Daily Archives: November 5, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

UN Committee in Vancouver to focus on the role of forests and forest products in a sustainable society

November 5, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

The 76th session of the UN Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry is in Vancouver this week, focusing on the role of forests and forest products in a sustainable society. In related news: SFI speaks out on forestry practices in BC; ENGO’s on why certification won’t stop tropical deforestation; the Audubon Society on birds and climate change; an MIT expert on the [non] carbon neutrality of biomass; and how switching from coal to biomass is creating jobs in Austria.

In other news: a US judge strikes down a law giving California control over the sale of national forests; the UK government pledges support for the timber industry post-Brexit; and the Southern Pine Beetle continues its march north.

Finally; NRCan scientists say the woodland caribou is threatened but not doomed; and the US abandons its caribou reintroduction program in Idaho and Washington.

–Kelly McCloskey

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Froggy Foibles

Seeking Bigfoot: Investigator believes Sasquatch lurks in North Carolina national forest

By WFMY
CBS News NC
November 2, 2018
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States, US East

TROY, N.C. – Follow the footsteps of a North Carolina legend. They’ll lead to dead ends, revealing more questions than answers in a mystery that has stumped even naysayers for centuries — the search for Sasquatch. That quest for clues often takes Bigfoot enthusiasts to Montgomery County. Nestled in the wilderness is an outlier on the outskirts of civilization — the Eldorado Outpost. …Cagle’s referring to the now-viral Squeaky Thermal footage, appearing to show a big creature peering into a campsite near the outpost. The man who captured it is a self-described avid camper-turned Bigfoot investigator.”It was the best night of my life, I guess!” recalled Michael Green. …I know what I saw. I don’t care if anyone thinks I’m crazy. 

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Business & Politics

Strike action avoided for now as forestry workers and employer agree to bargain

By Michael Potestio
Kamloops This Week
November 2, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Labour action has been avoided for the time being after the union representing 3,500 forestry workers in the Kamloops area served a 72-hour strike notice. United Steelworkers’ bargaining committee agreed to enter into mediated talks with the Interior Forestry Labour Relations Association (IFLRA) to try to hammer out an agreement. Until mediation is finished both parties are prohibited from engaging in either a strike or a lockout, said USW 1-417 president Marty Gibbons. Both parties are legally obligated under the labour code to bargain in good faith to come to an agreement, he said, noting there is no set timeline that must be given. …Without a new collective agreement since July, USW employees at mills in Kelowna, Cranbrook and Kamloops — the Tolko mill in Heffley among them — last month voted 98 per cent in favour of a strike.

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Princeton mill workers in strike position

By Andrea Demeer
Pentiction Western News
November 4, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Workers at Princeton’s second largest employer are in a position to strike, as of Friday. According to United Steelworkers plant chairman Barry Ovington, workers at Weyerhaeuser voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike mandate, but he’s not expecting there to be a serious interruption in work. “There will not be a complete shut down that’s for sure,” he said. “I don’t believe that could happen. Common sense will prevail.”  Ovington predicted, at most, there were would be rotating one-day strikes at some point until there is an agreement. There was 99 per cent approval for the mandate at the Princeton mill, and a 98 per cent approval from across the affected mills in the region, he added. Weyerhaeuser employees and other forestry mill workers have been without a collective agreement since July.

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The Alberta Investment Management Corp., the BC Investment Management Corp. and the Public Sector Investment Board close agreement to affiliate timber investments

Benefits Canada
November 2, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Alberta Investment Management Corp., the British Columbia Investment Management Corp. and the Public Sector Investment Board have closed a previously announced plan to conglomerate their long-term timber investments. The benefits for the move include improved logistics through the use of shared roads, sort yards and infrastructure, enhanced forest health through coordinated stewardship and integrated best practice approaches to managing the watershed, ecosystem and species at risk, according to a press release.

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Fire Breaks out at California Industrial Building, Firefighter Hurt

By Susan Minichiello
The Press Democrat
November 4, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

A dark plume was clearly visible around southwest Santa Rosa on Saturday afternoon after a fire broke out at a large industrial building and destroyed at least two businesses, fire officials said. Around 2:23 p.m., firefighters arrived at a…fire that began in a building that houses plumbing, heating, metal fabrication and woodwork businesses. …One of the businesses lost was Bavarian Timberwork, a custom timber design and construction business founded about 15 years ago by German immigrant Gerhard Gassner, 56. For the last two years, Gassner had rented Unit L at one end of the building. He left his 3,000-square-foot work space at 11 a.m. to go to a job site, and came back in the afternoon to find it in ruins. He lost expensive, specialized German tools for timber framing, an old-fashioned method of wood construction he said is similar to Amish woodwork.

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US judge strikes down California land law in suit by Trump

By Sudhin Thanawala
The Associated Press in the Idaho Statesman
November 2, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Jeff Sessions

A U.S. judge struck down a California law challenged by the Trump administration that aimed to give the state power to override the sale of federal lands. The law unconstitutionally regulates the U.S. government and discriminates against people seeking to buy federal public land, Judge William Shubb in Sacramento ruled Thursday. State lawmakers who passed the law last year cited concerns that the Trump administration would allow more logging, oil drilling or development on some of the 46 million acres owned by the federal government in California. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law a year ago, and it went into effect in January.  …The law sought to give the commission the first right to purchase federal lands or to arrange for a specific buyer and included fines for failing to do so.

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Conifex’s Brett Bray Assures ‘Good Balance’ Won’t Leave Arkansas, Canada Dry

Arkansas Business Online
November 5, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Brett Bray

Conifex Timber Inc. of Vancouver, Canada, named Brett Bray vice president of U.S. operations in August. He oversees the company’s facilities in Glenwood, El Dorado and Cross City, Florida. Bray has nearly 30 years of experience in the timber industry and previously worked for Caddo River Forest Products, as general manager of the Glenwood facility. …The following is an interview: Why did the money behind Conifex see the Arkansas mills as a good investment?  “There were three main drivers to investing here in Arkansas. The first was that the mills have access to good, consistent volumes of quality sawtimber at an affordable cost. Second was the mills’ proximity to the strong Texas housing market, reducing transportation costs to get our products to our customers. Third was the supportive business and investment climate in the state of Arkansas, both at state and local levels.”

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Waratah Forestry Equipment celebrates 45th anniversary

Waratah
November 2, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Moline, Ill. – Waratah Forestry Equipment is proudly celebrating 45 years of innovation and serving customers in the forestry industry. The company pioneered mechanized harvesting with first-class products paired with unparalleled customer support. Established in Tokoroa, New Zealand in 1973, the company transitioned to meet local loggers’ heavy-duty delimbing needs creating a delimber-feller-buncher featuring a four-roller fixed head. Following that innovation, a red grapple processor for the Canadian markets marked the beginnings of the 600 Series and solidified its place as the original red head in the industry. Today, Waratah heads are found in all logging applications from felling on steep slopes, to cut-to-length hardwood harvesting at the stump, to processing on a landing or debarking on endless plantations.

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ND Paper acquires Resolute Forest Products’ recycled pulp mill in US

Compelo.com
November 2, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

ND Paper has completed its acquisition of the Fairmont, West Virginia recycled pulp mill from Resolute Forest Products. Under the terms of the asset purchase agreement, ND Paper paid $62m in cash. …The Fairmont mill manufactures and distributes recycled pulp used in a wide range of products, from packaging to tissue paper. Located in the northern part of West Virginia, the mill has an annual production capacity of approximately 218,000 metric tonnes, and is one of only three in the world that produces air-dried recycled pulp. ND Paper is a recently-formed, wholly-owned subsidiary of Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings), a leading global paper product manufacturer. ND Paper operates three pulp and paper mills in North America with diverse capabilities and combined annual production capacity exceeding 1.1 million metric tonnes.

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Government pledges to prioritise the timber industry after Brexit

The Timber Trades Journal
November 2, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Environment Minister David Rutley MP yesterday committed to “strengthening the timber trade” during a parliamentary debate on the implications of Brexit on the timber industry. Describing the industry as a “real priority” for Government, the Minister also pledged to make sure that timber importers face as “few additional costs as possible” after Brexit. The comments came after Martin Whitfield MP, the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Timber Industries, urged the Government to ensure that after we leave the EU, timber imports can continue clear customs the same way they do now. …The Confederation of Timber Industries has already secured a number of concessions… the Government committed to protect timber businesses from up-front payments of VAT in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Students erect robotically fabricated wooden bench on Vancouver university campus

By Eleanor Gibson
Dezeen Magazine
November 2, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Robots sliced the interlocking, curved wooden slats that form this sculptural bench, which is currently installed on the campus of the Vancouver’s University of British Columbia. The temporary Wander Wood Pavilion was built during the Robot Made: Large-Scale Robotic Timber Fabrication in Architecture student workshop, held by the university’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP). …To create this organic shape in wood, the team created a digital 3D model of the structure. This was then segmented into the individual sections that were cut using robotically controlled tools. …The overall goal is to show how timber construction can be adapted to create a variety of structures using robotic technology, while championing sustainable production.

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The Appalachian “Long Lodge” Optimizes Mass Timber Construction for Sustainable Design

By Vasundhra Aggarwal
Arch Daily
November 3, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

The ‘Long Lodge’ proposal for residential cabins along the Appalachian Trail, recently named the Honor Award Winner of the 2018 Maine Mass Timber Design Competition, highlights simple yet creative ways to spotlight the possibilities and natural beauty of timber as a construction material. The winning four-person design team created a lodge that not only serves as a temporary living space but rather becomes a memorable spatial experience through the effects of the structural design choices. …Using glulam timber technology, the design features simple yet elegant maneuvers with the truss system. Though the building appears to have a single roof pitch on the exterior, the upside down truss creates two opposing slopes inside. With the ability to span large distances, the truss allows flexibility for the programs within the living wing. The void connecting the two wings acts as the central gathering porch accessible from both ends of the trail.

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Forestry

These scientists explain how caribou habitat is altered by ‘highways for wolves’

By Carl Meyer
The National Observer
November 2, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

The habitats of Canadian boreal woodland caribou are threatened by logging, energy exploration and climate change — but there are solutions and the animals are not doomed, say three Natural Resources Canada scientists. Yan Boulanger, Marc-André Parisien and Katalijn MacAfee sat down with National Observer in Ottawa on Nov. 1 to discuss their research into boreal caribou, and their habitat. …Boulanger’s work has focused on the impact of climate change and logging in central Quebec. His research has shown that climate change will alter the forest significantly over the next century, leading to many more wildfires. …Parisien said he’s looked at projected future vegetation in part of northeastern Alberta, and how that would affect caribou habitat. …MacAfee is also doing novel work with the oil and gas sector to look at the impact of what’s known as seismic lines.

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B.C. wildfire action plan focuses on collaboration with First Nations

By Anna Dimoff
CBC News
November 2, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

After two record-breaking wildfire seasons, the B.C. government released a new plan this week to improve emergency management. A large focus of the action plan is working with First Nation communities, said Doug Donaldson, B.C.’s Minister of Forests. These communities can provide resources in several ways, including their knowledge of burn areas and manpower.  The plan commits to creating a new dedicated First Nations coordination operational staff with opportunities for First Nations and emergency managers to discuss strategies, and to provide training and public education resources to better support the needs of First Nation communities. The new action plan includes strategies to anticipate areas most at risk for fire, and to organize multiple resources quickly during the peak of wildfire season.

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Still in awe of the urban forest effort

Letter by Sharon Sedola
BC Local News
November 3, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

As a founding member and secretary of the former Save Our Sunnyside, now the Sunnyside Acres Heritage Society, I would like to commend all those who took part in this momentous occasion to protect this wild forest and its inhabitants, giving us all a wonderful serene habitat to visit and enjoy, now well into its 30th year. …“Every acre of forest consumes 13 tons of gas and dust, our air pollution every year.” I repeated this mantra over and over at each candidates’ meeting, asking the electorate to choose forests and resident creatures over chainsaws and bulldozers – say “Yes!” to dedicated urban forests. …Thanks to Wally Ross, our wise, inspirational and politically intelligent leader, who has since passed away, the campaign went well for us all. Today, we still have Sunnyside Acres to enjoy with our offspring well into the future, and wildlife there still have a home.

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Sechelt releases results of Community Forest survey

By Sean Eckford
Sunshine Coast Reporter
November 3, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The final piece in Sechelt’s consultation on the Sunshine Coast Community Forest (SCCF) is now in place, setting up the possibility that the incoming council could make some changes to the operation. SCCF logging has been a flashpoint for controversy several times since Sechelt was granted a community forest licence in 2006… The District of Sechelt announced in June it was going to seek public input on the SCCF through initiatives like an online survey and World Café events. In a Sept. 19 report to council, district communications manager Julie Rogers said more than 500 people had taken part in that part of the consultation. …On forestry-specific questions, 18 per cent of the respondents said they, or someone in their immediate family, work in forestry. Six per cent said they were involved in a business that depends significantly on forestry.

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Photo contest brings B.C. forestry to life

Wood Business – Canadian Forest Industries
November 2, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

B.C.’s forests are diverse and impressive, and the photos Canadian Forest Industries has received so far as part of our third annual forestry photo contest, in partnership with COFI, reflect this. The submissions also showcase the importance of forest products in our everyday lives and the many ways we interact with them. The photo contest closes Dec. 15, 2018, and is limited to B.C. residents.

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Sustainable forestry practices advancing in B.C.

By Kathy Abusow, president & CEO of SFI Inc.
The Prince George Citizen
November 2, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Kathy Abusow

When delegates arrive in Vancouver this coming week from member countries around the world for a high-level United Nations session on forests, B.C. will have a rare opportunity to showcase the progress it’s made on sustainable forest management. …A key theme policy-makers will discuss is the concept of the circular economy and forests. You’ll be familiar with the circular economy concept, although perhaps under different terms. It describes a regenerative system where resource inputs, waste, emissions, and energy leakage are minimized through narrowing or closing energy and material loops. …The fact is, the circular economy holds real opportunity for growth and trade; but it will also require continual innovation. My organization has been a leading voice in this discussion for decades, having participated in the process from its early stage when the circular economy was little understood, to today when international bodies are pushing the concept forward with gusto.

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Mysterious rumbling near Castlegar turns out to be road blasting

The Castlegar News
November 2, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Steff Mason was taken aback when a huge low-frequency rumbling shook the Robson Community School on Thursday morning. “It didn’t sound like explosion,” Mason, an education assistant at the school, told Castlegar News. …But local emergency officials and weather forecasters knew nothing that might have caused it, and an earthquake website didn’t register anything. Turns out, the noise was caused by explosions from road building several miles away— and an unusual set of atmospheric conditions. “We had a road-building crew blasting along Merry Creek,” says Gerald Cordeiro, the development supervisor for Kalesnikoff Lumber. …Cordeiro says Kalesnikoff’s contractors will be doing some more blasting the week of November 5,

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Ministry of Natural Resources ends busy forest fire season

By Doug Diaczuk
The Thunder Bay News Watch
November 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

THUNDER BAY – Several large forest fires burning close to populated areas and roadways across Northwestern Ontario made for a busy forest fire season for Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry crews, but the situation was even worse in remote areas. The 2018 fire season officially came to an end on Oct. 31 and according to the MNRF, the Northwest Region accounted for 213,695 hectares or 77 per cent of total hectares affected by wildfires in 2018. Of the 1,325 fires that burned province-wide, 839 were located in the Northwest region, easily outstripping the 10-year average for all fires across the province of 756. …The largest fire, Nipigon 30, burned east of the community of Nibinamik and grew to a size of 32,850.5 hectares.

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Fire losses down in N.S. forests

By Ian Fairclough
The Chronicle Herald
November 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

It may have been a hot summer, but fire losses in Nova Scotia’s forests were down in 2018. There were 190 wildfires across the province as of Oct. 31, with only 251 hectares burned. While the number is up slightly from the 174 in 2017, “what was surprising this year, for most of us, was the amount of area that was burned,” said Kara McCurdy, a fire prevention officer with the province’s department of lands and forestry. “It hasn’t been that low in a long time.” There were more than 700 hectares lost in each of the previous two years, and more than 500 in 2015. She said one of the biggest contributing factors was the humidity.

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Local teachers learn about forestry

By Ryan Forbes
Kenora Online
November 2, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Twenty-four teachers from across the region were able to learn more about the forestry sector recently, hosted by the Canadian Institute of Forestry’s Lake of the Woods Section. This was the second annual tour.  Teachers from the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board and the Kenora Catholic District School Board were able to participate in classroom sessions led by forestry professionals. The sessions focused on forest management planning, the science of forestry, legislation, forest certification and operations. “There are very few opportunities like this across Canada and we are so proud to be hosting this event in Northwestern Ontario”, says Maddie Kennedy, Canadian Institute of Forestry’s Vice Chair for the Lake of the Woods Section.

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Thoroughbred program grows super trees in central Newfoundland

By Leigh Anne Power
CBC News
November 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Scientists in Central Newfoundland are having great success with a thoroughbred breeding program. It’s not, as you might guess, about race horses or show dogs. These guys are producing super … trees. Ever since Barry Linehan, who manages the provincial government’s Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Development in Wooddale, was in school, he dreamed of growing a bigger, better version of the trees made by Mother Nature. These days, his dream is coming true. “So, we started in the early ’80s …Technical staff combed thousands and thousands of stands looking for these fast-growing trees, large diameter, small branches, which would mean better quality lumber. Trees that had no sign of disease and straight.” …The goal is to produce 40 per cent more wood. That would mean 40 per cent more viable timber for building, less land use and easier access for harvesters.

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Six caribou in North Idaho and Washington – the last in the contiguous U.S. – will be relocated to Canada

By Eli Francovich
The Spokesman-Review
November 3, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Caribou, the Grey Ghosts of Idaho and Washington’s forests, will no longer roam the Lower 48. After decades of work reintroducing the large ungulates into Idaho and Washington, Canadian wildlife officials decided to relocate the six remaining survivors in the United States farther north into Canada. There, Canadian biologists hope to breed the animals in captivity at a pen north of Revelstoke, British Columbia, deep in the Canadian brush, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported Friday. Bart George, a wildlife biologist for the Kalispel Tribe, hopes the breeding project is successful and that the caribou population grows to a point where it could “spill over into the U.S.” In 2009, George said the South Selkirk caribou herd had 46 animals and was “climbing at a pretty good rate every year.”

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Scientists testing whether dogs can detect ohia tree disease

The Associated Press in the Idaho Statesman
November 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Scientists are testing whether they can train dogs to sniff out a deadly fungus that’s killing Hawaii’s native ohia trees. U.S. Department of Agriculture research ecologist Kealoha Kinney says it’s a lot like creating an “ohia guard dog.” Kinney told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald the project aims to determine whether dogs can detect the smell of the rapid ohia death pathogen, how accurate the dogs can be and whether researchers can develop training tools that carry the scent but not the fungus. A grant from the state Department of Agriculture is funding the project. …Dogs already are used to sniff out a fungus in Florida avocado trees. Rapid ohia death has killed trees on tens of thousands of acres on the Big Island. [End]

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The Outside Story: Southern pine beetles march north

By Joe Rankin
The Bennington Banner
November 2, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

As if the emerald ash borer’s incursion into northern New England wasn’t enough, now there’s another potentially devastating forest pest marching this way: the southern pine beetle. Dendroctonus frontalis — the first name means “tree murderer.” But during outbreaks, they reproduce by the millions and can kill trees in a matter of weeks. “They’re one of the most aggressive tree-killing insects in the world,” said Matthew Ayres, a biology professor at Dartmouth College who has studied the species for 25 years. A relative of the mountain pine beetle… the southern pine beetle is native to the vast pine forests in the southeastern US. But now, thanks to a warming climate, the beetle is moving north. …”There’s no doubt that northern forests in New Hampshire and Vermont are going to be challenged in the next few years” said Ayres.

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State going ahead with Wendell logging project

By David McLellan
The Greenfield Recorder
November 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

WENDELL — State officials have given a response to protesters who have been asking they cancel a planned logging project for over a month, “No.”  The proposed logging of 100-year-old oak trees in Wendell State Forest has drawn censure from nonprofit groups like RESTORE: The North Woods, who say that the project is unnecessary, has little or no economic benefit and is counterproductive to fighting climate change.  The protesters have been organizing protests along Route 2 in Erving to bring awareness to the project, delivered a petition with 1,148 signatures to Gov. Charlie Baker asking he cancel the project and at least one protester has delivered a Notice of Intent to Sue to the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which is heading the project.  A DCR spokesman would not provide further information about the incoming lawsuit, calling it “pending litigation,” but did confirm the DCR office received the notice.

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Seventy-sixth session of the ECE Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry

UNECE
November 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The 76th session of the ECE Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry (COFFI) will be held in Vancouver, Canada from 5 to 9 November 2018. The Committee will review and guide activities in data collection and analysis, policy support, capacity building and communication. Under the title ‘Building the Future with Forests’, the meeting will focus on the transition towards a more sustainable society and a circular economy, based on the provision of forest products from sustainably managed forests. In order to find tangible solution to these issues, the ‘Building the Future with Forests’ meeting will bring experts, policy makers, business leaders as well as national delegates together through a variety of panel discussions concentrating primarily on the challenges and opportunities for timber and forest products markets, as well as the forests and the circular economy. 

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Two land restoration projects given the go-ahead

By The New Zealand Government
Scoop Independent News
November 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Two projects aiming to plant 247,000 native trees and develop skills and employment, as part of the One Billion Trees programme, were announced today by Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage. The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) will provide just over $2.2 million to plant 247,000 native trees in two areas – Punakaiki on the West Coast and Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere in Canterbury. “Planting these native trees has multiple benefits. It’s good for the economy and for our regional communities through creating jobs, providing skills training and enhancing ecological tourism opportunities in the regions. “It will also help us meet our climate change objectives and provide conservation benefits as we restore native forests and create habitats for threatened birds and other native wildlife,” Shane Jones said.

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South Sudan governor fired after teak wood exposé

The East African
November 3, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The governor for Yei River State in South Sudan, Frank Matata, has been suspended for alleged illegal trading in timber. In a letter dated October 21, Riek Machar, the leader of the South Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), claims that Mr Matata has been involved in illegal lumbering. An investigation committee has been formed to look into the allegations after revoking the governor’s immunity. Mr Matata was recently exposed in a documentary by Kenyan journalist John Allan Namu, where he conceded that he has been dealing in the rare teak wood, whose lumbering is restricted worldwide. In the documentary The Axe Forgets: The Tree Remembers, Mr Matata was secretly recorded demanding $30,000 as a bribe for himself and some Ugandan security officers in West Nile for the timber, in two containers, to enter and exit Uganda. Mr Namu had posed as a dealer in high-end furniture interested in hardwood.

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Deadline 2020: ‘We won’t end deforestation through certification schemes,’ brands admit

By Terry Slavin
Ethical Corporation
November 1, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

With hundreds of companies having failed to act on commitments to be deforestation-free by 2020, Mars Inc is leading Consumer Goods Forum’s work on developing credible new paths to clean up their supply chains. Consumer goods giants are working on radically new approaches to end deforestation in supply chains amid a recognition that hundreds of companies that made commitments to source deforestation-free commodities by 2020 will abjectly fail to meet the deadline. According to The Supply Change Initiative, which tracks 800 companies with exposure to soy, beef, palm oil and timber – commodities that are together responsible for 80% of all tropical deforestation – 469 have commitments to address deforestation. …Eight years later, even the Consumer Goods Forum admits the commitment exists largely on paper and few companies will meet the 2020 deadline.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Birds indicate environmental health — many are headed for extinction

By Gail Gatton, executive director – Audubon Washington and Gary Langham, chief scientist – National Audubon Society
The Hill
November 4, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, United States

For anyone who has known the joy of watching a Rufous Hummingbird zip through their backyard, supping at nectar-filled flowers, or hearing the distinctive call of a brood of Trumpeter Swans at dusk, the urgency of climate change cannot be ignored. Yet, despite the many warnings over the past decades, we continue to release billions of pounds of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. As a result, our climate is changing faster than we — or the many diverse species — around us can adapt. But we have hope, because we have the tools and technology right now to build the clean energy economy we deserve. All we need is the political will to make it happen. …With the midterm elections just a few days away, we have a chance to vote for a stable climate for the birds, for ourselves and for future generations. We must act now on climate change. We have already waited too long.

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MIT expert: Carbon-neutral biomass ‘accounting fraud’

By Aaron Beswick
The Chronicle Herald
November 5, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

It takes more than 30 tractor-trailer loads of wood a day to feed Nova Scotia Power’s Port Hawkesbury biomass plant. But according to the province’s new cap-and-trade carbon-pricing plan, nothing comes out of the facility’s stacks. The plan classifies biomass as a carbon-neutral way to create electricity or heat. The province is taking its cue from federal government policy. …The problem is that a tremendous amount of greenhouse gases come out of a biomass plant. …“It’s an accounting fiction,” John Sterman, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, said of the carbon neutrality of biomass. …According to Statistics Canada, exports of wood pellets for biomass from this country nearly doubled between 2012 and 2016, when 2.4 million tonnes were shipped primarily to the United Kingdom. …British Columbia was responsible for 65 per cent of our exports.

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Reducing US coal emissions through biomass and carbon capture would boost employment

By Cell Press
EurekAlert!
November 1, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

AUSTRIA — While the need for solutions for the impending consequences of rising global temperatures has become increasingly urgent, many people have expressed concerns about the loss of jobs as current technologies like coal-fired power plants are phased out. A new study appearing November 1 in the journal Joule has run the numbers associated with the impacts of cutting coal plant jobs while at the same time employing techniques for bioenergy coupled with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). The model indicates that the BECCS approach would not only retain 40,000 jobs currently held as part of the coal industry but would create 22,000 new jobs in the forestry and transportation sectors by the middle of this century.

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Health & Safety

Investigation into northern B.C. bus crash underway but all injured released from hospital

Canadian Press in Vancouver Sun
November 2, 2018
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

RCMP investigators say weather and a slippery road were possibly factors in a bus crash north of Prince George that put 18 people to hospital. RCMP Cpl. Madonna Saunderson says there’s nothing to suggest the driver was impaired or did anything wrong before the bus slid into a ditch Thursday on snow-covered Highway 97. The bus chartered by forest products company Canfor flipped partially on its side with 30 employees travelling from Prince George to the Polar Sawmill in Bear Lake. Northern Health spokeswoman Eryn Collins says 11 people had minor injuries and the rest were more seriously hurt but everyone has since been sent home from hospital. Canfor spokeswoman Michelle Ward says every worker had been released from hospital by 10 p.m., and operations at the Polar mill have not been affected.

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