at Risk Act requires that the socioeconomic effect on communities must also be considered in the implementation of habitat protection measures. “This decision could have negative consequences for the Canadian economy, including for regions that depend on the forest,” says Alexandre Moreau, Public Policy Analyst at the MEI. “The same logic could for example lead to a moratorium on forestry activity in boreal caribou habitat, despite the extravagant economic cost.” … “This basically amounts to saying that for each caribou saved, we would sacrifice 72 jobs and $9 million in economic development, with no guaranteed results.”

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Herbicide may have killed other trees in central Oregon

The Associated Press in the Idaho Statesman
July 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

BEND, ORE. A weed-killer that killed thousands of ponderosa pines near Sisters has been linked to the deaths of other trees outside the Sunriver resort community and possibly across Oregon. An investigation spurred by the incident in Sisters found that the active ingredient in the product known as Perspective may have killed dozens of ponderosa pines outside Sunriver and other trees in central Oregon, said Dale Mitchell, an Oregon Department of Agriculture program manager. …The active ingredient in Perspective, aminocyclopyrachlor, has been linked to deaths of thousands of spruce and pines trees outside of Oregon, according to The New York Times. The Oregon Department of Agriculture has notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of the situation. …The county has discontinued its use of Perspective, Doty said.

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Hip hop forestry: Thomas Rashad Easley of Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Yale News
July 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Thomas Rashad Easley, assistant dean of community and inclusion at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, describes how he learned to love people and share his truth from hip hop and how to respect the earth through forestry. Bringing them together, he says, has allowed him to connect people who have been unnaturally kept apart to create a better world. The video is the first in the series “Stories Happen in Forests,” created by the Dogwood Alliance.

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Forest Fires

Out of province forest fire support has arrived

By Chris Dawson
BayToday
July 10, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada East

Help is on its way from Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan to help battle the forest fire concern in Ontario.  The MNRF says  Fire crews from Alberta and British Columbia have now arrived in Ontario to assist with the fire situation. Fifteen three-person crews from British Columbia and ten four-person crews from Alberta will be deployed to priority fires tonight. In the air, CL415 waterbombers and T802 Fire Boss amphibians equipment from Alberta and Saskatchewan are currently supporting Ontario’s fire suppression operations as well. This morning, there are 69 active forest fires in Northeast Region. A total of 27 of these fires are not yet under control, while 42 are either being held, under control or being observed.

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Firefighters battle more than 200 forest fires so far this season

By Elizabeth Fraser
CBC News
July 11, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada East

After more than 200 forest fires this year, New Brunswick’s fire prevention officer is hoping for rain and cooler temperatures to slow things down. Since April, fire crews have put out 208 fires across the province, including two fires earlier this week.  A lighting strike ignited a blaze south of Mount Carleton Provincial Park that grew to three hectares, according to the Department of Energy and Resource Development spokesman. The other fire, in Bantalor, about 35 kilometres west of Chipman, reached five hectares Monday.

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Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry sets up base camp to battle raging Ontario wildfires

By Jenifer Hamilton-McCharles
The Ottawa Citizen
July 10, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada East

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is setting up a base camp at the River Valley outdoor rink in West Nipissing. Fire crews will be stationed there to help gain control of two area forest fires, according to West Nipissing Emergency Services. In addition to a forest fire in Temagami being as close as 35 kilometres away, Fire Chief Richard Maranda said there is a fire 15 to 20 kilometres north of River Valley. “If the winds don’t switch, these fires should keep away from River Valley,” he assured. Maranda said West Nipissing also is monitoring the situation.

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Thousands of hectares are burning out of control in parts of Ontario

By Pat Winsa
The Toronto Star
July 10, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada East

A massive swath of the province outside of North Bay continues to burn after lightning from storms triggered fires that are raging out of control due to high winds. At least 3,000 hectares are in flames in the North Bay district, which stretches from north of North Bay to Temagami. Further to the north, another 12,000 hectares are burning in Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park. Numerous other fires are being held or brought under control while still others, in less populated areas, are being monitored — part of a trend in the province that already has seen 537 fires this year, compared to the 10-year annual average (360).

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