Daily Archives: September 12, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

BC Gov’t makes abrupt change to top forestry official: Tim Sheldan is out. John Allan is new Deputy

September 12, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

The abrupt change to BC’s top forestry official—Tim Sheldan out, John Allan in—could signal a change in policy direction. In other Business news: the US Commerce Dept. rejects tariff exemption request by Canadian shingle makers; softwood tariffs are not driving suppliers to buy more US lumber; and Hurricane Florence is pushing lumber prices up.

In Forestry news: the Sierra Club targets BC’s old-growth forests; forest management is helping Alberta’s caribou; the Quebec Cree want more forest protection; Wired Magazine says money can stop wildfires; and FPInnovations and Forsite team up on LiDAR to reduce inventory costs.

Elsewhere: FPAC applauds the Canadian Forest Ministers; Vermont says Canada and NAFTA are key; Boise Cascade sells three mills; and West Fraser get high marks for corporate governance.

Finally; wood waste may power logging trucks; and live Christmas trees may arrive at your door — via Amazon.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

Read More

Business & Politics

FPAC Applauds Minsiters’ Commitment to Strengthening Canada’s Forest Sector

Forest Products Association of Canada
Midland Paper
September 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Derek Nighbor

Today, at the conclusion of the annual meeting of the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM), Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) announced its strong support for the Ministers’ commitment to strengthen Canada’s forest sector through a renewed national vision. The CCFM meeting is an annual gathering of Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers and Deputy Ministers responsible for forestry. …FPAC CEO Derek Nighbor… was pleased with what he heard coming out of this week’s meetings. “Any time you have political leaders from not only different parts of the country, but also from different political parties, come together and align on key priorities like accelerating innovation… it is a great message to send to our forestry workers, our investors, and our forestry communities from coast to coast”.

Read More

U.S. Commerce Department rejects tariff exemption for Canadian shingle makers

By Brent Jang
The Globe and Mail
September 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

The U.S. Department of Commerce has rejected a request from Canada’s shake and shingle industry to be exempt from tariffs against Canadian softwood lumber. The recently formed Shake and Shingle Alliance asked the Commerce Department in June to review the scope of products that fall under the softwood file. …In a ruling this week, the Commerce Department cited a passage from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wood Handbook, which refers to the production of shakes and shingles as being part of the lumber sector. …The Canadian alliance argues its members’ cedar products are thin enough to warrant tariff exemptions, and should not be confused with lumber. …The alliance is now examining its options for appealing the Commerce Department’s decision. Until this year, U.S. tariffs had not been applied on Canadian cedar shakes and shingles since 1991.

Read More

Vermont governor: Canada is crucial to our economy

By Ethan Wolff-Mann
Yahoo Finance
September 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Gov. Phil Scott

MONTPELIER, VT. — Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is in Washington on Tuesday for another round of trade talks on NAFTA as the clock runs out. Freeland and U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer are progressing but still have unresolved issues, she said recently. Among the many people watching the NAFTA talks closely is Vermont Gov. Phil Scott. …While businesses from the west, south, and east can and do play roles in Vermont’s economy, the northern neighbors in Canada mean the most for the small state. “Canada is incredibly important to our state — Quebec in particular,” Scott told Yahoo Finance in his office. “Quebec is our largest trading partner.” …Tariffs and trade policy between the U.S. and Canada frequently affect Vermont’s dairy and lumber industries.

Read More

Multiple-voting shares: Keeping it in the family has its downsides

By Konrad Yakabuski
The Globe and Mail
September 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Konrad Yakabuski

National Bank of Canada’s newest study on the stock market performance of Canadian family-owned companies appears to make a powerful argument for multiple-voting shares. But by ignoring the elephant in the room – a generally weaker corporate governance record at family-controlled firms – it leaves out a critical factor that goes to the heart of corporate democracy and the long-term desirability of insulating owners from the demands of the market. …According to the report, family-controlled public companies generated an absolute return of 206 per cent between 2005 and 2018, while the TSX index returned… 73 percentage points less. …What’s more, the new report uses a more expansive definition of family-controlled companies. …This has the effect of including companies with vastly different ownership structures. It puts West Fraser Timber, which is only 11-per-cent controlled by the Ketcham family, in the same category as Rogers Communications, which is 91-per-cent controlled by the Rogers family… Is it only a coincidence that West Fraser gets much higher marks for corporate governance?

Read More

B.C. government abruptly replaces top forestry official

By Rob Shaw
The Province
September 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

VICTORIA — The abrupt departure of the B.C. government’s top forestry official could signal a change in policy direction by Premier John Horgan and an expectation that turbulent times remain ahead for the sector. Tim Sheldan, the deputy minister of forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development, was removed from the job on Monday by Don Wright, the head of the civil service and Premier John Horgan’s deputy minister. Sheldan’s replacement, John Allan, is a former senior bureaucrat from the 1990s NDP government who has since headed the forest sector’s top associations, served as the province’s chief negotiator on softwood lumber, and led a review on revitalizing B.C.’s coastal forest policies. …Sheldan’s departure as deputy minister is effective immediately. …The shakeup at the top of the forest ministry signals shifting policies under the Horgan government. The premier has spoken about re-establishing the relationship between communities and forests, so that logs taken from public land can create local jobs.

Read More

Boise Cascade sells Oregon lumber mills to Woodgrain Millwork

By Robert Dalhelm
Woodworking Network
September 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

BOISE, Idaho – Boise Cascade, an Idaho-based lumber producer, will sell its lumbermill in Pilot Rock and La Grande, Oregon and its particleboard operations in Island City to Woodgrain Millwork. Idaho-based Woodgrain operates in 18 facilities around the U.S., manufacturing wooden doors, mouldings, and windows. The sale does not include Boise’s plywood mill and log utilization center in Elgin, Oregon. “The sale to Woodgrain allows us to further focus on our veneer-based engineered wood products and plywood businesses,” said Mike Brown, senior vice president of operations, Boise Cascade. …The transaction is contingent upon the results of the due diligence process, which is expected to take approximately 60 days. Boise Cascade is one of the largest producers of engineered wood products and plywood in North America.

Read More

Hurricane Pushes Up Lumber Prices, While Fundamentals Point to Longer-Term Rise

By Craig Webb
ProSales Magazine
September 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Lumber prices are rising again this fall after a sharp summer-long decline, prompted short-term by Hurricane Florence and longer-term by supply shortages amid rising demand. A senior lumber buyer with 28 years of experience says that if the hurricane-driven rise in Southern yellow pine prices that he’s seeing now follows past patterns, prices will rise about 10% and last at that higher level roughly two months. That’s because hurricanes don’t just shut down mills; they also cause people to skip work as they repair their own homes. This week’s rise comes after a summer in which, according to Random Lengths, prices for framing lumber fell from this year’s peak, and then have bumped up. If recent years are a guide, those prices won’t be that low again for the rest of this year.

Read More

Ridgefield Supply Co. owner says softwood tariffs not working as intended

By Chris Bosak
The Danbury News Times
September 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Margaret Price

CONNECTICUT — The softwood lumber dispute between the U.S. and Canada stretches back to 1982, but the impact on U.S. lumber suppliers and consumers is at a high point. Margaret Price of Ridgefield Supply Co. said certain woods have seen a 24 percent price increase over the last 16 months, amounting to an additional $10,000 to build a median-priced home in Connecticut. …“The tariffs don’t seem to be doing what Trump wants them to do. Suppliers don’t seem to be buying more from U.S. companies,” Murphy said. “Tariffs can work but only if they change buyers’ behavior. This trade dispute is not good for the U.S. We have to come to an agreement with Canada. …Price and Albee said cedar and Douglas fir are the primary woods in question as they are grown primarily in Canada and are popular with U.S. home builders. 

Read More

Wood, Paper & Green Building

Know the risks of cross-laminate timber before beginning your project

By Eric Grasberger & Loni Hinton of Stoel Rives Stoel Rives corporate and litigation law firm
Portland Business Journal
September 11, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Despite recent setbacks, cross-laminated timber (CLT) continues to be an attractive option for owners and developers constructing mid- and high-rise structures across the United States.  CLT’s growing popularity is supported by its utilization of renewable resources to create a product that proponents say has the strength of steel and the potential to cut down construction schedules by as much as half. However, after collapse of the subfloor at Oregon State University’s Peavy Hall was traced by engineers to delaminating glue, it seems that the use of CLT poses risks that are still being evaluated.  Here is an overview of the product and the risk mitigation tools owners and developers should employ before endeavoring to build a project with CLT. …forward-thinking owners should consider taking advantage of the benefits of CLT’s application to a wide range of projects, while utilizing the risk-mitigation tools outlined in this article.

Read More

Feel-good factor: Scientists and architects probe mass timber

By Joseph Gallivan
Portland Tribune
September 11, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Architects and engineers gathered at the offices of Ankrom Moisan Wednesday evening last week to pick away some of the layers of cross-laminated timber. The material, famed for being strong, lightweight and easy to assemble on construction sites, is still a bit of a mystery to many architects and designers. …The talk addressed two issues: One: “Mass timber relies on small pieces of wood glued together for structural performance. Some skeptics suggest that small pieces of wood typically come from forests that are managed on a shorter harvest rotation. Short rotations do not allow forests to mature or provide other ecosystem services, which can be detrimental to the health of forests and for the services they provide.” And two: “Gluing lots of wood together for indoor spaces increases the amount of potential off-gassing products to which workers and inhabitants are exposed.” [To access the full story the Portland Tribune requires you to create a free account]

Read More

Age And Beauty Meet At Crossroads Recycled Lumber

By Kellie Flanagan
Sierra News Online
September 11, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

NORTH FORK — For some of us, the sight of old wood triggers a very specific response: ahhh. Not plywood languishing roadside, or firewood stacked outside the house. We’re talking about architectural wood — the kind of aged paneling that warms like an embrace when you enter the room, or a marked wooden floor that’s so solid you feel grounded. …There’s something touching about touching fine old wood. This is some of what you’ll find at Crossroads Recycled Lumber in North Fork, and you can see examples around the foothills, including the bars at Oakhurst Spirits and Wine Tails in Oakhurst, and throughout the addition at South Gate Brew. …Their salvaged wood has been carefully removed from institutions both illustrius and infamous, Stanford University to San Quentin. Timbers from a shipwreck at the mouth of the Columbia River. Military housing, waterfront buildings, a cable car system, barns, churches, schools — a nearly endless list of sources.

Read More

Clemson’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute marks five years promoting ‘wood is good’

By Denise Attaway
The Newsstand – Clemson University
September 11, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

CLEMSON – Trees have provided a viable building material for centuries, and although steel and concrete have taken center stage in contemporary construction, lumber is making a comeback. Building with wood has a number of advantages. For the past five years, Clemson University’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute (WU+D) has been educating individuals in the Southeast about these benefits, including the fact wood takes less energy to produce than most other building materials, giving it a lower carbon footprint. In addition to being renewable and aesthetically pleasing, wood also is stronger, can resist heat and absorbs sound. …Beyond education, WU+D fosters collaborative research among campus, industry and public service centers. …Currently, a new Built Environment Lab (BEL) is being renovated at Clemson University in Pendleton to house even more architecture, construction science and forestry research initiatives.

Read More

Forestry

Support Responsible Forestry on FSC Friday

Forest Stewardship Council
September 12, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

We’re aiming to increase awareness of FSC so that more people understand what FSC is and the difference we make to help keep our forests for all forever. On September 28th 2018, the Forest Stewardship Council will be hosting ‘FSC Friday’ an annual event designed to raise awareness about responsible forest management and products. This September 28th, 2018, we’re asking you to help raise awareness by talking about FSC and your commitment to responsible forestry to your employees or colleagues. Getting the message out is not only helpful to your sales or sustainability staff, but it’s helpful to everyone in the company by creating engagement and enthusiasm. We’re aiming to increase awareness of FSC so that more people choose FSC certified products more of the time. These choices can be personal, like choosing garden furniture, greeting cards or even toilet paper. 

Read More

Summer drought deals ‘devastating loss’ to western red cedar, B.C.’s official tree

By Carla Wilson
Victoria Times Colonist
September 12, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Parksville is dealing with the “devastating loss of cedar trees in our parks” and is pinning the blame on summer droughts. Dry weather does not agree with western red cedars, B.C.’s official tree. They fare best in cool, wet environments.  That is why we are seeing dead and stressed trees on southern Vancouver Island and the east side of the Island, where moisture has been in short supply this summer. “At this time, cedar trees look quite ugly as the dead brown scale-like leaves hang on the trees,” a City of Parksville statement said. “The leaves will soon fall, leaving the silver ghosts to populate our forests.”  Municipal staff are monitoring trees to watch over public safety. “Summer droughts over the past few years put severe stress on most of the trees in our urban forests, with cedars the most susceptible,” said the city, which plants hundreds of trees annually.

Read More

Winner of the FPInnovations – Foresight Challenge Announced

FPInnovations
September 12, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Vancouver, Canada – Today Foresight and FPInnovations announced that Object Raku Technology, with its project partner Forsite Consultants Ltd., has been selected as the winner of the FPInnovations – Foresight Challenge. These companies have been awarded a $200,000 contract to further advance technologies and techniques for rapidly producing more accurate and more detailed LiDAR-based forest inventories. The partners will develop and test a new hybrid LiDAR approach that uses area-based and individual tree-based LiDAR inventories. When combined with traditional survey plot and terrestrial LiDAR data, this information will accurately identify tree species, stem counts, and diameters, leading to a much better understanding of the ecological and economic value of our forests. …This should result in a broader availability of best-in-class forest inventories, leading to better resource management and efficiencies for the companies operating in the sector and for the public.

Read More

New forest research project works to conserve caribou in western Alberta

By The Sustainable Forestry Initiative
Treehugger
September 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Woodland caribou are an iconic but threatened species throughout Canada. They’re natural prey to bears and wolves, who can gain easier access to Caribou habitat through forest roads, pipelines, and other human disturbances. In some places, these activities have thrown the predator-prey system off balance, and caribou have declined. Sustainable forest management can help. fRI Research (fRI), a non-profit forest research organization, and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) have collaborated on a new study to establish best practices for planning cutblocks, or harvesting areas, with caribou conversation top of mind. The study spans the forestland of five companies certified to SFI Forest Management standards: ANC Timber Ltd., C&C Resources Inc., Weyerhaeuser, West Fraser, and Canfor. According to Dr. Laura Finnegan, lead researcher for the fRI Caribou Program, “Our research underlines the commitment of forest managers to maintain the viability of caribou within a shared working landscape in a very active way.”

Read More

Too soon to assess timber damage: province

Houston Today
September 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

With the worst of the wildfire season now seemingly over, many people are concerned about what impact these wildfires are having on the timber that supply the region’s largest employers. According to the provincial government, however, it’s still too soon to assess the damage. …Michelle Ward, Canfor’s director of corporate communications, also says it’s too early to know what the impact will be for their Houston mill. …Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen said timber supply is one of the main concerns he has heard from local residents. “The feds need to understand that the biggest economic leg on our table just got hammered,” said Cullen. “We just lost a lot of wood, and in places like Burns Lake, Houston and Fort St. James, that has to be figured out.”

Read More

B.C.’s old-growth forests at “dangerous threshold”

By Nelson Bennett
Business in Vancouver
September 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A quarter of a century ago, the largest environmental protest in B.C. took place in Clayoquot Sound. The War in the Woods, which pitted protesters against MacMillan Bloedel, peaked in 1993 when 800 people were arrested for blockading the corporation’s logging operations in a large-scale effort to save the sound’s old-growth forests. The protesters eventually won that battle. In 2000, Clayoquot Sound was declared a UNESCO biosphere, and the provincial government introduced new limits on clearcutting. Emboldened, environmentalists expanded their campaign and were successful in getting a 6.4 million hectare swath of coastal forest protected under the Great Bear Rainforest agreement, which limits logging activities to just 15% of that area. Despite those victories, all is not necessarily well on Vancouver Island, according to Sierra Club BC, which is using the 25th anniversary of the War in the Woods to call attention to the continued logging of old-growth forests on Vancouver Island.

Read More

Committee updated on beetle threat

By Dan Singleton
The Mountain View Gazette
September 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Tom Daniels and Bruce Alexander

SUNDRE, ALBERTA — The Mountain View County policies and priorities committee has been given an update on the potential threat posed by the mountain pine beetle to the forest areas along the Eastern Slopes. Sundre Forest Products (SFP) general manager Bruce Alexander and community forester Tom Daniels appeared before the committee. A subsidiary of West Fraser, SFP has operations in Sundre and in a large forested area along the Eastern Slopes. It has a 580,000 hectare forest management agreement with the provincial government. …“We have found that there may be a possibility that we’ve had an inflight of beetle, said Daniels. …“What that impact will be will depend upon how aggressive that attack is going to be and how big that population grows.”

Read More

Quebec Cree hold protest, ramping up pressure to protect untouched forest

By Susan Bell
CBC News
September 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Don Saganash Sr. and Paul Dixon

Cree from the James Bay community of Waswanipi are vowing to keep up pressure on the Quebec government to protect a vital piece of virgin forest near their community. On Monday, Waswanipi tallymen — or Cree land stewards — set up a blockade and held a demonstration at kilometre 105 of the James Bay highway.  “We demand the protection of the Broadback Forest,” said Sydney Ottereyes, one of the protesters and a Waswanipi tallyman. “We have been asking the Quebec government for 15 years, [the government] has not honoured its commitments to negotiate with us.” Members of Greenpeace were also on hand Monday at the blockade and have been working with Waswanipi Cree since 2010 to protect a vast tract of untouched forest in the Broadback Valley. …Greenpeace says despite promising to negotiate an agreement, the Quebec government has released a five-year forestry plan that opens the area to logging.

Read More

We Know Exactly How to Stop Wildfires—With Money

By Adam Rogers
Wired Magazine
September 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

WILD LANDS ARE practically worthless. They’re not worthless to the things that live in them, of course. …Any place with plants slurps up carbon dioxide, providing a bulwark against climate change. And they probably have value as a matter of public health….But as a product, though? As board-feet for building or biomass for burning? Not so much. “Foresters are raised from childhood to believe that wood is good and has infinite value. As a society we think of wood as this super-eco-friendly material,” says Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. “But in fact, most wood is worthless. The cost of making it into something useful far outweighs the value.”  …If it’s not worth it to turn trees into lumber, stop cutting down forests. Except if you don’t reduce the number of trees …the boreal forests will continue to go up in smoke.

Read More

What’s in the Amazon Box? Maybe a Real 7-Foot Christmas Tree

Associated Press in the New York Times
September 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

NEW YORK — Watch out for the 7-foot box on the doorstep. Amazon plans to sell and ship fresh, full-size Christmas trees this year. But a live tree is no paperback book. Amazon says the Christmas trees, including Douglas firs and Norfolk Island pines, will be bound and shipped without water in the usual sort of box. Amazon said they’ll be sent within 10 days of being cut down, possibly even sooner, and should survive the shipping just fine. …Will people buy a Christmas tree sight unseen? Tim O’Connor, the executive director of the National Christmas Tree Association, said picking out a tree and hauling it back home is part of the fun for families. The association estimates that only about 1 to 2 percent of the 27 million real Christmas trees purchased last year were bought online, mostly from grower’s own sites. “It’s so small, it’s almost undetectable,” O’Connor said. 

Read More

Strange times: Fire fighting, fire lighting occurring simultaneously in Northern Rockies

By Kim Briggeman
The Missoulian
September 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

…Even as nine large wildfires burned uncontained in the Northern Rockies last weekend, the valleys of western Montana were choked with smoke from prescribed U.S. Forest Service burns in the mountains of Idaho. …The anomaly, coming on the heels of last year’s epic summer of fire and smoke in these parts, is the product of an unusual late summer, Ralph Rau said Friday, a few hours before the smoke rolled in. Rau has been director of fire for the Forest Service’s Northern Region in Missoula for the past three years. Before that he was deputy supervisor on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, the source of most of Montana’s smoke attack. “We’re able to do a lot more prescribed burn earlier than what we’ve typically been able to do for quite some time, so that’s a little bit different flavor this year,” he said. 

Read More

VIDEO: Trucker yanks eco-protester off of log truck

CDL Life – Trucking News and Entertainment
September 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A log truck driver has had enough when a couple of California ecological protesters climb up on his truck. The footage was captured a lumber mill in Scotia, California, on August 31, where protesters gathered to speak out against the logging of old growth forests. In the video, you can see two protesters climb up on a log truck to try to place a banner. The driver asks the protesters to get off of the truck. When one of the protesters refuses, the driver takes matters into his own hands. “You guys can do your protest, but don’t get on my truck, I’ll start knocking you guys out,” warns the driver before he takes action.

Read More

2018 Emerging Voices in Forestry

World Forestry Center – World Forest Institute
September 12, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The World Forestry Center and Society of American Foresters invite you to join us for the third annual Hagenstein Lectures. The Hagenstein Lectures is a new, exciting, high-profile public outreach initiative led by the World Forestry Center and the Society of American Foresters to honor the legacy and memory of professional forester William D. Hagenstein, who died in Portland at age 99 in 2014. We are honored to introduce you to our Emerging Voices in Forestry – all under the age of 45. Welcome these new leaders working at the forefront of social, economic, and environmental change. Join us and meet them in person on Sunday, October 14th, and enjoy craft beer, wine, food, new friends, provocative ideas, great conversation. Speaker lineup includes: Angie DiSalvo, Thomas RaShad Easley, Edie Hall, Zack Parisa, Nicole Strong, and Mike Warjone, 

Read More

Educators learn about forest industry

The Nassau County Record
September 12, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Forty teachers from all over Florida convened in Fernandina Beach and other areas throughout Northeast Florida for the 2018 Florida Forestry Teachers Tour. It gave teachers the opportunity to look at the roles of Florida’s forest industry. “There are more than 5,000 products that come from Florida forests and the industry supports thousands of jobs and communities,” said Florida Forest Service Jacksonville District Manager Jennifer Hart. …Teachers received a variety of educator materials and lesson plan ideas that they can incorporate in the classroom. All meals and lodging were provided and teachers earned 30 continuing education units for their time. The annual tour is made possible through sponsorships from the forest industry, private citizens, landowners, the Florida Forest Service and others. 

Read More

Forestry Stewardship Council reputation at stake over Papua case, says NGO

Radio New Zealand
September 12, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

An environmental NGO says the Forestry Stewardship Council’s reputation is at stake over a case of deforestation in Indonesia’s Papua province. The international forest protection agency has been considering a complaint laid by the group Mighty Earth over a Korean company involved in large-scale deforestation and oil palm planting in Papua.  The council which oversees certification of sustainable forestry globally, has delayed its decision on whether to disassociate from Korindo until March next year. Mighty Earth’s Campaign Director, Phil Aikman, said the council has clear evidence that its own standards have been breached. “It’s an environmental chamber, an economic chamber, a social chamber. It’s decisions are consensus driven,” Phil Aikman said. “It has some good aspects. It has some aspects it really needs to fix, and this is one of them. It shouldn’t be having relationships with companies which are burning the rainforests and breaching FSC standards.”

Read More

Charities pledge nearly $500M against deforestation

By Olga Rodriguez
The Washington Post
September 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

SAN FRANCISCO — A coalition of charitable groups and the government of Norway on Tuesday pledged to spend nearly half a billion dollars over the next four years to prevent deforestation internationally and recognize indigenous peoples’ rights to manage forests. The charitable groups pledged $459 million to help indigenous groups gain rights to the forests where they live and to help them protect their land. The government of Norway pledged another $33 million to help prevent deforestation in Indonesia and Brazil. The coalition of more than 15 organizations and Norway made the announcement ahead of an international climate change summit in San Francisco. It includes the Ford and the Rockefeller foundations.

Read More

Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Biofuel project possible in Port Alberni

By David Wiwchar
The Peak 93.3
September 11, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Alberni Valley logging trucks could soon be powered by wood-waste according to a lower mainland business cooperative. Eco Options CEO David Swan told city council last week he’s looking at the Link Mill site and other areas around the valley to build a facility that turns woodwaste, branches and stumps into biodiesel that go straight into the fuel tanks of transport trucks. He said the process will turn 90,000 tonnes of fibre into 27 million litres of fuel, and create 150 to 200 jobs including bringing in 50 people from the Alberta energy sector. Swan told city council he’ll be looking for $170 million in community support through green bonds. Swan recognizes past similar projects that failed to pan out like the CanTimber BioChar project, might make some reluctant to embrace bio fuels.

Read More

WWF urges Norway to protect its taiga forests to help fight climate change

By Thomas Nilsen
The Independent Barents Observer
September 11, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

At 68°N, Europe’s northernmost boreal forest, known as taiga in Russia, is found in the border areas of the Pasvik valley where Norway, Finland and Russia have protected parts of the old-growth forest. Covering an area of 119 square kilometers, Øvre Pasvik National Park on the Norwegian side of the borders, is a unique western arm of the Siberian taiga forest, the largest forest covered area on the northern hemisphere. Talking protection of biodiversity and the forests’ key role in storing carbon, WWF representatives from Finland, Russia and Norway now highlight Pasvik to be a leading cross-border star example for conservation. “It is important that Norway speeds up the process to protect more of the Pasvik boreal forest,” says biologist Trude Myhre with World Wide Fund for Nature. 

Read More

Forest Fires

As smoke sweeps across Alberta, Cochrane works to protect town from wildfire

CBC News
September 11, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West

As smoke continues to sweep across Alberta from B.C., officials in Cochrane are continuing work on a multi-year process to protect the town from wildfire. The town northwest of Calgary is in the second phase of working to become a FireSmart community. Deputy fire Chief Shawn Polley said right now the town is planning for areas they identified as high-risk and close to combustible materials. “In the wildfire threat assessment, we identified a number of hazards in the six open spaces, and there were recommendations in how to reduce the wildfire threat to life and property,” Polley said. “It’s a really great, exciting project for the town.” …GlenEagles resident Maureen Anderson welcomes the FireSmart measures in her community, and said wildfire season seems to be getting worse every year. 

Read More

Trees burn on inside, too

By Rob Gibson
Castanet
September 11, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West

Environment Canada has issued a snowfall warning for parts of Northern B.C. with as much as 10 centimetres expected for Dawson Creek, Chetwynd and Highway 97 between Pine Pass and Chetwynd for Tuesday night. You’d think that would snuff out any fires burning in that region at least, but not necessarily. As we’ve seen in past fire seasons, wildfires can smoulder underground or even inside trees. …Experts say fires like the ones we’ve experienced in the province over the last couple of years can continue burning right into the next fire season.

Read More