Daily Archives: September 6, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

Trudeau suggests Trump’s behaviour is why Canada needs NAFTA’s Chapter 19

September 6, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

Prime Minister Trudeau says the US president’s aversion to following rules is why Canada can’t budge on NAFTA’s dispute settlement provision. In other headlines: Pennsylvania home builders bemoan soaring lumber prices; FPAC releases a report on Caribou recovery; Nova Scotia’s woodlot owners endorse forest policy changes; and BC’s professional reliance review is in the news again.

In Wood product news: the LBM Journal has in depth report on engineered wood products; German researchers are looking at a new wood-metal hybrid for lightweight construction; and a tally on how many CLT panels needed replacement on Oregon’s mass timber showcase.

Finally, an interesting story on the dawn of drone technology; and the Frogs are reporting live from BC Wood’s famed Global Buyers Mission in Whistler, BC.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Join NRCan’s Policy Analyst Recruitment and Development Program!

By Natural Resources Canada
Government of Canada
September 6, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

If you’re a master’s or Ph.D. graduate interested in a policy career with the Government of Canada, apply today!  The Policy Analyst Recruitment and Development Program (PARDP) is Natural Resources Canada’s signature accelerated development program for Master’s and Ph.D. graduates. Program participants learn how to effectively manage their careers and develop the skills and knowledge necessary to become leaders in policy. All positions are in the National Capital Region, a vibrant cosmopolitan area with endless activities, events, festivals and miles of nature to explore. We offer compensation for relocation of up to $5,000. Are you looking to put your skills to use to help shape some of Canada’s key policy issues? Do you strive for excellence and want the opportunity to build a rewarding career with a diverse portfolio? The Policy Analyst Recruitment and Development Program (PARDP) wants you! Apply before October 8, 2018

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Trudeau Suggests Trump’s Behaviour Is Why Canada Needs Chapter 19 In NAFTA

By Ryan Maloney
The Huffington Post
September 5, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Justin Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the U.S. president’s aversion to following rules is a key reason Canada can’t budge on a dispute settlement provision in a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA’s Chapter 19 allows companies who feel wronged by anti-dumping, or countervailing duties, to have their issues settled by independent panels of experts from the countries caught in the dispute. The chapter has been repeatedly used by Canada to fight U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber. However, U.S. President Donald Trump wants Chapter 19 scrapped. He claims the dispute resolution process infringes on his country’s sovereignty. …”We have red lines that Canadians simply will not accept,” Trudeau said. “We need to keep the Chapter 19 dispute resolution because that ensures that the rules are actually followed. And we know we have a president who doesn’t always follow the rules as they are laid out.”

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Soaring lumber prices hitting home buyers, rehabbers

By John Matarese
ABC News Pennsylvania
September 4, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

PENNSYLVANIA — Ranjit Sharma is a custom home builder, who specializes in upscale houses with fine trim and old world woodwork. His company has been on a tear the past five years… But he now worries about rising prices from tariffs on Canadian lumber that have sent the price of the beams, joists, and other wood he uses up almost 10 percent this year. “Everything from the framing to the roofing to the interior trim,” he said,” has had price hikes. …Outside a Home Depot store in Deerfield Township, Jack Allen was loading supplies to build a deck and fence. He says the price of cedar, that he was hoping to use for the fence, has almost doubled in the past year. …As a result, he’s downgrading to cheaper pressure treated lumber, which will lower his fence cost by a third.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

BC Wood Hosts Canada’s Largest Show for International Buyers of Value-added Wood Products

Brian Hawrysh
BC Wood Specialties Group
September 5, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Whistler, BC – More than 400 buyers and specifiers of value-added wood products will be hosted by BC Wood Specialties Group (BC Wood) at its 15thannual Global Buyers Mission (GBM) September 6-8 in Whistler, BC. The GBM is Canada’slargest and most important showfor sellers and buyers of value-added wood products.The pre-qualified buyers—hailing from 20+ countries worldwide—will join 300 BC and Canadian manufacturers exhibiting at the event. Last year the GBM generated about $48 million in new direct sales, but according to BC Wood CEO Brian Hawrysh, “the larger benefit lies in the quality leads and relationships fostered for long-term growth, which according to a recently completed Natural Resources Canada survey, is already occurring”.

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Housing Enters the Machine Age, part 2

LBM Executive
September 5, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

The housing market is the one dead spot in an otherwise strong U.S. economy, and the reasons are no mystery: Home sales are sluggish because prices are too high. Prices are high because inventory is too low. Inventory is low because we’re not building enough new homes, and we’re not building enough homes because we don’t have enough framers. But the cavalry is presumably on its way. Ever since Henry Ford pioneered the assembly line, experts have been arguing that home builders need to take a page from automakers and adopt modern manufacturing methods. Now a new breed of supplier is raising hopes that the industry is about to do just that. Integrated offsite construction systems have their roots in Europe and Japan, and are gaining ground in Australia and New Zealand. The common thread is a shortage of skilled carpenters. Offsite systems are widely hailed as the solution. [This is the second of a two-part series examining offsite construction systems. You can find Part 1 here.]

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In Depth: Engineered wood products

By Michael Berger
LBM Journal
September 5, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

In today’s world of skilled labor shortages, engineered wood products provide design flexibility while delivering strength, ease of installation, and product consistency. It remains an axiom of life that the things you don’t see are often the most important. …You might not always see engineered wood components once a structure is built, but it is there nonetheless, acting as an unsung hero that has helped bring about some of the greatest advancements in design. Technically speaking, EWPs are advanced high-performance building products that provide dimensional stability and consistency of performance by utilizing small dimension lumber, veneers, and wood fibers to help create stability and performance. As a product category, EWPs have had a dramatic impact on the building industry, and they are poised to have an even more prominent role in the very near future, with projected growth tied to the increase in the U.S. housing market.

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New wood-metal hybrid for lightweight construction

By Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Phys.org
September 4, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Wood foam and metal sponge – can they be combined? That was the question that experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut WKI delved into in a project entitled “HoMe Foam” – with HoMe being a German acronym for wood-metal… As a result, the contrasting materials come together in perfect harmony. The innovative new material mix boasts excellent insulating properties and has a low bending strength. …Researchers at WKI are developing wood foams made entirely of wood. The natural adhesive properties of wood make synthetic adhesives superfluous. From an ecological standpoint, this makes wood foams ideal for a whole range of applications, for example as a core material for lightweight construction and sandwich panels, as packaging material, or for thermal insulation or soundproofing.

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‘Regluing’ Oregon State’s Showcase for Mass Timber

By Nadine Post
Engineering News-Record
September 5, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

The tally of how many defective cross-laminated timber panels need replacement on a $79-million college of forestry building under construction at Oregon State University is almost complete, nearly six months after two layers of a seven-layer CLT floor panel, came unglued and crashed to the floor below. On March 14, after the failure, general contractor Andersen Construction Co., Portland, Ore., shut down construction. Work resumed on July 21 at the site of the George W. Peavy Forest Science Center at OSU’s Corvallis campus. But the mishap caused a four-month delay and the opening of the approximately 80,000-sq-ft building, already delayed from this fall due to a switch in general contractors, is now anticipated in January 2020. “Despite the setback related to the single CLT panel delamination earlier in the year, the Peavy Hall project is progressing in full swing,” says Travis Baker, an Andersen regional vice president.

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Stockholm to get a forest of timber towers on top of a plywood podium park

By Lloyd Alter
Treehugger
September 5, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

It is the “highest, densest and most environmentally friendly new neighborhood” in Stockholm. Anders Berensson Architects have designed a big new Masthammen development in Stockholm that is on TreeHugger because it is built of wood; everyone is excited because it has 31 narrow wooden towers of 25 to 35 floors containing 3,000 apartments. That is interesting on its own. But what is really more interesting than the towers is the planning of the whole development. …Nobody has yet built towers that tall and that thin out of wood, and there are challenges that will have to be overcome, from fireproofing to wind loading (wood is very light), but they are not insurmountable.

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This startup wants your next T-shirt to be made from wood

By Adele Peters
Fast Company
August 18, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

In a new pilot factory in Jyväskylä, Finland–a city surrounded by forests and known in part for its lumber and paper industries–a startup will soon begin to turn wood pulp into something new: a type of fabric that could eventually compete with cotton. Making wood into fabric isn’t new, but older wood-based fabrics like rayon use harsh chemicals that can pollute water and poison workers. The new fabric, made by a startup called Spinnova, uses a mechanical process instead of chemicals; the only byproduct is evaporated water, which is reused in production. Unlike cotton, which uses massive amounts of water in areas often prone to droughts, it needs little water, no pesticides, and no farmland. “We have to find better options for the future,” says Janne Poranen, CEO and cofounder of Spinnova. Global demand for clothing and other textile products is growing, while cotton production isn’t keeping pace. 

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Forestry

FPAC Releases Report to Advance Caribou Recovery Solutions

Forest Products Association of Canada
September 6, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

HALIFAX – Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) released a comprehensive report today that highlights efforts in support of caribou recovery across the country – along with a series of recommendations to the federal government that will help inform solutions to further preserve and enhance habitat for caribou and other species that inhabit Canada’s forests.  Forest Sector Contributions to Woodland Caribou Recovery was released today by FPAC CEO Derek Nighbor in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers in Halifax. The report includes a compendium of projects and initiatives taking place across the country as part of the Canadian forest products sector’s active efforts to support caribou recovery. The report highlights multiple factors impacting caribou populations, and the unique position Canada’s forestry professionals are in to support caribou recovery with science, research, and by advancing on the ground partnerships.

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Too soon to assess timber damage in Burns Lake area: province

BC Local News
September 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

With wildfires still raging across the Lakes District, many are concerned about the impact they’ll have on the timber that supply the local mills. According to the provincial government, however, it’s still too soon to assess the damage. As of Aug. 26, 134,523 hectares of the Lakes timber supply area (TSA) fall within the perimeters of 2018 wildfires. Of this total area, 42,040 hectares was classified as timber harvesting land base. “The amount of timber volume impacted within these areas cannot be accurately determined until the fire damage is mapped and assessed,” explained the ministry in a statement. “It is too early to determine the potential impacts caused by the current wildfire season.” …According to Steve Zika, CEO of Hampton Lumber – company that owns Babine and Decker Lake Forest Products, this year’s wildfires will “definitely have a negative effect” on lumber availability in the Lakes District. 

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Reformers challenge forest industry to enter 21st century

By Wendy Fraser
The Bridge River Lillooet News
September 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Debbie Demare

Members of the BC Coalition for Forestry Reform (BCCFR) say they are heartened by the “positive and realistic” recommendations proposed in Mark Haddock’s report on professional reliance. …It contains extensive and often critical assessments of current forestry regulations and the resulting harvesting practices employed by the industry. BCCFR spokesperson Debbie Demare said… “The economic and social costs to rural B.C. are growing as B.C.’s timber supply dwindles. But the industry hasn’t adapted to these new realities.” …The BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI)… said, “Mr. Haddock’s report misses the opportunity to focus on meaningful improvements to the governance of professional associations, drifting well beyond his terms of reference to propose unjustified changes to the forestry regulatory regime unrelated to professional reliance.” …Mr. Haddock’s proposals would effectively take us back 25 years to a ‘forest practices code’ system.”

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Board to audit community forest near Mackenzie

BC Forest Practices Board
September 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

MACKENZIE – The Forest Practices Board will be examining the activities of the McLeod Lake Mackenzie Community Forest Limited Partnership (the partnership), located in the Mackenzie Natural Resource District, starting Sept. 10, 2018. The auditors will examine whether all operational planning, harvesting, roads and bridges, silviculture, and wildfire protection and associated planning carried out between Sept. 1, 2016, to Sept. 14, 2018, met the requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act. The District of Mackenzie and the McLeod Lake Indian Band jointly operates the partnership. Under Community Forest Agreement K2M, the partnership is granted the right to harvest up to 30,000 cubic metres of timber per year on 24,664 hectares of public forestlands in the Mackenzie timber supply area. The community forest has five separate parts.

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NDP MPP Monteith-Farrell – “Keep Ontario Tree Seed Plant open”

By James Murray
The Net News Ledger
September 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

THUNDER BAY –  The NDP’s forestry critic, Judith Monteith-Farrell, said Ontario’s tree seed plant should be kept open, and kept in public hands, as the future of the plant remains in limbo. …The Ontario Tree Seed Plant, located in the town of Angus, has been preserving biodiversity, supporting forest products and wood manufacturing since 1923.  The plant is responsible for seeds used to support the growth of trees in Ontario forests, woodlots, parks, schoolyards, and playgrounds. It has been recognized as a world leader in tree seed collection. Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals planned to close it so that service could be privatized – which the NDP says is unacceptable.

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Groups representing 2,000 N.S. woodlot owners endorse forestry review

By Sherri Borden Colley
CBC News
September 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Ed MacDonell

Twelve organizations representing more than 2,000 small private woodlot owners in Nova Scotia are endorsing all the recommendations of a recent independent review of forestry practices. …One of the report’s key recommendations is that the province should adopt a “triad model.” That would mean a total ban on logging in some areas, high-production forestry that includes clear cutting in other areas, and a “lighter touch” in harvesting when it comes to remaining forests. Andy Kekacs, the executive director of the Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners & Operators Association, called the endorsement a significant development. ….”I think it’s the first time in the history of Nova Scotia that so many groups who work with small woodland owners have spoken with one voice on an issue of provincial policy,” Kekacs said. Environmentalists had mixed reactions to the report. 

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Latest forestry review fails to advance plot

By Sarah Fancy, MSc candidate
The Chronicle Herald
September 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The recommendations brought forth in the Lahey Forestry Review are nothing new to policy-makers in charge of Nova Scotia’s forests. In 2010, a natural resources planning strategy, The Path We Share, was released by the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forests. A main thrust of the document was to implement an ecosystem approach to managing forests. …The science behind how to sustainably manage forests is well established and many of these recommendations rely on basic scientific principles. …For the sake of our forests and the longevity of a viable industry, let’s hope that this report is more than simply another call to action.

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Why the drone buzz is getting louder

By Gabrielle Lipton
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
September 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

In 2012, peer-reviewed journal Tropical Conservation Science ran an article announcing the ‘dawn of drone ecology,’ hailing the aerial technology as an alternative to satellite remote sensing mapping, with competitive cost and photographic advantages. …As with all disruptive technology, there are pros, cons, ethical questions and promising horizons surrounding the use of drones in forest landscape research. Forests News sat down with Principle Scientist Yves Laumonier – the foremost drone ecologist at the Center for International Forestry Research(CIFOR) – to gain some insight into the situation. …Their advantage is to be able to monitor very complex matrix landscapes, such as traditional swidden and forest landscapes, or places with intense fragmentation of habitats and small plot agriculture. …Cloud cover is also a big issue with satellites. …But, I do not want to say that drones should replace satellites. …Drone data can be used to calibrate satellite data.

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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Provides $1 Million to States to Combat Bat-Killing Fungal Disease

By the White-Nose Syndrome Response Team
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
September 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is providing much needed support in the fight against the bat-killing fungal disease white-nose syndrome (WNS) through an additional $1 million in grants to 39 states and the District of Columbia. WNS has killed millions of North American bats in recent years, decimating many populations and putting several species at additional risk of extinction. Bats are crucial to our nation’s farmers and foresters, helping control pest insects such as beetles and locusts, and significantly reducing the amount of toxic pesticides that would otherwise be needed. Studies estimate bats save farmers at least $3.7 billion per year in lost crop revenue and pesticide savings. Funds will help states support a national strategy for the disease, which includes increasing bat survival rates, preventing further spread and preparing for the potential arrival of the disease in new areas.

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California has 129 million dead trees. That’s a huge wildfire risk.

By Umair Irfan
Vox
September 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

California has a problem to the tune of 129 million dead trees, spread across 8.9 million acres. That’s 6,450 times the number of trees in Central Park, truly “astronomical,” in the words of Heather Williams, a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. In dry, hot times like these, the record number of decaying ponderosa pines, sugar pines, and other towering species can become kindling for errant sparks, fallen power lines, cigarette butts, and lightning strikes. The bumper crop of kindling helps explain why this has been the worst year on record for California wildfires. …It’s also expensive to try to process so many trees. Lumber companies can sell some of the wood to recoup their expenses, but many of the trees are too decayed or structurally unsound to sell. There are jurisdictional hurdles as well, since the forests span federal, state, and private land.

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Fighting Fire with Fire: California Turns to Prescribed Burning

By Jane Braxton Little
Yale Environment 360
September 6, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

…Caught in the crosshairs of climate change and a century of poor forest management, the Sierra Nevada — a region that provides 60 percent of California’s water supply — is becoming a tinderbox of dead wood. The 1.2 million acres still smoking statewide include the 96,901-acre Ferguson fire, which forced the closure of Yosemite National Park for three weeks. … With the Sierra’s trees ready to start dropping, land managers are racing to remove the dead… More than a million trees have so far been felled, overwhelming sawmills and biomass plants. But an estimated 127 million and counting remain, threatening the region with fires that some scientists have compared the potential heat to World War II firestorms at Dresden and Tokyo. …Buoyed by the state’s new perspective and commitment to prescribed fire, Adam Hernandez, an elite fire fighter is optimistic that an aggressive burn program will give forests a chance to start over without the catastrophic wildfires now blazing. 

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

The impacts of forest fire smoke

By Frank Dabbs, business journalist and author
The Mountain View Gazette
September 3, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Air quality alerts, impacts on health and effects on tourism and agriculture are just the beginning of the story about this summer’s forest fires. …This is the worst fire season in British Columbia’s recorded history; 13,000 square kilometres have been burned. Last year, 2017 ranked as the second-worst year with 12,100 square kilometres consumed. The third-worst year was 1958 when 8,500 square kilometres went up in flames. Why the 60-year gap? That is a complicated story of climate change and wildfires. The simple version is that hotter, drier summers now prevail as a result of climate change. …According to the climate scientists at Natural Resources Canada, “in extreme years, carbon emissions from wildland fires across Canada approach the level of emissions from all fossil fuel sources.”

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California sets stage for global forest protection through state’s cap-and-trade program

By Nathaniel Keohane, Senior VP, Climate
Environment Defense Fund
September 5, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Nathaniel Keohane

California laid the groundwork today to leverage the state’s ambitious climate program to help protect tropical forests around the world. A draft standard proposed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) sets out comprehensive requirements for credits from large-scale reductions in emissions from tropical deforestation to be considered for inclusion in California’s cap-and-trade program. …The proposed California Tropical Forest Standard specifies that rainforest credits would be allowed in California’s market only if they meet requirements for safeguarding the rights of indigenous and other forest communities, as well as additional oversight, enforcement, and transparency requirements. …“California has an opportunity to help save forests around the world by setting the bar for programs that want to sell rainforest credits into its carbon market, creating an economic incentive that will make forests worth more alive than dead.

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Forest Fires

N.W.T. had lower than average wildfire season this year, says government

CBC News
September 5, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada

As this year’s wildfire season comes to a close in the Northwest Territories, final tallies reveal that there were less fires in 2018 than on average.  As of Aug. 22, there were 54 fires with a total of 11,271 hectares burned, according to a news release from the territorial government. That’s compared to a 25-year average of 172 fires with 402,976 hectares burned. Due to the low level of fire danger, the release says fire crews and resources from the territory also helped respond to wildfires in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon and Ontario this season. Meanwhile, crews in the territory helped ensure the future protection of communities through the FireSmart project, like brush clearing, maintenance on fire breaks and creating temporary helipads.

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North Fire grows to almost 1,000 acres in Tahoe National Forest near Emigrant Gap

By Michael McGough
Merced Sun-Star
September 5, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

The North Fire burning in Tahoe National Forest near Emigrant Gap grew to an estimated 999 acres and remains 10 percent contained as of Wednesday morning, the U.S. Forest Service said. The fire started about 2:30 p.m. Monday. It is burning in the North Fork of North Fork American River Canyon. Tahoe National Forest tweeted Tuesday night that the North Fire is burning in an area “characterized by steep, rugged terrain,” and that the helicopter base has been moved to Truckee.

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The Latest: Human-caused fire shuts main California freeway

The Associated Press
September 6, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

REDDING, Calif. — Fire officials say a Northern California wildfire that shut down a main freeway between California and Oregon was human-caused. The fire information website Inciweb reported the cause of the blaze that erupted Wednesday but didn’t provide details. The blaze surged through trees and brush near Interstate 5 north of Redding. Drivers scrambled from trucks as flames engulfed hillsides near the roadway. At least two trucks burned. By nightfall, the so-called Delta Fire had grown to some 3 square miles north of San Francisco. Scattered rural homes in and around the Shasta-Trinity National Forest were ordered evacuated and the I-5 was closed for miles.

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