Daily Archives: October 1, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

Last minute deal reached to salvage NAFTA, concessions made on both sides

October 1, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

Canada and the US reached a last-minute deal to salvage NAFTA, as concessions were made on both sides. Notably, Canada retained its cultural exemptions and Chapter 19—a red line rooted in past lumber disputes—gave on dairy and agreed to modest tweaks on autos and the sunset clause. Campbell Clark [in the Globe and Mail] says it’s “a mediocre deal that avoids damage to the economy”.

In other news: Pinnacle Renewable Energy finds opportunity in Alberta; Freeman Lumber faces silt challenges in Nova Scotia; Sterling Lumber will manufacture CLT mats in Texas; a timber investment company is lauded in Oregon; wildfires create repetitional damage for BC tourism; and mid-rise builders are fuelling prefab wall construction in BC.

Finally, you can win free beer for a year by finding by a hidden medallion in one of six US National Forests; and New Zealand plans to meet its GHG target by planting a lot of trees

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Win Free Beer For A Year By Finding These Medallions Hidden In National Forests

By Augusta Statz
Simplemost
September 29, 2018
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States

Busch Beer is giving beer lovers and nature lovers the chance of a lifetime. The brand is offering you the opportunity to go on a scavenger hunt in the woods — and the ultimate prize? Free beer for an entire year. Busch teamed up with the National Forest Foundation and, as part of the partnership, planted six medallions in different National Forest locations. One of those six medallions offers the winning prize of free beer for a year or the cash equivalent in some states. It’s similar to finding the “golden ticket” to visit Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, but it’s the 21-and-older version. The scavenger hunt officially began on Sept. 25 when Busch started tweeting clues on its Twitter account. The beer maker released coordinates of where the medallions could be found — but of course, didn’t give away which set of coordinates held the winning medallion.

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Business & Politics

Canada made concessions on NAFTA but new deal avoids major damage to economy

By Campbell Clark
The Globe and Mail
September 30, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Campbell Clark

No deal is better than a bad deal, Justin Trudeau often said. But when a mediocre deal comes along, you try to grab it and run. …The peace treaty worked out on Sunday isn’t going to be a glowing ode to the principles of free trade. …There will be a series of other concessions when the ink dries. Negotiators would have judged this a poor deal in the past. …Could Mr. Trudeau have done better if the Canadian team hadn’t been pushed aside when the U.S. and Mexico started to hammer out the framework of an agreement in summer? It’s hard to know. But on first blush, it appears Mr. Trudeau’s critics won’t have big, damaging cave-ins to point to – but rather a series of concessions that the Liberal government accepted to buy peace.

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What we know about the new USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) trade deal

By Elise von Scheel
CBC News
September 30, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

…As the smoke of heated NAFTA talks clears, here’s a look at what will be included in a trade deal between the three countries.

  • After U.S. President Donald Trump lobbed threat after threat at Canada’s auto industry, peace has been tentatively achieved.
  • The new deal would give American farmers greater access to Canada’s dairy industry.
  • Canada was scrambling to secure an exemption from steel and aluminum tariffs, but it became clear the Trump administration wasn’t budging.
  • Canada was unwavering in its demand for Chapter 19. …”There hasn’t been any significant changes with respect to those chapters,” the U.S. official explained. That particular red line for Canada has a history rooted in lumber exports. In the early 2000s, lumber exporters took their case to a NAFTA panel, and won.
  • One headline item you’re unlikely to see in the text of the new agreement is the controversial sunset clause — at least in its originally pitched format.
  • Unchanged from the original version of NAFTA, cultural exemptions will remain in the new deal.

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U.S. and Canada Reach Trade Deal to Salvage NAFTA

By Alan Rappeport
The New York Times
September 30, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

WASHINGTON — The United States and Canada reached a last-minute deal to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement on Sunday, overcoming deep divisions to keep the 25-year-old trilateral pact intact. …The 11th-hour agreement was punctuated by a frenetic Sunday, with Canada’s leaders teleconferencing throughout the day with top American officials in Washington. …The trilateral deal will no longer be called Nafta, they said, but will be named the “United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.” …As part of the deal, Canada will ease protections on its dairy market… The United States relented on its demands to eliminate an independent tariff dispute settlement system. …The countries also reached an understanding that would protect Canada from the automobile tariffs that Mr. Trump has routinely threatened… But in a sign of how fraught trade relations remain, Canada did not win assurances that Mr. Trump would lift the steel and aluminum tariffs he imposed earlier this year…those levies are being addressed on a different track.

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Back-to-back summers of smoke and fire stoke BC tourism industry fears

By Dan Healing
Victoria Times Colonist
September 30, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

CALGARY — The smoke has cleared after the worst forest fire season in B.C. history but tourism operators fear the reputational damage to their industry will linger far into the future. Hundreds of wildfires fanned by hot, dry conditions forced the province to declare a state of emergency in British Columbia for the second year in a row. …Many tourism businesses have suffered losses from the back-to-back fire seasons but the damage to B.C.’s brand could be just as costly, said Jeremy Stone, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia… “The brand damage, that’s the much more difficult one… You really start to become associated with, ‘This is not a place I should be,'” he said. …The fires led to many cancellations throughout B.C. this year and statistics will likely show a substantial impact on tourism when they are released, said Walt Judas, CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of B.C.

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Advancing east: Pinnacle finds new opportunities in Alberta

Canadian Biomass Magazine
September 28, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West
Spring 2018 saw a new milestone come to life for Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc. as it opened a new facility in central Alberta, a first for the B.C.-based company that produces industrial wood pellets. The facility, located roughly 100 kilometres west of Edmonton, sits near the community of Entwistle, a small hamlet in Parkland County at the Yellowhead Highway’s intersection with Highway 22/Highway 16A. This is the first time the 29-year-old company has expanded its production outside of British Columbia, where it currently operates six production plants, has a seventh under construction (Smithers), and uses two shipping terminals, one of which is fully owned and operated by Pinnacle (Westview in Prince Rupert).  According to Scott Bax, Pinnacle’s senior vice-president of operations, the new facility fits perfectly with the needs of the company and takes advantage of the province’s healthy forest industry.

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Lumber mill not doing enough to stop silt runoff into river, say critics

By Paul Withers
CBC News
September 28, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Nova Scotia’s Environment Department is responding once again to complaints about silt runoff from a Queens County sawmill. Bangs Falls resident Paul Connolly said the Freeman Lumber sawmill in Greenfield missed a September deadline to fix the problem of runoff flowing into the Medway River. Just this week, heavy rains overwhelmed a settling-pond system that is under construction at the mill. “The project is not done. The river is being polluted and we want to know what’s up. Why is this continuing?” said Connolly. The mill is under a provincial work order to address runoff and so far, the Environment Department said Freeman has fully co-operated to address the problem. “We want to make this better,” said Monte Hulan, project manager with Freeman Lumber.  

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U.S. Biomass Power, Dampened by Market Forces, Fights to Stay Ablaze

By Sonal Patel
POWER magazine
October 1, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

Though experts say biomass should continue to play a key role in the U.S. renewable power portfolio for its baseload properties, contributions to forest management, and other reasons, a swathe of uneconomic biomass power plants across the U.S.—especially in the West—have been recently idled or shut down. While the larger conversation about plant economics and mass retirements in the U.S. has been focused on coal and nuclear power plants, the nation’s much smaller biomass power industry is grappling with similar issues in markets where cheap natural gas, wind, and solar generation resources are proliferating. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the number of biomass (or biopower) plants… nearly doubled between 2003 and 2016 (from 485 to 760). Yet, biomass power accounted for only 1.6% of net U.S. electricity generation in 2017.

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Campbell Global prioritizes sustainability in timber and in its workplace: Top Workplaces 2018

By Eric Mortenson
The Oregonian
September 27, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

It’s a business culture that fosters a delicate balance of independence and responsibility. “You don’t get your hand held,” said Matt Purdy, a portfolio manager at Campbell Global, a timber investment and management company in Portland. But neither, he added, do you get your arm twisted. …For the seventh year in a row, Campbell Global’s employees nominated it as one of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Top Workplaces. …The company’s portfolio managers, and its foresters and engineers making ground-level decisions in the forest, are expected to operate within what Purdy described as “well articulated” financial, environmental and legal boundaries. After all, it is clients’ money they are working with, and their decisions affect forest ecosystems, wildlife, watersheds and rural economies.

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Sterling Lumber to create 150 jobs, $30M investment in Lufkin

Longview News-Journal
September 29, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Sterling Lumber Co. will open a new facility in Lufkin that will create 150 new jobs and more than $30 million in capital investment, state and local officials said. A Texas Enterprise Fund grant of $825,000 has been extended to the Illinois-based company, which intends to produce its TerraLam Cross-Laminated Timber mats at the new plant. “It is very exciting to announce a significant expansion of Sterling’s manufacturing capacity in Lufkin and the Lone Star State,” said Carter Sterling, CEO. “I can’t think of a better place to continue our stated mission of supporting our colleagues, communities, customers and company.” …In addition to mats for a variety of applications, Sterling provides wood products including pallets and skids, lagging lumber and pre-made lagging panels, shielding lumber, timbers and more.

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The Global Forest Industry in the 2Q/2018

By Wood Resource Quarterly
American Journal of Transportation
September 28, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

The Global Sawlog Price Index (GSPI) fell 1.4% in the 2Q/18. This was the first q-o-q decline since the 4Q/16. Sawlog prices fell on all continents (in US dollar terms) except for North America, where prices in the 2Q/18 were up 3.3% from the previous quarter and up 14.5% from the 2Q/17. The European Sawlog Price Index (ESPI-€), which fell slightly in the 2Q/18, has been quite stable during 2017 and 2018, fluctuating between just over €85/m3 and mid-€86/m3. In the 2Q/18, both wood fiber price indices fell for the first time in five quarters, mainly because of the strengthening of the US dollar against currencies in all countries covered by the WRQ. The 2Q/18 Global Softwood Fiber Price Index (SFPI) decreased slightly from the 1Q/18 but was still 7.8% higher than the same quarter in 2017. Quarter-over-Quarter, softwood fiber prices fell the most in Brazil, Russia, Sweden and New Zealand.

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German wood industry aiming to double sales growth

EUWID
September 28, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

On the basis of the 3.0 % growth to 18.206m € achieved in sales revenue by the end of June, the German wood industry divided into the timber industry and the furniture industry also wants to achieve a comparable rate of growth in the year as a whole. Last year, according to the figures compiled by the German wood industry federation HDH, sales revenue generated by the whole wood industry rose by 1.7 % to 35.587bn €. The slightly regressive development in the furniture industry (-0.6 % to 17.855bn €) was more than compensated for by the growth of 4.7 % in the timber trade’s sales revenue to 16.554bn €. This varying development continued in the first half-year as well. The timber trade’s sales revenue was 5.2 % higher than a year earlier at 8.555bn €.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Six-storey wood condo builders fuelling prefab use in B.C.

By Jean Sorensen
Journal of Commerce
September 28, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Six-storey wood buildings are fuelling the growth of prefabricated wood components and one B.C. company is riding the crest with a 21 per cent upswing in annual volume. Pro-Fit Structures (2007) is planning a new manufacturing plant that will increase its daily volume to 150 per cent, with 2,500 linear feet — almost the length of eight city blocks. “We are cherry-picking jobs right now,” said James Dowdeswell, president and owner of Pro-Fit Structures, as the current plant attempts to pace surging demand for wall units from the wood multi-unit residential buildings (MURBS) sector until the new plant opens in early summer 2019. The new plant will feature more computerized equipment enabling increased throughput without a large labour commitment. The company is also looking at satellite plants in Toronto and the U.S.

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MIT workshop develops sustainable, mass timber prototype modelled after longhouse structures

By Kieron Marchese
Designbloom
September 28, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

A workshop at the massachusetts institute of technology has developed a mass timber design building prototype modelled after the longhouse, a traditional building type that has been historically used as a place for community gatherings. the prototype studies how mass timber products can be used to create modern buildings, demonstrating its value against conventional materials such as concrete.  The MIT longhouse prototype comprises of a series of timber laminated veneer lumber (LVL) arches spanning across the building’s shorter dimension. each arch utilizes a thin-walled triangular profile to minimize deformations in the structure and provide overall rigidity to the building. the structure would serve as a multifunctional building that could accommodate a variety of events, from co-working, exercise classes, social mixers, exhibitions, dinner gatherings and lectures.

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Open Source Wood Awards for Architecture Students at RE-EASA 2018

By Metsä Wood
Markets Insider
September 28, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

WASHINGTON — Metsä Wood challenged the participants of the RE:EASA 2018 event to develop their own designs for the Open Source Wood Initiative. Every summer, EASA (European Architecture Students Assembly) organizes a two-week event of workshops, learning and networking for architectural students from all around Europe. This year, the event was titled “RE:EASA” and took place in July in Rijecka, Croatia. The competition designs uploaded to the Open Source Wood web library were evaluated by a team of experts and the best received awards. Launched last year by Metsä Wood, the Open Source Wood initiative aims to collect  innovations in wood construction from all around the world. At opensourcewood.com,  students and professionals alike can share their designs for wood elements and modules, as well as connect with each other.

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Forestry

Quesnel mayor to meet with politicians in Victoria, Ottawa on local issues

By Melanie Law
Quesnel Cariboo Observer
September 29, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

At the Sept. 25 Quesnel City Council meeting, council approved releasing funds to allow Mayor Bob Simpson to travel to Victoria and Ottawa to meet with provincial and federal politicians. The trip will allow Simpson to follow up on conversations with ministers regarding Quesnel’s Future of Forestry Think Tank Session, which took place in May 2018. Since May, Quesnel has hosted forestry and climate change experts in coming to view the landbase and local industry, and this week brought in experts and scientists from across the province and even from Washington, USA, for a Landscape Modelling Scoping Session. …The Future of Forestry Think Tank identified landbase management as key in keeping the forestry sector viable. Landbase management would require forestry professionals to manage the forest as a whole to increase its resiliency, rather than managing individual tree stands, as is the current practice.

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Community forest creates jobs and opportunity

BC Local News
September 29, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Every day, small things are making big waves in our community. Golden belongs to a number of groups larger than just itself, tying us in with the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) and the Resort Municipalities Initiative. These two groups help our town and surrounding area to leverage the great ideas and initiatives our home comes up with. At the past UBCM meeting, our mayor, Area A director, and the Town CAO attended a week of exhaustive daily meetings to ensure Golden’s voices are heard at the big kids table. And we’ve graduated. Now we sit with the likes of Revelstoke and Whistler, and we’re drinking out of fine China. This town has transformed in astounding ways from its blue collar roots, including old and new into its future.

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Tŝilhqot’in Nation and Province sign moose co-management agreement

Tŝilhqot’in National Government and Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
Government of British Columbia
September 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The B.C. government and the Tŝilhqot’in Nation will work together to ensure a sustainable moose population and harvest in the Tŝilhqot’in territory (Chilcotin) through an agreement signed Sept. 28, 2018. “This agreement accelerates our commitments under the 2016 Nenqay Deni Accord,” said Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. “We recognize moose are a critical source of food, social and ceremonial hunting for Tsilhqot’in communities and it’s understandable that they want a stronger voice in how moose are managed.” Moose populations in the Tŝilhqot’in Territory have declined in the past decade as a result of a number of factors. Under the Moose Co-Management Agreement, both parties will partner on setting up a framework for the co-management of wildlife.

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Chasing Douglas Fir beetles in the Chimney Valley

by Jim Hilton, professional agrologist and forester
Williams Lake Tribune
September 29, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Now that the rains have come the logging contractors working in Chimney Valley can return to more regular hours of work. During the high wildfire hazards in August the Ecolink crews were starting long before sunrise to take advantage of cooler night time temperatures and lower fire dangers. Ecolink is the main contractor working for Alkali Lake Resource Management (ARM) which manages a number of land-base tenures and licences for the Esk’etemc First Nation at Alkali Lake. I think for most of us living in the valley it was good to see that Fir bark beetle outbreak was finally being addressed. I live across the valley and have noticed a steady increase in red trees for the past 10 years with a noticeable spike in the last five years.

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Ecologists, industry experts look at solutions for forestry sector in face ‘new normal’

By Melanie Law
Terrace Standard
September 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The City of Quesnel facilitated a session this week for forestry professionals and scientists as part of an ongoing project to re-examine the future of the industry. The Landscape Modelling and Scoping Session took place Sept. 25-26 at the Billy Barker Casino Hotel showroom, bringing together around 40 experts from across the province, as well as a team of scientists from Washington, USA, including landscape ecologist Dr. Paul Hessburg. The session was designed to build upon ideas from Quesnel’s Future of Forestry Think Tank, which was held in May this year, to reconsider how the forestry industry manages the landscape in order for the sector to remain viable when faced with climate change, widespread forest fires and beetle epidemics.

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BC’s new wildfire mitigation program raises questions for regional district

By Barb Brouwer
Salmon Arm Observer
September 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

They like the idea of more money, but Columbia Shuswap Regional District directors want more details on Forests Minister Doug Donaldson’s announcement at the recent UBCM convention.  Donaldson said the province’s new Community Resiliency Investment (CRI) program will expand opportunities for local governments and First Nations to reduce the risk and impact of wildfires by applying FireSmart principles. … CSRD Board Chair Rhona Martin asked directors at the Sept. 20 meeting in Salmon Arm if they were interested in pursuing funding for fire risk mitigation. “I’m hearing more and more concern from municipal and rural residents,” she said. “We have two or three forest districts in the regional district; is this program something we want to move forward with region-wide?”

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Expansion of the emerald ash borer regulated areas into New Brunswick

By Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Cision Newswire
September 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

OTTAWA – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has updated its regulated areas for emerald ash borer (EAB) to include an area in New Brunswick, in an effort to slow the insect’s spread. This change is due to a detection of EAB in the city of Edmundston. The new regulated area in New Brunswick consists of the county of Madawaska, excluding the municipality of Grand Falls. Effective immediately, the movement of ash materials, including logs, branches and woodchips, and all species of firewood from the county of Madawaska, excluding the municipality of Grand Falls, is restricted. If you need to move regulated articles such as ash logs and branches or firewood of any species out of the EAB regulated area, please contact your local CFIA office to request written authorization.

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Province to hold forestry roundtables

By the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
Northern Ontario Business
September 27, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The provincial government has announced a series of roundtable discussions to glean input from forestry industry stakeholders on how to grow the sector.  …”A provincial forestry strategy is an important first step in unleashing the potential of Ontario’s forest industry,” said Jeff Yurek, minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, in a Sept. 27 news release. “We are creating the conditions that help the forestry industry to innovate, attract investment and create jobs and prosperity for the North and for all communities that depend on the sector. Working together with industry stakeholders we will send a message to the world that Ontario is open for business.” According to the province, the forestry industry in Ontario generates more than $15 billion in revenues and supports 150,000 direct and indirect jobs in 260 communities across Ontario.

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Beech bark disease poses threat to forests

By Nate Smelle
Bancroft This Week
September 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Ernie Demuth

The Bancroft chapter of the Ontario Woodlot Association had its biggest turnout ever last Saturday at its annual general meeting last Saturday. More than 30 members gathered at a private woodlot on the outskirts of Bancroft off Airport Road to take in a presentation by Ernie Demuth of Demuth Forestry Services on the impact of Beech Bark Disease on Ontario’s forests and forestry industry.  Having first reared its head in Canada back in the 1890s in Nova Scotia, Demuth said BBD has since migrated to Ontario, mainly through the transport of wood and wood products. Noting the importance of the forestry industry to the local economy, he said North Hastings is a BBD hotspot. As devastating as the emerald ash borer has been in Ontario, Demuth said BBD will likely have a much larger impact on the forests of Ontario. “We experience it much more severely,” said Demuth.

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It’s imperative to embrace ‘ecological forestry’ approach

By Paul Pross, professor emeritus, Healthy Forest Coalition
The Chronicle Herald
September 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Prof. William Lahey has given the government a workable plan for resolving the conflict over forest policy that has bedevilled the province for decades. The Healthy Forest Coalition, which is supported by a number of provincewide and local citizens’ groups actively promoting ecologically sound forest management, welcomes his recent review of forest practices in Nova Scotia. …But there are flaws in the Prof. Lahey’s plan that are so serious that we cannot ignore them. …We are skeptical about his support for plantation forestry. Plantation forestry may be necessary in the short term, but we must be firm on setting a limit to their number, extent and long-term use. We must vigorously guard against entrenching plantations across the Nova Scotia forest. As well, we are worried lest the shift to ecological management on Crown lands will lead to over-exploitation of private lands.

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Fate of species law may hinge on fight over lowly frog

By Ellen M. Gilmer
E&E News
September 28, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

The Supreme Court will open its new term Monday with a hapless frog from Mississippi. The dusky gopher frog is at the center of a high-stakes case that could shape endangered species protections for years to come. Once common across the South, the amphibian is now struggling to survive, with most living around a single pond in Mississippi. Government scientists say the frog is one of the 100 most endangered species in the world. The Fish and Wildlife Service sought to protect the endangered frog’s habitat, plus other areas in Louisiana that could make a suitable home. The Louisiana landowners pushed back. Timber giant Weyerhaeuser Co. and others went to court, arguing that the agency had overstepped. They say the Louisiana land isn’t even habitable for the creature. On Monday, the Supreme Court will probe whether the agency went too far. 

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Pellets with potential: Potlatch company has persevered to turn timber waste into a fuel source for sale in South Korean markets

By Elaine Williams
The Spokesman-Review
September 30, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Ben Anderberg

POTLATCH – A pile of seemingly neglected sawdust sitting outside a north central Idaho sawmill gave birth to Ben Anderberg’s latest big idea. Stored outside, the sawdust didn’t appear to have much value to the mill. That made Anderberg think it could be an inexpensive raw material for another product. Four years later, he believes he’s still right. He is a founder of Northwest Biomass, a company that began making wood pellets six months ago. Anderberg’s eight-employee operation is taking Potlatch back to its roots in a small, but important, way. It is the first time any manufacturing has been done in the former company town since the Potlatch sawmill closed in 1981, said Mayor David Brown. …Reaching this stage took luck, perseverance and a willingness to learn.

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Researchers to Develop Renewable Fuel Additives from Sawdust

By Edwin L. Aguirre
University of Massachusetts Lowell
September 28, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a three-year, $1 million grant to a team of researchers from UMass Lowell, the University of Maine and Florida-based Mainstream Engineering Corp. to develop renewable fuel additives made from “woody biomass” – particularly sawdust from sawmills. “The additives, which are derived from sustainable raw materials, will help offset the use of traditional fossil fuels in internal combustion engines in cars and trucks as well as in steam turbines for power generation,” says Hunter Mack, a UML assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the project’s principal investigator (PI). “Our lab’s goal is to increase energy efficiency, reduce emissions and identify other potential sustainable fuels and chemicals of the future.”

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Planting a Billion Trees

By Primary Land Users Group
Scoop Independent News
October 1, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

How does that relate to the Waikato Region under PC1? The Government has set a goal to plant one billion trees over 10 years (between 2018 and 2027). Why plant 1 billion trees? The short answer is because trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and turn it into wood, which holds carbon for as much as hundreds of years. …In summary, yes we probably do need to plant a billion trees to comply with our commitments under the climate change agreements but we also need to ensure a vibrant sustainable rural industry to ensure we can feed our population. The government needs to take a holistic view of this situation and not allow regional policies/legislation to interfere with our ability to comply with our climate change commitments. In line with this the government must bring pressure to bear to ensure that any regional legislation is fit for purpose, unlike PC1 which we believe is not fit for purpose.

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Forest Fires

A Border Patrol agent threw a gender-reveal party. He ended up starting a 47,000-acre wildfire

By Antonia Noori Farzan
The Washington Post
October 1, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

In April 2017, the Sawmill Fire swept across the dry grasslands of southern Arizona… The blaze ultimately spread over 47,000 acres of land, forcing residents to evacuate the area as roughly 800 firefighters fought to get it under control. The cause? A gender-reveal party gone horribly wrong. Dennis Dickey, an off-duty Border Patrol agent, was celebrating his wife’s pregnancy… In preparation, he had filled a target with colored powder. When it exploded, it would reveal their future child’s sex: pink for a girl or blue for a boy. The target also contained Tannerite, a legal but highly explosive substance, U.S. Forest Service special agent Brent Robinson wrote in an affidavit filed in federal court on Sept. 20. When Dickey, now 37, fired his rifle at the target, the ensuing explosion sparked a fire that quickly spread through the dry brush, spurred on by unusually high winds and lower-than-average rainfall.

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Coming days crucial in Northwest Colorado wildfire fight

Matt Stensland
Craig Daily Press
September 28, 2018
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Officials say the next few days will be crucial as they try to keep raging Northwest Colorado wildfires at bay. “We need to get through the next few days — hot dry, windy,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Aaron Voos said, “mostly concerned about the Ryan Fire.” The human-caused Ryan Fire burning north of Steamboat Springs on the Wyoming border on Friday was listed as being 21,631 acres with 35 percent containment. The Silver Creek Fire burning southeast of Steamboat was listed at 18,719 acres with 60 percent containment. “We had really successful burnout operations lately,” Voos said, referring to the Silver Creek Fire. “They accomplished a lot.”

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