Monthly Archives: April 2019

Today’s Takeaway

Forestry asset funds are on the rise due to climate change

April 30, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

Asset managers are raising more funds to invest in the forestry sector due to worries over climate change. In other Business news: Canadian lumber exports to Japan are down 25% in Q1; Resolute’s sales are also down in Q1; global wood pellets shipments are up 21% in 2018; a private forest landowners study shows Wisconsin industry on the upswing; and layoffs at Domtar’s Espanola plant are good news for some. 

In Forestry news: the downside of cutting Ontario’s Tree Program, and Forests Ontario’s response; and more on the public’s response to BC caribou recovery plans in Vanderhoof and Revelstoke. Elsewhere: the brick exterior industry is leveraging past wildfires to say brick is better; and paper towels vs hand dryers makes for a long read in the Guardian. 

Finally, how mill workers could become pot growers in Burns Lake.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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BC Gov’t opens new inquiry into 2012 mill explosions

April 29, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

The BC Gov’t’s new inquiry into the 2012 mill explosions is focused on WorkSafeBC’s recommendations and its accountability. In other Business news: the US Commerce Dep’t is set to rule on whether New Brunswick’s property taxes are a softwood subsidy; and the Motley Fool says Canfor and West Fraser are recession-proof investments.

In Forestry/Climate news: BC’s forestry watchdog cites weaknesses in enforcement of logging laws; Ontario’s species at risk reforms is panned for its pay-to-slay provision; and a group of BC profs say time is short for species at risk. Offshore: Iran losses 12,000 ha forests annually; Brazil lost 1.3 million ha of forests in 2018; and Europe’s forests are being ravaged by bark beetles.

Finally, a fire broke out near AA Milne’s famed Hundred Acre Wood; BC’s Forest Discovery Centre is officially unveiled; and a BC breeder is about to hatch its first spotted owl.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor 

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Business & Politics

Canadian lumber exports to Japan drop 25.3% in first quarter

Lesprom Network
April 30, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Canada has decreased 25.27% y-o-y lumber exports to Japan in first quarter of 2019 to 318.6 thousand m3 with export value was down 20.95% to $135.1 million. The lumber exports from Sweden to Japan have fallen 14.93% to 180.9 thousand m3 and from Finland have dropped 7.84% to 227.5 thousand m3. Japan’s imports from Russia fell 5.51% to 212.5 thousand m3. Total lumber imports to Japan decreased 11.78% to 1.3 million m3 in first quarter. The average price for lumber supplied to Japan from Canada gained 5.79% to $424 per m3 and from Russia increased 3.64% to $365 per m3. While the average price for lumber from Finland dropped 7.16% to $300 per m3 and from Sweden decreased 5.70% to $308 per m3. The average price of total Japan’s lumber imports increased 1.13% to $384 per m3. [END]

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Tolko’s Jessica Rempel, former engineering co-op student wins UBC award of excellence!

Tolko
April 29, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jessica Rempel

This spring, Jessica Rempel will graduate from UBC Okanagan’s Mechanical Engineering, based in Kelowna, BC. The 24-year-old is looking forward to her future and has a great head start on her career thanks to her time as a multi-year co-op student at Tolko’s Armstrong Lumber Division. Jessica says her time as a Control Systems Student Engineer has by far been the greatest work experience she’s ever had. “Not only did I have the opportunity to work with state-of-the-art technology, but the staff I worked with was also amazing.” Earlier this month, Jessica and her team won first place in the electrical category as part of her capstone project. …For her capstone, Jessica chose to work on a new pneumatic positioning system for Armstrong Lumber. The project included developing technology that could be fully integrated into Armstrong’s canter line capital project.

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From lumber to leaf: How mill workers could become pot growers in Burns Lake

By Betsy Trumpener
CBC News
April 30, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

An Indigenous-owned cannabis company wants to replace vanishing forestry jobs with new jobs in pot production in a northern B.C. mill town.  Nations Cannabis is holding a job fair this week in Burns Lake, B.C., as it prepares to transform an idled wood products mill into a large marijuana production facility. “Here’s a project that could replace a number of [forestry] jobs,” said Wesley Sam, executive director and founder of Nations Cannabis. …Sam hopes cannabis profits will rejuvenate local Indigenous communities and create up to 60 jobs in construction and cannabis cultivation. …The marijuana initiative comes as the region’s forestry fortunes are flagging. The community has faced a deadly mill explosion, wildfires, and a devastating pine beetle infestation that killed great swathes of forest and reduced the supply of timber. “We’re running out of wood here in Burns Lake,” Sam said. “This is where the pine beetle epidemic started and the beetle destroyed our forests.” 

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Gained arena, lost event

By Darren Handschuh
Castanet
April 29, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Wayne Lintott

…For several years, the Interior Logging Association held its annual convention in Vernon, but with the addition of Kal Tire Place North, officials said there is no longer enough room in the parking lot to house the outside displays that feature millions of dollars worth of equipment. More than 40 outside displays feature the latest in logging technology and equipment. …Wayne Lintott, with the ILA, said the convention has been moved to the Kamloops Pow-Wow Grounds, and he sees no reason for that to change in the future. While the economic impact of hosting the convention is not known, it does attract thousands of people to the region. “The convention was held in Vernon for three or four years. We used the pow-wow grounds last year and I can’t see any reason to change in the future because it’s a good area with lots of room to expand on the inside and outside,” said Lintott.

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Canfor mill closed again

By Rod Link
Houston Today
April 29, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Canfor workers here are home this week for the fourth time since last fall in a continuing company-wide move to reduce production in the face of lower prices and high logging costs. The April 29 to May 3 closure is in place at all of the company’s 13 B.C. mills producing dimension lumber. Two of the mills are to be closed an additional week. …Employees went through a closure last November, an extended Christmas closure at the end of 2018 and were off the job again for a week in February. …The closures this week will reduce Canfor’s system-wide production output by approximately 100 million board feet of dimension lumber. Its annual production capacity is 3.8 billion board feet.

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West Fraser Timber Company AGM in Quesnel highlighted challenges and successes

By Ronan O’Doherty
Quesnel Cariboo Observer
April 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The largest board room in West Fraser’s Quesnel head office was standing-room-only on Tuesday morning (April 23) as shareholders, the board of directors and company employees gathered to hear about the forestry firm’s recent progress and its projections for the coming months. Outgoing CEO Ted Seraphim gave a brief introduction with some comments on the company, but he deferred to his soon-to-be replacement, Ray Ferris, for the bulk of the presentation. Seraphim drew attention to big results for the company in the last fiscal year. “When you look at our net earnings of over $800 million, that’s a record for the company. And we had sales of over $6 billion.” He made sure to address the giant sequoia in the room, however. “But when you look at that fourth quarter, it’s quite a stark contrast.” Net earnings in the last quarter of the year were a very small percentage of the year as a whole, down to $29 million altogether.

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Resolute Reports Preliminary First Quarter 2019 Results

By Resolute Forest Products Inc.
Cision Newswire
April 30, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

MONTRÉAL – Resolute Forest Products Inc. today reported net income for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, of $42 million, or $0.45 per diluted share, compared to $10 million, or $0.11per diluted share, in the same period in 2018. Sales were $795 million in the quarter, a decrease of $79 million from the year-ago period. The first quarter of 2018 included sales from the Catawba (South Carolina) and Fairmont (West Virginia) facilities, sold in the fourth quarter of 2018. Excluding special items, the company reported net income of $30 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, compared to $17 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2018.

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70 positions to be phased out at Espanola Domtar plant, but union says it’s good news

By Erik White
CBC News
April 30, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Domtar is cutting 70 jobs from its Espanola paper mill, but the union sees it as good news. The company will be modernizing its plant over the next three years, while reducing the number of pulp lines and batch digesters. Domtar expects there will be no layoffs, with a larger number of workers set to retire in the coming years. …Joanne Lamothe, the president of Unifor Local 74 representing 300 of the 500 employees at the Espanola mill, says while some are focusing on the job losses, she sees this as Domtar investing in the future. “If anything it secures our jobs” she says. …Lamothe says the changes, expected to be complete by 2023, will also allow the Espanola mill to focus on the growing market for specialty recycled paper products, particularly as the world moves away from single use plastics. 

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U.S. investigating whether N.B.’s cheap property taxes on forests break trade rules Social Sharing

By Robert Jones
CBC News
April 29, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

The U.S. Commerce Department in Washington is set to rule in June whether cheap property taxes charged by New Brunswick on privately owned forests in the province are a subsidy.  It’s a decision that could mean trouble for more than 40,000 New Brunswick landowners and force a hard look by Fredericton lawmakers at the way the majority of private property in the province is assessed and taxed. So far the New Brunswick government is not commenting on what will happen if the ruling goes poorly. “Our government is confident that our property tax policies do not constitute a countervailable subsidy,” said Robert Duguay, a spokesperson for the province’s Intergovernmental Affairs division, in a statement to CBC News late Sunday. “We continue to fight this unfair US trade action.” …lawyers for … U.S. lumber companies argued New Brunswick’s practice of assessing and taxing forest properties as though they are worth $100 per hectare is artificially low…

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Report Says Wisconsin Forestry Industry On The Upswing

By Rob Mentzer
Wisconsin Public Radio
April 30, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

More people are working in Wisconsin’s forestry industry, and Wisconsin timber is fetching millions more on the market than it did even a few years ago. Those are among the findings of a new national study by the National Alliance of Forest Owners. Its report on the economic impact of privately owned forests shows Wisconsin led the Midwest in the number of timberland acres (16.5 million), total employment in the forestry sector (174,848) and value of timber sales ($21.6 billion) in 2016, the most recent year for which complete data were available. The report is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Forest Service. …The great majority of forest land in Wisconsin is privately owned.

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Impact firms bet on forests as world worries over climate change

By Joice Alves
Financial News London
April 30, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Impact investors have started raising more funds to invest in the forestry sector, as devastating environmental problems caused by rising temperatures demand growing investments to reduce carbon emissions across the world. There are 34 asset managers globally who manage $9.4bn in forestry assets. In the two years to 2019, these firms raised 10 new funds to invest in forestry or forestry-related assets… according to a survey by Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). …“Asset owners consider the ecosystem services provided by forests to be fundamentally undervalued… most viewed that as an opportunity and felt that changing regulatory and consumer pressures would shift forest valuations in the next 5-10 years,” GIIN noted. …Most forestry funds (73%) primarily target environmental impact in companies that promise to help with climate change mitigation, land conservation and restoration, as well as biodiversity conservation and water stewardship. [A Financial News subscription may be required to access the full story]

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Metsä Group to invest €1.5bn in new bioproduct mill in Finnish Lapland

Helsinki Times
April 29, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

METSÄ GROUP on Friday announced it has moved on to the pre-engineering stage of a project to construct a massive bioproduct mill in Kemi, Finnish Lapland. The Finnish forest industry giant said the mill would have an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of softwood and hardwood pulp, provide employment to around 2,500 people and replace its outdated pulp mill in the roughly 20,000-resident town on the coast of the Baltic Sea. The bioproduct mill would also produce a number of other bioproducts and sell its output primarily to clients in Europe and Asia, as well as to the adjacent kraft-liner mill of Metsä Board, a part of Metsä Group. The number of people employed at the mill and its whole value chain would increase by roughly 1,500 to 2,500. The consumption of pulpwood, meanwhile, would rise by 4.5 million cubic metres to 7.6 million cubic metres per annum, according to Metsä Group.

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Over 22 million tons of wood pellets were shipped globally in 2018, up 21% from 2017

By Hakan Ekstrom
Wood Resources International
April 30, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Over 22 million tons of wood pellets were shipped globally in 2018, up 21% from 2017. The US, Canada, Vietnam, Latvia and Russia, accounted for 69% of global exports in 2018, reports the North American Wood Fiber Review Europe continues to be the major destination for globally traded wood pellets. However, Asia has increased its importation of pellets over the past three years, with Japan and South Korea importing a record volume of 4.5 million tons in 2018. A majority of the volume is sourced from pellet manufacturers in southeastern Asia. Seattle, USA. Global trade of wood pellets jumped more than 21% year-over-year in 2018 when a new record of 22.3 million tons was shipped, according to the North American Wood Fiber Review. The five major pellet exporting countries (the US, Canada, Vietnam, Latvia, and Russia) have remained the top exporters for over five years. They accounted for about 69% of the world’s export volume in 2018.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

New Campbell River water facility recognized with pair of awards

By Mike Davis
Campbell River Mirror
April 30, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

The City of Campbell River’s new water supply centre building was recognized with two awards earlier this month, and Mayor Andy Adams showed off those awards at the most recent meeting of city council. … the centre received the Community Recognition Award from Wood WORKS! – a program of the Canadian Wood Council – for its support of the B.C. wood industry and its commitment to use wood. The centre … will be featured in the next edition of Celebrating Excellence in Wood Architecture, an annual publication put out by the Canadian Wood Council. …A Wood First approach was used in the design and construction of the water supply facility, with the trees used in the construction of the interior of the building having been felled on the property itself. 

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Brick Homes Test Highest for Fire Resistance

By the Brick Industry Association
Cision Newswire
April 29, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

RESTON, Va. — As the worst wildfire season spurs testing for fire-resistant homes, the latest studies show that brick exteriors protect homes best. Firefighters report that it takes about an hour and half for a fire to breach a brick home—as compared to fiber cement in under an hour and vinyl siding in just minutes. In a one-hour severe fire test conducted independently for the Brick Industry Association (BIA), brick passed easily. Vinyl siding burned after only 18 minutes, fiber cement – which outperforms wood and vinyl siding – failed in under an hour. …Choosing brick exteriors to protect their own firehouses, firefighters say brick also helps slow the spread, offering the extra few minutes to help save lives and property.

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Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands

By Samantha Subramanian
The Guardian
April 25, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

…The Dyson Airblade, released in 2006, was no ordinary hand dryer. The first model – which asked for dripping hands to be inserted into its frowny mouth – had a curvilinear form and brushed silver body. It looked so futuristic that it was used as set dressing on the Star Trek reboot in 2009. Inside the dryer, the air blew at speeds exceeding 400mph; its filter claimed to capture 99.95% of all particles 0.3 microns or bigger in size from washroom air; it cost about £1,000. … In the quest to dominate the world’s restrooms, Campbell discovered, Dryer v Towel is a pitched contest of business strategy and public relations. …the paper towel industry has funded or promoted a rash of studies claiming that hand dryers turn bathrooms into mosh pits of pathogens. …The fundamental superiority of paper never looked to be in doubt, though. With paper, you didn’t have to wait restlessly for half a minute for the dryer to finish its bloviation.

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Forestry

Total area protected against logging for caribou

Letter by Mike Copperthwaite, RPF, Revelstoke Community Forest
BC Local News
April 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Mike Copperthwaite

I feel compelled to respond to the letter Virginia Thompson wrote April 23, 2019 regarding caribou recovery and the Section 80 application that NCES filed with the Federal Government to immediately halt logging. As a community we all need to have the proper knowledge in order to be informed and find solutions. The total hectares under legal protection for caribou habitat in the Revelstoke Shuswap region is 188,578 ha, an area seven times larger than Mount Revelstoke National Park. Additionally, if the national and provincial parks in our area are included the total is 229,418 ha. These are the indisputable numbers provided by caribou science researchers. No logging can occur on this large area of land and some restrictions to backcountry recreation also apply.

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Public engagement session held in Vanderhoof to address the caribou recovery program

BC Local News
April 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Over 150 people from in and around Vanderhoof engaged with representatives from the federal and provincial governments during the much anticipated Southern Mountain Caribou Community Engagement Session.  The meeting was held at the Nechako Valley Secondary School gym in Vanderhoof on April 25. Sean Fraser, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change was present at the meeting, along with Todd Doherty, MP Cariboo-Prince George, Mayor of Vanderhoof Gerry Thiessen, Fraser Lake Mayor Sarrah Storey, Nak’azdli Whut’en Hereditary Chief Peter Erickson and others.  The concerns cited by residents during the engagement session were aimed at understanding the government’s plan to conserve southern mountain caribou populations.

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Forestry Project on Haida Gwaii Incorporates Haida Culture While Treating the Land

Forest Enhancement Society of BC
April 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

HAIDA GWAII, B.C.: In the West Coast Region in the Haida Gwaii District, Taan Forest, an enterprise established by HaiCo in 2010 to manage forests incorporating Haida values, is working on a forest rehabilitation project funded by the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. The project, valued at $344,000, is locally supported to achieve long term restoration objectives in areas within the Yakoun River drainage. One of Taan Forest’s goals is to have a permanent silviculture crew on Haida Gwaii comprised of members of the Haida Nation. The project is also assisting the crew to focus on restoring wildlife habitat for salmon, black bear, and raptors while at the same time creating economic benefits of employment and enhanced value of forest products such as Western Red Cedar.

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April Newsletter – BC Community Forest Association

BC Community Forest Association
April 30, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Spring has arrived and with it a number of important announcements from government on the new direction and policies for the forest industry. BCCFA Executive Director, Jennifer Gunter and the Board of Directors have been fully involved in all opportunities for engagement, actively advocating for the unique perspectives of community forests and what we need to be successful. In fact, the regular March BCCFA and MFLNRORD Working Group session was substituted to allow for more focused discussions on these issues. Information on the new developments are highlighted below and further explained in the ED’s Report. We encourage you to have a look and to register for the June BCCFA conference where ministry representatives will join us to speak in more detail to these important issues.

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A first for filing: one-on-one with Canada’s first female journeyman sawfiler

By Ellen Cools
Wood Business – Canadian Forest Industries
April 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Stephanie Milburn

Stephanie Milburn, Canada’s first female journeyman sawfiler, originally had no idea she wanted to work in the industry. …Milburn has been with Millar Western for 28 years now. But, like her entrance into forestry, her introduction to saw filing was mostly about being in the right place at the right time. …However, becoming a full-time sawfiler was a much more conscious decision that required a great deal of dedication, and, at the time, included four years of apprenticing and attending school to become a full journeyman. Milburn was the only woman in her class. In her final year of school, her instructor, Dennis Reid, told her she was the first female journeyman sawfiler that he knew of in Canada.

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Time is short for species at risk

Letter by forest conservation professors, UBC, UNBC, UVic,
Victoria Times Colonist
April 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

…B.C. has no species-at-risk legislation and instead relies on piecemeal, inadequate laws and policies to oversee wildlife protection. On election, Premier John Horgan’s government made the courageous decision to change this… As scientists at the forefront of endangered-species research in the province, we welcomed this announcement and have been working in consultation with the government to help frame this new law. Last week, Premier Horgan back-tracked on his promise… stating: “There’s no significant species-at-risk legislation on the docket for the foreseeable future here in B.C.” This sudden shift comes as a result of backlash from industry concerned about the implications of habitat protection for southern mountain caribou on its bottom line. Let’s be clear on what’s going on here: Particular industries that are highly invested in the status quo of habitat loss have managed to persuade cabinet that they will make job losses an election issue in retaliation for introducing strong legislation.

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Paper Excellence supports the Outland Youth Employment Program

Paper Excellence Canada
April 26, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

RICHMOND, BC – Paper Excellence Canada has contributed a $25,000 donation to BC’s Outland Youth Employment Program (OYEP). The donation supports the First Nations program which provides an opportunity for First Nations youth to gain skills and exposure to forest industry opportunities. “With many of our facilities neighbouring First Nations, we believe in establishing relationships that support First Nations as by working together our community’s prosper, benefitting all of us.” explains Brian Baarda, Paper Excellence Canada CEO. The Outland Youth Employment Program is a natural resource based community-driven initiative that works towards equity and opportunity for Indigenous youth through education, training and work experience. Participating youth gain work and life skills.

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Forests Ontario Intends to Continue to Plant Trees and Speak for the Forest

Forests Ontario
April 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Despite the recent Ontario government announcement to cut the 50 Million Tree program, Forests Ontario expects to find a way, with existing and new partners, to plant trees, educate Ontarians and speak for the forest and all forest users, the tree planting and forest advocacy group said today. Forests Ontario, Canada’s largest tree planting charity, remains optimistic that now that the provincial government better understands and appreciates the importance and popularity of the tree program, they will continue to fund tree planting. …The Ontario Government has funded tree planting in southern Ontario for more than a century. Since 2007 Forests Ontario has planted 27 million trees in Ontario on over 4,000 properties covering close to 15,000 hectares. Forests Ontario is working with the province to ensure the trees grown for the 2019 season get into the ground.

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Cutting provincial tree program will hurt environment, worsen flooding: nursery official

By Elizabeth Payne
Ottawa Citizen
April 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Cutting Ontario’s 50 Million Tree Program will mean job losses at a North Grenville forestry centre. More than that, it will make flooding worse and negatively impact the environment across the province, says Wes Herring, vice-president of Ferguson Forest Centre. “We are being inundated with floods and the impacts of global warming right now. Not planting these trees and looking after our future is only going to make these things worse,” Herring said. The $4.7-million annual program that aimed to plant 50 million trees across the province, was cut by the Progressive Conservative government in its April budget. A spokesperson for Natural Resources and Forestry Minister John Yakabuski called the program an example of frivolous spending by the previous Liberal government.

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Tongass ‘timber sale’ nearing the finish line

By Jacob Resneck
Alaska Public Media
April 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Crews are spending the warmer months on Prince of Wales Island surveying vast areas of national forest land for potential logging. It’s part of the first phase of the largest timber offering in Tongass National Forest in decades is moving ahead. And the U.S. Forest Service is asking for public comment through May 13. The Forest Service’s has confirmed it plans to offer roughly 225 million board feet of Tongass old growth timber over 15 years. More than a fifth of that could be in the next year alone. The federal agency insists this is much more than a timber sale. “It’s not a timber sale,” Forest Service spokesman Paul Robbins Jr. in Ketchikan said. “That would be an inaccurate depiction of the project.” Rather, the agency prefers calling it a “landscape level analysis” because it’s folded into other work. 

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Isle Royale moose population surges during wolf decline

By John Flesher
Associated Press in the Longview Daily News
April 30, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Moose are thriving at Isle Royale National Park, but the trees on which they feast are paying a heavy price, scientists reported Tuesday. An estimated 2,060 of the lumbering beasts roam the island wilderness, according to a report by Michigan Technological University researchers who spend weeks there each winter observing the relationship between moose and the wolves that prey on them. The moose number is believed to be the highest since 1995, when the total exceeded 2,400, only to plummet to about 500 within two years because of harsh winters, a shortage of food and a drop-off of wolves that previously had culled the herd. Conditions are similar now, although it’s uncertain how the moose population will respond, scientists said. Its growth is likely to slow at least somewhat in the coming year, said Sarah Hoy, an assistant research professor. …Officials plan to take as many as 15 more wolves to the island in the next few years.

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Bach water supply ‘full of sediment’ as forestry site spills mud, rocks in heavy rain

By Alice Angeloni
Stuff.co.nz
April 30, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

A forestry company has been fined more than $70,000 after heavy rain pushed mud, rocks and forestry debris onto neighbouring Marlborough Sounds properties. Laurie Forestry Services was managing harvest operations on a 111-hectare pine forestry block in South East Bay, in Pelorus Sound, in May 2017 when a neighbour complained to council his water supply was full of sediment. The neighbour rang the Marlborough District Council again the following day to say another bach was surrounded by mud from a slip. Council officers travelled to South East Bay to investigate and arrived to find a large plume of sediment in the bay. …Photographs showed extensive piles of forestry debris on the hill slopes above holiday homes, including “quite large logs”.

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Lawyer fighting deforestation from palm oil to win environmental prize

By Michael Casey
CTV News
April 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Alfred Brownell

BOSTON — When Alfred Brownell arrived in a remote Liberian village, the surrounding tropical rainforest had been levelled by bulldozers. Burial grounds were uprooted, religious shrines were desecrated and a stream people depended upon for water was polluted. …Brownell on Monday was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for exposing alleged abuse by the company and helping to prevent it from converting about 20 square miles of forest that is home to elephants, pygmy hippopotamuses and chimpanzees. He said he was forced to flee the country in 2016 after the government threatened to arrest him for his activism. …For his work saving forest lands, Brownell won the Goldman prize along with five others for grassroots environmental activism. The prize was created in 1989 by the late San Francisco philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman. 

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Ashdown Forest: Fire breaks out in Winnie the Pooh wood

BBC News
April 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

A fire has been burning overnight near woods featured in AA Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories. The blaze in Ashdown Forest was reported at 21:30 BST on Sunday, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said. Gorse and undergrowth was ablaze affecting an area of up to 50 acres, in the Kingstanding area. …The woods were the inspiration for Hundred Acre Wood – home to Pooh and his friends. Chris Sutton, an Ashdown Ranger forest ranger, said bracken in the area was “as dry as straw”, and ground-nesting birds would have seen eggs and nests destroyed. The forest is an important habitat for nightjars and Dartford warblers.

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Iran loses 12,000 ha of forests annually

Tehran Times
April 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

TEHRAN – Approximately 12,000 hectares of forests across the country is wiped out annually, an official with Forests, Range and Watershed Management Organization has said. While some 11,800 hectares will undergo reforestation again, however, the reforested land may not have the same biodiversity and vegetation as the original forest, ISNA quoted Reza Bayani as saying on Sunday. …Reforestation can be used to rectify or improve the quality of human life by soaking up pollution and dust from the air, rebuild natural habitats and ecosystems, mitigate global warming… Iran has a great share of valuable old-growth forests, some of which, especially in Zagros, age over 300-400 years, he highlighted, implying that these forests are not comparable to the young reforested areas. …Pointing out that some believe that the country’s forests will gradually disappear in future, Bayani added that the claim is unscientific and not precisely reliable, thus, there must be a scientific research on the issue to support it.

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Over 1.3 Million Hectares of Forests Disappeared in Brazil in 2018

By Lise Alves
Rio Times
April 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – About 12 million hectares of rainforests disappeared in 2018, according to data from Global Forest Watch (GFW), the equivalent to thirty football fields per minute. Brazil alone decimated 1.3 million hectares of forests, mostly in the Amazon region and specifically near or in indigenous territory. “Brazil’s primary forest loss in 2018 was lower than its 2016-2017 fire-related spike, but still more than it was from 2007-2015, when the country had reduced its deforestation rate by 70 percent,” stated the report. Primary, or old growth, tropical rainforests are a crucially important forest ecosystem, containing trees that are hundreds or even thousands of years old. They store more carbon than other forests and are irreplaceable when it comes to sustaining biodiversity, providing habitats for nearly extinct animals and plants.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Clement Calls On Feds To Support Tree Planting

Hunters Bay Radio
April 30, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

Tony Clement

Yesterday, Parry Sound-Muskoka MP Tony Clement urged the Canadian government to join international efforts to support the planting of one trillion trees around the world, noting it would help solve the negative impact of climate change, such as increased flooding and reduced biodiversity. MP Clement, made a plea in the House Commons to choose supporting the practical and cost-effective solutions of the Trillion Tree Movement, rather than the endless fight over the carbon tax. There are several international movements engaged in the Trillion Tree Campaign, Clement says, noting that government alone cannot overcome all the challenges associated with climate change. Estimates indicate that planting one trillion trees is the equivalent of eliminating ten years of global carbon emissions. India has already planted one billion trees, Canada could plan two billion trees and be a leader in Carbon emission reduction.

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Calls for urgent climate change action as species in the world’s oldest forest disappear

By Stephanie Smail
ABC News, Australia
April 30, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Scientists working in the world’s oldest rainforest, Queensland’s Wet Tropics, have warned climate change is already wiping out animals that aren’t found anywhere else in the world. New figures show some species in the World Heritage Area, that stretches from Townsville to Cooktown, are in sharp decline, particularly after the hottest summer on record. The government-appointed Wet Tropics Management Authority has issued a public statement calling for urgent action on climate change.

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UN biodiversity conference to lay groundwork for Nature rescue plan

The Associated Free Press in the Egypt Independent
April 29, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Diplomats from 130 nations gathered in Paris on Monday to validate a grim UN assessment of the state of Nature and lay the groundwork for a rescue plan for life on Earth. The destruction of Nature threatens humanity “at least as much as human-induced climate change,” UN biodiversity chief Robert Watson said as the five-day meeting began. …A 44-page draft “Summary for Policy Makers catalogues the 1001 ways in which our species has plundered the planet and damaged its capacity to renew the resources upon which we depend, starting with breathable air, drinkable water and productive soil. …Twenty 10-year targets adopted in 2010 under the United Nations’ biodiversity treaty — to expand protected areas, slow species and forest loss, and reduce pollution — will, with one or two exceptions, fail badly. …The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services document, once approved, will be released on May 6.

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Health & Safety

New review of worker safety underway seven years after B.C. mill explosions

Canadian Press in Vancouver Sun
April 30, 2019
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

VANCOUVER — The union representing four workers who died in two British Columbia sawmill explosions in 2012 says it hopes a new review of worker safety ordered by the provincial government will lead to overdue justice for survivors and families of the victims. Steve Hunt, district director for the United Steelworkers union, said previous inquiries into the explosions at Babine Forest Products in Burns Lake and Lakeland Mills in Prince George raised more questions than answers and he hopes the new review prevents similar disasters from happening in the future. “The best I can hope for out of this is we don’t do a repeat ever in any industry, and we make an adjustment that makes a societal change. This one screams for that,” Hunt said.

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Lawyer to review WorkSafeBC followups to sawmill explosions

By Mark Nielsen
Prince George Citizen
April 29, 2019
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

A Vancouver lawyer has been contracted by the provincial government to assess how well WorkSafeBC has taken up recommendations to improve worker safety in the wake of the fatal explosions at two northern B.C. sawmills in early 2012. Lisa Helps will also provide advice on potential legislative changes, the Ministry of Labour said in a statement issued this month. …Juries in both inquests produced series of recommendations, as did the authors of two reports, John Dyble and Gord Macatee. Helps will also seek input from relevant stakeholders and staff in WorkSafeBC and the ministries of attorney general, public safety and solicitor general, and labour. She will also invite workers affected by the explosions, and their families, to share their perspectives on the issues under review, the ministry said.

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Man dies in workplace incident at logging site on northern Vancouver Island

By Katie DeRosa
Victoria Times Colonist
April 29, 2019
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

A man in his 40s is dead after a workplace incident on a forestry operation on northern Vancouver Island. B.C. Coroners Service and WorkSafe B.C. were notified Sunday of the death, which happened at a logging site near Holberg. The remote village of Holberg is accessed by a 50-kilometre gravel logging road west of Port Hardy. Neither the B.C. Coroners Service nor WorkSafe B.C. have released the cause of death, but both agencies are investigating. The name of the logging company has not been released.

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