Daily Archives: October 24, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

Wood is good for everything, even clean water

October 24, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

A famous Canadian wildlife painter is calling on government to stop issuing logging permits in BC mountain caribou habitat; a fisherman in Nova Scotia used his boat to stop Northern Pulp from mapping a new effluent outfall; and a California research team has invented a process to turn wood into drinkable water!

The good news stories today include an announced Phase 2 in the San Group sawmill development in Port Alberni BC; a successful new forestry venture for a Northern Ontario First Nation; and the University of Winnipeg launches a new section of their Climate Atlas of Canada with a focus on forests.

Lastly, I can’t help but brag just a little about the 2018 summer Festival of Forestry Teachers’ Tour. After 51 years, this group of volunteers continues to successfully introduce BC teachers the wonderful world of forestry!

–Sandy McKellar, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

New sawmill is only ‘phase one’ for San Group

By Susie Quinn
Alberni Valley News
October 23, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Building a new sawmill beside Catalyst Paper is just one part of San Group Inc.’s plans for expansion in the Alberni Valley, says co-owner Kamal Sanghera. San Group and Catalyst Paper announced last week that San Group has purchased 25 acres of land on the Port Alberni Catalyst Paper mill site to build a new sawmill.  …Under terms of the new deal, San Group has purchased 25 acres of the Catalyst Paper mill site in Port Alberni, in the corner bordering Stamp Avenue and Roger Street. …If the sawmill is successful, there are plans for expansion, Sanghera said. “Phase 2 is a manufacturing plant.” The company would look at manufacturing value-added products. “What we are trying to do is utilize the maximum fibre out of the forest; unused fibre is available out there in the bush. “

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‘Everyone is not going to be as friendly as me’: Survey boat mapping Northern Pulp effluent pipe forced back to shore

By Sueann Musick
The Chronicle Herald
October 23, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

CARIBOU, NS – Fishermen have forced a survey boat believed to be mapping a potential route for Northern Pulp’s new treated effluent pipe back to shore. The incident happened this morning after fishermen got word that the boat was in the strait. Kathy Cloutier, director of communications for Paper Excellence Canada, which owns Northern Pulp, had said on Oct. 22 that the company was looking at a new route which would have an outfall location off Caribou Point. A coalition of fishermen from the region immediately issued a release opposing the plan. Pictou County fisherman Allan MacCarthy said that he got word Oct. 23 that the survey boat doing work for Northern Pulp’s new outfall was in the Caribou Harbour, so he left Caribou Harbour himself and met the boat in the channel.

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First Nation forestry dev-corp is a big winner

Northern Ontario Business
October 23, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Jason Rasevych, Mark Bell and Bill Spade

What began as a capacity-building exercise has evolved into a groundbreaking First Nations-owned and operated forestry venture and tenure model in northwestern Ontario. Agoke Development Corporation received top honours in being named the winner of the Business Partnership of the Year Award at the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund (NADF) Business Awards held in Timmins, Oct.18. The three First Nation communities of Aroland, Marten Falls. and Eabametoong, collectively manage the 10,900-square-kilometre Ogoki Forest, 400 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.  Their corporation handles the silviculture programs and access road maintenance while protecting culturally sensitive areas and wildlife habitat. “Commercial forestry has always been a challenging business environment for our First Nations,” said Marten Falls Chief Bruce Achneepineskum in a news release. “Historically, we’ve been economically marginalized with little or no opportunity.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Wood-powered generator pulls drinkable water from the air

By Robert Dalheim
Woodworking Network
October 23, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

VENICE BEACH, Cali. An amazing new device uses wood chips and biomass so siphon clean and drinkable water out of thin air. Developed by Skysource/Skywater Alliance, the WEDEW (Wood-to-Energy Deployed Water System) device sits inside a shipping container, creating clouds from outside warm air. Warm air is then filtered and joined with generated cold air inside the container, producing condensation. Water can then be channeled from the container through a bottle refill station or tap. WEDEW is capable of producing 900 gallons of water per day and can run for up to 15 years. That’s enough water for 100 people every day, say designers. …Designers chose biomass and wood chips as the fuel source because of their low cost and environmental friendliness. “It’s a carbon-negative technology,” says David Hertz, a California-based architect who helped lead the project, told FastCompany.

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Stronger, cheaper, greener: Moving towards mass timber

By Maria Church
Wood Business – Canadian Forest Industries
October 23, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Ethan WoodWorks

Ethan Martin is in the business of myth busting. As a licensed structural engineer and regional director for WoodWorks in the U.S., Martin educates architects and engineers about the use of wood as a replacement for concrete and steel. …At the 2018 Timber Processing and Energy Expo in Portland, Ore., Martin was there to educate an audience of lumber producers… that mass timber is the future of the forest products industry. But that doesn’t mean it is in competition with dimension lumber mills. “The whole concept of CLT was to compete against concrete.” …Lack of suppliers is a roadblock to growing the mass timber market, according to Charles Gale, principal at Doug Fir Consulting. …Vaagen Timbers is a recent addition to the mass timber industry. The company, formed in 2017, is currently constructing a CLT and glulam facility in Colville, Wash.

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Red Stag to showcase timber construction in new projects

By Geoff Lewis
Stuff.co.nz
October 24, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Rotorua-based timber products company Red Stag is about to embark on several building projects to showcase the potential of timber as a construction material in large-scale building projects. Red Stag is New Zealand’s largest saw miller, employing 300 people with annual turnover of $220 million. The building projects come ahead of plans to build a $35 million Cross-Laminated-Timber plant near its Whakarewarewa plant at Rotorua to be operating in 2019 and producing laminated panels up to 16.5m in length and 4.9m wide. The first project will be five-level apartments at Clearwater Resort on the northern outskirts of Christchurch using cross laminated timber, and other panel products. The Ministry of Primary Industry through its Primary Growth Partnership is covering about 8 per cent of the $20m Clearwater project. [END]

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Forestry

Outcry over planned logging

Castanet
October 23, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Logging planned for an area east of Penticton frequented by cross-country skiers and mountain bikers has sparked outcry from some user groups. The forest surrounding a network of trails approximately four kilometres up the Carmi Forest Service Road is slated to be logged in sometime in 2019. The block is being managed by BC Timber Sales, under the purview of the Ministry of Forests. Users of the trails say they first learned about the harvesting plans when they ran into forestry workers in the area hanging ribbon earlier this year. “Apparently they contacted a few groups, and no one really said much about it in response, so BCTS just decided that it was OK,” said Neda Joss, the organizer of an online petition opposed to the plan that has garnered more than 500 signatures in 72 hours.

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Painter Robert Bateman joins activists calling for end to logging in caribou habitat

By Liam Britten
CBC News
October 23, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Robert Bateman

A famed B.C. painter and naturalist is among those calling on the province to stop issuing logging permits in the habitat of critically endangered mountain caribou. Robert Bateman joined representatives from several environmental groups Monday at his Victoria gallery to make the demand. He believes habitat loss is the biggest threat to endangered herds.  “I’ve seen so many things that have disappeared or become scarce,” Bateman, 88, told All Points West host Robyn Burns. “I think there are a lot of precious things that are disappearing before our eyes and they don’t need to. …Wilderness Committee, one of the advocacy groups joining Bateman on Monday, said in a statement that the province has authorized logging in 83 areas of “critical” habitat for eight of the most imperiled southern mountain caribou populations.

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National forest logging on upward track, official says

By Mateusz Perkowski
The Capital Press
October 23, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The volume of timber cut from Northwest national forests is increasing due to collaborative planning and growing state involvement in logging projects, according to an Oregon forest supervisor. For example, the Willamette National Forest — Oregon’s foremost timber producer and a regular top contender nationally — aims to generate 100 million board-feet in 2020, up from about 75 million to 80 million board-feet in 2018, said Tracy Beck, the forest’s supervisor. Last year, 66 million board-feet were harvested from the forest, according to federal statistics. Contrary to the common belief that federal logging projects are being tied up in litigation, lawsuits have only been a filed against a handful of the hundreds of projects in the area, Beck said at a recent timber industry tour in Corvallis, Ore. …“I really feel like collaboration has helped keep us out of court.”

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

New Climate Atlas Explains How Climate Change Threatens Canada’s Forests

The University of Winnipeg
October 22, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Today the Prairie Climate Centre at the University of Winnipeg launched a new section of their groundbreaking Climate Atlas of Canada that explains the effects of climate change on Canada’s forests: climateatlas.ca/topic/forests/. The recent release of the IPCC Special Report Global Warming of 1.5 °C underscores the fact that climate change threatens our irreplaceable forest ecosystems and economies, and that preserving Canada’s forests is an essential strategy to help fight climate change. Canada’s forests are some of the largest in the world. They have enormous economic, cultural, environmental, and recreational value for Canadians of all walks of life. And they are already showing the impact of our changing climate. Invasive insect pests, record-breaking wildfires, and drought have already taken a toll on trees across the country.

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