Daily Archives: October 22, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

US wood importers say Chinese tariff dodgers exist but WSJ article one-sided

October 22, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

US wood importers say Chinese tariff dodgers exist but the recent Wall Street Journal article is one-sided and overstates the significance. In other Business news: southern BC mill workers may join their northern neighbours in strike vote; the Tolko and Soda Creek mills are back up and running after BC’s pipeline explosion; and Northern Pulp faces an effluent leak in Nova Scotia.

In other news: Alberta wolves restore the natural balance in Yellowstone National Park; a botanist’s view on how forests and wildfires are linked; how wildfires may reverse Montana’s declining timber sales; and the tallest mass-timber building in the Western Hemisphere will soon reside in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Finally, a presidential proclamation on National Forest Products Week.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Can you match the autumn leaf to the tree?

BBC News
October 22, 2018
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: International

As the leaves fall, who doesn’t enjoy stepping on a satisfyingly crunchy leaf? But can you spot which type of tree an autumn leaf on the ground comes from? Take our quiz and see. How many trees can you identify from their autumn leaves?

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Business & Politics

$70 million plan to mill lumber, create wood products on Island, for Island

By Andrew Duffy
The Times-Colonist
October 20, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Calling it a return to forestry’s roots on Vancouver Island, a Langley-based company is betting heavily on the Alberni Valley with plans to build both a sawmill and a plant to manufacture wood products. The 39-year-old San Group is doubling down on its commitment to Port Alberni with a new $70-million lumber manufacturing facility that will employ 135 people. San Group already owns Coulson Manufacturing in Port Alberni, which produces cedar building materials. …San Group has purchased from Catalyst Paper a 25-acre site just north of Catalyst’s operation in Port Alberni. The site is not being used, but has an office building, warehouse and auto shop. …Construction of the new sawmill is scheduled to begin in the spring, and San Group predicts it could be operational very quickly and cutting wood by the early summer.

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Strike vote planned for 3,500 B.C. mill workers

CBC News
October 19, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Workers at mills in British Columbia’s southern Interior will be taking a strike vote starting this weekend. The vote includes about 3,500 United Steelworkers members and includes workers in Kamloops, Kelowna, Cranbrook, Clearwater, Salmon Arm, Merrit and Clinton. It is being held as negotiations on a new contract with the Interior Forestry Labour Relations Association (IFLRA) have stalled. Marty Gibbons, president of Steelworkers Local 1-417, says despite record profits, employers are still demanding concessions from workers. “One example is that they are seeking to cap members’ dental benefits for life,” he said. “Another issue is that they’re seeking to lock us in long term on raises we strongly believe aren’t even going to meet inflation.” Gibbons says the strike vote results will be made public Oct 26.

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Kitselas receives $700K in forest sector funding

By Quinn Bender
Terrace Standard
October 18, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Chief Judy Gerow and Minister Amarjeet Sohi

The federal government has provided nearly $670,000 to the Kitselas First Nation to boost forest sector business development with added goal of reducing its carbon footprint. Canada’s minister of natural resources, Amarjeet Sohi, was in Terrace today along with Kitselas Chief Judy Gerow to announce the funding at a small press conference in the Best Western hotel. …As a result the Kitselas are now in a position to consider a new venture with a biomass combined heat and power energy system using local wood residues. A second federal investment of $69,443 will finance the feasibility study. 

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Tolko mills up and running following pipeline explosion

By Dylana Milobar
CFJC Today
October 19, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

KAMLOOPS — Two regional lumber mills are now running at full power, following province-wide restricted natural gas use, due to a recent Enbridge pipeline explosion in the Prince George area. Tolko’s Heffley Creek Plywood, north of Kamloops, along with Soda Creek Lumber in Williams Lake are fully operational today, due to the current availability of additional natural gas. Both operations had been impacted by the pipeline rupture north of Prince George last week. Immediately following the explosion, Heffley Creek Plywood operation ceased production, and the dry kilns in Soda Creek were shut down because there was no natural gas available for them. In a statement today, Vice President of Tolko, Solid Wood Troy Connolly says, “We were able to resume partial operations when one of the two pipelines resumed operations. However, we continued to operate under gas restrictions.”

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Quesnel’s WorkBC branch hosts information sessions for laid off Tolko workers

By Melanie Law
Quesnel Cariboo Observer
October 19, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Quesnel’s WorkBC agency is hosting four sessions geared towards Tolko employees who have been affected by the mill’s closure. The sessions will be led by a WorkBC employee, and cover information on the organization’s employment programs, as well as other services offered. WorkBC skills training and wage subsidy co-ordinator Kathy Wallace says the sessions will let Tolko employees know about workshops available to get resumes and cover letters done; help with job searches; and offer information on skills training programs and self-employment. WorkBC also offers wage subsidy programs, where it can subsidize up to half a person’s wage when they are going into a job where they don’t necessarily have the skills required at the outset.

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Northern Pulp confirms effluent leak at Pictou Landing

By Anjuli Patil
CBC News
October 21, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Northern Pulp says it has taken immediate action to remedy an effluent leak in Pictou Landing, N.S., reported Sunday morning. The leak was reported a day after the company began its annual maintenance shutdown Saturday, according to Kathy Cloutier, director of communications for Paper Excellence Canada. “Northern Pulp was not in production at the time of the leak,” Cloutier told CBC News in an email. …Cloutier said Northern Pulp has arranged for a third-party environmental consultant to be at the site Sunday afternoon “for assessment and development of a path forward plan.”

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North American wood importers respond to tariff dodging article

By Robert Dalheim
Woodworking Network
October 19, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

North American softwood and hardwood importers feel that a recent Wall Street Journal article about tariff dodging only presents one side of the story. The WSJ article, which we covered on Woodworking Network, says that many Chinese exporters are intentionally mislabeling wood export identification codes to avoid tariffs. …The International Wood Products Association (IWPA), says the article presents a very one-sided view of the complexities of the current trade environment and code classification. “The surge in code classification rulings reported in is not an indication of questionable export classifications, but a sign that importers in this high tariff environment are checking if products are properly classified and asking for government rulings when it is unclear,” said IWPA Executive Director Cindy Squires in a statement. …“While tariff dodgers do exist, they represent a small population of those engaged in global trade.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Join Us for Wood at Work 2018, in Toronto!

Wood at Work
October 22, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Wood at Work 2018 is the fourth annual conference of global innovators linking the use of wood with urbanization, architecture, climate change, forestry and forest conservation. The two-day event will include talks, demonstrations, tours, samples, models and exciting hands-on activities. The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Forestry and the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design will host Wood at Work 2018 in partnership with the Mass Timber Institute. Plus many more exciting speakers from an extensive range of professional backgrounds invested in the future of our forests and cities. Wood at Work  is a community of practice linking sustainable urban building, forest conservation, and worldwide supply chain reform to build healthy cities while protecting the world’s life-sustaining forests and the people who rely on them. Our multidisciplinary group includes world leaders in architecture, city planning, anthropology, forest ecology, and sustainable forestry. 

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Province’s covered bridges offer more than just heritage, says engineer

By Lauren Bird
CBC News
October 21, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

The value of New Brunswick’s covered bridges goes beyond simply heritage according to engineer Dan Tingley.  The senior structural engineer and wood technologist with Wood Research and Development, a company that specializes in timber structures says with proper maintenance, wood structures often outlast those made of concrete and steel. “Some timber bridges in the world are 1,000 years old—they’re still in service. So the argument that they’re old doesn’t hold. The argument that they can’t carry load doesn’t hold because we design timber bridges regularly to carry the heaviest loads in Canada,” he said. Tingley spoke at the 2018 National Trust Conference, Opportunity Knocks, held in Fredericton. He says there’s been an exponential growth in recent years in the use timber in construction — everything from bridges to skyscrapers. …”We’re going back to our roots as a carbon friendly nation…, where we should be saving timber bridges that sequester carbon,” he said.

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Presidential Proclamation on National Forest Products Week, 2018

By President Trump
The White House
October 19, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Each day, Americans use and benefit from high-quality products generated from our Nation’s bountiful forests.  During National Forest Products Week, we recognize that strong, healthy, and well-managed forests are vital to our Nation’s economic prosperity. Forested lands make up one-third of America’s total land base and allow for the production of paper and packaging materials; lumber for our homes, buildings, and bridges; renewable energy materials; and a myriad of goods for domestic and global markets.  The forest products industry is one of the top 10 manufacturing sector employers in 45 States, producing more than $200 billion a year in sales and providing approximately $50 billion annually in payrollAdditionally, the industry’s sustainable business practices and proper management of resources help us protect our abundant forests.

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Peavy tour touts mass timber tech

By Bennett Hall
Corvallis Gazette-Times
October 19, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

About 50 timber industry representatives, state lawmakers and other interested parties toured the George W. Peavy Forest Science Center under construction at Oregon State University on Friday as part of a daylong “fact-finding” trip sponsored by the Oregon Forest Resources Institute. The three-story, 80,000-square-foot Peavy Forest Science Center, scheduled for completion next fall, is the centerpiece of the new Oregon Forest Science Complex being built on the Corvallis campus.  …During Friday’s tour, OSU officials once again expressed their confidence in the new engineered wood products the university is helping to develop.“Oregon is perfectly positioned in global markets to compete effectively in mass timber products and mass timber buildings,” said Geoff Huntington, director of strategic initiatives for the OSU College of Forestry.

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Design revealed for mass-timber residential tower in Milwaukee

By John Caulfield
Building Design + Construction
October 19, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

“Ascent” is the apt name of what would be the tallest mass-timber building in the Western Hemisphere, a 21-story 410,000-sf mixed-use tower that would be located in downtown Milwaukee, Wis. A Building Team that includes the engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti, Korb + Associates Architects, and the developer New Land Enterprises has unveiled the design of Ascent, which is currently in its planning stages but could start construction by the fall of 2019. Ascent is the second mass-timber project that New Land and Korb (which are both based in Milwaukee) have worked on together; the first, the design for a seven-story office building in downtown Milwaukee, is scheduled to break ground early next year. …The building’s façade will feature prefabricated, 40-ft-long wood panels whose width ranges from eight to 12 feet, says Jordan Komp an Associate with Thornton Tomasetti.

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Swedish Design Pavilion at London Design Fair showcases Scandinavian patterns

Timber Industry News
October 18, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

With Swedish Wood’s participation in this year’s London Design Fair, pine was presented in a whole new light. The wooden pavilion, created by architect Karin Sundberg, was built in solid pine and stained a striking pink. …The colour of the wood proved a real wow factor, making the pavilion stand out… “Pine is a wonderful material to work with. Not only is it versatile and sustainable, but it also gives a wonderfully natural feel. Wood is a material that we’re definitely going to see more of in future design and architecture…” says the Malmö-based architect. …“It’s important for Swedish Wood to attend design fairs, not least as a way to promote Sweden as a wood nation. But we also want to show what can be done with pine, a wood that opens up endless possibilities,” says Charlotte Dedye Apelgren, who is Director of Interior and Design at Swedish Wood.

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Brazilian Houses: 20 Examples of Wood Design

By Romullo Baratto
Arch Daily
October 20, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Wood is one of the oldest building materials used in architecture. … Brazil, due to its large size and range of climates, has a large variety of tree species that can be used in construction – although its potential is still far from being realized. Below we’ve selected 20 examples of residential projects in Brazil that take advantage of this rich material – be it in its structure, coatings or closings.

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Forestry

Tree Canada recognizes individuals and groups advancing urban forestry in Canada

Tree Canada
October 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Ottawa, ON – Tree Canada, Canada’s leading national tree-planting charity, was pleased to announce the recipients of their first urban forestry awards at the International Urban Forestry Congress held in Vancouver, BC earlier this month. With submissions evaluated by a review committee consisting of representatives from Tree Canada, the Canadian Urban Forest Network Steering Committee, International Society of Arboriculture Canadian Chapters and the Society of Municipal Arborists, the successful award recipients were: Owen Croy who received the Royal Galipeau Award of Distinction; The Town of Richmond Hill, Ontario which received the Public Education Award; and Laura Nguyen who received the Urban Forestry Student Bursary.

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How 31 Alberta wolves changed the natural balance of Yellowstone National Park

CBC News
October 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

An eco-experiment that started with 14 Alberta wolves has shown just how powerful the laws of nature really are, says a University of Alberta ecologist. In 1995, the wolves were introduced to Yellowstone National Park, almost 70 years after the last wolf in the park’s original pack had been shot as part of a systematic program to get rid of them. Another 17 wolves were released into the park one year later. And since then, the changes within the park have been nothing short of remarkable. “They certainly have been able to restore the natural ecological processes that prevailed in the park prior to the extirpation of wolves,” Mark Boyce, a U of A biological science professor, told CBC’s Radio Active. “And it’s been dramatic.” …Reintroducing wolves has changed Yellowstone’s elk and bison populations, and has sparked the recovery of several tree species, including willow, cottonwood and aspen.

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Tree Teachings: How Forests and Wildfires Are Critically Linked

By Andrew Nikiforuk
The Tyee
October 22, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Diane Beresford-Kroeger

I have called up Diana Beresford-Kroeger, the famed Irish botanist and bestselling author, to ask about the megafires that carpeted much of North America in dense smoke last summer. …Coming from a strong Celtic tradition, the 74-year-old plain speaker delivers a good dose of traditional knowledge with her science, combining data with old-fashioned wisdom. …The first point Beresford-Kroeger wants to make is that the fires consuming places like California and B.C.’s Interior were foretold by Indigenous people thousands of years ago. …Human communities are now paying a price for 100 years of fire suppression as they built more homes in landscapes designed to renew themselves with pests or fire. Other changes account for the rise and intensity of wildfires, which Beresford-Kroeger describes as nature’s very own “chemical factories.”

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Wildfire concerns might help reverse decline in timber sales

The Daily Inter Lake
October 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Timber harvests in Montana peaked during the late 1980s and have declined substantially since, a drop attributed in large part to a 70 percent to 80 percent reduction in harvests on national forest lands during the 1990s. That’s according to a new study by the Forest Industry Research program at the University of Montana. The study concludes that without “substantial increases in timber availability and timber harvest volume in Montana, we can expect the industry to erode further, employ fewer people and generate less income.” That conclusion dovetails with what some timber industry representatives told U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale.

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Judge denies injunction against 500-acre logging project

By Mateusz Perkowski
Capital Press
October 18, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A federal judge has denied a request from several environmental groups for a preliminary injunction against a 500-acre logging project in Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest. Cascadia Wildlands, Oregon Wild and Benton Forest Coalition filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service earlier this year for allegedly approving the Quartz project in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The plaintiffs argued a preliminary injunction blocking timber harvest was warranted because the federal agency hadn’t re-submitted its environmental analysis for public comment after additional red tree vole nests were found in the area. Red tree voles are a protected species the Forest Service must “survey and manage” under the Northwest Forest Plan, a federal law intended to resolve conflicts between logging and conservation in the region.

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For wildlife, not wildfire

By Mark Freeman
Mail Tribune
October 18, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

WHITE CITY — Two freshly charred patches within the Denman Wildlife Area look more like moonscapes than meadows, yet they’re well on their way to improving wildlife and reducing wildfire risk in this chunk of urban forest. Two prescribed burns Wednesday within wildlife-area lands smack-dab within the White City industrial area have reclaimed portions of oak savanna and Ponderosa pine stands encircling meadows that over time have been overrun by other trees and blackberries. Burning them away will reclaim the meadows for black-tailed deer, hawks, owls, quail and the occasional wayward pheasant that all call these meadows home — just like they have for centuries. “We’re putting fire in here once every 15 or 20 years, which is what the historical fire regimen is,” Denman manager Clayton Barber said.

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Genetic behavior reveals cause of death in poplars essential to ecosystems, industry

By Sara Shoemaker
Phys.org
October 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Scientists studying a valuable, but vulnerable, species of poplar have identified the genetic mechanism responsible for the species’ inability to resist a pervasive and deadly disease. Their finding, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to more successful hybrid poplar varieties for increased biofuels and forestry production and protect native trees against infection. A research team—jointly led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Oregon State University in partnership with the DOE Joint Genome Institute and the University of Georgia—analyzed the genetic response of purebred black cottonwood poplars infected by a pathogen known as Septoria. Septoria causes untreatable cankers, or wounds, on the surface of the trunk and branches and kills trees early in the growing cycle.

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Hurricane Michael: A likely $4 billion dollar blow to Georgia, Florida farms and timber

The Tallahassee Democrat
October 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

…The Georgia Department of Agriculture estimates farm damages to be as high as $2.8 billion. Meanwhile, in North Florida, Timber industry losses alone are almost half that amount. The Florida Department of Agriculture estimates Michael damaged 3 million acres of timberland to the tune of $1.3 billion. …Hurricane Michael leveled many pecan trees belonging to Maxwell Pecan Farms in South Georgia. This has been an up and down season, Maxwell said. A tornado in July damaged many trees in South Georgia, but he was counting on his Florida pecans to make up for the  shortfall. “Florida was looking good,” he said. “I  was expecting to have the best crop I ever had in Florida. This took our 30 or 40 trees. Then came Michael.” 

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Nationals MP pushes to allow logging of huge river red gum forest

By Anne Davies
The Guardian
October 22, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Some of the largest river red gum forests in New South Wales would be opened up for logging if a private members bill from the Nationals’ MP for Murray, Austin Evans, wins support. In what would be a first for New South Wales, Evans is pushing to reverse the national park listing for the 41,0000 hectare Murray Valley national park, which includes the largest contiguous forest of river red gums and several endangered species. Whether he has the support of his own side remains to be seen. The bill is unlikely to reach a vote before the state election in March. But the issue could prove dangerous for the Coalition.

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New forestry programme starts with 14 trainees

The Gisborne Herald
October 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Eastland Wood Council’s Generation Programme is under way. The 14 trainees in the inaugural programme, which aims to provide a direct pipeline of work-ready, skilled and trained people into employment in the forest industry, were this week welcomed with a whakatau at Turanga Ararau. Eastland Wood Council chief executive Kim Holland said the trainees were excited to have the opportunity to be earning as they were learning. In April, the Generation Programme was funded $215,000 over three years from the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi employment scheme, plus an additional $60,000 from the Ministry of Social Development. Generation Programme participants will spend six weeks at a forestry base camp industry-introduction programme, followed by “learn while you earn” employment with contractors, complemented with part-time courses and a continuing individualised training plan through EIT Tairawhiti, Turanga Ararau and Competenz.

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‘Now is the time for action’: logging protester scales SW karri

By Cameron Myles
Sydney Morning Herald
October 20, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Jeff Pow

A South West farmer has scaled a karri in old-growth forest near Manjimup in a bid to prevent the trees being chopped down. eff Pow, lauded for his sustainable practices and former chief of the Southern Forest Food Council, said the treetop protest was his submission to the WA government’s draft mid-term review of the Forest Management Plan 2014-2023. It’s the second time WA protesters have scaled trees in less than a month to speak out on clearing, with Neville Kirk Junior climbing a tree in Perth’s Brixton Street wetlands at the start of October. Mr Pow said the review had revealed a “full-blown conservation crisis” in the region, something he claimed the government was doing nothing about. “It’s not good enough,” he said.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Photosynthesis is one-third of the answer to mitigating climate change

By Jonathan Jennings and Kinari Webb, Health in Harmony
The Hill
October 21, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Twelve years — That’s all the time we have left before global temperatures will rise by 1.5 Celsius over pre-industrial levels, according to… the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Without drastic and immediate action to prevent it, the report says, that increase in temperature will leave us facing the start of an irreversible climate disaster by the year 2030. …We can take immediate steps to drastically reduce levels of carbon in the atmosphere, using knowledge and tools we already have available. …The simplest, most effective, least expensive, and risk-free solution to global warming is to protect and expand forests. Not immensely ambitious carbon capture and storage technologies which have yet to prove themselves effective, but simple photosynthesis. …Will reduced logging in Indonesia prevent temperatures rising by 1.5 Celsius within a dozen years? Not on its own, but reversing deforestation globally would get us one-third of the way to that goal.

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